Pilgrims Log

Wednesday was our free day. There were no major events planned and so our group decided to explore Sydney a little after Catechesis.

On the subject of Catechesis, which was held in the Sydney Entertainment Centre, it was huge and so were the following sessions on Thursday and Friday. Being the Indigenous Catechesis site meant that our sessions had a lot of aboriginal influence with the mass featuring aboriginal music and the sessions been run by the missionaries of love, who work with aboriginal people up north. 

The general formula was 1) testimonies 2) Bishop Speaking 3) Mass. There was lots of singing, some chanting and the session was generally fun and uplifting. Of course, since we lived about 10 minutes away from our Catechesis we arrived late but luckily Michelle and Melissa (who lived 1/2 hr or so away) were always on time and saved us seats. The first Bishop, whose name escapes me (I’m not that great with names…I mean I am Polish and it took me forever to remember that JP II’s name was Karol Woytla, so what chance does a bishop have?), talked about using the Holy Spirit to inspire us. Mass followed with, I think at least 40 priests con-celebrating, which I thought it was pretty nifty …oh, dare I say it….cool!

Anyway, with Catechesis over, we grabbed lunch and started exploring. Well, actually, I have a confession to make…you are currently reading the blog of someone who has been on international television. Yes, while my group was busy eating lunch, I decided to sample some Dutch mini pancakes which were being sold from, who would have guessed it, a Dutch eatery right in Dariling Harbour…well, kind of to the side of it really but you get the picture. Anyway, while I was quietly tucking into the delectable little morsels a camera appeared in front of me, with a microphone which was attached to a Dutch interviewer. I don’t know if it was the fact i was alone eating (despite my best efforts to attract my fellow pilgrims…obviously cute ducks feeding from the hand were far more worthy of their attention) or the fact I was wearing a lot of orange but before I knew it i was being politely interrogated by the Dutch about all things Dutch.

You may ask how I knew I made it to Dutch TV. Well one of the questions they asked were “what famous Dutch people do you know of?”, did I say something clever like the Pope Adrian VI, or Rembrandt or even Van Gogh…nope…the only name I could come up with was Father Rodderick, a podcasting Priest whose show, the Daily Breakfast, I have listened to for years. Consequently, when I was listening to the Daily Breakfast back in Perth, Father Rodderick mentioned that “a parishoner had mentioned that ‘a girl had mentioned you as a famous dutch person”’ So there you go, I’m famous in a way. PS apparently the other Australian pilgrims who were also asked about famous Dutch people came up with nada…so i didn’t do too bad overall.

Once I got over my momentary time of stardom we finally got onto exploring. With so much happening we decided to check out the action at Darling Harbour and the Opera House. Sydney was awash with bright yellow and pink kindy backpacks. You couldn’t turn around without seeing groups of Pilgrims everywhere.

 I really wanted to go to Adoration and luckily, Adoration was being held in the Sydney Opera House, so I (and Filip and Melissa) managed to go to Adoration in one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world. Pretty great if you ask me. The ‘theatre’  was  dark and quiet, with the upper circle being used for confession and the lower for Adoration in front of the Blessed Sacrament. This was all run by the Missionaries of Charity (aka Mother Teresa’s nuns) and we were lucky enough to say a rosary with them. So all round the the experience was amazing. Throughout the day I had been suffering from one of my migraines and the quietness and spirituality of this place left me in such a tranquil and uplifted mood that the migraine completely disappear and didn’t return. For me the spiritual experience of WYD really stepped up a couple of notches due to this time spent at the Opera House.

You may ask what the other pilgrims were doing at this time. Well they were busily adoring and revering one of God’s greatest creations, chocolate at the Lindt Chocolate House. I know medieval Jesuits saw chocolate as a spiritual experience so I think they were in good company here. Of course some pilgrims shopped, we all took lots of photos and marvelled at the beauty of Sydney so the day was a pretty full one for all.

Eventually we all met up and slowly made our way back to our ‘homes’.  WYD was only going to move
into high gear from now on, Thursday was the papal arrival…yeah!

Stay tuned for the next installment!

Tags: WYD

Well, I originally intended to blog everyday while we were in Sydney for WYD 2008, but, as with many things this did not go entirely to plan. With all the events happening it became evident that I would probably have to do one of the following in order to blog:

• Take the laptop everywhere? (unlikely its not exactly the lightest of all things)
• Not go to some events (Yeah, that was so going to happen!)
• Learn to blog in the unconcious state commonly referred to as sleep (Possible, but probably would have taken years of preperation by living in a Tibetan monastery, learning ancient secrets…you get the picture)

So as you may have gathered blogging was just not going to happen. Instead I have decided to wrap up Sydney in a? few blog posts. They won’t be a blow by blow account but they will give you an idea of amazing miraculously experience that WYD 2008 was.

So, my last post dealt with our arrival in Sydney. The next major event was Opening Mass at Barangaroo. Little tip when trying to find Barangaroo, don’t ask someone from Sydney where it is, it was invented for
WYD and is not any map (bit like Eldorado) and by now I am sure it has disappeared into oblivion once again. Nevertheless Barangaroo was the site of our first taste of the scope and size of WYD SYD 2008. Walking there pilgrims were arriving in large numbers, chanting “Benedetto” and other phrases, swarming towards the entrances to secure some (hopefully) prime setting. Surrounded by pilgrims from Trinidad & Tobago, Germany and America you really understood that the Catholic church is global.? We arrived around 12:00pm so we had a bit of a wait for our afternoon mass. The main activities to fill in time were to meet pilgrims from other nations, watch the Brazilian pilgrims dance (and boy can they dance) and many other pilgrims sing and pray (and do some praying yourself). When the mass finally came around the sun was setting and the mood was set by a stunning indigenous opening and welcome. The Mass was celebrated by George Cardinal Pell and he gave a very relevant homily asking, “will we be the seeds that land in rich fertile soil or, instead on barren rocks or prickly thorns?” I think we all aspire to spread and strengthen our faith, and to use the experience of WYD to fire up our home parishes and communities.

After mass there was dinner (or, as I like to call it getting to know pilgrims from around the world in a very intimate manner while queuing for the food…at least it was warm there) and then concerts and a finale including Guy Sebastian, fireworks, flames and tap dancing. It was lots and lots of fun. I think we all agreed this was a very good start to WYD and we were all looking forward to more!

Stay tuned for my next installment on WYD 2008, The Papal Arrival…or gone in 6 seconds…

Ciao for now!

Well, we finally made it to Sydney. Our first flight was canceled after a 6 hour delay so we got a 12 :00am red eye  flight to Sydney, but we got on it and are now in Sydney. Sunday, therefore, was spent sleeping and then some sightseeing in Sydney and a few of our group went to Hillsong. Then we slept.

Monday half of us went to Sydney’s Taronga because we, as pilgrims, get a half price discount.  We saw many many animals, but it seemed that every animal we approached preferred to show us their, am, lesser half. Very entertaining nonetheless.  There were so many WYD pilgrims there and some were singing in the middle of the zoo being filmed (holding up zoo traffic, but still really cool!). Also there was a plane making crosses in the sky  and wrote ‘Jesus’ also… so things are really heating  up for  WYD.

2 of our group wen to Darling Harbour to mill around with other pilgrims which looked really great and fun. Pilgrims singing, chatting etc. Apparently Sydney-siders are really surprised and think its “bigger than the Olympics.”  At least in ambiance and atmosphere… wait until tomorrow, they haven’t seen anything yet.

Could write more but i’m a little tired and tomorrow is opening mass..so have to be rested! We also need to find something soft to sit on…its gonna be a long but exciting day.

See our photos for more on all our experiences.

Tags: WYD, Sydney, Zoo, Pilgrims, 2008

We have been at the airport for the past 5 hours. Our plane was meant to leave at 12:25….it is now 3:32pm. It times like this that you really need to repeat “I am not a tourist I am a pilgrim”. At this stage we have done the following to fill in the time:

• tried to finish a crossword
• gave up on the first crossword and tried to finish a second one
• gave up on the crosswords all together
• played many games of uno
• watched engineers climb all over one of the engines of our plane, then leave it alone
• received food vouchers
• took photos
• charged a laptop
• learned that Qantas apologizes a lot about not knowing anything about their planes
• Filip is reading Ennegram II  by Richard Rohr
• gave up on playing uno

And thats it at this stage…but we still have the rest of the day and the night.

Tags: WYD, planes, Qantas, Uno, crosswords, waiting, delay, plane, photos, laptop, RIchard Rohr

Ugh…. I just checked out the average min and max for Sydney around July. They are a min of 8.6 and max of 17.2! Granted perth is only a degree higher for the same period but still…its gonna be cold at randwick!
Hope all the pilgrims will be prepared with thermals and rainproof gear!

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Tags: Sydney, WYD, cold, weather