The Pope Has Arrived! (Take 2)

Hi Gang! I feel like there is so much to tell you that I don't even know where to begin. Every time that we go on mission or even a trip like this, you are bound to have a very bad, no good, wrotten day. Unfortunately, that would be how most of us would have described yesterday. (Christine did a great job relaying the events that we saw and did, but we purposefully left out the tears, hurt feelings, etc.) I wouldn't mention it now, but in order to understand the full impact the Holy Spirit had on us today, you needed to know that yesterday just stunk.

We got up this morning at our normal 5:30am and met for breakfast at 6:30. We were trying to leave by seven for the two hour bus ride to Coogie. (That is the name of a town. There are some fun ones here!) St. Columba, where our catechises meets, is on Elswick Street there. A couple people over slept and ended up forgetting their pilgrim passports and had to go back to their rooms for them, so we left at 7:15. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but we caught the first bus, had three different people give us different bus routes to take for the second leg of the trip, missed the bus, and finally got so frustrated at the bus station that we gave up even trying to get there. (A lot of that decision was because if we went to our normal site, we probably wouldn't be back to the Opera House for our assigned venue to see the Pope.) It felt like it was going to be another one of those days.

We took a vote, and decided to go to venerate the cross that Pope John Paul II gave to the youth at the very first WYD. After that we were going to go to Darling Harbour to crash the end of the catechises session held there, and celebrate daily mass. So, we got back on the bus and left for Hyde Park. (This is the part of Sydney that the WYD cross is housed at.) It is in a tent that is right outside of St. Mary's Cathedral. The bus drops us off and we hike the steps to the tent and find that the cross is not there. They weren't sure where the cross was since it was scheduled to arrive 40 minutes earlier! (The very nice priest who was there signing his books told us that it was late yesterday also, due to the caretaker of the crypt (where the cross is stored at night) oversleeping.) All I could think of was, (insert sarcasm here), Great!

We went into the tent anyways, and sat in plastic white chairs to wait for a few minutes. During this time, all I could think about was getting my attitude in the right place so that everyone else might feed off of me. I opened my liturgy guide for the week, and voila!, morning prayer was listed in there. So, being my shy self, I popped right up and asked Father, who I didn't know, if he would like to lead us in morning prayer. He said that he would bloody love to. (Yes, those were his exact words!)

So we get everyone together, and Father starts the prayers. We do a morning offering, read the daily psalm, hear a reading from Corinthians, and then Father did the most wonderful thing. He gave us a homily totally off of the top of his head. He said that even though we are all here to celebrate WYD, there are going to be times of trouble, and that is part of the pilgrimage. We need to lift those up to God and have him take away the pain and leave the blessings for us to share with others. After his homily, which was a total Holy Spirit moment, we said our intercessions, prayed our closing prayer, and then Father had us share the Sign of Peace with each other. It wasn't part of the daily prayer, but afterwards when I went to thank him, he told me that he felt called to have us share peace with other by God. It wasn't something he would normally add. I told him that we needed it, and he had saved the morning for us. Sometimes, in the midst of a change, God sees what we need and gives it to us. (Even if it is in the form of a missed bus, and a missing cross.)

We left morning prayer and went to the WYD merchandise shop on the way to the harbour. (The girls said they needed the retail therapy. jk) They had a lot of fun looking at all of the merchandise, and even got a couple of things to wear for the day. (It was very chilly this morning.)

The walk to the harbour was nice, but we never ended up finding the catechises site. We spent some time meeting new friends at the harbour, and watched the endless security details being checked on the water for the Pope's arrival later. (The boat police ride jet skis here. Pretty sneaky.) Keep watching the news because we were stopped three times today and put on TV. (We think they liked the Ohio flag because it was special and unique. . .like us!) One of the shots that they took for tv was all of us in the fountain on the harbour. It has water that flows in strips on a circular path. It was fun to watch the water go counter clockwise.

Shortly after the fountain, we left for the Sydney Opera House. The seats were first come, first served, and we wanted to make sure we could see the Pope. Eric Weit and I stopped by the convention center to try and call home, but there was only one phone, and it was out of order. (BTW Rob & Bernadette, we can't get the sat phone to work so if there is an emergency, please call the hotel.) We decided to take the train for the first time to get to the Opera House! We should have done this all week. It was so nice and fast. (And a lot less confusing than their bus system here.)

We got off at the right station and went to the forecourt tent to sign in. We were only the second group in line! While we were waiting for them to open the gates, a volunteer came down and told us that once we went inside, we wouldn't be able to get our lunch due to limited access. We all immediately said that we didn't care, getting seats close to the Pope was more important to us. They opened the gates, and we got front row seats on the back steps to the Opera House. We could see the Harbour on both sides of us (although with only limited sight lines). They had a big (and I mean huge!) TV screen for us to watch what was going on at the other sites.

We were all really excited to be there, and the excitement continued to build. One of the volunteers came over to us and told us to get our lunch tickets ready and she would take us to the catering center. We didn't argue! jk. Emily, Pam, & I went to get lunch, and they had us go under the steps we were sitting on to get back. This became problematic when they had the other side gated off and weren't letting anyone else in at the time. We kissed up to a police officer, and they let us cut across the street. (Always pays to be nice!) We passed out the lunch (although it wasn't very good: Tuna in oil mixed with corn or baked beans were your choices. But at least we ate the lamingtons, chips, and buns.) and sat down to eat our "Pre-Papal Parade Picnic." (Did I mention we had a lot of time on our hands.??!!)

As we were finishing up, we noticed these big double decker white vans at the end of the street in front of the steps we were sitting on. The doors opened and all of these cardinals and bishops started to unload. WE WERE ON THE ENTRANCE RAMP TO THE POPE'S BOAT!!! It was so exciting to get to wave and cheer for the clergy as they came by. Brandon and Patrick M got out a pen and had all of us sign some of our beach balls and they handed them out with hackey-sacks to the clergy as they walked by. (I am not going to lie. . . .I thought I was going to be bailing one of them out of jail.) The clergy took them and told us that they would do their best to get it to the Pope. (We can try right?!) It was so funny.

Our hearts were in our throats as the "Flotilla" of boats began. The Pope was escorted onto the ship(not by us though, darn it) and the ride around the harbor began. It was so awesome! The fire ship led the parade with full spouts blowing, and around 150 other boats were in the water to greet him too. We could see all of it on the big screen, but looking down the street at the harbor was perfect. The announcers were telling us that they had a helicopter standing by in case the water was rough, because B16 is not a sailor. (Isn't that a funny nickname for the Pope?! The teens from Italia call him that, and the media has picked it up.)

The Pope's Harbour cruise came to an end at Barrangaroo and the cardinals and bishops were escorted off first. One of the bishops was tossing up our Hackey Sac on TV! We went nuts! (Well, ok, we were screaming and cheering anyway, but that threw us over the top.) The Pope was then escorted to the stage by a group of Aborigines doing a tribal welcome dance. (Or, as some in our group feel, they weren't aborigines, they were super secret ninjas protecting the Pope. Of course, this is the same group that came up with the idea of dressing up and impersonating cardinals in order to get on the boat with the Pope in three years. Again, did I mention we had a lot of time on our hands to think this stuff up?!)

The crowds were electric. I wish you could have seen for yourself the thousands of flags dancing in the air, and the tears of joy that people felt. The youth of today want that leadership, and want to feel the connection to the Vicar of Christ. Your whole body shook with the power of the Holy Spirit's presence. It was amazing!

The Holy Father began with prayer, and then welcomed the groups from around the world to World Youth Day festivities. His homily was wonderful, and he continued to call out the youth of the world to make a difference in all areas of their life. After the opening prayer service, he got into his bullet proof Mercedes Pope mobile, and drove around a predetermined route. Exceeding his 5 kilometer per mile limit, he flew around the city. When it was our turn to see him, the flashes from the cameras were blinding. Out of all of us, only 2 got pictures because he was going so fast, but all of us got to see him 15 feet away from us. It sounds crazy, but just being there you felt like you were blessed. What an amazing night!

After he left our area, we were going to be fed by WYD again. (For the past two nights, we had a soup/stew type combination that we all ate because we were cheap and didn't want to waste the meals that came with our registration. Not because it was good.) We just couldn't face a third night of this, so we opted to hang around and play Australian football, talk to new friends, or even rest for a few minutes. We took the trains back to Bondi, dropped our gear, and went down the street to McDonalds for dinner. Sadly enough, everyone really enjoyed it.

Most of the group came back and got ready for bed. (It was around 9pm, but they were wiped!) Erich, Andrew, and I took some of the teens out to the beach to play in the ocean. (Yes, it was freezing, but they played in it anyway.) We chased the waves, walked a little, and then came back. We even found the Southern Cross constellation! It was too overcast to get a good picture of it though. We stopped and got some gellato and now it's to the laptop to blog. We are trying to get some more pictures up, but the internet is very shaky, and it takes about 10 minutes for each picture, so bear with us.

We miss and love you all. Hope everything is great at home!