WYD Opening Mass!

Ok, I just read the blog from yesterday, and I realized that I didn’t even mention the flight from Melbourne to Sydney. (I think I am a little more jet lagged than I thought I was.) It was fun because most of the plane was filled with WYD goers. The excitement is catching!
We got up this morning at 6am and met for breakfast at 7am. It was a really nice private breakfast that Encore Tours put on for us. I think that the wait staff thinks we are crazy though, because we all tried Vegemite for the first time and have made jokes about it ever since. Their faces were priceless! It’s now a running joke that if you are late for anything, you have to eat an entire piece of bread with Vegemite spread on it. I’m pretty sure that no one is going to be late. It was awful!

The other two groups that Encore had staying here were both delayed because of bad weather, and their flights aren’t scheduled to arrive until later this night. I feel really bad for them, because tonight was the official opening of WYD and the beginning mass. We were really lucky with all of our flights, etc.

At 9am we met in the lobby and read all of your blog comments. (Thanks for praying for us!) We then left for our pilgrimage to St. Mary’s Cathedral. We figured out the bus system and were off. In order to get to the cathedral, you have to walk through this gorgeous park. In the park were thousands of young people from around the world. We met groups from 6 different continents today! (We are just waiting for Antarctica!) The teens were having a lot of fun swapping their hackey-sacks and beach balls and talking, talking, talking. . .we had to keep reminding them to stay with the group and not wonder off. (I can’t help it. It’s the Mom in me.)

In the park leading up to the Cathedral steps was a huge paint by number mural of the earth covered with people of all races. Each one of us got a turn to paint part of the mural. When it is finished, they will text a picture of it to anyone who wants one. It was fun to see them talking with all of the volunteers about their colors, etc. It should be really neat when done.
We finally drag the teens away from their swapping and go to the gates of the Cathedral, only to have them tell us that they let people in without reservations, and now they have to turn us away. (The police threatened to shut them down because so many people were in the building at one time.) So Erich and I went to the reservation tent and got it all straightened out. They were going to reopen at 7pm and stay open until 10pm for the pilgrims who had reservations that day who got closed out. I was upset, but it ended up being a blessing later.

At this time it was right around 12:30 and the Opening ceremonies and Mass began at 3:00, and we still had to get lunch. We decided to walk down to Barangaroo; the site of the Opening mass; and get lunch from there. (They have six different sites around the city for us to get our meals from, but it was first come, first seated for mass, and I didn’t want to take the chance of getting closed out of that too.) We ended up walking about 2 miles, but no one complained because the day was gorgeous! I stopped the group before we went into the gates and reminded them to stay with the group because they were going to give out seating assignments, and I wanted all of us to sit together. Unfortunately, they forgot, and two of them went into the wrong line and we had to go back and switch their tickets. It worked out though. We ended up sitting about half way back and to the right of the sanctuary.

After we found our section, we collected lunch tickets and Pam, Erich, Christine, and I went to get them. (You had to have 6 tickets turned in at once, so we kept having to find a group who needed one ticket so we could go up together.) The lines were crazy busy, but all of the Sydney-siders (which is what the locals are called) were so nice. We carried our meat pies, tangerines, jam filled cookie, and carbonated Passion fruit juice back to the section and ate together. After that, we walked around doing more swaps and meeting more people. Most groups had their national flag with them. It was so cool to see all of them waving in the breeze. We stopped some people just to learn what country their flag was from. (The Aussies all had a cheer that let you know they were around. By the end of the day, every group was singing along.) There really weren’t any strangers.

I wish you could have felt the excitement and the presence of the Holy Spirit that was in that park for mass. It was amazing! Hearing the song, “Receive the Power” sung by thousands of people praising God together gave us chills. Prior to the mass, a procession of the WYD Cross and Icon and the flags of the world moved throughout the crowd. Once the procession reached the sanctuary, young Catholic representatives of the Indigenous communities in Australia extended a traditional welcome dance for us. It was great. They played the diggeredo, and were dressed in their traditional tribal garb. The music was moving and they glorified God with all of their movements. It was totally mesmerizing!

After their dance, the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd welcomed us to Sydney. He called a lot of different countries out, and then the young people would cheer for their nations. He skipped the U.S. We kept waiting for it, but it never came. After the Prime Minister welcomed us, Archbishop Pell stepped up and did the same. He made a huge point of welcoming the pilgrims from the U.S. and went so far as to say that we were Australia’s most important Allies. (Does anyone else think this is odd? The political leader doesn’t mention us, but the church leader did. . .hmmm)

Anyway, the liturgy of the word was done in multiple languages. We heard readings in French, Spanish, and Italian. The intercessions were done in English, Korean, Samoan, Tagalog, and Portuguese. Each of us have a Liturgy guide with all of the readings, prayers, etc typed out in English. It definitely helped the teens and I follow along. (Obviously we knew where we were in mass, but it was neat to hear parts of the mass done so everyone felt included.)

The liturgy of the Eucharist was definitely an experience. We stood, kneeled, and sat at the same times as at home, but never again will any of us complain about the kneelers being hard. We were on a parking lot (called car parks here) that needed resurfacing badly. When it came time for communion, people were pushing and shoving to get to the priests to receive Jesus. (Crazy!) When we got up to go to communion, we took all of our stuff with us and realized that my camera bag was missing. We looked for a few minutes and then got in line. I was worried, but wanted Jesus more. The weirdest thing happened. We walked two gates away to get to the priest, and right after I received Jesus, I looked down, and my bag was just sitting there waiting for me. (Thank you Holy Spirit!) When I mentioned it to the group after mass, a couple of the leaders said that they were praying to Saint Anthony for it to be found. (So maybe I should be saying Thank you St. Anthony!)

Another little cool tidbit about mass was the Paschal candle. It was made from candles brought from throughout the world. The nuns of the Benedictine Abbey at Jamberoo, NSW crafted it. (Very cool!)

After mass they served dinner and then started an evening concert. Pam, Christine, and I made our way to the catering line like a can of sardines. It was awful. I kept thinking that someone was going to get hurt. We made our way through, and got back to our group. We had some soup/stew, rolls, and a caramel slice with water to drink.

After dinner we danced a little to the bands and then left for a 2 mile walk back to the Cathedral. It was open and hardly anyone was there! It was awesome! They have a brand new painting of “Our Lady of the Southern Cross, Help of Christians”, and they offered a Plenary Indulgence if you said the prayer on the back of her prayer card, receive Holy Communion, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and pray for the Pope’s intentions soon after. They also had all night adoration. We stopped and prayed and then took pictures. The only blessed that Australia has is Mary McKillop. She is on track to become the first Saint from Down Under. Her relics and a really neat display on her life is in the East Transept. In the West Transept was Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. He is a blessed from Italy. They flew his body all the way here for WYD. The teens were amazed that he is interred in a simple wooden box. When we asked the nun about his life, she said that he was in a simple box because that was his wishes. He died from Polio that they think he caught when he was leading his secret life of helping the poorest of the poor. He died at the age of 24. At his funeral, his family was amazed because thousands of people showed up that they had never met. All of the people Pier had served in some way or another. The story really is fascinating.

We then took the bus back to our hotel and the teens all crashed. I think they were feeling the jet lag also. Before I close, here are a few more fun stories about today:

Carolyn met Hammish. Now we only have to get Audrey to meet Furio and the circle will be complete. (Actually, Maria the boy magnet, met him and introduced him to Carolyn. Jk)

When doing swapping with some of the girls, we came across a group from New Zealand who had little Kiwi dolls. When I handed her my swap, I mentioned that we ate kiwi’s at home. (meaning the fruit.) All three of them literally stopped what they were doing, dropped their mouths to the floor, and stared at me. I had to back peddle fast and explain that it was a fruit, not their national bird. Luckily, we all got a good laugh out of it.

Ok, it is now 2am here, and I am going to crash. We prayed for all of you this morning, and will continue to do so. God’s Blessings on your day!