Pilgrimage to Randwick and vigil with the pope

We left for Randwick on Saturday morning about 9, which is when the gates of our school were closing. Since we were told that the gates will not open until 11, we decided to stop for a coffee in our neighborhood, while two people from our group who are regular backpackers went ahead of us.Randwick racecourse is really close to where we are staying, but since the roads were blocked we had to walk a bit around to get to where our entrance way was.It took us about an hour, and when we got there at 11, we realize that they’d been letting people in since early morning. It was a good thing our two backpackers left early, as they were able to find us a really good spot. Our location was gate 14 A4, which is The closest one could get to the stage and the altar, we were positioned between the priests and the VIP and media section. We were ecstatically excited when we saw how close we were. After our disappointment few days earlier at the Domain, we now knew we were for sure get to see the pope close. We spread out our tarp, which the Seals brought, and lined up our mats, sleeping bags and tents. The pope was arriving at 6.30 and the vigil was at 7-9, so we had several hours to spend. There were different concerts in between, including the Matt Maher. We walked around the site a bit, but it was so crowded and it was getting harder to walk between the sleeping bags that we soon realized we should not go too far. We found where the reconciliation and adoration tents were, but Jesus was not there yet. One big mishap that happened was that after few hours the water at the toilets and facets was no longer running, so we were afraid we will run out of drinking water. Our area had some plastic/rubber ground covering, but most of the racecourse didn’t so we could see a cloud of dust over pilgrims in the distance, which too made us drink more water. In the end, we rationed water and between 13 of us we had enough water to share.
As pope’s arrival was approaching, it was getting more and more harder to move around, so we just went back to our area. At one point it became a bit hectic, because more and more people were moving into the area, and although it was already very packed a rumor came that another 200 were expected to come into our section for the night. So when the security asked us to put our tents down so that people can come for standing room only vigil, we were afraid all our stuff will get trampled over. So we gathered around and prayed, and the prayer was answered. The security opened the priests section that had chairs, and the priests were not seated there for the vigil, and many people from our section went there.
The people first circled in a helicopter over us for few minutes; they told us he was giving us a blessing from above. There were another 6-10 helicopters in the air around his. Around 7 he showed up on the altar, coming from the back. His entrance was accompanied with “Entry of the Light”, with a dance by girls with dresses that had lights on the bottom edge. Next there was a procession of the WYD cross and icon, followed by the official welcome of the Holy Father I think by one of the cardinals. Invitation to Prayer included lighting of candles when all people in other sections of the racecourse lit up candles (we didn’t get them probably because we were too close to the stage). Next was the testimony of the pilgrims from different regions of the world, each focused on some gift of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Father would respond by asking prayers from a particular WYD patron saint that is most relevant to that testimony. The pope than addressed us all in his speech. I wish I could explain what all he was saying, but as my explanation would not give it justice, I would rather look up the official transcript of his address and link it here later.
After his speech, the Blessed Sacrament was placed in a huge, probably 4 feet wide monstrance up high on the altar. I was already dark by this time, and getting colder, but we didn’t even notice it. We were praying and singing with the pope. It is hard to explain in words, but it felt like it is all alright. We, hundreds of thousands of us, are gathered here around Jesus and the pope is with us. It felt like we are all at home, and papa is there….
He gave us benediction and left us for the night at around 9. It was all very peaceful. I then found a way to the adoration chapel again, that was organized by the sisters of charity (mother Theresa’s sisters). It was so cute to see so many of them in their simple white with blue stripe dresses. It was a very large tent, size of a smaller church, and people were sitting on the carpet floor in circles around the high altar with again a really large monstrance. It was serene and prayerful moment, and everyone in there seemed focused in prayer. The priests were all aligned up along outside and inside the tent, hearing confessions. I went to reconciliation with one holy priest from Australia, who gave me a relic of peace of cloth that touched, I think, the casket of mother Theresa. (I will have to double check this) I made it back to my tent at around 11 and as I was tacking into my sleeping bag, there was an international rosary over the loud speakers. It was a very nice end of a very nice day.