Sunday – World Youth Day

It is here – the 23rd world youth day!
We had a rain-free night, which is something we were a bit afraid of based on the prognosis. We have had a beautiful weather in Sydney so far, with barely any clouds in the sky-the nuns who were praying for the good weather did a good job. . I had two sleeping bags a thermal blanket (aluminum foil), inflatable mat and a tent. I got a bit chilly during the night, and pulled out the hand warmer pouch, and that did the trick of keeping me warm. Sunday morning the sky was cloudy and wind was picking up.
We had to wake up early to put up all our stuff, so that people can come closer for the mass, which was at 10. The toilets were still not flushing, and there was not water on the facets, so we were not able to even wash our faces. We were packing during the morning prayer, in and didn’t get to participate the liturgy of the hours. Once all our stuff was put up, I set by the fence to claim my area for the mass. I really didn’t want to get all worked up before the pope’s coming like at the Domain, so I just stayed seated close to the fence and was reading the liturgy of the hours on my own.
The pope came in to the racecourse in his popemobile a little bit before 10. He moved slowly, but only in the inner circles, so we didn’t see him up close. He then walked through the priests section that was in front of us. It was really, really neat to see all the priests so excited; they got up on their chairs to see the pope, were taking pictures, waving and chanting. There were probably more than 500 priests. We were able to see the pope for the first time when he started to walk up the ramp toward the altar in the mass procession, with several dozens of cardinals. We were able to see him directly, and on the big screens, and this time even better than last night because it was daylight. Even though the mass was very solemn, it was few times interrupted (at appropriate times) by pilgrims chanting “benedeto” and “viva el papa”. Again, I will look for an official transcript of the Holy Father’s homily, and not try to find my own words to explain it.
The homily was flowed by the rite of confirmation of 24 candidates from different part of the world. One of them was a young man from St. Margaret Mary parish in Austin, Juan, who was the only one representing US. The mass was mainly in English, but some reading and prayers were in different languages. We had all translations in our Liturgy Guide we received.
At the end of the mass, the pope announced the location for the next world youth day in 2011 – Madrid, Spain. Apparently, Spaniards found out about this right before their trip to Sydney, but were not allowed to share it with anyone. Cardinal George Pell gave official thanks to the pope, and the Holy Father gave us the final blessing. And during that time is when I was able to get The one good shot of the pope, which I will try to post later. The pope left the stage through the back, and we saw him no longer.
By the end of mass, the clouds were really building up, and we were afraid the rain will start any minute. The cardinal at the end did ask the pope to, now that WYD is over, pray for the rain in Australia which really needs it after a period of draught. We stayed and ate lunch there, canned meals and candy, and waited for the first wave of pilgrims to leave. Our walk back was via a closer route, but it still took us a long time to get through streets blocked by pilgrims on both sides. We were really glad we were so close, and didn’t have to walk miles to get to first running buses.
We were dirty and very tired when we got to our rooms. But I had one more mission for that day – pilgrimage to the cathedral.