WYD08 - Sunday Mass

The big and final event of the World Youth Day 2008 is the Papal Mass at Randwick. This is the 4th time I'm seeing the Pope. And I can now cross WYD off my list of things to do.

...next WYD has been announced. To be held in Spain.

WYD08 - Randwick Vigil Mass

We did our pilgrimage walk from Central Station to the Randwick Racecourse. A pretty long walk (we were originally gonna start at North Sydney) but with the huge crowd and walking with friends, the moment just passed by. We also had to carry our own backpacks and sleeping bags for the overnight stay at the racecourse.

Along the walk, we joined an East Timor group in praying the rosary at Centennial Park. We passed by all different groups from different countries carrying different flags. The whole WYD week, these were the flags I've seen: poland, canada, wales, italy, germany, mexico, spain, US, philippines, indonesia, brazil, scotland, korea, japan, malaysia, singapore, india, pakistan, vietnam, new zealand, sudan, south africa, argentina, ireland, england, burma, east timor, australia, tonga, france, puerto rico, guam, lebanon, and more that I didn't recognize.

Then came the Vigil Mass hosted, of course, by the Pope himself. It was a great feeling to be with the Pope with at least 200k pilgrims all together. And a once in a lifetime experience camping at Randwick with the rest of the pilgrims overnight. It was freezing, middle of winter weather, with just a sleeping bag (two for me). I woke up a couple of times during the night. Around 1am, there were still people up chatting and making noises. By around 3am or 4am, I woke up again and I heard silence. It was full moon and there was a halo around the moon. It was amazing!

WYD08 - Domain

Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Sydney on Sunday but his official "coming out" was Thursday, July 17th. So I've taken Thurs and Fri off to join in with the rest of the pilgrims for the celebrations.

The Pope arrived in his boat-a-cade (as in motorcade) straight to Barangaroo where he did his opening blessings. We were assigned at the Domain where his pope mobile would pass through. We waited for about 3hours to see his pope mobile pass by so quickly (for safety reasons) and all I got was this shot (I would have had a closer shot if the nuns infront of us didn't take our front view. We had already marked our territory!!!). I did see his torso after clicking the camera. This would actually be the second time I would see the Pope because I was in Rome in 2005 just after Pope JPII passed away.

Xmas in July

Why not? Its cold, we have all-year-round Xmas lights at our house, and we're doing it for a cause. My flatmate wants to raise $1200 AUD to build a well in Africa through an organization (Life Outreach International) and provide water for life. My other flatmate just wants an excuse to party. Hehe! So we appropriately decorated our house with Xmas decors and we dressed up in something red, white, green, gold or silver. Without giving too much detail, we raised close to $500 and hopefully getting close to the goal. Thanks to all of you who donated to the cause! And for my first Xmas celebration in July!

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

Blessed Pier Giorgio is the patron and role model for the young masses. With World Youth Day approaching, the relics of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati was brought to Sydney. And I had a chance to touch and pray to his relics at St Benedict's church. Learning more about Catholicism, touching objects onto a first class relic makes the object a 3rd class relic. This would be the beginning of my pilgrimage to the World Youth Day celebration that ends on July 21st with the Papal mass at Randwick Racecourse.

Pier Giorgio was a vibrant young man born into a wealthy family who dedicated his 24 short years to the needy, to works of social action, charity, prayer and community. He would always say, "Charity is not enough: we need social reform." His father would not give him much spending money but the money he received, he would give to the poor...even if it meant he had to run home to be on time for meals to give up his train fares. When he was a child a poor mother with a boy in tow came begging to the Frassati home. Pier Giorgio answered the door, and seeing the boy's shoeless feet gave him his own shoes. At graduation, given the choice by his father of money or a car he chose the money and gave it to the poor. (To read more: http://www.bettnet.com/frassati/).

And so it became that with his selfless charity work to the needy, when Pier Giorgio passed away, it was the poor that petitioned to begin a cause for canonization. He was beatified in 1990 by Pope John Paul II.