WYD08 Sydney

World Youth Day 08 Sydney.

I was there!
How I managed to go; permission, finance, registration is another story itself. Ask me if you're interested to know.

The theme this WYD was "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses." -Acts 1

Thought I'd share generally on my experience.

If I were to sum it all in one sentence, I'll quote partially from what a friend said,
"One cannot truly appreciate being a Catholic until he has seen how vast the Catholic faith can be!"

And that's the crowd in only one of the gates at Barangaroo, and there's probably, say, more than 60 gates altogether.

We were in Melbourne for about 4 days from the 11th July, and the highlight for me there was the Opening Mass in Telstra Dome (like a stadium!). Sakai okay, it's the 1st time I've ever seen such a large crowd. And even more amazing, it's the 1st time I've seen such a large number of people gathering to celebrate Mass together. Once you see all the priests lining up for the entrance, so many of them, it's impossible not to feel struck by immense awe. It was really touching and when the bread was broken, you just know that everyone is there for God, and He is there for all.


Anyway, in Melbourne, we stayed in St Joseph, Chelsea.

That's the cathedral, and the car park.


This is the interior, the altar.


This was where the minors (under-18) and their guardians stayed. No, we didn't stay in the cathedral itself.
If you walked down towards the "exit" there's another door and that's a chapel. So we had the privilege of entering anytime we wanted too, and it's really peaceful in there. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone took a picture of it...

So, in Melbourne, we experienced a German Mass at St Francis too haha..

On 14th, we met at almost 6 am since we had a 13 hour ride ahead to Sydney on couch.

When we stepped into the couch...(picture take from Amy)


After 15 minutes...



Anyway, there were 3 stops altogether and most of us had our 1st encounters with the amazingly "portable yet clean toilets". Haha, rows-a-loo!
And we reached Sydney at night. There were a few complications bout lost luggage etc but nothing which couldn't be settled.
Again in Sydney, the minors and guardians stayed at the parish itself; St Nicholas. Please don't make me recall how we had to take our showers...


The cathedral, St Nicholas, where we had our catechesis.

Basically we had a bit of free time, which we had no choice but to follow our guardians opted for the interfaith sharing, hehe. There was also the Asian Youth Gathering at night. Not forgetting, we got to experience Hillsongs and Guy Sebastian...LIVE! Hillsongs, think it was Shout to the Lord, Tell the World, One Way, Lord I Give You My Heart... And naturally Guy Sebastian sang Angels Brought Me Here and the theme song, Receive the Power!

We also had Taize at St James, but it was a bit short.

We also went to St Mary, where the incorrupt body of Blessed Pier Giorgio was exhibited, so to speak.
It's a really huge cathedral with many sanctuaries for people to simply kneel and pray at.
This is upon entering.

It's so huge that when I thought I reached the end of the cathedral (the altar), I found out it was the centre and we could walk another round. That was where the posters of Blessed Giorgio Frassati were set up, and also his relics.


"To live without a faith, without a patrimony to defend, without a steady struggle for the truth, that is not living, but just existing." Wow? Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati happens to be the patron of youths, it'll be good to find out bout him and his life.

Fast forwarding everything to the Evening Vigil with the Holy Father, we had to walk 9.2 km. Probably more in total, considering the distance we had to walk again to search for our site. The walk was another experience in itself, what with the loads, distance and stuff but I won't share it here, getting too lengthy. Finally found the other half of group who took a shorter route. Laid our sleeping mats etc, and just relax.

The evening arrived, together with the Pope. Honestly, I didn't feel much that night, probably too exhausted from the walk. And in the morning, the highlight of it all, we celebrated Mass with the Holy Father himself. Shortly after Communion, during Thanksgiving, like Stella shared in Today's Catholic, there was a feeling of the presence of Pope John Paul II. During that moment, I thought I saw something round and bright in the sky..

The Archbishop spoke a few words, one which really struck me, "One mission is better than a thousand options."
The next WYD was then announced.

WORLD YOUTH DAY 2011 MADRID, SPAIN!!!!

Then, WYD08 officially ended. But of course, it didn't just end there for us. For one, we didn't even know when we were coming back to Kuching! But to cut that long story short, we had to stay night in Sydney Airport and another in Changi Airport.

Haha, okay, long post. Hope it's eye opening too for those who didn't go too! Feel free to ask me more in person, hehe.

Here's some sharing by others; Audrey and Isabel