Night out with Papa

World Youth Day has officially come to a close--it's hard to believe that we've spent the last five days learning more about the Holy Spirit, praying, meeting new friends, and spending time with our Holy Father!

Saturday morning we rose early to take the train into North Sydney where we begin our 9.3 km hike across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, through the city and into Randwick Racetrack for our all night vigil with Pope Benedict. The walk across the bridge began at 9am and we began to notice how tired we were and our other pilgrims. The past four days have been intense, filled with catechesis in the morning, a large event in the afternoon and concerts at night. So our trek across the Harbour Bridge was fairly, quiet, compared to other spirited events throughout the city we'd participated in earlier in the week. As we got closer to Randwick Racetrack the energy definitely increased.

We were really lucky that our host parish (where we've been staying for the past week) is across the street from the racetrack, so we left our baggage there and picked it up just before entering the racetrack.

Once we arrived we set up our sleeping area and took off to meet new people and check out the concerts on the main stage.

The Holy Father arrived at 7pm to pray with us for a candle light vigil. What a site to see 300,000 candles lit and voices singing the theme song! Afterwards, a couple of us visited the adoration "chapel" before going to bed for the night.

Thanks to Fr. Morrow's prayers, the weather was the warmest and best of the two weeks! We all slept fairly well, for sleeping outside in a large field. :-)

This morning we awoke to priests and seminarians singing morning prayer. We then prepared ourselves for Mass with the Holy Father. As he entered the racetrack in this Popemobile, he drove right next to our section--what a beautiful blessing! Mass was really beautiful! You really got to see the universality of our Church--Christ is present in so many different cultures & languages. Pope Benedict asked us to seriously consider how we are a witness in the world. We've got a lot of work to do when we return home. :-)

After Mass, we stayed in the park to eat lunch and wait for the crowds to lighten before walking "home." Tonight we are taking it easy, eating our first meal outside of the "pre-packaged protein" we've been eating for the week. (Warning: pilgrims will be fasting from tuna, sausage and curry for at least two weeks when we return :-) )

Now, it's off to bed for a good night's sleep before we had out for our Koala cuddling adventure tomorrow.

Good Night!