DREADPILGRIMS: Pope Benedict XVI, World Youth Day 2008, Final Mass, Vigil, Pilgrim Report Update - Live From Sydney
:: Pilgrim Report - Go Forth! ::
At last, World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney, Australia has drawn to a close. Pope Benedict XVI has left Australia, and many of the pilgrims are returning home. DREADNOUGHTERS, however, can relive the final two days with this exclusive, on-the-ground report from DREADPILGRIM Greg. He writes:
DREADNOUGHT!
...Saturday began very early for us as we boarded a train to North Sydney in order to begin the Pilgrimage Walk. This walk tracked over the Harbour Bridge, through downtown Sydney and, finally, to Randwick Racecourse.
Merging with thousands of other pilgrims from around the world, we marched joyously towards our destination. The sea of flags ahead of and behind us identified the origins of the many beautiful hymns rising over the "waves." In a city which has once hosted the Olympics, a comparison to that event comes immediately to mind-- but it would be a weak comparison, at best.
As Archbishop Collins so rightly pointed out, the flags of World Youth Day don't compete with one another as they do at the Olympic games. Rather, they all celebrate, united, the magnificent faith which joins us together. They therefore celebrate -- not the supremacy of any nation over another -- but rather the mightiness of the One who has brought them all together in Love.
Later that evening, we would find that this mighty act of unification was in fact the work and essence of the Holy Spirit. In what seemed to me to be a two-part series, Pope Benedict sought to dissect the theme of this World Youth Day ("You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses" Acts 1:8). First, at the Saturday Vigil, by asking "who is this Holy Spirit?" and in his Homily on Sunday: "what is this power we will receive?"
During the vigil, the Holy Father used the work of St. Augustine to act as a framework for his exposition on the person of the Holy Spirit. He emphasized three main insights which Augustine imparts:
1) He has the particular quality of unity since He is what is shared in the community of Father and Son;
2) He is abiding love, keeping us within the life of the Trinity and therefore within true love which endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:7); and
3) He is a gift of God Himself. In fact, He is God's eternal gift of Himself to humankind; a gift which satisfies every yearning of the human heart. But besides all the slightly more complex theology, the Holy Father reached out directly to our hearts. This particular section sent a fracture through my own hardened heart:
This was the insight which I had, in some way, been waiting for throughout my participation in World Youth Day.
In the quiet times during the Pilgrim Walk, in the mediocrity of the duration in between events, whether the other pilgrims were conscious of it or not, everyone who participated in World Youth Day was drawn to it by Christ Himself. The only reason these young men and women around me were together at all was because He had established His Church some two millennia ago and it has persisted to this day.
Indeed, the sign of Jesus' continual stewardship over His Church, the Pope himself, was at this event. Despite whether any individual was "actively participating" in those events or not, Jesus Christ was there making Himself an encounterable presence, incarnate in our midst. He was there! Reverent or not, He was there!
...Even in the cold!
It got rather chilly as the sun set behind Sydney. Some pilgrims remained active and joyous all the night long, keeping literal Vigil for the morning light. Myself and my comrades managed to get a good few hours of sleep (partially thanks to much of the grass being covered by a plastic "Porta-path" covering a large portion of the raceway's groundspace). We woke up in the morning to pray Morning Prayer (Lauds) in which we appropriately exhorted the "cold and chill" to "bless the Lord" and "Praise and exalt Him above all forever" (Daniel 3:57-88).
The degree of focus and devotion which spread over Randwick Raceway during the Sunday Mass was breathtaking.
Hymns were sung with great gusto, responses echoed through the surrounding suburbs, and the homily was delivered to an absolutely captivated congregation. The Holy Father, as I mentioned earlier, dedicated his homily to explaining the Power which the Holy Spirit delivers.
Fitting in with this theme of the Holy Spirit's gifts, the final Mass included the celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation. Twenty-four very blessed young individuals were able to receive the sacrament at the Pope's hands. Keeping that in mind, read these questions--from his homily--which he addressed, not only to those about to be Confirmed, but to the entire congregation:
They illuminate the true character of the Christian life when accepted wholly as one does in Confirmation.
They are challenging. But they also reveal the deepest of Truths.
It is only through Christ that we can truly change the world.
We must accept the pure Gift that is the Holy Spirit, and allow God to live and work through us. We must, as the Holy Father mentioned in his Angelus reflection, respond to the marriage proposal of God with the Virgin Mary's great "I do!"--her fiat.
All of us, same sex attracted or not, are called to this marriage: The marriage of man and God in the Incarnation. The wedding feast of the Lamb.
But the Pope reminds us that we can only prepare ourselves to say our "yes," our "I do," through prayer. As in the Upper Room, we must pray with Our Lady! We must pray for the outpouring of the Spirit so as to become true agents of true change. We, through our relationship with Christ, are to be Prophets of a New Age of the Spirit. Prophets!
I would say that the greatest gift I received throughout all of World Youth Day was this: I realized that the final Mass, despite its "finality" and the "ending" which that represented, was a new beginning.
Due to the Holy Father's words, and the working of the Spirit throughout the week, I recognized -- in a way that I had never before been able to -- that when we are told at the close of the Ordinary Form of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the Roman Rite to "Go in peace to love and serve the Lord" we are bringing something with us: God's Gift!
Emotionally, I was not at all upset that the week of festivities and prayer had come to an end -- I was inspired with a great enthusiasm to put the Love that I had been shown into action. Before the dismissal, in order to highlight the power of the Spirit, the centrifugal force of His Love, the Holy Father commissioned us:
...We must share what we've gained, because "there is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel--by the encounter with Christ!"
So was this World Youth Day a success? Yes! Yes! Sydneysiders have been absolutely captivated by our presence; the hardness of the cynics' hearts have been melted; there is a renewed interest in Christianity and faith in general in and around Sydney. If the first fruits are any indication, the seeds of this World Youth Day have fallen on good soil and, if well tended to, will yield a harvest of "a hundred or sixty or thityfold" (Matthew 13:8).
Look out, world. Here we come!
St. Peter, pray for us.
St. Paul, pray for us.
John Paul the Great, pray for us.
Pier Giorgio Frassati, pray for us.
Mother Teresa, pray for us.
Veni, Sancte Spiritus.
Veni per Mariam!*
Pax,
- DREADPILGRIM Greg
* (This formulation, "Veni Sancte Spiritus, Veni per Mariam", is a beautiful prayer characteristic of the Communion and Liberation movement, to which I have grown increasingly close. It's worth checking out, if you haven't already!)
:: The Upshot ::
This is, of course, the final installment in a one-off series of exclusive reports on the week's events. DREADPILGRIM Greg's many insights, and his beautiful reflections, have been followed by same sex attracted Catholics, young people, and other DREADNOUGHTERS all over the world. We have, through these posts, been able to journey alongside the World Youth Day 2008 pilgrims in Sydney. Let us go forward with them.
:: Resources ::
- Sydney 2008 Home Page;
- USCCB Virtual Pilgrimage;
- Previous DREADPILGRIM Live Reports from Sydney;
- DREADNOUGHT Annotates Pope Benedict XVI's Statements, Providing Insights on Human Sexuality, and Same Sex Attraction;
- DREADNOUGHT on the New York Times "Pope Benedict XVI" topic page;
- DREADNOUGHT speaks to Spanish Pilgrims (in Castellano and English);
- DREADNOUGHT on what to expect from the Holy Father during this visit;
- DREADNOUGHT on the homoactivist behind a priest's complaints about World Youth Day 2008;
- DREADNOUGHT in Sydney's largest newspaper: Benedict XVI is "the Pope the world needs";
- DREADNOUGHT answers questions on "gay" priests and "homogenital acts" for World Youth Day 2008 pilgrims;
- DREADNOUGHT on Triple J national radio on "gay" priests, Catholic teaching, and young, same sex attracted men;
- DREADNOUGHT's media availability, World Youth Day 2008; and
- Pope Benedict XVI, Message For World Youth Day 2008.
At last, World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney, Australia has drawn to a close. Pope Benedict XVI has left Australia, and many of the pilgrims are returning home. DREADNOUGHTERS, however, can relive the final two days with this exclusive, on-the-ground report from DREADPILGRIM Greg. He writes:
DREADNOUGHT!
...Saturday began very early for us as we boarded a train to North Sydney in order to begin the Pilgrimage Walk. This walk tracked over the Harbour Bridge, through downtown Sydney and, finally, to Randwick Racecourse.
Merging with thousands of other pilgrims from around the world, we marched joyously towards our destination. The sea of flags ahead of and behind us identified the origins of the many beautiful hymns rising over the "waves." In a city which has once hosted the Olympics, a comparison to that event comes immediately to mind-- but it would be a weak comparison, at best.
As Archbishop Collins so rightly pointed out, the flags of World Youth Day don't compete with one another as they do at the Olympic games. Rather, they all celebrate, united, the magnificent faith which joins us together. They therefore celebrate -- not the supremacy of any nation over another -- but rather the mightiness of the One who has brought them all together in Love.
Later that evening, we would find that this mighty act of unification was in fact the work and essence of the Holy Spirit. In what seemed to me to be a two-part series, Pope Benedict sought to dissect the theme of this World Youth Day ("You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses" Acts 1:8). First, at the Saturday Vigil, by asking "who is this Holy Spirit?" and in his Homily on Sunday: "what is this power we will receive?"
During the vigil, the Holy Father used the work of St. Augustine to act as a framework for his exposition on the person of the Holy Spirit. He emphasized three main insights which Augustine imparts:
1) He has the particular quality of unity since He is what is shared in the community of Father and Son;
2) He is abiding love, keeping us within the life of the Trinity and therefore within true love which endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:7); and
3) He is a gift of God Himself. In fact, He is God's eternal gift of Himself to humankind; a gift which satisfies every yearning of the human heart. But besides all the slightly more complex theology, the Holy Father reached out directly to our hearts. This particular section sent a fracture through my own hardened heart:
"There are times, however, when we might be tempted to seek a certain fulfillment apart from God. Jesus himself asked the Twelve: "do you also wish to go away?" Such drifting away perhaps offers the illusion of freedom. But where does it lead? To whom would we go? For in our hearts we know that it is the Lord who has "the words of eternal life" (John 6:67-68). To turn away from him is only a futile attempt to escape from ourselves (cf. Saint Augustine, Confessions VIII, 7). God is with us in the reality of life, not the fantasy! It is embrace, not escape, that we seek! So the Holy Spirit gently but surely steers us back to what is real, what is lasting, what is true. It is the Spirit who leads us back into the communion of the Blessed Trinity!"Indeed, to whom else can we go?
This was the insight which I had, in some way, been waiting for throughout my participation in World Youth Day.
In the quiet times during the Pilgrim Walk, in the mediocrity of the duration in between events, whether the other pilgrims were conscious of it or not, everyone who participated in World Youth Day was drawn to it by Christ Himself. The only reason these young men and women around me were together at all was because He had established His Church some two millennia ago and it has persisted to this day.
Indeed, the sign of Jesus' continual stewardship over His Church, the Pope himself, was at this event. Despite whether any individual was "actively participating" in those events or not, Jesus Christ was there making Himself an encounterable presence, incarnate in our midst. He was there! Reverent or not, He was there!
...Even in the cold!
It got rather chilly as the sun set behind Sydney. Some pilgrims remained active and joyous all the night long, keeping literal Vigil for the morning light. Myself and my comrades managed to get a good few hours of sleep (partially thanks to much of the grass being covered by a plastic "Porta-path" covering a large portion of the raceway's groundspace). We woke up in the morning to pray Morning Prayer (Lauds) in which we appropriately exhorted the "cold and chill" to "bless the Lord" and "Praise and exalt Him above all forever" (Daniel 3:57-88).
The degree of focus and devotion which spread over Randwick Raceway during the Sunday Mass was breathtaking.
Hymns were sung with great gusto, responses echoed through the surrounding suburbs, and the homily was delivered to an absolutely captivated congregation. The Holy Father, as I mentioned earlier, dedicated his homily to explaining the Power which the Holy Spirit delivers.
Fitting in with this theme of the Holy Spirit's gifts, the final Mass included the celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation. Twenty-four very blessed young individuals were able to receive the sacrament at the Pope's hands. Keeping that in mind, read these questions--from his homily--which he addressed, not only to those about to be Confirmed, but to the entire congregation:
"What will you leave to the next generation? Are you building your lives on firm foundations, building something that will endure? Are you living your lives in a way that opens up space for the Spirit in the midst of a world that wants to forget God, or even rejects him in the name of a falsely-conceived freedom? How are you using the gifts you have been given, the 'power' which the Holy Spirit is even now prepared to release within you? What legacy will you leave to young people yet to come? What difference will you make?"These questions cut straight to my heart.
They illuminate the true character of the Christian life when accepted wholly as one does in Confirmation.
They are challenging. But they also reveal the deepest of Truths.
It is only through Christ that we can truly change the world.
We must accept the pure Gift that is the Holy Spirit, and allow God to live and work through us. We must, as the Holy Father mentioned in his Angelus reflection, respond to the marriage proposal of God with the Virgin Mary's great "I do!"--her fiat.
All of us, same sex attracted or not, are called to this marriage: The marriage of man and God in the Incarnation. The wedding feast of the Lamb.
But the Pope reminds us that we can only prepare ourselves to say our "yes," our "I do," through prayer. As in the Upper Room, we must pray with Our Lady! We must pray for the outpouring of the Spirit so as to become true agents of true change. We, through our relationship with Christ, are to be Prophets of a New Age of the Spirit. Prophets!
I would say that the greatest gift I received throughout all of World Youth Day was this: I realized that the final Mass, despite its "finality" and the "ending" which that represented, was a new beginning.
Due to the Holy Father's words, and the working of the Spirit throughout the week, I recognized -- in a way that I had never before been able to -- that when we are told at the close of the Ordinary Form of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the Roman Rite to "Go in peace to love and serve the Lord" we are bringing something with us: God's Gift!
Emotionally, I was not at all upset that the week of festivities and prayer had come to an end -- I was inspired with a great enthusiasm to put the Love that I had been shown into action. Before the dismissal, in order to highlight the power of the Spirit, the centrifugal force of His Love, the Holy Father commissioned us:
"Go forth into the world in peace; be of good courage, hold fast that which is good, render to no one evil for evil, strengthen the fainthearted; support the weak; help the afflicted, honour all people, love and serve the Lord, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit."Hopefully every other pilgrim and participant felt the weight of these words, and the liberation they bring. Fancy that: a liberating weight! They represent a challenge which I am excited to take on, with Christ holding my hand.
...We must share what we've gained, because "there is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel--by the encounter with Christ!"
So was this World Youth Day a success? Yes! Yes! Sydneysiders have been absolutely captivated by our presence; the hardness of the cynics' hearts have been melted; there is a renewed interest in Christianity and faith in general in and around Sydney. If the first fruits are any indication, the seeds of this World Youth Day have fallen on good soil and, if well tended to, will yield a harvest of "a hundred or sixty or thityfold" (Matthew 13:8).
Look out, world. Here we come!
St. Peter, pray for us.
St. Paul, pray for us.
John Paul the Great, pray for us.
Pier Giorgio Frassati, pray for us.
Mother Teresa, pray for us.
Veni, Sancte Spiritus.
Veni per Mariam!*
Pax,
- DREADPILGRIM Greg
* (This formulation, "Veni Sancte Spiritus, Veni per Mariam", is a beautiful prayer characteristic of the Communion and Liberation movement, to which I have grown increasingly close. It's worth checking out, if you haven't already!)
:: The Upshot ::
This is, of course, the final installment in a one-off series of exclusive reports on the week's events. DREADPILGRIM Greg's many insights, and his beautiful reflections, have been followed by same sex attracted Catholics, young people, and other DREADNOUGHTERS all over the world. We have, through these posts, been able to journey alongside the World Youth Day 2008 pilgrims in Sydney. Let us go forward with them.
:: Resources ::
- Sydney 2008 Home Page;
- USCCB Virtual Pilgrimage;
- Previous DREADPILGRIM Live Reports from Sydney;
- DREADNOUGHT Annotates Pope Benedict XVI's Statements, Providing Insights on Human Sexuality, and Same Sex Attraction;
- DREADNOUGHT on the New York Times "Pope Benedict XVI" topic page;
- DREADNOUGHT speaks to Spanish Pilgrims (in Castellano and English);
- DREADNOUGHT on what to expect from the Holy Father during this visit;
- DREADNOUGHT on the homoactivist behind a priest's complaints about World Youth Day 2008;
- DREADNOUGHT in Sydney's largest newspaper: Benedict XVI is "the Pope the world needs";
- DREADNOUGHT answers questions on "gay" priests and "homogenital acts" for World Youth Day 2008 pilgrims;
- DREADNOUGHT on Triple J national radio on "gay" priests, Catholic teaching, and young, same sex attracted men;
- DREADNOUGHT's media availability, World Youth Day 2008; and
- Pope Benedict XVI, Message For World Youth Day 2008.
by DREADNOUGHT at 12:59:00 AM
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