WYD 2008: Final Thoughts

"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses." (Acts 1:8)



St. Augustine is quoted as saying "The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." To be honest, I was not familiar with this quotation until I saw it referenced in a travel magazine on my flight back from Sydney. My limited Internet search failed to confirm the attribution to the great 5th century bishop of the north African city of Hippo and Father of the Church. In any case, I suppose this saying is a nice affirmation of my desire to travel. Although I'm not as well-traveled as some people I know, the trips that I have take have been eye-opening opportunities for discovery and learning.

This explains, in part, why my wife and I decided not only to attend the World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia last week, but to take our kids with us. While traveling with children does present some challenges, it also provides them with wonderful learning opportunities. My daughter, Isabelle's enthusiastic reaction every time she saw the Sydney Opera House or heard the pope's voice was priceless. Barring any unexpected issues, we expect to be in Madrid, Spain for the next WYD in 2011.

Interestingly, St. Augustine was also referenced prominently during the WYD. In his homily for the Opening Mass, Cardinal Pell, the archbishop of Sydney, adapted a sermon given by St. Augustine in entreating us not to leave behind the spirit of the WYD upon its conclusion. During the prayer vigil, Pope Bendict reflected at length on St. Augustine's exegesis on the Holy Spirit: as the unity and communion between God the Father and God the Son, as divine love ("God is Love" 1 Jn 4:16), and as gift, i.e., as a never-ending spring that quenches our deepest thirst (cf. the story of the Samaritan woman at the well (Jn 4:10).

As I wrap up my final blog for the XXIII WYD, I'd like to share some thoughts from the Concluding Mass celebrated on Sunday. First, the liturgy. The Mass was celebrated in a traditional, solemn manner, very much in keeping with Pope Benedict's liturgical preferences. Instead of detracting from the exhuberant spirit of WYD as one might expect, the dignity and grandeur of the Eucharistic celebration complemented and intensified the spirituality of our week-long pilgrimage by appropriately focusing our worship on the Lord.

Finally, the pope's homily. There were too many wonderful insights shared to pick out just one or two themes to reflect on. I hope that many will take the time to read the complete text. Of course, the subject of his discourse, indeed the whole WYD, was the connection between the Holy Spirit and the mission to proclaim the Good News. I hope that this blog was the fruit of the Holy Spirit and contributed to this mission in a small way.

In conclusion, I would like to reproduce the challenging set of questions that the Holy Father posed to the pilgrims gathered at Randwick:

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?

And if all of this seems a bit daunting, especially now that the WYD has concluded, perhaps the pope's mini-homily just before the Angelus offers a few words of inspiration.

Dear young people, we too must remain faithful to the “yes” that we have given to the Lord’s offer of friendship. We know that he will never abandon us. We know that he will always sustain us through the gifts of the Spirit.

Pope Benedict's Gift of Communication

"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses." (Acts 1:8)

Pope Benedict XVI has done it again. Since his eloquent and moving homily for the funeral mass of Pope John Paul II, the Holy Father has consistently succeeded in delivering messages to his audience that are at the same time deeply personal and authoritatively convincing. Take, for example, the following passage from his address during the WYD welcoming ceremony at Barangaroo yesterday afternoon:

"This evening I wish also to include those who are not present among us. I am thinking especially of the sick or mentally ill, young people in prison, those struggling on the margins of our societies, and those who for whatever reason feel alienated from the Church. To them I say: Jesus is close to you! Feel his healing embrace, his compassion and mercy!"

This personal style of communication has been one of the many surprising aspects of the pope's style (at least, to those not intimately familiar with Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger prior to his election). This has been true not only with his oral pronouncements but with his writings as well. For this reason, I found his encyclical, Spe Salvi, quite readable. His concluding exposition on the Ave Maris Stella is nearly poetic. Below is a small sample, which I've reformatted as stanzas to underscore my point:

Human life is a journey.
Towards what destination?
How do we find the way?
Life is like a voyage on the sea of history, often dark and stormy
A voyage in which we watch for the stars that indicate the route.
The true stars of our life are the people who have lived good lives.
They are lights of hope.
Certainly, Jesus Christ is the true light,
The sun that has risen above all the shadows of history.

This certainly provides an appropriate imagery to meditate upon during the pilgrimage to the Southern Cross Precinct for the vigil tomorrow evening!

In closing, I would like to share a link to a YouTube video of Andrew Lloyd Weber's haunting Pie Jesu which was beautifully sung at the twelfth of the Stations of the Cross this evening.

Parable of the Sower: a mini-history lesson of Sydney's founding

"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses." (Acts 1:8)

Our second day in Sydney was packed with activities. We strolled the central business district, enjoyed a panoramic view of the city from Sydney Tower, visited the famous Opera House and Circular Quay, took a ferry to get around the harbor, and gobbled up some fast food at Harbourside. Along the way, we met fellow WYD pilgrims from the U.S., Canada, Italy, and Australia. The highlight of the day was attending a solemn Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral, a magnificent gothic church designed by William Wilkinson Wardell, completed in 1928, and designated as a minor basilica by Pope Pius XI in 1930.

Yesterday's Gospel reading was the Parable of the Sower (Mt 13:1-9). I found the scripture passage a particularly timely reflection, not only because of the WYD and the pope's apostolic journey here, but because of Australia's early colonial history. The story of Sydney's founding is dramatically recounted in Thomas Keneally's "A Commonwealth of Thieves: The Improbable Birth of Australia."

In brief, the early colonization of Australia was the result of transportation, a policy instituted by Great Britain to relieve its crowded prisons by transporting convicts to settle in distant lands. In 1787, Capt. Arthur Phillip was commissioned to lead a fleet of 11 ships and establish a colony in New South Wales (on the east coast of the Australian continent). Although transportation was a form of punishment, it was certainly a more lenient sentence than the death penalty or life imprisonment. Indeed, some of the convicts and their guards considered the journey to Australia an opportunity to start a new life.

The original plan was to establish a settlement in Botany Bay, located a few kilometers south of Sydney Harbor, based on a favorable report by the explorer James Cook 17 years earlier. However, Phillip found the location, the condition of the soil, and the local vegetation unsuitable and, upon further exploration, chose to establish the penal colony in Port Jackson. It was here that the first European community was able to find satisfactory soil, an abundant source of food, and an ideal configuration for a harbor.

It's possible that the penal colony would not have survived in Botany Bay. And even though it struggled during its early existence in Port Jackson, the "good soil" in which it was planted allowed it to eventually thrive and become a flourishing metropolis.

Returning to the Parable of the Good Sower and the WYD, like Capt. Phillip, the "witnesses" of the gospel today are in search of good soil. Let us pray that the Good News is planted in suitable ground: in the hearts and minds of 200,000 pilgrims traveling to Sydney this week in search of new life.

Captain Arthur Phillip

Commander of the First Fleet

WYD 2008 and Transformation

"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses." (Acts 1:8)

The World Youth Day (WYD) represents an opportunity for transformation and personal conversion. I am reminded of Pope John Paul's message for the WYD in Cologne, Germany in 2005. Reflecting on the example of the Magi and their pilgrimage to visit the child Jesus, he spoke of the change resulting from their encounter with Christ:

“And they departed to their own country by another way” (Mt 2:12). The Gospel tells us that after their meeting with Christ, the Magi returned home “by another way”. This change of route can symbolize the conversion to which all those who encounter Jesus are called, in order to become the true worshippers that He desires (cf. Jn 4:23-24). This entails imitating the way He acted by becoming, as the apostle Paul writes, “a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (Rom 12:1).

The life of St. Paul, which the Church is celebrating in a special way during this Pauline Jubilee Year, epitomizes the transformational power of a personal encounter with Jesus. At the beginning of the ninth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, he is intent on carrying out murderous threats against members of the early church. On his way to Damascus, he undergoes a dramatic conversion through an encounter with the risen Christ. The scene is dramatically depicted in a famous painting by Caravaggio. On a visit to Rome on Easter Sunday earlier this year, I had an opportunity to ponder this masterpiece in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo and reflect on St. Paul’s conversion. It was a lifelong transformation from persecutor of Christians to apostle that culminated in the startling statement:

“…yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me” (Gal 2:20).

In the same way, all are called to conversion. Those attending the WYD in Sydney a week from now will have an incredible opportunity to experience transformation resulting from an encounter with Christ, through prayer, celebration of the sacraments and Christian fellowship.

One week before WYD 2008

'You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses.' Acts 1:8

In less than a week, we will be off to Sydney, Australia for the World Youth Day (WYD). The WYD is a week-long international religious gathering of youth and young adults held in different parts of the world every two or three years. The event consists of liturgical celebrations, catechetical sessions conducted by bishops, and cultural festivities. The culmination of the WYD is an evening prayer vigil and (the following morning) eucharistic celebration with the pope. This year, the host will be the archdiocese of Sydney.

This will be the sixth WYD that I have attended. The last one was in Cologne in 2005. The Cologne Weltjugendtag was also the first WYD celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI following his election earlier that year. At the time, our older daughter, Isabelle, was 16 months. This time, we will also be taking our younger daughter, Gabrielle, who is now 16 months.

Naturally, we are quite excited about our upcoming pilgrimage, though also somewhat anxious about the long journey ahead. On July 9, we will travel from DFW to LAX and spend a little more than 24 hours at my parents' house in PV. We leave for SYD the evening of July 10, cross the international date line and then arrive the morning of July 12 after being in-flight for fifteen hours. (Hopefully, our seats are equipped with DC power for the DVD player!)

During our time in Sydney, we will pray for the intentions of our family members and friends and for an end to war and injustice. We hope that you will also keep all WYD pilgrims in your prayers for a safe and faith-filled journey.