Welcome!

Hello and welcome to the Catholic Youth Service Scotland blog!

CYSS is the youth ministry part of the Bishops' Conference of Scotland.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien is the Episcopal President of CYSS.

Each diocese in Scotland sends a delegate to quarterly meetings of CYSS. You can visit the youth ministry webpage of each diocese here.

Meetings of CYSS are chaired by Christine Riddoch, youth officer of Paisley diocese.

You can contact CYSS via the Secretary, Chris Docherty at
chris.docherty@btconnect.com or 0141 433 9521.

Once the Mass was over and we packed up our camp area we were ready to head back to our Hotel by 1pm. Now remember there were over 400,000 people wanting to move at the one time! Our walk to the Railway Station was done with complete ease due to the hard work and cheery nature of the Police, Stewards and WYD volunteers. These people did a great job in such a terrific manner that they are a credit to their organisation and church. We would like to express our thanks to all who worked and volunteered for WYD2008-well done one and all. All 26 of us were back across Sydney and into our Hotel by 4.30pm that afternoon and not one of us had had our toes stood on!!

The Vigil with the Bishop of Rome was a beautiful ceremony of the Word of God, the Light of Christ and of course the teaching and encouragement of the Holy Father. With over 400,000 people present for the Vigil and Sunday Mass there were considered moments of deep peace and quiet which served to settle us all and allowed us to hear and let sink in the scripture and teaching we had heard. It also allowed us to go to that quiet place of our hearts and just think about where we are at with our faith, our level of personal commitment to a personal prayer life with God, our level of service and our great need for the grace of the Holy Spirit to be the active members of our Catholic community that we are all called to be. Once the Vigil was over many of us, with thousands of others managed to spend some quiet time in the tent of Adoration as well as walk around and meet and greet those from all over the world who had come on pilgrimage too. It was great and uplifting to hear from them and to breathe in their enthusiasm and love for their catholic faith and church.

Within sight and sound of the Pope....

Our view of the stage area was quite good and nearby there was also a large screen on which we could see better those on the stage-the performers who sang and prayed with us and of course the Holy Father himself.

Southern Cross Precinct- Walk, Camp, Vigil and Mass

On Saturday we headed from our hotel for the site of the Vigil and Final Mass with the Holy Father at Randwick Racecourse or Southern Cross precinct as it has been renamed for the WYD events.
The walk over was great, the staff at all the stations in great form, the volunteers directing us in fantastic humour, good natured and well informed on exactly what route we should be taking. Well done to all of them for a difficult job so very well done! Once we arrived at the correct spot we set up out tents much to everyone's admiration. We then spent the rest of the time saying hello to our neighbours and passers-by before the Holy Father arrived to lead us in the Evening Vigil of prayer and service of light.

Written on Blessed Giorgio's coffin: "Verso l'alto" - "to the highest"

Pilgrimage within a pilgrmage

One of the other activities of this WYD was the pilgrimage to St Mary's Cathedral, the principal church of the archdiocese of Sydney. It is a beautiful building as you can see by some of the photos but it is most beautiful inside where a lot of work had gone in to preparing it as a special place of pilgrimage where you were invited to consecrate (commit) your life to Christ through the intercession of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, Help of Christians. It was also where the remains of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati had been transferred from their normal resting place in Turin, Italy as an inspiration to the young WYD pilgrims who could pray through his intercession for the same commitment to Christ as he showed in his young life. Blesssed Giorgio was only 24 years of age when he passed away in 1925. His life of faith was remarkable, marked out with his devotion to the holy eucharist and love of the poor and deprived. This area of the Cathedral was very special and deeply uplifting and inspiring.