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.

The Way of the Cross

Although we didn't have the best view of the drama of the final steps of Christ being re-enacted around the streets and harbour of the city it was clear that it was a stunning and well delivered production, touching the lives of millions of people tuning in from all over the world on their TV, internet or radio. We were able to see more when we returned home and watched the news-but we still were able to say-we were there!

From Opera House to Cardboard cut-out

Here we are some of us sitting on the steps of Sydney Opera House-it seems late but it gets dark here at 6pm-this being the Ozzie winter.
Look who Fr Jim and Fr Stephen bumped into when they went awandering!! It's a good idea when everyone wants to see the Holy Father!!

So much to see, so much to do...

Out and about in Sydney we have also been enjoying the best the city has to offer. Here a few photos to share with you our viewpoint.

A way with words and people...

As we said Archbishop Mark Coleridge (left) was the final work-shop Catechist. He spoke to us on Friday of World Youth Day week. It was on this day that we learnt of the 5 priests who had somehow managed to receive permission from the Chinese authorities to travel to Sydney for WYD-a moment not lost on the Archbishop as he shared their story with us.

From one WYD to another...

This is Archbishop Collins of Toronto who spoke to us on Thursday morning.
Toronto was a previous host city to World Youth Day.

Retired but never been so busy!

This is Cardinal Theodore McCarrick

One, holy, catholic and apostolic

On the mornings of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we tool part in our work-shops or Catechesis sessions in the Convention Centre in Darling Harbour. Each day we heard a talk from a Bishop, were led in reflection, prayer and song by an animation team from Canberra the capital of Sydney. It certainly showed us the universal Church in action-as one Bishop put it-one, holy, catholic and apostolic-quoting of course from The Creed. Our bishop catechists giving us words of encouragment and faith were Cardinal Theodore McCarrick retired Archbishop of Washington DC, USA; Archbishop Thomas Collins of Toronto, Canada and the Archbishop of Canberra-Goulburn Mark Coleridge. All three bishops gave engaging and heart-felt talks to a gathering of 600-900 young people before leading us in the celebration of Mass concelebrated with Fr Jim and Fr Stephen and the 60 or so other priests in attendance. On the Friday 5 priests had managed to gain permission to leave China and join us for World Youth Day, Archbishop Coleridge made sure they knew how pleased we all were to know they had made such an effort to join us.

Barrangaroo kick-off

After over 2 years of preparation we cannot believe it here we are at last at the opening ceremony of the 23rd World Youth Day in Barrangaroo on Sydney Harbour. All the fund-raising and preparation meetings, all the information gathering and registration system problems just do not prepare you nor take away from the wonderful experience of a WYD group reaching it's destination! The Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal Pell led us in the Opening Mass, encouraging us in the power of the Holy Spirit to live our faith and to be prepared to share it with Pope Benedict whom we would meet in two days time.

Sydney and the youth of the world!

Sydney is a city that takes your breath away. The harbour area with the iconic Opera House and Bridge is a sight to behold. It is a place we Scots feel at home in and can quite literally all fit in it as we are told there are just over 5 million inhabitants in this great city-just a little more than the population of Scotland!! Here are some images of our first day as Sydney tourists as the youth of the world gather to begin World Youth Day proper with the Opening Mass with Archbishop George Cardinal Pell of Sydney.

leaving Vincentia for Sydney

We said farewell to our host families and the parish priest Fr Leo. We were all sad to leave the people of Vincentia.They kindly welcomed us into their homes and community.
After a 3 hour coach journey to Sydney we settled into our luxury apartments complete with swimming pool and jacuzzi!!

That night we travelled over the Harbour Bridge to the Opera house where we all posed on the steps.

Dolphin Cruise

Our experience in the Diocese of Wollongong ended with a leisurely cruise through the waters of Jervis Bay. Earlier in the day, a lively mass, animated by the Galloway youth, was celebrated by the pilgrims and the host families. Lunch was graciously provided by various families from the local diocese and was consumed in the local park while enjoying a bit of Aussie sports.


After spotting many dolphins on our cruise we were entertained by a visit to the local maritime museum. Here the group tried out their didgeridoo skills. The fascinating museum was a fantastic end to an brilliant week. However the trip was just beginning!

Wollongong Festival Day

On Saturday we headed off to the city of Wollongong where the Diocesan Cathedral is situated. There we enjoyed an afternoon of display tents, food tents and side-shows: bumpercars were particularly enjoyed! The culmination of the day was a Mass in the local WIN Arena centre led by Bishop Peter of Wollongong whose excitement and pride in how well his diocese had hosted pilgrims from all over the world was so tangible. He encouraged all of us as we headed for Sydney for the WYD itself. Have a wee look at some of these photos-they tell the tale well.

All God's work...

We're grateful to Alan and Chris, one of our host families, who have sent us these great shots of the bay area of the parish-you can see from them the most beautiful spot we were lucky enough to call "home" for a few days!

Happy in Husskie!

Dolphin or camera watching?

Our Sunday picnic followed the parish Sunday morning Mass where our group had been invited and were delighted to participate in by reading, processing, singing and playing the keyboard and guitar. At the end of the Mass Fr Jim thanked Fr Leo and the Holy Spirit parishioners for their love and generosity of welcome by presenting them with three stones from the beach at Whithorn in our own Diocese the site of St Ninian's Cave. Fr Stephen presented the parishioners with a quaich getting them to pronounce the name after him to everyone's amusement. Then Denise presented the two parish co-ordinators for our trip, Maryann and Carolynn with a letter opener in the shape of St Ninian's Cross. Then all of the Galloway group stood and applauded the parishioners as a show of thanks for all they had done to make our visit so memorable. The evening before the young people themselves thanked their Homestay host with a wee gift from Scotland.

Family portraits

Here are a few of our family hosts feeding us at Moorfields Park which is another beautiful wee town of the parish called Huskisson.

The spirit of Holy Spirit

Our stay in the parish of Holy Spirit was absolutely wonderful, the people and place are beautiful and we will remember their kindnesses for a very long time to come. Here are some images of the time we had at "Homestay" courtesy of the camera and the Tweed family of Mark, Maryann and young James and Chris. The rest of the Galloway images on this blog are from our own camera. We hope these images will give you a taste of the wonderful Days in the Diocese experience we have had.

Holy Spirit, Vincentia

We arrived a couple of hours later in the beautiful Shoalhaven parish of Holy Spirit, Vincentia were their pastor, Fr Leo Duck, and paroishioners were ready with great big smiles and our first Ozzie Barbie!! We weren't half ready to tuck into the goodies on offer, including an Ozzie delicacy-Vegamite-Delicious!

Sydney or bust!

As if another 10 hours to Sydney wasn't enough, for some unknown reason-that has yet to be told-we had 4 hours added to the flight time, this got us into Sydney at around 9.30am rather than the expected 5.30am arrival. Once we checked through the Immigration desks we picked up our luggage at the baggage conveyor belt-well when we say we all picked-up our baggage that would not be quite right as the airline decided to keep a hold of Blair's case just for another night!!

So we've checked through Immigration, claimed our bags and next we had the Customs and what a nice bunch of officers came along to take care of this rather serious part of our entry as they had us line up all our bags to allow the sniffer dogs among them. The dogs having done their job and passed all our bags then disappeared just as quickly as they had appeared leaving us all a little bewildered at the whole affair.

At last we stepped out of the airport on to Ozzie Terra Firma!!

We snaked our way through the crowds of waiting pilgrims who had arrived on other flights for WYD to our coach which was waiting to take us the further few hours journey to our hosts in the Diocese of Wollongong to Holy Spirit, Vincentia in the parish of Nowra.

What a day of travel it has been. We all arrived well on time at Glasgow Airport-infact Fr Jim was the last to arrive! After checking in we boarded our flight to London Heathrow T5. On arrival across London with the weather being so clear and bright our plane made a wonderful swoop east across the city one side of the Thames before turning west back up the river for another great fly-over before landing. We transferred easily across the vast airport-it is like a small town all on its own! We checked in for Qantas flight QF2 for Sydney via Bangkok. The flight wasn't as bad as we were expecting and the in-flight entertainment kept us going and if that didn't Trisha's chatting did! On arrival at Bangkok our pilot aborted his first attempt at landing because of a storm that had just swept over the airport. As he came in for landing the second time he left us in no doubt we were on the ground-with a hefty thud-making sure the side winds and rain gave us no further trouble. As the plane was re-fuelling we had to disembark and so we welcomed the chance to have a good walk after the 10 hour flight. Most of us took the chance to freshen up and have a cool drink before we re-boarded for the final part of our journey.