How I experienced World Youth Day in Australia

Sorry this is so long overdue! This covers much of what I encountered in my first World Youth Day. Enjoy!

Dear Friends,

First off, we would like to thank you for all your support – both financial and spiritual. Prayers were greatly appreciated and were indeed needed throughout the trip. It is difficult to describe the immense graces we have received. The Holy Spirit has truly been alive in every person present during both the trials and joys of our pilgrimage.

We have been home for a little under a week now and are slowly working off our jet lag. A 14-hour time difference certainly does take a toll on your body! Going back to when our trip began, our excitement (both good and bad) was apparent even before we arrived in Sydney. We nearly got lost on the way to Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Praise God for GPS! Fortunately we arrived on time after making a couple of wrong turns.

In the airport, while we were waiting to board the plane, our musicians started us out with some praise and worship music. It was so incredible to see the effect it had on those around us. I mean, imagine a group of young people singing praise and worship in the middle of a bustling Detroit airport!

Once we arrived in Los Angeles, CA, we met up with the rest of our group from the Diocese of Saginaw that was to be with us for our pilgrimage during WYD. Then, something amazing happened. We were able to celebrate MASS in the corner of our gate at the airport! It was such a great experience. Talk about evangelization! There were 70 of us – including 3 priests and 2 Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia.

The Mass was said to be the “real” beginning of our pilgrimage. After Mass concluded we boarded our plane for what seemed like an eternity to the ends of the Earth. Approximately 16 hours later, and after a lot of Dramamine, we arrived in Brisbane, New South Wales in Australia. It was incredible to see the lines of people holding signs for pilgrims who they were to pick up. Everyone was so welcoming! It was especially neat to hear the Aussies say “G’day,” and we heard several times, when worried or in a fix, “No worries!” (A common Aussie phrase).

We were faced with more trials of lost luggage, broken luggage and missing items in transit. But, through God’s grace everything worked itself out. We arrived in Sydney, where we then took a two hour bus ride to Kiama, our home for the next week. We were all split up into groups of two or three, and sent to stay with host families for the week. We both had wonderful families taking care of us. It was such a blessing to have after such a long trip!

Each day we had mass in the church in Kiama, at St. Peter and Paul’s (part of the Diocese of Wollongong). We then headed off for various activities each day. We were able to see and learn about the local aboriginal culture of Australia, we met and gathered with many other pilgrims from different parts of the world that were also staying in Kiama, and saw many of the local sights including Minamura rainforest, the beach, Saddleback Mountain, and a nature park (we were both able to pet kangaroos and koalas!). We also attended an Aussie Festival and had mass with the Bishop of the Diocese of Wollongong along with over 500,000 other pilgrims! The greatest thing though, was to see God working and lighting the fire of Christ in us as pilgrims, our host families, and the community in Kiama.

The second week of our pilgrimage, we traveled by bus, back to Sydney, where we stayed in Olympic Park. This was a series of huge buildings that had been made exclusively for the 2000 Olympics held in Sydney. We stayed in the Olympic Dome, sleeping in what could be compared to as four football fields put together, with thousands of Pilgrims from around the world.

Every day after mass and Catechesis, we took the train (their public transportation system (very similar to the New York Subways, except above ground) into downtown Sydney. We attended various events and activities. We visited the Cathedral of St. Mary’s and were able to see several saints’ tombs as well as have Eucharistic Adoration in the crypt of the Cathedral. We also saw Darling Harbor and the Sydney Opera House, Hyde Park, rode a ferry, attended a Vocations Expo, heard talks on Pope John II’s Theology of the Body presented by Christopher West, and were at the Papal welcome at Barangaroo (Yes we saw the Pope, one of several times!).

On Friday of our last weekend in Australia, began the most exciting days of our trip. We watched a beautiful display of the Stations of the Cross being acted out in multiple places across the city. Saturday was the pilgrimage walk to Randwick Racecourse. We walked for miles, and eventually arrived for a beautiful night of conversing with other pilgrims, and witnessing Christ. That night we had a candlelight vigil with Pope Benedict XVI (so cool!) and spent a very chilly night under the stars catching a bit of sleep. Sunday was the official World Youth Day. We had an amazing mass with the Pope, who gave a tremendous homily, and announced that the next WYD would be in Madrid, Spain!

After Sunday we walked back to Olympic Park where we would spend the next three days before catching our flight to get back to the States. It really was a blessing to have some time to reflect as a group and re-cap on what we’d experienced over the past week. We continued to have mass each day, Daily prayer, and opportunities for Adoration, Anointing of the Sick, and Reconciliation, and praying the Holy Rosary, as throughout our entire WYD experience.

Getting back to the US was certainly an adventure! After another 16 hour flight from Sydney, were we had a 1 ½ hour delay in Fiji, we arrived in LA only to miss our connecting flight back to Detroit. After a lot of conversing with the airlines, they put us up in a Hotel for the night (which only amounted to 3 or 4 hrs for some of the pilgrims!), and split us up on four different flights to get us back to MI. So two days later than our scheduled arrival back home, we made it! Our pilgrimage was over, but the spirit of our journey continues to thrive inside of us.

Every day we are growing in our faith and are lit inside with the glory of God. We’ve had a few reunions of the pilgrims, and hope to have more to grow together in our faith journey. We can’t wait to share more with all of you in person, and are increasingly thankful for all of your support and prayers.

Please keep an eye on the bulletin for an announcement as to when we will be doing a presentation about our pilgrimage. We would love to see all of you there to relate our experiences and show some great pictures.

God Bless you All! Much Peace and Love in Christ Jesus,

Christina and Sheri Krotzer