World Youth Day - it's over and I'm finally blogging again!

We are here for about three more days in Sydney, but the big WYD events are over - and it was an extraordinary experience. Even the newspapers in Sydney have said how difficult it was to keep a 'hardened' heart when you saw so many people having fun and showing what a profound joy it is to be a Christian. Sydney did a great job of organizing the event and policing it. All the police have remarked how little there is to do, save a little cleanup here and there, and keeping pilgrims moving in the right direction. There were long lines and waits, to be sure, but even in every line people were singing and introducing themselves and trading things and talking about how glad they were to be at WYD! As we were waiting in a huge mass of people yesterday trying to get to Central station (which did an amazing job of segregating pilgrims and getting them all on the right trains, by the way) we were joking that even if the Yankees had won the World Series (admittedly a bad comparison to going to the Final Mass with Benedict XVI) that they would be screaming bloody murder at each other if they had to wait like we had to wait to leave Randwick. But in our lines, everyone was still as happy as ever, even being tired from a long night at the racetrack. It is enough to warm my heart and expand it quite a bit, and I can be as skeptical as anyone. More to come -I must go eat pancakes that Margaret and Pat are serving, and then I'm going to the bridge climb today! Also, unfortunately, the sisters did not find my camera on Thursday night and so I am without pictures. I still know where I left it, and am hoping I can still retrieve it this week.