I apologize to my readers for the long gap in reflections. With travel and coming to a new place it has been difficult to get to find both the time and the internet access to continue.
The genorisity and goodness of the people of St. Paul the Apostle parish showed forth in great amounts on Saturday evening and early Sunday morning. The entire PYE group joined the parish at their regular 6:00 Saturday evening vigil mass. The small church was packed with standing room only. Almost all the host families were there, as well as many others. The pastor joked that two years earlier, when they first began to discuss the possiblity of hosting something like this, he mentioned what it would be like to have 500 young people come and take over the evening mass. We were more like 300, but the sentiment was clear.
During the mass itself there was a significant sharing of the ministries – some of the music coming from the parish choir and some from the choir that had come together with the pilgrims. Some of the readers were pilgrims and some from the parish. In a small way I think that this showed forth the wonderful way in which each group was touched and formed by the other.
After mass everyone was invited to a farewell Barbeque. Now, mind you, it was quite cold yet in Melbourne. We gathered in the large tent that had been set up for our food area for the week. That tent had been full when it was just the pilgrims dining there. Now it was bursting at the seams. Still, everyone seemed to keep in good spirits and generosity and patience abounded. There was a bitter-sweet element, however, because the time we pilgrims were spending with this fine people was coming to an end. There is no doubt that these parishioners who had opened their homes to complete strangers enjoyed the experience. In most cases we were treated like sons and daughters, looked after, cared for, and encourgaed. There were many gifts exchanged between pilgrims and hosts in the late hours of Saturday and the early hours of Sunday.
Perhaps the best testimony of the care and concern shown to us by them came on Sunday morning. We had been told we needed to report to the central bus depot that had been set up at one of the Catholic High schools by 5:00am. There did not seem to be any grumbles about such an early hour from hosts who, instead of sleeping in on a Sunday morning, were out and about beginning at about 4:30. My own host, Trevor, not only brought us there but waited for well over an hour, making sure that everything was going smoothly and that there were no problems. The care and concern was so genuine and so pure that it surely touched me deeply.
More details on the journey itself in the next post.
