Australia - Stations of the Cross

We’re sort of getting into a routine these days. In the morning, we have a quick meeting at “the bench” or somewhere nearby and talk about the options for the day. Then it’s off to morning prayer and catechesis in the church which ends with Mass at about 11 AM. After that, we’re able to do as we like except for formal events for which we reassemble – or try to – somewhere near the venue.

This morning, Rob had been asked to give testimony of his faith life for about five minutes or so after morning prayer, and he did a fine job of it, New Yawk accent and all. He’d prepared it ahead of time and folks in the church seemed to be well engaged. After his presentation, I left for the Brothers house in order to finish up all of the blog work that was left to do. And so I missed the bishop who was doing the catechesis this morning. From what I heard later, I probably made the better decision. Enough said.

Lunch followed for the whole group. There had been a problem getting the food for today from the folks organizing WYD, but the St. Felix Church volunteers brought out the leftovers from the past two days and everyone seemed to get enough food – a sort of modern multiplication of the loaves scene. I met a very nice local family, all of whom were very involved with providing the lunches and we took a couple of pictures together. After lunch Br. Adrian Watson showed up with his motorcycle – a passion with him – and a photo was required. He will be living in our community in San Francisco while on studies starting in a month or so, and it will be interesting to see if he ends up getting a motorcycle there. For our Brothers on the West Coast, there’s a rule against motorcycles that was established by the Visitor some years ago. I don’t know if it applies to Brothers from other places, but I’m guessing that he will be the exception to the rule.

Chris had found a makeshift pole for the American flag that he had bought downtown, but it needed some work to get the flag attached to it. A couple of the trading pins did the trick however. The flag became a good marker in the crowds as the day progressed. Later in the day, when Logan carried the flag into the Sydney Opera House, he was stopped by security and had to check it into the coat room in order to come in. Apparently, they thought it might be used as a sort of weapon. Who would have thought it?

Then we were off to downtown and the Stations of the Cross scheduled for today. Our tickets were for the “Domain” area – a grassy spot within the botanical gardens near the cathedral, and so we once again got onto a train that began relatively empty but was absolutely packed by the time we reached town, with a South American group – complete with guitar – singing hymns and songs that soon got practically the whole car singing.

It was relatively easy to get into our location. While the others settled into a chosen grassy spot, a couple of us went looking for both some souvenirs and for the WYD stoles that we were supposed to have gotten for the priests in our group liturgies. Now they were desired as free souvenirs for parishes back home. We ended up on the cathedral side of the street where all of the major tents (merchandise, registration, first aid, confession, etc.) were located. The merchandise tent was organized chaos. Lines of people waited outside to get in, and once inside they snapped up items left and right, with lines at the cash register 20-people long. I just got a pullover hat with WYD08 on it and a t-shirt with the stations of the cross printed in Aboriginal style, along with a CD of the music that we’d been hearing throughout the week. Our small group reassembled outside of the merchandise tent (Rob never did find the stoles, having gone off in search of WYD officials) and we tried to get back to the larger group but found the streets blocked off. At first we thought it was because the pope would be going by. But actually the stations had started some time ago and the procession of actors were going to be passing by on their way to the third station. So we stayed there (little choice) and had a pretty good view as they passed by, behind the WYD cross and followed by Cardinal Pell and Bishop Fisher (the organizer of WYD here in Sydney). The actors were surrounded by camera people since the whole thing was being broadcast throughout Sydney on the large screens at each of the major venues for these Stations of the Cross, and throughout the world. We’re probably in the background at some point, since we were so close to the action, but it’s the only part of the stations that we saw for some time. Another half hour later, they opened the streets and we were able to make our way back to the large group where we watched the rest of the stations on the big screens in front of us.

During the time we were there, I was able to catch up a little on my blogging, since I'd brought my laptop computer with me. The ground was wet but we didn't seem to mind. The whole thing was captivating.

It was all rather cleverly done as well, utilizing both the great sites of Sydney and the late afternoon and evening light. (Check the websites for the Daily Telegraph and the Sydney Morning Herald for more details.) By the time the crucifixion happened, it was sunset and the whole thing was rather dramatic against the Sydney skyline. The actors were good but I’ve never seen a Jesus that I really liked, including this one. All actors are somehow too specific to do justice to the reality. Perhaps it should be like the depiction of Mohammed in the movie “The Message” where you never see his face, you only see what he sees (each time Mohammed was depicted, the camera was his face and you saw what he saw). An icon, for example, give you the freedom that fiction gives you, not being contrained by a certain specificity - an interpretation that Br. Mike here in the community just shared with me.

The actor here in Sydney seems to have wanted to really act out this role, because I noticed that just before he was crucified, one of the soldiers surreptitiously pulled out a small spray bottle (of antiseptic?) from the folds of his costume and sprayed it on the actor’s palms. And it did look like he was really bleeding from his hands and his head. So I think that the 14^th station, which we didn’t see completed, probably consisted of having him put into an ambulance instead of the tomb.

I would say that the entire experience was very prayerful and powerful. At the end, when Jesus was being carried off, most of the folks in the grassy area we were in (called "The Domain") stood up and began to leave. A couple of our guys had gone earlier to go pick up our dinner at the food tent – an hour’s job by itself – and they just happened to return at that time. So while Jesus was being carried away on the big screens, we were digging into our dinners, passing plates and bread and plastic bags (already warmed) with some sort of stew. It was an interesting contrast.

At the end of our dinner we moved to the back of the park and made our way to the Sydney Opera House. Along the way, Paul stopped a number of Italian pilgrims, trying to make a trade for one of their blue blanket-like capes. He worked hard at it, hawking several t-shirts from the states, pins, and whatever else he had. But no luck. The Italians knew they’d need those warm capes on Saturday night and they weren’t going to part with it. But Paul is determined to get one at some point during the next couple of days.

At the opera house we found the place to pick up our tickets and then walked around the place, resting here and there and filling up the time watching all the pilgrims wandering around. It was a fine night – a bit cold but not seriously so. It was fascinating to see bright, colorful WYD hanged every couple of minutes. Along with all the other lights of the area, it mprojections on the support towers of the harbor bridge which cade quite a sight.

When the time came, we went into the opera house and to our seats. The eight of us had chosen to buy these tickets for Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis much earlier, when the trip was first organized, and we had pretty good tickets for the event. Most of the people in the hall were pilgrims and the concert was grand and impressive. There were a whole bunch of cardinals and bishops in a separate seating section of the hall. At the end of the concert I happened to be at the bottom of the main stairs, waiting for some others, and several cardinals said “Hello, Brother” as they passed me. Of those, I only recognized Sean O’Malley from Boston (Franciscan habit with a scarlet zuchetto on top of his head), but there was also an Italian cardinal who everyone seemed to be falling over to greet. I’m not enough into knowing the cardinals to know who was who. Apparently some 28 of them are here in Sydney for WYD. Cardinal George was among but I didn’t see him come by – although I did see him seated in the high church seating section.

Afterwards we made our way to the Circular Quay train station, where we’d just missed a train to Bankstown and had a twenty-minute wait for the next one. But again there were lots of pilgrims who jammed the station and there was plenty of conversation to go around. I ended up speaking with a group of three girls from Sicily, one of whom had been born in LA, and a group of Italian guys who knew the Brothers in Italy. When our train did come, we were all able to find seats and soon enough Rob and Eric were engaged in a spirited conversation, punctuated by various songs, with a group of girls from Brisbane. When Rob offered to trade some NYC pins with them, they practically jumped out of their seats and Rob scrambled backward over his seat to the seat behind him. Then began some true NYC style negotiations. Diplomatically, he gave the best pin – which they all clamored for – to the lady chaperone accompanying the group.

At Bankstown station we stopped at the nearby 7-11 and even though it was almost midnight we ended up buying slurpees for ourselves, standing around and talking about the day. Then we made our way back up to the road to La Salle College. I showed people the things that we’d bought a couple of days ago (portable chairs, air mattresses, etc.) and they took them along for tomorrow's journey. Earlier in the day, Pete told me that he’d decided – based on a survey of our guys and other factors – to leave tomorrow morning at 4 AM and walk to the place for the Closing Mass – racecourse in Sydney – in order to find a good spot. We had talked about this possibility before and I’d told him that I would stay, work on the blog tomorrow morning, and then make my way there. Rob, Eric, and Logan worked hard on Br. Peter to allow them to come with me, but wisely Pete decided that the group would stay together. It’s a great pilgrimage experience for them, but there are some other factors at play in my case. It will all be fun enough, I’m sure, where I get there.

More pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/gvangrie although I’ve run into lots of problems uploading them. I’ll keep working on it as the day moves along.