Friday 2 May 2008

Youth of Melbourne take Cross to the streets

Today’s events began at St Vincent’s Hospital, East Melbourne, with an outside liturgy attended by employees of the hospital, local primary school students and the occasional passer-by keen to see what the fuss was all about! The Cross & Icon were then moved into the hospital chapel for a quiet time of prayer and veneration.
Next university students from Australian Catholic University carried the cross through the streets of Melbourne to their university, where a service around the symbols took place. The liturgy was attended by primary school students and university students alike and the involvement of the young people in the prayers, singing and witnesses was very impressive and it was exciting to meet so many students excited about the upcoming World Youth Day. The contribution by Gary Pinto, who sang ‘Behold the Cross’ and, the theme of WYD, ‘Receive the Power’ at the liturgy, was a really special part of the day.

The ACU students then carried the Cross & Icon out into the streets once more, where they were met nearby the uni by students from Penola College, who carried the symbols to the Mary MacKillop Heritage Centre for a liturgy attended by the school students.
The last stop for the day was at Deepdene Parish, where two hours of prayers, testimonies and veneration proceeded a candlelit procession to Camberwell. The prayerful atmosphere of this evening was just magic, made even more special by the many young faces that made up the large crowd that walked between the two churches.

It was great to meet such a variety of people and see so many different parts of Melbourne today, but what stood out for me was the amount of time the Cross & Icon spent out in the public eye in the streets of Melbourne. It really spoke of what John Paul II told the half a million young people at the Denver WYD in 1993: Do not be afraid to go out on the streets and into public places, like the first Apostles who preached Christ and the Good News of salvation in the squares of cities, towns and villages. This is no time to be ashamed of the Gospel. It is the time to preach it from the rooftops.

Hats off to all the young people who came out today to do exactly this!

Bernadette :)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i feel like i am touched by the holyspirt as it came to australia. the travelling of the cross and the icon feels like it is cleansing my spirt. i cant wait to see the cross and the icon.
the journey is fantastically interrpretted through this blogspot and i dearly thank alll ot them.

 
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