Gathered under the Southern Cross

From left, Theresa Ptak, Anna Schiedemayer, Lucy Ptak, and Erik Duhn prayer with the Holy Father at Randwick Racecourse Saturday night. (Catholic Herald photo by Ben Emmel)

SYDNEY — Illuminated by candlelight, and united under the night sky at Randwick Racecourse, 235,000 pilgrims joined Pope Benedict XVI in prayer at the Evening Vigil Saturday night. The Holy Father led the prayer and song for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, as he explained in his homily.

“We need to understand the person of the Holy Spirit and his vivifying presence in our lives,” Benedict explained. “This is not easy to comprehend. Yet we do know that it is the Holy Spirit who, though silent and unseen, gives direction and definition to our witness to Jesus Christ.”

This idea of witness through the Holy Spirit, the theme of WYD, is essential for the Christian in this “fragmented world,” he said. But it can only be done in unity with the entire Church, powered by the third member of the Trinity.

“This is the Spirit’s role: to bring Christ’s work to fulfillment,” Benedict remakred.  “Enriched with the Spirit’s gifts, you will have the power to move beyond the piecemeal, the hollow utopia, the fleeting, to offer the consistency and certainty of Christian witness!”

The Holy Father’s own witness was inspiring to the Madison pilgrims, who listened intently as the Holy Father spoke. Tyler Dickinson remarked that the Pope was “here for the whole Church.”

“Being in the presence of the Holy  Father is really amazing, and he seems so responsive to youth,” Dickinson said after the event. “That’s really inspiring that he’s looking to having us filled with the Holy Spirit. He wants us to experience Christ. He’s here for us.”

Pilgrims make their way to South Cross Precinct during the Pilgrimage Walk at the Sydney Harbour Bridge. (Photo by World Youth Day)

The experience of Christ’s suffering was shared in some small way by the pilgrims before the Vigil, as they completed a 5.5 mile pilgrimage walk thoughout the city of Sydney. Starting at the North Shore of the Sydney Harbor, all young people at WYD walked across the iconic Harbor Bridge, past the Opera House, and through the city to the “South Cross Precinct,” an area of the city used for the WYD vigil and Mass.

The young people carried their backpacks, sleeping bags, and mats on their backs as they traversed through the city on a trip that took several hours. But in the spirit of traditional pilgrims’ walks, such as those taken by medieval pilgrims from Europe to the Holy Land, the walk was filled with song and joy.

Many groups participating on the journey had brought guitars, tambourines, and other instruments, and sung their way to the racetrack. Other pilgrims prayed the rosary and other devotions as they walked thought Sydney. The roads were packed with the traveling young people – the entire city had been brought to a standstill as over 200,000 youth walked to the Precinct.

Their spirit of unity and vitality in the fatigue and suffering from the pilgrims’ walked showed to all how true were Pope Benedict’s words on the Holy Spirit: “To be truly alive is to be transformed from within, open to the energy of God’s love.”