Holy Father's Vigil Address

Pope's Address at Youth Day Vigil"Let Us Pray for the Resolve to Nurture Unity"
SYDNEY, Australia, JULY 19, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is the address Benedict XVI gave at the World Youth Day vigil Saturday night at the Randwick Racecourse in Sydney.
* * *
Dear Young People,
Once again this evening we have heard Christ’s great promise – "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you". And we have heard his summons – "be my witnesses throughout the world" – (Acts 1:8). These were the very last words which Jesus spoke before his Ascension into heaven. How the Apostles felt upon hearing them, we can only imagine. But we do know that their deep love for Jesus, and their trust in his word, prompted them to gather and to wait; to wait not aimlessly, but together, united in prayer, with the women and Mary in the Upper Room (cf. Acts 1:14). Tonight, we do the same. Gathered before our much-travelled Cross and the icon of Mary, and under the magnificent constellation of the Southern Cross, we pray. Tonight, I am praying for you and for young people throughout the world. Be inspired by the example of your Patrons! Accept into your hearts and minds the sevenfold gift of the Holy Spirit! Recognize and believe in the power of the Spirit in your lives!
The other day we talked of the unity and harmony of God’s creation and our place within it. We recalled how in the great gift of baptism we, who are made in God’s image and likeness, have been reborn, we have become God’s adopted children, a new creation. And so it is as children of Christ’s light – symbolized by the lit candles you now hold – that we bear witness in our world to the radiance no darkness can overcome (cf. Jn 1:5).
Tonight we focus our attention on how to become witnesses. We need to understand the person of the Holy Spirit and his vivifying presence in our lives. This is not easy to comprehend. Indeed the variety of images found in scripture referring to the Spirit – wind, fire, breath – indicate our struggle to articulate an understanding of him. 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.
You are already well aware that our Christian witness is offered to a world which in many ways is fragile. The unity of God’s creation is weakened by wounds which run particularly deep when social relations break apart, or when the human spirit is all but crushed through the exploitation and abuse of persons. Indeed, society today is being fragmented by a way of thinking that is inherently short-sighted, because it disregards the full horizon of truth– the truth about God and about us. By its nature, relativism fails to see the whole picture. It ignores the very principles which enable us to live and flourish in unity, order and harmony.
What is our response, as Christian witnesses, to a divided and fragmented world? How can we offer the hope of peace, healing and harmony to those "stations" of conflict, suffering, and tension through which you have chosen to march with this World Youth Day Cross? Unity and reconciliation cannot be achieved through our efforts alone. God has made us for one another (cf. Gen 2:24) and only in God and his Church can we find the unity we seek. Yet, in the face of imperfections and disappointments – both individual and institutional – we are sometimes tempted to construct artificially a "perfect" community. That temptation is not new. The history of the Church includes many examples of attempts to bypass or override human weaknesses or failures in order to create a perfect unity, a spiritual utopia.
Such attempts to construct unity in fact undermine it! To separate the Holy Spirit from Christ present in the Church’s institutional structure would compromise the unity of the Christian community, which is precisely the Spirit’s gift! It would betray the nature of the Church as the living temple of the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Cor 3:16). It is the Spirit, in fact, who guides the Church in the way of all truth and unifies her in communion and in the works of ministry (cf. Lumen Gentium, 4). Unfortunately the temptation to "go it alone" persists. Some today portray their local community as somehow separate from the so-called institutional Church, by speaking of the former as flexible and open to the Spirit and the latter as rigid and devoid of the Spirit.
Unity is of the essence of the Church (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 813); it is a gift we must recognize and cherish. Tonight, let us pray for the resolve to nurture unity: contribute to it! resist any temptation to walk away! For it is precisely the comprehensiveness, the vast vision, of our faith – solid yet open, consistent yet dynamic, true yet constantly growing in insight – that we can offer our world. Dear young people, is it not because of your faith that friends in difficulty or seeking meaning in their lives have turned to you? Be watchful! Listen! Through the dissonance and division of our world, can you hear the concordant voice of humanity? From the forlorn child in a Darfur camp, or a troubled teenager, or an anxious parent in any suburb, or perhaps even now from the depth of your own heart, there emerges the same human cry for recognition, for belonging, for unity. Who satisfies that essential human yearning to be one, to be immersed in communion, to be built up, to be led to truth? The Holy Spirit! This is the Spirit’s role: to bring Christ’s work to fulfilment. 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!
Friends, when reciting the Creed we state: "We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life". The "Creator Spirit" is the power of God giving life to all creation and the source of new and abundant life in Christ. The Spirit sustains the Church in union with the Lord and in fidelity to the apostolic Tradition. He inspired the Sacred Scriptures and he guides God’s People into the fullness of truth (cf. Jn 16:13) In all these ways the Spirit is the "giver of life", leading us into the very heart of God. So, the more we allow the Spirit to direct us, the more perfect will be our configuration to Christ and the deeper our immersion in the life of the Triune God.
This sharing in God’s nature (cf. 2 Pet 1:4) occurs in the unfolding of the everyday moments of our lives where he is always present (cf. Bar 3:38). There are times, however, when we might be tempted to seek a certain fulfilment apart from God. Jesus himself asked the Twelve: "do you also wish to go away?" Such drifting away perhaps offers the illusion of freedom. But where does it lead? To whom would we go? For in our hearts we know that it is the Lord who has "the words of eternal life" (Jn 6:67-68). To turn away from him is only a futile attempt to escape from ourselves (cf. Saint Augustine, Confessions VIII, 7). God is with us in the reality of life, not the fantasy! It is embrace, not escape, that we seek! So the Holy Spirit gently but surely steers us back to what is real, what is lasting, what is true. It is the Spirit who leads us back into the communion of the Blessed Trinity!
The Holy Spirit has been in some ways the neglected person of the Blessed Trinity. A clear understanding of the Spirit almost seems beyond our reach. Yet, when I was a small boy, my parents, like yours, taught me the Sign of the Cross. So, I soon came to realize that there is one God in three Persons, and that the Trinity is the centre of our Christian faith and life. While I grew up to have some understanding of God the Father and the Son – the names already conveyed much – my understanding of the third person of the Trinity remained incomplete. So, as a young priest teaching theology, I decided to study the outstanding witnesses to the Spirit in the Church’s history. It was on this journey that I found myself reading, among others, the great Saint Augustine.
Augustine’s understanding of the Holy Spirit evolved gradually; it was a struggle. As a young man he had followed Manichaeism - one of those attempts I mentioned earlier, to create a spiritual utopia by radically separating the things of the spirit from the things of the flesh. Hence he was at first suspicious of the Christian teaching that God had become man. Yet his experience of the love of God present in the Church led him to investigate its source in the life of the Triune God. This led him to three particular insights about the Holy Spirit as the bond of unity within the Blessed Trinity: unity as communion, unity as abiding love, and unity as giving and gift. These three insights are not just theoretical. They help explain how the Spirit works. In a world where both individuals and communities often suffer from an absence of unity or cohesion, these insights help us remain attuned to the Spirit and to extend and clarify the scope of our witness.
So, with Augustine’s help, let us illustrate something of the Holy Spirit’s work. He noted that the two words "Holy" and "Spirit" refer to what is divine about God; in other words what is shared by the Father and the Son – their communion. So, if the distinguishing characteristic of the Holy Spirit is to be what is shared by the Father and the Son, Augustine concluded that the Spirit’s particular quality is unity. It is a unity of lived communion: a unity of persons in a relationship of constant giving, the Father and the Son giving themselves to each other. We begin to glimpse, I think, how illuminating is this understanding of the Holy Spirit as unity, as communion. True unity could never be founded upon relationships which deny the equal dignity of other persons. Nor is unity simply the sum total of the groups through which we sometimes attempt to "define" ourselves. In fact, only in the life of communion is unity sustained and human identity fulfilled: we recognize the common need for God, we respond to the unifying presence of the Holy Spirit, and we give ourselves to one another in service.
Augustine’s second insight – the Holy Spirit as abiding love – comes from his study of the First Letter of Saint John. John tells us that "God is love" (1 Jn 4:16). Augustine suggests that while these words refer to the Trinity as a whole they express a particular characteristic of the Holy Spirit. Reflecting on the lasting nature of love - "whoever abides in love remains in God and God in him" (ibid.) - he wondered: is it love or the Holy Spirit which grants the abiding? This is the conclusion he reaches: "The Holy Spirit makes us remain in God and God in us; yet it is love that effects this. The Spirit therefore is God as love!" (De Trinitate, 15.17.31). It is a beautiful explanation: God shares himself as love in the Holy Spirit. What further understanding might we gain from this insight? Love is the sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit! Ideas or voices which lack love – even if they seem sophisticated or knowledgeable – cannot be "of the Spirit". Furthermore, love has a particular trait: far from being indulgent or fickle, it has a task or purpose to fulfil: to abide. By its nature love is enduring. Again, dear friends, we catch a further glimpse of how much the Holy Spirit offers our world: love which dispels uncertainty; love which overcomes the fear of betrayal; love which carries eternity within; the true love which draws us into a unity that abides!
The third insight – the Holy Spirit as gift – Augustine derived from meditating on a Gospel passage we all know and love: Christ’s conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well. Here Jesus reveals himself as the giver of the living water (cf. Jn 4:10) which later is explained as the Holy Spirit (cf. Jn 7:39; 1 Cor 12:13). The Spirit is "God’s gift" (Jn 4:10) - the internal spring (cf. Jn 4:14), who truly satisfies our deepest thirst and leads us to the Father. From this observation Augustine concludes that God sharing himself with us as gift is the Holy Spirit (cf. De Trinitate, 15, 18, 32). Friends, again we catch a glimpse of the Trinity at work: the Holy Spirit is God eternally giving himself; like a never-ending spring he pours forth nothing less than himself. In view of this ceaseless gift, we come to see the limitations of all that perishes, the folly of the consumerist mindset. We begin to understand why the quest for novelty leaves us unsatisfied and wanting. Are we not looking for an eternal gift? The spring that will never run dry? With the Samaritan woman, let us exclaim: give me this water that I may thirst no more! (cf. Jn 4:15).
Dear young people, we have seen that it is the Holy Spirit who brings about the wonderful communion of believers in Jesus Christ. True to his nature as giver and gift alike, he is even now working through you. Inspired by the insights of Saint Augustine: let unifying love be your measure; abiding love your challenge; self-giving love your mission!
Tomorrow, that same gift of the Spirit will be solemnly conferred upon our confirmation candidates. I shall pray: "give them the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of right judgement and courage, the spirit of knowledge and reverence … and fill them with the spirit of wonder and awe". These gifts of the Spirit – each of which, as Saint Francis de Sales reminds us, is a way to participate in the one love of God – are neither prizes nor rewards. They are freely given (cf. 1 Cor 12:11). And they require only one response on the part of the receiver: I accept! Here we sense something of the deep mystery of being Christian. What constitutes our faith is not primarily what we do but what we receive. After all, many generous people who are not Christian may well achieve far more than we do. Friends, do you accept being drawn into God’s Trinitarian life? Do you accept being drawn into his communion of love?
The Spirit’s gifts working within us give direction and definition to our witness. Directed to unity, the gifts of the Spirit bind us more closely to the whole Body of Christ (cf. Lumen Gentium, 11), equipping us better to build up the Church in order to serve the world (cf. Eph 4:13). They call us to active and joyful participation in the life of the Church: in parishes and ecclesial movements, in religious education classes, in university chaplaincies and other catholic organizations. Yes, the Church must grow in unity, must be strengthened in holiness, must be rejuvenated, must be constantly renewed (cf. Lumen Gentium, 4). But according to whose standard? The Holy Spirit’s! Turn to him, dear young people, and you will find the true meaning of renewal.
Tonight, gathered under the beauty of the night sky, our hearts and minds are filled with gratitude to God for the great gift of our Trinitarian faith. We recall our parents and grandparents who walked alongside us when we, as children, were taking our first steps in our pilgrim journey of faith. Now many years later, you have gathered as young adults with the Successor of Peter. I am filled with deep joy to be with you. Let us invoke the Holy Spirit: he is the artisan of God’s works (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 741). Let his gifts shape you! Just as the Church travels the same journey with all humanity, so too you are called to exercise the Spirit’s gifts amidst the ups and downs of your daily life. Let your faith mature through your studies, work, sport, music and art. Let it be sustained by prayer and nurtured by the sacraments, and thus be a source of inspiration and help to those around you. In the end, life is not about accumulation. It is much more than success. To be truly alive is to be transformed from within, open to the energy of God’s love. In accepting the power of the Holy Spirit you too can transform your families, communities and nations. Set free the gifts! Let wisdom, courage, awe and reverence be the marks of greatness!

Papal Mass

Blessings to everyone!!!

We have all returned safely from the Vigil and the Holy Mass with the Holy Father. Some of the youth commented that the Vigil and Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament with the Holy Father was the highlight of the entire trip. And why not....It's all about Jesus and He is really there in the Holy Eucharist. Adoring Jesus with Jesus' Vicar; how cool is that?

The temperature got quite cold out during the evening, but the Holy Spirit gave the youth (and the chaperons) the strenght to make it through....I hope they offered their sufferings for our Parish family. Deacon Scott, Fr. Lovell and I left for the Mass at 4 am and walked the entire 4miles. It payed off as we got front roll seats. Even more, Deacon Scott was called to the front and got to sit with the bishops. He was all smiles and even made the giant screens. Did anyone see him on TV?

Our Holy FAther was awesome. I am sure the youth have been changed forever. The HOly Spirit is going to do great things for them. Remember that this WYD was for the entire Church. Everyone back home has been effected by this great event. Let us open our hearts to receive the POWER of the HOLY SPIRIT. He wants to do great things with us in order to bring Christ and His LOVE to all around us. Tomorrow we tour the Blue Mountains and Tuesday a tour of the city. But nothing will compare with the time we spent with Our beloved Holy FAther and with Him the FATHER, SON and HOLY SPIRIT. What about MADRID????? I for one can't wait.

Friday update

Hey everyone!
I only have time for a quick update. Yesterday (Thursday) we were able to see the Holy Father drive by us in the pope mobile. We were really close and have video to prove it. Later that night a couple of us were walking back to the hotel and saw the pope mobile drive by again only without the pope...it was still exciting though. Tomorrow (Saturday) we will attend Mass celebrated by Cardinal George. So much to tell about all we have experienced. The youth have been awesome. I am so very proud of them. They are giving a great witness. The bishop at this mornings Mass commented on them by saying: "those youth (our youth) in the front pew were exemplary!" He was impressed by their piety, their reverence and their attentiveness at the Holy Mass. Hope to have more pictures posted soon. We are praying for all of you. Prayed for you today both at Holy Mass and at a Holy Hour which we attend with the Sisters of the Missionaries of Charity (Mother Theresa's order) It was awesome....God bless.
Fr. Lange

WYD has begun!

G'day all! WYD has officially begun in Sydney. I've stopped trying to figure out the time difference between myself and Illinois, but the time here is 6:12 p.m. on Wednesday, July 16. We arrived safely in Sydney yesterday evening and just got settled in our hotel. Unfortunately we weren't able to see or attend the Opening Mass with Cardinal Pell, but hopefully you all saw it on EWTN. I only caught a glimpse of the opening part last evening.

Today we officially began our catechesis sessions, which occur every morning and are basically teachings by a bishop. I can't remember the name of today's, but he says he's the youngest bishop in the Phillipines, so you can use that to look him up. We also went to a very good talk by Jason Everts later in the day and stopped in at the Vocations Expo. There's a lot of big movements in the Church there. You can all tell Fr. Dietz the OMI's were there.

Tomorrow the pope officially arrives in Sydney and we'll be attending the welcoming ceremony along the harbor. Hopefully we'll have a good view. As for the rest of the stuff that will occur tomorrow, who knows. We'll try and keep you updated, but we may have difficulties over the next few days. A quick rundown is as follows:
1. Mass with Cardinal George- unknown time
2. Stations of the Cross- Friday
3. Vigil with the Holy Father- Saturday
4. Closing Mass- Sunday

Check EWTN for coverage of the events and continue to pray for us. We're praying for all of you.

God bless,
Jonathan Inman

How come my cell phone wouldn't work?

I need to call the parish.

A beautiful Auckland New Zealand Skyline

Don't worry mom and dad we're on top of a volcano but it's suppose to be inactive.

Hot mud bath anyone?

The three photo hams.

What a great cruise on the beautiful Auckland habor. We could get used to this.

Hey this boat goes really fast....am I getting sea sick????? Help mom!!!

Another pictue of the Auckland habor. Wish you all were here.

Kihora from New Zealand!

Hello to all family, friends, benefactors, and everyone else! We are currently in the fifth day of our awesome pilgrimage to World Youth Day. I won't write about every detail, but try to give an idea of our flights and some of what we've done.
Amazingly, the flight here was not as gruesome as it was long. The airplanes were pretty sweet-- a 767 to L.A. and 777 to N.Z.-- far from the average aircraft we use to fly commonly around the states. Our hotel is certainly unique, but nice in its own way. The diocesan cathedral, St. Patrick's, is about a block from our hotel. We have had Holy Mass each day, and our good Fathers, Fr. Lange and Fr. Lovell, as well as our good Deacon, Scott DuVall have made the Liturgy extremely beautiful.
This Pilgrimage has proven to be trying at times, but thus far it has not been unbearable. We encountered hardships with weather, schedules, and jetlag. However, we must constantly remind ourselves that this is a Pilgrimage, not a vacation, and its chief purpose is not to see the Pope, New Zealand or Australia, but rather to come closer to Christ.
I will end now. This post is rather short, but I wanted to say Kia Ora (which means "Hi" or "Good Morning" in the Mauri Language) to everyone. May God Bless everyone and know you all are in our constant prayers.

Sincerely,
Anthony Pontarelli

On our way

Waiting at the airport for

our 17hrs of flying time...yikes

.

Finally, Auckland New Zealand; but what's

up with the weather?

AAAAAHHHHH!!!! Their all driving on the wrong

side of the street.....

Visiting a living thermal village of the

Maori People

Our little Catholic Chapel where we offered the Holy Sacrifice

of the Mass in candle light (just like the early Christians!)

Deacon Scott and Fr. Lovell having their cassocks pressed by the stream

while still wearing them.

Jonathan Inman's Post

Hello everyone! I'm enjoying my time in New Zealand, despite the harsh weather and what the New Zealander's describe as a harsh winter. First off, their idea of a harsh winter has them out on the beach in shorts and t-shirts. However, the water's too cold to swim in. Boo hoo.

It's been a privilege to serve the Masses for Fr. Lange and Fr. Lovell. Some have been rather interesting, like the one in the dark. Nevertheless, serving Mass is a great privilege as always. Their cathedral is also a beautiful church, with some of the best stained glass windows I've ever seen. I'm looking forward to observing it some more on the free day tomorrow.

I also feel it necessary to compliment New Zealand's hotel showers. They have very good water pressure. An oddity for hotels.

God bless,
Jonathan

Fr Lange's Post

Greetings from the land down under (New Zealand). So far the trip has been great, even if the weather hasn't. Today however was just beautiful. You all would be so proud of our youth. They are giving such a great witness of faith to everyone. I assure you they are praying for the entire parish and especially for all of you who made this trip possible. Know that I too am praying for you. Today we visited the Auckland Museum. Tomorrow is a free day, but Mass and prayer (including adoration of the Blessed Sacrament) will still be the main events of the day. I am writing this message Sunday at 9:00pm New Zealand time, which is 3:45am on Sunday your time. Two more days and we will leave for Australia. Pope Benedict arrived in Australia today. God bless you all. Hope to have some pictures and video for you soon. Don't forget to watch EWTN for WYD coverage.
Fr Lange

The First Three Days

Hi everyone! We're having a great time in Auckland, New Zealand for the past three days. The weather was not our friend the first two days due to rain, but today was gorgeous. We're in the middle of their winter, which consists of people in t-shirts and shorts at the beach.

When we arrived on Friday, New Zealand time, we were accquainted with the city of Auckland and went to the top of Mount Eden, which is one of New Zealand's many dormant volcanoes, which have developed into beautiful parks. The view from the top was absolutely breathtaking, although the high winds made it rather cool.

We then checked in at our hotel and settled down before dinner, which was at the Mercure Restaurant/Hotel. The service and food was excellent and was more than you'd expect for a tour.

On Saturday, we went to the glow worm caves, and were cut out of most of our tour of them due to the inclement weather. However, we still saw the beauty of the cave and a few glow worms. Mass was also planned to be celebrated there, but the fast flooding made it impossible.

We then went over to a Maori native village, where we were accquainted with a different lifestyle. They use steam, from their thermal springs, for many of their basic needs, such as cooking and power. They were very generous to let us use their Catholic Chapel to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which we did with only two candles and a flashlight. Afterwords, one of the elders of the village explained how excited she was to see such a beautiful liturgy celebrated. She had made the arrangements for us to celebrate the Mass. She was constantly thanking us for doing this and was happy to hear the Latin that she heard many years ago in Australia.

Today, we went to a museum with very interesting historical artifacts of New Zealand history. We then went on a boat cruise to see Auckland's magnificent shoreline.

We must take this time to thank St. Patrick's Cathedral for their generosity as well in allowing us to celebrate Mass there on our other days in New Zealand. The rector has been very hospitable to us.

Monday is our free day before we leave on Tuesday, for Sydney and Pope Benedict XVI.

Right now the youth are out playing soccer. Messages from them will be posted soon.

Thank you all for making this possible for us and we will keep you in our prayers.

God bless you all.