as most of you now last sunday was world youth day for the worlds catholic youth but the it seems to be a week long with different events on finishing with high mass with the pope.

well wyd08 was in sydney australia ,and last sunday the last day . well at our local church we had ususal morning mass but with a neighbouring parish priest being in syd ,and another 2 parishes up the valley being without a priest at the moment and our priest being theirs as well ,we had mass in the community centre to cater for the other parishes ,mind you there didnt seem to be that many there . so they could just of gone to a couple of other churches churches down the line .

after mass we had morning tea on the go ,with the tv on the wyd 08 final mass at randwick racecourse and the video on as well with the other goings on / events that had happened previous to the prilgrims going to syd . mind you not many people stayed surprise ,surprise .but it was good to catch up with people i knew from the other parishes who were there .

these days it does seem interesting that as the priests are getting older and they should be retiring , but most of them seem to like their small inner suburban parishes . althou there are a few in the seminary at the moment they wont be out for a while and so there are parishes without priests atm and so like our pp he has to cover the other 2 neighbouring parishes which is or can be very stressful for him .

with the wyd08 events being televised on sbs it was interesting to watch ,but what got me was my emotion watching it. is it age or whatever that the tears just seem to come , i dont know .

hello , of all the things that have been going on lately .we know the cities are alive and well. and the country side for that matter as well.

during the semester break from tafe ,i was thinking of going bush for a week . actually i thought because it was winter and melbourne getting cold ,i could go for a week to the gold coast ,so i was pricing fares etc , tours and checking out the youth hostels in southport websites for availability etc where i have stayed before.

and at the same time thinking maybe would i be brave enough to go to sydney for the world youth day weekend . because really sydney is one place i would rather stay out of at the best of times = you know with narrow streets , more hilly than melbourne ,more population wtc.

then the boyfriend tells me his church has still got tickets for the hillsong church conference ,i thought oh yeah ok ,well it might be in sydney but here was an opportunity to learn more about other churches get to gethers = well we can all learn from each other .

my boyfriends church wantirna christian community church which is part of the reformed church ,have been going to hillsong for years . so here the cost was a bit but with the church hiring buses for the trip up and to use around sydney , breakfast paid for and accomodation sort out -they were staying at a an anglican girls boarding school at north parramatta . also i thought was an opportunity to socialisle with the b/f friends .

so i let the family know what i was up to ,and got back differening opinions on all that . so the busses left the wantirna / knoxfield area on fri nite at 11pm and drove thru the nite stopping at a few places along the way getting into sydney about 10am . eventually finding the school ,settling in and finding our rooms and having an afternoon sleep etc.

on the monday morning we went to syd city and walked around circular quay and the opera house etc then eventually made our way to acer arena ,where hillsong was happening . acer arena is in the area of where the olypmic games were held .i heard some of hillsong songs /music on tv etc ,talk about alot of people around ,it appeared to me as the week went on this conference was allmost as big as wyd08 - people from all countries of the world .

but yeas it was good , to hear such talkers such as joyce meyers ,tim costelloe , paul de jong - a kiwi - brought on the harka - so funny you had to be there to see it . there were others cant think of their names at the moment , but good to listen to to .

each morning they had prayer and worship , all this clap happy business i dont mind but when they seem to make it into a rock concert with lights flashing etc and so much noise. but we all pray in different ways so if it helps people pray so be it . mind you it was interesting that they had a kids session and a teenagers sessions as well . but was interesting meeting people from all around the world ie brazil,us,nz,africa,etc.and from all churches as well , so maybe i wasnt the only catholic with weeks mixed up .

so fri before we left the school we had to have all our lauguage on board as well , so we left sydney about 8pm and drove back to melb over nite stopping at various spots along the way for a drink,bite etc and got bac to knoxfield at 7am sat morn .

so to me was interesting week ,and was worth it . the things u learn .the things that happen along the way . some journey will tell u more later .