GBR

Well, photos will have to be coming soon as I haven't uploaded pix yet, but after WYD six of us went North to Cairns to spend a few days diving the Barrier Reef: sea turtles and reef sharks make great swimming companions!  The Marist Brothers hosted us during our stay there, and their generosity was the final highlight on a pilgrimage of hospitality and friendship.

I'm at the Sydney airport today, and their are still many World Youth Day pilgrims making their way home--the 50 Dutch pilgrims in my line were a happy and talkative group, and the bright yellow and orange backpacks of the pilgrimage are in all directions.

Further Adventures!

World Youth Day 08!

Well, the school year came to an end successfully in mid-June, with none of my teachers feeling that they wanted to see me in class again, or at least the same course as a repeat.

The great World Youth Day expedition has begun, as San Francisco, Oakland, Reno, and our own Sacramento join forces to come of the far side of the world to join with the Holy Father!

As a limited time offer you can see a launch photo at Scotties Car Rental, where my New Zealand trekking group ranked as Customer of the Week, so click over there to catch our trip send off.

Our ten days in New Zealand were outstanding, and we'll send more photos soon when we can upload our photos--for the meantime, the hospitality of our many hosts is what ranks foremost: we experienced such generosity and openness from North to South on both islands of that beautiful country. We found great snow for boarding in Queenstown, and en route visited the cloistered Benedictines in Tyburn, the Community of the Beatitudes North of Christchurch, and the Carmelites in Christchurch itself--all beautiful experiences.

For updated World Youth Day coverage, where 51 of us are representing the Dioceses of Northern California, go to Catholic News Services blog, Katy Thomas' blog, and don't miss the Catholic News Agency's updates! For some photos of Yours Truly, click over to Carolyn's blog, where she updates fresh from her cell phone.

The Whole Process

All right: this post is long overdue (the events are from mid-June), but you can't miss this outstanding day

"Every man serves the good wine first," the Head Steward says to the bridegroom, "and when men have drunk freely, then the poor wine; but you have kept the good wine until now." A similar Cana Syndrome came over me on one of my last Sundays of the school year--after having been in Italy almost 12 months now, one of the highlights was definitely travelling to Orvieto for Corpus Christi.

Orvieto has been holding a special Mass and Eucharistic Procession for centuries since Pope Urban IV established the celebration of Corpus Christi. Ever since an astonishing Eucharistic miracle which took place in 1263, Orvieto has been a site for celebrating the gift of Jesus present with us in the Eucharist.

Here you see the heart of the procession:


































Some of its accompaniments:


























The rest of us:






























Including yours truly:



















This is from the beautiful interior of the church prior to the procession:















In this close-up of the fresco you can see the requisite dog--harassing the ill-located cat:


































Here's the opening of the procession . . . you can see the traditional garb of the participants in the background:





















And more of the march:
















A special thank you to Katy Thomas, who took all these photos . . . since I was busy processing. You can follow her World Youth Day Blog (happening now!) at Catholic Higher Ed.