What We Might be Doing...

They say the surest way to make God laugh is to tell Him your plans. Well, I am hoping that some of our plans might actually pan out. As we leave for the land down under, here is a glimpse ahead as to what we will (read: might) be up to in the days ahead!

Tuesday, July 8:
Flyin' on a jet plane! (...and a happy birthday to Tony!)

Wednesday, July 9:
Still on a jet plane, losing a day (no Tony, this doesn't mean you lose a year, sorry!)



Thursday, July 10:
Arriving at St. Benedict monastery and taking it easy!


Friday, July 11:
Beach Day! Heading to Bondi Beach and the Cronulla area to visit the Royal National Park.





Saturday, July 12:
Taronga Zoo and the Sydney Harbor area






Sunday, July 13:
Sydney Harbor National Park & Darling Harbor area (after Mass, of course!)





Monday, July 14:
Mary Mackillop Place and St. Mary's Cathedral.
Evening adoration in the presence of the relics of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati.




Tuesday, July 15:
Check in with our host families from St. Patrick Parish in Mortlake, NSW.
Opening Day Mass & Festival at the Barangaroo




Wednesday, July 16:
Catechesis & Youth Festival followed by AOD Mass



Thursday, July 17:
Catechesis & Papal arrival at the Barangaroo






Friday, July 18:
Catechesis & Stations of the Cross, followed by Youth Festival concerts. Performances include Hillsong, Darlene Zsesch, Matt Maher and others... I'm hoping "others" includes the Newsboys! They are Australian after all.... :)


Saturday, July 19:
World Youth Day Vigil at Randwick Racecourse



Sunday, July 20:
Mass with Pope Benedict XVI at Randwich Racecourse
Return to St. Benedict Monastery that evening.





Monday, July 21:
Back at St. Benedict Monastery.
Relax around Sydney, possible "Ghost Tour" at the Rocks




Tuesday, July 22:
Relax around Sydney, Andrea & Laura do the Bridge Climb!





Wednesday, July 23:
We're leavin' on a jet plane again...this time heading home.

Like I said, this is only a tentative itinerary - things can, and likely will change once we are there. But, we'll keep you up to date as much as we can! For now, we'll see you on the flip side... literally! ;)

Almost Ready to Go!

WOW! I can't believe 10 months have flown by already since I committed to going to World Youth Day with Genesis and now 24 hours from the time I post this we will be on a plane headed for Los Angeles on the first leg of our trip to the other side of the world!

To give you a background, I have already attended 2 previous international WYDs, in 2002 in Toronto while in High School and also 2005 in Cologne, Germany while in college. This time around I didn't have the luxury of having summer off from school due to full-time employment (a blessing in SE Michigan) so I had to jump through a few more hoops to make sure I could get the time off from work. Both previous pilgrimages were extremely helpful to my journey in the Catholic faith and already the pilgrimage of the heart during the past 10 months has brought me closer to faith and knowing God more personally. I know the next 16 days are going to help me grow again in leaps and bounds (like the kangaroos we will see!).

Anyways, after a relaxing weekend at home near Buffalo, NY I am now slightly sunburned and finishing up last-minute items at work. After work I'm going to head home, tuck a few last things into my backpack, clean the apartment, and get a good night's rest before our long journey tomorrow.

I can't wait to get off the ground & walk upside down on the other side of the world!

G'day to all of those who are travelling with us in spirit and reading the blog!

What's that? God RESTED?!?

First things first - hooray for someone blogging other than me! Since we are not yet offically on the pilgrimage, I haven't really bugged the rest of the group toooo much about leaving their thoughts on here. That will soon change. In fact, it will change in less than one week...so get ready pilgrims! ;-)

I, too, like Laura am heading out for the weekend. And like Laura, I too packed my bag, tried it on and paraded it around the house. Unlike her, though, I had an audience of one - me. :) What else have I been up to? Well, I've been spending the past few days making lists and checking them a lot more than twice!! So far, I've made some real progress:

Bags packed: Check (well, 95% of the way anyway!)!
Passport located: Check!
Currency exchange made: Check!
Global phone received: Check!
Tentative Itinerary developed: Check!
Prayer materials printed: 1/2
Pilgrim information cards: 0/9
And so it goes...

This is less to demonstrate how much work goes into planning a trip like this, and really more for my own purposes. If I don't write it down somewhere, there is a good chance I will forget it! And the way things are going lately, pieces of paper have been disappearing, so the virtual world will serve me well.

As I've said all along, we would very much appreciate and invite you to pray with us as we make this journey. Each pilgrim will be receiving a "Reflections on the Daily Word" prayer guide to help focus our days, and you can follow along at home! The guide can be found online at http://www.genesis-ministries.org/WYD08-dailyprayer.htm.

Well, it is off to bed, I suppose. Since we've been telling all the pilgrims to get plenty of rest, I suppose I should at some point follow suit. I'd hate to have to make a bad report at our last meeting tomorrow... Good night, and God bless!

Rakhi

P.S. - Our tentative itinerary will be posted here once everyone has had a chance to put their stamp of tentative approval on it tomorrow. So...check back later this week if you're curious as to where we might be going!

I think I have enough stuff

7 days from my time of composing this post we will already be on a plane from Chicago to LAX!

In an effort to best utilize all my time before departure I decided to pack today!  Not sure how much the bag weighs, but it is quite fun to fill up my backpack for the first time with real things (and not just the trial beanbag sacks at the sporting goods store), tighten, pull and otherwise adjust the straps and take a strut around to show off to my roommates and the camera.   

Now that I have that 'off my back', haha, I thought I would leave a quick note and pic. about the progress.  With that done I have just enough time to visit home to Rochester, NY this weekend:  when I return from Sydney, my fiance will have moved from Rochester, NY to Denver, CO.  I will also move to Denver in August.  So, now I am just praying for no major delays on the 6 hour drive so I can make it to take off on Tuesday!

Peace,

Laura  

Radical Hospitality

(photo by Theo Robinson, OSB)

"Radical Hospitality"...it's not just a book by Fr. Dan Homan, OSB, of our own St. Benedict Monastery in Oxford, MI - it is a key charism of the Benedictines. We are blessed to be recipients of this gracious hospitality throughout our stay in Sydney. To see where we'll be staying, you can visit the St. Benedict Monastery in Aracadia, New South Wales, Australia, online at http://www.benedictine.org.au/.

We opted for "simple accommodations," and though simple, our experience is sure to be anything but. A big, big thank you and heartfelt gratitude to all those at St. Benedict Monastery, both in Arcardia for their hospitality, and here in Oxford, for their continued support of ministry to young adults and sparing Fr. John Martin for two weeks so he could join us for this incredible journey.

T-Minus 13 Days!

Why yes, we are indeed leaving for Sydney in less than two weeks!! And yes, we are all a combination of excitement and trepidation. We have collectively put our faith in the Lord, however, and despite the nerves, are convicted in our belief that all will be better than well. If there was any doubt of that in my mind, that doubt was definitely erased as I saw a message from God driving past Bishop Foley high school this morning. On their message board that usually scrolls information, the following quote remained up there long enough for me to get the message loud and clear:

"There is no place that the will of God will lead you that the grace of God will not protect you."

We have no doubt that it is the will of God for us to go, so now we must just trust that the grace of God will protect us and provide for us the rest of the way.

Praying for & with our pilgrims...
As with any spiritual journey, the prayers of our brothers and sisters in Christ are always helpful and much appreciated. If you would like to "adopt" a specific pilgrim for prayer, please contact us at info@genesis-ministries.org and we will give you some more information about them. You can include them in personal prayer, in the prayer intentions of your community, and/or send them prayerful inspiration and support by email or written word. If you have a prayer intention you would like us to pray for during World Youth Day, please email those to the same email address as well.

The pilgrims traveling to Australia are:

Anna Dudek
Andrea Hooper
Jerry LaPointe
Christa Lindsey
Anthony Thompson
Sandra Tomaszycki
Laura Uschold
Rakhi Roy - Group Coordinator
Fr. John Martin Shimkus - Spiritual Director

Last, and perhaps less (but not least!) importantly, some of the pilgrims are still struggling with the cost of the trip. If you feel at all called to make a donation of any size to help these young people on this pilgrimage, please contact Genesis Ministries at info@genesis-ministries.org or mail your donation in to:

World Youth Day 2008
c/o Genesis Ministries
3665 E. Walton Blvd.
Auburn Hills, MI 48326


Much gratitude and God's blessings,
Rakhi

Losing Control

No no no...it's a good thing!! We often think of losing control as a lapse in judgment and unleashing of wild actions or emotions. When it comes to the Spirit, though, it is an essential component of intimacy and connection with God's immense power. You would think I'd have learned early on in this adventure to let go more often, but apparently, I'm an "old dog" and losing control is a "new trick"! (Take the metaphors for what they are - to those who know me, I have not created a new nickname or reference to myself that is appropriate for use in any form or fashion!! :P)

As we left off in the saga, the road had been paved ahead of us...well, for all of us but Tony, who was still awaiting the arrival of his Visa. Less than a month before the trip, we still had no word or inkling of when his Visa might arrive. Poor Tony asked me what would happen if we didn't get his Visa at all - would he just have to forfeit his money and not go? With all my determination and spunk, I said we'd call the US State Department before I'd let that happen! Never mind that I have no idea how to actually personally contact anyone at the US State Department, but I would make it happen!

Dreading the thought of trying to accomplish such a feat in a world of automated answering systems and layers of government red tape, I was frantically trying to reach anyone and everyone associated with World Youth Day to see if his Visa was just stuck somewhere along the pipelines. World Youth Day Committee - no response. Australian Immigration Office - no response. The US Bishops Office that is assisting with the US invovlement in WYD - helpful in that they would intervene should we not have the Visa, but no information on the Visa itself.

Having exhausted any and all possibilites minus the US State Department, it dawned on me at our formation meeting that perhaps we should just, once again, leave it up to the Lord and offer up our prayers. After all, He'd cleared every other obstacle, and knowing how hard the evil one fights when His glory is shining through, it was possible that this was out of my control.

So, on the evening of Monday, June 9, we offer it up for prayer at our meeting. Wouldn't you know that by Tuesday, June 10, they have sent it along? You would think I'd have learned...

"Wahooooo!!! I'm goin' to Australia after all!!"

Needless to say, Tony is thrilled, and we are all sighing with relief! Please keep us in your prayers as we get closer to takeoff - I have no doubt that darkness will continue to try to creep in, but with your prayers and the fire of the Spirit, I also have every hope that as always, the light of Christ and will of God will prevail!!