Tales of My Final Week

As I sit here writing this tonight, my suitcases are open on the floor in the front left room of 23 Thompson Street, Drummoyne, New South Wales, and I will be leaving for the airport in just a little over twelve hours. Isn't that strange? This trip was so many months in the making that it is strange to think that it finally came at all, let alone come to an end. Still, the journey is not over. I know that on my plane ride tomorrow (an adventure in itself) I will have a chance to sit back and reflect even more than I already have on the experiences I have had in Sydney and try to put together a coherent, cohesive account of what I have done and experienced for myself and others. Even once that is done, I don't think that I will fully understand the impact of this six week adventure of mine to Oz. When I was visiting the CYS team in Flemington last Saturday, Box told me that he finds all the time that he is only now starting to understand the significance of/how God was working in the experiences he had during his first year with CYS five years ago. I would not be surprised if it is the same for me.

On Monday, we spent the morning preparing for our evangelization stall and then going to said evangelization stall. Before the stall, I helped Winey, who is in charge of Sydney Young Vinnies (St. Vincent de Paul Society) advertise for the annual winter sleep out, which was on Thursday night. It was so amazing to see her in action. She has lots of volunteers and coordinates them with skill and grace to get the word out. Last year, the sleepout won the award for best major event from the Sydney Union (the association of all the clubs). The coolest thing about her advertising was that she made posters out of old cardboard boxes. They were real eye-catchers, and they are a bit harder to cover up with other posters, which is a huge part of the publicity battle at USyd. Its rather like a battleground out there, especially since the uni has NO restrictions about how much you put up posters. Later, during the stall, we promoted the talk that one of the Capuchin friars would give on Wednesday (Poverty: Real Freedom), and had some interesting inter-religious dialogue. First of all, the EU (Evangelical Union - the protestant group on campus) is running a three week mission called "This is Life" and they have be publicizing like crazy. They have huge numbers and lots of money, so the whole campus is literally covered in their posters and chalking and members wearing This is Life apparel. Its almost impossible to publicize for other events because of the constant stream of postering from EU members. Some members came to talk to us while we were at our table, and it was unfortunately a rather awkward encounter because they didn't seem particularly interested in talking - they just wanted to give us some of their promotional material, which were very well done. We also talked to some women from the Islamic Students Association; they gave me a CD called "10 Reasons Jesus Cannot be God." I had a listen to it on Tuesday evening, and I cannot say that I was particularly impressed by arguments such as "Jesus needed to sleep and eat, but God is self-sufficient." Later, we had Mass as usual, and then Sister Maria Cecelia and I went to a new prayer group being put on by one of the students called UniWord, which basically consists of lectio divina and discussion. He brought dark chocolate Tim Tams (a delicious Australian sandwhich cookie that are great dipped in tea!) for the occasion, which I liked even better than the milk chocolate version! In the afternoon, I spent a bit of time working with Beth on designs for the promotional material for the chaplaincy's mission week later in the semester - Christ Week. She was feeling a bit down in the dumps because she had already gotten two sets of proofs from the graphic artist they use, and everyone felt like they just weren't right.

On Tuesday, we spent some more time in the morning working on the Christ Week designs, and Beth and I attempted to go to a bible study that we suspected had no participants, and, as it turned out, it didn't, so no studying of Luke occurred. Later, we had Mass as usual, which was followed by a Pancake Barbeque sponsored by the CSSP. I was chief pancake-maker for this event, and boy was it a lot of fun! I also got to see Will, the American exchange student that the sisters and I befriended a couple of weeks ago. We are glad that he keeps coming back - hopefully we can get him involved in some chaplaincy events because he does seem interested in learning a bit more about the faith. I was rewarded for my work with a delicious pancake covered in Nutella - so great! Afterward, I went to Sr. Maria Cecelia's bible study with her because she only has one regular student in that one, a boy named Sid, and she thought he would feel less awkward with someone else to work with, especially since he is full of questions. On the way back from bible study, sister and I had a good chat about the hidden merits of these bible studies. They are a great opportunity to sit down and study scripture in an up close, intentional way that doesn't necessarily come around very often in other places. They also provide a great place for Catholic students to learn about Catholicism. Sister said that there are two girls in her other bible study who are very articulate about their faith, so much so that she asked them where they learned so much. Their reply? Two years of bible studies at the Sydney Uni chaplaincy. What a wonderful thing to hear! I was thinking about this earlier today (Friday) when I got an e-mail from Sr. Mary Madeline, who has just arrived in Rome to start getting acclimated before she begins her studies at the Angelicum, and she remarked that "So much of the work of grace is hidden behind seemingly mundane tasks that mask genuine miracles." I think these bible studies are prime examples of exactly what she is talking about. When we got back to the chaplaincy, we took a group photo, which came out pretty delightfully.

In case you are wondering, we just happen to be staring at the beatific vision. From left to right, that's Sr. Maria Cecelia, OP, Beth McNamara, me, Sr. Mary Barbara, OP, Rita Azzi, Daniel Hill, and Fr. Dominic Murphy, OP (he saw the beatific vision first).

On Wednesday morning, I went for a long postering session to previously unknown parts of the campus to poster with Beth to promote Fr. Rob Stewart's talk later that afternoon. Again, we were amazed at the coverage achieved by the EU. I got to see the piece of land where the old chapel and Catholic college were, and where the new chaplaincy someday will be. It's in a great location and very central to the campus. I hope they are able to begin building soon because the new facility, which should include a chapel, offices, library, lounge, residential college, and coffee shop, would be a great resource for students in a very visible location. Later, there was Mass and Fr. Robert's talk, which was called Poverty: Real Freedom. It was very good, and probably quite fitting to be coming from a Franciscan. The thing that struck me most from his talk was this line, "In letting go, you are able to find God." Nearing the end of this fellowship, I understood what he meant. Although I have by no means been living in physical poverty while I am away, I have been living here in Australia without most of the comforts of home to which I am well-accustomed. In the absence of these things, I have found more time for reflection, prayer, and trusting in God, and have tasted a little bit of this sort of freedom. Wednesday afternoon brought even more Christ Week designs, finally making a bit of headway with designs for both UTS and USyd after another meeting with the graphic designer. In the evening, I went to my last Christology lecture where we learned about a few more heresies and began discussing Aquinas's Christology. The class finally started to talk more as people (like me!) tried to wrap their heads around various aspects of the person/nature distinctions in Christ and the mystery of the trinity. Unfortunately, our lecturer is not the best at definitively answering questions; I was yearning for more precise definitions of terms and perhaps some diagrams and more discussion, but it was not to be!

Thursday morning brought a proof of a new design for the UTS Christ Week material that was almost perfect, save for a poor choice on one of the graphics. I was able to suggest an alternate idea for a picture and contacted the designer about making the change. We also spent some time postering on both the UTS and USyd campuses. In the afternoon, we went down to UTS for Mass and a talk by Daniel about the myths about the crusades, which I thought was pretty well done and enjoyed very much. When we got back from UTS, we went out to San Churros Chocolateria for a little farewell gathering for me! It is basically a little restuarant that sells only things made of chocolate. I loved it and wished I had known about it sooner. I had a traditional hot chocolate (literally) and some churros with dark chocolate dipping sauce. They were great. One of the students who I rather like, Laurence, bought me this tiny heart shaped pastry from a local bakery and then proceeded to mock cry when I broke it to eat. They also gave me a little thank you/going away present, which included a stuffed wombat, my favorite Aussie animal! This was Beth's doing, of course. She is (as she would say) such a legend. It was a great afternoon.

This morning, I went out to breakfast with the Langrells and some priest friends of theirs who were visiting from the US. Later, I went into the chaplaincy, where I went out on a final postering mission with Beth. Cardinal Pell is coming to USyd next Tuesday for an open question and answer forum (I wish I wasn't going to miss it!), and we are making a big publicity push for it, so we've been doing a lot of extra postering. I made the poster for this one, so I was feeling particularly invested in the event as I put them up today, especially when I put them up over Green Party voting posters (basically Aussie communists) and other undesirable advertisements. Later we went to Mass at St. Benedict's because there is no Mass offered on campus on Fridays. It was nice to be able to say goodbye to Fr. Vincent and some friends at ND, as well as to end my stay in the delightful little church that has felt like home here. I spent the afternoon socializing with a number of the students and doing a few things around the JPII Center. Some of the boys (including Daniel) forced me to eat an Australian meat pie, because apparently they are a trademark of Australian culture and I had not had one. They went so far as to go down to the bakery, buy one, and instruct me on how to eat it. I can't say that I am terribly disappointed that I have not had Australian meat pies before today. They are basically small pies filled with meat (which may or may not be more than 70% beef) and gravy. It was one of those things that tasted okay while I was eating it, but I can still sort of feel sitting in my stomach as I write this...

Eventually, it was time for me to say goodbye to the JPII center for the last time and walk to the bus stop for the last time, and have the 501 bus be late for the last time. It had to happen eventually, and I was sad when it did, for I met a lot of wonderful people at the JPII Center during my time here. I know I am a much better person for it.

The last thing that I did before I left was wash the dishes, and I was glad, because I feel like I got so much more out of this experience than I could have ever given them.

So, I took one last bus ride over the Anzac and Iron Cove bridges to Drummoyne, took my customary walk from the bus stop, and have been spending the evening with the Langrells and packing. I'm just about done, I'll finish in the morning, and then I'll be on my way home.

It's been lovely to meet Australia, and now I am looking forward to a happy reunion with my good old friend, the United States of America.