After all the frentic running around, World Youth Day has come to a close. I am tired, but feeling fulfilled and God has shown His presence in so many ways. For example, while the weather forecast predicted rain the entire week of World Youth Day, it only rained after the final Mass was celebrated by the pope.

I come away from World Youth Day with two revelations: the first, while we were pilgrims seeking for an answer, or a sign, it might not necessary be us who will receive an answer. We might be the ones providing an answer and this was very true at the CASS retreat before World Youth Day, where the presence of the Singaporeans (the CSS people) provided a bridge of translation between the Taiwanese and Australian contingents. Fr. Val also said something that hit me - we go around seeking signs, and we forget that God has already shown himself to us and is present, waiting for us in the Eucharist.

The second revelation I had, came when I was looking around and walking around at the place for the final Mass, where thousands of pilgrims from hundreds of countries had come together for an overnight virgil to await the Final Mass at Randwick. We were all cold and sprawled all over the place in our sleeping bags. Initially, the first thought that hit me was "why in the world were we doing this to ourselves?" then it hit me that this was a JESUS experience. What we were doing, braving the cold, sleeping in the open, eating nothing but tim tams and tuna, yet coming together to pray, was exactly what Jesus and his disciples were doing 2000 + years ago as they preached and went from town to town. "The Son of Man has no place to rest his head.." We were given a glimpse into the Eternal Now of God, where the Church of the past, conflated with the Church of the present and we became literally one Universal Church that was in communion with the Saints already in heaven.

Of course there were so many other God experiences- the halo around the moon, the circular rainbow around the sun the next day, the God moment I had during Eucharistic adoration at the CASS retreat, the moment when the Pope was standing in the middle of the stage at the exact moment when the sun was rising and the moon setting and they formed a straight line across each other... I thank God for all the experiences we bring away with and for all the prayer warriors who were constantly keeping us in their prayers. Thank you and Praise Be to God!