Football!
Make Poverty History - Caritas Australia aid display at the old Customs House Circular Quay
The Stations of the Cross on screen. with prayer, commentary and music. The live enactment was witnessed in silence as it took place over a number of stages in the precinct.
The Choir of St Nichola's church, Melbourne were exponents of Ukranian Catholic music and Great Vespers with a Russian flavour was heard.

Days in the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle, Blackbutt Region, were drawing to a close with a farewell liturgy followed by dinner and multicultural entertainment. National anthems were launced into, mainly by Spanish or Portugese songsters and we could join in clapping to the beat.
Delicious food was served and the volunteer elders had prepared an ambitious and successful menu. The crowd moved to the hall nextdoor, on the St Pius X campus, for the concert and the moment of departure, for next day, the visitors were leaving for WYD in Sydney.

The beginning liturgy was the newish Stations of the Resurrection - Via Lucis (Way of Light).
These takeover where the Stations of the Cross end. I read, (in Wikipedia), that the Via Lucis are centered on the Resurrection and the events following from it so as to emphasise the positive, hopeful aspect of the Christian Story which, though not absent from the Stations of the Cross, are obscured by their emphasis upon suffering.
Via Lucis, which is commended by the Vatican, is a potential stimulus for a 'culture of life' which is open to the hope offered by faith in a society sometimes characterized by a 'culture of death', despair and nihilism.
So, what does Mel Gibson - director of The Passion - think about that? I believe the movie is very gruesome and is the type of thing that the above insights have in mind.


























A gallant little national dance, almost unnoticeable in the crowd, was a highlight for me.

The famous landmark Opera House will be an extraordinary backdrop for the Stations of the Cross during World Youth Day leadup. A re-enactment will take place outside the Opera House and at other city venues on Friday 18 July in the late afternoon.

XIV Jesus is removed from the cross (Pieta) from the Stations of the Cross.
From the chapel at Lochinvar in the Hunter valley.

During World Youth Day week a dramatised presentation of the Stations of the Cross will be played out in the Sydney precincts. The Stations of the Cross are on the side walls of this chapel and, although indistinct, five of the pictures are seen in the photo.
In our churches it is usual to have seating and this convent chapel is an exception with traditional pews for the sisters. The chapel was open so that visitors could see and pray in this charming little sacred space (in Singleton in the Hunter valley).