Love and Life Site

Sydney is amazingly beautiful, a harbor city filled with tropical vegetation, exotic birds and people who obviously love living life to the full. After touching down on Sunday morning we all headed over to Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral and then took ourselves on a walking tour of some of the sites for WYD - Hyde Park where the Sacrament of Reconciliation will be available, the famous Opera House that will be transformed into a massive Eucharistic Adoration Chapel, and then we picked up the pace to catch our ferry to the Sydney HS boathouse that has become our local convent for the month. It's not easy moving a group of 47 Sisters of Life through a crowded harbor teaming with people that have never seen anything like us outside the Sound of Music, so we missed our ferry. One hour until the next boat...what to do? Sr. Mary Concepta cracked out her violin and the Sisters serenaded those on the dock with Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desire." (That is, those who can sing, which means I was in the audience.) The beauty of the music drew people in and the non-singing Sisters struck up conversations with the locals. I sat there and watched faces filled with apprehension about WYD, the crowds it would bring and how it would effect their daily commute lighten and brighten up. They may have to wait a bit for the bus, but if a live performance of Bach breaks out, maybe it won't be so bad. We invited them to come up for a coffee and biscuit (aka cookie) at the Love and Life Site next week.

Sorry, gotta run to catch the ferry now. No internet at the boathouse!
Sr. Mary Elizabeth, SV