Gathering with 6000 pilgrims was just the beginning, Melbourne Archbishop Peter A Comensoli told a crowd of young people on Saturday, as they gathered for an Australian Catholic Youth Festival reunion. Source: Melbourne Catholic.
“Jesus accompanies us all the time,” Archbishop Comensoli told the pilgrims. “He accompanied you during ACYF in a more intense way, but it’s happening now. It happened yesterday. It will happen tomorrow.”
It’s been three months since Australia’s biggest Catholic youth gathering was held in Melbourne. Saturday’s gathering was an opportunity for the young people to unpack their experience and begin discerning how to carry forward their faith at home.
Pilgrims from parishes, migrant communities and movements from around the Archdiocese reflected on the day’s theme, “Were not our hearts burning within us?”, drawn from the story in the Gospel of Luke, where two disciples encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus and recognised him in the breaking of bread.
Like the conversation among those disciples, the first part of the reunion focused on pilgrims exploring how they have recognised God in their ACYF experience.
For Annie, who attended with her group from St Brigid’s Parish in Fitzroy North, it was seeing “so many people getting back into the faith” at ACYF, knowing that God “will never get enough of us”.
Several key presenters from ACYF returned to lead sessions and share their own reflections.
ACYF MC Zahra Hanratty spoke about encountering God amid the busyness of the festival, while Australian Catholic musicians Louisa Daniels and Kyle Correya led praise and worship, performing many of the songs they had sung in front of thousands of Australia’s young people.
Archbishop Comensoli led Eucharistic Adoration, with several priests offering opportunities for pilgrims to participate in the sacrament of Reconciliation.
Discipleship specialists from Melbourne Archdiocese’s Proclaim led a lectio divina, inviting pilgrims to look ahead and to commit to actions that will help them stay close to Jesus and walk with hearts burning for others.
The young people shared their commitments, which included attending at least one daily Mass a week, reading Scripture more, spending more time in Adoration and taking up the sacrament of Reconciliation.
Before parting ways, the Archbishop reminded the young people that theirs was not a path to be walked alone. ‘You don’t do the journey of Jesus just by yourself. You get to do it with others … to form a community,’ he told them.
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With hearts burning, ACYF pilgrims reunite in Melbourne (Melbourne Catholic)
