Our journey began in June 2007, when the World Youth Day Cross and Icon arrived in Wellington. That night at the Sacred Heart Cathedral people gathered to acknowledge a global symbol of youth’s faith and hope in God. The Cross and Icon united people of all ages and opened the door to World Youth Day 2008.
Our group—Wellington East Pastoral Area WYD group—has a great team of leaders who happily welcomed us all to share the journey together. The group ranges from families to college and university students.
Fundraising has been an important common goal for us as we run sausage sizzles, movie nights and clean up the Westpac Trust Stadium together.
As well, regular meetings have brought us closer together. When we first joined as pilgrims, we all had many individual goals; now, we have one goal as a group—to reach Sydney and witness Christ together. At first it was hard to imagine that we would all be part of a such a powerful event but as July draws closer, reality is sinking in.
World Youth Day 2008—just the beginning of the journey.
Anastasia and Therese are students at St Mary’s College and members of Wellington East Pastoral Area WYD Group