Happy Easter! I hope everyone had a joyful and blessed Easter—mine was certainly one I won’t forget. It’s been a couple weeks since my last post, so here I go in trying to fill you in. One of the highlights would definitely be our Supe Visit: our two NET supervisors came to stay with us for a few days to see how our team has been going with everything and to give us some guidance and encouragement for going ahead (we got to know them over training and every few months they visit all their teams to check in). We decided to start off the Supe visit by welcoming our supervisors in an unforgettable way: by scaring the pants off them. We thought about doing something nice with balloons and banners, and this somehow turned into a haunted house. So we spent a day decking out the house with creepy clues and messages, strobe lights, a massive ghost, a jumping zombie, and blasting haunted music. Well, it turned out certainly to be unforgettable, and they were definitely scared—good thing they took it all in good fun! The rest of their stay was much less scary, but definitely enjoyable. I am really appreciative of the team we have here and all that we’ve been able to build together with the fun and jokes we have, as well as the prayer life and ministry work.
After the Supe visit, we began to prepare for Easter. Our team was in charge of the Stations of the Cross at the parish here in Goulburn, so we got to work on that with the youth group. We acted out a Passion play along the traditional Stations, and it went really well: I narrated and everyone else either sang or acted. It was a moving experience to be a part of certainly. Aside from the Stations, we spent Holy Thursday and Good Friday in Goulburn, and we travelled for the rest of it. Holy Saturday was spent at an event called Light to the Nations, a huge youth/family rally that takes place over four days to celebrate the entire Easter Triduum. We spent one day there, and it was cool to see so many people gathered together for Easter—cold, pouring rain and all. The Easter Vigil Mass at the end of the day was certainly something, with about 1000 people there under a giant tent.
After spending the day at Light to the Nations, we headed to Sydney with the Sydney NET team to spend Easter with them. It was great meeting up with the six NETters we had come to know during training, and of course I was also excited for my first trip to Sydney! We went to Mass on Easter morning in Sydney and then had a giant Easter brunch followed by an Easter egg hunt. Having that friendly, almost family, atmosphere was a perfect way to spend Easter so far from home. Although I did still have a home connection for Easter: getting up at 5am the day after Easter, I Facetimed into Easter dinner and spent some time with my family, talking to my great aunts over video for the first time and even getting in on a family photo. A great combination of celebrations for Easter!
That day after Easter was also our excursion into Sydney, a day I’ve been waiting for since I first came to Australia four years ago. I felt like a brand new tourist driving into Sydney and seeing the Harbor Bridge and Opera House for the first time. We started the trip at St. Mary’s Cathedral, the biggest (and possibly most beautiful) church in Australia. Then we headed down to Sydney Harbor, and it felt surreal to see the Bridge and Opera House that are such icons around the world. Seeing Sydney for the first time did not disappoint: it is huge and impressive, almost like a mix between London and New York (but much cleaner than New York). Heading back from the big city to our small country town of Goulburn was a bit of a relief, but I will certainly be planning a trip back to Sydney sometime.
It was interesting to be spending my first Easter away from home and in such unfamiliar circumstances, but it was a really great Easter. Away from everything familiar, I could enter into the deep meaning of Easter in a new way (even though I really missed hearing our parish choir—still nothing compares to them!). These past few months have brought me to a deeper understanding of Jesus’s presence in my everyday life, and having that closer relationship with Him draws me in a new way into His dying and rising on Good Friday and Easter. It was a very joyful Easter for me, and I hope to keep that joy going throughout the Easter season and the rest of this year. A lot of the challenges of these past weeks and months have involved different measures of sacrifice and learning to carry my crosses with Christ, to die to self in a way and offer it up to Him. This has been heightened by the fact that since we’ve been here on team, it has been Lent. Now, however, it’s Easter, and all of this takes on a new light. The sacrifice will still be there, but I want to focus less on the dying to self and more on the rising with Christ, on the new life that sacrifice brings. The challenge of Lent is sacrifice, but I see the more important challenge of Easter as joy. That is the challenge I am taking up in my ministry work and everyday life, to be joyful and by that joy to draw others to Jesus risen from the dead. His rising is reason enough to be joyful, but when combined with all of the other things we have to be joyful about, the power of that joy cannot be beaten.
Two days after Easter, I hope to keep the spirit of Easter alive. It helps that Easter candy is now half-price—a giant Cadbury bunny on the shelf above my bed is sure to keep the spirit alive (every bit helps!). Almost all the chocolate here is Cadbury, and it’s delicious—although I also have a bag of Hershey eggs that my family sent me, which I will be sure to cherish… Anyways, I hope you all continue to have a joyful Easter season, to keep the spirit of joy alive and to remember Christ risen in your life. (And if half-price Easter candy helps you to remember joy, stock up on it!)
After the Supe visit, we began to prepare for Easter. Our team was in charge of the Stations of the Cross at the parish here in Goulburn, so we got to work on that with the youth group. We acted out a Passion play along the traditional Stations, and it went really well: I narrated and everyone else either sang or acted. It was a moving experience to be a part of certainly. Aside from the Stations, we spent Holy Thursday and Good Friday in Goulburn, and we travelled for the rest of it. Holy Saturday was spent at an event called Light to the Nations, a huge youth/family rally that takes place over four days to celebrate the entire Easter Triduum. We spent one day there, and it was cool to see so many people gathered together for Easter—cold, pouring rain and all. The Easter Vigil Mass at the end of the day was certainly something, with about 1000 people there under a giant tent.
After spending the day at Light to the Nations, we headed to Sydney with the Sydney NET team to spend Easter with them. It was great meeting up with the six NETters we had come to know during training, and of course I was also excited for my first trip to Sydney! We went to Mass on Easter morning in Sydney and then had a giant Easter brunch followed by an Easter egg hunt. Having that friendly, almost family, atmosphere was a perfect way to spend Easter so far from home. Although I did still have a home connection for Easter: getting up at 5am the day after Easter, I Facetimed into Easter dinner and spent some time with my family, talking to my great aunts over video for the first time and even getting in on a family photo. A great combination of celebrations for Easter!
That day after Easter was also our excursion into Sydney, a day I’ve been waiting for since I first came to Australia four years ago. I felt like a brand new tourist driving into Sydney and seeing the Harbor Bridge and Opera House for the first time. We started the trip at St. Mary’s Cathedral, the biggest (and possibly most beautiful) church in Australia. Then we headed down to Sydney Harbor, and it felt surreal to see the Bridge and Opera House that are such icons around the world. Seeing Sydney for the first time did not disappoint: it is huge and impressive, almost like a mix between London and New York (but much cleaner than New York). Heading back from the big city to our small country town of Goulburn was a bit of a relief, but I will certainly be planning a trip back to Sydney sometime.
It was interesting to be spending my first Easter away from home and in such unfamiliar circumstances, but it was a really great Easter. Away from everything familiar, I could enter into the deep meaning of Easter in a new way (even though I really missed hearing our parish choir—still nothing compares to them!). These past few months have brought me to a deeper understanding of Jesus’s presence in my everyday life, and having that closer relationship with Him draws me in a new way into His dying and rising on Good Friday and Easter. It was a very joyful Easter for me, and I hope to keep that joy going throughout the Easter season and the rest of this year. A lot of the challenges of these past weeks and months have involved different measures of sacrifice and learning to carry my crosses with Christ, to die to self in a way and offer it up to Him. This has been heightened by the fact that since we’ve been here on team, it has been Lent. Now, however, it’s Easter, and all of this takes on a new light. The sacrifice will still be there, but I want to focus less on the dying to self and more on the rising with Christ, on the new life that sacrifice brings. The challenge of Lent is sacrifice, but I see the more important challenge of Easter as joy. That is the challenge I am taking up in my ministry work and everyday life, to be joyful and by that joy to draw others to Jesus risen from the dead. His rising is reason enough to be joyful, but when combined with all of the other things we have to be joyful about, the power of that joy cannot be beaten.
Two days after Easter, I hope to keep the spirit of Easter alive. It helps that Easter candy is now half-price—a giant Cadbury bunny on the shelf above my bed is sure to keep the spirit alive (every bit helps!). Almost all the chocolate here is Cadbury, and it’s delicious—although I also have a bag of Hershey eggs that my family sent me, which I will be sure to cherish… Anyways, I hope you all continue to have a joyful Easter season, to keep the spirit of joy alive and to remember Christ risen in your life. (And if half-price Easter candy helps you to remember joy, stock up on it!)