Lawrence Lam @ WYD2002

Friday July 26: Adoramus Te Christe

I woke up later than I wanted! I must've slept in and woke up at 7. I jumped out of bed and rushed out of the house. I listened to the news while on the bus and heard that 680 News was going to broadcast listener comments about World Youth Day but "due to the number of unwarranted attacks on the Pope" they decided not to broadcast them.

When I arrived at SMCS people were still sleeping and the lights were still out. A lot of us were generally grumpy, especially as I shone my flashlight in search of an umbrella since showers were predicted. I didn't mind the rain since I thought it might be appropriate for the Way of the Cross. This should also mean no rain on the weekend if it rains enough today.

This morning's Catechesis was run by Archbishop Dolan, the archbishop-elect of Milwaukee. He was introduced carrying a baby, sort of like the Madonna and Child. He used that to introduce his speech. His audiences are like babies, he joked, they either cry or go to sleep. He talked about God using a baby to reconcile His people with Him (the theme was "Be reconciled to God"). People just can't resist babies! He went on to talk about how we can reconcile ourselves with God and how God went about doing it on the Cross. God sent a baby to do that work. I wish Dan was there to hear the talk since he just reverted a couple of days ago. The talk was short lasting only 45 minutes.

Our discussion, using our wooden crosses, was about how we will bring our experiences to others after WYD. One member of our discussion group who Terry described as being eccentric, liked hearing himself talk while feigning humility. You can tell if someone's not being genuine. Anyways, he said something about the Fall of Man being unpreventable and I grilled him on it so that he would just shut up. That way we could continue with the discussion.

For mass they decided not to use the wireless microphone anymore. For the past two masses, the bishops had been interrupted by a weird signal. Archbishop Exner called it "the Holy Spirit telling me to shut up." So Archbishop Dolan looked sort of like a gospel preacher walking up and down the aisle with a wired microphone. The gospel was read by a reluctant concelebrating priest whose voice kept on cracking throughout the reading. I think we tried very hard not to laugh.

It started to rain the afternoon. Luckily the event I wanted to check out was indoors. It was a writers seminar, about how to get work published. The main speaker just went through Scripture and famous writers picking out quotes about writing. The only interesting highlight of the workshop was Neil McCarthy, who was the WYD coordinator for the archdiocese. He talked about his experience in Rome, how he had to stand on a garbage can in order to see the image of the Pope on screen and how it was an incredible experience.

After that workshop I went back to SMC for something I had very little of: rest. I just chilled on the Brennan Hall couches while waiting for the rest of my group to get back together. After all, Terry had our dinners, which were given to us with our lunches. Dinner was the tuna again. This was possibly a retaliation for an article in the National Post which said pilgrims hated the tuna and crackers the most.

Kenny came this evening to stay over with us since he was registered for the weekend. Many other weekenders came out tonight. We all went together for the Way of the Cross. We walked as one group with our banner to the 13th station at Museum Station and sat down there. Max and Mark Artymko joined us there as well. The Way of the Cross is a prayer service which recalls Jesus' last days leading up to his crucifixion and burial. It was dramatized in a procession which went from Nathan Philips Square up University Ave. to Bloor and Avenue road. The script for this version was written by the Pope himself. For most of the procession we just watched on a giant jumbotron.

The production was very well done. It even brought current-day elements into it. I just felt it was a little bit inappropriate for the camera to show people in the crowd waving and smiling at the camera when the Way of the Cross was supposed to be a solemn and serious event. We also heard that there were pro-abortion protesters at the Eight Station: Jesus Consoles the Weeping Women. Thankfully they did not disrupt the event. At times I thought I heard some banging but it just turned out to be the subway underneath. At one point the screens showed the Pope at his Strawberry Island cottage watching the Way of the Cross with us. The crowd went wild when they saw that. I felt the presence when I saw that. He never looked straight in the camera. He was just peacefully sitting in front of the TV with his head rested on his hand watching. When the procession passed us by, people bunched up along the security fences just like they did when the Pope came on Thursday. Many grabbed for palm leaves off the palm-holders in the procession. I didn't bother this time. Michael Chun lifted me up so I could take photos. I wish he was there when the Pope came.

The play was overall very well done. One of the prayers got messed up slightly but other than that I was impressed. This was a high tech production, but behind all of the lights was the important story of salvation which is for all time.

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It is not my intent to offend anyone here. What I wrote was straight from the heart: uncensored, uncut.