Parishioners and pilgrims from the Catholic diocese of Wollongong took centre position at Randwick Racecourse yesterday for the historic World Youth Day papal Mass.
About 1000 people commuted from the Illawarra to the Mass, led by Pope Benedict XVI, many attending an overnight sleepover on the track as part of their pilgrimage of faith.
Locating the locals was somewhat difficult in a crowd of up to 400,000, but a St George Illawarra Dragons scarf was soon spotted in the middle of a pod of Illawarriors, in a section created for the diocese, labelled "M4".
Those sleeping over had arrived early Saturday when they were provided with enough food for three light meals, packed in distinctive lime green bags.
Depending on who you spoke to, the sample bags - each containing a tin of tuna, vegetables, bread rolls, fruit, water, chocolate, Tims Tams and Wagon Wheels, was either delicious or fit for a Spartan pilgrimage.
In the case of the latter, refreshment tents were also available.
By yesterday morning, most pilgrims bore the signs of either a long night of socialising or a long night of trying to sleep, unsuccessfully, through the socialising.
"I had a bit of tossing and turning. There were a lot of people singing and praying into the night," said Samantha Fanning, 19, of Kiama Downs.
Amy Harrison, 19, of Albion Park, who helped organise 74 members of the St Paul's parish to attend the weekend sleepout and Mass, described the experience as "fantastic".
"I've made lots of wonderful new friends plus experienced our faith in a way I've never done before as a Catholic," she said.
For 26-year-old Catriona Nunan, of Dapto, the Sydney event represented her third World Youth Day after attending Toronto in 2002 and Cologne in 2005.
"Sydney has helped me grow closer to God, to experience the church again as something really big, rather than just the parish church," she said.
"It's helped me to become more open with my heart."
Ms Nunan was given the gift of love during the week when her younger sister Nicole gave up her seat on the Pope's flotilla of 13 vessels as it made its way from Rose Bay to Barangaroo on Thursday, for the papal welcome.
Catriona said it was a thrill to be on the boat next to the Pope's as it left the shoreline.
"I felt very peaceful afterwards," she said.
Kiama Downs' Pene Mortimer, the mother of four boys aged 10 to 21, wept tears of joy as she told what it meant to her to attend the week of activities with her children and husband John.
"This is so unreal," she said, watching the Pope celebrate yesterday's Mass on a large screen.
"As a mother, I felt it was my responsibility to get my boys here and then the Holy Spirit could do whatever he wanted with them. The rest wasn't up to me.
"It's been a massive effort to get them here ... most of the teenagers can't relate (to World Youth Day) because they have no reference point to see how good it is. They just had to come."
On Thursday, she got close enough to catch the Pope on film.
"I got a front row, 10-second footage of the Pope when he drove past. I stood there for two hours in that spot and I was ecstatic.
"All the man-made power in the world doesn't come close to the power of the Holy Spirit. It's just phenomenal."
Sydney represented Father Damien Ellis' second WYD, and his first as a chaplain with the 1st 15th Royal NSW Lancers, through which he helped host 200 military youth from throughout the world.
"I am hoping the youth in the military will be a force for hope and for peace throughout the world," he said.
"We gather as an international force to celebrate our Christianity, our youth and combining our world for a peaceful world."
Also an assistant priest at St Paul's Camden, Fr Ellis celebrated his 34th birthday at Saturday's sleepout. "I had a good four hours' solid sleep," he said.
He believed the biggest thing the youth would take from their experience was bonding. "I think the thing they take most from it is the journey together as a group and the fun they have along the way."
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