By Vicente Morillo
Listen to what the Spirit is saying (Rev 2:7). This was the theme of the Australian Catholic Youth Festival for 2019, and this year, for the first time, 22 young pilgrims and mentors from Holy Family Parish and several local schools had the amazing opportunity to travel all the way to Perth to be part of this wonderful festival.
Our group was there for five inspirational days; from the 7th to the 12th of December, and I’m sure that all the pilgrims will agree that this was one of the best weeks of their lives. It is impossible to put into words the change that we all experienced on this pilgrimage; we have grown so much closer throughout the time we have spent together, we have all learnt more about our faith and about how to discern own vocations. More importantly, I’m sure that all of us pilgrims can remember a time at ACYF when we could really feel the Presence of the Holy Spirit working within us. We all felt it at different occasions, whether in one of the Talks, at Plenary, in Confession or at our final reflection as a Holy Family group. One truly awesome experience that everyone who went will remember was Adoration, during the time that we spent together in the Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, I was reminded of the passage “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road?” (Luke 24:32) from the story of the disciples on the Road to Emmaus. I found this Biblical story to be applicable to our situation as pilgrims, because at ACYF, we were not just being told about our Faith, but we had the chance to really experience and Listen to the Spirit in our lives.
On behalf of all the young pilgrims from Holy Family, I cannot thank our mentors enough; for making this trip so enjoyable and helping us all to grow deeper in Faith over the course of the week. We are also so grateful to Kari for organising the Formation sessions and the pilgrimage; without you, this experience would not have been possible so I would like to say another huge ‘thank you’ on behalf of all the pilgrims. Lastly, I would like to thank all the parishioners who came to the Trivia Night, and helped raise funds for this amazing trip, certainly this generosity from the community of our Parish will yield fruit, just as the seeds planted in good soil ‘produce 100 or 60 or 30 times as much’ from Matthew 13:8.
Finally, to all young people reading this, I cannot encourage going to ACYF enough. It is an experience that I will remember for the rest of my life and it has changed me in a way I never thought it would. Every single person who went will agree that they aren’t the same as they were before. Going to this Youth Festival was both an amazing learning experience and a time to get to know new people from both Holy Family and from across Australia. I am sure that if you do choose to go to ACYF 2021, you will not regret it.