God In All Things....

Hello Friends and Family!

This is Roxanne, reporting in after a wonderful week of MAGiS experiments here in Brisbane. I see that Michael has already done a wonderful job of summarizing our group experience, so I'll try to not be too repetitive.

Vincent SJ, Pat, Michael, Katy, Kristina, I were part of the Queensland 2 group, whose experiment theme was: "Surfing and Spirituality." Needless to say, we were all very excited to embark on this pilgrimage. Throughout the week, we went to see several different beautiful attractions around Brisbane where we sought to experience the glory, magnificence, and love of God in everything around us. Well, let me tell you, God is truly good and we were easily able to see all of His wonderful graces every day that we've been here -- from the kangaroo feedings, to the amazing star-filled nights, and to our daily interactions with all those around us...God was there every step of the way!

The biggest grace we all received, though, was seeing God in one another. Throughout this week, we have all grown in fellowship not only amongst ourselves, but also within the context of the larger Church community. We have met and formed strong bonds with people from all over the world; bonds that are continually being reinforced by our common faith and love for the Almighty. It has been an absolutely amazing experience seeing the vastness and diversity of the Catholic Church, and we can only hope to continue to experience the majesty of God's international congregation over the next couple of weeks.

We ask that you continue to pray for us and for all the youth of the Catholic Church, in general. As Dave mentioned before, the theme of this World Youth Day pilgrimage has centered around the Scripture reading from Acts 1:8 --> "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses..." Keeping this theme in mind, we will continue to endeavor to see the workings of God in everything around us and open our hearts to His abundant love, especially through our interactions with other pilgrims from all over the world. I, personally, will also continue to pray for the courage to listen to the stirrings of the Holy Spirit within me as we begin our time in Sydney. Hopefully, the journey will not conclude in Sydney, but rather, continue long after we've returned home to America.

Please know that you are all in our thoughts and prayers always. Thank you for all of the wonderful comments, emails, and well wishes....they are truly appreciated and they definitely uplift our hearts here in Australia! Above is a picture of most of us (unfortunately Vince didn't come with us into the city that day) at the Sydney Opera House. Within the next week, we will be working to try to put more pictures up for you all to enjoy and to reduce to distance between us. In the meantime, God bless and G'Day!

-Roxanne