Surely a happy day is approaching when years of waiting will pass over into the consummation of this thing called ‘World Youth Day’. Goodness, it’s close! Thousands of pilgrims are presently plotting movements from first arrival into Sydney unto those occasions when movement of any sort will be difficult at all. Still, they will rejoice. Others look towards an end to planning, and changes of plans, and shuffled plans. Pilgrims will come, and plans will go on pilgrimage. Still, they will rejoice. 

As ‘days to go’ fall from the calendar like their leafy brethren, it mightn’t be so out of place to be writing verse about coffins and black vestments, and there’s always a place for Chant. 

Along rows of hardbound books one finds the glory of a generation contained in Congresses, Liturgical Weeks, and Pastoral Letters. Most of the protagonists are dead, though as clear as the living, they talk in their sleep. ‘Generation Benedicti’ will find their boast in World Youth Day with no small thanks to those other benedicti, the small and the great, who know well about waiting, too. 

Those things most delightful in the life of the Church and shared by friends across generations will be on show for all to taste and see. Even if they might have skipped a generation, the activity of World Youth Day will be like a masterpiece untouched and bogged down for fifty years when suddenly come the forces of revolution – stamping victory – 2008. 

It’s rather sweet borrowing a book last lent when one’s parents were newborns. The other library patrons remain quiet identities in ink and good reading. There is a chance that we might enjoy one another’s company, please God, as one friend put it, at the Celestial Tea Party. Living or dead, among thousands or over just one alone in the grave, how great is the Communion of Saints. World Youth Day is coming indeed, and one will never be alone. The youth of the Church gather about Christ and beckon with haste to come. 

In special thanksgiving.