Today marked the final day of retreat for Maitland-Newcastle’s ACYF (Australian Catholic Youth Festival) pilgrims and also the last full day of their 10-day pilgrimage before heading home tomorrow morning.
“I guess I’m hoping to be able to slow down and unpack a lot of what happened at ACYF [Australian Catholic Youth Festival],” young Maitland-Newcastle pilgrim Jess said when posed with the question of what she hoped to gain from the two-day retreat at St John of God Retreat Centre in Shoalwater.
The Australian Catholic Youth Festival (ACYF) came to an end yesterday evening with a closing mass at Trinity College in Perth attended by over 5,500 pilgrims.
“It will be hard to match the energy of yesterday,” I heard a young pilgrim say as we walked into the day two opening plenary session of the Australian Catholic Youth Festival 2019. Hard, yes, but it happened.
We finally made it! 3 days after departing Newcastle, our pilgrims finally got to enjoy the first day of the Australian Catholic Youth Festival 2019 in Perth.