The Early Start:
We arrived, bright and early, at Thornbury Station,(8:00 – 8:15) where Ms Anne was already waiting with a warm cup of coffee.
At around 8:20am, leadership team one hopped on the train and began the thirty minute journey to the city. We finally arrived after a very interesting ride and went on a HUGE and scary steep escalator that made you feel like you were flying.
We strolled to the cathedral and saw lots of other schools that were invited too and ate our recess- while being entertained by bag-pipe players.
They were very loud!
The Mass
After having a bit of a snack, we were set for the mass.
As we walked in, we were all in absolute awe of the huge building with enormous arch-ways and columns. We even went to the place where old arch- bishops were buried. About 1500 students were sitting in their seats waiting patiently for the mass to start.
Many schools strutted along the walk-way, presenting their school banners and logos. Many schools were celebrating anniversaries. Most of the catholic schools in Melbourne were there.
Finally after ages the mass started and it went for quite a while. It was very interesting to see how their mass worked. There was a lot of beautiful singing and lots of readings and gospels.
We got up to have the body of Christ ( the bread) from the Archbishop! We sang a few hymns and we had a blast- though it was very important to be respectful and represent Holy Spirit.
We walked around the massive Cathedral and talked about the history of it. We got to see where the archbishops who have died are buried.
It was very cool and a little creepy.
The altar at the cathedral is more than five times the size of our altar. It is so incredible.
Did you know that the cathedral is 150 years old? If you were a bird and you flew over the cathedral that it would be the shape of a cross, and that the cross at the very peak of the cathedral is 18 metres tall!
Fun Fact!
That is almost ten of Mr Costin!
Everything was quite amazing to see! We took a few photos with the archbishop and priest and that was the end of the mass.
Music and Fun Festivities
After the long enjoyable mass with the Archbishop; Peter A Comensoli, we travelled to the fun music festival.
Kids were dancing, students were playing games, and eating snacks. The festival was filled with kids to celebrate catholic education in Australia!
While the boys were thrashing other kids in tug ‘of war the girls sang along to Moana songs. The singers performing were amazing , especially when everyone was dancing around them. It was very loud.
Overall we had a great day here, at the festival.
It comes to an end
We saw something rather surprising… On the train we saw someone doing pull ups!
We made our way back to school in Mr. Costin, Ms. Anne and Ms. Canavan’s cars.
We arrived back at school just as lunch was ending and felt quite out of place being the only ones in uniform.
Luckily the teachers saved us delicious green donuts! Overall we had an amazing time and learned a great deal from the experience!
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