I can't quite believe that I am now typing from my laptop back in my room in England. I arrived back at London Heathrow at 5am this morning, still taking in the experiences of the past five or so weeks which had taken me from London to Sydney for World Youth Day and then from Australia to Singapore, Malaysia and Sabah, in Malaysian Borneo.

Part of the scripture used for the theme of World Youth Day 2008 was, '"You will be my witnesses" to the ends of the earth', and in all honesty Australia for most people is practically the ends of the earth (for us here in the UK anyway). It is incredible now looking back how the 'witness' part was in fact one of the most prominant reasons why the experience Down Under was so moving. What we saw were vast numbers of young people (and those young at heart!) filling the streets of Sydney, of all nationalities and skin colours and on different stages of the journey of Faith. Yet what brought us all together to Sydney was the desire to truly live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ; the Good News. The Good News where Christ tells us to love, share and care for our neighbours.

My most fond memories of World Youth Day weren't seeing the Pope but seeing so many people smiling and truly happy to be with friends and open to making new friends regardless of language barriers and doing all of this in the joy of the Christian Spirit of WYD. Linguistics is never an obstacle when the Holy Spirit is at work; a higher form of 'language' is being used, that of Love. For me, to sum up the experience of WYD it would have to be a 'Loving' one. Not a soppy, romantic style of love but a love which unites, a love which is not afraid to go into deep or untested waters, a love which openly extends a hand to another to comfort or to bring joy. I recall walking along the streets and everbody giving 'Hi 5's' to each other. I can't imagine doing that back here to somebody I don't know, but clearly the Spirit was moving more evidently during those days.

The final mass was incredible, so many people together with the Pope set with moving music to enhance the liturgy. That day after the streets were still filled with pilgrims. However, within two days later Sydney seemed to have resumed normal life. There were no more street parades of various flags and chanting. Instead business men and women went about their daily work and road blockades had been removed. It was as if the 'Spirit' had stayed and then just vanished. I couldn't help but think, "So is this it? Has it all gone back to normal? Has there been no lasting impact?" This stuck with me a couple of days until I recalled one of my favourite pieces of scripture from the Book of Kings and in fact was used in last Sundays readings (joint with the Gospel of Peter walking on water, another favourite of mine!). The reading talks about Elijah standing on the mountain and seeing a roaring fire, but God was not in the fire. Nor was he in the earthquake and strong winds that followed. Instead there came a 'gentle breeze' or a 'gentle whisper'. Immediately Elijah covered his face as he knew he was in the precense of God. I think this has parallels with Sydney, there was a lot of hustling and bustling as everbody moved around, the earthquake so to speak (not to say God wasn't there, of course not!!) but then after all of the hype of WYD peace settled once again. I believe that this, also in the light of the theme of World Youth Day "Recieve the Power of the Holy Spirit", was in fact where the spirit of God was truly present and that WYD had allowed the peace of the Spirit to dwell across the Great Southern Land of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit hadn't disappeared, it now dwelled more permanently thanks to the witness of all the young people, volunteers, clergy and religious along with the Australians themselves.

The question then to ask is how can that Spirit of WYD, the same Holy Spirit enkindled in us, have similar effects, as it has done to Sydney and Australia as a whole, to our own country which is ever in need of greater authentic Christian witness? As instruments of God, what can we do? How can we be that witness?

It's worth a thought. Perhaps though, just maybe, the best place to start is with a simple smile as we go about our daily lives.