Last Day in Melbourne

Today started out with me moving out of the hotel that I have been staying in for the past 2 nights. I packed up all of my stuff (in a more organized fashion this time) and checked-out of the hotel (leaving my stuff with the hotel desk). After leaving the hotel, I went to church for the 11am high mass at St. Patrick's cathedral. I have been going to the earlier masses while I have been in Melbourne, so this was my first high mass. It was quite the experience! The Archbishop of Melbourne was the primary celebrant. In addition to the archbishop, another visiting bishop and 3 priests were taking part in the mass.

This was quite the spectacle of catholic tradition and procedure. Nine altar servers and a choir of probably 50-60 people joined the archbishop, bishop, and priests around the altar. The archbishop and the bishop each had 3 altar servers to tend to their needs (in particular, the altar servers are responsible for holding the mitre (hat) and staff for each bishop). Altar servers are not allowed to actually touch these items with their bare hands - so they wear a special cloth that covers their hands. I had the opportunity to do this once back at home when Bishop Dattilo celebrated a confirmation mass at St. Patrick's in Carlisle.

As this was a high mass, the majority of the mass was sung (or canted). This was really cool since the archbishops voice echoed throughout the cathedral. Even though the mass was a bit longer than usual, it was definitely worth it. I had never been to a 'normal' mass where a bishop or an archbishop was the celebrant (the case back in Carlisle was a special mass for confirmation). It was cool to see how well the movement of everyone around the altar was choreographed. After mass, I walked around the church a bit more and it was cool to get up close and personal looks at everything.

Upon leaving, I was able to get a photo of the archbishop and the visiting bishop greeting people outside of the cathedral. I wish that I could have taken photos inside, but this is not looked upon favorably. When I got to church, I felt kind of strange walking in with my laptop bag and another bag holding 3 bottles of wine. Oh well, I felt better when I thought about the fact that the 3 bottles of wine were gifts for others - haha. Altogether, it was a cool experience and I was glad that I decided to go to that mass.

Now, I am checking up on e-mail and other things before I meet up with the CSIRO crew for afternoon farewell drinks! Anita flew back to Melbourne (from the U.S.) this morning - so there is a chance that I'll be flying on the same plane tomorrow morning (I'm not sure how quickly they turn the jumbo jets around). I'm looking forward to seeing everyone one last time before I make my way out to the airport. I will stay at a hotel near the airport for the night tonight and then I fly out tomorrow morning. It is hard to believe that these 10 weeks have gone by so quickly. I'll have more thoughts on this later. But for now, I am going to focus on enjoying my last day in Melbourne!