More than 3,000 young people from across the Australian dioceses and half of the Australian Catholic bishops gathered at Tauron arena on Tuesday 26 July 2016 to celebrate their faith, national identity and the beginning of World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland.

The two-hour gathering was filled with prayer, testimonies from young people, music and catechesis. Bishop Patrick O’Regan preached the homily and Bishop Peter Comensoli delivered a ‘call to action’ to young young. Two young people, Chris Lee from Parramatta diocese and Sr Elizabeth from Port Pirie diocese, gave witness to how they have received God’s mercy in their lives. Their authentic accounts described how we can discover God’s mercy when we show mercy to others, it is through our acts of mercy that God reveals his merciful heart to us. Sr Elizabeth said, ‘I thought by being committed to God, I would simply receive his mercy’.

Bishop Mark Edwards, Australian Bishops Delegate for Youth; Kelly Paget, Diocese of Broken Bay and Sunil Mohanaraj, Archdiocese of Adelaide were the MC’s.

Genevieve Bryant, Fr Rob Galea and the Salvatorians Soul band provided the festival music that had the entire gathering on their feet within seconds. Malcolm Hart, Director of the ACBC Office for Youth, unveiled an invitation to all of the young people to get involved in the the ‘Year of Youth’ 2018.

There was a beautiful period of reflection as the musicians sang a decade of the Divine Mercy Chaplet.

Watch highlights from the Australian gathering below.

The Australian gathering can be viewed online via a web cast from Xt3.