The church has already had a working bee to tidy the school and church grounds.

There was also a meeting to discuss the week of events expected to bring more than 125,000 international visitors to Sydney.

Home Stay co-ordinator Greg Gersbach, who's organising the accommodation of visiting pilgrims in private homes, said the parishioners had been generous in volunteering time to prepare the gardens, school grounds and their own homes.

``We've seen the usual enthusiasm shown by the parish to prepare for the pilgrims and show them the best of what Sydney has to offer,'' he said.

The parishioners will be hosting 230 pilgrims from Australia and overseas in more than 100 homes.

There will also be 200 pilgrims staying in the church and school grounds.

Parish volunteers will cook barbecue breakfasts for them.

`We're a particularly generous parish,'' Mr Gersbach said.

``The local Catholic community is always generous and they've stood up again this time.

``No matter what it is, our parishioners are always prepared to step up to the plate.''

Mr Gersbach said more parishioners had volunteered each week to help.

``We've been allocating jobs to volunteers to serve from 6am to as late as 10pm,'' he said.

``Everyone is so happy to be involved to experience the spiritual rewards.''

Mr Gersbach said he believed that World Youth Day would ``bring a lot of people back to church''.

``They will realise they're missing something,'' he said.