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Okay, okay… well we know you’re probably a bit gutted that the summer is over and that those sunny days have been replaced by clouds and rain, but we are fairly confident that the autumn ahead of us is going to be a great one. There is just so much coming up for young people in the diocese. Here is a small taste…

By the way, before we get into it, just a small point: As you’ll see below, we are making use of Facebook events via our Facebook page. If you click on the links below, the Facebook events will give you the details, like times and places etc etc. You can also use the Facebook page to tell us you’re coming – though in most cases you still have to book properly with the youth office. Got it…!?… Good

Plenty of reunions for the Redshirts

Getting together at Guildford and Dalesdown

The experience of being a Redshirt is one that people will continue in Lourdes in the future, and also something that they will hopefully continue in their parishes, communities and their lives. If you have been a Redshirt, you’ll know that it changes you in a lot of positive ways.

To help people reflect on the experience there are a few reunions in the months after Lourdes. We are all meeting together for an overnight stay at Guildford on September 11th and then again for a weekend at Dalesdown in December.

A chance to apply for Redshirts 2011

If you want to go to Lourdes with the Redshirts in 2011, watch this space… details will be appearing on the site during the autumn. In the meantime, why not have a look at our Redshirts page, which gives loads of information. Or you can have a look at what past Redshirts have got up to by clicking the categories on the left hand side of this page (and down a bit!)

Preparation for World Youth Day next summer

Now that World Youth Day 2011 is less than a year away the preparation with the Diocesan pilgrims will step up a gear. There is a day for pilgrims at DABCEC (Crawley) this coming Saturday, and then a weekend at Dalesdown in December.

Youth Gather 2010 at St. Richard’s, Bexhill

This promises to be an awesome day, as always! Have a look at the Facebook event page for more details. If you are bringing a (school or parish etc) group, then purleeeeeze tell the youth office. Also, if you feel like doing a bit of walk marshalling, then please tell us that too!

More work on yaab, including a database of youth groups

As you might have noticed, we have been waving a bit of a magic wand over yaab lately – and thanks for all the positive feedback, by the way – and we’re not done yet. We are planning to use the integration with the Facebook page to communicate more and more news, meaning that once you have become a ‘fan’ of the page (I mean… you’ve done that right??) you’ll get news on your Facebook news feed whenever you log in, as well as on the site.

The one part of this site that’s looking a bit sorry for itself at the moment is our Youth Groups page. Are you in a youth group? Or, do you run one? If so, tell us all about it because there may be young people in your area hitting the site who might be really interested to know about it.

National Youth Sunday 2010

We don’t have much details about this yet, other than the fact that it will be marked on Sunday November 21st – the Feast of Christ the King – and that the Catholic Youth Ministry Federation will be putting some resources together to mark the occasion. As soon as more news becomes available, we’ll stick it on the site. Until then, why not let us know what you are planning to do in your area?

The visit of Pope Benedict

It can’t have escaped your notice that Pope Benedict XVI is visiting the UK in jus a few weeks time. Some young people from the diocese are going up to London to see him, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. For more news and details, why not check out the official site.

Advent daily prayers for young people

Building on our successful daily prayers from past Advents and Lents we will once again be putting together some daily Advent prayers for young people. There isn’t much on the site yet, but by Advent time, there will be loads of resources as well as prayers for each day.

In the past, the prayers have proved popular with young people, Chaplains, form tutors, youth leaders, parents and loads of other people in A&B and beyond.

As well as our Twitter feed on the left hand side of the page, we now also have a feed from our new Facebook page. We are currently rolling the old Facebook group into a new Facebook page which has more functionality. When we post anything on the page it will now (thanks to Social Media links) appear automatically on Twitter, on here and on your own Facebook newsfeed, assuming you’ve clicked the ‘like’ button – which you can now do on here or on Facebook.

We have also replaced our comments system with an integrated system from DISQUS. This means that you can now comment on this site using your login from other sites, like Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, OpenID and others. You can also still post simply by entering a name and E-mail address as before.

This means that if you post using your Facebook login then others can link up with you on Facebook as well as on yaab. There is a DISQUS box on the left hand side of this page, which shows you who has been saying what.

Since the last report yesterday we have been very busy indeed.

Yesterday evening I (Clive) went to night prayer in the hotel Sante Rose which was very emotional with some speeches from the redshirts as well as a few of the leaders who had taken us along.

Last night quite a few of us went to different places to assist and pray with different hotel groups.

At the Mass of Anointing in the underground basilica...

This morning we got up very early and went to the underground basilica for the Mass of anointing. I (Clive) played my saxophone in the orchestra, which Anne Ward conducted. I (Ciara) sat with the rest of the Redshirts and played a part in the Red Carpet before Mass. The Mass of anointing was emotional. A lot of people cried because of how special it was. It was an unforgettable experience.

The purpose of the Mass of anointing is to administer the Sacrament of the Sick to members of the pilgrimage who could benefit from it.

We then went to the City of the Poor (a retreat spot near Lourdes). While there we had a chance to go to confession or to just talk to the priests (including Bishop Kieran) who were present with us. We also had a Ministry Session (catechesis) which many people really felt that they could relate to. We talked a lot in the session and in small groups about what people back home will think about our time in Lourdes and also about what parts of the Lourdes experience we will take back home with us.

At present the group are preparing for tomorrow’s talk.

The experience of being here in Lourdes is indescribable. Talking about it here really can’t do it justice. It is better than anything I had ever imagined.

During the Mass	The leaders having a bit of a chinwag during the retreat day...
During the catechesis session	Lunch time

Singing at the podium Mass...

The Redshirts have been doing all kinds of different things today. Different groups of Redshirts have been doing different things in different places for a lot of the day. Some went on a tour of the Accueil and others went to hotel groups and to other places. Here, a few of the redshirts talk about the day they have had…

[by Nick Emms, Andy Smyth and Ciara Fogarty]

The first thing we did this morning was get up and have breakfast. We then got down to the podium a little early so that we could move benches and help out with other things. As it turned out, there wasn’t much to do because the rain reduced the size of the Mass quite a bit. Pretty soon, the rest of the redshirts arrives (except those who were at Bartres… see below). The Redshirts led some of the music for Mass. We led ‘Taste and See’ as the communion reflection and a few gathering songs. It was good to do, but quite cold.

The weather is freezing and fairly miserable in Lourdes today, but we are still happy.

Bartres…

The family group with the Redshirts at Bartres...

A group of us spent the day in Bartres with the family group, from various hotels. We started off with a coach journey up to Bartres, which is a small town where Bernadette stayed during her childhood. During the coach journey nobody got bored at all! We sang songs for the little children and got to know them all a little bit.

The day in Bartres started as we had Mass. The children acted out the reading and we had a brief penitential service. Redshirts led the music for the Mass and encouraged the children to sing the songs as much as we could. It was really nice that the children sat up on the sanctuary with the priests.

After Mass, we were invited to be part of the family group photo. Then we had lunch and the fun began… During the next few hours we sang songs, got to know the kids a little better, had a face-paint attack launched on us, led some games. Even though the weather was miserable, we still made it a fun day. We didn’t really notice the weather after a while!

Tour of the town…

The tour of the town...

A group of us went to meet some of the pilgrims from the hotel group and we started the town tour. We followed in the footsteps of Bernadette’s life. We started off at her home which was an old mill. We soon continued to the jail, where the family lived for a while. We learned a lot there. During our time there, there was a lightning storm which made the lights go out for a while.

After the jail, we went to the parish church and saw the font where Bernadette was baptised. Each of us went to the font on our own and were left to pray for a few minutes. We then came back to the hotel.

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As well as these things there have been tours of the Accueil, which were quite hands-on and involved a few cleaning duties. This gave the redshirts an insight into what it would be like to work in the Accueil. There was a water walk today too. One of the hotel groups asked the Redshirts to accompany them on this popular part of Lourdes.

The experience is having an impact...

A group of us are currently sitting around in the hotel waiting to go to Bartres with the family group. And so… I asked them how Lourdes is going for them. Here’s what they said…

- It’s been amazing getting to know everyone better. It’s such a lovely group of people and it’s been incredible to see our impact on the rest of the pilgrimage. (Lauren Pickering)

-It has been really fun, but tiring. I am not looking forward to the end of the week because I want to stay here now. I am really going to miss everyone when I get home. (Ciara Fogarty)

-Just epic (Catherine crick)

-An emotional and exciting experience (Bella Noakes)

-It is not what I expected and it is so different in such a good way. If you want to know what it’s like then you really have to experience it for yourself. So come… (Chrissy Sutton)

There will be more photos and reports tomorrow and as the week goes on…

Redshirts at the Torchlight Procession...

We will start at the Torchlight procession where Hugo and Alice left off yesterday…

The torchlight procession was amazing, awesome and many other words… a lot of people have holes in their candle holders and some have none left at all. Yes, fire was a real risk! On more than a few occasions people would suddenly find that their candle holders were catching light. Apart from the fire though, the procession was really nice. It was lovely to see the thousands of people watching and it was nice to hear the Rosary in so many languages. It reminds us that Lourdes isn’t just an english thing, but Catholic – in other words, universal. All in all, it was a peaceful and calming experience and it was amazing to see so many people raising their torches at the same time.

Before the procession began we had to rope off an area. In doing this, we learned a lot about how to communicate with Italian pilgrims!! Barney also got to try his hand at skipping over the ropes as did (shall we say) a few other figures from the diocese!

We got back to the hotel with our candles lit, singing on the way and had a night prayer in the garden before bed.

A lot of us were up at 5 am this morning so that we could take part in the High Stations, which the main pilgrimage had invited us to lead. It was a little bit wet and cold and it was hard going however it was good because it was really nice to see the sun rising, which fitted in beautifully with the whole crucifixion and rising thing of the stations experience. A lot of people got very emotional about it all. The pilgrims that we took really loved it and appreciated us being there.

Today's Red Carpet, welcoming pilgrims to Mass...

After breakfast we went to the Cote Grote for this morning’s Mass. We brought Alfred our Redshirt mascot with us, complete with sunglasses and a hat. This was his first Mass. It started to rain quite heavily during the red carpet (welcoming pilgrims in to the Mass) however the spirit kept going. The Mass was really moving this morning. The spirit wasn’t dampened by the rain!

After Mass we had a Redshirts photo. Well, two actually. One of our faces and one of the logos on our backs. When we turned around for the second photo it because clear that some people had been pegged! Some things never change.

After lunch –  which was a very good lunch, the best meal we have had so far – we split up and went to a few different places. Some of us did a red carpet to welcome people into the pilgrimage reconciliation service in the underground basilica. Others had a tour of the Accueil. It was interesting to see the Accueil and the view from the top was amazing. The hospitality there is amazing. Some of the other pilgrims visited the baths and some others went to the high stations with some of the children from the pilgrimage.

How are we finding the week so far?

It has been both long and short at the same time. It is going so quickly, but it feels like we have been here for ever. It’s fun and really weird, but in a good way!! (Sam James)

Awesome, emotional in all the right ways. The best bit so far has to be when we led music at the baths yesterday and got applauded by the waiting pilgrims. It has been great meeting new people too. Some very funny moments too. Just amazing. (Hannah De Souza)

It is tiring but immense. I like meeting new people. Singing at the baths was awesome yesterday. Seeing people smile when you wave at them on the red carpet is also a highlight. (Mary Phillips)

My highlights have been singing at Mass with the diocese. It has been really emotional. (Nikki Coetzee)

It has been exhausting but much better than I imagined. The coach trip was not as pleasant as being in Lourdes, but worth it. It was a good chance to get to know people. I believe that coaches should be extended so that we can have at least a foot of leg room. This should be a law. Being in Lourdes has been a wonderful experience and I would love to come back next year. (Dan Prodger)

Fun-filled, action-packed, amazing, awesome and epic. (Andy Smyth)

I think the best thing so far would have to be singing in the small groups at the Masses or singing in the baths. When we do this we are sharing an emotion with somebody which is generally joy or happiness, and to share this with thousands of people is something amazing. (Amy Vandevelde)

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We will add more photos from Sunday later