[by Hugo Wookey and Alison Rooke]
This morning when we woke up – sorry, when we were woken up by the leaders we saw that it was going to be a scorcher of a day. So we slapped on the sun cream and headed downstairs for breakfast. Little did we know that today was going to be the best day so far!
We headed down to Mass bright and early to set up the Red Carpet which was booming as usual. It is always a delight to see all of the smiling faces of the pilgrimage, including even a few stray Italian ladies.
Mass was spectacular. There was some beautiful singing and music. The Redshirts contributed as usual by covering the priests distributing communion (umbrellas, that is) and doing a lot of singing.
After Mass, pretty much straight away we set up for a classic pilgrimage photo. It was a scorcher of a day and a long wait for the photographer to set up, but with our cheerful banter we managed to keep it fun.
After this, we went our separate ways as there were a lot of jobs to be done. Some went to baths, this was our job. We sung for over two hours and met some lovely Irish people who helped us to sound in tune. The point of this is to help those queuing for the baths to pray and reflect.
Other people went to the children’s party, which we hear was a real success. Some other people went on the water walk with a hotel group and a few went to visit the accueil, where pilgrims who need close care stay during the pilgrimage.
After this we came back to the hotel and had a ministry session. This was about the Son of God and his relevance to our theme of the week, which is making the Sign of the Cross with Bernadette.
After we have finished this we will be heading off for the torchlight procession, which will be a beautiful display of candles flickering in the night.
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Thanks to Hugo and Alice for that report. If you want to comment on any pictures or reports, then please feel free to do so. We will let the Redshirts know when comments come in.
Check in tomorrow for another report.
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