HUGH’S    DIARY

September 1 – Wednesday

NORTH-WEST NEWSLETTERS – WHEN IS CHRISTMAS?

Finalising the North-West 20s and 30s newsletters today.  Nearly everything has been put together by Nick and Elizabeth.  Just need to contact Loyola Hall to finalise details for our day of retreat in October, check where we’ve to meet at Chester on the Tuesday after Christmas, and finalise details for the Christmas/New Year meal at Malpas in January.  For £35 we’ve got the Christmas meal and B and B (with one drink).  There’s not many places would offer anything as good as that, and the setting is ideal.

It was circumstances made us change the meal to after Christmas.  Someone wrote from another group to ask whether we should be having Christmas meals while we are celebrating Advent, or even before that.  I sympathise with the sentiments.  I try to avoid Christmas meals and even carol services in the weeks leading up to the feast.  It can give you a bad dose of liturgical indigestion to be singing about Jesus being born in the stable when the next day you are back to “Come, Lord Jesus”.  The only problem is that soon after Christmas all the carols disappear, even though we have the 12 days of Christmas still to come and Christmastide last even longer.

The Church seems to have given up trying to keep Christmas out of Advent.  I know one parish that used to have its Christmas Fayre the first weekend in November – to get in first.  They were trying to raise funds for a new church, but even so.  I have heard some people even saying that the Church should abandon Christmas and let it revert back to the pagan festival it has almost entirely become.  That would be too far.  The Church put Christmas where it is because the people were already celebrating their festivals of light at the end of December as the sun started to ‘come back’.  Similarly I think it is a pity that the Church in England (not in Ireland or Scotland) are pulling out of Hallowe’en.  We should emphasize All Saints. (that’s why the feast was put there), and the power of the saints and goodness over the powers of evil.  Even in the last century we started celebrating the Feast of St Joseph the Worker on May 1^st to counterbalance the communist emphasis on May Day.

The North-West newsletters have a good mixture of the social and the spiritual between now and Christmas.  There are cinema trips, bowling, evenings out, walks, meals, go-karting, days out to Derbyshire, Liverpool and Alton Towers.  There are the weekends in London and Glasgow, a day retreat and a weekend retreat.  Monthly there is the Taize prayer near Liverpool and the prayer meeting in Manchester.  Some of the events link up with going to Mass on Sunday.  There is still talk about having a joint ceilidh or party in October or November.  The 30s have monthly gatherings in Liverpool and Manchester.  They also have more walks and a pre-Christmas Carol Service.

September 2 – Thursday

NEXT MAGAZIINE – GIVE US A QUOTE

Now that summer’s over it is time to start thinking seriously about the next edition of the magazine.  We’re sending out an email from Chris looking for articles and photographs.  The articles will mostly be reports on events, but if you have any other ideas contact him or me.  We’re also looking for quotes about people’s experience of the group and what it has meant to them.  They don’t need to be long.  Again you can send them to Christ or hugh@project2030.fsnet.co.uk   The North-West 20s have a quotes and feedback page which they send out, especially to new people.  Even quite extrovert people can be shy about coming along to events the first time.  They don’t know who or what they are going to meet.  Here are a few of the North-West 20s comments which might give you ideas if you want to make a contribution to the magazine.  Or maybe you read this diary and have not taken the plunge yet to come along to the group  Don’t be afraid (we’re told this 167 times in the Bible, so fear is certainly something God does not want to spoil our life).  Come along.  If you don’t like what you find then what have you lost.  It would be a sin to waste such a good opportunity.

“I joined the 2030 group in October 2000 when I returned to the North West after a period of living, studying and working in the Southeast. I was a bag of nerves when I went along to my first event which was to be expected but I developed the confidence to go along to another event and then another and another. Without the group I would have had no social structure in my life at the time but I can now proudly say that I have made some friends within the group and we often meet up around the North West to say hello, have a laugh and a chat and take part in group activities such as meals out, nights on the town, country walks, go-carting, ten pin bowling, clay pigeon shooting and weekends in Dublin, Glasgow and London. I have found my involvement in the group has had a positive knock-on-effect with the rest of my life, both at work and socially. I now have more friends than I ever had and meeting up with them helps me through the chore of having to go to work five days a week! With the support of the group I feel confident to reach out towards my long forgotten goals, one of which is to start my own business.”

 “I became a member of the 2030 group right at the very beginning and attended a couple of the initial ‘welcome’ meetings. I had recently moved back to the area and was keen to make some more friends. Obviously it was a bit daunting going along on my own at first but I knew I had to help myself first. Also I assumed and hoped (!) that other people felt like me and so they would be friendly, welcoming and looking to be sociable too – luckily I was right! I can happily say that I have made some good friends, have always felt comfortable and have never felt under any pressure. It is nice to feel part of a very accepting and friendly group – it is one of the best things that I have done.”

 “I joined Project 20/30 four years ago and have never looked back since. When I went to the first meeting I was very nervous. However since then I have gained lots of confidence and am glad that I took the plunge. Before then I had lost contact with most of my school friends and so was looking to meet up with new people. I have made many friends through the group since that very first meeting. Joining 20/30 has given me a fantastic social life, as I am able to go out at weekends and enjoy myself. Going to work all week can be such a drag so spending your weekends go-carting or clay pigeon shooting gives life a whole new meaning. Thanks a million Project 20/30, I can now look forward to every week with a renewed sense of optimism.”

     “My friend and I first went along to a 2030 event in the autumn of 2000. We had both seen the advert in our church porches and thought it sounded like it could be interesting and fun. Since then we have been along to a variety of events from Murder Mysteries and Christmas parties to retreats and masses both together and on our own. All the events have been really enjoyable and a pleasure to be part of. Along the way we have both met a whole variety of people who have been easy to get along with. I even met someone that I decided I’d like to get to know better, the feeling was mutual and we have both enjoyed a happy relationship up to the present day.”

These are just a few favourable comments. Feel free to let us know what you think about the group – your likes and dislikes, what you have gained from the group, or not and what you would like to see more of in the newsletter. Your comments are valuable to us to help improve the group programme and we do read and listen to all of them with great interest. We are constantly looking to develop the group activities to offer a better programme. Your involvement in any way, big or small, is always appreciated.

September 3 – Friday

DIARY HARDER AT HOME – UPDATES ON MAIN EVENTS

When I started doing the diary in April people used to worry about me having to write something every day.  Nobody mentions that any more.  Maybe they’ve just got used to the diary appearing (though I fell behind this week and there will be a gap next week while we’re in Lourdes).  Or maybe people who said that had a strong sense of duty and were more worried about them having to read the diary every day.  The truth is that I mostly enjoy writing and most of my writing is done on my travels when I have plenty of time to kill and I can catch up on the previous days or do a reflection.  The problems come when I spend a longer time at home.  I’ve been at base since a week last Monday.  Writing the diary uses up the same kind of energy that is required in the office, so it becomes more of a plod.

The other day I had to go to the doctor’s to have a hepatitis A booster, nine months after the one I got before going to India.  That will last for ten years.  They asked me to sit on for twenty minutes afterwards in the waiting room just in case there would be any bad reaction.  It was so much easier to write in the doctor’s, so I stayed on another twenty minutes to finish it off.  I’m writing this now on the train to Northampton.  Off to Lourdes tomorrow.  Adam from Northampton has arranged for a friend to take us to Stansted tomorrow.  I’ll stay at the Sacred Heart parish which is looked after by the Dehonians.  Even though the train is quite bumpy it is so much easier to write here than in the office where I keep thinking I should be getting on with something else.

Talking about India, the details for the trip there in January are almost finalised.  We sent round an email the other day to forewarn people to get ready with their deposits, and already there are some jumping the gun, but they won’t have any advantage.  All the advice says that going in July would be too much of a gamble with the rains, unless the teachers want to take the chance.  Fr Chris from Malpas will go with the January group.  They’ll follow the same itinerary as last January.  See Ronan’s report.  We hope to do it for about £900.  Phoned the travel agent this morning but he still hadn’t got it sorted out.

Received an email from Poland today.  Marta is going to link up with our communities in Krakow to get more reasonable accommodation next September and meet up with their groups of our age-group.  Someone mentioned Lough Derg next year, so wrote asking them if they want to be the contact for it.  We’re still waiting on details of the Pope’s visit to Northern Ireland.  Someone suggested that in preparation we could study some of his encyclicals.  More details coming in on the World Youth Days in Germany next August.  Deposits will need to be in for that by November if we are to get the cheap Ryanair flights to Frankfurt-Hahn.  Got things together for the office to send off final details for those coming to the review meeting at Malpas in two weeks time.  There should be a good crowd, though there are still a few places available for the Dublin and Glasgow 20s.  There are on average 4 coming from each of the 8 groups.

September 4 – Saturday

LOURDES – ST BERNADETTE – ‘WORTHY OF BELIEF’

Off to Lourdes today on the 10.10 from Stansted to Pau.  There will be five of us on the flight.  Three others are leaving from Manchester and another two are making their own way.  Got an email yesterday from the guesthouse saying that there might not be as many single rooms as we hoped for.  It looks as though I’ll be up the road on my own.  Phoned to check we are still being picked up at the airport.  Glad we made double figures.  There has been a lot of talk about Lourdes the past couple of years, so I thought we would get more going, though the system of everyone having to book their own flights put people off.  And when Ruth was organising the trip originally from Dublin, people from Britain were thrown by having to send the 100 euros deposit which was required by the guest house in Lourdes.  We had seven going.  That went down to 2, then back to above 10 for a while.  Quite a few in the group have also been to Lourdes this year already with their parish, the Diocese, HCPT or Across.  And this week was just outside the holiday period for teachers in England.

This will be my 5^th visit to Lourdes.  Went twice with the HCPT, once having to look after someone who was totally paralysed.  Took a group from my home dioceses of Paisley and then visited with family.  It is a place where the sick are kings and queens.  HCPT now call the children the VIPs.  We might not get the full experience this week because we are not looking after the sick, but on the other hand we will have more time to think and pray and enjoy the various ceremonies.  Each afternoon there is a Blessed Sacrament Procession and after dark a candelit procession.  There are various churches and a full-size stations of the cross going up the hill.  There are various places associated with St Bernadette.  She was only about 13 when in 1859 she saw a series of apparitions of Mary.  She came from a poor family.  She was out collecting wood and saw the vision at the entrance to a grotto across a stream.  Everyone, including the parish priest, was quite sceptical about it.  She was told to ask Mary who she was.  She replied: “I am the Immaculate Conception”. This had just been declared a dogma of the Church a year before.  On one occasion Mary told Bernadette to dig with her hands and she found water.

Near Lourdes there is a lake and the sheepfold where Bernadette spent some time.  We will also be venturing further to Gavarnie high in the Pyrenees, and possibly to the Atlantic coast.  Adam wants to visit Loyola in Spain where St Ignatius came from.  

When I was preparing a Scottish protestant to become a Catholic he joked one evening: “I don’t need to become a Celtic supporter, do I?”  Then he said: “What about Lourdes?  Do I need to believe that Mary appeared there?”  I had to check that one up.  (I also found that he could become a Greenock Morton supporter instead).  The answer about Lourdes highlights the distinction between public revelation and private revelation.  Public revelation finished with the death of the last apostle.  We are obliged to believe that.  Some private revelations like Lourdes the Church declares to be ‘worthy of belief’, but essentially it is a revelation for that individual and no-one is obliged to believe in it.  Six million people a year come to Lourdes.  Many bathe in the waters and are healed.  The healing can be much more than just the physical cure.  We will also pray here for your intentions.

September 5 - Sunday

LOURDES DAY 2 – GUEST HOUSE – JERUSALEM? – PYRENEES

Most of the group are staying at the only Scottish establishment in Lourdes, the Holy Family Guest House, 56 rue de Bourg, 0033 562 949 735.  Jim and Bernadette come from my brother’s parish in Paisley and there are some ladies staying from my sister’s parish in Port Glasgow.  It’s the only place in Lourdes that does a full cooked breakfast.  I’m lodging out in a small studio above the English Bookshop just up the road.  The lady who owns the shop is called Nicole.  I don’t know what the French is for ‘Father’, but every time I call her Nicole she answers back ‘Papa’.

Most people  who come to Lourdes come in large groups.  There is also a system to welcome and help those who come in smaller groups or as day pilgrims.  We go to their English Mass at 9.00 am.  Afterwards Bro Paddy gives us a short introduction on the message of Lourdes.  There is no statue of Bernadette at the Grotto where she saw Mary.  Each of us is invited to take the place of Bernadette and be open to see Mary, he says.  The message of Lourdes can be summed up in Prayer, Poverty, Penance and the Church.  We go with the day pilgrims to do the Stations of the Cross which wend up the nearby hill.  We are led by Diana, a volunteer in her 20s who comes from a Palestinian Catholic family and lives in Jerusalem.  To meet someone from Jerusalem working at Lourdes for the summer holidays was hard to take in.  A graduate in anthropology, she had done her final paper on the Stations of the Cross.  She is disappointed that we have been thinking of going to the Holy Land but have never gone there yet.  Too dangerous?  We’re waiting for peace to break out?  They need pilgrims to come and help with the peace process.

In the afternoon we go by bus high into the Pyrenees to Lac D’Estaing, which is at the end of the road.  A day’s walk over the hills would bring you into Spain.  Most walk around the lake.  Adam and I attempt to climb up some of the hill, but we don’t get very far.  The next time we come to Lourdes we’ll need to advertise it also as a walking holiday.  There are plenty of magnificent mountains, many of which we see on the bus tour.  We also call at a mediaeval village.  The bus gets us back in time for the evening meal.  We join Catherine, Christine and Geraldine for this at their hotel where they are staying full board with Mancunia.  We finish the day off with the torchlight procession at 9.00pm.

September 6 – Monday

TOUR OF LOURDES – WHAT’S YOUR IDEA OF HEAVEN?

We’ve arranged to have Mass just for ourselves at 10.00am in one of the chapels in the crypt.  People have difficulty finding it because there are three churches, one on top of the other on the hillside above the Grotto.  The crypt turns out not to be at the bottom, but in the middle.  St Gabriel’s chapel looks out over the Grotto, but we have a regular succession of pilgrims peering their nose round the door.  We say the Mass of Our Lady of Lourdes.  The readings from Isaiah and Revelations describe the throngs of people streaming from all over the world to the new Jerusalem.  This sums up the experience we are having of Lourdes with the crowds from all over the world.  It is almost like a vision of the multitudes in heaven.  I invite people to think what heaven would be like for them.  We did this once when we were doing the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises.  I imagined myself being welcomed into a vast group of people being invited to walk up the middle to the throne of God.  At the sides were people I knew, including my parents.  Up ahead is the Father, with Jesus at his side and Mary and the saints nearby.  After the Mass some shared how they saw heaven as we walked along.  There was plenty of clouds and wings.  One had a very personal heaven with just them and God along.  Someone expected to be told off when they got to heaven for wasting their opportunities in life.  At one level this last picture was not all that serious.  I got the chance later to ask them if they were being too hard on themselves.

In the afternoon we joined the Day Pilgrims for a tour of places in Lourdes associated with Bernadette.  First the museum gave us a good overall picture.  Her family had been quite comfortable millers, but with the invention of steam-powered mills they began to slip into poverty.  We saw the original family mill and then the old prison cell or cachot, a single room that was considered unfit for prisoners.  Here the family huddled in their poverty at the time Bernadette had the visions in 1858 at the age of 14.  Diana encouraged us to think of the significance of events in Bernadette’s life in relation to our own.  What struck me is that when I was born my parents lived in a single room with an outside toilet.  Bernadette’s parents married out of love, not always common in those days.  Neighbours said they were never heard to argue.  With the other families up the same staircase my own parents also shared a common bath-house out the back for washing the clothes.  The families took turns to light the boiler on a Monday morning, washing day.  One week my father forgot to light it.  My mother was so embarrassed that the other women didn’t have any hot water that she didn’t speak to my father for a week, but he never noticed.

Bernadette had 18 visions between 11 February and 16 July.  She was questioned by a whole succession of civil and ecclesiastical dignitaries.  In her simplicity she remained steadfast under great pressure.  Her life became impossible at home when she became the centre of much attention.  She moved into the local convent for 6 years, before deciding to join the Sisters of Charity in Nevers where she died in 1879.  Her ‘intact’ body can still be seen there.

September 7 – Tuesday

DAY 4 – LIFE-CHANGING EVENTS – LOURDES CASTLE

Up till now the weather had been hot and heavy (in French ‘lourde’ means heavy).  This morning we had our only rain of the week which cleared the air and brought out the sun.  Some had decided to go down at 8.00 to queue for the baths.  On one occasion Mary asked Bernadette to dig with her hands and she came upon water.  People continue to go to be submerged in the Lourdes water.  We had arranged for Mass again at 10.00.  They didn’t appear from the baths so we went ahead without them as there was another group due in our chapel at 11.00.  We went down to the Grotto afterwards and our bathers had just got to the front of the queue after three hours.  We waved over at them.  I was tempted to call them over and say: “You’ve just lost your place in the queue”.  When you’re together for a week a certain amount of silliness is inevitable.  We won’t say who was the worst offender.

Today we said the Mass of St Bernadette.  What struck me was how her life completely changed overnight.  At breakfast we had seen on Sky News one of the survivors of the Russian school massacre reflecting how her life would never be the same again and how she would never get over it.  That kind of thing happens to us all to a small degree, but rarely are we faced with something so overwhelming and life-changing.  With things great and small much depends on how we react.  We can never change what has happened.  After a tragedy some people swim to the heights, others sink.  It can be hard believing, as St Paul says in Romans 8, that God can turn everything out for the best for those who love him.  Bernadette coped admirably with what was thrust upon her.  Will the children in Russia ever get over it, will their parents and families?  Yet on average some of them will become beacons of light and hope in years ahead, like the victims of the bombs in Northern Ireland who were propelled by a death in the family to work for peace and reconciliation.

In the afternoon we visited Lourdes castle which looks out over the sanctuary.  Lourdes takes its name from the Muslim warrior who conquered the town in the 8^th century (not coincidentally, Fatima in Portugal was also under the Muslims at this time.  Fatima is the name of Mohammed’s daughter.  Mary also appeared here 100 years ago).  We had just discovered yesterday that we had missed Catherine’s 40^th birthday on Saturday.  We had got together to buy her a card and a cross and chain.  We presented it halfway up the Castle steps (we needed a rest). Here and at the top we made the cameras do their work, taking in some of the magnificent views of the town and Pyrenees.  After this we went down to the Grotto to say the Rosary.  Some stayed on for the Blessed Sacrament Procession and the daily blessing of the sick.  Those who were not on full board met up as usual for an evening meal.  The prices in Lourdes were reasonable, given the competition.  We all had fridges and microwaves in our room so we did our own thing at lunch time.  Lorraine went to Toulouse today.

September 8 – Wednesday

INTERNATIONAL MASS – SECRET CHRISTIANS – TORCHLIGHT PROCESSION 

On Wednesday I concelebrated at the weekly International Mass in the huge underground Basilica which can comfortably seat 15,000.  When it is empty it looks like a large carpark, but when it is full you have a great sense of the universal Church.  The singing, acoustics, overhead screens, etc, produce a very professional yet dignified and prayerful atmosphere.  Today, being September 8^th, was Mary’s birthday, ie: Our Lady, nine months after the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.  Cardinal O’Connell, the retired Archbishop of Dublin, was the main concelebrant, so most of the Mass was in English, which was great for us, though one of the things I like best about Lourdes is all the languages.

There are plenty of other English-speaking groups here this week, including almost a thousand from Dublin.  We discovered the phenomenon that a lot of people from Dublin are afraid to tell people at work that they are going to Lourdes.  This is a result of the present climate which is so anti-Church.  Then to their surprise they discover someone from the office next door is on the same pilgrimage.  It reminds you of the experience of the early Christians in the persecutions.  At least they found ways of communicating to each other that they were Christians.  We don’t want to become like the Masons, but it is unhealthy and difficult if people are reduced to living their Christian life in isolation in the work place and other public settings.  Faith is also a private matter but we are called to let our light shine.  Maybe we need to find ways of communicating quietly to others that we are committed Catholics.

Each evening we have done the torchlight procession.  This begins at the Grotto and wends its way to the top of the ‘domaine’ and back down to the square.  Lucy was carrying the Day pilgrims banner and Adam was asked to say part of the rosary in English over the loudspeakers.  After this we went back down to the Grotto.  It is at its best in the dark with all the candles lit.  When it was quiet we took the chance to queue up and go round the back of the altar, past the stream which Bernadette dug up with her hands at the request of Mary, then under the spot where Mary appeared.

September 9 – Thursday

INTO SPAIN – IGNATIUS AND LOYOLA – BIARRITZ

Alarm set for 5.45am (4.45  BST).  Adam and I are going to Loyola in North Spain, the place where St Ignatius lived and was converted (Adam’s family had twice been near Loyola but had not managed to visit it).  Most of the others are going to Biarritz on the coast near the Spanish border.  This was the classy seaside resort of the 19^th century.  The bus ride for them is about three hours to get there, with a few stops, including a shop famous for chocolate.  Our trip takes five and a half hours to get there on three trains and a bus, via Biarritz and San Sebastian.  The return journey takes six hours.  We have three hours there and fortunately, because of the early start, we make it there before everything shuts for siesta.

St Ignatius came from a noble family and grew up in a small castle in the 16^th century.  He was a bit of a lad and could not resist the chance to fight in a local war where he was injured in the leg.  His convalescence took a long time as his leg was not healing and had to be broken again.  Meanwhile he read novels in the house, full of tales of chivalry and romance.  When they were finished he read the Gospels and the lives of the saints.  He noticed that when he ended a novel he was worked up and excited by the story, but the feeling did not last long.  When he read the lives of the saints, however, he did not get as excited but the good feelings lasted much longer.  This reaction led to his conversion and gave him the desire to imitate the likes of St Francis and St Dominic.  When he was able to walk he began instructing people in his spiritual exercises, encouraging them to read the Gospels imaginatively and draw out messages for their lives.  The Church stopped him doing this as he had no training, so after some time in the mountains he went to Paris to study theology.  Here he gathered round him a group of friends who were to be the first Jesuits, a group who were soon to be a power in the Church and important in the spread of the Catholic Reformation.

The castle and museum were well presented.  We also visited the Basilica next door and joined an Irish group for Mass.  We got back to Lourdes in time for the end of the torchlight procession.

September 10 – Friday

LOURDES DAY 6 – STATIONS – WALK TO BARTRES

The mancunia’ines’ – Catherine, Christine and Geraldine  - are heading back to Manchester this morning.  Parting is such sweet sorry.  There is a Mass in English at the Grotto at 9.45 am.  Lorraine makes this just in time having been in the queue at the baths since 6.00am.  A few of us do the Stations of the Cross up the hill.  Brother Paddy from Dublin is leading and he regales us with pertinent examples from his work with young delinquents that help bring out the message of Jesus’ suffering.  At the 14^th Station, the burial, he asks us to pray for the bereaved and all those who have suffered any great loss, including those who have split up from boyfriends and girlfriends.  This makes me think of a few people in the group back home who have recently been ‘bereaved’ in this way.  I later get them a card to say I prayed for them at Lourdes and let them know what made me think of them particularly.

In the afternoon we walk to Bartres, except Lucy who is struggling with her feet.  It’s only about three miles.  We follow the path Bernadette would have taken.  As a baby she was sickly and was brought up out in the country by a friend of the family until she was two.  When she was older she went back out there to Bartres to help look after the sheep.  We saw the house where she lived and climbed up to the sheepfold where she went every day.  We reflected how many religious figures have had connections with sheep – the long hours alone with the flock must give them something extra.  Mary decides to catch the bus back to Lourdes but it never turns up.  Later she doesn’t answer whether the time she spent on her own at the bus stop gave her something extra.

Later, at the Grotto, I’m looking at the statue of Mary above the cave and asking myself what is the message I am taking away from Lourdes.  This is my fifth time in Lourdes and I often feel that the message has not really hit me.  Underneath the statue are the words ‘I am the Immaculate Conception’.  This is what Mary answered when Bernadette, at the suggestion of the parish priest, asked her who she was.  Till then the pp had been quite sceptical, but now he began to take the visions more seriously as this uneducated wee lassie wouldn’t have known the term ‘immaculate conception’.  I remembered my mother telling me that I was a difficult birth (still am difficult).  What gave her relief was the picture that came to her of Mary saying “I am the Immaculate Conception”.

September 11 – Saturday

LEAVING LOURDES – JERUSALEM NEXT STOP? – WHERE IS OUR ABODE?

The taxi is coming at 11.00am to take us to Pau Airport for the flight to Stansted.  After Mass at 9.00 there is time to make our last visit to the Grotto.  Diana from Jerusalem wants to know if there is any chance that the group will come to visit the Holy Land.  It doesn’t look like peace will break out for a long time there.  We reflected on Thursday how St Ignatius had gone there in difficult circumstances, but after his studies in Paris he could find no boat to take him and his companions there again.  St Francis of Assisi had also visited Palestine and was not afraid to call on the Muslim ruler to speak about God. Tangey Tours, who took us to Rome last year, have started arranging visits to Jordan with a few days across the border in Israel.  If the situation is too dodgy they don’t go.  I’m tempted to book on one of these tours and tell the group if they want to go they can book directly on the same trip at their own risk.  Don’t go if you are not prepared to meet your Maker – or worse.

With all the processions and Masses I’ve not sung as much for a long time.  We did a bit of singing on the walk to Bartres yesterday.  In the taxi this morning we do a few Scottish, Irish and English songs.  After ‘Show me the way to go home’ I do the posh version of it which someone suggests should go into the diary.  So here it is.  You know the tune.

            ‘Indicate the way to my abode.

I’m fatigued and I want to retire.

I had a little aperitif sixty minutes ago

And it’s penetrated right to my brain.

No matter where I peregrinate

By road, or rail, or plane,

You will always hear me chanting this ditty,

‘Indicate the way to my abode.’

Adam’s dad and brother give me a lift back to Northampton.  There’s still three trains and a bus from there to Stockport.  The journey gives me a chance to write up three days of the diary.  In Lourdes I only kept rough notes.  Adam volunteered to do the report on Lourdes that will be sent out to the groups by email.

September 12 – Sunday

LISTENING TO THE YOUNG – THE DAVINCI CODE SO FAR

At the 12.00 Mass in the parish there is a pastoral letter to be read, so I give a longer introduction – based on Lourdes of course.  Lourdes could be seen as a glimpse of heaven.  So too should every Mass.  I mention how someone expected to be told off by God when they got to heaven.  Surely not.  God says: “As far as the east is from the west, so far do I want to remove your sins”.

The Pastoral letter is about the listening process being done in the dioceses of England and Wales.  In Westminster they were keen to listen to the voices of the young.  The groups in London had a session on it last week.  Here in the Shrewsbury Diocese the theme is ‘Listening and the Family’.  Family is crucial, but I hope at some stage there will be a chance to listen to the young or to those who don’t have a family.  People in the groups have often said how left out they can feel when they have to listen to a lot of emphasis on the family without any reference to those who are single.

Mostly a relaxing day, catching up after Lourdes.  A quick check of emails and phone messages, and a bit of diary.  Read some of the Da Vinci Code.  Can’t say I’m enjoying it.  I can see how others could lap up all the conspiracy theories about the Church, in the same way as Catholics in Northern Ireland might, against their better judgement, relish a book on “The Secret Life of the Rev Ian Paisley”.  I can understand why the Guardian has slated The Da Vinci Code a few times for being too fantastical.  With these kind of books or films I can be pretty good at parking my brain, but not this time.  The theorising goes on for too long, and at the most inappropriate times.  The police are just behind them yet they still find time to stop and discuss the most abstruse subjects.  The dialogue can be pretty lame.  One of the accusations of the author is that the Catholic Church tried to cover up the ancient worship of the divine feminine.  I was thinking about this in Lourdes on one of the processions.  Protestants often criticise us for worshipping Our Lady, as they see it.  As a group we should have a collection to send Dan Brown (the author of The Da Vinci Code) to Lourdes, and then to Fatima, Medjugorje, Knock, Walsingham, Carfin, La Salette, Guadaloupe and the many other shrines of Mary.

September 13 – Monday

INDIA IN JANUARY – MAYBE IN JULY

Most days in Lourdes last week I was ringing back trying to finalise details for India in January.  One problem was that naturally travel agents are busiest at weekends when most people are free, so they take their days off in the middle of the week.  But the main stumbling block was that the airline we wanted to fly with were insisting that they had the names of all the passengers before they would allow the agent to hold the seats for us.  Got that sorted out today.  Below is the email that went out about India today.  Giving the details for those to readers who are not on our email lists.

Dear All,                                                                                                                                                                                            14 Sept 2004

If you want to go to India from 4 - 18 January 2005 send in a cheque for £125 by 21 September, made out to 'Project 2030' to the Project 2030 Office, St Joseph's, Tilston Road, Malpas, Cheshire, SY14 7DD.  The final price should be less than £950.  We cannot make bookings until we have all the names of the eleven who will be going, so there is still a slight chance that by the time we book there will be no more seats available.

The price includes flights to and from Heathrow, tax, insurance, transfers to and from the airport, board (meals) and lodging, transport while in India, a driver, a guide, and someone to look after the house where we will be staying.

We will be staying in and around Cochin (Kochi) in Kerala, South West India, with a possible three-day trip to the hills of Tamil Nadu or equivalent.  It will be an experience of Indian culture, people and Church.  We will be visiting houses of the Dehonian Missions (my community) as well as other communities.  This time we will try to arrange in advance a day or two working at an orphanage run by Mother Teresa's Sisters, for those who want.

For those coming from Ireland let me know when you have posted your deposit cheque so you will not be disadvantaged in deciding who goes.  Also from Ireland, the deposit includes the £51.32 insurance for the trip, but cannot include insurance for your flight to London, so you might want to consider getting your own insurance.  In that case just send a bankers' draft for £73.68.

If you responded to the email a couple of weeks ago consider this your reply.

Below is a copy of the itinerary that was worked out by our guides for the visit last January:

Day 1:       Arrival at Kochi Airport.  Picked up by guides.
Day 2:       Beach at Cherai sea coast.
Day 3:       Beach at Allepey coast - you can have Mass at convent next door.
Day 4:       Sight-seeing at Fortcochi - Synagogue, Dutch place, St Francis Xavier Church, Jews St etc
Day 5:       Dehon Vidya Sadan, Dehonian seminary.  Evening - attending great Hindu festival Sivarathri
Day 6:       Working with Mother Teresa's sisters for those who want
Days 7-9:  Highrange, tea gardens at Kottagiri and Ootty
Day 10:     Dehon Bhavan, Kumbalanghy (Fr Martin's place)
Day 11:     Day of rest or city sightseeing
Day 12:     City trip.  Evening - attending students' anniversary celebrations at St Augustin's school
Day 13:     Back water trip at Kuttanad in houseboats
Day 14:     Day for marketing
Day 15:     Departures

A trip to India at the end of July 2005?  We have been advised that it could possibly rain all the time and it could be more expensive.  It could be, however, that it is the only time you could go if you are a teacher etc.  If ten people send in a £20 advance booking by the end of September we will organise a trip next July/August to coincide with school holidays.  (See first paragraph for details where to send cheque).

Best wishes,

Hugh

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Name ...................................................................................................

Address .................................................................................................

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...

Email  .......................................   Tel  nos ...............................................

Any dietary requirements or special needs …………………………………………………………………………

Date of trip (delete one not required):      4 - 18 January 2005            July/August 2005

September 14 – Tuesday

FR GENERAL – GRANTS – VISIT ROME IN APRIL

Yesterday came down to Malpas in Cheshire for the annual assembly of the Sacred Heart Fathers (Dehonians).  This year we are being visited by our Fr General from Rome.  He has overall responsibility for our communities in almost 40 countries, so we don’t see him very often.  Jose Ornelhas is from Portugal.  We studied together in Rome in the 80s for two years so I know him well.  It was good to see him again and we had the chance of a long chat as I’d missed the opportunity to speak to him when he visited Stockport last week.  One of the purposes of his visit was to ask us who we would like as our Provincial Superior with overall responsibility for our communities in Britain and Ireland for the next three years.  I’m in no danger of that as I fulfilled that role for the nine years before starting Project 2030.  Of more interest to me was the question of who was to replace the English-speaking member of his General Council in Rome who had to go back to North America for health reasons.  My name had been mentioned as a possibility.  The General said I could be in danger, but because our Province here is a small group, and mainly because of what I have started in Project 2030 it is unlikely that my head would be required in Rome.  That is a great boost for the work.  Of course, if he asked me, I couldn’t say no, obedience and all that, so get your emails ready just in case: “Dear Fr General, the weather here in Britain and Ireland is sunny at the moment, but I felt I had to write to you because….”

In our assembly there were many voices encouraging Project 2030 and recommendations that it gets the resources it needs.  There is still no clear answer as to what would happen if I got the proverbial heart attack (always possible) or the call to Rome (unlikely), but the question is on the agenda.  One great piece of news for the younger members of Project 2030 is that some of the money from the sale of Dehon House Youth Centre will become available for grants, etc.  The funds belong to a Trust and could originally only be used for Clubs for the under 21s.  Now individuals will be able to apply through Project 2030 up to at least 25.  We might even be able to apply for help for a few going to India or Germany next year.

Another piece of news from the Assembly is that our founder and patron, Leo Dehon, is likely to be made blessed in Rome on 10 April 2005.  The date will be confirmed in November.  I will be going to that and will be taking a group.  Put it in your diary.  Rome is always fascinating, but to have the added focus of a beatification and all that surrounds it could be an added bonus.  There will be a special programme for those 18+.  And if I’m already in Rome you can come and visit me.  Just kidding.

September 15 – Wednesday

HOW TO MEET – LEARNING FROM THE OTTER

Our Assembly was being facilitated by Br Ronnie from the Kinharvie Institute in Glasgow.  He was following the Market Place system which we had used at the gathering in August.  He gave plenty of good ideas how to do it, and his introductory talk in particular will be helpful for the review meeting at the weekend, and for any other kinds of meeting.  Here are some of his ideas, taken from the notes I made.

Ronnie read the following poem, ‘The Small Giant’ by Kenneth Stevens (from a book called ‘Iona’).

            The otter is ninety percent water

            Ten percent God.

            This is a mastery

            We have not fathomed in a million years.

            I saw  one once, off the teeth

            Of Western Scotland

            Playing games with the Atlantic –

            Three feet of gymnastics

            Taking on an ocean

Life, the issues facing us, etc, can seem like an ocean.  The otter is not overawed by the size of the task, it does not feel too small.  It does not take on the ocean.  It plays with it.

September 16 – Thursday

THOUGHTS FROM THE DEHONIAN FR GENERAL

At the end of our Assembly our Fr General, Jose Ornelas, gave us a talk based on his experience of visiting our communities in Britain and Ireland.  Here are  some extracts from my notes.  It will give you some idea what he felt we needed to hear, but a lot of it is relevant to us as Project 2030 and as individuals.  His talk had three main themes: spirituality, community and mission

September 17 – Friday

REVIEW MEETING – SOME OF MY INPUT

Representatives of the eight 20s and 30s groups met at St Joseph’, Malpas, Cheshire, for the weekend to exchange ideas, look at common issues, and come up with proposals for the group centrally and locally.  I gave some introductory input to set the scene as I saw it in the hope that I could then stand back and facilitate the ideas that were coming from the others.  These are some of the main things I said at some stage over the weekend:

September 18 – Saturday

REVIEW MEETING – RAISING THE ISSUES

On the Saturday morning we started by identifying the issues.  We met in groups of three to come up with what we needed to look at as a group.  These are the kinds of things that came up:

Based on these ideas people suggested what areas they would like to explore further.  We came up with 5.

We explored these further in small groups and then we voted by sticking dots on the proposed sheets to decide which 3 to take further and make concrete proposals to the groups.

How do we recruit new members?

What do we do with the 20s?

Retaining members.