Lourdes 19-30 July 2012

First Meeting  THURSDAY 2nd February 2012 Lancaster Education Centre 7:30 pm.            Speaker : Bishop Michael

One hundred and fifty years ago a young girl was collecting firewood from the edge of the town of Lourdes, next to the river Gave, when she had an apparition of Our Lady. In subsequent apparitions, Bernadette was called to bear a message of repentance and prayer, and to call all peoples to come in procession. Our Lady also asked Bernadette to clear back the mud from the back of the cave and a little spring of water bubbled up, water which through the years has healed thousands of people. Lourdes became a major destination for pilgrimage and a place of healing. Each year the Youth Service participates in the diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes where we all share in an amazing experience of being together, making new friends, learning to pray more deeply and serving the sick, pushing their wheelchairs and assisting them in different ways. For many it is a life-chaging experience.

If you would like to participate in the Youth Section, download an application form. The deadline for booking forms is 14th February 2012.

If you are wondering about ways of raising funds to pay for the pilgrimage, the Knights of St Columba are organising a 10-mile sponsored walk from the parish rooms at the rear of St Peter’s Catholic Church in Lytham to St Anne’s Pier at 1pm on Sunday 5 February. Raise as much money as you and it will be put into a pot and re-distributed by the Knights who have been very generous to the young people of our diocese through the past years. All are most welcome!