Newman House at Lourdes

We are just back from our University Chaplaincy pilgrimage to Lourdes. Twenty students travelled with Sr Carolyn and Fr Stephen by train. We were part of the Westminster pilgrimage, and we joined the St Frai team in order to help the sick and elderly pilgrims staying in the hostel there.

It was an amazing week: a uniquely Catholic mix of friendship, rosaries, ice cream, apparitions, prayer, processions, beer, early mornings in the hospital, late evenings in the Grotto, confession, Mass, more ice cream, lots of laughter and a few tears – an incredible sense of what it means to belong to the family of the Church, with the sick and the vulnerable at the centre.

We prayed for the Chaplaincy and all the students and staff at our universities, and lit a candle especially for your intentions.

Next year we hope to take a group of thirty, so you can begin planning and saving. The dates are roughly 21 to 28 July 2018. The primary reason for our group going was to serve the sick pilgrims, who could not travel without the support of the St Frai team. That’s why we hope to have a good number of student volunteers again next year.

This is also a moment to thank the many benefactors who contributed to our Lourdes fund and supported students to travel who could not have come otherwise.

You can see a few photos here below, and if for some strange reason you want to look at the whole album then please click here: https://goo.gl/photos/xiGwcFhTfU6YU1o48