Well hello again.

Today (Tuesday), began with everyone waking up for a 6.30am start. As you can probably guess most of us certainly don’t know what 6.30am feels like in the summer holidays and so there were lots of tired faces at breakfast. What was also special about today was that we were meeting the diocesan pilgrims for the very first time today.

Our first event with the Diocese was Mass by the grotto together with Lancaster Diocese and following this we posed for a diocesan photo in front of the Rosary Basillica.

Following lunch back at our hotels, we travelled to Lac Vert, an open air swimming pool up and lake surrounded by beautiful mountains and scenery. It was another opportunity for the group to chill out in the sun as well as going for a swim in the pool before going back off to our hotels for dinner. After dinner we assisted the pilgrims on a spectacular torchlight procession around the domain, together with other pilgrims from all over the world.

Afterwards we joined together at the Solitude Hotel for a karaoke night. This was great fun but as you can imagine the quality of singing varied greatly.

Also today, half of the service group (myself included) went out with Fr Bob Hamilton’s group. For those of you who don’t know Fr Bob he is the leader of a group which is made up of adults with special needs. The group celebrated Mass in the morning for which I read and all joined in with a very loud rendition of He has the whole world in his hands. After Mass Fr Bob's group also visited Lac Vert for a fun packed afternoon.

This is my third time in Lourdes with the youth service and working with Fr Bob’s group today was the most fun I have ever had in Lourdes. Every single member is unique and remarkable. Just seeing the smiles and laughter on their faces throughout the week made my experience extremely rewarding.

So that rounds of a very eventful day in which fun was had by all.

Until next time,
Will