WYD Madrid 2011

WYD Madrid 2011, a photo by Catholic Church (England and Wales) on Flickr.

I would like to briefly thank those who made it possible for Josh, Nathan and I to attend “World Youth Day”.
For those who do not know about WYD, let me give you a little information. WYD was started by the late Blessed Pope John Paul ll in 1986. WYD does actually happen every year, however once every two or three years young people from across the Earth come together for a weeklong event, we come and celebrate our Faith with the Holy Father, the successor of St Peter in Holy Mass.
The three of us went with the diocese for two weeks, although we didn’t go straight to Madrid. Firstly we travelled by coach to Valladolid; home of the Royal English college of St Alban. We had a tour of the seminary led by Bishop Terry and attended Mass at the college most days during our stay here.
While staying at Valladolid we also travelled to Avilla famous for its association with St Theresa. We visited the monastery where she was for some time based. We also visited the monastery at Duenas where the relatively new Spanish Saint Raphael had lived. Both these saints were patrons of this WYD.
In the second week we travelled from Valladolid to Madrid. Most mornings we had Catechesis followed by Holy Mass. Some of the talks during the catechesis sessions were really inspiring and helped us to understand the teachings of the Church. This is really important for young people, as sometimes it is difficult to defend our beliefs if we do not understand it ourselves.
At the main the events the atmosphere was amazing, at the vigil alone was over a million people. Everyone was really friendly, we had loads of photos taken with other people from around the world and we had small badges with our Diocesan name on which we swapped with various trinkets from fellow pilgrims – I came back with a little koala from Australia and a bag from Italy, among other things.
When the Pope arrived the atmosphere was electrifying; everyone singing and cheering – it made you proud to be a Catholic.
To anyone thinking of going to the next WYD in Brazil (2013) – Go for it. It will be well worth going and you will meet lots of other Catholics the same age as you and make lots of great friends who share the same Faith you do. It shows you are not alone.
Do not be afraid, you are not on your own, your one in a crowd of many who share the same beliefs, be proud of your Faith.

Summer Round Up.

Once again we find ourselves on the brink of the summer holidays, the last few weeks have been even busier than usual, the other week a group of us attended the Postgate Rally, this was a great day, we started with the walk from Ugthorpe to Egton Bridge across land which would of been familiar to Blessed Nicholas Postgate. The Mass at St Hedda's Church Celebrated By Bishop Terence Patrick Drainey was packed out.During the Mass, the Bishop Blessed the new Blessed Nicholas Postgate stained glass window. I was hoping to link to some photos but they do not seem to be any on the Diocesan web site yet. I have posted our pictures on the blog but they are mainly from the walk and our visit to Whitby for fish and chips after the Mass.

On Friday we had our end of term BBQ. It was a good turn out, and the weather stayed nice for us.










It was lovely to have two of our seminarians Ryan and Phil join us:

Invocation 2011

Once again, so busy, didn't get chance to update - sorry!

Will do an overall update in the next few days but in the meantime here is a report from three of our members on "Invocation 2011"



Invocation is a national vocations festival, for young adults held at St Mary’s college, Oscott in the Archdiocese of Birmingham. This took place between the 17th – 19th June. This is a programme aimed to help young people between the age of 16-35 to discern their vocation and deepen their relationship with Christ. This was a fantastic opportunity to understand and consider our vocation; God’s will in our lives, and maybe even consider the Priesthood or Religious life.

This weekend away provided us the chance to take part in the Mass, Adoration, Confession and workshops designed to help us learn more about our Faith. The Mass on the Sunday was Celebrated by the Apostolic Nuncio and an Apostolic Blessing from The Holy Father “Pope Benedict XVi” on the event was read out.
There were lots of different people from around the country, and we had the pleasure to meet and interact with them and make new friends and meet up with some friends from London who we had previously met at the “Faith” conference. It is hard to believe there are so many Religious orders, and nice to see so many young religious sisters.
The accommodation was simple, I think it is fair to say a bit rough. There was a field to pitch our tents or as some of us did sleep in the large marquee with lots of other people – all we needed was sleeping bag, mat and i-pod. (and a toothbrush). For some people sleeping under the stars wasn’t what they had in mind so they took off for local B&B’s and came back for the day. The main marquee where meals were held and talks held was nicely laid out, with carpets, chairs tables etc, it looked like it was laid out for a wedding. (Jerson Thomas said of the event) – “I wasn’t really sure about going because of exams, and the weather forecast was not good, it is fair to say that it was worth going as for many, priesthood opened up as a possible vocation.”
There were several workshops that you could choose from over the weekend. These included: a workshop about prayer life by Sr Gabriel Davison. One on Catechesis (looking at the new Y.Cat) with Dr Caroline Farey, Interior life and society by Dr Andrew O’Connell. The Carmelites, Dominicans, and Franciscans all held workshops on their own individual spirituality. To name but a few!
One of the highlights for all of us was the Blessed Sacrament procession around the college grounds by candlelight.
There are lots of photos, video’s and reports on the “Invocation” Blog site plus more information on their website. Blogsite - http://invocation2011.wordpress.com/.
We all really got a lot out of the weekend and would definitely go again (“but maybe take my own tent next time” – Jerson)
We thank everybody who gave us the opportunity to go and if anyone is thinking of going next year – tell them – “GO!”
By Jerson Thomas, Jackson Thomas and Jessica Robertson

Our Lady Of Fatima

We had lots of special guests tonight, firstly David Free came to tell us all about Our Lady of Fatima. To find out more about what happened at Fatima click HERE

Many thanks to Dave for his visit.








We also had a visit from the CWL ladies, who came to present us with a generous donation to the youth group, with money raised from their Easter treats raffle.
Thank you to everyone.

4th Birthday Party

Tonight we celebrated our fourth birthday.
As it was a lovely evening we spent some time socialising out in the garden, some of the more energetic joined in a game of cricket, while some of the younger members showed of their hula hooping skills.
We went in the hall for party food and as a special treat we sent out for pizza.
Then back outside to bash the pinata.


A little later while we munched on the huge birthday cake we watched a film of photo clips from all our escapades from the last four years.
Then finally we finished with prayers, with a special prayer of thanks for God bringing us all together. We concluded prayers with a Blessing from Fr John.

Happy Birthday

The Youth Club is 4 today, but we will have to wait another week for celebrations!

Chrism Mass - 2011 - Then on to Whitby

Faith Youth Day - Why Did Jesus Die?

It was the West Hull Parishes turn to host this Spring's Faith Youth Day.

WYD 2011 Madrid - Official Site - YouCat, a Catechism for Youth

WYD 2011 Madrid - Official Site - YouCat, a Catechism for Youth

Apostleship Of The Sea Visit

On Friday both groups got together for a visit from the Apostleship of the Sea's: Anne mcLaren, who came to talk to us about her work as Port Chaplain and the work of seafarers.

Pancakes

St (Padre) Pio Day - Bradford

On Saturday a group of us travelled to Bradford to visit the Franciscan Friars for one of their Padre Pio days.

It was a great day with a cheeky little stop at Xscape on the way there.

We arrived at the friary just in time for a quick drink and a biscuit, then moved over to the Church for a talk given by Fr Augustine on the Sacrament of Confession. He spoke of the encounter with Christ we have when we approach the Sacraments. It was good to be reminded that "Confession makes you happy." He also reminded us that we need to be aware of sin and the importance of the Ten Commandments.

After the talk we stayed in Church ready for Holy Mass after which we went back over to the friary for a cup of tea and chance to meet lots of new people. After refreshments it was time to go back into church. Time of prayer in front of Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament during which time everyone was inspired to experience the joy of confession. The Holy hour finished with Benediction then back to the friary for chili.

Josh and Jess WYD 2011 Madrid - Why I can't wait!

Josh and Jess gave a little talk tonight on why they are looking forward to World Youth Day, I think these videos sum it up.......

Spring Programme

Please note error on programme: Both groups Friday 21st June - Jess and Josh go to world youth day. Should read - 21st January. (Not 21st June)

Friday 11th June Apostleship of the sea. This is actually on 11th March!

Welcome Back

We had our first meeting of the new year last night, and we had a pretty good turn out.


We had a few birthdays to catch up with - so this = CAKE!

A few of us got to work decorating our new question box. Every week this will be available for posting any questions we might have regarding our faith but just don't like to ask. Then once a month we'll tackle these questions.

Before Christmas one of our projects was to send Christmas cards and a letter to some of our house bound parishioners. Sadly one of these ladies has recently died so we remembered to pray for her along with all the recently departed in our night prayers.

Faith Winter Conference - Stonyhurst- 2010

Youth club resume tomorrow (14th Jan), but since we finished for Christmas it seems we haven't stopped.
Between Christmas and New Year a group of us attended the Faith winter conference. Which as always was really good. the theme for the talks this conference was "Lord teach us to pray" (Lk 11:1). Hopefully very soon one of our young people will write a report on their experience for the blog - until then hopefully the photographs will suffice.