a new year meditation

A new year is a pause at the top of a hill. A chance to draw breath and to look back at the way that you have traveled through a year of experience. As you look back at the journey you have made do so with compassion and a gentleness, even for the experiences which still carry a sting or a shiver for your spirit. Let it all be and resist the temptation to analyse. Just look back and say to yourself “that’s what happened” without letting anger or sadness get a foothold because it is already in the past. It is now just experience and it is rich in a wisdom that is deeper than any analysis can reveal. Let it lie and leave every negative in the hands of your God who, in time, will easter it all into new life.

Instead allow your mind’s eye to scan the year for good memories, good people and the ordinary joys of being alive. Let your mind cherry pick your best moments; the conversations that opened up new potential, the stillness of moments of peace, the transfigurations of joy and the meals that have celebrated life. Re-live those life-giving moments that still sparkle on the journey of the last year even with the distance of time. Allow those joys and blessings to rouse up in your mind the gratitude that has made the year of 2013 a gift.

Do not turn too quickly to 2014 but spend some time unwrapping the gift that this passing year has become. Let your heart dwell with these memories and cherish the joys and consolations they contain. Pray that those things that are unfinished may continue to be eastered into new life by the hidden hands of God healing your history.

Open your hands and give the year back to God with gratitude.

Then, put your hand into the hand of God and walk into the adventure of 2014.

Happy new year!

The mess in your life is the manger where Christ is re-born

The first Christmas was a bit of a shambles;

Mary and Joseph were away from home

Accommodation wasn’t arranged

The place they found was makeshift

There were question marks over Mary’s pregnancy

Herod was plotting to kill their child

People kept disturbing their peace- like shepherds and later wise men

They had to become refugees soon after the birth.
It wasn't romantic, hygienic and it probably smelled a lot!

Politics, travel problems, domestic mess, strangers at the door, threats of violence, tiredness, gossip and uncertainty.

God came into a mess- it didn’t put him off and he didn’t miraculously sort it out.

He came to be God-with-us.  Emmanuel in the mess

We are messy creatures and that is how God made us

He knows that we are easily upset, want everything perfect and that we want to be appreciated

He knows that we can sulk and be adolescent at any age.

He knows that Christmas catches us out with tiredness, tensions and high expectations

And God wants to be with us in our fun, in our rest, in our upset and in our arguments this Christmas

Make room for Christ this Christmas in the joys and tensions of a family Christmas.

Take Christ out of your Christmas and all you have left is m and s

Emmanuel- God is with us- as one like us- not far away but in the mess

God is with us as one of us.

He teaches us from the messy manger that we are brothers and sisters

Whether we have a happy or a hellish Christmas God is equally with the sulker and with the saint.
The only difference is that the saint may be more aware of God in the mess.

We belong to each other in a communion of saints- 

a family of saints that extends deep into the mystery of God
who loves us unconditionally.

There is no such thing as a perfect Christmas-

There is always a messy Christmas and in the mess are the stirrings of new life.

The mess in your life is the manger within which your relationship with Jesus is being re-born

I will leave you with Pope Emeritus Benedict’s words on this theme:

Most of us in the world today live far from Jesus Christ, the incarnate God who came to dwell amongst us. We live our lives by philosophies, amid worldly affairs and occupations that totally absorb us and thus are a great distance from the manger. In all kinds of ways, God has to prod us and reach out to us again and again, so that we can manage to escape from the muddle of our thoughts and activities to discover the way that leads to him. God comes to us as man so that we might become truly human. (Benedict 16^th)

Mass with Thomas in mind

Tonight we said mass for Thomas who is not well and living in the Czech Republic. His sister joined us and we celebrated the mass at the same time as the family was celebrating mass in the Czech Republic. What was happening in that double celebration and in what sense were we connecting with Thomas? As we gathered at the altar it seemed to me that there is a sense in which we step into a timeless space and also a 'placeless space.' This celebration, happening at the same time in two places, reminds us of the deep reality of the risen Jesus who is present in all places and in all times. Therefore by being "In Christ" at the mass we are deeply connected to both the past and the future as well as to every place.

By engaging with the risen Christ at mass we also touch the places where the cross and resurrection are moving as an invitation to life. That flow of Easter energy connects people to those who have yet to be born, to those in need at present and to those who have gone before to the fullness of resurrection. Therefore the mass takes us all into a different dimension where space and time collapse to a single point in Christ and where we are one with each other and with the Risen Christ. As the host is raised up, the bread broken and the wine is poured all of creation is drawn up into that drama of dying and rising. Standing around the altar as a community that night it was as if we had discovered roots that ran deep into a common reality in Christ. We belonged together around the altar but we also belonged with all people of all time and forever.

So in focussing on Thomas and a simultaneous mass in the Czech Republic we were only making specific something that happens mystically in every mass; we were connecting with all life and creation. It's just that this time it was with Thomas in mind.

Temptation

Jesus was tempted by celebrity, self interest and power for 40 days. In this culture these temptations are as lively as ever. We can all be seduced from being ourselves by these three influential forces. Often we are not even  aware that our motives have been hijacked. To be faithful to our vocation is then to have made many u turns. The path is not the hero path but a humble process of trial and error. The one who finds their way learns to trust the road rather than himself or herself.
The temptation is to take short cuts, to avoid conflicts, questions and uncertainty. But it is precisely in these unknowns and in the diversions that our lives become shaped by events and God's touch is experienced on the faith journey.

Choose well how you fast this lent

Today's Gospel deals with the practice of fasting recalling the comments of Jesus that fasting does not happen when the bridegroom is still around. That is an interesting connection: linking fasting with the absence of God. Perhaps that is a way to discern why and how we might fast in a secular and individualised culture.
If fasting has to be related to an absence of God the link with the Lenten period becomes stronger; fasting becomes more than just self-denial or self control, it becomes a specific way of growth on the faith journey of the individual and the world.

When an awareness of the absence of God becomes a criteria for fasting it helps us as both individuals and communities to focus our fasting and link it to the paschal mystery in a more concrete way. For example a person may realise that their married relationship is a place where God has largely become absent. That then becomes the place where the "bridegroom is no longer with them" and therefore the place where fasting might be focused  In a community context a person may conclude that the office workspace where they spend much of their day is a Godless environment and that may become the focus for their fasting. A young person may look at their life and feel that God is absent because they never stop to think deeply and that absence of reflection is something that needs fasting from.
The definition of fasting that is implied by these reflections may well expand to include aspects of alms-giving and prayer, the other two disciplines of lent.  The fasting element is that of self denial "agere contra" going against one's self. So the married person may well decide that switching the television off and sitting with their partner for half an hour three nights a week might be a good way to fast from a self-centred lifestyle. This might include giving up soap operas or football matches which could be seen as a form of fasting. The person working in a Godless office space might well decide to pray quietly at their desk for five minutes at lunchtime as a way of resisting the relentless tide of gossip and back-biting sweeping through the workspace. In this situation prayer and self-control form a type of fasting that might help to change the world of the office for all concerned. The young person realising that they never stop to think might pick up the challenge of a silent face-book which +cafod is promoting at present.
If fasting was seen as focused around an absence of God in our world it has the ability to draw together the other two elements of Lenten discipline (prayer and alms-giving) into a single resolution that leads to life for the individual and the community in which people live. On a wider scale fasting has the same focus when family fast day comes around. Dorothy Day began a fast during Vatican II to raise awareness among bishops of the need for peace. Gandhi fasted in a similar way to bring God back into an increasingly Godless and unjust culture.
Choosing how to fast this lent can be the most significant choice for the whole year. It can bring God into the shadows of our lives as a messiah.  It can give us the courage to feel the emptiness and desert areas of our lives and realise that it is the only place where we can meet Christ because that is where he is waiting to heal us and our world.

Pope Benedict resigns

The news of Pope Benedict's resignation comes as a shock to many simply because it has happened so rarely in the history of the church. His predecessor, John Paul II, deliberately lived out the infirmity of his old age in the glare of publicity in order to highlight the importance of the struggles of later life. Pope  Benedict seems to have a very different motivation for going that is equally humble and rational. Here is what he said:

In today's world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognise my incapacity to adequately fulfil the ministry entrusted to me.

Knowing when to let go of a role, especially one of high profile, takes as much wisdom as it does courage. We have seen how both Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher stayed too long in their roles. Perhaps that happens because those who fill those roles are drawn into a kind of grandiosity in their thinking that clouds the reality of their fallibility. That is not the case with Benedict, he seems to be acutely aware of his fallibility in guiding the church.

All of these thoughts seem to pale into insignificance before the fact that Benedict is already 85 years old. He should be tucked up by the fire with a blanket and some good reading. Above all he should not be exploited by a curial system that seems resistant to change and at times insensitive to individual needs. There is a danger that the curial system in the Vatican will be the rock on which the church will founder unless the next pontiff organises a good re-fit of the whole curial system. Perhaps that will be Benedicts greatest legacy; that if the church can develop its thinking in regard to the resignation of a pope what else might be able to change?

Marriage; heteronuptial and homonuptial?

This week the house of commons passed the next stage of a bill permitting marriage for same sex couples. This is a triumph of common sense in a secular state and a disaster for the word marriage.  A word that has been consistently used over thousands of years to describe the commitment to a biological partnership that has the diversity to create new life as a single unit, a word that has described the foundational unit for all societies in every time, that word has now been stretched out of shape.

Perhaps we need to invent new words like heteronuptial or homonuptial to describe these radically different realities. Using the same word to describe the two relationships is papering over the cracks of too many fundamental differences; the potential of a heterosexual relationships, the unity of heterosexual relationships, the complementarity of heterosexual relationships are all radically different from same sex relationships. They may be equal in value but they are radically different. Simply labelling them the same way does not remove the diverse nature of the two relationships so much so that other language will have to be created to make that distinction with much confusion as a result.

As a Christian I have little problem with gay relationships and recognise the hierarchy of values in the catholic church especially which places love right at the pinnacle of that hierarchy. St Augustine put it simply "love and do what you will." Many other Christians would disagree with this approach but I am not sure that Jesus would. His approach was one of compassion and encouragement to the woman at the well and the woman caught in adultery. The woman who was a sinner  and wept at the feet of Jesus was not forgiven because of her moral strength but because "she had loved much."

Same sex couples cannot simply throw a switch and disconnect from the genuine love that holds them together. That love is as much part of God's love as is heterosexual love. Otherwise why would a consistent 11% of the human race, made in God's own image, be born with this orientation?  Christians cannot pick and choose to recognise one love and not another, bless one kind of love and evict  the other from public life. As a catholic church we have a lot to learn about sexuality. We are male, celibate and caught up in a clerical culture for millennia. We need to be a church that listens in this area and say little, perhaps for a hundred years or more. Listening will make us humble, perhaps even wise in this area and the Gospel may emerge with a greater clarity than ever before when we recall the words "God is love"
But the word +marriage- that is in for a difficult time +dictionary writers will already be scratching their heads and creative types will be dreaming up new, and hopefully better, words for heterosexual contracts.

King Richard III and you

The discovery of the remains of King Richard III under a car park in my home city of Leicester has made the news today. The historians were apparently acting on a hunch!
The identification of the remains involved a lot of investigation and crucially included DNA matching with DNA from Richard's sister. The amazing thing about this story is the scientific identification that can be so accurate after so long. The blue print of our lives is unique and yet it overlaps with so many others. The freedom we have to be ourselves is built upon a communal foundation written into the DNA of our lives.
In a culture that glorifies independent and solo heroes it is easy to overlook the interdepenedence that is built into our genes and our stories. When the individual dimension is over-stressed the sense of community is diminished and governments need to work harder at social cohesion and try to invent a "big society" where one no longer exists.
The truth is that DNA means that we are all spiral bound not only individually but also as a community. Our lives spiral through community to the point that we cannot say clearly where we end and another person begins. That is why, in the book of Genesis, Cain asks the question "am I my brothers keeper" in an attempt to cover up his brother's murder. Cain's punishment was to wander as a marked man and never enjoy community or prosperity in God's presence.

The DNA that binds us together is an image of the way that God's life weaves through our own making sense of each person's story and giving meaning to the shared journey we are making together. To plough our own furrow at the expense of others, to refuse to get engaged in the common good or to reach out in compassion is to share the mark of Cain.  To realise that we are all interconnected in God's love is to recognise that we are not so different from the bones of Richard dug up today in Leicester. At least that is my hunch!

+wetherspoons and vocations ?

What is the connection between wetherspoons and vocation? Well our vocations team have just finished their meeting here surrounded by a few beers and some good food. |The Moon Under Water is a friendly pub on Deansgate Manchester full of noise and life and a large number of rugby fans. Its just the place to talk about vocations because it keeps you real. It reminds you that all the people around us, relaxing, celebrating, escaping home or meeting friends - all of them are on a vocation journey. They may not be too aware of that, but their lives too are unfolding in a pattern of some kind and they are following a path that they hope makes sense and has some meaning.
I think all vocations planning meetings should happen in pubs. It keeps us real and avoids us talking too piously about what are earthy and often messy life decisions.
Also, the beer is good and cheap!
Well done +Wetherspoons. Well done +Moon Under Water!

Don Bosco was a rascal

January 31st is the feast day of St John (Don) Bosco. He was a remarkable man, full of life and optimism- and at times a little devious. He knew how to get where he wanted with people and that often involved a little 'sleight of hand.' As a youngster he smashed a pot of cooking oil he should not have touched when his mother was out. The young John cleaned up the mess and took the cane his mother threatened them with and met his mother on the road. He confessed what he had done and gave the cane to his mother so that she could beat him. Of course his mother refused and he escaped punishment.
In dealing with young people in bars as a young priest he would often beat them at their own gambling games and even run off with the money  in order to get them out of the bar and to a place where he could talk sense to them.
Later, when he was raising money for large building projects, he visited a contessa to beg for money. He was shown into a parlour to await the great lady. When the contessa arrived Don Bosco had rolled back the expensive carpet and was stood on the tiles of the floor. She asked what he was doing. Don Bosco replied that he was a poor and simple priest and could not afford to stand on such an expensive carpet all the time with a twinkle in his eye. He got the big donation he was looking for.
 Later on, when he had fallen out with Pope Leo he realised he needed to make a large gesture to keep the Pope supportive of the Salesians. So he took on the building of a new church for the pope as a gesture of gratitude to someone he found difficult. It was the building of this church that eventually sent Don Bosco to an early grave.

In the Gospel we are encouraged to be as simple as doves and as wise as serpents (Matthew 10.16) and Don Bosco was both of those in his service of the young. We too need to be able to use our personality as a way to extend the network of God's kingdom. If we are to become saints today we need to engage with our culture and be able to influence, energise and loosen up the inner lives of others to the possibility of God at work in their lives.

Perhaps your personality can become the mirror of God's own face reflected in your thinking , in your actions and in your relationships. Maybe God is close enough to whisper a joke in your ear! Maybe you will hear God laughing at you and if you have the courage of Don Bosco you will be able to join the laughter too.

Finding a vocation

There was a phrase I heard in the fifties about a young priest that worried me: "he hasn't got a vocation to be a priest- but his mother has one!" It is a phrase less likely to be heard today but it serves as a reminder of the difficulty in discerning a vocation at any time. It is so easy to be deceived and to mix up motives for the choices we make. Pleasing your parents is not a fault but the desire to do so may mask a deeper and more authentic call that may point to a different life-choice.
One of the mysteries of a vocation to marriage, to ministry,religious life or the caring professions is that it comes through weakness as well as through gifts In Christian terms we meet the messiah in the shadow side of our lives and while we avoid confronting that darker side of our lives: the mixed motives, fears, angers and evasions, we cannot fully embrace our vocation.

A vocation is a lifelong challenge that comes from a deep inner voice that speaks from gifts and needs and finds an echo in the gifts and needs of the world into which we are born. The resonance between the story of the world around us and the world within us is the context of a calling. Therefore a vocation comes through life and from within ones personal story. God speaks through history and through personal histories too. 

To make this more concrete I should share part of my own vocation story. My early family experience was marked with a lot of pressures including some violence, a death and the effects of depression. That darker aspect of my early years created a situation where I had to dig deep to draw on an inner spirit and meaning that gave me a more thoughtful and spiritual approach to life. Without that darkness I may never have heard the call to serve young people who struggled. I still carry the negative effects of that early time and  darkness continues to be an issue. However, even that negative aspect continues to shape my choices, and the things I notice in the world around me. The darker  aspect of my own story creates limitations that shape my vocation because there are so many things I cannot do. I get anxious and tire easily. I get impatient with detail and I can easily slip into self pity. These limitations keep me close to Christ as someone who saves me from these weaknesses and in that struggle to trust my vocation story continues to unfold towards the fullness of life.

So a vocation story is a reflection of the cross and resurrection a movement through struggle to new life. Each of us need courage to embrace both the cross and the resurrection in our lives. The danger is that we may embrace a cross that is not meant for us just as we may follow a vocation that is more to do with our parents wishes than our own.

That is why it is good to reflect on the need for discernment and perhaps attend the signpost weekend advertised on the Salesian vocations web site.

health and holiness and the daily mirror

Yesterday the Daily Mirror listed twenty five secrets of a long life. A few weeks before The +Daily Mirror ran a similar article on a longer life. Tucked away in the listing were references to faith. In the December article people were encouraged to "believe..in something" and in the January article they were encouraged to "go to church" in order to live a longer life. These items were not commented upon especially and seemed to sit uncomfortably alongside other advice to have regular sex and eat three walnuts a day.




The persistence of the spiritual and religious dimension in popular culture can be surprising and perhaps seen as evidence of a nostalgia for a simpler and more certain culture. But that view would ignore the evidence that faith does matter. The evidence for that comes in research time and time again that believing and attending a church does make a difference. Take this piece for example:





"Again, the health benefits of religion and spirituality do not stem solely from healthy lifestyles. Many researchers believe that certain beliefs, attitudes, and practices associated with being a spiritual person influence health. In a recent study of people with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), those who had faith in God, compassion toward others, a sense of inner peace, and were religious had a better chance of surviving for a long time than those who did not live with such belief systems. Qualities like faith, hope, and forgiveness, and the use of social support and prayer seem to have a noticeable effect on health and healing". link






This type of research-based evidence underlines that we are spiritual beings and that to be fully human meas to be engaged spiritually with life, with others and with ourselves. We are more alive, more engaged, more healthy and better connected when we believe. That means that faith and spirituality confer an evolutionary advantage on believers.Emile Durkheim, to many the father of sociology, said that the person who has met their God does not just seem stronger or heathier, they are stronger and healthier. Faith has real effects in life.




The expression of faith in these terms marks out a pathway for faith development in the future. To some religious people it may seem to reduce religion to just another humanist philosophy. To more secular minds the research may seem to be less than scientific. Both parties are challenged by this type of research and the struggle to make sense of it will take our culture forward to a better synthesis about faith and well being. So don't expect the faith dimension to disappear from the listings for a long life in next years Daily Mirror feature.

Gentleness as the wisdom of God

There is a story heard by many school children about a battle between the sun and the storm who decided to test their skills by making a traveller remove his cloak. The storm tried first and hit the traveller with wind and snow and rain and ice. The more the storm blew the tighter the traveller held onto the cloak. Eventually the traveller stopped and hid from the storm. The sun tried next and gently warmed the air and the ground after the storm and as it grew warmer the traveller began to loosen the cloak and eventually took it off. The sun had beaten the fury of the storm with gentleness.

The story reminds us that gentleness untangles hearts and minds and that taking people by storm creates fear, anger and isolation. That at least was Don Bosco's view. He reminded his youth workers that more could be achieved with a spoonful of honey than with a barrel full of vinegar. He was using an image from his  inspirational patron, St Francis de Sales whose feast day is January 24th. 

Gentleness was one of St Francis' major insights into spiritual life and an attitude that left no room for the hard-hearted and punitive images of God that still haunt the church despite the words and example of a gentle and humble Jesus.  Francis was working in the post reformation period of church history and had to manage the tensions between protestants and catholics in Geneva. Exiled from his own town and surrounded by the anger of the cathedral chapter many wanted to start a full scale military attack to re-take Geneva. In the discussion Francis said this:

I propose neither steel or powder; nor will I levy an army of mercenaries with no faith or piety. . . . It is by charity that the walls of Geneva will be breached, by love the city will be invaded, by kindness it will be won over.

This gentleness will have been viewed by many as naive but it reminds us now of the work of Mahatma Gandhi and the words of Don Bosco who spoke about a young person's heart being a fortress that will only be opened up by loving kindness. The same could be said of every friendship, marriage, family and community. Only love is worthy of ultimate belief and only love can open up, energise and heal what has been broken or stunted in its growth.

Gentleness disarms, leaves people free, reassures, waits, hopes and believes in the goodness of others. That is the real profile of the God we see in the Gospels; The Father of whom Jesus spoke and The Spirit that heals and inspires. Whenever you find a God who is not gentle, forgiving, optimistic and patient you will have found a false idol.That is what many young people have discovered in our church and they are right to reject it.

A God who judges, places impossible burdens on young lives, condemns whole groups because of their orientation and excludes groups from full communion projects an image of God that no one has a right to bow down to. We need to think again as a church about the primacy of loving kindness and use that to keep our fearful voices and narrow minds in a wider embrace of God's gentleness. Especially on this feast of God's gentleman saint.

Young people save adults

Today is the feast of Laura Vicuna, a 14 year old girl beatified in 1988.
She gave her life over to God at the age of 9 and found a spiritual director who eventually allowed her to live the vows of a religious in her own student lifestyle.
One of Laura's worries was about her mother who was living on the edge of a number of destructive relationships. On her deathbed Laura begged her mother to change and after her death her Mother sorted out her life and returned to church.

Is Laura extraordinary? I think that she is but she is not unusual.

Young people like Laura are around us all the time. They are optimistic, idealistic, determined and courageous. They can be found in the thousands of young carers who hold their families together especially when the Father is absent. They are the young people who dig deep into the meaning of life to carry burdens too heavy for many adult family members. Sometimes they are young prophets, reminding the adults in their world of uncomfortable truths, rubbing salt into the wounds of adult compromises. Their other gift is the joy and wonder with which they meet life that earths adult cynicism and teaches grown ups to play.

We often think that saints must be serious, old, dripping with wisdom and mystery. In fact, as Don Bosco often said "we want no long faced saints here." Young people are the hidden saints that emerge from the deeper goodness of adult lives. Their dedication, their courage and their cheerfulness point to the child of God at the heart of each adult. Young people preach the Gospel with their lives to us adults who are often deaf to the message.

Personal reflection on the end of the relics pilgrimage of Don Bosco

Having spent two weeks travelling the country in draughty minibuses at unreasonable hours it would be normal to be relieved that the whole event is over. In fact as the relic of Don Bosco left the Sacred Heart Church in Battersea on Tuesday evening January 15th there were few dry eyes in the congregation. Some of the congregation reported a real sense of loss including some of the Bishops that attended the final farewell.

The idea of bringing relics to Great Britain was met by some scepticism by some members of the church and with enthusiasm by others. In the end the latter group won through and the pilgrimage can be said to have achieved its aims.

As a congregation in this country we wanted to unlock the wisdom of this saint for a church that has been embattled with various challenges over the last decade. We have tried to present the earthy, relational and optimistic lay spirituality of a saint who believed in people. His motto "give me souls, nothing else matters" underlines the focus on people. So whilst others argue rightly about liturgy and theology in one part of our church others, like Don Bosco speak about the politics of the Our Father and the need to let people know that they are loved.

One aspect of the experience of the relics made a powerful impression on the travelling team of thirty five mainly young people; they discovered the real experience of the catholic church in this country. Wherever they went, in England, Scotland and Wales they were welcomed by a community that cared. Each Cathedral was a community where the Gospel was being lived in hospitality before a prayer was said. The contact and confidence was immediate between the team and the local community. Don Bosco spoke about this confidence as being like an electric current that ran between people through which hearts were opened and needs were shared. That experience followed the team wherever they went.

This earthy and people-centered focus is balanced by a deep and almost mystical awareness of God's presence living in people.  That was the energy that created  resilient hospitality in each of the communities that welcomed the relics. It is a spirituality that we as a province want to offer to the church in this country in a much more explicit way. In a real sense we want to give this charism away to others so that they can recognise the intimate closeness of God in themselves and others.

We want to challenge parents youth workers and teachers to put into practice the preventive system of Don Bosco which changes these roles and especially parenting into a path of holiness.

We want to offer those who need more life balance a model that challenges us all to meet God in church but also in the school of life in the home that we create and most of all, in the playground of life.

We want to offer the whole country a way to make young people feel precious as well as challenged by life and to do that work for deeper and spiritual reasons whatever their faith background.


The Salesian network of lay people, Cooperators, Sisters, Brothers and Priests is spread across the country and ready to engage in a quiet and gentle affirmation of ordinary catholic life and Gospel living. They are also there to challenge us all to look on the world optimistically and meet life with a smile. Don Bosco's simple message is that holiness consists in being cheerful. His patron St Francis de Sales said that you can catch more bees with a spoonful of honey than with a barrel full of vinegar. That cheerful optimism, that honey, is what Don Bosco offers to our church in Great Britain as we move through changing times. Such a cheerful faith can move mountains of sadness and uncertainty. It can bind the church into a community balanced between the past and the future and free up the energy to live the resurrection as much as we live the cross.

We want, as a pilgrimage team to thank The Parish of OUr Lady and All Saints in Basildon who hosted our team for five days. There the team met a community focussed on Gospel hospitality and cheerfulness. Their warmth and care lifted the whole team at a time when we were all flagging.

Mr Gerry Kehoe managed this event for us with huge insight and dedication. Without his professionalism and the involvement of DPL event management we could not have presented Don Bosco so well to the country.

Thanks also go to Rualink the Salesian Media Office in Cowley for the late night work and the quality of their output. (see web site for details at www.donboscorelics.co.uk 

Finally we owe a debt of gratitude to all the Archbishops of England, Wales and Scotland who opened their churches and their hearts to Don Bosco, the friend of youth.

The pilgrimage moves on through Europe and will reach Italy by 2015 for the 200th anniversary of the birth of Don Bosco.

First report Battersea Departure January 15th

Guests from all over Britain gathered to say farewell to Don Bosco's relics as they left from the the Church of The Sacred Heart in Battersea; the last foundation by Don Bosco before his death.

The fourteen day pilgrimage ended with thanksgiving and blessings for all those involved and for the hidden and not so hidden good that the pilgrimage has generated in the hearts of many people across the nation. Over 20,000 people have visited Don Bosco's relics and the stories of their encounter with the saint of youth have been captured by many members of the team in moving conversations from Glasgow to the South of London.

The final service saw Archbishops and bishops gathering to acknowledge the debt we all owe to this saint. During the service Jess Barnett, a team member spoke about her uncertainty about the idea of a relic but meeting an old visitor who was able to play games and do action songs and speak of his dreams for his grandchildren convinced Jess that something special was happening that had little to do with bones.

The presence of Danny Curtain and representatives of CYMFED and progression pointed out the wide range of appeal Don Bosco holds form many areas of Catholic ministry. The team have said that they were delighted and overwhelmed by the warmth and welcome they have encountered ineach Cathedral community as well as in Basildon where they were hosted by wonderful families from the parish in Laindon. The privilege of making this journey through the grass roots of the church has transformed the image of the church in many youthful minds.

Fr Coyle spoke of his gratitude for so many people and places that had hosted the relics and for the sense of church that had grown and developed in the process. The theme of holiness as cheerfulness leading to a balanced spirituality was reinforced by the joy and energy in the church. Because of that energy of the spirit we were all surprised that our own lives had been transformed, perhaps forever, by this experience.

After a unique litany of thanksgiving that followed Don Bosco's favourite piece of scripture from the letter to the Phillipians , the team gathered to receive commemorative medals for their pilgrimage work. Then as the team launched into the pilgrimage song, Friend of youth, there was an explosion of white confetti over the team and the relic. As the relic was moved on in the care of Fr Michael , Provincial of the Irish province, the altar was left open with the symbol of the catholic youth ministry federation lit by a candle. It remains as a symbol that the legacy of the pilgrimage lies with the catholic youth of Great Britain . This event now flows back into the normal pattern of yoyth ministry in the church.

Relics departure Battersea quotes

Departure service for Don Bosco's relics from Battersea Sacred Heart Church January 15^th

Quotes

Fantastic organisation and a great teaching and information experience. It was inspirational. It was great to see so many thousands of young people visiting Don Bosco. My personal highlight was the hours prayer with the relics and an extended and prayerful conversation with Don Bosco. |Built into the experience was the incentive to understand Don Bosco and not just learn about him. The challenge of the pilgrimage for me was to really live the preventive system not just in school settings but in the whole of life. Its a way of living that was demonstrated by the fantastic team that accompanied the relics.

Sr Mary Treacy FMA

A wonderful experience for me( almost as good as being at Stamford Bridge!) I couldn't get over the numbers or the enthusiasm of young people.

Sr Mary Louise Ballard FMA

The highlight for me was watching some of the older Salesians, both men and women, walking the pilgrim experience with such devotion and a homely familiarity with all that they were experiencing.

|Helen O'Brien Chief executive officer CSAN

It was wonderful for Birmingham to take part in this pilgrimage of the relics of Don Bosco. For us it is an important reminder of the legacy of the Salesian presence in our diocese. It helps us to cherish the charisms that have been enriching the diocese for many years, especially through the work of the Salesians in Cowley, in the school and in the parish of Mary help of Christians.

Through the pilgrimage we have been made aware of a new dimension of being a church involved in love and service of the young in Great Britain inspired by the example of Don Bosco during the visit of his relics.

Archbishop Bernard Longley Birmingham

I've been following the journey of Don Bosco's relics around the world through the internet. I think the experience has been fantastic here but it connects to a world-wide journey that is scattered with marvels and miracles. Its good to know that this amazing experience fits into a pattern that embraces the whole world.

Peter Hunter Salesian Past Pupils Association

It has been a very moving experience most was on Sunday when I received the message that we would be able to take Don Bosco's relics to Feltham Young Offenders Institution. IT was one of Don Bosco's major concerns: to keep young people out of prison. At a personal level I am supporting a family who are having to deal with the imprisonment of their son so this visit meant so much to me. The overall impression of the pilgrimage is one of family; being united around Don Bosco and being proud to say this is our province!

Sr Pauline Clark FMA

It has been a wonderful experience I have been to Turin to Don Bosco's shrine and this ezxperience has brought all of this back as I walked the pilgrim path with Don Bosco. I gained a wonderful sense of peace and tranquillity. I really didn't want the relics to leave the church at the end. I told my siter in Ireland that the relics are on their way and she is looking forward to engaging in the Irish pilgrimage.

Don Bosco's approach to young people is so down to earth that it has made me realise that I can use it more consciously in my work with training nurses. I want to explore how to make the preventive system work in that adult training context.

Marguerite Lydon Nurse Education Officer Chertsey

I am impressed by the down to earth spirituality of Don Bosco. In my previous Anglican role I ran a church youth club and we were always concerned to be with young people. That same concern is recognised and celebrated in Don Bosco's spirituality. We need more emphasis on the playground in working with the young.

Monsignor Keith Newton

It was such an uplifting experience to celebrate Don Bosco's charism. I was surprised to feel so sad at the end when Don Bosco's relics had to leave.

Bishop Philip Pargeter

The whole experience was beautifully done. It was wonderful for me to see the quality and commitment of the young team. I was delighted t5o be invited and consider that it has been an honour to be present at such a unique event.

Superintendent Stuart Smith Metropolitan Police

It has been a real pleasure coming here. There is an energy that seems to flow from this spirituality that brings a much needed joy into education.

Paul Barber Director of Westminster Education Services

Battersea arrival of Don Bosco's relics background

Sacred Heart Parish Battersea was looking resplendent with flowers and new lighting to welcome the relics of Don Bosco home to the mother church of the Salesian family in Great Britain. Don Bosco sent the first Salesians to Battersea with the encouragement and support of The Countess Georgiana  de Stacpoole who had been a great supporter of Don Bosco in Paris.

The first Salesian priest to arrive in London was Fr Dalmazzo who was impressed by the impact of Clapham Junction and knew of Don Bosco's concern to establish houses near the newly developed railway hubs. He however found the climate and the smogs unbearable and returned to Italy. It was in 1887 that Don Bosco was able to build up a team to come to London and so achieve a long ambition in the year before he died. Frs McKiernan and Macey  arrived with a lay Brother Rossaro. Within a year Fr McKiernan had died of TB and Fr Macey, an convert from the Anglican Church, took on the leadership of the mission.

This was one of the last missionary projects begun by Don Bosco which met a long ambition to engage with the challenge of a more secularised culture with his preventive approach to youth ministry. Since his early years Don Bosco had wanted to follow his friend Canon Gastaldi who travelled to Cardiff to support the emerging St David's mission. Don Bosco had begun to learn English and was encouraged by St Dominic Savio, one of his early pupils, to engage with this part of the world. Today, in one sense, Don Bosco has achieved that ambition and come to the British Isles as he had always hoped.

Since then the Salesian mission has developed in Great Britain with great encouragement from the hierarchy to provide education for the poor. For that reason the Salesians have committed large amounts of time and resources to secondary education and to youth ministry. More recently they have begun to diversify into volunteer programs, retreat ministry and development abroad. The pilgrimage which has  been led largely by young adult volunteers is a statement about how the Salesians hope to move forward in their future work. Partnership with the young generates many virtuous circles of energy and creates a path to maturity for the older adults with whom they work.

Don Bosco will arrive in a few hours and the team are now preparing to welcome VIPs from the |hierarchy of the church and from the civil authorities such as the police. This will be a memorable place to bring the pilgrimage of Don Bosco relics to a close.

Fr David O'Malley SDB

Quotes from Southwark day One and two 13th and 14th January

It was a wonderful and moving experience to hear so many good confessions. I can see the grace of God touching many peoples. Fr Joseph Elavanal

It feels so strange that we have arrived at our final day of pilgrimage. All those involved have given their all to celebrate the spirit of Don Bosco and reach out to the 1,000s of pilgrims who have come. It will be such a wrench to see the relics leave our shores and go to Belgium. Over many months, we may have the opportunity to gradually unwrap and share the tremendous richness of the experience. There is little doubt that all of us have been renewed in our commitment to work to allow the voice and energies of the young a central place in the life of our Church. Don Bosco, I think, would have been proud and would had a wry smile or two at some of the trials, minor mishaps and the various characters we have all met along the way.

Bro Kevin O’Donnell

There was an extraordinary response from the people.

Fr Des O'Riordan SDB Farnborough

Pretty Cool

Craig altar server at Battersea

I was disappointed it wasn't the whole body

Thomas altar server at Battersea

Superb! Because the people are trusting an intuitive need to connect with Don Bosco a\nd it becomes a very deep experience.

Fr Saju SDB Battersea

Fantastic! Definitely rewarding and proof that church can be interesting and enriching in this friendlier and happier way of praying and reflecting.

Alice Ford Tunbridge.

I came down from Newcastle because I wanted to pray with Don Bosco for personal reasons but what has struck me is the way that young people and older adults can share the same experience without complaints. Where some chatter from young people can add to the prayer atmosphere and young people can be reverent and respectful among praying adults. I wasn't expecting to be inspired by young people but that is the gift I have taken away from this visit.

Robert Campbell Newcastle

Southwark Day two Don Bosco Relics Jan 14th

Day two Southwark Cathedral January 14th
Southwark Cathedral was dusted with snow and whipped by cold winds as the second day of Don Bosco's relics opened. One of the first people through the doors was a local nurse coming off her night shift. She wanted to come to the relics to give thanks for her work that night when she had been able to save a patients life by removing a ligature from her throat. Her gratitude was for the skill and knowledge she carried as a gift from God to help others.

After that many people began to gather to walk the pilgrim pathway on their way to work or after the early mass in the Cathedral. But the day belonged to the young people who  began to arrive in numbers from Farnborough, Chertsey, Wandsworth, Chatham and Canterbury. The nursery from Bermondsy came in as well as groups from Notre Dame and Corpus Christi schools close by. The groups divided up among the team and began the banter that Don Bosco always enjoyed. One young lad claimed that his Dad was Boris Johnson, the mayor of London. Another believed that he was already a saint himself but his friends found it easy to disprove that theory. The Cathedral began to echo with pools  of laughter, occasional clapping and some thoughtful silence. In the pool of silence around the relic young people and adults met together to bring their concerns to God.

Just before mass there was a partial power cut so that the lights in part of the church failed along with the organ. The priests vested in semi darkness but still turned out looking tidy. Bishop Pat Lynch led the Eucharist  with warmth and  understanding.   Pupils from Chertsey Salesian College read and pupils from St Anselm's  Canterbury served at the mass. Fr Coyle, Salesian Provincial spoke after the Gospel  and encouraged the congregation to smile and  become holy by being cheerful.  The offertory saw a procession of banners as the gifts were brought forward by  St Anselm's from Canterbury and St John Fisher from Chatham. Communion was followed by a hymn written by Fr Martin Poulsom, “Friend of the young.”  The mass ended with warm words of encouragement from Bishop Pat and a hope that the Irish stage of the pilgrimage through his home country would go as well.

Jess Wilkinson, a member of the road crew, met some of the young people she had taught in year one and was delighted that they still remembered her six years later. The team have been receiving much affirmation from the pilgrims because of the way they were living out Don Bosco's spirituality through hospitality. Typical feedback is the comment received by Siobhan who was told that the team had i”nspired people by their joy and graciousness.”
One person was glad to re-connect with Don Bosco after being in a Salesian school in Hong Kong.”I have always loved Don Bosco,” he said  ”and it is good to be here and re-connect with this great saint.”
Altar servers arrived from a number of parts of London to meet up for a visit to Don Bosco's relics. They were all part of an association of altar servers in Nigeria and felt drawn to visit Don Bosco and  re-live their shared experience in Nigeria.

The closing service at 4pm brought the day to an end with a reflection on listening to the call of God in the ordinary story of our lives. The goodnight focussed on the call coming through gifts but perhaps more importantly through our weaknesses. Don Bosco's sense of abandonment and the absence of a Father in his life led to a commitment to work for abandoned youth and to become a Father to many young people and adults.

As the pilgrimage song was sung the casket was prepared for departure and was taken triumphantly into the street and loaded onto the van ad the crew sang once again “da mihi animas” Don Bosco's motto give me souls (people) nothing else matters. Passers by on coaches waiting at the traffic lights were looking confused. But it was an ending point of the public part of the relics of Don Bosco and the team were aware of the ending even as they were celebrating.

Over 1200 people visited Don Bosco's relics today.

Southwark Cathedral day one report

Southwark Cathedral Don Bosco Relics January 13^th

The queues wound around the corner before Don Bosco's relics arrived in its own transport at around 3.00. The road was closed temporarily whilst the casket was brought out into a guard of honour formed by the road crew who sang “da mihi animas” as the relics moved into the church.

There was a great welcome from Southwark Cathedral staff and the diocesan youth service who came along to support the music and the media team for the occasion, The pilgrim experience was followed by groups from across the diocese. From Tunbridge, New Malden, Rotherhythe, Battersea, Balaham and from as far away as High Wycombe.

One of the pilgrims today was a young boy, Jonathan, whose middle name was Bosco because his family had a great devotion to Don Bosco. In his pocket he had brought a relic of his own given to him by his own father. It was a fragment of Don Bosco's right hand contained in a small reliquary. Jonathan s father had been given this by an old salesian priest and it was his most treasured possession.

Among the pilgrims were natives of the Philippines, Venezuela, Kerala, Portugal and Ghana among many others. Each of them were aware of the work of Don Bosco in their own countries. It was a great bonus to have four polish brothers on the team and especially when some Polish pilgrims arrived and could not speak English.

Another pilgrim was delighted to have found some simple books on spirituality for young adults as she was starting a job in prison chaplaincy the following day. It was another reminder of Don Bosco's work with young prisoners which was commemorated at a visit to Feltham Young Offenders Institution by the relics earlier in the day.

One trend in conversations today was that many people wanted to visit the relics but the could not really say why. This experience of the relics seems to draw people in a quite intuitive ways.People are drawn by their own needs, by curiosity, by uncertainty, gratitude and often simply a vague sense of searching. Afterwards visitors seem to have a greater confidence or peace or certainty about some of their issues but still find it hard to answer that question; “why have you come to the relics?”

At 6pm Archbishop Peter Smith welcomed the relics and the Salesians across the diocese. During the mass both the Archbishop and Fr Martin Coyle mentioned the arrival of the first Salesians to Britain in Battersea some 125 years ago. Fr McKiernan SDB then became the first of many Salesians to work in the diocese in Sacred Heart Parish and primary school, in Salesian College and in Bermondsey. The Archbishop expressed the hope that the Salesian family would stay in in the diocese for another 125 years but pointed out that none of us would be around to see it!

Fr Coyle, picking up the theme of the feast of the baptism of Jesus, spoke about the need for The Spirit to move us and to be cheerful because we are all children of God in whom he is well pleased. The optimistic celebration continued as the flags of Don Bosco and panels on his spirituality were brought forward with the gifts. The family that brought the gifts up were overwhelmed to be asked. \They had travelled from High Wycombe and the journe6 had been a gift from the whole family since she wanted to gather her family around Don Bosco. The cost of the whole journey was covered by the eldest son who had recently begun work.

Towards the end of the mass the pilgrim hymn was sung with a fantastic organ support. Thirty four altar serves from Sacred Heart Battersea filled the sanctuary. The road crew gathered under Salesian flags to sing “da mihi animas” before Archbishop Peter gave the final blessing.

Afterwards twelve foot banners closed off the relic until tomorrow morning as the congregation dung “Tell out my soul”.

Feltham visit of Don Bosco's Relics background

Don Bosco's visit to Feltham young offenders institution Sunday January 13^th 2013

Turin in 1841 had a population of 117,000, a number which was to triple within the next decade. The building of the city required labour and it came in all shapes and sizes from the surrounding rural area already devastated by war and famine. Many of these new arrivals were young; from eight or nine years old they arrived in Turin and began to work as casual workers as builders, pavement layers, tanners and general slaves to their often unscrupulous masters. They would gather each day at a place calle Porta Palazzo to be hired or ignored. If they were not hired these mainly teenage lads had to learn to live by their wits on the streets and the outcome was often prison.

Don Bosco as a young priest was asked to visit the prisons by his mentor Fr Joseph Cafasso who later became the patron saint of prisons. It was of these visits that Don Bosco wrote:

To see so many lads from the age of 12 to 18 years of age, all healthy and strong, intelligent, insect bitten and lacking any personal or spiritual support was something that horrified me. On release they often returned within a few days for another long sentence.

Don Bosco also had the task of attending public executions of some of these young lads. The gallows were not far away from his home and he recorded that this experience broke his heart and left him traumatised to the point that Fr Cafasso asked him not to attend any more. Don Bosco's reaction to this trauma was typical of his personality. He said:

I must by any available means prevent these lads from getting into this situation and offer them the hope of a better life.

It was in this situation that Don Bosco approached the minister of Justice and asked for permission to take the boys out of the prison for a day in the country. The minister eventually accepted because he believed that Don Bosco would disgrace himself as a naïve do-gooder. In fact Don Bosco ran the full day out and returned with all the inmates in the evening and no prison officers accompanied them. They had of course underestimated the strength of positive relationship that Don Bosco had established with the lads.

Since that time Salesians have been involved in prison ministry across the world. Even in this country Salesians have been involved in prison ministry in Feltham and in the north of England. At a world level a new Salesian project opened in Krishnagar within the state prison providing training in electronics and resistant materials for young prisoners. The need for support for young people in prison and for after-care continues around the world and whilst Salesians in the U|K are involved largely in parish and education work they always have a real concern for those who seem to be abandoned and at risk.

Fr. David O'Malley SDB

Don Bosco 1815-1888 patron saint of youth

Largest youth organisation in the catholic church

The road crew and their host families celebrate- quotes

Celebration and quotes from the host families of the road January 12^th  

Toby Grill Basildon

^{Thanks to an anonymous donation the parish in Basildon (Our Lady and All Saints) was able to host a meal for the team and their host families. During the meal the lap top was passed around and some thoughts were recorded by the host families about the experience of hosting members of the road crew. The results are below.}

^{'this has been a very moving and meaningful experience. The dedication and hard work of the young volunteers is inspiring. A beautiful day' – Maria Hartnett}

^{'a good presentation of a special life, giving meaning to young peoples lives and the word is still being spread around the world, getting nearer to his bicentennial year.' - Mick Hartnett}

^{A wonderful opportunity to host such wonderful and special people, may they keep up the excellent work they do for young people. - Fina & Daniel Neaves}

^{An honour to be involved and serve such wonderful and committed individuals, for such a great memory and cause. Veena , Ross , Liam and Daniel Callaghan.}

^{Joe Joseph & Sebastian always smiling! It was a real privilege to share our home with you and you didn't even moan about our 6 dogs! What lovely young men full of life and enthusiasm. Thank you !}

^{We had the great pleasure of the company of Josie & Katie who could have quite easily have been one of our own! When young people show commitment to a project that you yourself would think twice before taking on and even then give a poor excuse not to do! you are pushed into a situation where you have to look a little closer at your own faith. We have learnt more about our own faith through Josie,Katie and their dedication then they could possible know. We have shared an experience. Thank you.}

^{The mass in Westminster Cathedral was particularly moving. With forty priests concelebrating St John Bosco would have been justly proud of the Salesian group and its young people who accompanied the relics.}

^{It was a humbling experience to be part of it all. We have loved hosting two lovely young ladies in our own home.}

^{Margaret and James Fox}

At the end of the meal Gerry Kehoe, the event manager, spoke on behalf of the team with gratitude for the way that they had gone out with energy and hospitality to those who visited the relics. He also added that it was as important to receive hospitality as to offer it. The words were heckled and overwhelmed by cheers and “viva Don Bosco!” In being welcomed in Basildon the team had been blessed and supported in the sometimes gruelling task of being a road crew over long hours and weeks. Gerry also spoke with great warmth about Fr Dominic's commitment to young people and to Don Bosco.

Fr Dominic pointed out that the whole experience had been an experience of church, of welcome, self sacrifice and humour. After a short prayer and a blessing he sent the group of for a long lie in and invited people to return to the parish by midday Sunday.

Westminster Relics of Don Bosco report January 12th

Westminster day two January 12^th

The team arrived from a 6.30 am start in Basildon and were ready to welcome pilgrims by 8am. The flow of people never relented as they walked the pilgrim journey to Don Bosco's relics. Cathedral staff estimated that about 4,000 people visited the relic during the day. Groups arrived from parishes from around the diocese and beyond; from Hertfordshire, Chertsey, Farnborough as well as many from central London. Manor House , Rotherhithe, Basildon, Tourists visited from places like Mumbai where they already had participated in the pilgrimage of the relics of Don Bosco and were delighted to re-engage in a more intimate encounter with Don Bosco.

Watching the pilgrims approach the relics in silence was a meditation in itself. Some came and stood quite close and looked. Some stood a few feet away looking, perhaps more objectively an perhaps hesitantly at the practice of veneration of relics. Those who stood close were looking at the lifelike effigy of a man who looked quite ordinary, small in stature, with the signs of a stroke on his face and the impact of a lifetime of hard work behind his closed eyes. But what was going on in the minds of the pilgrims as they looked at the casket? Here are some of their words:

I wanted to talk to Don Bosco about my children and ask his guidance.

I had no thoughts.... just a sense of peace and reassurance that God had not left me.

I found that I wanted to cry and I did. I don't know why but it was good and I walked away with my shoulders a little but lighter. I was surprised because, to be honest I am a bit of a sceptic really.

I felt that Don Bosco was not a relic but standing right next to me and smiling even as I was looking at his relic. It was weird but very calming. I was aware that I was stood in a powerful place, a focus of holiness that was linked to the relic but separate from it.

I felt that God had hugged me right there at the relic. Everything else seemed to fade and it was just me and a presence which I suppose is God.

One lady stood at the feet of Don Bosco and moved her lips in silent prayer for twenty minutes. Many others simply wanted to touch the relic and even caress the glass that contained it. Their faces shone in the reflected glow of lighting around the relic. One group stood in silence and held hands allowing Don Bosco to recognise and bless their bond of friendship. All of these pilgrims, caught in the light of a saint came away changed on their own pilgrim journey. Each one was challenged if not illuminated by that light for the road ahead.

At 2pm Bishop Alan Hopes led a thanksgiving mass with 32 concelebrants and spoke warmly at the beginning and the end of mass about the impact of Don Bosco and the animating influence of the pilgrim team which were accompanying the relics around the UK. Fr Martin Coyle preached on the need for Don Bosco's balanced approach to faith in which the sacred is recognised as much in the home, school and playground of each life as it is in the church. Fr Coyle challenged the congregation to demonstrate their faith through optimism and cheerfulness. Those thoughts were echoed in the offertory procession as 8 large banners were carried forward.

Towards the end of the mass the road crew,all volunteers from the Salesian network, gathered on the sanctuary to lead the congregation in the pilgrimage hymn ably led by the cathedral organist. After the blessing Bishop Hopes venerated the relic and incensed it on behalf of the congregation. Then, accompanied by the clergy and the uniformed road crew, the casket was taken into the piazza where a van waited to take the relics to a new location. As the relic moved into the specially adapted van the crew began to sing “da mihi animas !” and “viva Don Bosco!” as the van moved away. Bishop Hopes then moved among the team and thanked them for their work, enthusiasm and inspiration.

The team then spent the next hour dismantling the pilgrim experience before returning to theor hosts in Basildon parish for a shared meal.

Relics of Don Bosco Westminster day one Jan 11th report

Westminster Cathedral Fri 11^th January Don Bosco's relics

The relics arrived at the Cathedral in the middle of the day and there was a brief delay due to midday mass so that the pilgrim experience had to be set up later. The relic was unveiled simply soon after mass and pilgrims began bringing to Saint John Bosco their hopes and fears, the thorns and roses of life.

Past pupils arrived from across London and some small groups of young people from St Vincent’s School and St Bonaventure's school in Forest Gate visited. The latter school had heard about the visit of the relics and volunteered to come to visit Don Bosco. The school is a wonderful mix of backgrounds and it was good to hear from students from Nigeria, Ghana, South India and the Caribbean because their parents will have known of Don Bosco in those countries. Pupils from the school from Ecuador were delighted to hear that the footballer Roque Santacruz developed his football through a Don Bosco youth programme. Just another demonstration of the way that this spirituality of the young has embraced the whole world.

As the banners flew over the beautifully lit relics of Don Bosco young and old took the opportunity to celebrate reconciliation in a one to one conversation with a wide range of priests spread around the huge Cathedral. This aspect of Don Bosco's ministry, especially with young people is centred around the compassion of God and links into his concentration on experience as a school where mistakes become opportunities for growth. The experience of confession as a school of life experience is one of the ways in which Don Bosco's spirituality weaves into the sacramental life of the church.

Sat in one of the benches in a bright orange t shirt is Rosio a young aupair from Andalucia. She was part of the preparation team for the visit of Don Bosco's relics to Spain but was sad that she had to leave for England before the relics arrived. She was amazed to hear that Don Bosco had followed her to London and spent a good few hours before the relic with gratitude. She now hopes to link up with the salesian youth movement in Great Britain.

Below the Cathedral in the evening Fr John Armitage Vicar General of Brentwood diocese gathered the group for the Brentwood Diocese Don Bosco Camps and as pilgrims made their journey to the relics above, they prayed for the success of a new season of Don Bosco camps below.

A parishioner from Our Lady's parish in Folkestone by chance met a member of the road crew who had been a teacher in Dundee and had taught two troublesome young people she knew and was now supporting with prayer. Both had made huge progress and despite long struggles and with much prayer our crew member heard that they had both engaged with life and with the church in very high profile roles. An example of the power of one woman's prayer.

The closing liturgy began at 8.30 with music by Edwin Fawcett and was led by James Trewby. Psalm 139 led us into meditation through the words of Ste and Jess from the Savio House team. As a goodnight thought James reminded us of his experience of Salesian work across the world and the need for justice and with Don Bosco's optimism to be able to find the positive and draw energy to continue to change the world. He invited Fr Martin Poulsom SDB to sing a song dedicated to Sean Devereux who as a volunteer gave his life in Africa to work for young people in Africa. In distributing aid in Somalia he refused to hand over food to warlords and was shot in the back and died instantly. "While my heart beats I have to do what I can for others" was a motto for the young Sean Devereux. 

This song brought to an end a long and memorable day in this great Cathedral which hosted over 3,000 pilgrims to Don Bosco relics in the first half day of veneration.

Westminster Relics day one crew quotes

Quotes from day one at Westminster Cathedral January 11^th Don Bosco Relics

Tiring and inspiring

Polly Witter (Road Crew)

I never realised that Don Bosco was so small

John Pendleton Baldock

I didn't realise how international the population in London is and how much the church is a bridge between so many cultures.

Lukasz Torbicki SDB

I was astonished that many people did not care about the long queue and they were just reflecting patiently on the banners of the pilgrim journey.

Jarek Budny SDB

Sometimes people just wanted to talk about their life and listen to other stories. Today I could do both things and Don Bosco was present not only in my story. It is good to know that he still changes our lives.

Sebastian Marcisz SDB

Wow! Westminster Cathedral Day 1 – today we experienced again, the warmth and breadth and depth of the Salesian Family, meeting past pupils from Peru, South Africa and Kenya. This wasn't really a surprise, but I was pleasantly surprised and delighted to meet so many people with no links to the Salesians, but a huge devotion to St John Bosco! Viva Don Bosco! (Jessica Wilkinson)

Quotes from Cardiff January 10th

Ste, our guide through the pilgrim experience was fabulous and inspirational. He inspired us to get more involved with others and think about joining the wider salesian youth movement. He is really nice, young and down to earth.
Tilly and Nell Heron Newent

It made me think that I should think things through, at a deeper level and maybe pray a bit more in the middle of life. It has been so uplifting and a really happy day.
Jean Parkes Chepstow

I loved the smiles of young people engaged in church in a natural way. It did me good.
Rosie Skivington Blaisdon

The banners spoke to my heart
Jeanette Trebail Newent

It was a real learning experience for me. It was educational . Serving on the altar was scary but a happy experience
Sean Clifford Gloucestershire

If the attitude and impact of the road crew is a reflection of the power of Don Bosco's spirituality we need to see more of it in our church and soon.
Oliver Garman  Haverford West

Cardiff report

Cardiff St David's Cathedral January 10^th

Don Bosco's relics arrived early in the morning to the Archdiocesan Cathedral of Wales, St David's, to a welcome from Canon Peter Collins, the cathedral dean. Actually he was also there to welcome the road crew at 1am the night before after a disrupted journey of the relics team from Birmingham.

The Cathedral has a special link with Don Bosco since a friend of his early years, Lawrence Gastaldi, was appointed as rector of St David's mission in this same church in 1854. It was, perhaps, his conversations with Fr. Lawrence Gastaldi that inspired Don Bosco to have a real desire to engage in a British mission himself. Don Bosco invited Lawrence to preach to the oratory young people, one of whom was the young St Dominic Savio who constantly encouraged Don Bosco to start work in the British Isles after hearing Fr Gastaldi preach. He did not achieve this until 1887 when a group of Salesians arrived in Southwark diocese to work in the then poverty struck area of Battersea. It is noteworthy that when Fr Gastaldi eventually became Archbishop of Turin his relationship with Don Bosco became much more difficult which was a great disappointment to them both.

The morning at St David's was a unique experience since it was focussed on the needs of young people from the ages of 8 to 18. Don Bosco would have been delighted with the range of activities taking place in the benches: action songs, games and magic tricks which were used as a way to introduce the pilgrim experience which was done in small groups led by the crew. After visiting Don Bosco's relic in silence the groups ended up in a space outside the church playing games of “splat!” and other lively games. All these games, conversations and activities were there to emphasise the importance of being cheerful in order to be holy.

Bishop Thomas Burns led the Eucharist and invited the pilgrims to draw on the pastoral creativity of Don Bosco. The mass was described as extremely moving by many participants with music led by Edwin Fawcett and the road crew. Fr Martin Coyle spoke about the importance of holiness as cheerfulness and to let people know that they are loved and in so doing making it easier to believe in God's love. Fr Coyle presented the oratory model: home, school, playground and church as a way of making this love real in ordinary lives and relationships.

After the mass Bishop Thomas commented that the message of Don Bosco was much needed in the hearts of adults as well as in the lives of the young. He also accepted a unique statue of Don Bosco on behalf of the archdiocese presented by Fr Martin Coyle.

Groups arrived from Truro, Gloucester, Newport, as well as a range of schools from S Wales who brought their energy and magic to the pilgrim experience. In the afternoon a steady stream, mainly of adults, moved through the pilgrim experience. These included students from the university, visiting academics from the USA.

Once again, there was a strong and sustained demand for confession. Fr Gerry O'Shaughnessy led the closing service and invited Canon Peter Collins to lead the Our Father in Welsh. In the Salesian Goodnight Fr Gerry spoke about finding God in the ordinary and invited Brother Sandy to demonstrate the magic in three ordinary pieces of rope that separated and joined together in an amazing display of conjuring. Fr Gerry spoke about Don Bosco's horror of his work accompanying young people to the gallows. It was the horror of those public executions that drove Don Bosco to set up works that would prevent them ever getting into trouble. Fr Gerry asked us to go out to young people with encouragement and praise and follow in the footsteps of this great saint.

At the end of the service Canon Peter thanked the crew and invited the congregation of 250 to keep them in their prayers for the ongoing pilgrimage. The casket was then covered with a black pall and the formal visit of Don Bosco's relics to Cardiff came to an end.

Birmingham Day 2 Report January 9th

Birmingham Day Two Don Bosco Relics January 9^th 2013

Yesterday over 900 people came to venerate the relic at St Chad’s

Today over 1,100 people visited Don Bosco

St Chad's Cathedral Birmingham opened its doors for second day of veneration of the relics of St John Bosco, patron and friend of youth. The pilgrim experience was focussed on young people in their teens from around the archdiocese. The road crew accompanied them through activities and reflections on the life of Don Bosco which included stories, magic tricks and spinning plates. There was an atmosphere of celebration and reflection throughout the morning interrupted on a regular basis by flurries of clapping and laughter. In this way it reflected the spirituality of the genial Don Bosco who believed so much in young people and saw holiness and cheerfulness as intimately connected.

The later morning saw the celebration of mass with all the young people in a full cathedral led by Archbishop Bernard Longley . Bishop Philip Pargeter concelebrated and revealed later that he had always had a great devotion to Don Bosco since his days of teaching at Cotton College. In his homily Archbishop Bernard spoke to the young people about his own visit to Turin to venerate the relics of Don Bosco. He said that we have had the privilege of Don Bosco coming to visit us in this archdiocese and that it was typical of Don Bosco to take the initiative in going out to others. He encouraged young people to be cheerful and holy.

It was good to see some small groups from Syro-Malabar rite visiting the relics, reminding us of the international nature of this pilgrimage and its message of balanced spirituality across the world. The hunger for a friendly confession with a cheerful and optimistic welcome has been amply demonstrated.

A group visited the relics today from All Saints School in York and took the opportunity to bring some northern accents into the experience. Their experience of the visit and confession was expressed in very positive terms. It could be that one of the effects of this pilgrimage might be to renew the practice of this sacrament as an experience of compassion and optimism for the future. Another outcome may be the recognition that it is within the changing and complex relationships between people that there is an opportunity to hear the spiritual dimension of ordinary life captured by the Gospel.

A lady visited Don Bosco's relics today by accident. She was passing by and wondered what the activity was about. After making the pilgrim experience she spent some time at the relic and then spoke to Bro Kevin. She told him that her brother had died of a heart attack suddenly over Christmas and since then she had been full of confusion and a heavy heart. Putting her hand on the relic and being still she felt a new sense of peace and calm and came away with the certainty that things would be OK. Saying that, she went out onto the street looking the same on the outside but with a new inner strength.

At the final service Siobhan, one of the road crew, called us to prayer. The Archbishop led a reflection on peace and justice and Fr Bob Gardner SDB led a goodnight reflection on the experience of Itzhak Perlman playing a concert with only three strings on his violin. He offered the following quote from Itzhac Perlman as his goodnight thought:

“Sometimes it is an artist's task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left”.

After the final hymn Don Bosco's relics were taken out of the Cathedral and the congregation sang as the relics were transferred to the specially designed van that will carry them on to Cardiff Metropolitan Cathedral.

Tonight the road crew packed up the equipment and are also on the way to Cardiff; to the early mission that was established in part by Don Bosco early friend Fr Gastaldi at St David's mission.

Itzhak Perlman