Thought for the Week

I have just returned from a week in Lourdes, where I was privileged to be part of the annual HCPT pilgrimage.

Hosanna House and Children’s Pilgrimage Trust travels each Easter to Lourdes with children and young people with a wide range of additional support needs and social backgrounds.

My group (Group 116) had spent the year fundraising and, thanks to the generosity of many people, we were able to take 12 children.

As chaplain, I watched the hard work of our helpers. Their enthusiasm, care, compassion all combined to make those children feel so special and loved that there was no doubt that God’s hand was at work through them.

The children come from all religious backgrounds and none, and the helpers mostly Catholics but not exclusively.

In terms of their Sunday attendance at church, this all can vary greatly, but one thing is for sure: they were all practising Christians. Their generosity of spirit and instinct for love was a clear example of how to respond to Christ’s call to love God and love our neighbour.

All I was doing was putting a name to the work they were doing, helping them to realise just how deeply God approved of them and smiled down on their work.

And that’s one of the jobs of any minister of religion (and in fact all of us), to ‘name grace’.

In other words, to see the good around us and point it out and encourage others to reflect on the mystery of God’s presence in the faces of those around us.

I saw it in Lourdes in Easter Week and I would encourage everyone to look around with the eyes of faith and see how much good God does through the hands of others. And don’t just see it, point it out! Father Frank Dougan St Mark’s and St Anthony’s