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Dear Friends I am writing this Newsletter on Pentecost Sunday. The Novena for Pentecost has been well received and many people have joined in this time of prayer. It contained many prayerful thoughts and our thanks to those who prepared it for us. One prayer I particularly liked was: "Loving God, open our hearts, so that we may feel the breath and play of your Spirit. Unclench our hands that we may reach out to one another and touch and be healed. Open our lips that we may drink in the delight and wonder of life. Unclog our ears to hear your agony in our inhumanity. Open our eyes that we may see Christ in friend and stranger. Breathe your spirit into us and touch our lives with the life of Christ. Amen." On Saturday 29th May the 34th Marist Pilgrimage will set off for Lourdes and there will be groups from Middlesbrough, Hull, York, Sheffield, Loughborough, Sidcup and some individuals. We will be in Lourdes for Thursday 3rd June, the feast of Corpus Christi, the very day on which Ste Bernadette made her First Holy Communion in 1858. This should be a great occasion. In early May I accompanied a group of twenty pilgrims to Turin to visit the Holy Shroud, which was on public display for the first time in many years. A certain degree of historical controversy surrounds the Holy Shroud. However this visit proved to be a very inspiring time and a great occasion to reflect on our salvation through the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. On Friday 21st May GRIMETHORPE celebrated the first birthday of their Marist Way Group and what a celebration it was. We began with mass at 10.00, followed by tea and biscuits, and then their usual meeting during which one decade of the rosary was recited, along with the Novena prayers and a selection of very apposite Bidding Prayers. Every member contributed something to the meeting, including a birthday cake and card, before we set off for a celebratory lunch in a local hostelry. I am looking forward to the second birthday already! Again it demonstrates what the people of God can do and congratulations to all involved. SWANWICK CONFERENCE There has been a reasonable response so far. Do please make a note in your diary – Friday 17th / Sunday 19th September 2010, Sr Monica SM, a Marist Sister, will be the keynote speaker for the conference "The Marist Message for Today" Cost will be £150.00 per person. Booking forms are now available. If you have not booked – I know that decisions are always delayed for various reasons - NOW IS THE TIME!! MARIST DAY IN WALSINGHAM Saturday 3rd July. This is always a most enjoyable day with the opportunity to absorb something of the spirit of Nazareth, meet together and return home renewed. Hope to see you there. YOUR CHARITABLE PRAYERS are requested for Gerry Breen and Alice Jubb, both from Hull and very loyal supporters of all things Marist. May they rest in peace. Amen. Maristway.org is our Website. The website continues to do well and the number of ‘hits’ continues to increase: in 2007 there were 11,070 whilst in 2009 there were 20,177. This is a very valuable means of bringing the Marist Way to other people. Please continue to visit the site and encourage others to do likewise. Many thanks to Paul, our webmaster, for all the hours spent on the internet.Marist Liturgical Calendar and Mass Intentions 2010
M. Coleman SM, Marist Way Regional Animator
A billion is a difficult
number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting
that figure into some perspective in one of its releases.
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