De La Mennais Brothers: Making Jesus Christ better known and loved by young people

Some of you will have seen the following on my Facebook page, but I can't resist sending this out anyway… I'm so excited I could crush a grape (as the immortal Bobby Ball once said): I'm in!!! Just heard that after the 18 months selection process I've been accepted as an Olympic Games Chaplain!! Place of work = the Sailing Village for all the Sailing events which take place at Weymouth, just down the coast from here. Sailing village = a cruise ship in Weymouth Harbour (heh, heh!!). 8 hr shifts every 24 hours for 3-4 weeks, i.e. including preparations before the start of the Games. Yee-ha!! :-) Since I've been back in Southampton I've done a bit of crewing on a yacht for someone here who is the brother of a friend of mine from Liverpool. So, I have got quite into sailing the last couple of years... the international competition side too. But I don't really know that much. I'm "winch man" and just do what my captain says!! When I was asked during...

I got back to Southampton on Oct. 23rd after having buried my mother 2 days previously, and went straight into 2 days of trustees meetings for our two schools with Brothers over from Liverpool + France. My cycling friend from Liverpool who rode to Assisi with me, Pete Smith arrived a few days later for some cycling together and to help us with some jobs around the house (inc. the day and a half the 2 of us spent clearing out and tidying up the dumping area that was our cellar workshop). This meant that I was kept occupied at a time when I needed to be. Physical work in particular was of great benefit, but even more so was the presence of a dear friend. Pete's visit was only possible because I was on half-term that week. Things would have been harder for me if I'd had to go straight back into school. So, the timing of Mum's death was a Godsend for me, having this week to recover + reflect, but be busy enough not to be just sitting + moping. Indeed, the whole circum...