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

O Lord, I pray that this year I will let you lead me by the belt and take me where I would rather not go. Help me to discern your path for me and to have the courage to follow it, step by step, even though I won't see in advance where it will lead me... In the below photo (taken yesterday at Montreuil-sur-mer - what link with "Les Misérables"?), for example, are friends that I made thanks to a series of "chance" encounters on the Camino de Santiago in N. Spain in 2006. A few years afterwards I discovered from Christian (next to me) and Marie-Brigitte (far right) that they'd had a son who died when he was 16. Like me, he was born in 1968. He died on Oct. 10th 1984. My birthday is Oct. 9th. Christian's surname is Frère. His name therefore means "Christian Brother". Factor in the laugh out loud coincidences that led to us meeting 6 times in the space of 7 days and we're left with an example of what I mean by the Lord leading me by t...

The Telegraph website is in early with a review and plot summary article about a film I've been looking forward to for some time: "The Way". Here's their "logline" of the plot: "Martin Sheen plays an American doctor who decides to walk the the 500-mile Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route after his son is killed there. The film is directed by Sheen's son Emilio Estevez." St. James' statue at the "Glory Door" entrance to Santiago Cathedral. Having been to Santiago de Compostella 3 times as a pilgrim (twice cycling - from Brittany + from Liverpool - and once hiking) it is a place and a journey that is very close to my heart and to the hearts of fellow Camino pilgrims in my congregation. The film is being released in the UK on May 13th. Click here for an article page that includes the film's trailer. Here's the start of another Telegraph article by columnist and author Christopher Howse that is certainly encouraging and gets ...

At last, here are some details about last summer's grand adventure.... In August 2006 I undertook my eighth multi-day sponsored cycle since 1992 with the intention of raising money for a new secondary school, Monsignor Hanrion College, run by my order (the De La Mennais Brothers) in Mango, Togo (W. Africa). This school just opened last year and is badly in need of resources. The Head Teacher there is a good friend of mine, Brother Romain Somoko. We studied together during our first year of training to be Brothers in 1990 and he was our order’s first Togolese Brother. Monsignor Hanrion College, Mango, Togo. Pupils from Monsignor Hanrion College. Having had wonderful experiences hiking and cycling on parts of the Santiago de Compostela pilgrims’ route in France and Spain during my summer holidays going back to 1998 (solo or with a French Brother friend of mine), I decided to retread some of those paths but this time cycle solo from Liverpool to Portsmouth, down through ...