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

Pantasaph retreat 0308 - 04 , originally uploaded by bro_james . Most years us English De La Mennais Brothers go on retreat together during Holy Week. This year we went to the Franciscan retreat centre at Pantasaph, up in the Halkyn "mountains" in the middle of the rugged N. Wales countryside. This is an area I know well from cycling through this area many a time with my club, Birkenhead North End. I was able to ride out there from Liverpool and got a few more rides in during the week, including a suitably tough 60 mile ride on Good Friday afternoon in hail and snow. Good extra miles in preparation for my next sponsored ride at the end of May (8 days, 900 miles). But obviously the main reason for such a retreat is to have the opportunity to take a step back from the daily routines of teaching and community life to reflect, pray, listen, be silent, read... In other words to take away for a few days many of the distractions that can come between me and God and revitalise...

This article in The Times investigates whether or not Padre Pio was a fake in the light of recent "revelations". Can a fake still lead so many people towards a closer relationship with God? My mother has had a quiet but strong and devout devotion to Padre Pio for all her adult life (now 79) without ever having met him and I would consider her a true living saint (though I am probably biased). Judge people on their fruits. I think Medjugorje should be thought of similarly. Can fake visionaries (who must therefore be "in it" just for self-agrandisement) really be such catalysts for the return to faith and inner healing of so many people? I agree with John, one of the comment posters on the web site. There must be "something going on there that involved God".