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...

In no particular order, I'm going to start posting some of my fave pics that I've taken over the years with a little commentary to explain why in each case. First up, a photo from the Santiago de Compostella pilgrimage that I undertook in 1998 with my good friend Bro. Henri Rivoalen. That summer, I was leading an annual, itinerant, 3-week summer cycling camp around France that Brothers from my order had been involved with for over 20 years. I was due to come up to Bro. Henri's community in Landerneau, Brittany, after the camp and then go hiking with him in the Pyrénées. Whilst I was doing my camp, Henri was cycling to Santiago de Compostella, N.W. Spain with 5 friends from his cycling club in Landerneau. Two days riding from Santiago a member of Henri's group and good friend of his, André, was killed in a collision. Henri was the only one of the group with him. André died in his arms on the side of the road. The body was repatriated to Landerneau, Brittany for the funer...

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 ...