1500 miles for Youth 2000

Dear Readers

Our names are Dom and Phil. We are currently just over half way on a fundraising pilgrimage for Youth 2000. Youth 2000 is a charity very dear to our hearts for its work in drawing people closer to Christ through the Catholic Church.

We were inspired at the New Year retreat in Balham to undertake a sponsored cycle across Europe in order to raise money for the Youth 2000 summer prayer festival in Walsingham. The cost to Youth 2000 to organise the national retreat is roughly £80,000. It is a donation-only event in order to make it more freely available to anyone and everyone who would like to attend.

Our cycle started in Rome, and we crossed Italy and headed south through Croatia and Bosnia to get to the Marian shrine in Medjugorje. We then took a ferry back to Italy, crossed the Alps through Austria (240 miles of mountains!) and we are currently cycling north through Germany, heading to Walsingham - England's Nazareth.

This event can only be made possible through the generosity and charity of benefactors such as you.

We are keeping an online blog at www.catholicbiketrip.com - there's also a link on our website to sponsor us, and in doing so help to cover the massive costs of the event.

Please do keep us and the festival in your prayers! With best wishes,

Dom & Phil

One of the many workshops Walsingham will have to offer...

Anna Cowell knows just how hard it can be to go home at the end of the festival... Which is why she will be offering this workshop on the day before we head home... Here's what's in store...

Packing Up Your Tent Workshop
Anna Cowell : 27 : Youth Officer : Diocese of Leeds Loves Lourdes, Chocolate, Talking about JPII & Sex and has a recent addiction to West Wing!
So, you've had a brilliant few days here at Youth 2000 and now it's nearly time to think about packing up your tent to go home. What else should you be packing in your bag in order to keep your faith and the Youth 2000 experience alive when you get home? Come along to this workshop for some freebies and some tips about making the most out of heading home!

Introducing our third speaker...

Kuba Kmiec recently spoke at the last Youth 2000 retreat, therapy@ealing. We welcome him back as he gives one of the main talks at this year's Walsingham.

Kuba has been involved with the Catholic Charismatic Renewal since 1995. He spent 3 years working for the International Catholic Programme For Evangelisation (ICPE Mission) running evangelistic outreaches in Poland, Ukraine, Latvia and Lithuania. He moved to London in 2003 and has been part of Soul Food, a Catholic charismatic prayer group for young adults in London, since 2004. He is currently part of the Soul Food Service Team.

We look forward to hearing his top tips on how to pray!

Volunteers!!!

Every year, a lot of behind-the-scenes work makes the festival happen. From cooking, to stewarding, from preparing everything for Mass, to cleaning the toilets, many generous and enthusiastic people are needed to put the festival together. If you have been to Youth 2000 before and would be willing to help out, please contact the Youth 2000 National Office - we would LOVE to hear from you! Just call 020 8675 2743 or email info@youth2000.org. You can help out with just about anything:

• catering
• security (day and night)
• stewarding
• sacristy
• registration
• tuck shop
  
• programme runner

Take your pick and call us!

If you want to know more about what any of the above involve, please get in touch. If you know someone who's super-talented in any of these areas, please get them to call the office too!

My First Walsingham

Are you thinking of coming to the festival but don't know anyone else who's going? Today we hear from Youth 2000 trustee, Danelia Cardona, about her first Walsingham experience...

My first Walsingham was in 2003. I had recently returned to the Church and was seeking for true love, truth and identity. The festival was advertised at the London prayer group and although I was not sure whether to go or not, especially since I didn't know too many people, I felt a "tug" in my heart - so I took the risk! I booked myself on the coach that the prayer group organised.

The weekend was filled with little miracles. It was a relief to find out it was donation only and that the coach was so reasonably priced for a return journey. I gave what I could! My accommodation and food was sorted and even on the first night I slept in the front of the national director's home, who I didn't know who it was at the time. It was his son the next morning who confirmed that his dad was "the boss of all of Youth 2000".

I was a bit apprehensive by the "evangelical" style of the praise and worship and my heart sank the first morning I walked into the tent: "oh happy clappy" I thought. However, the presence of the Blessed Sacrament exposed captured me and I was from that moment on more interested in the content than the form. I loved all the talks and felt they nourished me and elightened me. I took a lot from them home and made new friends through the discussion groups. I discovered a new found love for our Mother Mary and enjoyed praying the Rosary with others every morning. The fellowship with other young people certainly enhanced my experience and people who I met there are still friends.

My decision to train as a psychiatrist was born out of that festival after a time in Adoration seeking God's will. I now understand how He wants the best for us and our complete fulfilled. In spite of the challenges of my job I love it and it is a great joy every day to know that I am serving Him through it.

Walsingham was definitely a turning point for me. Although I had had a powerful conversion experience a few months prior to the retreat it was during this retreat that I gave my life to Christ and found that true love, truth and identity that I had been searching for... In a tent, in a field, in Norfolk.

Formation Day!

On Saturday twenty young people met in London to plan and prepare for sanctuary@walsingham. It was a day for formation, prayer, training, planning, and catching up, and it was exciting to see how many talented young people were keen to offer their gifts and energy to serve other young people at this year's festival!

Fr Emmanuel CFR was with us to inspire us ready for the work of evangelisation we are preparing for in sanctuary@walsingham. He spoke about the importance of evangelising in our daily lives, and reminded us that the Church exists to evangelise! Those of us in the church pews need to be bringing other people in! This tied in with what Fr Stephen Wang has been teaching at other formation days: as lay people, it is our mission to sanctify the world - because we are in places and see people every day that priests and religious don't come into contact with. This is really our mission for sanctuary@walsingham - to invite those young people who otherwise wouldn't have contact with the Church and to show them that the Church is alive and that Christ really brings Good News to their lives!

Fr Emmanuel also talked to us about the importance of being "plugged into" Christ if we are to be effective evangelists. We need to be deeply rooted in Christ and receive our nourishment and support from the sacraments, personal prayer, prayer groups, Scripture, etc, if we are going to be open to opportunities that God gives us to speak about Him to the people we meet. If we don't experience the Gospel as Good News for ourselves, how can we show others that it is really is Good News?!

The day ended with a blessed time of prayer together and a trip to the pub. Thank you Fr Emmanuel for firing us up ready for the festival ahead!

Introducing our second speaker...

We are very excited to welcome Lucy McCully! Lucy is 27 years old and she was born and bred in Scotland. She worked as a maths teacher before taking a year out to study Theology, after which she found herself taking up the position of Education Officer with the pro-life organisation SPUC Scotland. Lucy is an experienced pro-life speaker and for the last two years has been in and out of hundreds of schools around Scotland delivering a programme of talks such as Abortion, bioethics, fertility, sexual health and relationships. She has also been leading SPUC’s youth activism movement and has spoken at both national and international conferences, youth retreats and most recently at the All Ireland Rally for Life in Dublin. Lucy was the organiser of the 2^nd International Youth Pro-Life Conference, which was held in Edinburgh earlier this year.

We look forward to Lucy's workshop, 'What does it mean to be Pro-Life?

So who's speaking at Walsingham this year? Introducing our first speaker...

We welcome Michelle Moran to Walsingham this year!! Michelle, born and raised in Leeds was a teacher before she together with her husband became the founding members of Sion Catholic Community for Evangelism which was set up in 1985. Michelle has a great deal of experience of working full time in the Church, nationally and internationally over the last 25 years and she has a recognised ministry in preaching teaching and evangelism which has taken her all over the world! She is currently the Chair of the NSC for Catholic Charismatic Renewal in England and Wales and President of ICCRS, the International Council for Charismatic Renewal, which has its offices in the Vatican. In 2007 Michelle was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to be a member of the Pontifical Council for the Laity. She was an Auditor at the XII Ordinary General Assembly Synod of Bishops, on the Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church.

We look forward to Michelle's inspiring talk which she will deliver on the Sunday on the topic of the Holy Spirit, 'Receive the power'.

5 reasons to come to Walsingham!

FIVE fantastic reasons YOU should come to sanctuary@walsingham this summer

1. BE INSPIRED! Great speakers including Michelle Moran, Fr Emmanuel CFR, Sr Mary Trinity SOLT, Kuba Kmiec, Charlie Conner and Fr Danko Perutina will be giving inspiring teaching that will form you in your faith

2. BE REFRESHED! Lots of time and opportunity to be guided in prayer together but also to spend time alone with Jesus... even in the middle of the night

3. BE CHALLENGED! A selection of workshops each day... Pure In Heart will be looking at how it is possible to truly live the Church's teaching about chastity in our relationships; Fr Stephen Wang and a panel of experts are ready to be grilled with all your questions on the faith; biblical scholar Fr John Hemer will be leading you through the Bible; Fr Stephen Langridge and friends have all the secrets on how to discover your vocation; and Lucy McCully will be talking about how we can Love Life!

4. BE FRIENDLY! Experience our fun, vibrant, festival atmosphere and make friends for life while standing in the lunch queue or over a hot chocolate at the end of the day

5. BE RENEWED! The highlights of the festival include two life-changing services where we have the opportunity to meet and be touched by God in a deep and powerful way

Bring your friends, family, colleagues, members of your parish, fellow students and any other young people you know!! Walsingham really is the place to be this August bank holiday weekend

We hope to see you there :o)

Hannah