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Today we keep the feast of St Cuthbert, who is also the secondary patron of my diocese in Lancaster.

He was born around the year 635AD probably near what is now Melrose. St Bede tells us he tended sheep, which indicates a humble background. After seeing a vision of St Aiden’s soul ascending to heaven (651AD) he entered Melrose monastry. However these were turbulent times and it seems he was recruited into one the local war lords armies and for a number of years was a soldier. After about 4 years or so he returned to the monastry. Shortly after that he went to Ripon as guest master. He returned to Melrose, where there was a plague, the prior died and Cuthbert took his place. In 661 after the synod of Whitby which adopted the Roman usage for  Easter and other matters, he was sent to LIndisfarne to help the monks there adopt to the new usage.  This his did through his holiness and gentle manner. He also spent times evangelising and catechising the local people. His devotion to celebrating Mass was such that it moved him to tears. Eventually he sought a more demanding and austere life and retired the one of the Farne islands. This did not last too long as he was persuaded to be Bishop of Lindisfarne. He was consecrated Bishop in 685. He died on March 20th 687.

As I mentioned above, he is a patron of my diocese. We ask his intercession at this time for our own Bishop.

Monday morning saw us at the Grotto for Mass. This took place at 8.30am. As we arrived the there was German Mass in progress. I think you can imagine our amusement when their final hymn was to the tune of Land of Hope and Glory!

The main celebrant was Bishop Mark Davis of the Diocese of Shrewsbury. For me, this Mass is always the highlight of the pilgrimage. It is the very spot were Our Lady appeared to Bernadette. It is both humbling and a privelege to be in the same place. I offered my Mass for the intentions of the parish of Christ the Good Shepherd, Workington.

The only draw back is the we are limited by time, one hour at the most. We were three pilgrimages combined, ourselves, the Diocese of Shrewsbury and the Welsh National. Despite that we managed well inside the hour. The music was good led by an excellent music group.

Once Mass was finished we were free for most of the day.

Every Sunday in Lourdes, the main Mass is at 9.30am. This is called the International Mass, the name means what it says. I must admit that the Basilica of Pius X ( to give its correct title) is not too my taste. It is a product of the “brutalism” of the late 50’s and early 60’s. However, as a priest I do like the gathering of many nations to celebrate the one Mass. I really do feel part of the Universal Church.  The first reading was in French, the second in Spanish. The Gospel was read in English. The Bidding prayers we also had German, Italian and a couple from India and Sri Lanka.

As you can see below there was lots of  incense which is to my taste

I am a member of the Catholic Archive Society and they are having their annual conference at Ushaw College. I trained to be a priest at Ushaw, but it is now no longer a seminary. I have not been back to Ushaw for a number of years, so was looking forward to a return visit. More on that later

My journey began at Workington station. My route was Workington to Carlisle, then on to Newcastle via Hexham. I changed at Newcastle for a train to Durham and then a taxi to Ushaw. The journey was largley uneventful. My train from Workington to Carlisle actually went on to Newcastle  so no need to change trains. It did stop in Carlisle long enough for me to get a coffee. I had a short time on Newcastle station were I saw the unusual sight of two HST’s with no carriages!

On arrival at Ushaw I found my  room was in the West Wing, very comfy it is as well. All rooms are en suite – unlike college days!. We had our dinner in what  was the proffessors parlour.

A spledid meal it was and in good company. Tomorrow we get down to business.

My first rail journey ended with a calamity. I lost my passport, let me explain.  I had a connecting train from Mainz back to Frankfurt. I got ff the train and after about 5 minutes or so I realised I had left my back pack on the train. In it was my passport. Why had I put it there…. I  was told that id could be asked for when the conductor inspected my pre booked tickets. As my journey  was almost at an end I put in the back pack rather than keep it in my back trouser pocket.  The trouble was, I wasn’t sure which train I had left it on, one that terminated in Mainz or one that ended in Frankfurt.

I then did the usual of the reporting it to lost property, all I had to do was wait, but time was short, I had lost it on a Tuesday, the next day was a public holiday i was suppose to leave on Friday.  I looked at the options. The first thing I did was phone the British Consulate were I leaned about the procedure for an emergency passport. More to the point it was going to take 2 working days. The second thing I did was provisionally book 3 extra nights at the Premier Inn. They were very helpful,…

It soon became obvious that time was too short, so I started the process of applying for an emergency passport, which was quite straightforward.  The down side was I had to go to Dussledorf to pick it up. At that point two different things happened. The Premier Inn was fully booked on the Monday and hotel prices in Frankfurt were very expensive, as were return flights to Manchester. So I looked at flights from Dusseldorf and was surprised and pleased to learn there were direct flights from there to Manchester and much cheaper!. I booked a flight Wednesday May 8th for 79 Euros. I then booked a hotel, which was not cheap, but I didn’t have too much choice. So going to Dussledorf turned to my advantage.

Another problem soon became obvious – laundry. I had only packed for a four day holiday. However the hotel gave me the address of a place that would do laundry, however they couldn’t do it, they recommended someone else, but I ended up going to a third place. Then I got word that my application had failed because the photo wasn’t quite right. The Premier Inn staff recommended at photo studio in a local shopping mall and that’s were i Headed. At the cost of 16 euros I got 4 pictures. I also came across the food hall. There were some excellent outlets and not too expensive.

On the Sunday (!) I got an email saying that my passport was ready for collection. I duly picked it up on Monday. The consulate was next door to the station.

Quite an ( expensive) adventure!

For my day off I has pre-planned a day/night in Crewe, by train of course. I have not had train journey for some time now and I was getting withdrawl symptoms lol.  I left Workington courtesy of the usual dmu

I then got on the 12.08 service from Carlisle to Crewe, a pendolino service. I had already decided to make a log of the journey, and do the same from Crewe to Stafford. I arrived in Crewe, checked in to my hotel. I then got a return to ticket to Stafford, mainly to see how fast the class 350’s are. However, as I waited for my train I heard the whistle of a steam train, which turned out to be the Mayflower, which was going from Carnforth to London. I got a quick photo

I had a hunch that my service to Stafford would over take the Mayflower, and I would have a good chance of better photos at Stafford. And I was right!. The Mayflower was held by a red signal for a short time – which helped.

This was an unexpected delight!

Last Wednesday, we had a day of Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. It began with Mass at 9am and ended with Holy Hour and Benediction at 6pm. During the day pupils from St Patrick’s, St Gregory’s and St Joseph’s came along to adore Our Blessed Lord present in the Holy Eucharist. It was also pleasing to see so many from the parish in church during the day.

In the evening we finished with Holy and Benediction. Below are a couple of photos of Benediction led by Canon Watson.