WORLD YOUTH DAY GETS NEARER!!

...and so does my sponsored cycle ride, which will help to raise funds for the venture....At the weekend I spoke to the (large, cheerful, delightful) group of young Catholics from nearby parishes who are planning to attend World Youth Day in Sydney in 2008. They are led by Fr Dominic Allain of St Pius X Church, Norbiton. He and I have links going back some way - in the 1990s when he was a student in Rome he wrote a weekly "Seven days in Rome" diary for the Catholic Times and I wrote a diary from London: it's rather nice that he's now parish priest nearby...the meeting was in the splendid new parish centre at St Joseph's, New Malden , and began with a beautiful Benediction and time of adoration and prayer in the church....St Joseph's is a parish with lots of families and the Sunday evening Mass is always packed with dozens and dozens of young people. My talk on "Celebrating Catholic feasts and seasons" seemed to go down all right - oh, if you want to know about it, you can read the book.