Crowded, talkative, teeming with young people...

... in the setting of a large school in glorious countryside, with wide cool lawns dominated by an illuminated statue of Christ with his arms outstretched.  The FAITH Movement Summer Session.  I had booked in as a day visitor - this is an event for the young, and Auntie and others of a certain age tend to arrive for the evening, to join in Night Prayer in the chapel, to talk for long agreeable hours on the terrace with old friends, to swap news and ideas and - in Auntie's case at least - to feel a curious sense of deja-vu as young people surge about and talk and laugh and swap in-jokes and share in an annual summertime gathering which will be part of their memories for years and years...

On arrival, I had no time to greet friends as I was immediately swept into a circle of relatives...very young ones, a baby stretching out hands for a hug, energetic children imploring Auntie to come and see the fish in the pond, the hill where you can clamber up high, the places where you run and jump...

Later, over drinks in the cool evening, much talk, with friends such as Frs Hugh Mackenzie, Tim Finigan...and meeting lots of the young people, some of whom I have met through university Catholic groups, some as fellow pilgrims on the John Paul II Walk, etc.

Night Prayer, with the strong young voices praying the Psalms turn and turn about, and singing the Salve Regina...

There are always a good number of young men from various seminaries at the FAITH events, the priests of tomorrow.