Youth Forums - Altotting and Paray Le Monial

We have attended two Emmanuel Youth Forums in the last two weeks. The first was in Altotting, Germany. It was great. At the same time, there was also a Priest Forum, a Teenager Forum and a Family Forum. It is a tiny town, so it was amazing to see so much life! There were 1700 participants in all. Most of the stuff was in German, but we managed.



The Shrine in the main square

It was good to have two of the students who just finished the ESM year: Jess from Australia, and Hannelore from Begium. We had a lot of fun together. One night there was supposed to be a musical in the Square of the town (put on by the ESM Altotting students). The weather was terrible...terrible. We were all sitting outside and they made an announcement that everyone should wait in the Basilica until the rain stops and then we would come back and start the musical. This was strange because it hadn't even started raining yet. Kev said, "I don't think it will rain. The clouds will pass". At that moment it started to pour. We ran to the nearest undercover area which was a bar. We were drenched. We decided not to waste time so we had a beer.


Filling in time


Sun shower at dusk

After this we went back to our places to wait for the musical. It was still raining so everyone prayed a decade of the Rosary. The rain stopped, so the musical began. It was a great night!

On the last day there was a Mass in the main square. Afterwards we had to say goodbye to many friends.

Hele, Kev, Jess and Hannelore

After Altotting, we travelled to Paray Le Monial in France. This is the town where Jesus revealed His Most Sacred Heart to St Margaret Mary in the 17th century. Paray is also the heart of the Emmanuel Community. Every year 20 000 pilgrims visit the shrine here. So we have been here with about 3000 young people from all over the world. Again, we got to catch up with many friends. But don't get the wrong idea - we have been working very hard.

Youth Forum - the main tent

Paray Le Monial is such a beautiful town. Here, have a look!


Check out the guy in his pyjamas in the background!


Wags in front of the Basilica

This is one of the few days since we left Rome that we have seen blue sky. Most of the time it has been cold, cloudy and rainy. But we are not allowed to complain, because we complained about the heat in Rome so we have to like it!


The Basilica at night

The Forum has finished now and we are trying to organise a holiday. We don't know where we are going yet so you will have to wait until the next blog entry.

Blessings to you all......