The Augustinian Friars in Britain
Our Hearts are Restless until they Rest in You, Lord
On 17-19 July 2009, 18 young people gathered at Clare Priory for the UK National Youth Gathering. The theme was 'Relate' and Sarah Darcy, one of the participants from St John Stone Parish, near Southport, England, writes here of her experience as a first-timer!
After a very long and wet journey (I had very kindly got a lift with Core Team member Becky), we arrived in what can only be described as a picture postcard place. Having never been to Clare Priory before I did not know what to expect, but I did not think it would be this beautiful, even in the rain. Anyway we were greeted warmly at the door by Father David and had food (food was great all weekend thank you to all who worked so hard to prepare it).
Once all our party was there, the national youth gathering began. I did feel a bit of a fraud as it was my first time at an Augustinian national youth gathering and I am the tender/decrepit (depending on how you look at it) age of 30. But it is nice to see a wide range of people standing up and admitting their faith means something to them and they want to acknowledge this. And the fact that they are all different ages and backgrounds always interests me.
We started with icebreaker games - normally not a huge fan of these but they weren’t too bad and were actually quite amusing. We then had evening prayer and finished for the day. Saturday was a very busy day with morning prayer, four sessions in the day, free time (always important) and a Mass and barbecue. The sessions were in tune with the theme of the weekend which was ‘Relate’; we had a very interesting one on St Augustine and his book, the Confessions, where Fr Gianni gave us some questions to think about, such as how do we hide from God, how do we see god in our lives etc. Some of the biggies really and then we shared our thoughts. The rest of the sessions were about some of the questions / topics that people wanted to discuss regarding relationships; this was done by people writing questions and then splitting into groups and discussing these. The last session was used to feed back what we had discussed and to talk more. On the spiritual side of things we had time for exposition and there was a lovely quiet time reflection that was run by two of the group, followed by more exposition. There was a great outdoor Mass - haven't been to one of them for a long time and it always adds something to the Mass when you can see the wonder of nature all about you. Then there was barbecue and bonfire - both fun, if not a little bit smoky. The Sunday, after a great morning prayer, was spent discussing the Augustinian Youth Encounter in London next year and what should happen there.
I got a lot of blessings from the weekend. It always boosts me when I am with people who are willing to share their thoughts on faith and it gives me courage to continue to share my faith with other people.
Sarah Darcy
Ewan Walker from the parish in Edinburgh, UK also shares with us the fruits of his weekend at Clare Priory for the National Youth Gathering, below:
Adoration
I sit in reverent silence
Candles flickering all about me
Someone shuffles to the left of me
Someone coughs to the right of me
I stare straight ahead
Unblinking with my eyes fixed
Clock ticking on the wall
Traffic rumbling outside
Still I continue to stare
For I know Jesus is there
Someone coughs again to the right of me
Someone breathes deeply behind me
I continue to stare
Just staring at this item in front
Knowing that Jesus is there
The floorboards creak beneath me
Low tones rumble outside the room
I close my eyes
Feel the magnificent presence
One by one people depart
Until I am left alone
I keep my eyes shut tight
Saying a prayer in my head
There is silence now
Bar the ticking clock on the wall
I stand up
Genuflect to the monstrance
And say goodbye to the Lord
Promising to come back later