All by Andrew Balkwill

Learning to Expect the Unexpected

Andrew Balkwill
Pilgrimages

On Tuesday morning we arose bright and early, ready to set off to Rome for the next part of our Pilgrimage. We arrived at Lyon in plenty of time for our flight to London, where we would then catch another flight from London to Rome.

Excitedly, we boarded the plane and, excited by what was to come in Rome, we awaited take off. After 30 minutes on the tarmac, we realized that something wasn’t going quite as planned. It was then that we heard an announcement, stating that a minor technical hitch with the aircraft meant at least another 45 minutes delay to our journey.

Prayer Reflection: Wednesday, 31 March 2010

Andrew Balkwill
Marist Schools Australia Melbourne, Pilgrimge 2010, Travel

The following reflection was used as an introduction to one of our Paris prayer sessions:

So well did Roman Gaul take to Christianity, that France has been  referred to in recent years by one of the Popes , as “First Daughter of the Church”.

On Monday, some of us discovered the church in Montmatre where the first Jesuits, on fire with a love of Jesus and a passion for living the Gospel with greater integrity, gathered and talked and nourished their faith with each other. And this was in the 16th century, at the height of the Protestant reform, which as Catholics, they realized had not arisen out of nowhere. Something had gone very wrong in the Church they loved.