Lourdes, August 11

from Dr. Francesco Cesareo, president, Assumption College

We have entered into the spirit of the pilgrimage. This morning's opening Mass captured the international character of the congregation as we joined groups from Chile, Madagascar, Korea, Africa, and France. After Mass our group was asked to transport the sick back to the hospital for lunch. The entire Assumption group pulled the infirm across the Sanctuary and through the streets of Lourdes.

From August 1 to 5, the newly elected assistant general of the Assumptionists, Fr. John Franck, AA, preached the annual retreat for the priests of the diocese of Erie, PA.

The retreat took place on the beautiful grounds of Christ the King Seminary in East Aurora, NY, the major seminary for the diocese of Buffalo.

On August 9 a group of Assumption College students and administrators left to attend the national pilgrimage in Lourdes sponsored annually by the Assumption by way of preparation for World Youth Day. The following is an update by Brother Ronnie Sibugan, AA, a seminarian studying at Boston College.

August 16^th, 2011

After an 11 hour bus trip from Lourdes, we arrived today in Madrid at 7 PM.  Some of the Assumptionist religious were assigned to stay in host families, parishioners of one of the Assumptionist parishes here in Madrid.  I am staying right now in a house which is very near to our parish, with Internet connection :) . Dr. Cesareo and his family as well as Fr. Dinh are staying with other families while the larger Assumption student group is  staying in the parish hall and other buildings.

By Matthew Chua

Before I left Boston for Mexico City two months ago, I cracked an off-joke to Fr. Donald, which he did not find too amusing, that I might just find a wife in Mexico and  live there. What I did not expect was that my experience from the Mission of the Mexican Assumptionists to the rural mountain communities of Veracruz was to reflect, so providentially, Jesus’ own words in Mark 10:29-30.

Jesus said, "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel,·who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.