With the arrival of St Thérèse in Lancaster now less than 24 hours away, this afternoon the new cloister garden, dedicated in honour of the Little Flower, was blessed and opened. At the end of Vespers, which today was attended by more than 60 people, there was a procession to the garden while a hymn to St Thérèse was sung.
The garden has been created around our parish statue of St Thérèse, which was incensed after holy water had been sprinkled. Prayers and a short litany of St Thérèse were said. There is now mounting excitement about the visit, especially here in the parish.
It's now nearly 9.30pm and people are still working inside the Cathedral to prepare everything for tomorrow's influx of people. The first pilgrims are expected before midday, even though the relics don't arrive until 4pm. We plan to provide regular updates here on this blog throughout the time the relics are with us in Lancaster. Meanwhile, news has reached us via the nation blog that nearly 70,000 have visited the relics so far, including 20,000 in Salford alone. You can read the full statistics at
www.catholicrelics.wordpress.com. It looks like we're in for an interesting couple of days!
With the arrival of St Thérèse in Lancaster now less than 24 hours away, this afternoon the new cloister garden, dedicated in honour of the Little Flower, was blessed and opened. At the end of Vespers, which today was attended by more than 60 people, there was a procession to the garden while a hymn to St Thérèse was sung.
The garden has been created around our parish statue of St Thérèse, which was incensed after holy water had been sprinkled. Prayers and a short litany of St Thérèse were said. There is now mounting excitement about the visit, especially here in the parish.
It's now nearly 9.30pm and people are still working inside the Cathedral to prepare everything for tomorrow's influx of people. The first pilgrims are expected before midday, even though the relics don't arrive until 4pm. We plan to provide regular updates here on this blog throughout the time the relics are with us in Lancaster. Meanwhile, news has reached us via the nation blog that nearly 70,000 have visited the relics so far, including 20,000 in Salford alone. You can read the full statistics at www.catholicrelics.wordpress.com. It looks like we're in for an interesting couple of days!
