A record year for Wimbledon College in Lourdes
The 2025 volunteering party serves as men and women for others in Lourdes
With 21 members, the August 2025 volunteering party was our largest group in recent years. Our numbers were:
eight ‘18 Wimbledon College leavers;
two recent Ursuline High School leavers;
two ‘18 leavers from other schools;
four other OWs returning for a second year of service;
the ever-amazing Fr John Moffat SJ returning as Chaplain;
four OWs of long service in Lourdes; and
five pilgrims joining in a non-working capacity.
Throughout the last week of August, OWs in maroon polo shirts could be spotted volunteering across the Sanctuary and wider town – welcoming pilgrims to the baths; marshalling crowds at processions and services; supporting pilgrims in prayer at the grotto; cleaning windows in pilgrim accommodation; and lifting wheelchair users and those on stretchers on and off their trains at the station.
In some particularly precious moments, Andrew was invited to lead the Rosary at the grotto (twice!), and John’s training in the College Choir was put to good use as he led volunteers from across the world in a stirring rendition of Amazing Grace at the weekly volunteers’ Mass, for which he was roundly complimented and applauded.
As reported in September 2024 Edgeways, last year’s group walked to Bartrès – a town in the hills where St Bernadette lived immediately before the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to her in the Grotto at Massabielle in 1858. That pilgrimage was so spiritually fulfilling that it was reprised this year by popular demand, a fruitful collaboration between the College and the Italian scouts and friends that led last year’s walk. The group followed the route that St Bernadette would have walked, and were encouraged from the outset to rotate walking partners every few minutes in order to make new friends. In the presence of St Bernadette’s relics, Fr John celebrated a moving sung Mass in the town’s church, complete with an Italian translation of the homily.
As for the evenings, gatherings invariably began in the volunteers’ bar; its staff came to look forward to our arrival each night, and we began to transform the place into a lively, intergenerational dancefloor of international music for everyone to join in! We were always joined by our friends from all over the world – Italy, France, Spain, USA, Mexico, just to name a few countries – and as the week continued, we accumulated many more new friends.
Pilgrims were welcomed; fun was had; and once again, the Wimbledon College Lourdes Hospitalité served in Lourdes as men and women for others.
A version of this article was also published in the September 2025 issue of Edgeways, Sacred Heart Wimbledon’s parish magazine.