Our Confirmation group spent a memorable weekend at Buckfast Abbey — although not without a few surprises! 

We began on Friday evening with a reflection on God’s love. Each young person received a handwritten “letter from God”, before we headed out for a night walk around the Abbey grounds and, importantly, hot chocolate before bed.

On Saturday morning, our talks were led by Priya — a wonderful youth leader who had flown in specially from the Bohemian mountains — who unfolded the themes of sin, forgiveness, and new life in Christ. This involved, among other things, hammering nails into a huge wooden cross, getting covered in mud, singing, and even getting the whole group dancing. 

Then came Dartmoor. Even getting there proved an adventure when a road closure sent the minibus winding through some extremely narrow Devon lanes. Eventually we made it onto the moor, raced up a tor and scrambled onto its great granite turrets. From there we crossed the valley to a high point where a rock beneath a cross became our altar, and we celebrated a wilderness Mass, with the immense sweep of Dartmoor around us as our cathedral. Afterwards we descended into the valley and clambered over the rocks at the meeting of two rivers—and a few changes of clothes were necessary on returning!

That evening, 17-year-old Harry Sadd shared a powerful testimony about his own journey with Jesus, and we ended the day in the darkened Abbey church, singing before the Blessed Sacrament.

On Sunday morning we met Father Abbot — quickly christened by the group as “the big boss monk” — who showed us around Buckfast and some of its extraordinary treasures. We then joined the monastic community for Sunday Mass, accompanied by the Abbey’s glorious choir and tremendous organ.

And just when we thought it was all happily concluded, the minibus broke down. Declared unsafe for the journey home, it left us rapidly booking twenty train tickets instead. No sooner had we done so than the railway announced disruption and cancelled the train we intended to catch. Yet, through some miracle — and the unflagging perseverance of our brilliant volunteers — everyone somehow made it safely back to Salisbury.

A huge thank you to everyone who made the weekend possible, and especially to our young people, who threw themselves into every part of it: prayer, mud, mountains, music, broken-down minibuses and all.