St Mary's Church at Carmarthen is served by the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity. Parish Priest, Fr Monty O'Shea has three visiting priests from the Society who relate stories of their extraordinary work in the Philipines, Thailand and in the Americas. Brother Richard Blaunch works in Bankok and much of his work involves helping girls to escape from the sex trade. He spoke of recently rescuing an 8 year old girl from a brothel.
The car is picked up by Rowel Santos, a good friend of Fr JJ Baustista (AOS port Chaplain at Milford) and Willie arrives in good time, fully refreshed after the rigors of Saturday and he's raring to go. Again we elect to take the A roads. I suppose that at this stage, I'm simply wanting to get to point B as painlessly as possible and am quite willing to forego the scenic lanes. Again, the day is perfect, sunny and calm. We make brisk progress and with such a short 65km ride, arrive at the Milford Haven Marina shortly before 14:00. Our intention was to have a light lunch, but having finished the ride so early, it also being Sunday and for Willie, the end of his stint in harness, a look at the menu templing us with sea food and steak, it's enough to reward ourselves with a good feast! Many thanks Willie for the companionship and for the excellent lunch and conversation.
We rode to St Francis of Assisi Church at 1630 to be given a warm welcome by Fr JJ and Margaret, staunch parishioner who has been seconded for the evening to cook dinner.
I was able to make a short presentatiom after mass to a full church. It is great to see so many younsters there and also so pleasing to receive such generous donations to AOS.
Dinner at the presbytery was a lively affair, we being joined by Fr Noel Mullen, mentor to Fr JJ, ex Chaplain to the Navy, and former Whitehaven RFC player. Noel would definitely be the man to have on your side in the event of a fight!
Two hearty meals within five hours doesn't phase me a bit, and the prospect of another rest day tommorrow is a happy thought to take to bed!
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