St Joseph
 The
men's group does a wide variety of possible work. For their first four years,
whilst they are receiving formation, male volunteers work in teams of about
a dozen people of mixed age and nationality. A team coordinator, known as the
Chef d'Equipe leads the group. His job is to find out what daily duties
his team has to do, to ensure that no one is asked to do anything beyond their
ability, to instruct the group practically and to ensure that everybody turns
up for their tasks. He will also submit a brief report to the HNDL on each stagiare
at the end of his service.
Generally, in the St Joseph Service you will get an opportunity
to try your hand at most things during the week, since jobs are rotated. The
tasks you might be asked to do include helping pilgrims bathe in the piscines;
welcoming assisted (sick) pilgrims who arrive at the train station or airport:
- there is a very skilled job to be learned on how to help often severely disabled
pilgrims off or onto a train or plane. These are confined spaces and sometimes
this has to be done by physically lifting and carrying them (remember that training
is provided and nobody is asked to do the impossible!). Members of St. Joseph
Service also work in facilitating the passage of pilgrims at the Grotto and
co-ordinating the big processions and liturgies in the underground basilica.
After the first four years of service and formation
have been completed it is possible to ask to work in a specific area e.g. at
the Grotto. If this can be arranged within the needs of the Shrine at that time
then this is normally possible. It may be though that your work is needed in
another area and members are expected to show un esprit de disponabilite - a
willingness to work wherever you are asked.
The hours can either be quite few, or very long, depending
on the times of trains and aircraft, and how many pilgrimages are in Lourdes
on any given day. There is a great group feeling and a real spirit of hospitality
and camaraderie. It's particularly nice if you have been on stage in August
to recognise all the people still working for the HNDL during the CA week, and
it can certainly make things flow more easily if the guys organising things
are your friends from stage!
 Stagieres
can opt to stay wherever they like in Lourdes and some book private hotels.
Subsidised accommodation for men on stage is also available from the
HNDL in a hostel style block called the Salle Bernadette. It is above
the cinema, opposite the Little Flower Café. Just behind the
Salle Bernadette is another block of rooms known as the Benoit
Labre centre (named after the patron saint of the Hospitalité,
St Benedict Joseph Labre, an eighteenth-century pilgrim-beggar). In the Salle
Bernadette you can have either a lockable cubicle-room (called a Box) in
a type of dormitory, or if you're lucky (and willing to pay a little more),
a single room, though these are usually reserved for stagiaires who have been
coming to Lourdes for a few years. The accommodation is basic, but comfortable,
and ridiculously cheap in comparison with the hotels. There are good washroom
and shower facilities, and a washing-machine. The Benoit Labre offers
somewhat better accommodation with a limited number of twin rooms for married
couples. There is no curfew at the Salle Bernadette or Benoit Labre,
but you are asked to respect the need for quiet, since some people have to get
up early to welcome train pilgrims! Please note that, because of the shortage
of accommodation for stagiaires in Lourdes the St Michel service now
only allows stagiaires to have an HNDL room one day before their stage
service begins and one night after it ends.
If you would like to join the men's section of the stage
or would like to find out more, please contact:
May
August
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