On 8 May, about 1200 student nurses and their lecturers from different nursing schools belonging to the Brothers of St John of God in Bavaria met in Straubing (Bavaria/Germany), with delegations from the schools in Gremsdorf, Schwandorf, Reichenbach, Regensburg, Tegernheim, Munich and Straubing. It was also attended by young people undergoing training in all the centres in the Province.

The meeting was held in a pavilion at the “Joseph-von-Fraunhofer-Halle” Fair and was inaugurated by the Provincial Superior Brother Benedikt Hau. In his address, he invited the young people “to become members of the St John of God family, to live and practice hospitality together with the Brothers of St John of God”. The young people then had the opportunity to choose between one of the following three events: to be entertained at a show by the comedian Martin Frank, to attend a pop concert with the “Lenze und de Buam” band, and a lecture given by the geophysicist and computer expert Dr. Peter Schmidt.

After lunch, they were able to choose between about 50 workshops, both in the Fair area and in the town of Straubing and the environs. The programme was extremely wide-ranging and included courses on massage, hip-hop, yoga and qigong, photography workshops, handicraft workshops, as well as an introductory practical class on such important matters as neonatal care and heli-ambulance assistance at the Brothers of St John of God Saint Elizabeth Clinic in Straubing.

The day concluded with a Solemn Eucharist under the presidency of the diocesan Youth Pastoral Care director, Christian Kalis. One particularly moving moment was when prayers of the faithful were recited in several different languages. The motto chosen for the day was “Mia CAREn zam”, a mixture of the local Bavarian dialect and English which may be translated roughly as “We are a family where everyone looks after everyone else”.