Lent - 27

We are now in Helmsdale - the home village of Mgr Basil Loftus. Helmsdale is a village in the Highland Council area of Scotland. It lies on the east coast of Sutherland, in the Scottish Highlands. The modern village was planned in 1814 to resettle communities that had been removed from the surrounding straths as part of the Highland Clearances.

It is a fishing port at the estuary of the Helmsdale river, and was once the home of one of the largest herring fleets in Europe. The river itself is well known for its fishing.

The village is on the A9 road, at a junction with the A897, and has a railway station on the Far North Line. Facilities include an independent youth hostel, a heritage centre, an art gallery, and an inn.



Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What are we to drink?"

Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.

There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them. He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you."

Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water. (Exodus 15.22-27)