St. Joseph's, Crumlin - Primary 7 Transition Retreat

We had the first of four primary 7 groups in from St. Joseph's in Crumlin this week. They were here for their Transition Retreat where we talk and pray about the move from primary to post-primary school. (Normally we would wait until all four groups from a school had been to the centre before publishing a blog, but as the last group isn't coming until May we decided to post up each group as they come.)

We talked about our memories of our time in primary school and our hopes and dreams, worries and fears about post-primary school. It was lovely to hear some of the happy memories that people remembered of their time at primary school. It's lovely to remember those times and feel that happiness all over again. Some people even remembered their first day of school and the first people they talked to in the class.

We talked about the path of our life so far and made a footprint to symbolise our journey along that path. During the prayer service we placed our footprints on the cloth path which we put down as our focus. As you can see below, it has a fork in the road to show the different schools people will be going to.

We made Friendship cards so that everyone in the class could sign their name on everyone else's card, which is a lovely way to remember all the people in your class after you move on to post-primary school. You can see some of these in the picture below.

During the prayer service we sang a great song called "Peace Like a River." It has loads of actions and everyone enjoyed it.

Some lovely prayers were written for the prayer service...

Dear God,
Thank you for the food we eat. Amen.
Dear God, please protect the people in Haiti from the earthquakes .Amen.
Dear God, thank you for all my awesome friends.
Amen.

Dear God, I want to pray for people in poor countries who are sick and I want to thank sport relief who raised money for them, and I want to thank God for the things that we use everyday and people in some countries have to starve and sometimes they die.
Amen.

Dear God,
Bless the people in Ireland that have no food or shelter and also have no one to talk to.
We are also thankful for our school and an opportunity for education.
Lord hear us.

Dear God,
Bless all the people in Haiti and Chile after the earthquakes and take care of the children with no parents or no place to sleep or nothing to eat. Also bless the people who are in hospital very ill with diseases. Thank you for having medicines to care and make us better.
Lord hear us.

Dear God,
I thank you for everything you have given us - shelter, food and the people who love us.
Let us think of those who are less fortunate than ourselves.
We take a moment to think of the people who have passed away.
Lord hear us.

As you can see from these prayers these young people had great consideration for others and gratitude for all the blessings in their own lives.

We look forward to meeting the next group.