St. Joseph's, Lisburn

The Primary 7s from St. Joseph's in Lisburn came to the Centre this week for their Transition Retreat. We were talking about how important friendship is to human beings and the P7s were thinking back to when they first started primary school and the first friends they made there.

So when it comes time to move to a new school it can be difficult,

especially if some of our good friends will be going to a different school.

We can feel a little bit worried.

We made some friendship cards and everyone signed everyone else's card. It's a lovely thing to keep as a reminder of all the people in your primary school class.

The cards are semi-circular in shape, to show that there is always room for more people in our circle of friends.

We talked about how important we are in God's sight and how God want's us to be happy and to make friends at our new school.

In the lovely focus below you can see the words, GOD and FRIENDS, and a heart to represent LOVE. The group chose to do this because these are the things that human beings need.

The focus below shows the sky, the sun, clouds and fog as well as the footsteps and friendship cards that each person made.

The group explained that this represented the connectedness of everything,

God, creation, nature, animals and human beings.

That is a great way of looking at things. We are all connected.

We are all part of God's wonderful creation.

One of the things that we talked about with both groups was, prayer. There are so many ways of praying and we experienced a few of those during our days together. We had time for group prayer, personal meditation, praying with scripture, praying through art. Anything we do with God in mind is a form of prayer. Prayer is something that can help us when we face the ups and downs of life. The groups wrote some beautiful prayers for their prayer service.

Dear God,
Pray for the peace in the world.

Keep all safe and happy.

Give them all the things we all need.
Stay with us when times are hard and sad.
Amen.

Dear God,
Please help the sick people.

Stay with them through their suffering.
Help their families.

Give them the help and support they need.
Lord hear us.

Dear God,
Please help the dead and their families.

Please help them cope without their loved-ones.
Lord hear us.

Dear God,
Please help the poor and the homeless.

Help keep them safe and well.
Please give them food, clean water, health and shelter.

Provide them with all the human rights.
Lord hear us.

Dear God,

We pray for those who have passed away recently.

May their souls rest in peace.

Also help their families to cope with the sadness and sorrow.
Lord hear us.

Dear God,
Please help all the families in countries that are less fortunate than us.

Give them the food, clothes and shelter that they need to live their life.
Lord hear us.

Dear God,

We thank God for all our skills and talents that he has given us.

May we use them to do good.
Lord hear us.

Dear God,
Thank you for all the good things we have in life such as clean water,

nice food, shelter and a great education.
Lord hear us.

Dear God,
Please God look out for and care for all our friends and family.
Amen

During our prayer service we prayed one of our best loved prayers...

God our Father, I come to say thank you for your love today thank you for my family and all the friends you give to me. Guard me in the dark of night and in the morning send your light. Amen.

This lovely acrostic was written about their school...

Super

Amazing

Intelligent

Never-boring, nice

Terrific

Joyful

Oasis

Super

Emmanuel

Peaceful

Humble

Sunny

We thank all the P7s for coming to the Centre and for sharing their thoughts and opinions on God and Jesus and faith and friendship. We wish them every blessing in their new schools.

St. Bernard's, Glengormley

The Primary 7 classes from St Bernard's in Glengormley were here for their Confimation Retreat last week. Being a Confirmed Christian means you've said YES to being a follower of Jesus. We were asking the P.7s what they thought about Jesus. You can see some of their thoughts in the photos below.

Confirmed Christians have to try and be like Jesus. We are called to be kind, thoughtful, loving, considerate and truthful too. Though we may not be able to perform the type of miracles that Jesus performed, we can be like a miracle to someone, in the way we treat them.

Some people were wondering what Jesus looked like. We can only speculate on this but it is up to us to try and see Him in everyone we meet, even the people we find hard to get along with. We talked about how difficult this can be.

Jesus told stories about the Father. He tried to get people to love one another. He asked us to be a light in the world so that people might see "the good things you do, and praise your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:16) This means that when we are living as Jesus asked, our actions can bring people closer to God. That's a HUGE responsibility!

To be able to follow Jesus, we need to let His Spirit work in us, so we made kites to symbolise the Holy Spirit working in us, the way the wind works in a kite and transforms it.

The groups wrote some beautiful prayers for our liturgies each day.

Dear God,
Help us as we go to a new school and help us make some new friends.
Thank you for all the teachers and friends. Amen.
Lord hear us.

Dear Lord,
Please help the people who have been in natural disasters.

Make sure that they will have water, shelter and food for the future.
Amen.
Lord hear us.

Dear God,
Help all people who are seriously ill with terrible diseases and have threatening

injuries, because I know they are in a great deal of discomfort and pain.
Lord hear us.

Dear God,
Help all the children who get bullied.

May they have the courage to stand up to the bully and tell the teacher.
Help all of us to help our friends and tell the teacher if they're too scared.
Help us to stand up for each other and our friends.
Lord hear us.

Dear God,
Please pray for people with alcohol problems

as they are sometimes homeless and without friends.
Lord hear us.

Dear God,
We pray that your people will take care of your world,

stop vandalising so we will live in a better place.
Lord hear us.

Dear God,
We pray that Northern Ireland's problems may be resolved

and that our country may be at peace once again.
Lord hear us.

Dear God,
We pray for the sick hoping they get better soon.

We also pray for people looking after those who are sick.
Lord hear us.

Dear God,
Let us pray that the elderly may remain safe in their homes

and please keep them away from sickness.
Lord hear us.

Look at the beautiful focus below. It is a heart, to represent God's love for us and the love we have for one another.

Faith is something we try to have, but it can be very difficult. Even Peter became afraid when Jesus asked him to walk towards Him on the water, and Thomas, when told that Jesus was risen, said that he would only believe it when he'd seen it for himself. Sometimes we need to ask the Holy Spirit for help to 'just believe.'

In the Centre we have a poster which says "Faith is a Verb!" It's a great way of looking at faith. The things we actually do for others can help to deepen their faith and ours too.

Look at the beautiful focus below. The group made a sky with clouds and sun and some of the kites that everone made were added to it. They also made a cross with the remaining kites.

We had a great couple of days with the P7s and we wish them all the best.