Our Lady of Mercy

We loved having the girls of Our Lady of Mercy with us these past two days. The girls especially enjoyed the group conversations as it gave them an opportunity to question their values and beliefs and to get to know each other better. They discussed God in their lives, and how to practice their own faith. They also focused on their journey through life and were given time to reflect on this in a creative way.  They also gave each other affirming comments writing them down in a book so that when someone feels sad or alone they can be reminded of the good things about them through the lovely comments that were written about them.

Music: The Climb by Miley Cyrus. We used this song because the words in the song pretty much tells us that over the years we have reached our dreams and achievements. Life will always be a climb.

Reach by S Club 7. The words in the song, We've got to all stick together, sums up our friendship and the years we've shared together.

Focus: We chose to make a tree because we have blossomed into young women. We have learnt a lot through the years and this is what we have turned into. The reason we put candles down is because they represent a bright future. The leaves represent each one of our personalities and qualities.


Scripture: We chose to read The Good Samaritan because we wanted to show people that the 'other side' of the community isn't bad. We have too many judgements on people we don't know.

 Prayer:

We pray for all the people going through hard times at the moment.

Help them get through it.

Amen

We pray for our families

 who have always been there for us when we have needed them. 

Let them know we are very thankful.

Amen

Dear God, 

I would like to pray for everyone who has lost someone they love,

whether it's friends or family. 

 I will think of them and try so hard in all I do. 

Help us not to miss them too much, they're in our hearts always.

Amen

We pray for the sick people and their families 

through their hard times and wish them all the best.

Amen

We pray for all the homeless people in the world.

We hope that they will get homes soon.

Amen

Reflection:

Our poster says FRIENDS because our whole year group has become friends in the past 5 years.

Music: We picked Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls because it talks about the world not being able to see us as we are, because people don't understand us or our opinions, but after today we all have an idea of each other's opinions.

Michael Jackson - Man in the Mirror, we chose this as our last song because when we all look in the mirror we always see the negative things about ourselves but today we focused on the positive things about ourselves and others.

Focus: This flower represents everybody growing together over the years. It also represents the friendships that have grown. The candles in the sky represent loved ones that have been lost and that they are looking over us all through our lives.

Scripture: We chose two pieces of scripture that we thought fitted into the day.
Lamp on a table (Matt 5:15). We chose this because each of us have talents that we should use. We shouldn,t hide them away. We should always use our talents to help others in our lives.
God asks us to care for each other as we want to be cared for. We should apply this to our everyday lives and help our friends not to put their talents to waste.

Love is patient (Cor:13:3-4). We chose this verse because God is love and he wants us to follow in his example, to put the needs of others first.

Also, we want to show how love is thoughtful, patient and kind and this is the way we should be towards each other as God's friends should be.

Prayers:

Dear God, 

May you look over all of us and our family,

and any of us going through a rough time and need your help.

Give us strength.

Amen.

Dear God,

We pray for all the year 14's,

that they may find the motivation to do well and succeed in exams

 and all they do through life.

May God guide and protect them on their Journey.

Amen

Dear God,

We pray for those who need strength to get through difficult situations in their life.

We pray for Cailin Murphy and her family.

Amen

Dear God

Please look over people who are in poverty.

May God help them and relieve them of their suffering, guide them into a better life.

Amen

 Reflection:

 Words that will remind us of the retreat day we had.

Praying

Relaxing

Reflection

Enjoyable

Sentimental

Quietness