St. Patrick's, Keady - Year 9

Last week we welcomed our first four groups of eight Year 9 classes who are travelling all the way from Keady in Co. Armagh to the Centre for their day of Retreat. We've had a lovely week with them. We were focussing on our attitudes to various things, including people from different faiths, ethnicities or cultures.

To help us to think about the attitudes we should try to live out, we looked at the Scriptures to see what Jesus did and said in various circumstances.

Some of the words we found in the Scriptures were; Bless, Pray, Love, Rejoice!

On our retreat days here we try to experience all of those things in one day and then we think about how we can make every day one where we Bless, Pray, Love and Rejoice!

One of the classes chose the story of Bartimaeus begging to be healed for their prayer service. He understood who Jesus was, and despite people telling him to keep quiet, he raised his own voice up. The class chose this story because of how Jesus cares for all people, and shows kindness to all.

Some groups chose the story of the Good Samaritan for their Prayer Service. Jesus told this story to people to challenge their prejudice.

Some beautiful prayers were written and prayed during the liturgies last week.

The groups prayed prayers for people who have been through difficulties in the last while:

Dear Lord,

Help all the people that have lost their homes in the Haiti and Chile earthquake disasters.

Amen.

They also prayed a prayer of thanks for us! Very kind - we're also and always grateful for every group that comes to us at the Pastoral Centre.

Dear God,

We would like to thank Caren, Brother Fintan and Margaret for having us here.

Amen.

One of the days the Focus had a real similarity with other aspects of the prayer service - we were talking about being light and love to each other - look at the pictures below to see the similarities.

We thought about ways to show Respect to one another and to ourselves. A group wrote this great acrostic reflection:

We enjoy being light and fun with each other.

This poster summed many things up - love, faith, truth, peace, respect and prayer, all in the middle of springtime images of flowers and sunshine!

There are many more prayers, photos and reflections to be added from the groups last week, and of course we have next week's groups to look forward to. This is just a flavour of what the St. Patrick's pupils brought to their days! Watch this space for the rest!!

Good Shepherd Primary School

Last week we had the Primary 7s from Good Shepherd Primary School here for their post Confirmation retreat. As always, we started our day off with a few games. One of the games we play is called "Zoo" but one of the boys pointed out that a better name would be "Noah's Ark. " We thought this was a great idea, so "Noah's Ark" it shall be henceforth.

The Primary 7s were telling us all about their experience of Confirmation and now that they are confirmed they were thinking about what it means in their day to day lives.

If we're trying to follow Jesus we need to know what type of person Jesus was and so we played a game to think of all the stories about Jesus we could remember. The groups thought of loads of different stories.

Then we looked to see what qualities Jesus was showing in each story. We thought of people we know in our own lives who might share that quality and how we ourselves might show that quality to those around us.

The P7s wrote some prayers for the Prayer Service asking God to help them and others and thanking God for the blessings in their lives.

Dear God
Please help me and all my family.
Amen.

Dear God,
You are my light when I am in trouble and when I'm in bother.
Amen.

Dear God,
May our class become more wiser and have new friends in secondary school.
Amen.

Dear God
Please help the poor people live a happy life this year.
Amen.

Dear God,
Please help the homeless and keep them safe so that they find someone in their family.

Amen.

These thoughtful prayers and the effort that went into the other preparations meant that we had beautiful liturgies on each of the three days.

There was great spirit in all the young people we met and we wish them all the very best and hope some of them will be here again with their post-primary schools.

St. Aidan's Primary 7

The Primary 7 boys from St. Aidan's came yesterday for their post-Confirmation Retreat. They were a great bunch of lads who made it a lovely day for us. They told us all about their Confirmation, which took place earlier on in the month.

We talked about how Confirmation is an ongoing process and how the ceremony itself is a beginning and not an end. The boys talked about the challenges of being a Christian in day to day life. We agreed that one of the greatest of the challenges of following Christ is trying to see Him in everyone we meet, EVEN the people we don't really get along with!

We reflected on how we can take steps in our own lives to try to live in a more Christ-like way, by showing love and letting our light shine. Everyone was able to think of a person in their own lives who has been a light to them.

The prayer service was beautiful, with thoughtful prayers, a fabulous poster, a beautifully designed focus of a candle, a great drama and some excellent music.

It was lovely to meet all these great boys. We wish them every blessing as they move into their post-primary schools and beyond.

Our Lady of Mercy, Year 12

Over the past week we've had the year 12s from Our lady of Mercy School in with us. It was the girls' second visit to the Centre, having been here for their year 8 Retreat at the beginning of their secondary school career. The girls took the opportunity to reflect on their time in secondary school so far, their thoughts on God, their relationships with others and the qualities that they have within themselves.

There was a great spirit in the girls and many of them welcomed the opportunity to reflect at a deeper level. We often talk about it as journeying inward or spiraling inward, hence the spirals that were made by the girls.

One of the groups did a flower for the Focus for the prayer service, to represent their growth together as a form class. Coincidentally the girls choosing the Scripture reading for the day chose Matt. 6:28 about the 'flowers of the field.'

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Some of the Prayers and Reflections written during the week can be read below:


R E F L E C T ----- find out what it means to me!
I enjoyed quality time with my class.
I enjoyed taking time out for myself.
I enjoyed getting in touch with my inner feelings.


Dear God,
Please help my friends and family and my classmates to get over their problems.
Help everyone with their GCSEs that are coming up.
Help my family with the new arrival.
Help my friends because of all the stress of school coursework.
Thank You for all Your help in the past.
Amen

Dear God,
Please help us all to pass our GCSEs in June.
Be with us in any pressure we may feel.
Amen

God, please look after all the sick people in the world. help them to get great care in hospitals and to get better. Also, bless the victims of the Haiti earthquake.
Amen

A group chose Luke 6 as a sripture reading. It is one of the greatest challenges of Christianity. This was their reason for choosing it:


You should always love your enemies as your neighbour and you should love sinners, as everyone sins and we have to be forgiving.

Today has meant a lot to us all.

We have had fun and had a ball.

It's brought us closer together.

Our friendship will last forever.

It has made us think of the type of person we are,

And, no matter how near or far

We will keep in touch,

No matter where we are

God is with us always

No matter where we are,

He is in the sky

Shining, like a star.

Even if we feel alone

He is always there

To show us the way home.

Help us to shine as brightly as can be.

Help us succeed.

God, help us with anything we need.

One of the themes that came up this week was that of Belief. We talked about believing good things in ourselves so that when time for choices came, we didn't just settle for what was easy. Conversations such as these made for great richness in our Prayer Services this week.



"We chose the verse of Scripture from Joshua. The message from these verses is that God is always with us. He wants us to be strong and courageous, he doesn't want us to be afraid or discouraged, for he is our God and is with us wherever we go."


One of the groups used the words blessing and love as the themes for their Scripture Reading. There was a great theme of celebration among the group.

Many of the prayers were about the world, ourselves, those who are experiencing grief and those who are in need of material help.

Dear God,

A few weeks ago there was an awful earthquake and thousands of people died due to the terrible conditions that were left. Please keep the families safe.

Lord hear us.



Dear God...
Please help all the less fortunate in the world today. For example, homeless, poor, or natural disaster victims. Help things to get more positive for them.
Lord hear us.



Dear God,
Over the last few years there have been a terrible impact of suicide all over the world. People have lost mummys, daddys, brothers, sisters and friends. Please help those who have lost relatives or friends due to this and help the young people out there today with problems and let them know that there is never anything bad enough that you cannot talk about.
Please help the people that this has happened to.
Lord hear us.



One reflection took the form of reflecting on today, on the past, and the future.



Today was fun especially at break and lunch because we spent time together as a form class.



We've been a form class from 1st year. I started late. We've had fights in the class, and we've had wonderful laughs. This retreat has brought us closer together as a class.


When we leave school at the end of the year, I hope we all stay in contact because it would be nice to have friends from the past, and have a few more childish laughs.




Another took the form of an Acrostic Poem.



Peaceful on our walk with Jesus
Reflecting on our lives
A feeling of being special
Years from now we will remember this
Experiences like this last a lifetime
Remembering it with the friends we love and hope never to forget



What a great bunch of girls. We hope to meet some of them again in Year 14. In the meantime, God Bless Year 12s.

St. Mark's, Warrenpoint

Last Wednesday, we had St. Mark's Warrenpoint make the journey up to Belfast for a day of retreat. We took time to think about who has influenced us, who the important people are in our lives, how God helps us, and how we can appreciate one another. It was a lovely day.

For our liturgy, we each wrote the name of someone we were thankful for, and the name of someone we had an intention for on a piece of paper and then stapled it to a paper circle... it made the focus-space be filled with our hopes and our gratitude.

When the focus-space was all complete, it reminded us of that gorgeous phrase in Irish:

- ar scáth a chéile a mhaireas na daoine -

- it is in the shelter of each other that the people live -

We always look forward to having St. Mark's pupils with us and look forward to more groups this year.