De La Salle Retreat Belfast: St. John the Baptist Girls' Primary School, Finaghy

Last week we had two groups of P.7s from St. John the Baptist Girls' in for their Transition Retreat. The thought of moving on to a new school can fill us with a huge mix of emotions; anticipation, excitement, happiness, nervousness, anxiety and worry to name but a few!

One of the things we talked about was how Jesus can help us at times when changes occur in our lives. When we confirm our Christian faith in the Sacrament of Confirmation (as all the P.7s did earlier in the year) we are saying that we are going to be followers of Jesus! It's never wise to follow a stranger, so how do we get to know Jesus?

We get to know Him by reading the Bible, especially the Gospels, which tell us all about Jesus' life. Here we can find the attitudes that Jesus had to real emotions that human beings experience.

(One of the stories we reflected on was Matthew 6:25-34.
Dotted throughout this post you will see the beautiful illustrations the girls did, based on this passage! )

This means that when we move on to our new schools we can try to treat others as Jesus would treat them! Even if they are different from us.

Some of the things the girls were looking forward to were; making new friends, meeting new teachers, doing new subjects, better facilities, new uniform, to name but a few

Some of the worries the girls had were; leaving good friends and teachers behind, getting lost in their new school, not fitting in, getting bullied!

One of the things we can do when we have hopes or worries is to pray to God for help.

Here are some beautiful prayers the girls wrote for the liturgy...

Dear God,
Help those who are sick and in need.

Thank you God for giving me my wonderful family and great friends.

Help me and my family and friends to be happy.
Amen and peace be with you.

Dear God,
Please help us to be successful and happy in our new schools

and thanks for all the good times we had in primary school.
Amen and peace be with you.

Dear God,
Help me and my classmates to make new friends in my our new schools,

and to remember the great times we had in our primary school.
Help us to be brave and not get lost in whatever school we go to.
Amen and peace be with you. Shalom!

God our Father,
We pray for people who are nasty to others,

for bullies and for people who are being bullied.
Lord hear us.

Dear God,
We pray for people who are losing their jobs,

that they can get another job

and make enough money for their families.
Lord hear us.

Dear God,
Thanks for the world, for making it a great place for everyone to live in.
Amen.

God our Father,
Help all the sicknesses in the world to be cured and all the wars to be over.
Lord hear us.

God, our Father,
We pray for those who are sick and need help in life.
Lord hear us.

Dear God,
We pray for our friends and people

who are laughed at because they are different.
Lord hear our prayer.

The girls created beautiful focuses for the liturgy on both days. The photo below shows a large footprint with lots of smaller footprints inside it to show that as we walk along the path of life God is always with us, for it is "...in Him we live and move and have our being." (Acts 17:28)

Above the footprint were the letters WWJD? (which you can see in a photo near the top of this post.) This was to show that as Confirmed Christians we must always consider what Jesus would have done in a particular situation and try to be like that ourselves! This is why the girls put all the friendship cards up, to show that we are followers of Jesus!

For the focus below, the group chose to use a signpost with one arrow pointing to the past and another to the future. They used all the footprints that they made in the day and placed them from past to future with candles all along the way to show that God is with us always!