Our Lady of Mercy Girls'

We had the Year 14 classes from Our Lady of Mercy school in last week. We spent time reflecting on life and faith and future. In discussion groups we talked about the things that make it difficult for us to have faith, like poverty and sickness in the world and bad things happening. We also talked about the things that affirm our faith like love and friendship and all the good that there is in the world.

Faith can be a bit of a tightrope walk, it can be very easy to have a wobble and it is natural to question and to have doubts. When we feel that our prayers are not being heard, let alone answered, it can be easy to doubt, but we should "Always pray and not give up..." Luke 18:1. "'I will let you find me' says the Lord." Jeremiah 29:14

For their prayer service the girls who came on Monday 27th September created the beautiful focus you can see above. This is what it means...

Circle - Everyone has different personalities
Candle - Bright Future
Question Mark - Blue to represent the river of life and we don't know what our future holds
Pictures - Reflection of everyone's life up to now
Affirmation Books - Friendship (true reflections and support for one another
20 candles to represent everyone here

They chose the following songs to play during their prayer service...

Castles in the Sky...we chose this because of the question "Do you ever question your life, do you ever wonder why?" It is good to reflect on life and it links with our session today.

Man in the Mirror...we chose this because it is important to make a change and try to become a better person in the future.

They chose to read the following scripture passage:

Salt and Light - Matthew 5:15 - the reason we chose this is because we are all like light on lampstands. We should shine and show off our talents that God gave us. Also shine before others focusing on the positive and not dwelling on the negative.



The group who came on Tuesday designed the focus you can see below. It represents a river of life and all the colours along the sides represent the uniqueness of each of us. The girls lit a candle for each person in the group and they put their rivers of life and affirmation booklets along the focus to include everyone's lives.

They chose the following music...


Ugly... We chose this song as it represents that everyone is equal and we only get judged on our actions as "people are all the same, and we only get judged by what we do." Calling someone ugly doesn't make you pretty, so don't be negative or hurtful to anyone. We're all beautiful in our own unique way.

You've Got a Friend in Me... We chose this song as it represents friendship. It also shows that no matter how difficult your life becomes you can always count on your closest friends. This song was used as Toy Story's theme tune as it shows the adventures and hard times of the group of friends and they always stick together through thick and thin.

Our thanks and very best wishes for the future go to all the year 14 girls. God bless.