Aquinas Year 10

The year 10s from Aquinas Diocesan school were here last week. We were asking them what their image of God is. Whether we have a strong faith or not, the name "God" brings some image or thought to mind for each of us.

It might be the big man with a white beard sitting up there on a cloud somewhere, or it might be light or peace or warmth. As we are all individuals, our image and experience of God is very unique to us.

Some of us may simply be UNSURE of who or what God is. A retreat day is a great time to explore all of these thoughts.

Most of us have lots of questions for God and things we wonder about. It is important for us to ask these questions and to satisfy ourselves with the answers. This is how we come to mature faith. Below are some of the questions the year 10s had...

We explored some of these questions through the day and we prayed about them during a scripture meditation. After that we put our thoughts and reflections on our time of prayer down on paper...

...and we joined them all together to form posters.

The focus below shows many different colours to represent the individuality of each of us.

This focus has the word US written using the spirals that people made when they were reflecting about themselves.

This lovely reflection poster was made by a group, based on some things that Audrey Hepburn said. She of course was a famous actress, but was tireless in her work for social justice as a UNICEF ambassador.

This lovely focus showed a tree, a flower, the sun and a cloud. When people of faith look at the world around us and how amazing it is and we are, we can see the hand of God in it.

Below you can read just some of the beautiful prayers that were written for our prayer services. Each day, we also pray for all the intentions that people write in a book that we bring to each paryer service.

We pray for those suffering from depression.

May they find something worth living for and find their way out of darkness.

May they also come closer to God and the people they love.

And through the power of Jesus,

Lord hear us.

Dear God,

Please protect the ones we love as they travel overseas.

Protect the pilots, drivers and sailors

we put our trust in them to bring us to our destinations.

Keep them safe and well and bring them safely home to us.

Lord hear us.




Getting involved.
Outgoing
Do your bit.

Live your life the way God intended
Open your mind
Value everything God has given you
Equal opportunity
Smile upon a new day

Yearn for God's acceptance.
Overlook the faults of others
Understand

Dear God,

Let us pray for our brothers and sisters in 3rd world countries

and let us hope they get fed and get water today.

Lord hear us.

Dear God,

We pray for all those people affected by natural disasters,

for those who have been killed or lost things because of them.

Lord hear us.

Dear God,

We pray for you to help premature and sick babies.

We pray for you to support nurses and doctors in the daily pressures of their jobs.

We pray for the families of the babies and for their mums and dads

as they continue their daily struggle.

Dear God, please protect these babies with their struggle to live.

Give their families hope and provide the babies with all your love.

Lord hear us.

Dear God,

We pray for you to help the people in poverty.

Lord hear us.

Dear God,

We pray for people who are afffected by war

and those who have lost their lives due to war.

We hope that they and their families

move on from the past and lead happier lives.

Lord hear us.

Dear God,

We pray for poor people and those who live on the street.

May they find warmth, happiness and shelter.

Lord hear us.

Dear God,

We pray for the sick as they battle illnesses,

we hope to give them courage and strength to carry on fighting

and also help their loved ones carry on supporting them in their hour of need.

Lord hear us.

Dear God,

Please bless all our teachers and learning assistants

as they educate young people across the world.

how much we appreciate what they do for us.

Lord hear us.

Dear God,

We pray for all our friends,

those who stand by us in our times of need,

those who laugh with us, whose who cry with us.

We pray for them.

Lord hear us.

Dear God,

Let there be peace on earth.

Lord, save those who are suffering from violence.

Let those in Afghanistan and Iraq find an end to their troubles.

Lord, free those who are in sorrow. Help those who are suffering.

Let your love save them from fear.

Lord hear us.

On the seventh of May

We are out all day

Out for a treat

called a holy retreat
We sit and pray

and then we say
Hip Hip Hip Hip Hooray!

We sit and munch

Our lovely lunch, in
A house in the Glen

Owned by Christian men

And then we say,

Hip Hip Hip Hip Hooray!

It's not a battle to be fought

Just time to sit for calm and thought

We talked all about God's love

and how he loves us from above
Hip Hip Hip Hip Hooray!

We spent a great few days in the company of the year 10s and wish them all the best.

Sacred Heart Boys' P.S.

We had two terrific days last week with the P7 boys from Sacred Heart P.S., Belfast. The boys were full of life and craic, telling us their memories of their time at Sacred Heart and looking ahead to the time of change that is coming up soon for them.

The boys were talking about God and what their thoughts are about Him, and about how God can help when we feel worried! They did some lovely artwork based on Matthew 6:25-34, and they wrote some beautiful prayers for their Prayer Services each day.

Dear God,

Help the poor people that have no food.

Lord hear us...

Dear God,

Help us and guide us through secondary school.

Help us to make the right choices.

Lord hear us...

Dear God,

We ask you to protect old people in their time of need.

Watch over them.

Lord hear us...

Dear God,

We thank you for giving us life and helping us make the right choice.

Lord hear us...

Dear God,

We ask you to help our families.

Bless them now and always.

We take a moment to think of anyone in our family...

Lord hear us...

The groups made the chapel a welcoming and prayerful space for the prayer services by creating these beautiful focuses. Here we can see a rainbow above a cross to celebrate the risen Jesus and all the footprints are following Jesus.

Here we can see the words GOD and SUN. God made the sun and all of creation. He also made the light that is in each one of us and told us to let it shine. That's why the group made the letter U from the footprints, and did the rays of the sun in the centre with footprints.

The groups wrote some lovely ACROSTIC reflections for the prayer services. You can read these below.

The boys were brilliant singers and one of the groups sang "We Want To See Jesus Lifted High," which was such a joyful way to celebrate our day together. What a great song and sung with such joy too! We also joined in singing and doing actions to the song "Peace Like A River."

Two lovely days we spent together, and we wish all the boys every blessing in their new schools.

St. Joseph's, Lisburn - Thank You Cards

After their recent visit to the Centre for their Transition Retreat, the Primary 7s from St. Joseph's in Lisburn made some beautiful cards, thanking us for the lovely day they had.

We always try our best in the Centre to make the day fun and enjoyable for everyone, so it is really great to hear from the young people themselves whether they've had a good day.

We really appreciate the thought, time and effort that went into creating these cards, and the words of thanks that each of them contained.

We always believe that it's the effort of both the team and the group, working together, that make a Retreat a success.

So thanks again to all the pupils from St. Joseph's, who not only helped to make it such a great day when they were here, but made us feel great today by making these beautiful cards.