Prayer
As a Catholic community, we believe that prayer is the way in which we build a relationship with God, through whom all things are possible and so we dedicate time twice a day, every day, to prayer.
Our prayer times during formation are timetabled with a different type for each day, these are; The Weekly Reflection, the Patron Prayer appropriate for the formation group, our personal development prayer and a prayer appropriate to the week’s assembly.
Weekly Reflection
Each week, students work with our Lay Chaplain to produce our weekly reflections - these are short videos, watched by all students across the school that cover the following:
- The liturgical season
- Our virtue focus for the half term with examples of how we can live them out in our everyday lives.
- Upcoming feasts, solemnities, Holy days of Obligation and other celebrations
- A relevant theme with reflection questions
- A closing prayer (relevant to the theme/feast/time of year)
During the seasons of Advent and Lent, students use custom made journey booklets alongside the weekly reflections to deepen their prayer at these special times. The booklets contain additional reflection activities, saint inspirations, music and artwork.
End of day prayer
In the final minutes of each day, our whole school community comes together in a simple, communal prayer. On Mondays we pray the Our Father together, on Tuesday we pray the Hail Mary, on Wednesday we pray the Glory Be and on Thursday we pray our school prayer or Wiseman Prayer together. On Fridays, thanks to the diversity of our transformation curriculum, staff/students offer up their choice of prayer relating to their activity.
Liturgy
Throughout the year, we celebrate a number of liturgies together as a school community both virtually and in person. They are events in the Church’s calendar as well as events in our world that should be celebrated or commemorated.
Reconciliation Week
During Advent, we have a particular focus on preparation for the Christmas season and most importantly, the birth of Jesus Christ. We know that this period is one of busyness and so during our Reconciliation Weeks, every class is given the opportunity to slow down, to take time to reflect with prayer stations and moments of silence, as well as to have the opportunity to meet with a priest for the sacrament of Reconciliation.
Lent
Lent is another important season in the Church where we focus on getting ready to move through Holy Week, remembering Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection on Easter Sunday. During Lent, as well as Advent, students use a journey booklet which contains a school wide liturgy and pledge activity to help focus our efforts on three key themes: Fasting, Prayer & Almsgiving.
