Our Pilgrims of Hope reps from each year group have created a stations of the cross resource with Fr Toby, inviting families to pray along with the stations at home during Lent.
Week beginning Monday 17th March
This week we start the week celebrating the feast of St Patrick! ☘️
His story is an incredible story of hope that should inspire us all to persevere in times of trial!
He was kidnapped from Roman Britain as a young teenager, taken as a slave to Ireland by pagan pirates for 6 years. He was held as a sheep herder, left to sleep in the wild with no shelter, company or food! He came from a wealthy family and was thrown into desolate slavery.
Yet in this desolation, stripped of every worldly comfort - no shelter, no food, no family, no fellow country man to give him comfort... He found hope!! He found God in the silence and the loneliness. He found God in the sunrise and the sunset despite the hunger and fear he was experiencing! He found wonder in creation and there he saw God and knew he was not alone!
He had a dream he would escape, which he did! Went on to become a Priest and Bishop and heard in his heart a call from the Irish, calling him back, which he did, and went on to convert the pagan King of Ireland, resulting in the Catholic Ireland we know today.
He held up the shamrock ☘️ as a symbol of the one God in three persons! A beautiful symbol of the trinity, 3 in one, and one in 3!
St Patrick, pray for us!
Amen
Week beginning Monday 24th March
This week we celebrate the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord!
A Solemnity is a Feast day of the highest ranking, which makes it solemn and so important!
On this special feast of feasts, when Jesus left heaven to come down to earth, taking on our flesh in the womb of Mary, we see God and man joining together for our redemption! Mary said "yes" to Jesus, taking him into her heart and home. Let us all give our "yes" to Jesus this Lent, and take him into our hearts in a new way! Amen
Students from each year group are leading Pilgrims of Hope assemblies this week, created by our wonderful Year 11 students.
They have done an excellent job in a very short space of time!
And we are continuing sharing Pilgrims of Hope workshops with our local Tolkien primary schools which Year 7 and Year 8 students have been involved in over the last month! 7 down, only 4 to go!
Yesterday was Laetare Sunday! The 4th Sunday of Lent, where we rest and rejoice that we are over the halfway point in our Lenten pilgrimage and have the glory of Easter in sight! Jesus took Peter, James, and John up to mount Tabor and showed them his transfigured self with Moses and Elijah beside him! This moment of glory gave strength to these 3 disciples, who were to be with him in the agony in the garden of Gethsemane.
We too reflect, on this Mothering Sunday, as we celebrate and rejoice with our mothers and loved ones, that we can look with hope to the resurrection, as we journey on this next 2 weeks toward his bitter passion. Jesus went through his passion with his mother beside him. We thank God for all the wonderful mothers and our heavenly Mother whom we all share!
