Most schools are in ON-LINE LEARNING MODE presently due to COVID Lockdown. Some teachers may be able to use these attached resources to share with students online or perhaps with those students with special provision attending school at present.

Catholic Schools Week 2021 will be celebrated from Sunday 24 January to Sunday 31 January 2021 on the theme ‘Catholic Schools: Communities of Faith and Resilience’.

As we live through an unprecedented time of challenge and uncertainty, our faith and our resilience can be tested. We can ask questions like ‘Will things ever be the same again?’, ‘When can we get back to normality?’, ‘Where is God in all of this?’ In response to this, we reflect upon how Catholic schools are communities of faith and resilience. In Catholic schools, we are called to support each other and to have faith in the promise of the Good News. Catholic schools are inspired by the belief that God has created each one of us with a capacity to give love and receive love. This love is bound in faith and is more resilient than any virus. While each Catholic school is such a community, every Catholic school fosters the holistic development of its students, promotes their wellbeing and offers them cultivation of a deeper, loving relationship with God. Jesus teaches us to love one another as he has loved us. During Catholic Schools Week we celebrate the gifts and talents we have in following Jesus’ teaching.

NATIONAL RESOURCES

This year we celebrate how we are called to be communities of faith and resilience, through our thoughts, words and actions. In doing so, we live out the meaning of the beautiful hymn ‘Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est’ – ‘Where charity and love are, God is there.’

These are the National Resources from the IEC website. Irish language versions can be download there

https://www.catholicbishops.ie/2021/01/12/resources-for-catholic-schools-week-2021/

DIOCESAN RESOURCES:

Susan and I have developed a short Prayer Service for use by our two Dioceses. You may be able to adapt to work with students in a bubble setting if you have students attending school or by an on-line prayer service or assmbly.

Home use is another possibility using your current outreach to students. Perhaps they would have a family celebration using the prayers and their completed artwork. Hang the pieces as a family mobile or use a small tree at home as suggested in the prayer service below.

The following video contains a personal message and blessing from Archbishop Eamon to young people in the Dioceses of Armagh and Dromore.

SOME MORE RESOURCES BASED UPON THE ABOVE

Thanks to Paula McShane from St Mark’s High School in Warrenpoint for sharing these.