We work in the area of religious education offering support and teaching resources to post primary school RE teachers. We specifically help with the faith development of the Catholic school communities in our support areas.
Catholic Schools Week was launched at St John the Baptist Parish Church in Portadown today Tuesday January 21st. About 30 schools were represented with 600 young people attending with Principals teachers and some parents and grandparents. Living in harmony with Creation was our main focus. A similar launch took place yesterday at the Seinn Service at the Church of the Redeemer in Dundalk Co Louth. There the church was full to the brim with about 900 students from Dundalk, north and mid-Louth and south Armagh attending with teachers, parents and also so proud grandparents.
Our three banners this year remind us that our planet and special home is quickly being destroyed by careless and selfish overuse by nations, large companies and even individual choices in how we live and how we treat this wonderful part of God’s Creation. The first banner shows life created by God and says: “Creation God’s love for us” The second shows planet Earth cracking and wounded and says: “What went wrong?” The third shows the same picture of our suffering planet Sister Earth and says: “We went wrong”. Today we hoped to find a way forwards towards healing and living in harmony with our beautiful planet which is part of God’s Creation.
Music, hymn, readings, artwork and mime and dancing provided wonderful inspiration and reflection. Celebration and prayer helped us resolve in our own small way to be stewards of this wonderful world created in love for us by God. The organising team wish to thank all who helped make this celebration a true launch into CSW which begins this Sunday. Bishop Michael led us all in prayer and story. He blessed saplings of trees for schools to plant and each student received a sprout pencil contains sunflower seeds to emphasise the eco message of living in harmony with our world. Please God all will return home to school determined to make the most of CSW 2020.
Some schools have asked for a copy of the order of service. You can download this below.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity will run as usual from 18 to 25 January.
The theme this year is They showed us unusual kindness (Acts 28:2). Annually, leaders of faith communities throughout the world gather together to arrive at the theme for the annual celebration of Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This year the theme finds its origins in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 27:18 – 28:10).
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Resources are available as downloads from the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland website at www.ctbi.org.uk/weekofprayer.
An interdenominational Service for Christian Unity will be held in St Patrick’s Church of Ireland Cathedral, Armagh, on Wednesday, 22 January at 7.30 pm.
The guest preacher will be Fr Tony Currer, a diocesan priest of Hexham and Newcastle diocese in the North East of England who currently works at the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity where he is responsible for the Vatican’s relations with the worldwide Anglican and Methodist Communions and
for the materials prepared for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
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The materials for the 2020 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity have been prepared by the Christian churches in Malta and Gozo (Christians Together in Malta). On 10th February many Christians in Malta celebrate the Feast of the Shipwreck of St Paul, marking and giving thanks for the arrival of Christian faith on these islands.The reading from the Acts of the Apostles used for the feast is the text chosen for this year’s Week of Prayer. The story begins with Paul being taken to Rome as a prisoner (Acts 27:1ff). Paul is in chains, but even in what turns out to be a perilous journey, the mission of God continues through him. This narrative is a classic drama of humanity confronted by the terrifying power of the elements. The passengers on the boat are at the mercy of the forces of the seas beneath them and the powerful tempest that rages about them. These forces take them into unknown territory, where they are lost and without hope.
Today many people are facing the same terrors on the same seas. The very same places named in the reading (27:1, 28:1) also feature in the stories of modern-day migrants. In other parts of the world, many others are making equally dangerous journeys by land and sea to escape natural disasters, warfare and poverty. Their lives, too, are at the mercy of immense and coldly indifferent forces – not only natural, but political, economic and human. This human indifference takes various forms: the indifference of those who sell places on unseaworthy vessels to desperate people; the indifference of the decision not to send out rescue boats; and the indifference of turning migrant ships away. This names only a few instances. As Christians together facing these crises of migration this story challenges us: do we collude with the cold forces of indifference, or do we show “unusual kindness” and become witnesses of God’s loving providence to all people?
Help put Jesus back into Advent and Christmas with your students this year. The secular message of Christmas is all about ” ME” and the real reason for this festival has been set aside quite deliberately by the business and the commercial interests that surround us all.
The Advent booklet is for the younger members of the Diocese (pre-Holy Communion) and contains items based on the Advent Gospels and Readings, Christmas Day, the Holy Family and The Epiphany of the Lord (Cycle A). Families and schools should download and ask children to work with this booklet. Discuss the materials with them.
Admirabile Signum’: Pope Francis’ apostolic letter on the meaning and importance of the Nativity scene
Pope Francis told a crowd gathered in Greccio that the scene of Baby Jesus in the manger, surrounded by his Blessed Mother, St. Joseph and others, should serve as a reminder to the constant presence of Christ in our lives, which began with the Incarnation. “God loves us to the point of sharing our humanity and our lives,” Pope Francis said. “He never leaves us alone.”
Pope Francis calls us to be like the shepherds who visited the Holy Family on that first Christmas. “Go to the cave, to see and recognize the sign that God has given us. … May his smile that lights up the night dispel indifference and open hearts to the joy of those who feel loved by our Heavenly Father.”
Jesus once told a parable about sowing a mustard seed.
“What shall we say the Kingdom of God is like?” It is like this. A man takes a mustard seed, the smallest seed in the world, and plants it in the ground.
It is so small, like a speck of dust. After a while, it grows up and becomes the biggest of plants.
It puts out such large branches that the birds come and make their nests in it.
THE GROUND – A person’s heart
THE SEED – God’s love.
A SMALL PLANT – Good actions.
FULLY GROWN TREE- The Kingdom of God.
Live simply.
Love generously.
Care deeply.
Speak kindly.Leave the rest to God.
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Pope Francis speaks with us about the care of the Oceans
Pope Francis talks about the grave challenge of protecting the oceans.
Yann Arthus-Bertrand and Michael Pitiot join Pope Francis in proclaiming this warning and the urgency of taking measures to protect the oceans.
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Love this short film.
El Gamma Penumbra Films (Shadow dancing)
Assembly spot in CSW2020 ? Thanks Sr Marjorie for sending it to me.
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Saving the Earth Powerful images
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Catholic Schools Week 2020
Catholic Schools Week 2020 will be celebrated from Sunday 27 January – Sunday 1 February 2020 on the theme ‘Living in Harmony With God’s Creation’.
The Archdiocese of Armagh will celebrate the launch of CSW 2020 as follows
Tuesday, January 21st St John the Baptist Church Drumcree Portadown at 11.00 am. (Arrive from 10.30 am)
Thursday, January 23rd Holy Redeemer Church Ard Easmuin, Dundalk at 12.30 pm Seinn 2020. (Arrive from 12.00 )
We are looking forward so much to meeting up again to celebrate in Word and Song all that is special to our Catholic Education System throughout our Diocese.
Do put these dates in your diary and please do come along to join us.
CAFOD have this wonderful introduction video to Pope Francis and his teaching about Mother Earth our common home.
Climate change and human sgreedhave all hurt mother Earth. Creation was entrusted to us as something great and precious. We have messed it up so badly that we it may never recover. Watch this now.
“We need to strengthen the conviction that we are one single human family.”
“The Earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth. In many parts of the planet, the elderly lament that once beautiful landscapes are now covered with rubbish.”
“Never have we so hurt and mistreated our common home as we have in the last 200 years.”
“We are not God. The Earth was here before us and was given to us.”
“The idea of infinite or unlimited growth, which proves so attractive to economists, financiers and experts in technology … is based on the lie that there is an infinite supply of the earth’s goods, and this leads to the planet being squeezed dry at every limit.”
“Yet all is not lost. Human beings, while capable of the worst, are also capable of rising above themselves, choosing again what is good, and making a new start.”
A prayer for our earth
All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe and in the smallest of your creatures.
You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.
Pour out upon us the power of your love, that we may protect life and beauty.
Fill us with peace, that we may live
as brothers and sisters, harming no one.
O God of the poor,
help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth, so precious in your eyes.
Bring healing to our lives,
that we may protect the world and not prey on it, that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.
Touch the hearts
of those who look only for gain
at the expense of the poor and the earth.
Teach us to discover the worth of each thing, to be filled with awe and contemplation, to recognize that we are profoundly united with every creature as we journey towards your infinite light.
We thank you for being with us each day.
Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle
for justice, love and peace.
Amen.
A Christian prayer in union with creation
Father, we praise you with all your creatures.
They came forth from your all-powerful hand; they are yours, filled with your presence and your tender love.
Praise be to you!
Son of God, Jesus,
through you all things were made.
You were formed in the womb of Mary our Mother, you became part of this earth, and you gazed upon this world with human eyes.
Today you are alive in every creature
in your risen glory.
Praise be to you!
Holy Spirit, by your light
You guide this world towards the Father’s love and accompany creation as it groans in travail.
You also dwell in our hearts
and you inspire us to do what is good.
Praise be to you!
Triune Lord, wondrous community of infinite love, teach us to contemplate you in the beauty of the universe, for all things speak of you.
Awaken our praise and thankfulness
for every being that you have made.
Give us the grace to feel profoundly joined to everything that is.
God of love, show us our place in this world as channels of your love for all the creatures of this earth, for not one of them is forgotten in your sight.
Enlighten those who possess power and money that they may avoid the sin of indifference, that they may love the common good, advance the weak, and care for this world in which we live.
The poor and the earth are crying out.
O Lord, seize us with your power and light, help us to protect all life, to prepare for a better future, for the coming of your Kingdom of justice, peace, love and beauty.
Praise be to you!
Amen.
Watch Greta spaking at the UN
see video
Greta Thunberg full speech at UN Climate Change COP24 Conference from Grow in Love by Veritas on Vimeo.
Finding God in all things . Praying as St Ignatius liked to pray.
This year, World Mission Sunday, with the theme ‘Together We Are Mission’, will be celebrated over the weekend of 20th October. Throughout October, there are many, many ways you can show your support – be it through action, giving or prayer.
I like this short meditation ,it puts all of this into a great context
“They left everything and followed him”
My vocation is grounded in belonging to Jesus, and in the firm conviction that nothing will separate me from the love of Christ. The work we do is nothing more than a means of transforming our love for Christ into something concrete. I didn’t have to find Jesus. Jesus found me and chose me. A strong vocation is based on being possessed by Christ. It means loving him with undivided attention and faithfulness through the freedom of poverty and total self-surrender through obedience. This is the call of being a Missionary of Charity, being wholeheartedly given over to serving the poorest of the poor. It means serving Christ through his suffering appearance in the poor:
He is the Life that I want to live. He is the Light that I want to radiate. He is the Way to the Father. He is the Love with which I want to love. He is the Joy that I want to share. He is the Peace that I want to sow. Jesus is Everything to me. Without him, I can do nothing.
Saint Teresa of Calcutta
Saint Teresa of Calcutta (t 1997) founded the Missionaries of Charity and won the Nobel Peace Prize.
On this Day for Life, we pray for all those who are suffering and surviving domestic abuse, that they may be given hope and be filled with the love of God. Guide their abusers away from a course of violence and onto one of love. Lord hear us ….
We pray for anyone who feels trapped or isolated in their home. Help us to reach out in love and friendship, responding to families affected by domestic abuse with patience, understanding and wisdom. Lord hear us.
Lord, give us the courage to offer friendship to people in distress, remembering your example of the good Samaritan. Help us to know that prayers and actions must work hand in hand to bring about change. Lord hear us.
On this Day for Life, we pray for all lives, that they may be treated with respect and have their God-given dignity acknowledged from conception to natural death, as well as throughout life.
World Mission Sunday 2019