Our school retreat team seeks to offer the students an opportunity for a guided gospel reflection experience, through meditation activities, prayer, celebration and discussion.
Individually and collectively, students make a journey with a chosen Gospel passage (usually the one of the nearest Sunday) which takes the form of: reading and deep listening; recognition of the gospel, alive today, in personal and public life; an authentic prayer response; the deep silence of contemplation; and reflection on new insights received. The day concludes with a celebration of Eucharist which completes the journey, and commissions all to go out and to live it more deeply and more fully.
We are happy to report positive evaluations of our retreat days from St. Mary's High School, Newry. As a follow up to their retreat day in September, our retreat team joined the same students in the school oratory to continue their Lectio journey for the four weeks of Advent; one hour a week. The team have also been invited back for the six weeks of Lent. It is the hope of the School that these same students will then be in a position to introduce some of the younger children to this practice. From the perspective of the Lectio Centre, it is our hope, too, that this sustained practice will give these students important tools for a deep, meaningful and vital spiritual life.
In accordance with Co-operating to Safeguard Children and Young People in Northern Ireland, 2017,and the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church, a number of safeguarding requirements have to be met as follows: