On Monday evening, pupils and parents from St Edmund’s Catholic Academy, along with various other primary and secondary schools from the Wolverhampton area, attended the Wolverhampton Deanery Cafod Harvest Mass at St Anthony’s Church.

St Edmund’s students were chosen to do the readings and Lara Poiblanc from Sixth Form, read beautifully as well as taking our gift up to Bishop David during the offertory.

Bishop David spoke to all the students about how each school had raised money and Lara told him how we had been collecting loose change within our forms and that we will be continuing to do so for the rest of the year.

Bishop David homily reminded us of many things: not just to be thankful for our many gifts – from crops to food and water, but also to pray for those less fortunate, especially the people suffering in Gaza, Syria and other countries.

A particularly moving part of mass was talk of planting a ‘seed’. The Bishop spoke about a farmer planting a seed and being able to see his crop grow, but remembering that, sometimes, we can’t always physically see the ‘seeds’ we have planted grow right before our very eyes, but instead, are able to see the affects later.

Special thanks must go to Trevor Stockton, the Cafod Coordinator and schools volunteer for Wolverhampton Deanery, who has organised these masses for 14 years, and who we saw retire on Monday. We thank him for all his hard work and dedication. And finally, a big thank you to Father Brendon Corrick and his team for hosting such a lovely Mass.