Prayer Life

29th September 2017Mrs D Ferris

Prayer Life

There are many forms and ways to pray.

One of the ways our Lay Chaplain supports our staff is to pray for them every day. She puts their names on lolly sticks in a jar at the start of the year, then every day while she is in the Chapel praying for the day ahead, apart from praying for all the students and staff of St Edmunds, she takes three names out of the jar and especially pray for those people. She then sends them an email.

Many of them feel comforted by the prayers and send emails back with many messages of thanks.

Maybe we could all have prayer jars with the names of our loved ones in the jar or a box. Every day we could pray for at least 3 of them and then text them or even phone them to tell them you were thinking of them. How contagious would the prayers be?

Lightfever

29th September 2017Mrs D Ferris

Today we had our first Lightfever of this academic year. The students of St Edmund’s love Lightfever, they welcome the opportunity to come into the Chapel during lunchtime or tutor time to light a candle and say a quiet prayer quietly for their friends, family or themselves. All our welcome, sometimes members of staff come in to join us too.
We ask that each students that comes, bring a friend, sometimes students go back into the dinner hall and invite their friends into the Chapel.
After they have lit their candle, said a prayer and had some quiet reflection time, they often want to light another candle. We have music playing in the background from many artist including music by CJM and Matt Redman.
Lightfever is on the last Thursday of every month and is based on the ‘Pillar nights’ that take part in the Diocese. Invited people into your place of worship.

Chaplaincy Commissioning Mass

27th September 2017Mrs D Ferris

Today 15 St Edmund’s students from St Edmund’s Chaplaincy team travelled to St Chad’s Cathedral, in Birmingham, along with other schools in the Diocese to attend the annual Chaplaincy Commissioning Mass.
Archbishop Bernard Longley being the main celebrant along with other priests from the Archdiocese. BCYS and Kenelm Trust led the music. Sinead Cullen Barrett of our Sixth-form Chaplaincy team gave a reading and two of our altar servers, Abigail Caron and Jessica Roberts, assisted the Archbishop and priests throughout the Mass.
Archbishop Bernard opened his homily by saying ‘Do not be afraid’ taken from the Gospel reading today. He explained to the students and congregation that he and the Lord understands that sometimes it can be hard to be different, to say you believe in God and thanked everyone for their commitment in making our schools a faithful caring example to others.
The Archbishop also spoke of the Bishops’ Synod in 2018 on ‘Youth, Faith and Discernment’ and asked us to listen to the words of Pope Francis , “So today, my friends, Jesus is inviting you, calling you, to leave your mark on life, to leave a mark on history, your own and that of many others as well.”
“So if anyone declares himself for me in the presence of men, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven” taken from the Gospel of Luke.
During the Mass, Lay Chaplains of the Archdiocese were presented with the ‘Archdiocese of Birmingham Certificate of Lay Chaplaincy’ after 18 months of dedicated study. Mrs Ferris, our Lay Chaplain, received her certificate from the Archbishop. Mrs Ferris’s ministry to the community of St Edmund’s grows stronger and deeper. We are very proud of her richly deserved success.
All the students loved being part of the celebrations today. Mrs Hughes and Mrs Ferris are proud of our students for their commitment to Chaplaincy, the school and their faith.

 

Feast of St Peter and St Paul

4th July 2017Mrs D Ferris

ast week we celebrated the Feast of St Peter and St Paul with two Masses. As the students entered, they watched a video clip of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

Fr Mark Crisp spoke to the school community about how the Catholic Church is the oldest institution and, with all the changes of power over the years, it is a blessing that it is still alive.

St Peter was the first disciple to be ordained as a priest and, if you were to trace a priest’s timeline of who ordained them, they would all trace back to St Peter and Jesus himself. St Paul was the saint who taught the Gospels to Christ himself.

 

Alleluia, Alleluia!

You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church.

And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it.

Alleluia!

Marian Grotto

12th June 2017Mrs D Ferris

 


The Peace Garden is gradually becoming a real haven of peace, tranquillity and prayer. Stations of the Cross housed in the cloister around the Peace Garden offer a constant reminder of Jesus’ sacrifice for the salvation of humankind. Recently the work on the Marian Grotto was completed. This feature is commonly referred to as “floating Mary”, as Our Lady appears to levitate against a rising wall of basalt stone-work.
The Mosaic of Jesus was made by the current Y10 students under the direction of Ms Mifflin. It adorns the north facing wall. It is a reminder that we should see the face of Christ in everyone we meet.

“>The Unity Tree and marian grotto

Unity Tree

12th June 2017Mrs D Ferris

The Unity Tree

The Unity Tree represents St Edmund’s Academy as a truly a Catholic academy in the sense of being universal and cohesive. Our community comprises of many world religions and cultures, all of which are valued.  The idea behind the Unity Tree is to engender this sense of belonging and unity in our core purpose; and to emphasise our collaboration with families, parishes and the wider religious community.

Marian Grotto

12th June 2017Mrs D Ferris

 

The Peace Garden is gradually becoming a real haven of peace, tranquillity and prayer. Stations of the Cross housed in the cloister around the Peace Garden offer a constant reminder of Jesus’ sacrifice for the salvation of humankind. Recently the work on the Marian Grotto was completed. This feature is commonly referred to as “floating Mary”, as Our Lady appears to levitate against a rising wall of basalt stone-work.

The Mosaic of Jesus was made by the current Y10 students under the direction of Ms Miffilin. It adorns the north facing wall. It is a reminder that we should see the face of Christ in everyone we meet.

Lightfever-Prayers for MANCHESTER

26th May 2017Mrs D Ferris
20170525_162607 (1)

On the Last Thursday of every month, the students are invited to the Chapel for ‘Lightfever’. This is always popular: the students come to light a candle, say a personal prayer and spend some quiet time to reflect.

Yesterday the students asked if they could light the candles for the people of Manchester, those who had died, for those were effected and the kindness of the people who helped.

The whole community observed a 1-minute silence at 11 o’clock and prayers will continue to be said.

God of compassion and mercy,

amidst the pain and trauma we turn to you,

for through Christ crucified we know that you have taken to heart the suffering of the people.

In fear and anxiety, strengthen us.

In despair and pain, comfort us.

In incomprehension and anger, reassure us that your love and life are stronger than the hatred and violence which overshadows Manchester and our country

Console those who carry a burden of loss, injury, or trauma and empower all who support them.

Strengthen all who seek to stand together in peace and unity.

We pray in the name of Jesus.  Amen.

 

Taken from Tim Annan, Youth President of the Methodist Church

 

Reconciliation-Confession

20th March 2017Mrs D Ferris

Reconciliation Liturgy

On Wednesday 150 students from Year 8 attended a Reconciliation Service. The students listened to and watched a video of the Prodigal Son and Fr Mark explained to the students about the Sacrament of Penance.

10 students along with Mrs Ferris, the Lay Chaplain, read of an Examination of Conscious, asking questions such as:Do I put myself first in my life, before those less fortunate than myself?  Do I take time on Sunday to spend time with my family? Have I shown gratitude for the blessings in my life? And many more.

We were blessed to have five priest, Fr Mark, Fr Guy, Fr Brendon, Fr Simon and Fr Paul who listened to the student’s confessions and prayers.

Reconciliation-Confession

Flame 17 National Catholic Youth Event

14th March 2017Mrs D Ferris
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On Saturday 11th March 6 of our students, alongside other young people from Birmingham, England and Wales, just over 10,000 to be exact, travelled to Wembley for ‘Flame 17’.  This was the third National Catholic Youth Conference.

There were many guests and performers, for example: Rise theatre, the One Hope project, Mike Pilvachi, young workers from Cafod, David Wells, Cardinal Charles Bo who had travelled from Myanmar to be with us, and many more.

David Wells asked everyone to Facebook, text, etc. at least one person with the message ‘God Loves you’ so spread the word.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols led a beautiful Adoration in the afternoon and we finished the whole day with Matt Redman, a very popular Gospel singer, who gave us 10,000 reasons to believe. I was personally filled with hope and joy in my heart to sit and watch the whole stadium join in song, praising and ‘Worshiping his Holy Name’.

Debbie Ferris

Lay Chaplain