Saturday 28 June 2008

Graduation




The Students graduation took place on Tuesday 24th June - Solemnity of the Birth of St John the Baptist. It was a very beautiful celebration where Bishop Bernard Longley was the main celebrant of the Mass. Nearly 15 Priests who support the School came from far and wide to join us in the celebration - not to mention many supporters, lecturers and friends of the School of Evangelisation.

Mirela, Allen and Teresa returned to their homes on Thursday. Marcus returns to Germany after attending a conference next week, and Jenny, Anthony and Edna depart for Australia for World Youth Day later today.

Please keep each of the students in your prayers as they begin a new journey giving an account of the hope that is within them.

Tuesday 24 June 2008

Spirit in the City 2008

I just wanted to make sure I mentioned our successful SiC a couple weeks ago. We may not be able to tell just how it was a success, but as Bl. Mother Teresa says it's being faithful to God that's important.


Thursday's highlights were the opening Mass at St. Patrick's and the afternoon talk and street evangelisation. The church looked great with all the prayer stations and had a certain lively atmosphere with all the spiritual companions there to answer questions or encourage people in their visit to the church. The Marian procession that evening was very powerful as we went singing through the streets of Soho, stopping throughout to have reflections by Fr. Alexander. Friday was much of the same at Corpus Christi and an evening Eucharistic procession up to the French Church. I was amazed at the response from the bystanders. We went through a very busy area of West London and encountered hundreds of people. A few of them even joined us!

Saturday was the big festivel in Leicester Square. I'll let the photos speak for themselves, but the sense of freedom to speak about faith in this festival was amazing!


The confession tent was available all day.



Our very own St. Patrick's Gospel Choir drew in big crowds.




Jesus was present in the Blessed Sacrament tent this year!! How amazing is that! It really made a difference in the whole spirit of the event that day.


Saturday 7 June 2008

Walking on "Hole-y" Ground

For those of you who have been in the basement of St. Patrick's, you are probably acquainted with the occasional "dip" in the carpet where the floor isn't quite stable. We like to think it adds character to our little school (though we have now posted signs cautioning people to walk carefully). Well, last week we realised just how trivial these holes are compared to these:


It is all part of preparations for the construction St. Patrick's is hoping to do in the near future. The holes only lasted a couple of days and then were filled back in, but they did make getting from one side of the basement to the other a challenge. After about a day of walking through the sacristy and church just to get to the front door, we were ready to speed up the process and help the workers fill in the holes again...

Please continue to pray for our Appeal and the much needed renovations to the church!

Wednesday 4 June 2008

New CTS website!


The Catholic Truth Society has just recently updated their website. The new features are downloadable publications and an extensive catologue with a wide range of Catholic books and DVDs. There are also news stories and and online ordering.