Ash Wednesday brought the whole school together. At our liturgies we listened to God’s word reflecting on the Beatitudes from St Matthew’s Gospel: Blessed are the poor in spirit, theirs is the kingdom of God… This year, as asked by CAFOD, we are accompanying people in the Amazon region, praying for their human rights and dignity and standing in solidarity with them. The campaign is called “Defend the defenders”.
Our liturgy was organised by our Spiritual Life officers in the Sixth Form who also distributed the ashes to everyone. The Sixth Form Choir and Schola Cantorum were also conducted by Sixth Form music students. Thank you to everyone for a good beginning to our Lent journey of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
We have adopted this prayer, taken from Pope Francis’ Encyclical Letter Laudato Si as our prayer for Lent. Everyone was given their own copy of this prayer at our liturgy:
O God of the poor, help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth.
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.