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.

I’m Naomi Eguavoen and I am a Christian. I go to the Redeemed Christian Church of God Testimony Parish. I go there every Sunday and sometimes at weekdays such as Friday.

When I get to church, we start off with a session named Sunday school, we all have a book specialised for this session, it is based on modern day issues and how we can deal with them, for example temptation.

After we go out with our main service, we start with Praise and Worship. This is a time of thanksgiving to God for everything he has done for us.

In my church we split the children and teenagers up, so after we go into our groups. I am in the teenager’s lesson, we speak about topics that teenagers face every day and what God wants from us as Christians.

When I go to church I feel with God, I feel like it’s a place where I can speak to God and other people about God. I really enjoy church and I feel like my relationship with God gets stronger.

On Saturday 11^th 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

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My Article About My Church Life

My name is Leah James and I’m a student in year 9. In October 2011 I started serving the Lord in mass at my parish church, St Joseph’s Catholic Church. As of October 2016 I had been an altar server for five years. I still remember the first time I got on the altar. It was on a Saturday and I remember asking my mum at the end if I did better than my sister. She said, “I don’t remember your sister’s first time but I’m pretty sure that you did better.” I was clearly satisfied. Throughout my years of serving at my parish church, I have served three different priests.

In July 2012, I took part in the ordination of Deacon Craig Fullard (now Father), our current parish priest. I personally thought that that day was the best day I had altar served. It was the first ordination that had taken place in St Joseph’s. At that time our church was just a small little parish but now, if you come along on Sunday masses, the church would be full to the brim.

What I love about our parish is the fact that everyone knows each other. After mass all the elderly will crowd together and coo at the new babies with us, or ask us how we are getting on at school. We’re like one big family and if someone’s not there one week, we’re always asking around for them. In our parish, all the parishioners get along with others. Throughout my time I have had cakes made for me and even a party! Due to everyone being so close to each other we all get invited to their grandchild’s christening or child’s wedding. Other times they invite us round for tea and biscuits in the parish club.

As an altar server I’m always busy. During the fares, I help out on stalls or if  I’m trustworthy enough (which I always am), I sometimes have my own stall to look after. The luckiest part about being an altar server is that in the fares you can persuade the stall holders to give you 50% off the item. My favourite season in the church has to be Lent. The forty days leading up to Jesus’ death is the best time of year. I think this because I’m always at church either helping out or having rehearsals for the forthcoming service. Christmas isn’t too bad either. We get mince pies and the masses are so joyous that there is no other place you could feel more Christmassy.

Altar serving feels like it’s always been a part of my life, even if I’ve only done it for five years. Serving for the Lord may sound very intimidating but it’s really simple, once you know why you’re doing it. Since year seven I have been a proud member of the chaplaincy team. I would love to give a massive thank you to Mr Ferris and Fr Mark for all the things they’ve done for me, and an even bigger one to all the parishioners and Fr Craig

To summarise being an altar server in three words, it has to be “an extraordinary job.” It has been an amazing five years and I wish for many more to come.

By Leah James 9CH