St.Patrick's Day!

Happy St.Patrick's Day!

St.Patrick's day is a huge event for all of us here at St.Patricks. On the solemnity we had a huge mass that was celebrated by the Bishop Stack as well as many other

priest from the Dioceses. It was really a beutiful mass, followed by the blessing and distribution of shamrocks.

On actual St. Patrick's Day, we had mass with the Cardinal Cormac in the morning, followed by a wonderful lunch prepared for us by Arnold. That night we had over past students for celebration, we had dinner, genesis and desert. The evening was a lot of fun. It was good to have students from past years of the school with us!

Lola

Fr.Stan Fortuna

On Sunday we went to Brendwood, where Fr.Stan Fortuna - Franciscan Friar had his concert and speach! We joined the confirmation group for that event. We had wonderful time and were very happy to be able to listen to Fr.Stan. He is absolutely incredible! He gave a talk about the importence of the cross for being a Christian and he spoke also about the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It was awesome evening!

Mission at the Catholic Girls School

Last week we had a Mission at the Catholic Girls School of the Convent of Jesus and Mary. The previous week was full of preparations. The theme of the Mission was FORGIVNESS. We worked really hard on the the skit that we presented to them and were very excited about it. We animated three sessions for the goup of 60 girls each! ohhh it was lots of fun and we really enjoyed time with the girls.

Misha - past student from 2003-2004

Here is a picture of Misha and Danko - soon we will post their wedding photo. Misha was a student in 2003-2004 and is originally from Slovakia. Her and her new husband (married in July 2008) now live in Bratislava and will give us a little update on their lives very soon!

Petr:

During our time in Rome we have been visited the Basilica of Saint Peter commonly known as St. Peter's Basilica which is located within the Vatican City. St. Peter's has the largest interior of any Christian Church in the world, holding 60,000 people. It occupies a "unique position" as one of the holiest sities and as "the greatest of all churches". In Catholic Tradition, it is the burial site of its namesake Saint Peter, who was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus and, according to Tradition, was first Bishop of Antioch, and later first Bishop of Rome.

St.Peter's is famous as a place of pilgrimage, for its liturgical functions and for its historical associations. It is associated with numerous artists, most significantly Michelangelo. As a work of architecture, it is regarded as the greatest building of its age. Like all the earliest churches in Rome, it has the entrance to the east and the apse at the west end of the building.

The day before this, we visited the underground of St.Peter's Basilica.

Catholic Tradition holds that Saint Peter's tomb is below the altar of the Basilica. For this reason, many Popes, starting with the first ones, have been buried there. There has been a church on this site sine the 4th century.

We are very grateful to God and to all our Benefactors, that we had the opportunity to visit these places, where the history and our faith is very clesely connected and you can almost touch it with your hand.

Word from Petr:

Dear friends of SPES!

I would like to tell you about two significant moment of our pilgrimige to Rome which we did few weeks ago. 

We started our journey, just one day after "Snowday" when the whole London was paralized by snow. Because traffic didn't work well at this time, we decided to come to London Stansted Airport  (which is north-east of central London) ealier and spend night there. It was quite short night. Next morning we took our plane, and without any difficulties we started our journey to Rome...

Rome 2009!

Reflection after our pilgrimage to Rome!

Word from Desirae:

My favorite day of our pilgrimage in Rome was Sunday. We joined our freind at the North American Collegeand Seminary for Mass and Brunch. It was nice to see some familiar faces - Jeff, Jacob, Adam, Charlie and more! - and to have Mass in "American", (Yes, there is a difference!) The NAC had a very beautiful Chapel and I couldn't believe how many priest were there for Mass, they just kept coming and coming during the opening procession! Brunch was great and we enjoyed visiting with everyone there. Afterwards we went to St. Peter's Square to say the Angelus, in Latin with our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. He then addressed the people gathered in several different languages Polish - for Marta, French for Marie and finally English for the rest of us! Here is what he said to us:

"I greet all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors here today including those from the Saint Patrick's Evangelization school in London. Today's Gospel reminds us of the duty to bring Christ's Good News to all the world. May your time in Rome be filled with joy and deepen your resolve to draw others to our Lord and his love. God bless you all!"

That was his entire English address! We were in awe and surprise! We had no idea he was going to mention our school! It was such and amazing and blessed moment. We were cheering so loud and we saw him look down and wave, truly he did!