Time to relax in the Countryside, Sunday 16 May

This week was a real treat for us all. The countryside of Wiltshire was absolutely amazing, picturesque home, huge garden, and lovely hills covered with yellow blossoms, making it a real getaway. We really enjoyed taking very long walks through the woods. In these walks, we were able to revel in the carpets of bluebells, ivy-covered trees, and to witness God's creativity in nature. The serene environment provided a beautiful backdrop for heartfelt conversations within the community. While watching deer run across the meadow, we reflected on the paths God has led us this year. This trip, so close to the end of our programme, presented us with an opportunity to pause from our active lives and look back in appreciation of God's bounteous blessings throughout the year. Sarah and Paul's generous invitation to their beautiful home was another one of these blessings. They kindly welcomed us into their house and made us feel a part of the family. Thanks to their daughter, Emilie, we never had a dull moment. She energetically engaged us in tennis, badminton, ping pong, and trampolining. A couple courageous girls even braved the frigid swimming pool. We also relished quiet time drinking hot chocolate around the fire place chatting, laughing, reading, and watching films. We were happy to have the family join us during our prayer times. Father Alex celebrated Mass each day in their sunny conservatory. Last night Christina had her German culture night assisted by former German student, Marcus. We indulged in sauerkraut and apple strudel to our hearts content. We also had a yodelling lesson and discovered some of us have a hidden talent. The German atmosphere brought out a fun-filled evening with laughter and camaraderie.

Next week we will be working on our last and final essay on the Ten Commandments. This will complete our course through the Maryvale Institute in Adult Studies of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. We also look forward to attending a Vigil in honour of Pentecost. I hope you are all filled the Holy Spirit and share in the outpouring of His gifts. God bless!!!! Pray for us as we continue to pray for you.

Abbotswick House of Prayer Retreat, Sunday 25 April

This week we had a lovely retreat in the countryside of Essex with our Spiritual Director, Fr. Matt. It was just what we needed to escape from the busyness of city life. The countryside and surroundings of the Diocesan House of Prayer in Abbotswick were very beautiful with a calm and extremely peaceful atmosphere. The serene environment was perfect for quiet walks in prayer. Fr. Matt's talks gave us plenty of things to pray about and contemplate. It was great to have the time to reflect upon the year and what it has done for us in our lives spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. He helped us to see how we have grown individually and as a community. Our time of retreat continued when we attended the Youth 2000 retreat, Healing@Ealing. It was a wonderful time to pray, reflect, and socialize. This time of retreats has been an invaluable opportunity to reenergize before our mission in Scargborough this upcoming week. We will be doing street evangelisation during the day and working with local youth ministries in the evenings. SPES is excited to teaming up with Fr. William again. We are looking forward to applying all of the experience and knowledge that we have gained from this year. We are most especially excited to share our love for Jesus Christ to others. Have a week full of graces with lots of love and prayers. God bless!!!

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Now you can follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SpesSoho . We will be letting all our friends know what we are up to, so you can keep us in prayer.

Acts of the Apostles and Mission Preparation, Sunday 18 April

This week we had lectures on the Acts of the Apostles given by Fr. Neil Ferguson which was perfect for this time of Easter. It was interesting to learn and hear about the History of the Early Church. We also took time to prepare for our missions in Scarborough and here in London, Spirit in the City. We are looking forward to evangelising within both of these missions. A couple of us managed to take time out to give a helping hand at Open House. It was great having the chance to be there and to interact with all who came. It was nice to be able to share the joy of the season of the Risen Christ with those who are less fortunate with a warm welcome, friendly faces, and delicious food bringing them a bit closer to Christ. It's also been nice having the opportunity to reflect on the scripture during our time in the morning with Lectio Divina. Using scripture to see how God is speaking to us and where the word of God is alive and active in our life.

Next week we will be off to Brentwood for a retreat with our Spiritual Director, Fr. Matt Blake. It will be wonderful to have three days to pray, relax, and to reenergize after a busy Easter Octive. Have a blessed week, may God bless you all!!!

Celebrate Conference, Rejoice Alleluia Christ has Risen!

This week at the Celebrate Conference in Devon was incredible. It was a great place to be to rejoice, give thanks, praise and worship to the Risen Christ. It was certainly a time filled with happiness, joy, and peace in our hearts. It was amazing to be there amongst a couple thousand people from all around the world and of all ages. There were many great workshops with incredible speakers who were full of wisdom and insight that gave us much to contemplate and reflect upon. The atmosphere was positive, uplifting and very energetic which made it quite difficult to be in a bad mood. It was nice to have met so many new people. We also enjoyed the time we had to pray together, giving praise to God with lots of singing, and daily Mass. There was a bit of time for relaxation too where we were able to go out for a walk, jog, and even a swim. It was a wonderful week to have together especially the week after Easter to celebrate Christ’s Resurrection.

This week coming we look forward to getting back into the swing of things at St. Patrick’s with our lectures which now will be at the French Church in Leicester Square, daily prayer of the Divine Office, Rosary, Mass and Adoration. Have a blessed week and enjoy this Mercy Sunday!!! You’ll be in our prayers and please continue to keep us in yours!!!! God bless.

Prayer Vigil, Easter Holy Week

This past week one evening we as a community had an all night vigil praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament for recruits, future students, but also remembering all the past and present students. It is always nice having the opportunity to pray together especially in front of the Blessed Sacrament in the middle of the night where many graces and blessings flow. We also had the amazing opportunity to attend the Chrism Mass at Westminster Cathedral where 250 priest from the dioceses gathered to celebrate mass and to renew their priesthood. It truly was astonishing and beautiful to see so many priest in one place celebrating mass together. We were outside to greet them with friendly faces, but also to thank them for all there hard work they do in serving the Church with posters and prayer cards. The Triduum (Maundy Thursday, Holy Friday and Saturday) was a great time to embrace, be still and reflect upon the Passion of Christ and all that Jesus endured for our sake, a complete self-giving of Himself in order for us to be saved. We not only had the Lord’s Super on Thursday where Christ instituted the Eucharist, but on Friday we did the Stations of the Cross and celebrated the Lord’s Passion praying together. We had the privilege to attend the Passion play in Trafalgar Square which really brought to life Christ passion. Christ death and resurrection gives us much hope and encouragement knowing He loved us so much to lay down His life for us. It was great having the opportunity to get to Confession this week too. The unconditional love and infinite mercy of the Father is unfathomable, but is nice to know that no matter what we have done in the past, God is there waiting with open arms for us to repent and say we are sorry. We also started on Friday a Novena to the Divine Mercy in honor of Mercy Sunday coming up next week.

We are very excited about the week to come because we are heading to Devon to spend a week in the South West of England to help out as stewards at a week long charismatic conference called Celebrate. There we will be meeting all sorts of people from all ages and many different countries. It will be a new experience for many of us, but one we are looking forward to very much!!! We are hoping and praying for sunny weather. Have a blessed week everyone, may God shed His light upon each one of you! God bless and Happy Easter!!!

Celebrations...Our Lady's Yes and a 21st Birthday

We started this week off in prayer with Fr. Angelus Houle and Kate Moir inviting the Holy Spirit into our hearts to become a more active person in our lives. We have been learning about the different Sacraments starting with a lecture on Reconciliation given by Fr. John Edward, another one on Priesthood by Fr. Terence McGuckin, and the last Sacrament we took a closer look at was The Eucharist by Fr. Patrick Doyle. They were not only enjoyable, but also very insightful. We also went to the final profession of Sister Camilla COLW. It was very beautiful and encouraging to see such a young women commit her whole life to the Lord surrendering to His will. Thursday was not only the Feast of the Annunciation where Our Lady gave her yes to the will of God, but also Aisling's 21st birthday. We celebrated together in thanksgiving of Our Lady's Fiat, but also for Aisling being such a huge blessing to our community here at SPES!!! The workshop we had about Catholic Art and learning Gregorian Chant put on by the Association of Catholic Women was very interesting and a lot of fun!

This week will be a very busy one with it being Holy week and and preparing for the Lord's passion. Tuesday will be the Chrism Mass at Westminster Cathedral, Maundy Thursday will be the celebration of the Lord's Super, and Good Friday we will be processing through the streets of Soho doing the Stations of the Cross. The work around the church is well on it's way. Please keep us in your prayers while were in this time of transition and be sure to know you are in ours! God bless and have a wonderful week everyone!!!

Full of Fun

This week we have been learning about the actions of the Holy Spirit. James Parker has given wonderful testimony on same-sex attraction and the God-given purpose of human sexuality. This is a very important topic that we look forward to being able to share with our confused world. Fr Mike Gwinnell offered Mass for the healing of our deceased family members, and Fr Angelus Houle and Camillo (of the Shalom Community) have spoken about the gifts of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and how we can be more open to allowing His love into our hearts. We enjoyed dinner at Allen Hall seminary (where many past SPES students lived), meeting the brave men studying to serve us as priests. We will certainly keep them in our prayers.

This week, we will enjoy lectures on the Sacraments; and the final profession of Sister Camilla COLW, praying for her as she dedicates her whole life to the Lord’s service. We also benefitted from a workshop on Gregorian Chant, which is “specially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, Vatican II). We look forward to enriching our prayers in this way.

All Yours, Mary

We have recently been visited by Ruth from the Totus 2us website. This is an exciting new website that takes its title from John Paul II's episcopal and papal motto. It means 'all yours', reflecting his dedication of his life to Our Lady. The website is full of great resources, particularly podcasts, on the Christian life. If you look closely you will find reflections from our own Fr Alexander on Our Lady of Lourdes, and Fr Francis on Lent, as well as short testimonies from some of our students. The podcasts can be downloaded via iTunes, or heard straight from the website. Do check it out.

above: John Paul II's coat of arms, inlaid marble in St Peter's Basilica

This past week was a great week! We had several amazing lectures learning about the Holy Spirit, The Letters of St. Paul and the Synoptic Gospels. Saturday we had a fun filled evening celebrating our third culture night, Chinese New Year, with stories, laughter, Chinese music, and amazing authentic Chinese cuisine cooked by Shi Rui. This week we will be having many exciting talks on the Theology of the Body, TOB in Genesis, and having a look at the Encyclical Letter Humanae Vitae. Today we celebrated the Feast Day of St. Claude De La Colombiere who is one of the Patron Saint's of our school. It was through his life we now have devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Wednesday we have the privelage of meeting Archbisop Vincent Nichols who will be coming to give a special blessing for the SOS prayer line which reached 50,000 callers a few weeks ago. What a blessing it is! Thanks be to God!!! Friday we look forward to more street evangelisation and Saturday we will be in Balham working with the Confirmation students. It will be a busy week, but very much looking forward to all that is planned! Have a great week. God bless!!!!