Open House Christmas Dinner

It's Christmas time!

Still smiling after all that cooking

There was no rest after the Advent Mission weekend for that Monday night was our all important Open House Christmas Dinner! While we had been busy evangelising over the weekend some of our amazing Open House cooks, volunteers and friends were slaving away cooking and preparing the community centre for a Christmas party to remember.





Loads of presents

After days of preparation the day finally arrived and the community centre looked great. A real Christmas tree with loads of decorations and underneath a mountain of presents for our guests. Each guest who joined us was given a present at the end of the night consisting of some of the necessities that we all need such as hats, gloves, scarf, toiletries and some sweets or chocolate. Our guests were delighted with their presents and very thankful.

While our guests enjoyed their traditional Christmas dinner they were entertained with some beautiful Christmas carols and some chitchat with the volunteers. It was lovely to see everyone in such good spirits. I think a great night was had by all.

Advent Mission

Our Advent Mission took place over the weekend of Friday 7th - Sunday 9th December.  There was a lot of preparation beforehand but it was all well worth it. 

Praying before the Blessed Sacrament for all those we had met

On the Friday night we went out into the streets to speak to people and to remind them what Advent is all about.  While we were out evangelising others were in the Church praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament for us and those we would speak to.  At the end of the evening we all prayed for those we had met and their intentions before Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

Free Hot Chocolate and Mince Pies

Saturday was a long day but we all very much enjoyed it.  In the afternoon we had Adoration in the Church with beautiful music (thanks to the NightFever crew) while outside we set up two tables, one for the all important hot chocolate and mince pies and the other with some interesting and informative flyers and a box in which people could write their prayer intentions if they wished.  We had prepared some small gift bags to give to those we met and spoke to.  The gift bags have a Scripture quote, miraculous medal with explanation and a sweet.



Any prayers?









Some of the Gift Bags we give out



Saturday night was our latest NightFever, an absolutely brilliant night as always!  For nore info see our previous post :)

Sunday afternoon ran pretty much the same as Saturday except we were based at Notre Dame de France, the French Church at Leicester Square.  There we had lovely music on the steps of the Church.  Then at 6pm we were back at St Patrick's for the International Mass for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.  This is a Mass that brings together the different communities who celebrate Mass at St Patrick's every week.  After the Mass we processed from St Patrick's to Notre Dame de France with a beautiful statue of Our Lady while we also sang and prayed.



Where have we been? What have we been doing?

Well in answer to the blog post title we have been plenty of places and doing plenty of things - except updating our blog!  Oops, sorry about that.  Now we shall fix that and bring you up to speed with all our goings on.  Hopefully over the next week we will get you all updated and back on track. 

Before Christmas we had our Advent Mission, the Open House Christmas Dinner, some community days out and a bit of fun.  We were off for 2 weeks over Christmas, much needed time for rest and relaxation.  We came back after Christmas refreshed and ready to go again - which is good since we haven't stopped since!!

Since Christmas we have had our Parish Christmas dinner, cookathon, our second assignment, and now a retreat.  Busy busy.  In the next few posts we will update about some of these events with some pictures also.

NightFever!

A view from the balcony

No, this is not a case of John Bosco by day, John Travolta by night! ‘Nightfever’ is organised by young Christians whose faith is central in their lives and who seek to bridge between individuals, parishes and communities.

The night starts with Mass; this is followed by Eucharistic adoration when the church is illuminated by candle light, until Benediction at around 22.30.

Candles are lit
for many different
intentions

During this time of Adoration we and other volunteers head out onto the streets surrounding St Patrick's with lanterns, candles and small information cards. It is a simple invitation to people to come into the Church to light a candle in front of the Blessed Sacrament for any intention they may have, (Or just for them to get out of the cold!).

It is very simple and very effective, confessions are heard throughout the night; also there is a great music team that comes and provides music throughout the evening inside the Church, which is also wired to play out the front of the Church which helps to draw more people inside.
We all enjoy Nightfever and all the fruit it bears, and we are all looking forward to the next one in the New Year!

It's that time again - Advent Mission Preparations!!

The preparations are well under way for our Annual Advent Mission which is taking place in just a few days time!  The Advent Mission is a weekend of Adoration, Prayer, Music, Evangelisation (with Hot Chocolate and Mince Pies) to prepare for the coming of Our Lord at Christmas. It is a great opportunity to remind ourselves and others that Advent is a time to prepare and to wait on the Lord's coming.

It all kicks off on Friday evening with Adoration, prayer and music in the Church.  During this time some of us will head out into the streets of Soho to chat to people in the area about life, God and Christmas.

Adoration last year with the Nativity scene below

On Saturday we will set up our table of refreshments, you can't beat a nice cup of hot chocolate on a cold December day.  There will be Adoration and music in the Church.  It will be a place where we can invite people to come for a moment of peace and quiet away from the crazy shopping streets here in the West End.  A chance to speak to people about the real meaning of Christmas and why it is that we celebrate this time of the year.

Enjoying a mince pie, hot chocolate and a nice chat last year

Saturday night sees the return of NightFever, a very popular and powerful event here at St Patrick's.  Seriously if you have not experienced NightFever and you are in London this weekend there is only one place you should be - St Patrick's!

Sunday afternoon is quite similar to Saturday afternoon but we head down to Notre Dame de France in Leicester Square.  Again there will be a good supply of hot chocolate, mince pies and some music on the steps of the Church.  Sunday evening we gather back at St Patrick's for Solemn Mass with our international communities who are based here.  After Mass to celebrate the Immaculate Conception we will process with Our Lady from St patrick's through the streets of Soho to Notre Dame de France singing and praying.  The Marian Procession is always a beautiful event.

Check out our flyer for more information about the different events happening over the weekend along with times and locations.

Refreshed and ready to go again :)

We've had an amazingly relaxing week!  It began with a lovely retreat out in Whitstable with Fr Stephen.  He gave us some inspiring talks to help us prepare for Advent and we took advantage of the beautiful surroundings to go for walks.  Trevor and Marcus, the two Australian seminarians, joined us on retreat and we showed them a little of the English seaside – a bit colder than what they are used to.  We will update a little more about the retreat and some pictures in a couple of days.

Wednesday we were back at St Patrick’s for a long but most enjoyable day.  Trevor and Marcus gave us some music lessons, teaching us some beautiful chants, which hopefully we can put into practice during this year.  Wednesday evening saw a lot of cleaning taking place – not only did we have our monthly Church cleaning but Ambrose also had a bath!  Thankfully Thursday was another relaxing day with a trip out to Greenwich Park where we had a lovely walk and a picnic before having a look around the Maritime museum.

Last night (Friday) we took part in our first LumiNations night.  LumiNations is an event which SPES helps to co-ordinate and takes place at Notre Dame de France, the French Church in Leicester Square.  There is Adoration in the Church and some beautiful music on the steps outside the Church.  Notre Dame de France, like St Patrick's, is located in a busy area of Central London.  With all the noise, bright lights and craziness of a Friday night in Central London we try to be that gentle light to the nations and invite people into the quiet of the Church to meet Jesus.  There's also  an opportunity to offer some tea, coffee or biscuits to the passers-by or those who stop to listen to the music.  We all had a good night and are looking forward to the next one.

Next week will be a quiet week with regards to lectures but there will be lots of work done to prepare for next weekend, which is our Advent Mission weekend– a weekend of Adoration, Prayer, Music, Evangelisation with Hot Chocolate and Mince Pies to prepare for the coming of Our Lord at Christmas. It will be a great opportunity to remind ourselves and others that Advent is a time to prepare and to wait on the Lord's coming.  Please keep it in your prayer.  More information and details will be uploaded to our blog tomorrow (I hope).  On Tuesday we will take a break from the preparations to join Joanna Bogle on another of her Catholic History Walks around London.  If you would like to join us we will be leaving from St Patrick's at 1.30pm.  There is Mass before at 12.45pm.

Hope to see you this week!

Our Evangelisation Talks are going extremely well with many young, very excited and enthusiastic individuals. They have a hunger and thirst for knowing what the Church teaches and says about Evangelising. It was a real treat to have again with us Mgr. Keith this past Wednesday. It is quite the privilege to have someone as knowledgeable as himself to grace us with all of his wisdom and insight. He has brought a document, Evangelii Nuntiandi, which is many year’s old very much alive. He’s filled with great joy and is so encouraging being in his presence! This coming Wednesday we will have the honour of Father Paul Keane with us who will be speaking on Apologetics and how to handle the different objections people have about the Catholic Church! Come join us as well on Friday evenings at 6:45 pm to put into practice all that is being taught. We will be going out into the streets of Soho. Have courage to give it a try! We are called to evangelise and give witness to the love and joy that we have in our lives and to share it with others! Evangelisation is not an ‘add on’ to our faith, but is essential to it!!! We are in the process of getting things planned and organized for our Advent Mission, so please if you could remember to pray for all that needs to be put into place that would be greatly appreciated! Continue to support the 40 Days for Life campaign through prayer and fasting and giving that witness outside the Abortion clinic. As it states in Matthew 25:40 “Whatever you do for the least of these brethren, you do for me.” Pray for the grace to not be afraid! Life is precious and deserves to be valued and protected! Have faith and trust in God! This past week was the start of First Holy Communion. It is a new opportunity for me to have the privilege to teach the little ones. I am looking forward to this opportunity very much. This is a special time for them in each of their lives, so please pray not only for their Catechesis, Deanna and Magdalene, but for all the Communicants. Pray that they are open to God’s graces and blessings and all that He wants to reveal to them. Thank you for all your support thus far for this year! Have a fabulous week and don’t forget to share the faith. You are in our prayers! God bless!

Advent Mission

As we're getting ready and coming closer to the Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ we spent three days in Leicester Square spreading the Good News through not only smiles and friendly greetings but also by little gift boxes we made which included a Scripture verse, a Miraculous Medal and a sweet! While encountering the people in the streets we also invited them to the French Church, Notre Dame, where we fed them physically with mince pies and hot chocolate and spiritually through prayer and singing.

Advent Mission I

Thomas,Vanessa and students on the Plane to London...

Last Monday ninteen students from the Emmanuel School of Mission and a host of other guests flew in to join us for a huge week-long Parish mission at St Patrick's.

The mission began on Tuesday, with our first day of evangelisation on the streets.

In the evening the Church was packed with over one hundred homeless people and a very large number of volunteers (including the) for our Open House Christmas Party. We removed the Blessed Sacrament from the Tabernacle and transformed the Church into somthing of a banquet hall!

There was time on Thursday for the students, who came from all over the world, to see some sights.

Advent Mission II - On the Streets

Uriel and Clara Evangelising on Oxford Street

During the day we would take it in turns to go out into the Square and to Oxford Street to talk to people and invite them to the Church. The SPES students had prepared gifts, scripture passages and flyers to give to people.



There had been a lot of careful and thorough planning that had gone on behind the scenes to ensure that things worked smoothly. Five different programmes of activity had been devised and the students, divided into teams names after Missionary Saints, took it in turns to apply themselves to each programme.

The teams out in the streets were working together to combine singing and entertainment with stopping people to talk to them and invite them to the Church. Equally important were the teams inside St Patrick's involved with welcoming, taking people before the Blessed Sacrament and praying with them, and also those in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament themselves, supporting the other teams with their prayers.

Advent Mission III

While out on the streets we were also encouraging peopleto come and participate in our evening events at St Patrick's. These included a Carol concert on Wednesday night and Thursday's 'Evening of Joy', led by the Emmanuel School of Mission students:

Then, on Friday, we took to the streets again for a concert outside the French Church followed by a candle-lit procession back to St Patrick's with an icon of the Madonna and Child:

We sang through the streets of Soho before bringing the icon back to St Pat's, where the Blessed Sacrament was exposed.

On Saturday night we had a Street concert outside St Patrick's led by our talented Gospel Choir, followed by a Mercy Evening. The arrival of (literally) hundreds of drunk santas, obviously bored of their pub crawl, presented an interesting oppurtunity for evangelisation.

The prayers of those inside the Church were answered when several of the santas were led inside to pray before Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

Advent Mission

REJOICE! A CHILD IS BORN - FOR YOU!

ADVENT MISSION

MON 10th - SUN 16th DECEMBER 2007

Preparation for our big Advent Mission has been progressing and is taking up much of our time right now with the start a little over one week away. The mission is a joint one shared between SPES and the Emmanuel School of Mission from Rome. Twenty students will be flying over to help us bring Christ and the true meaning of Christmas to the streets of Soho.

We will be engaged in street evangelisation throughout and encouraging busy shoppers to take a break and step into the Church for a moment of prayer or at the very least some silence. We'll also have talks, prayers, praise and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament throughout.

We hope many of you will be able to come and join us! We need as much support as we can get, and there will be plenty for us to receive from the experience as well as what we are able to give. There is a timetable of events and more info at the top right of the blog.

If you can't join us in person then please support us with your prayers. Tomorrow (Sat 1st December) would be the day to start a novena for the mission. In the meantime, perhaps you could say this prayer for us:

Almighty God, we ask for Your blessing on the Advent Mission in Soho and on all the preparation by the students and staff of the Schools of Mission. We pray for all the parishioners of St. Patrick's and all those in London who may be helped by this mission. May your Holy Spirit guide the works and message going out to the busy streets of London and bring the true, Christ-centered Christmas spirit to the heart of the city. We make this our prayer through Jesus Christ, the Word sent to save us, and with the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Amen.