The Lectures Have Begun ...

We have just finished our first week of lectures, much quicker than we thought it would be!  This week the topic that our lectures were focused on was prayer.  We have had a number of different lecturers in talking to us about the different types of prayer that there is and which we will encounter in our daily life in SPES.  It has been nice to at last meet some of our lecturers and to put a face to the name.  

So what have we been learning about and what is the prayer life in SPES like??  In SPES our whole timetable is made around the different times of prayer that we have.  Prayer is at the centre of everything we do.  Each day we pray Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer and Night Prayer from the Divine Office, which is the official prayer of the Church.  Fr Alex spoke to us about the Divine Office this week.  Although we have been praying it from the day we arrived it was nice to learn more about it so that we may understand it better.  We have been singing some of the Psalms from the Office and look forward to learning to sing more of it in the coming weeks.  Together each day we also pray the Rosary.  We had a beautiful talk about Our Lady and the Rosary on the feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary, how very special and it was also our first lecture.  That evening we had Mass in the SOS Prayerline Chapel for the restarting of the SOS Prayerline after their short break.  It was nice to have Mass in the small Chapel and on Friday we were back in the Chapel again for a hands on explanation of the Mass by Fr John Farrell OP.  It was amazing and really helped us to understand more about the Mass.

Our SPES timetable has some time in morning dedicated to Spiritual Reading so we were blessed to have a full day session with Sr Margarida and Anne-Marie from the Verbum Dei Community.  They spoke to us and explained Lectio Divina and we had some time to put what we had heard in to practice.  Each day we have the opportunity for an hour of silent Adoration together as a community, which can sound and feel a little scary to begin with.  What are we supposed to do for an hour everyday in front of the Blessed Sacrament!  Well thankfully Fr Alan came along and talked to us about what Adoration is and gave us some helpful tips as to how to spend our time in Adoration and how it will not always be easy.  Friday afternoon gave us an opportunity to learn what Spiritual Direction is and to meet our Spiritual Director as a group.  In a couple of weeks we will begin to meet with him individually.

It really has been quite a packed week with all the lectures and trying to get into our new routine of early starts and long days, but we are enjoying it and looking forward to all that we will experience in the next nine months!  Please keep praying for us.

SPES Road Trip!

Today has been a great day.  It started off pretty early but we can't complain as we started with a lovely cooked breakfast at St Patrick's.  After breakfast we quickly washed up and piled into our minibus along with Fr Alex, Pauline and of course Ambrose (He tends to go everywhere!).  The weather was absolutely lovely today and thankfully we weren't having to sit in the minibus for too long.

Our first stop of the day was Alyesford Priory.  Aylesford Priory, or 'The Friars' to give it its traditional name, was founded in 1242 when the first Carmelites arrived from the Holy Land.  For some of us it was our first time visiting and we were very excited as we had heard quite a bit about it.  Tradition has it that Alyesford is where Our Lady appeared to St Simon Stock and gave him the scapular and promising her protection to all who wear it with devotion.We had Mass at Alyesford and prayed the Rosary together as well as having a nice cup of tea/coffee with some of the community there.

We had a lovely picnic at Alyesford in the sunshine before getting back into the minibus to head to our next destination.  Our second stop of the day was Canterbury.  We visited the Cathedral in Canterbury where there was a shrine to St Thomas a Beckett, until it was destroyed during the Reformation.  The Cathedral is beautiful and you can easily see how it was built at different times due to the pillars and arches inside.  There was a lovely cloister at the Cathedral which we were able to enjoy in the sunshine.

As we were leaving Canterbury we made a quick stop off at a very important small church called St Martin's.  St Martin's is the oldest parish church in continuous use in this country.  It dates back to the 6th century, before St Augustine arrived from Rome.  It was a beautiful little church where there is still part of a roman wall.  After our short visit it was time to head back to London.  It was quite a long trip compared to what we expected due to much traffic.  Safely back in London surrounded by tall building and ridiculous traffic we will now wait patiently for our next trip out of London (hopefully soon!).

Scarborough Mission Day 1

Today we had a pretty early start, well for a Saturday that is. We left St Mary's at about 7.45am to head towards Victoria Coach Station. It's a good thing we left in plenty of time cos when we arrived at our bus stop towards Victoria it was Out of Use!! A burst water main at Notting Hill Gate was causing there to be a number of diversions. So we gave up on the bus and headed to the tube station lugging our suitcases, backpacks and guitars - so many steps!! But we arrived safely and in good time to catch our coach to Scarborough.    We were not looking forward to the journey, leaving Victoria at 9am and not seeing Scarborough til 5pm! Seriously ridiculous! At least we had a bit of a stop off in Leeds to stretch our legs.

We filled up our time on the coach by praying a few Rosaries, listening to music, putting some finishing touches to mission stuff and of course sleeping!  It could have been worse. As we left London we had a group of very talkative girls who were enjoying a drink on the coach. Thankfully after an hour or so they fell asleep too :)




We arrived in Leeds at 1.20pm where we tucked into some nice ham & cheese sandwiches as well as chocolate, crisps, fruit & of course a hot chocolate. Then it was on to a local bus service to get to Scarborough.  Another two and a half hours of travel.  Thankfully when we arrived into Scarborough we were greeted with smiling faces from Tom and Maurice, who were going to drive us up to St Peter's.  Scarborough is definitely the hospitality capital! Delicious food was waiting for us at the Parish centre served up by Lesley and her daughter Maisie (our honourary SPES member).



Supper had to be quickly eaten, dessert had to be left for later in the evening as we were due to be at the 6.30pm Mass at St Edwards.  Ola spoke at the end of the Mass about who we are and what we will be doing this week.  She spoke very well.  We were made very welcome by the parishioners, they were all very friendly and supportive of us and offering to keep us in prayer, which is probably the best thing anyone can offer us during this week.



After Mass we met Hugh and Jane who are our hosts this week.  They are a lovely couple and have made us very welcome and at home in their home, as has Buddy their 16 year old Beagle dog. And we thought we were going to be dog less this week!  We spent the evening enjoying a cup of tea with our dessert and chatting about pretty much everything and anything.

We are shattered but so excited for this week! Please pray for us and those we will speak to.

'No Pain No Gain'

'No Pain No Gain' - this beautiful truth became more familiar to us than ever before on Sunday 29th October when we joined a group of pilgrims on their 20-mile-in-one-day (!) walk from Westmister Cathedral to Hampton Wick (Kingston). For some of them it was a reunion after their walking pilgrimage to Walsingham in the summer, but for the rest (including us - SPES) it was a venture into the unknown.





Some of the group waiting to cross the road

The pilgrimage was organised by Sr Hyacinthe and Joanna Bogle - two women inexhaustible in their passion for walking and bringing people to God. We first attended Mass, then marched along the Thames path and after 7 hours reached our destination which was the Shrine of Our Lady of Westminster. This is where we gladly offered Our Lady our blisters and sore feet.

Striding along listening to Sr Hyacinthe

However incredible it sounds, the pleasure of walking 20 miles brought us many joys - we made new friends, enjoyed the picturesque views but, most importantly, prayed for the conversion of England and gave witness to our faith by saying the Rosary and listening to Sr Hyacinthe's talks on the Church. Being in the company of Catholics of all ages and walks of life strengthened our faith and gave us the sense that although we're all different we form one community in Our Lord Jesus. Praise be to Him!


Still smiling at the end (even after our train was cancelled!)

Where have we been and what have we done!?

Oh no!  Can't believe it's been almost a month since we updated our blog! Here at SPES we have been very busy and there just hasn't been time to hop on the internet to update.  Apologies, but hopefully this post will bring us all up to speed and we can try to get a more regular post happening.

So some of the students arrived on Saturday 29th September and we headed out to have dinner together at the house of one of the Board of Management, a great night was had by all.  We were also joined that weekend by Christina, one of the past SPES students from Deanna's year group.  She came over from Germany to not only say hi to the new students but to say goodbye to Deanna.  By Monday 1st October we had gathered together all of the new students; our new group consists of Alfonso (from USA), Ben (from England), Terry (from England), and Ola (from Poland).

Week 1

Our first week was mainly a chance for us to get to know each other and to find our way around.  On Tuesday 2nd October we consecrated the year to Our Lady with a visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of Willesden and a Rosary walk from there to Tyburn Convent, where we met some of the nuns and were shown the relics of the Martyrs.  Before returning to St Patrick's we knelt and prayed at the place of Tyburn Tree.  It was a great day and a wonderful experience for us all.  Wednesday saw us pack up and head off to Whitstable for our first SPES retreat.  We spent a wonderful 4 days getting to know each other and taking time to thank God for bringing us to SPES and asking Him to continue to strengthen us during this year.

Week 2

Our second week was a great week learning about Prayer and the different types of prayer; personal prayer, Holy Hours, the Rosary, the Mass, Divine Office, Discernment and Lectio Divina. Now we are prepared and ready to tackle what this year has in store for us. On Thursday 11th October we joined many others at the opening Mass for the Year of Faith in Westminster Cathedral. This year will provide us with a great opportunity to not only learn more about our Faith but to grow in it also. After Mass we went on a Catholic History Walk through London led by Joanna Bogle; it was
good to hear about the history of the Catholic Church in England, especially for those in our group who are not from England.  On Saturday 13th October we took part in our first 'Cookathon', a whole day dedicated to preparing and cooking meals for the next few weeks.  For some it was their first proper experience of cooking a meal from scratch.  Many thanks to those who came and joined us for the day, especially to Della, without whom the day just wouldn't happen.

Week 3

This past week the students have been learning about Divine Providence, and
experiencing it! They have been hearing the personal testimony of people in different
circumstances and how God has provided for them in their lives. During the week they
also learnt about some of the outreaches that happen here in the Parish; SOS Prayerline,
Open House, NightFever, and of course the monthly Church cleaning! Thank you to
all those who also helped with the Church cleaning, again the Lord provided us with
some good cleaners and our Church is looking beautiful. We had the pleasure this week
of having a guest lecturer from Australia; Fr Gerry O’Collins, who spoke to us about
Vatican II. On Thursday night we headed out to the cinema to watch October Baby; a
pro-life movie being presented by Good Counsel Network and 40 Days for Life. A must
see.

Next week we are focusing on Community Living. The students have already spent
three weeks living together so now it’s time to give them the secrets of how to survive
the next 8 months together.

Hopefully we will be much better at posting over the next few weeks and we will update with some photos of the things we have been doing.

Prayers and God bless

HIGHLIGHTS

Summary of SPES 2011-2012

This time 9 months ago, six young people gathered together from all around the world; from Brazil, Indonesia, Scotland, Ireland and England, we represented many cultures and countries. We looked forward to the journey with great anticipation but yet we were all taking a leap of faith into the unknown…..

Our Highlights of the Year:

1.  Our prayer became the centre of all our activities and the time we spent with God always energized and strengthened us for our outreaches and encounters with others (as a community we said Morning, Evening and Night Prayer, the Rosary and we also attended daily Mass and Adoration for an hour).

2.  Listening to our hugely knowledgeable lecturers and feeding off their enthusiasm. We were so enriched simply by their witness and personal faith experiences that the content they taught us was a real bonus!) Each week, we covered a different theme e.g. Apologetics, Evangelization, Salvation History, the writings of St.Paul and St.John’s Gospel etc. We also completed a Certificate from Maryvale in Adult Studies of the Catechism. We always commented that our lecturers were the cream of the crop!

3.  Meeting such a diverse number of people on the streets during our weekly evangelization and missions (Advent, Scarborough, Spirit in the City). We were challenged and our faith was strengthened as we had so many AMAZING experiences. The Holy Spirit certainly had to work hard during the year as we called out for courage and strength to hit the streets of Soho. He never let us down, even if He tested our trust at times ;) God has a great sense of humour and we saw Him in full flow when we had the blessed invasion of hundreds of Santa Claus’ and Elves at our Church, which brought much needed laughter and life to the Advent mission!

4.  Our wonderful pilgrimage to Rome where we received the royal treatment. Personally sitting beside Cardinal Pell in his Australian restaurant was the CRAIC!!

5.  Our retreats in Notting Hill, Oxford and Dorset enabled us to withdraw from the busy parish life and reflect with greater clarity and depth. It was amazing to feel so united with the community yet be in solitude and silence (most of the time!). Particularly in Dorset some of the community members were bursting to talk but many encouraging smiles, notes and some spontaneous laughter sufficed! ;)

6.  The welcome we received into some of the most beautiful homes around England helped bond our community. It’s fascinating to see the positive effects of glorious surroundings, not to mention the food we received! 

 7.  Volunteering with the homeless and SOS prayerline never failed to bring a deep sense of peace and put our lives into perspective. The joy and humour of the homeless people was infectious. The prayerful atmosphere and unity in the soup kitchen was something special to witness as we gathered together as equals to share the love of Christ. 

8.  Claz preparing food for us to eat on our late return from outreach. Our hunger was always satisfied when we ate her delicious meals with a big dash of LOVE!

 9.  Catholicism and Night Fever were events that really caught our imagination and opened our eyes to the future possibilities on our return home.

10.  Tatiana (our chatty Brazilian!) maintaining silence during the final retreat in Dorset must be highly commended…what a transformation T.A.T.I!!

We are so grateful and full of appreciation to Fr.Alexander, our parish priest and all those who worked tirelessly to help provide for us in St.Patrick’s parish. We would like to thank our coordinators Deanna and Edna in particular. They emptied their tanks of love, energy, advice, humour and patience-which was tested to the limit at times!!. They selflessly gave themselves entirely and we learnt so much from their work ethic, passion and zeal for the Lord. With their encouragement and support, we all grew together this year; rejoicing in the joyful moments and uniting even closer through the difficult and challenging times.  

In hindsight we can be proud of ourselves for sticking together through thick and thin (often we had no choice!!).  The laughter and joy in the community was evident from the beginning but many people shook their heads and smirked: “just wait and see the honeymoon period will not last…” Low and behold the joy remained even if the laughter turned to tears at times! Our friendships grew stronger as we survived 6am alarm bells (some struggled more than others to rise from bed!), being together 24/7, long and bumpy trips in our mini-van, and working well together to prepare for missions and events (Holy Spirit inspired for sure!).

The past 9 months have been life-changing for us all and never for a second do we regret taking that leap of faith!! Although our paths are now in different directions, we will always be united in Spirit and we all look forward to our future reunion. Congratulations to Ciara who is the new SPES co-coordinator and Laurie who will be volunteering in the parish, Claz will be actively engaging in the New Evangelisation with young people and youth on her own home turf (London!), Tatiana and Carmelo are traveling back to Mexico and Indonesia respectively and Anne-Marie is returning to teach Confirmation class in a Dublin Primary School. 

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:18-19

Mary's Month: May

Image source: http://www.knock-shrine.ie/uploads/images/headers/noFlashBanner.jpg




The first of May – a day packed with great importance; the feast day of St Joseph the Worker, a year since Pope John Paul II was beatified, Claz’s birthday, Edna’s Baptismal birthday and the first day of a whole month dedicated to Our Blessed Mother Mary!  This month gives us a chance to reflect on Mary, her life, and our devotion to her.  It is a great opportunity to deepen our relationship with Mary.  Mary is the perfect model for us in living a life faithful to God, even through struggles.  At the Annunciation Mary gave her ‘fiat’, her great 'Yes', to God and through all her sorrows she maintained this 'Yes' even to the foot of the Cross.

Mary is not only our Mother but also our Teacher.  She teaches us everything about her Son, especially through reciting the Rosary which is a Marian prayer but at the heart of it is the message of the Gospel, the life of Jesus.  Each set of mysteries takes a different aspect of the life of Jesus; Joyful: Childhood of Jesus; Luminous: Public life; Sorrowful: Passion and death of Jesus; Glorious: Resurrection and Glorification.  By praying the Rosary Mary holds our hands guiding us through the life of Jesus, pointing us to Jesus and offering guidance in our own lives.

Our Blessed Mother played a big part in me starting to return to my faith nine years ago.  I had the opportunity to go on a pilgrimage to Lourdes in France.  The atmosphere of prayer and love of Our Lady really impacted me.  For the next six years I went to Lourdes and each year I learnt more and more.  I was growing in my faith and in my relationship with God and Our Lady.  I began to pray to Mary more, especially the Rosary.  Through praying the Rosary I felt God answered many questions I had and decisions I needed to make.

Another shrine to Our Lady that I now love to visit is Knock. Our Lady appeared on 21st August 1879.  As a child my family would visit Knock quite regularly, probably at least once a year, but it meant nothing to me until a few years ago. Spending a few days in Knock, taking proper time to pray, I began to truly appreciate the beauty and significance of this small village where Our Blessed Mother truly appeared. It blew me away that I had this place, where Mary had appeared, so close to me.

Our Blessed Mother Mary is so wonderful and beautiful that there just aren’t words to describe her and all she does for us.  During this month dedicated to Mary I would encourage everyone to turn to Mary in prayer and intercession.  Take time to learn about Mary, to look at her life and allow her to show you how to live your lives centred on her Son.  Let her teach you about her Son, for no one is closer to the Son than His Holy Mother.

Prayers and God bless
Ciara