SPES 2013-14 has begun!!

Saturday 28th September was the beginning of our new SPES year. Slowly one by one our new students arrived at St Mary's. This year the SPES community is made up of 5 girls from various parts of the world.  We have Lucy from America, Alicia from Canada, Laura from Germany, Alice from England and Hannah from Scotland. On Saturday evening we chatted and got to know each other a little before going to Mass in the Parish and having dinner together afterwards. Fr Keith, the Parish priest at St Mary's welcomed us at the Mass and joined us for a little afterwards to meet the students.

On Sunday we all headed over to St Patrick's for the 11am Mass. Some of the students had not yet been to St Patrick's or met Fr Alex in person so this was their first opportunity. The tea and coffee after the 11am Mass started up again this Sunday so it was a good opportunity to meet some of our regular parishioners. Philip, our newest resident in St Patrick's, made us all a lovely lunch and Della made us some fantastic cupcakes with the students initials and SPES on them. They looked great and tasted lovely. Thank you Della and Philip.

Monday morning we were due to be at St Patrick's in time for the lunchtime Mass which meant we were able to enjoy a lie in (which won't be happening too often this year!) and walk to St Patrick's through the park. Ambrose, the dog, joined us of course. He is very much enjoying having 5 new girls to fuss over him! Monday afternoon Fr Alex spent some time getting to know the students and speaking to them about SPES and this coming year.

It has only been 3 days but it feels like more. We are all enjoying getting to know each other over many cups of tea.  Hopefully we will be able to keep you posted on all that we get up to over the next 9 months. Please keep us all in your prayers. Thank you.

We're Back (again!)

Well it’s been a while and we do apologise for going missing. March was an extremely busy month for us here at SPES; we had two assignment weeks, a week of visiting communities, our Patronal Feast celebrations for St Patrick’s Day (Weekend), and then we were into Holy Week and Easter. It has been non stop around here but definitely good. After Easter we had a week off to relax and recharge ourselves before coming back to prepare for our Scarborough Mission, which is this coming week (13th - 21st April).  Over the next couple of blog posts we will try to bring you up to speed on what we have done and what we are doing next.

Officially signed up and committed to SPES!

That’s it – we’re all officially signed up and committed to SPES.  Thank you to all those who came along to our Commitment Mass last Thursday or kept us in prayer.  It was a beautiful and wonderful celebration of Mass, especially being the Solemnity of All Saints.

Signing our commitment

Publicly proclaiming our commitment

All fully committed and ready

We are now all set to take on some responsibilities within the community and get started properly on our mission outreaches.  Each of us have now been given different roles and responsibilities within the community;

Alfonso has been given the tasks of Music & Liturgy Coordinator as well as Social & Cultural Coordinator (ie he will not only organise a good party but also ensure there is some music and prayers also!)

Ben has taken on the roles of Sacristan and Team Coordinator.  Let's hope he remembers the easy way to be a happy Sacristan (happy Priest = happy Sacristan)

Ola has been entrusted with the roles of Resource Coordinator, Transport Coordinator and Evangelisation Coordinator (ie Ola will be the 'key' to almost all that the boys will need within their roles!)

And finally Terry will be running a tight ship as Housekeeper as well as Hospitality Coordinator.  Our visitors will be warmly welcomed into our lovely clean SPES area with a cup of tea/coffee as well as a few biscuits.

Last night we had our first experience of two of the outreaches that happen here in St Patrick's.  Two of us were helping at Open House, making sure all our guests had milk for their teas and coffees as well as a bit of chat with them.  A longer night was had by the other two who were manning the SOS Prayerline from 7-11pm.  All of us had a great experience and we look forward to doing much more of it in the future.

'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

Only a week to go!!

 

Firstly sorry for the lack of updates - there are some in the process of making it onto here but just not ready yet.  The last couple of weeks have flown by, we have been so busy preparing for the arrival of the new students.  Can't believe it's only a week away now!  This time next Saturday we shall be having our first meal together as a community. 

This week is going to be a little bit crazy making sure everything is ready before the students arrive.  I have to be honest and say I really can't wait!  It has been great getting to know the students a little and helping them prepare for SPES through emails and Skype but it going to be great to actually properly get to know them and meet them and also let them meet each other.  Thank you so much to all of you who have been praying for our new students, please continue to pray for them.