Open House Volunteer Retreat Day

In the gardens of the Kairos Centre

Although we have not yet started volunteering at Open House we were invited along on their Volunteer Retreat Day yesterday.  It was out at the Kairos Centre in Roehampton.  It was a great day, both in terms of weather and the retreat.  We headed off at 9.45am in the minibus and made it there in 45mins, which is pretty good so we are told.  We were greeted by the Sisters who run the Kairos Centre.  They are the Poor Servants of the Mother of God, the same congregation as Sr Mary, our Parish Sister.  The Kairos Centre has some very beautiful gardens which we were free to wander through. 



SPES were definitely here

There was tea, coffee and biscuits available for us also when we arrived so of course we all had to have a cup of tea.  No point wasting time sitting inside so we took our tea outside. Don't worry we were good and returned the cups, once we collected them all off the grass.  The others gradually arrived and it was time to begin. 







Fr Alex speaking to us about Open House

We began our retreat with a prayer before Fr Alex gave us a spiritual talk/reflection.  He spoke beautifully about our need for God's mercy and forgiveness and how we must extend it to others.  His talk focused on how we can do this with our guests at Open House.  After Fr Alex's talk we had some time to go away by ourselves to reflect on what we had heard and to pray about it.  We gathered again for some lunch and then we shared some of our thoughts about Open House, about what is working well, what we can improve on and generally how we can best bring the love and mercy of God to our guests at Open House. 

Since we have not yet been to Open House we listened more than talking.  We learnt more about how Open House was run before we had our beautiful community centre.  Things have changed over the years but the same principles are there; we want to be a welcoming place for our homeless guests and to feed them both physically and spiritually.  We are very much looking forward to volunteering at Open House and thankfully now we have met some of the other volunteers it won't be as difficult the first time.  We finished the day together with Mass.

Ambrose enjoying all the attention!

Divine Providence and Outreaches

Another whole week of lectures has just flew by. We've have now finished 3 weeks of SPES!  Where has the time gone.  So far we all seem to be settling in well and getting on with each other.  Each day we are discovering more and more about ourselves and each other.


This past week our lectures were focused on Divine Providence and Outreach.  We were introduced to some of the Parish's outreaches which we will be involved in.  Alexandra introduced us to the SOS Prayerline, which has been running now for over 11 years. We are looking forward to being a part of it soon. All the prayer books from the past 11 years are kept in the Chapel downstairs.  It is amazing to think that there are all these requests for prayer by telephone and soon we were be there to receive the calls and offer the prayers to Our Lord, present in the Blessed Sacrament.




As well as this we also learnt more about Open House, which is when the Parish feed some of the homeless and less fortunate in our area. It happens twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Normally there are approximately 60-80 guests each night.  The evening relies on the support of volunteers.  We will be helping on one of the nights each week.  The idea of it seems a little scary at times but after learning more about how it is run we are looking forward to helping out and meeting some of the guests.



There were lectures about some of the other outreaches we will be involved in such as LumiNations and NightFever. This weekend we were able to experience our first NightFever together as a group. We have been looking forward to it all week. (We'll do a separate update soon all about our first experience of NightFever at St Patrick's).  Paula, from the Cenacolo Prayer Group, came along this week and spoke to us about the Cenacolo Community and providence.  It is amazing to hear how God has worked in the community.  It truly shows how God provides for us.  Robert, from 40 Days for Life, spoke to us about some of the pro-life issues and in particular the 40 Days for Life campaign, which is happening in London at the moment. Yesterday we headed out on a Catholic History Walk with Joanna Bogle. It was a fantastic experience, there is so much Catholic history right here on our doorstep! (Again we will do a separate post about Joanna's walk.)

Another Busy Week of Study and Outreach

This week we have been working on our third assignment, which has been focused on the second two parts of our Creed; God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Our lectures were based on the Catechism and the coursebook from Maryvale. We looked at different parts of the Life of Jesus and how the Holy Spirit was present in them. In particular we have studied the Incarnation, Jesus’ public life, His Passion and Death as well as the Resurrection, Ascension and Second Coming. We also looked at how the Church is described as One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. There was a lot of stuff to take in this week but it has all been so interesting. Let’s hope our assignments explain it all well enough. There’s been a few late nights this week, hopefully all worth it.

As well as our studies this week we have been busy with our outreaches. Monday night we had Catholicism, which was about Mary, Mother of God. It was a very interesting evening and Mary always causes questions with those of other faiths so it is good to learn more about what we believe about Mary and how to explain it to others. Thursday night two of us were helping with Open House, which is always a great evening and the food looked amazing! The other two of us were on SOS Prayerline for Thursday evening.  Each of us love doing SOS Prayerline, it is awesome to see the faith that so many people have that they call in to ask for prayer or to thank the Lord for prayers that have been answered.   Last night we were down at Notre Dame de France for LumiNations.  It was absolutely freezing but that didn't stop us setting up the music on the steps and get out the evangelising materials.  It was a great night and many people stopped to have a look at what we were doing and to listen to the music.  Inside we have Adoration going on and people praying for those of us who were outside. Tonight we shall be out on the streets again for NightFever, here at St Patrick's.  We start with Mass at 6pm followed by Adoration and our street mission.  We are all very much looking forward to it and if you can join us please do.

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.

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.

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.

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!!!

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.