Prayer

Youth Prayer for Lent 

Lord, Teach me a new freedom. 

Freedom to reject comparison And to embrace uniqueness. 

Freedom to cut ties with greed And feast on love. 

Freedom to abstain from over indulgence And feast on self-control. 

Freedom to leave behind selfish thoughts And to focus on the needs of others. 

Freedom to fend off insecurity And to embrace grace.

Lord, at this time of Lent, Thank you for the freedom you bring. Amen.

Catholic Lenten Prayer 

Almighty and Everlasting God, You have given the human race Jesus Christ our Savior as a model of humility. 

He fulfilled Your Will by becoming Man And giving His life on the Cross. 

Help us to bear witness to You By following His example of suffering 

And make us worthy to share in His Resurrection. 

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son. Amen.

Director of Faith and Mission Message

At this time of the year we are now entering into Lent. This presents us with a great opportunity to stop and look at our lives and in what ways can we make changes that bring us closer to the person God created us to be. We are encouraged to undertake some actions during the 40 days of Lent that lead up to Easter to grow closer to God. Traditionally this has been in the forms of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. 

• Prayer: we increase in what we pray, and also look at praying for others, maybe that we don't usually pray for such as a group in society that needs prayer or a person we may be struggling with.
• Fasting: this is twofold with a fast from meat on Fridays and Ash Wednesday, but also can be giving up something. This is especially useful when looking at maybe a habit that we have got into which is either excessive, such as too much time on social media, or something that we want to give up such as gossiping.
• Almsgiving: this can be giving of money to charity/church or could be giving of our time or other gifts. This could include things such as helping around the house with chores, doing a random act of kindness each day or giving time to help at a charity or neighbour's garden.

I would encourage everyone within our wider school community to consider what they might do this Lent to grow closer to the person God created you to be. What is one action that you could do to become a better person? Be realistic and not try to change the whole world at once. It is in the small actions repeated time and time again that we build good habits and virtue. Good habits like bad ones, build up over time. Let's use Lent 2023 as an opportunity to build up more good habits and get closer to God and others around us.

Kieran Udy | Director of Faith and Mission