CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK- Catholic Schools: Communities of Service.

Sunday, 21st January, marked the beginning of Catholic Schools Week 2024.

This week we celebrated the unique contribution that Catholic schools make to their communities. During the week we looked at the following themes:
Service in Our Community of Friends
Service in Our School Community
Service in Our Family Community
Service in Our Local Community
Service in Our Faith Community

Today, we concluded Catholic Schools Week with a prayer service and special visit from Father Hannigan. The children enjoyed telling Father Hannigan about each of the themes they explored this week.

Today, the children considered ‘vocations’ and how each of us have been given gifts and talents to put to the service of the Church and one another. The children explored ways people give service to or are involved with the parish community (musicians, the choir, parish committees, ministers of the Eucharist, readers, collectors, sacristans and Mass servers) The children learned that each one of these people have a vocation and have been given various gifts and talents that they put to the service of our faith community.

The children also learned that some people have a special calling from God to be a priest or a nun.

Father Hannigan very kindly responded to the children’s questions about his calling to the priesthood and they enjoyed finding out about how he entered the seminary after leaving school and studied for 7 years before being ordained a priest in 1985.

Our little P1 and P2 children especially loved their visit from Fr Hannigan today. They had lots of questions too and found out about Fr Hannigan’s job as a priest.

Thank you Father Hannigan for visiting St Mary’s today and joining in our celebration of Catholic Schools Week.