Mr Pearce

March 12, 2021

The Grotto at St Dominic’s – A Focal Point for Faith

The Grotto at St Dominic’s – A Focal Point for Faith

The Grotto has been a gathering point at St Dominic’s for 5 years now but has grown significantly in importance since the presence of lockdowns. Since COVID hit in the UK in March 2020, places of worship have been closed and parishioners have been unable to gather as a community to practice their faith, so the Grotto has been a focal point for people to stay connected to their religion. The grotto has been a peaceful place for parishioners to safely visit in these times and provides an outlet to reflect, pray and seek the intercession of Mary. There is a serene atmosphere surrounded by plants and benches to allow people to sit and worship the statue of Our Lady. It allows people to feel secure in an environment surrounded by faith in a time when gathering in solidarity is exceedingly difficult.

The focal point of the Grotto is the statue of Our Lady, so anyone that comes to the grotto stops to worship and appreciate it. Many people visit every day, each with individual reasons. Some people visit the grotto whilst out a walk with family or friends and sit together to pray whilst adoring the statue of Mary. This gives people a holy destination to visit together and encourages families to take time out of their day to unite in faith. Others visit the grotto alone to pray the rosary at the foot of Mary, or to say their own prayers which hold importance to them. When asked about the impact of the availability of the grotto to people in these times, Fr Monaghan, Parish Priest of St Dominic’s, said “When people are unable to come to Mass the Grotto has become a focal point for prayer and also a mini pilgrimage place when people are out for their walks. People desire to be close to Jesus and by faith we know Mary takes us to her son, so they readily come to pray to Mary whom the Grotto is dedicated to.” It has been clear that the Grotto has encouraged people through these difficult times and the community have clearly appreciated and valued having a place to go to be close to God, whether they quickly stop and pray whilst passing by, or sit down and fully indulge in the serenity of the surrounding nature and presence of Mary.

In times of social distancing, face masks and staying at home, the feeling of solidarity is more difficult to find than ever, but also more important. Even though St Dominic’s church may not be open, the Grotto outside can give people a feeling of familiarity and consistency as it can be a place for people to visit daily, to remind them that although the world is full of uncertainty right now, God will always be constant in their life. Another aspect of the grotto that helps to achieve this feeling of unity, is the online devotions that Fr Monaghan leads from it.

Fr Monaghan has been leading online devotions from the Grotto which has helped to allow people to practice as a community and be together virtually to engage in prayer. This also means people can visit and appreciate the grotto without physically visiting it, if they are unable to for any reason. The online devotions are a new addition to the practice of the church but have been valuable and brought a more fruitful experience of the faith during these unprecedented times. Fr Monaghan has received a lot of positive feedback regarding the online devotions, “Parishioners tell me that when they get the message on their phones that there is a livestream they stop what they are doing and join in the prayers. It also gives a moment for the parishioners to greet each other online and in the messages.” This makes it evident that the people joining in the live streams appreciate the extra efforts of Fr Monaghan to keep the faith alive during the lockdowns and to make everyone feel like they are practicing together as a community united in faith, and also gives people hope that they will get to be together physically in church again one day.

Fr Monaghan offers different services online from the grotto, or from home if necessary, and people are eager to join in. He livestreams Mass which people can watch real time or can watch later on. He also leads a decade of the Rosary from the grotto which people can join in, a different mystery of the rosary is usually prayed each session to allow people to follow along easily and clearly, in the midst of their daily lockdown life. Other relevant prayers are often said too, such as prayers for the Faithful Departed. These devotions are often done on feast days, for example a rosary was led from the grotto on the feast day of Our Lady of Fatima. Fr Monaghan also added prayers to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the month of June as this is the traditional devotion for this month. All of these different services contribute to the quality of the practice of faith from home, and each one brings parishioners closer to God.

Overall, the Grotto has kept people connected to their faith during these lockdowns and has provided a central area for people to dedicate their time for reflection and prayer in a time when maintaining a strong relationship with God is so important.

By Rachel and Rose, S6 Caritas Award

February 19, 2021

Stations of the Cross 2021

Listen to a podcast of this blog post here. Stations of the Cross Blog 2021

When you think of Lent, often the first thought is ‘What have you given up!’ From our Lent 2021 post, you now know that fasting is part of a bigger plan of becoming holy.

Hopefully when you think of Lent, you also think of the Stations of the Cross. Prayed especially on Fridays during Lent (but not only then), the stations of the cross go all the way back to Our Lady, the Apostles and the early Christians who visited the various sites of Jesus’ suffering and death in order to pray and meditate on them. (St Alphonsus)

Over time, people began to travel to the Holy Land to visit them too. As this became more difficult, pictures of each stage of the account of Jesus’ suffering (passion) were set up closer to home so that people could visit the places in their soul without the physical traveling.

Eventually a set of 14 stations of the cross became a standard feature of Catholic church buildings and various sets of prayers have been written to help us to contemplate each one. This enables us to accompany Jesus as he suffers to bring about our salvation.

The stations of the cross are such a powerful prayer that the Church has given a special blessing attached to them called an indulgence. Where confession takes away the eternal consequences of sin, indulgences take away the temporal consequences of sin- making up to God what we have taken through our sins. We can even offer indulgences for others, especially the Holy Souls in purgatory!*

To help you to pray the stations of the cross at home, I have put together a couple of options. (These are always on our Prayer and Discipleship page)

Praying the Stations of the Cross (1) – A powerpoint that you can use as a family. (Click ‘notes’ at the bottom of each slide to see the prayers.)

Praying the Stations of the Cross (2) – A guided YouTube version with beautiful music.

If you find these a bit daunting, why not use the images in the PowerPoint to think about that station and just say a Haily Mary or Our Father.

*To gain indulgences we must fulfil the following conditions.

Pray for the intentions of the Pope (Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be)
Have a hatred for all our sins and desire to not sin again
Receive Holy Communion within 8 days
Go to confession within 8 days

It is not possible to receive Holy Communion when the churches are closed so we just place our trust in God who knows our situation and wants to bless us.

February 16, 2021

Ash Wednesday 2021

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Holy Season of Lent. Because we are unable to be together we are happy to pass on two options for how you can mark this at home.

Fr Monaghan will be live streaming Mass at 10am on his parish Facebook Page for you to pray along with if your timetable/schedule allows. This is a public page so you do not need a Facebook account to access the live stream.

The Bishops of Scotland have authorised an Ash Wednesday liturgy that can be used in the home. This can be accessed here.

For more information on how to enter into Lent this year, see our recent blog post on Lent 2021

February 15, 2021February 15, 2021

Lent 2021

Listen to this blog post here- Lent 2021 Blog Post

My first thought on Lent 2021 is that lockdown 1 started during Lent 2020! It’s crazy to think that a year has gone by.

Over the centuries, Catholics have not only celebrated the faith in the Church and through the Liturgy. This is the high point of our prayer- the Mass is the ‘source and summit’ of the Christian life. Catholics, however, have also celebrated the faith in the home with prayers, recipes and parties! I have noticed even more of this spirit even among my non-Catholic neighbours this year.

Window decorations for significant days show that the religious instinct to celebrate what is important is still within us, even if we have not yet made it to the fullness of truth in the Catholic faith. Maybe this is also because, during times of trial, we all need to keep our spirits up!

Given all that we have gone through, we could fall into the trap of seeing Lent as a tedious trial that we just don’t need at the moment. Who is going to voluntarily do something difficult when so much else is going on?!

Let’s take a brief look at why this view would be missing the point and why Lent can be a time of refreshment and positivity!

Penance

During Lent we do penance. Penance is when we make satisfaction for our sins. When we go to confession we make a resolution to turn away from sin and turn back to God (Repentance) and our Penance makes this desire visible and puts it into practice.

From the beginning, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, sin has messed up our relationship with God, creation and others. So the Church gives us the antidote to each problem-

Prayer- Prayer reconnects us to God who is the source of love and peace. During Lent we make a special effort to take up some additional prayer, even something really small, and we become rooted in the one who made us, loved us, died and rose again for us. (If you don’t pray much, how about a Hail Mary when you get up and when you go to bed? It’s a start 🙂 )

Fasting-Fasting disconnects us from our unhealthy attachment to material/created things. What are the things that I turn to instead of God? What are the things that take up so much time and attention that I neglect my duties or my family?

Almsgiving (Giving)– Giving to others teaches us to love our neighbour even when it costs us. We all like to help people who help us, but this can be a bit selfish. What about showing love to those who may not give anything in return. You could give to charity, give money, give your time…Pray about it and see what God sends your way.

In conclusion, Lent provides us with an opportunity to disconnect from the things that give us a short term happiness and reconnect to God who is our ultimate joy.

In RE, young people will be learning about the significance of 40 days in the Bible- always a period of purification, turning to God and getting rid of the baggage that weighs us down.

Someone who is getting fit has a goal and they use their will power to turn away from unhealthy food and turn towards exercise, we have the goal of realising our spiritual potential- holiness, sainthood. Penance isn’t a negative thing, it is just like getting fit but for our soul.

At the end of our 40 days of purification and conversion we will be ready to contemplate the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus who emptied himself for love of us and calls us to love him in return.

Lent Resources

Ash Wednesday Service for use at home

Resources for prayer and growing in the faith

February 11, 2021

Feedback during Online Learning

Turnbull young people have been submitting some outstanding work for RE during the last few weeks. From S1 exploring the literary styles in scripture, S2 analysing the person and natures of Jesus to S4 and 5 creating presentations on the sanctity of human life to S6 analysing the Nicene Creed and refuting the Arian heresy…I have been so impressed by their commitment to their learning.

Feedback is a key component of learning in any classroom and in RE, pupils often reflect on their engagement in self and peer assessment, formal and informal learner conversations, use of learning intentions, success criteria and PLP learning statements to track the learning and set new goals.

We are not in a classroom at the moment, however, so how can a young person gauge their success and areas for development within the online RE context?

Here is a list that was drawn up in our S2 RE tutorial this morning.

RE Online learning:
Feedback

–Traffic light grades– Red/Amber/Green. Green means that you have met the success criteria, Amber means you have met some but not all and you need to self-asses your work against the success criteria and plug any gaps. Red is very rare- no one has been given a red yet! Your teacher would be in touch to help you before it came to this!

–Written comments (**?)– two stars and a wish- short comment from the teacher. This is usually given for more substantial tasks. Sometimes pupils may expect a written comment every time but written comments are only one method of feedback and aren’t always the best fit.

–Verbal feedback during tutorials– common challenges or tricky bits are explained during the tutorial. Where appropriate, I am now recording audio of the lessons and issuing them to pupils as a podcast that can be revisited.

–Live marking during lesson– the teacher uses example work (with the name of the pupil removed!) to show desirable aspects of work and things that could be improved.

–MS Forms– Percentage Mark is given automatically, correct or incorrect answers show you your strengths and areas to revise and pop-up messages give hints along the way

January 8, 2021January 8, 2021

Advent Learning and Teaching in RE

Advent is one of my favourite seasons of the Church year and every year I discover new layers of meaning in the prophecies of the Old Testament and their fulfillment in the New Testament. There are also so many beautiful ways that the liturgy and devotions unwrap the layers of the greatest gift ever given.

This year is the first that all of the BGE classes have all been engaging with our brand new courses.

S1 started by studying life in Palestine at the time of Jesus’ birth and its place in salvation history or ‘God’s Timeline’. By applying their literacy and Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS), pupils engaged with a variety of Biblical and video resources to gradually build up a picture of the political, cultural and religious climate for the people of God at that time. S1 had a good idea of what God’s people were expecting from the Messiah and began to think about how Jesus fulfilled this.

S1 then went on to explore ways in which we practice our faith in Advent, dividing the learning into ‘Liturgy’ and ‘Devotions.’

S2 built on what they learned last year by studying the Old Testament prophets in the last part of November. They worked in groups to track God’s Timeline, analysing the messages of the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah and Amos. They saw that God is always faithful despite his people’s infidelity ad recognised the promise of the Messiah, the rescuer.

S2 continued to work in their groups through December to explore the clues of what the Messiah- The Anointed One- would be like. They studied the figures of the Old Testament who were anointed- Priests, Prophets and Kings and began to explore how Jesus would be the ultimate priest, prophet and king.

S2 concluded their study by analysing the O Antiphons and selecting ones that complemented their learning. Sadly, we could not sing them this year but maybe next year’s S2 will get a chance!

S3 expanded their prior learning by exploring the concept of Covenant in more depth. Applying their HOTS, pupils engaged with Biblical texts to identify the Covenant characteristics that they had learned. Again, by tracking salvation history and the development of the covenant through Noah, Abraham and Moses, young people then drew conclusions about the New and Eternal Covenant that Jesus was going to institute.

Unusually, S4 were in school for lots more of Advent this year due to the Absence of prelims. They followed the first episode of Word on Fire’s Catholicism series, deepening their understanding of the role of the Messiah and the paradoxical way in which God chose to rescue his people.

Advent Adoration

In harmony with the curriculum, our chaplaincy programme offered opportunities for prayer and meditation on our need for the coming of Jesus in our own lives and in the world. This was most powerfully evident in our Advent Adoration on Monday lunchtimes- the Advent of Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament at the heart of our school.

Prayers and Devotions

In place of Mass, which is not possible at this time, pupils and staff joined in morning prayers, novenas and other devotions. An adapted version of our Bearing Gifts retreat was undertaken for each class, reflecting on the Annunciation, the poem ‘In the bleak midwinter’ by Christina Rosetti and ending with the Angelus.

What can I give him poor as I am? If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb. If I were a wise man, I would do my part, yet, what I have I give him,

Give my heart.

Family Learning

Advent is a season that is very rich in liturgy ad devotions and so our families were provided with a one-stop-shop for living Advent in the home. This blog post featured prayers, crafts, recipes and even playlists of traditional and modern Advent music!

Advent Service

On the last day of term we joined for an Advent Service on Teams in which we reflected on the promise of the Messiah, his Advent to us in the present and our readiness for his coming in glory at the end of the world.

January 8, 2021January 8, 2021

Illuminating Festive Physics!

“And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us”- so goes the first chapter of the Gospel of John. The Greek root of ‘Word‘ is Logos or ‘mind.’ Our faith teaches us that all things were made through the Word- the divine mind- and this is the reason why the universe is intelligible.

As part of our Advent learning, the RE department tea med up with Science department to look at the Star of Bethlehem which was to repeat on the 21st of December for the first time in 800 years!

Just like the Shepherds, men of the true faith at the time, were led to Jesus through a vision of the angels, our young people had opportunities to learn and pray the readings and liturgy of Advent, meditating on the significance of the Incarnation.

Just like the wise men, who used material science and academic study of the Old Testament prophecies, our young people studied the science behind the Star of Bethlehem and were immersed in the study of the prophets.

Our young people reflected on Advent of Jesus in the past, present and future and the many ways in which we have an Epiphany- God revealing himself to us in so many ways.

This project was a reminder to us that Truth, whether communicated literally and numerically or symbolically and prayerfully, all finds its convergence in the Logos, The Word Made Flesh: Jesus, the Way the Truth and the Life.

November 27, 2020

Advent Chaplaincy Programme

November 27, 2020

Advent Family Learning

This Sunday is New Year in the Church! It is also the start of the season of Advent. Our young people have been learning about the history of God’s people and the ups and downs of the relationship between Him and His people. His people, as we often do, strayed from their bond with Him but God is always faithful. He sent prophets to call the people back and they told of a rescuer who would bring healing and salvation.

In Advent, rather than prematurely celebrating Christmas, we take time to focus on the darkness of the world in need of the rescuer (the Messiah) when Jesus was born and the darkness of our lives without Him too. This is a time to learn to wait for God like the people of Israel did. If we do this, the joy of Christmas- the coming of the Light of the World will be even greater!

Here are some ways that you and your family can make the most of Advent.

General info about Advent

Create/buy an Advent Calendar- Don’t just eat the sweets! Read a short bit of the Advent story and think about it through the day. Share your thoughts at dinner.

Make or buy an Advent Wreath and light it when you are al at home.

Make a Jesse Tree and learn about each figure it depicts

Daily readings- Use an app like Universalis of iPieta to read the daily Mass readings. Even if you just pick one, you will enter into the Advent season at a deeper level.

Family Rosary– Advent may be a great time to begin praying as a family after dinner or before bed. Start with a decade of the Rosary (5mins). This will change your lives!

Make an advent playlist (Traditional / Modern) and avoid Christmas movies- save them until Christmas! This is not to kill the fun but increases the anticipation for Christmas!

Attend Mass more often if you are able.

November 27, 2020

Red Wednesday 2020

In keeping with our longstanding partnership with Aid to the Church in Need, Turnbull High School celebrated Red Wednesday- a day to raise funds and awareness for Christians who are persecuted for their faith.

Our usual events were not possible this year but pupils made donations and wore red, the colour of martyrs, with their uniform to show solidarity with those who are oppressed, tortured and killed for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Following what has become a Red Wednesday custom across the UK, we lit up our oratory Red.

Our Aid to the Church in Need group led the event and did a great job with advertising. Joined by Fr Monaghan and Mr Pearce, the group also joined to pray the sorrowful mysteries of the Rosary, meditating on the suffering of Jesus and the suffering His Church.