Prayer and Worship
Prayer and worship are central to the daily life of our school. We provide opportunities for children's spiritual growth and development through their participation in a variety of forms of worship and through experiencing all forms of prayer: formal, informal, spontaneous, private, shared, petitionary and meditative. In this way we aim to help the children to come to value and understand the power of prayer and its place in their relationship with God.
Here at St Joseph’s, we are dedicated to providing a loving, caring Catholic Christian environment, where our children have the opportunity to encounter God and experience His infinite love for them, through His Son, Jesus Christ. We are a true community of faith, where all are welcomed into our Catholic school family. We treasure our parents as the first educators of faith, in the lives of their children and seek an active partnership between home, school and parish.
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Collective acts of worship are mainly drawn from the rhythm of the Liturgical Church Year and its Feasts, the Sunday Gospel readings, Church teachings and Church led initiatives, eg. ‘The Year of the Word’, Saints Feast Days and curriculum areas being studied in RE.
Experiences of collective acts of worship include; Mass, liturgies, whole school, phase and class assemblies, class collective prayer, child led prayer, the Heilborn prayer group, Eucharistic Adoration, Corpus Christi Procession, Guided Christian Meditation, the Christmas Carol concerts and Nativities, Reconciliation, Lenten services, Stations of the Cross and meditation on the Mysteries of the Rosary.
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The Heilborn Prayer Group
‘When I go to the Heilborn Prayer Group in the Chapel, I feel that Jesus is always in my heart’.
(Year 3 pupil)
We have the use of St Joseph’s Chapel, which is a place where classes and small groups and staff can pray. The Heilborn Prayer Group in Year 3 experience Guided Christian Meditation, every week. This is led the Sr Anthony, a sister of the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ, with the assistance of the RE Leader.
Family Prayer Kits
‘This is a great way to keep praying time alive, with the family’.
(Year 1 parent)
In order to strengthen and enrich the prayer lives of our children, in partnership with our families, we send home Family Prayer Kits during Advent, Lent and in the months associated with Mary, the mother of Jesus. We invite our families to take turns using the Prayer Kits and to send us reflections of their experience. During this year dedicated to the ‘The God who Speaks: The Year of the Word’ we will be encouraging our families to read and share Holy Scripture, through our Bible Prayer Kits.
