Mennaisian Youth Gathering - St. Francis Xavier's College, Liverpool, Dec. 19th-22nd

-

This year it was the turn of the English Brothers to host our annual Youth Gathering for students aged between 15 and 18 from De La Mennais Brothers schools. In recent years participants have come from France and England only (as members of St. John the Baptist Province: France-Italy-England), but this year it was decided to open the gathering out to schools run by our Brothers in Spain... with dramatic consequences!!


There were 20 French participants (16 teens + 4 lay adults) and an ever-changing number of English participants, mostly from SFX College, though augmented by some recent former pupils and friends, most of whom were past "Team Win!" De La Mennais expedition participants. The English group was augmented by the notable participation of Jacob, a student from the Brothers' school in Southampton, St. Mary's College. Far and away the largest (and loudest :-) group were the 40 Spanish teens + 4 adults (inc. 2 Brothers) who signed up for the weekend event,. These were no doubt enticed in part by coming to the city that has as one of its two internationally-renowned football teams (yes, Liverpool and Tranmere... only joking Everton fans :-) one that is managed by a fellow Spaniard (Rafa Benitez) and contains a number of other Spaniards in exile, most notably their current idol, Fernando Torres: yes, the Mighty Reds! But Liverpool also happened to be European Capital of Culture for 2008.

Both in numbers and in volume, our warm-hearted Spanish friends soon set the friendly tone for the weekend, one that was to have as its spiritual focus the sense of expectancy associated with Advent: what would be the key to our happiness? Do we find it in the gift of the child Jesus to us?

Activities/input during the busy weekend included: video + PowerPoint presentations, discussion + workshop groups...


...Christian rock and other religious songs sung and performed by the different delegations, Sunday Mass amongst ourselves with a local Redemptorist priest...


... party pieces during an evening of fun + games, much of which was led by the Spaniards. The English contingent contributed with the Macarena (went down well with the Spanish), Cha-Cha Slide...


...and YMCA...


We also took them to a children's carol service in a local parish church, as well visits to the 2 Liverpool cathedrals (Catholic + Anglican), the Albert Dock, Anfield Stadium (Liverpool F.C. - the outside only)...


... Liverpool One (the new shopping complex in the city centre) and St. George's Hall.


Here are a few video clips and other photos:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

District 9 - a sci-fi anti-apartheid allegory and the first handheld camera masterpiece?

-
Image
Following on from yesterday's post, here's an interesting article from The Guardian film blog . District 9: Where aliens come to Earth and handheld comes of age District 9, the shock blockbuster produced by Peter Jackson, isn't just notable for its box office dominance and viral marketing campaign. It's also the closest thing to a handheld masterpiece that's yet been made Handheld on handholding … A still from District 9 Lars, time to break out that cigar. When Dogme 95 was brewing, I wonder if von Trier seriously thought his cin-emetic had any chance of influencing pop culture. With the release of sci-fi blockbuster District 9 , we have the answer: the handheld style has finally come of age. The setup - filmed in to-camera interviews with its pencil-neck protagonist, Wikus Van de Merwe, and intrepid Unsteadicam as he enters the extra-terrestrial township - is jarring in the very best way. And traditional complaints of motion sickness, migraine and general inner-ea
Read more

God You don't need me, but somehow You want me - Tenth Avenue North, “Control”

-
Image
I sent the below message to my teaching colleagues in school this evening, braced as we are for the arrival of “those-who-shall-not-be-named” (i.e. OFSTED, national school inspectors) sometime between now and Easter. For those of you who live outside of Britain their job is to monitor and ensure high standards in all schools… the problem is that they keep moving the goalposts. Anyway, enough of that. Here’s what I said: I think that the attached video teaching is for us right now, to help us not lose sight of who we are and why we are here in a Catholic school. It's too late for the weekend just gone, but try to take on board its message of "wasting time for God" over the coming weeks, despite the pressures that we are all under. Even if you are not a believer yourself, give yourself some time alone with your thoughts, if you can… even just a few minutes.  The video teaching is by one of my favourite bands, Tenth Avenue North, and it accompanies a song of
Read more

Transcendent God

-
Over the past few months I have become much more aware of the beauty of the Grail translation of the Psalms that we use in Morning and Evening Prayer (Divine Office) - I will write more about this in the near future - and I am also finding that this has rubbed off on my attitude to the other prayers in the Office. For example, the following hymn that we prayed just over a week ago. The words struck me as if I was discovering them anew, and this after having prayed (or simply recited?) them at least once a month for about 25 years.  The optimism of the imagery struck me most forcefully and I love the idea of God hearing our prayer "before we call", i.e. as the paslmist says elsewhere "before ever a word was on my lips... you knew me through and through" (I paraphrase). See what you think yourselves... Morning Prayer of Sunday, week 3 Transcendent God in whom we live, The Resurrection and the Light, We sing for you a morning hymn To end the si
Read more