I came across this testimony today by the lead singer of Building 429 and it really struck a chord (sorry!) with me... what is the sound of hope for you?
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 ...
Last Sunday, I went with confrères to a 17th century chapel near my new home of Châteaulin, the chapel of Notre Dame de Kerluan, for it’s annual “Pardon” (Breton equivalent of the ancient Irish “Pattern” days) which coincided with the inauguration of beautiful new stained glass windows by local artist (and former teaching colleague of some of my French confrères) Jean-François Chaussepied (www.chaussepied.com). The Mass and inauguration were led by the Bishop of Quimper, Mgr. Laurent Dognin, in the presence of the Mayor of Châteaulin, Mme. Gaëlle Nicolas. *** Dimanche dernier, je suis allé avec des confrères dans une chapelle du 17ème siècle près de ma nouvelle communauté à Châteaulin, la chapelle Notre Dame de Kerluan, pour son « Pardon » annuel (équivalent breton des « Pattern days » en Irlande autrefois) qui co...
So, back to the Togo trip.... On day 7 we finally managed to get organised the much-anticipated, extensively hyped, full 11-a-side match with the older children of La Pierre du Pauvre orphanage. The latter team wore Liverpool tops that 2 of our Scouse members had brought down with them (Paddy was most certainly not one of them!) and we wore a mixture of light coloured tops that were aslo amongst the many large bags of football tops that we had collected and brought with us to donate to the orphanage and 2 other places we visited once we returned to Lomé on the coast later in the trip. Quite a sizeable crowd gathered to watch an end-to-end spectacle of flowing, one-touch football ("yeah, right!" :-) that saw us run out 2-1 winners. Although some of the local boys certainly punched above their weight when it came to their energetic tackling, the match was played in a very good spirit. Later that day, basking in the glory of our ...
Comments