Benediction

Sycamore went over to church for Benediction with Deacon Tim. It was a lovely, devotional ceremony which we enjoyed celebrating together as the perfect end to our week. We said the Divine Praises together and took a moment in silence to reflect on all we have to be grateful for and to pray for our any of our friends and family who might be going through difficult times at the moment. Deacon Tim blessed us with the Eucharist and we thought about our devotion and adoration for God.

Red Wednesday

We all wore red to show our support for persecuted Christians around the world. As a class we thought about all the Christians around the world who don’t have access to a bible and aren’t allowed to gather together to celebrate God’s Word. We visited church this morning to pray for, and on behalf of, those who do not have the freedom to pray in church themselves. We prayed that God gives persecuted Christians comfort, hope and the right words to say to stand up for their beliefs.

Celebration of the Word

Today, we shared the Celebration of the Word. We reflected on Sunday’s Gospel where Jesus reminds us that we are all unique and valuable to God. Out of His love for us, God has entrusted us with individual gifts to bring to the world – gifts to be given to others. The value of our gift is greatly increased when given with love. Sharing our gifts, with love, brings us closer to God. We explored what giving to others actually means. This week, using St. Francis’ prayer for inspiration, we are going to think about what we can share with others.

Faithfully Departed Class Mass

We led our whole school ‘Faithfully Departed’ Mass. We know that November is a month of remembrance when we think of those who have died. Earlier this month we celebrated the solemnity of All Saints, where we commemorated all those who have gone before us and now have their eternal reward in heaven. On All Soul’s Day, we prayed for the Holy Souls, our friends, relatives and those who have died and those who have no one to pray for them. We also remembered those who died as result of war and violence on Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday. We commend them all to the mercy of God and celebrate what we have received through them.

Missio Assembly

This morning, our Liturgy Leads led us in our Missio assembly where we learned abut the Missio campaign in Cameroon and explored CST in action. Our going forth message that we took away with us was in the words of St Teresa of Calcutta: “Do something beautiful for God.”

Prayer Bag   

So far this term, Sycamore class have shared four beautiful pupil-led prayer services together. They have been thoughtful, reverent services exploring various themes: creation, gratefulness, our school family and Mary, our Mother.

The Holy Rosary 

Our Liturgy Leads led the rosary for us this morning to celebrate Mary, our Mother. We focused on The Joyful Mysteries and prayed a decade of The Rosary together. 

Reconciliation

This week, we were exploring the meaning of reconciliation and its importance in our lives. We made a connection between our learning and the story of Joseph meeting his brothers in Egypt. Then, we created our own artistic representation of our reconciliation feels to us.

Harvest Hamper

Our Harvest Hamper is filling up nicely. We have been collecting donations for our Harvest Hamper and we're incredibly grateful to all of our families for their generosity. OLOL will be delivering all of our hampers to St Chad's Sanctuary and we hope that our donations will go some way to helping those in need.

Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Lots of Sycamore took part in Mrs D's first RE challenge of the year. The creativity and outward sign of faith from taking part in this special task has been lovely to see. We looked at all of the different designs in class and reminded ourselves that, as Christians, we wear a cross or crucifix as a symbol of our faith and a memory of the death of Christ and the early Church martyrs.

Curious and Active

This week, we shared a class assembly where we explored this half term’s Jesuit Virtues: Curious and Active. We discussed what is meant by each virtue and how we will show each virtue in our words, actions and expression of faith.

Classroom Blessing

This afternoon, Deacon Tim visited Sycamore to bless our prayer area, all the pupils and the teacher. Deacon Tim talked to us all about the coming year ahead and asked God to watch over us as we take on the new challenges that Year 4 will bring. 

Our Class Saints: St Philip Neri and St John Henry Newman

We enjoyed learning all about St Philip Neri and St John Henry Newman. Reflecting on St John Henry Newman’s prayer, we thought about what our ‘definite service’ might be and what mission in life God created us for.

New Beginnings 

We held our first whole class collective worship led by our newly appointed liturgy leads; it was a beautiful service of welcome and new beginnings.

Our Mission

We started our new year at OLOL reminding ourselves of our school Mission Statement. We created our own artistic interpretation of the key elements of the statement and explored how this mission will affect our actions and faith this year.