On Wednesday 29th November 32 young people from the Seekers youth group came with us to Energi Trampoline Park. This group have huge amounts of energy to burn off so this was the ideal place for them! I was very impressed by the skills that many of them had – including even a backward somersault landed perfectly by one of them! I have lots of very blurred photos from trying to capture their fun as they moved way too quickly for my skills…However here are a few that came out okay. It was a great evening with lots of very hot and tired young people at the end!

Sunday 26th November was the Feast of Christ the Universal King and each year the Church in England and Wales asks us to celebrate National Youth Sunday on this great feast. So we gathered the young people who attend our groups together at St Clare’s and spent a few hours with around 50 young people exploring the theme of Christ the King and preparing for Mass. Then we joined the Parish for the evening Mass during which the young people provided the music, readings, bidding prayers including a sung response with sign language, and a dance with flags to the entrance hymn. They also made a banner which was displayed in the church.

After Mass the younger ones went home and we were left with around 30 teenagers for an evening meal to which we had invited the local Clergy. The theme for Youth Sunday this year was ‘Something to Say’. With the Synod approaching that will focus on Young People and Vocation the idea was to start (or continue) the conversation between young people and Priests. We had a yummy three course meal with each course accompanied by some conversation starters which started casually but grew in depth to encourage honest sharing. Judging by the questions that Fr Andrew was having to field, I think that was definitely successful! All the young people and the local clergy who attended found the experience rewarding and enjoyable and there were definitely bridges built.

Josna said: ‘Youth Sunday was a really good day to spend time together while worshiping God. I really enjoyed singing with others and praising the Lord. I also enjoyed talking to other priests and getting their insight on our faith’

On Wednesday 29th November we worked with around 60 Year 6s from several of the smaller Primary Schools around Preston. The smallest school only had 3 members of Year 6! St Andrew’s Parish, Cottam hosted us all for the day.

We explored the Advent theme of staying awake with a particular focus on prayer. We started the day by joining the Parish for their morning Mass and for the rest of the morning we played games that helped us think about communicating with God, listened to the Word of God in the Bible and made posters to share what our small group’s Scripture passage taught us about God and who we are in His sight. After a packed lunch and a run around outside we split the group in half and experienced two other ways of praying. One group came into church with Ruth to think about using our bodies to worship the Lord. We thought about different ways we use our bodies in the Liturgy, different postures we might use for prayer and sang some worship songs using our bodies to accompany the words we were singing. The other group stayed in the Hall with Joe to focus on using our minds in prayer. After learning about St Ignatius and his encouragement to use our imaginations and all of our senses in prayer, we were led in a guided mediation based on the Nativity story. Once the groups had swapped around and experienced both ways of praying we rounded off the day by hearing from the young people what they had learned, what had touched them and what they would be taking away from the day. It is always a pleasure to work with the Small Schools Cluster, to see the young people interacting together and of course even better to hear how they have encountered God through the day.

On Wednesday 22nd November we spent the day with Year 10 at Corpus Christi High School. The whole school had an extended learning day and the focus for Year 10 was Faith and Justice with a theme of ‘Called’. We led a workshop ‘Called to Relationship’ in which we set up eight interactive prayer stations each with a different aspect of God’s character for the young people to engage with. Each form group then came in turn around the different workshops and the response from the young people was great with many being able to share something that had touched them during the session. We ended the day with the year group coming together to celebrate Mass and we led the music for the liturgy.

When Rise Theatre came to town, we made sure that all our young people had the opportunity to watch the play too. Here is what one of them, Ben, had to say about it…

A few weeks ago I went to a play performed by Rise Theatre on the life of Oscar Romero. After enjoying a slice of pizza and a drink we entered St Wilfrid’s church and sat down for the play to begin. Throughout the whole play I was captivated. I didn’t know three actors could put on such an amazing performance. The life of Oscar Romero was hard for him yet he brought out the best of everyone and would never give up – I can certainly see why he is becoming a Saint. And the best thing is, I got so much out of the experience. It has affected my life drastically and I now feel my faith is stronger with God and my actions are influenced by Him. That night was one of the best of my life!