During the Year of Faith in the Catholic Church many opportunities were created to celebrate our faith worldwide. The four CAtholic schools in Argyll and Bute – St. Andrew’s Rothesay, St Columba’s, Oban, St. Mun’s Dunoon and St. Joseph’s Helensburgh – collaborated on a project to create the Argyll and Bute children’s Year of Faith prayer:
As Catholic children of Argyll and Bute,
We believe in one God, one Lord Jesus Christ, one Holy Spirit and one holy, Catholic and apostolic church.
We ask that God may open our hearts and minds to His call,
Shine His light down on us and help us to be the best we can be.
We ask Him to allow our hearts and minds to be open to His gift of faith so as to help others to be open.
We ask that we keep our hearts and minds open to the Word of the Lord always.
We thank the Lord for helping us to pray.
In the Rosary, through Mary, He helps us to understand her son’s love for us.
He teaches us about what Jesus did for us: Jesus came to be with us and walked with us all the way,
He died and rose again and gave us a share in his life for ever.
We also thank the Holy Spirit because although we cannot see Him, we know that He is always there to guide us.
May He inspire Pope Francis to lead us on our journey of faith and give us the strength to live as true followers of Jesus.
In this Year of Faith, the children of St. Andrew’s, St. Columba’s, St. Mun’s and St. Joseph’s pray for and with each other. We ask that our bond is strengthened as we walk the path of faith together.
Each school filmed a P4 child in their school reciting their section of the prayer and a culmination of the work was put together in video form by one of the parents of St. Joseph’s School in Helensburgh. (This can be seen, using the YouTube link.)
To complete the celebrations, His Grace, the Most Reverend Philip Tartaglia, Archbishop of Glasgow will say Mass at St Joseph’s school on Friday 1 November to which all Head Teachers of the aforementioned schools will be invited along with two children representatives from their respective schools. At this Mass the prayer will be recited by all the children from all four schools together.
The project has resulted in a strengthening of the bonds between the schools, setting a pathway clear for future faith development work together.