Lourdes Display

After learning about Lourdes and the miracle cures that are believed to happen there our classes made newspaper front pages that told the story of Bernadette's visions at Lourdes. They also recounted the story of Peadar Clarke's miracle cure of M.S.

Pilgrimages- Lourdes

A pilgrimage is a journey  to a  holy place. Catholics go on pilgrimages to places like Lourdes and Knock.

Lourdes is a town in France. In 1858 a young girl called Bernadette was walking in the woods and she saw a vision of the Virgin Mary. Mary told Bernadette to come back 18 more times. One day Mary pointed out a water spring. These days that spring produces 27,000 litres of water a week. On the 16th visit Mary told Bernadette that she was the mother of Jesus. Around 8 million pilgrims visit Lourdes each year. They go there to pray, to touch and kiss the wall of the grotto and  to collect holy water.

We watched a video about Lourdes. The video told of people who go to Lourdes looking for a cure from diseases. One man, called Peadar Clarke, suffered from M.S., he could not use his arms and legs and doctors told him he only had 4 years to live. He went to Lourdes and one night in his hotel room he saw the Virgin Mary, she was smiling at him. He stood up and put his arms out. He was cured of his disease. He really believes that he had a miracle cure at Lourdes.

Here is a link to the video that we watched in class.

Written By St. Coleman's RE class. 

Gandhi's Life- Timeline

To conclude our Faith in Action unit 3rd year classes, St. Marks and St Thereses, learned about the life of Hindu pacifist Gandhi. Both classes made a timeline that showed the key events in the life of Gandhi. St. Thereses illustrated and wrote about Gandhi's early life and his time in London and South Africa. St. Marks took care of the later part of Gandhi's life, covering his return to India, his ashram, the All-India strikes and his assassination. Their work looks great displayed on our wall ! :)

Martin Luther King- I Have a Dream

As part of their continuing 'Faith in Action' unit, third years have been learning about Martin Luther King. King fought tirelessly for basic civil rights for the black community in Deep South USA in the 1960's. On August 28th, 1963, Dr. King gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech to a crowd of 250,000 people in Washington.

In class, we thought about Martin Luther King's dreams for the people of America. We wrote our own speeches focusing on our dreams for our families, our friends and for humanity.

I have a dream that some day my family will have a good, healthy life with enough money to live comfortably and to be treated equally no matter what culture they belong to. I dream they can live a peaceful and happy life together. I have a dream that all my brothers and sisters will do well in school and get a good job later. 

I have a dream that my friends won't get involved in drugs, that they will be healthy and happy, will grow and become mature. I dream that they will have a nice wife or husband and a healthy family of children. 

I have a dream for the world and environment that many of  the rain-forest animals don't become extinct, that a tree is planted for for every tree that's chopped down. I dream that there will be no more war, bombs or violence and people live together in peace.

- Andy Cash (St. Thereses)

The Jewish Patriarchs

Second years (St. Mels and St.Colemans) have been learning about the Jewish patriarchs.  Today we heard about Moses and how God sent 10 terrible plagues to Egypt. We looked at this short YouTube clip to see what a plague of locusts might have looked like devouring crops in Egypt!

We also watched the movie 'The Prince of Egypt', which is based on the story of Moses and the Exodus. It was a really enjoyable film! Watch the trailer by clicking the link below.

Mother Teresa- Putting her Faith into Action

Third year classes (St. Thereses and St. Marks) are currently doing a unit called 'Faith in Action'. Over the last week we have been learning about Mother Teresa and how her Catholic faith called her to work with the "poorest of the poor" in Calcutta. 

Play the video below to see the PowerPoint presentation we used to learn about a great woman's work.

Students retold the story of Mother Teresa's amazing life through words and pictures.

Rinalds hard at work!