At St Mary’s, we believe that children should be at the heart of our prayer life. Our Friends in Faith play a special role in helping to nurture the faith of our school community. Jesus’ words, “Let the little children come to me…” (Matthew 19:14), underpins the significance we place on the involvement of our young people in the spiritual development of our pupils.
Friends in Faith are pupils who either volunteer or are selected to take an active role in the prayer and liturgical life of the school. They exemplify our mission, “Love, Listen and Learn” and assist their peers in growing closer to God through various forms of prayer, reflection, and worship. The responsibilities of Friends in Faith encompass several key activities. They help to prepare and lead daily classroom prayer and collective worship, set up and maintain prayer tables and sacred spaces. Moreover, they encourage their fellow students to engage in prayer and reflection.
The importance of the Friends in Faith cannot be overstated. They serve as a reminder that everyone, regardless of age, has a role to play within the life of the Church. In a school that welcomes children from diverse backgrounds and faiths, we celebrate this diversity while respecting each individual's unique manner of prayer and contemplation. Friends in Faith create opportunities for the entire school community to pause, express gratitude, and recognise the presence of God in daily life.
Being a Friend in Faith fosters personal growth. Pupils in this role develop confidence and a sense of responsibility, deepen their understanding of their faith, and cultivate qualities such as compassion, kindness, and respect. They encourage their peers to live out Gospel values each day, thereby contributing positively to the spiritual nature of St Mary’s.
During the month of October, our Friends in Faith met together to learn, pray and teach each other the Rosary. The older Friends of Faith became a buddy with a younger Friend of Faith to help them to Pray the Rosary:
In our first session we met together and prayed a decade of the Rosary. Older children were paired with younger children to support them with this which was lovely to see. We then spoke about what it meant to be a Prayer Leader and the importance of this role in our school. We then made pledges to demonstrate our commitment to this role and what it means to us.
In the second session the older children used their knowledge and understanding of the Rosary and shared what they knew with the younger children. Together we prayed a decade of the Rosary as it was the month of October which is dedicated to Our Lady. After school we met with families and other members of our community to pray a decade of the Rosary together and some of our Prayer Leaders led us in this which was a lovely opportunity for them to take ownership over prayer.
In our next session we focused on the Gospel Value of Kindness. We explored the Parable of the Good Samaritan and made links with our own lives today. We though about some key questions: How can we show kindness in our school? How can we show kindness at home? How can we show kindness within our community? Following the discussion together the prayer leaders decided on the following mission: Ask your classmates to look out for acts of kindness. The older children supported the younger children in identifying acts of kindness and the prayer leaders were tasked with handing out certificates for children who had been identified.
The session which followed explored the Gospel Value of Love. The group explored scripture looking carefully at St Paul’s Letter to the Colossians (13:4-7). As this session fell on the last day of anti-bullying week the children thought it would be a nice idea to write pledges with their own individual classes which demonstrate our stand against bullying at St Mary’s and our commitment to demonstrating the Gospel Value Love.
In the next session the group focused on the theme of Friendship. Using scripture (Samuel 18: 1-4) to inform our discussion, the children thought carefully about the importance of friendship and what it really means in Luke 6:31 ‘Do to others as you would have them do to you.’ The children were able to work with each other to think about what they believed it meant to be a good friend and were tasked with the mission of going back to their classes and spreading the word about what it meant to be a good friend.
Justice (truth and honesty) was the theme for the next session. The group explored Matthew’s Gospel and looked carefully at The Beatitudes. Verse 6, ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled,’ really stood out to the group and an interesting discussion was had about literal and spiritual meanings for words. The children decided that their mission for this week would be to go back to class and ass a rule to their class rules what would encourage people to be trustworthy and honest even when it may seem difficult.
Our next meeting centered around the theme of bringing peace by finding it within ourselves to forgive. The children explored Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness as identified in Matthew 18: 21-35, The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant. The children shared times when they had found it a challenge to forgive and steps they could have taken to make this easier; they also spoke about the benefits of forgiving others and how it brings peace. The children then worked in groups of 2 or 3 to write their own prayers for peace and went back to class with a mission for classes to consider writing their own individual prayers for peace.
During the week of the Third Sunday of Lent the children explored the story of Moses and his people who were super thirsty in the desert, God told Moses to strike the rock and when he did, out poured fresh water. The children explored together how sometimes life feels hard like a big, heavy rock, but Jesus offers us ‘living water’- his love, peace and hope- right in the middle of our hard times. The children were then tasked to think about when in their day or week they had found ‘sips’ of hope and how they could share their water with others too.
In our most recent session we explored the idea of ‘hope’ using the Easter story and the events of the Resurrection. The children considered how hope can be a very powerful emotion and can keep people strong during very difficult times. They thought about their first week back at school in this summer term and thought carefully about where they had identified ‘hope-givers’ in our school who they believed should be identified.
