THE LITURGICAL YEAR
What is the Liturgical Year?
The liturgical year is a cycle that keeps repeating itself year after year, but, from a spiritual standpoint, it is always new because it continues to draw us more deeply into our relationship with Christ.
Unlike the secular year, which marks the passage of time, the liturgical year celebrates the sacred mysteries of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. It includes the feast of the Ascension, when Jesus returned to heaven with the promise that he would come again, and Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles.
ADVENT IS THE FIRST SEASON
It is a time of waiting for the birth of the Messiah. There are four Sundays in Advent. You’ll notice at Mass that the colors used for vestments and altar cloths during Advent are purple, with pink on the Third Sunday of Advent to symbolize hope. The readings and the music during Advent reflect this spirit of anticipation and longing for the coming of the Lord.
During Advent in school, every class has an Advent wreath which the children learn about and this year we have been following TenTen and listening to a bible story every day. We have then been building up a Jesse tree. Every Bible story in the Jesse Tree has a symbol to go with it to help people focus as they learn about Jesus’ ancestors, while listening to the stories. Each day these symbols are hung on a tree – a Jesse Tree. The tree progressively being decorated throughout Advent mirrors the meaning behind the collection of stories told: that God was preparing the world to meet Jesus for a long, long time!
Christmas
Christmas Eve marks the beginning of the Christmas season in the church, which lasts until the feast of the Baptism of the Lord in January. White or gold are the colours used for vestments and altar cloths. The readings, the music and the decorations in the church project joy and a sense of celebration.
The Nativity
Children in EYFS and Year 2 take part in a nativity that is shared with parents and parishioners. We ensure at St Peter's that the children understand the true meaning of Christmas.
In the lead up to Christmas we ask the children to design and make a crib with their families and the children also take turns taking home the Christmas crib prayer bags.
Ordinary Time
Ordinary time follows the Christmas season. It begins on the Monday after the feast of the Baptism of the Lord and ends when Lent begins. A second period of Ordinary Time follows Pentecost and continues until the beginning of Advent. The color green, a symbol of hope, is used for vestments and altar cloths during Ordinary Time. Throughout Ordinary Time, the story of Jesus’ life and ministry continues to unfold.
Lent
Lent is the time of year when Christians prepare for Easter. It lasts for 40 days and ends 9 days before Easter, on a Friday. During Lent, many Christians fast, or go without regular meals. They do this in memory of Jesus Christ, who is said to have fasted for 40 days in the desert.
Stations of the Cross
Every Lent, during Holy Week, we have a Stations of the Cross liturgy. Each class creates a piece of art work linked to one of the Stations of the Cross and then the whole school present their work. It is a time to reflect on the sacrifice that Jesus made to save us from our sins.
Easter
Easter is the greatest celebration in the Catholic Church because it is the completion of the Holy week that ends with the resurrection of Jesus. Easter celebrates the beginning and foundation of Christianity. Jesus was raised from the dead, and it goes to show that He conquered sin and death.Children were taking part in an Easter story role play this afternoon.
The children were asked to design and make an Easter garden. There were so many gardens to look at and the standard of work was amazing. It was so lovely to see so much creativity and collaboration with the making of the gardens.
Well done everyone!
During Holy Week, each class went outside and prayed the stations of the cross. We arranged the stations around the school field and we put the twelfth station on the top of our hill to represent Calvary. Each class said prayers at each stations. Everyone was extremely respectful and reverent. The children really enjoyed the experience and asked some very deep questions.
Click on the link below to listen to Bishop John's message for us during Lent.
The link below gives you lots of resources and prayers to help you during this lockdown to get the most out of Lent.
Thank-you to some of our pupils for creating these lovely crosses of hope which is especially relevant at this current time.
Well done to all the children who took part and made an Easter garden at home. It was very difficult this year as they had to be very creative in what they used. They had to use what they had at home. They all did a great job and I liked the way some of them worked with their brothers and sisters.
I could not choose a winner so all these children will get a prize when we get back to school.
Well done to Adam, Oliver, Nevaeh, Sophie and Katie, Martha, Lexi, Harry and Alfie, Lucy, Oliver and Olive.
Easter is going to be very different for us all this year but below are some links and activities for you to look at over Holy Week. I have attached a cross of hope ppt and activity. It would be lovely if as many of you as possible could create a cross and email me photos of them which we could share on this site. Email is on the home page.
Our Year of the Word 2019 /2020
The God who speaks.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales have designated 2020 as ‘The God Who Speaks’: A Year of the Word to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Verbum Domini – Pope Benedict XVI’s Apostolic Exhortation on ‘The Word of the Lord’, and the 1600th anniversary of death of St Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin.
At St Peter's we have dedicated this year to be ‘Our Year of the Word’. Throughout the year we shall be seeking opportunities to celebrate, live and share God’s word with our children, our parish and our school community. We are all invited to listen afresh to the word of God, to encounter anew the presence of that word, and to proclaim it afresh in the Church and the World.
There is also a website dedicated to ‘The God Who Speaks – A Year of the Word’ which can be found using this link – http://www.cbcew.org.uk/home/events/the-god-who-speaks/
Sacred Scripture, the Bible, the word of God, the Holy Book is at the heart of everything the Church says and does. It is permeates our prayer and worship, how we understand the world, how we are called to live and how we relate to each another
World Book Day
To celebrate the Year of the Word, on world book day, we came to school as bible characters. We were very creative with our costumes and spent the day learning some bible stories.
