Week 2 – Encounter 9/9/24

To encounter Christ is to have a personal experience of God’s love and presence. It can happen in any place or time, and it can take many different forms. We often encounter Christ when we feel loved and cared for and we too can help others to encounter when we share His love with others. An encounter with Christ can be a life-changing experience that can give us strength, hope, and peace.

The Church is currently marking the Season of Creation. Every day we encounter God in the world He created. Pope Francis has called us to remember that ‘Everything is connected’ and that when we are good stewards of creation, and restore the dignity of the people that we meet, we are encountering God.

We invite everyone in our school community to lead parts of our prayer throughout the week and staff are encouraged to award achievements points for this!

Day 1 – Head

On the first day of our prayer we will be reflecting on The Word of God to help us to understand our theme.

We begin our prayer this morning with the Sign of the Cross. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Today we are going to hear some of the Gospel from Sunday’s Mass. This Sunday was Education Sunday where we prayed for children, students and staff who have just begun a new school year.

This reading comes from Mark’s Gospel – how does it help us to think about our theme of encounter?

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark

Glory to you, O Lord.

Returning from the district of Tyre, Jesus went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, right through the Decapolis region. And they brought him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they asked him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, put his fingers into the man’s ears and touched his tongue with spittle. Then looking up to heaven he sighed; and he said to him, ‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened.’ And his ears were opened, and the ligament of his tongue was loosened and he spoke clearly. And Jesus ordered them to tell no one about it, but the more he insisted, the more widely they published it. Their admiration was unbounded. ‘He has done all things well,’ they said ‘he makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak.’

The Gospel of the Lord

Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.

Talk to the person next to you – how does that scripture link to our theme of encounter?

Jesus says just one word – ‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened.’ – and it is powerful enough to completely change the man’s life.

The man was open to hope, open to the power that Jesus could have in his life and he was transformed.

When people heard about what Jesus had done they couldn’t stop talking about it because they were so overwhelmed that ‘He has done all things well,’.

We have the opportunity in this new school year to be open. We can be open to hope, be open to new experiences, open to new people and open to gratitude.

Regardless of our grades we want to be able to look back at our time at Trinity School and think that we have done all things well.

Before we pray our school prayer today, let us think about how we can be open and how our lives will be a witness to this Gospel passage in the year ahead.

We end our prayer with the Sign of the Cross. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

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Day 2 – Heart

On the second day of the week we focus on our hearts. How can the scripture that we looked at yesterday impact our lives, and the lives of others? What themes can we draw from the scripture?

We begin our prayer with the Sign of the Cross. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

This week’s scripture calls us to be open to encounters. When we remember that ‘Everything is connected’ we are praising God simply by smiling, by apologising when we’ve done something wrong and by caring for others.

During this Season of Creation we are called to think about how we encounter God in the world He created. How often do we take time to be open to what God may be saying to us through creation?

‘I spy God…’

Take some time to pause and reflect today on where you might encounter God in the world around you.

Click through the gallery of photos below and discuss as a Form where you see God.

As we pray the Glory Be prayer together, let us pray that we can be more open to seeing the glory of God in creation so that we may encounter Him at all times:

Glory Be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen

We end our prayer with the Sign of the Cross. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

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Day 3 – Hands

On the final day of the week we try to put into action the things we have learnt and reflected on previously in the week, hence the hands link!

We begin our prayer with the Sign of the Cross. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

This week’s Gospel has inspired us to be open. We can be more aware of the presence of God in our lives and we can also be more open to the face of Christ in those that we meet in our daily lives.

The season of creation is an annual ecumenical (meaning it unites all Christian churches) celebration, uniting Christians in prayer and action for the protection of our common home. During this season we are encouraged to pray and engage in community events in order to deepen our relationship with our God, our neighbour and the earth we share, being ever more attentive to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.

To celebrate this week’s Gospel, our theme of encounter and the ecumenical season we are going to reach out to other members of our Trinity School community.

Starting with the people in your Form, introduce yourself to an individual and find something that the two of you share in common – it could be something that you both did over the summer, a way that you’re both trying to take care of the planet or even an extra-curricular activity that you are going to try this school year!

Try to continue this openness to encounter throughout the day with other members of the school community.

Let us pray,

Creator God,

You formed us in your own image and gave us the gift of creation.

Help us to always respect the dignity of all persons and to cherish the incredible world that you have created.

We make this prayer through Christ, Your Son, our Lord,

Amen.

We end our prayer with the Sign of the Cross. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.