Understanding is the ability to comprehend and interpret information. It is
essential for building relationships, for empathising with others and for
making good decisions. In the Catholic faith, we are called to be
understanding of others and to be compassionate towards them, even
when we disagree with them.
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.
This week our scripture is from the Book of Proverbs – a collection of teachings and guidance on how to live our lives.
A reading from the book of Proverbs
My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints.
The Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God.
This scripture inspires us to think of the many gifts that God has given us. We are also reminded of what God calls us to do, just as he called the saints before us.
Take some time in silence to read the scripture individually again, reflecting on which lines and phrases stood out the most to you. Do you understand why those parts are most significant to you?
Choose a phrase to focus on today and pause throughout the day during different moments and activities to see how that phrase affects your understanding of what is going on around you.
We ask God to be with us in all of our day as we make the sign of the cross,
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
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.
Yesterday we heard the following line in our scripture:
‘inclining your heart to understanding‘
Proverbs 2:2 ESVUK
Today we are going to try opening our hearts to one another and to try to be more understanding of one another.
Get into pairs and take it in turns to sit and to listen to the other person. It is an opportunity to truly understand where they are coming from.
Unlike a normal conversation when we might interrupt or take it in turns to speak, give each person a full two minutes to talk. They can talk about a topic of their choice or use some of the ideas below.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
What is your biggest motivation in life?
If you were in charge of the country for a week what would you do to make it a better place?
What are the top 3 things that make you the person you are today?
If you won a million pounds, what would you do?
Name 5 things you are thankful for.
At the end of the two minutes the person listening should try to reflect back what they have heard and what they have come to understand about the person they have listened to. Summarise what the person told you and what you understand about them. Both take a turn listening and then sharing back with the person, what you have understood about them and their perspective.
Truly listening and inclining our hearts to understanding can be really challenging – we might want to join in with our own opinion or comments, we might want to challenge the speaker or we simply may not agree with what someone is saying – but listening to others can be a great way to understand someone’s perspective.
Even if we do not agree on someone’s perspective, we can still grow in respect for them as a person when we dignify them by listening to their view.
Let us pray,
God our Father,
You listen to your children and nurture our understanding.
Help us to open our ears and to incline our hearts to understanding, so we may respect all people by living in peace with one another.
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
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 scripture describes the Lord as watching over the way of his saints so today we are going to think about the lives of holy men and women and how we might be inspired by them.
We are going to play charades! This game brings focus to our understanding and helps us to practise our interpretation of others – it often calls upon us to be compassionate to others too!!
Focusing on the lives of Saints / Bible characters / bible stories, try to get through as many as possible – post who you guessed correctly in the comments box below!
Let us pray,
Creator God,
Help us to understand the actions of others and to be inspired by the lives of the Saints so we too may walk in their footsteps as faithful and loving servants.
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.
What stood out to us were the lines ‘for the lord gives wisdom’ because it says that if follow God then we would receive some of his wisdom