De La Salle St Helens Advent Service

St Margaret Ward Catholic Academy have reminded us of the real meaning of Christmas with this wonderful poem.

December has been filled with Christmas Cheer, kindness, creativity, and charity at St John’s College, Southsea.

Head of Middle School, Mrs Mawson, organised the Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child shoebox appeal, and parents and pupils donated enough gifts to fill 70 boxes, bringing joy to children around the world who otherwise wouldn’t have received any gifts this year.

The Christmas Card Competition was a great success, with three winning designs chosen for the SJC Christmas Cards. Thomas in year 4, Bethan in year 8, and Sanjitha had their beautiful designs printed with packs available to purchase. All proceeds are going to Portsmouth Mind charity, helping those in Portsmouth who struggle with their mental health.

Christmas Jumper Day on the last day of term saw some brilliant outfits, with pupils donating to Save the Children.

It was a week of creativity during the last week of term, with Middle School decorating their own Christmas wreaths, creating tags using lino print, and making card stands out of colourful acrylic.

Lasallians throughout the District are invited to attend a number of events this week to celebrate Christmas.

 

Christmas Prayer Service

The IGBM District Christmas Prayer Service will take place on Thursday December 17th at 5pm (GMT) and 6pm (Malta).

All are invited to attend this event and can do so using the following Zoom link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83593623120?pwd=aktNU0RDNzVFeU9tM3Q1MlBMcVZkUT09

Meeting ID: 835 9362 3120. Passcode: 991095

Participants are requested to join the meeting between 4.45pm and 4.55pm (GMT) as the room will be locked after Prayer Service begins at 5pm.

 

Christmas Carol Service

  You are invited to virtually  attend the Christmas Carol Service from St Joseph’s College, Beulah Hill on Wednesday December 16th at 7pm and can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UMSnqyCIP4. After it is released, you can watch it at any time.

If you enjoyed taking part in their Remembrance Day Service; then you will love this.

With many parishes are not able to offer their usual carol service this year, the organisers would be delighted for you to share this with your loved ones/ community.

 

The Miracle of Christmas

On Wednesday December 16th, the Young Lasallians network through the Indivisa Manent (IM) global online community will launch an original Christmas song and a music video — the Miracle of Christmas. This will be part of a prayer-reflection experience to be broadcasted live on Facebook & Youtube via the La Salle Worldwide channels.

The song and music video we are producing aims to feature the different members of the Lasallian family celebrating Christmas. Stella Maris and DLS College Malta students have a performance during the event of Silent Night.

The event will start at 2.30pm (GMT) and 3.30pm (Malta).

As part of the celebrations for Advent and the Christmas Season Heather Ruple and Br Paco Chiva, Co-Secretaries of Lasallian Association for the Institute, invited Joanne Millea to reflect on her experience of being part of the Lasallian Family, through art and words.

Given the challenges of 2020, Joanne, an artist and committed Lasallian Partner from De La Salle School, St Helens, created a piece which was appropriately entitled ‘Hope’ and has also written about her own positive experience as of Lasallian Association for Mission.

Click hereto see the piece created by Joanne and to read her own personal story.

De La Salle Dundalk Transition Years (L-R) Davies Ojo, Ryan McEneaney, Eoin Maguire, Mark Litchfield and John Hodgers who officially lit the Christmas Tree lights in the school.

This year, the senior school at De La Salle College Malta decorated one of the big trees on its grounds. Each bauble was brought to school by a student or a staff member, and has their name written on it. This symbolises the coming together as a Lasallian family, even in such difficult and trying times.

On Wednesday December 16th, the Young Lasallians network through the Indivisa Manent (IM) global online community will launch an original Christmas song and a music video — the Miracle of Christmas. This will be part of a prayer-reflection experience to be broadcasted live on Facebook & Youtube via the La Salle Worldwide channels.

The song and music video we are producing aims to feature the different members of the Lasallian family celebrating Christmas. Stella Maris and DLS College Malta students have a performance during the event of Silent Night. 

The event will start at 2.30pm (GMT) and 3.30pm (Malta).

The Young Lasallian Council will be gathering together online, December 14th 2020.

 We will be welcoming three new members to our team:

• Jason Poole (Beneavin De La Salle College: Dublin, Ireland)  
• Theo Arthur (St Joseph's College: Beulah Hill, London)
• Isobelle Cording (St Cassian's Residential Centre: Kintbury, UK)

During our meeting, we will be planning our Student Leadership training and resources, as well as evaluating the most recent International Lasallian Days for Peace resource that the council launched in September 2020.

St John’s House, St Helens  

For all readers of these monthly notes the Covid-19 pandemic will have been a very significant feature during the past months. Here in St Helens the month of November brought a very different level of experience to our House and Community, as two staff members and three Brothers tested positive for the virus. The Brothers are required to remain in isolation until December 6th.

Early in the month most Brothers of the Community took part in a Zoom meeting with General Councillor, Brother Aidan Kilty and Brother Nestor, Institute Mission Secretary. Our aim was to gain a Rome perspective on the document recently circulated ‘Declaration on the Lasallian Educational Mission’. It was a very worthwhile meeting.

 As this is the last issue before Christmas we wish readers a very happy Christmas. Stay safe.

Drumcondra Community, Dublin

Back in 1859, Charles Dickens wrote in the opening lines of “A Tale of Two Cities”  ' It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…’ And, for all of us, it was the age of Covid-19 and the challenges we were presented with. Thankfully, all three of us have remained Covid-free and hope to remain so going forward.

During the initial lockdown back in the springtime we fended very much for ourselves - we took responsibility for the cleaning of the house and our own cooking. As things improved, our ancillary staff returned - and that was a welcome development.

Generally, Covid-time has been a bit of a mixed blessing. On the difficult side, it was painful not to be able to attend funerals of our Brothers and  family members. It was also difficult not to be able to attend family functions - and, in some cases, these family events were simply postponed into 2021 when it’s hoped that we’ll all be in a better and safer space. On the positive side, we were very fortunate to have Fr Michael celebrate daily Mass for us - a privilege denied to most communities during the time of pandemic.

We have enjoyed having guests stay with us here in Drumcondra over the past few years - but since Covid has visited our shores, our visitors have stayed away. Brother Nestor Anaya from the Motherhouse in Rome spent a month here during the summer improving his English and Brother Ronald Cheyewa spent some time with us before his return to Kenya. We were delighted that Brothers William Rafferty and Finbarr Murphy opted to spend some time here when the Covid numbers dropped during the summer. Even George and John from St John’s spent a couple of nights with us: they wanted to sample life on the north side of the Liffey. It was a lovely experience simply to hear a different voice in the house.

During the past six weeks or so, Johnny has not been to St John’s Education Centre in Glasnevin during school time. He has missed the social interaction that goes with the work there, but has kept in touch with the occasional Zoom meeting.

What would we have done without the Zoom platform during Covid-time? It has been a wonderful means of linking people together - safely - during a time when we were told to keep apart from each other in order to keep each other safe.

Back in April, Mark Manson gave the following four pieces of advice about dealing with Covid-19: (i) From Today Until This is Over, You Have a New God, and His Name is ‘Routine’ (ii) Build and Repair Relationships; you have no excuse now; (iii) Focus on the Basics of Health and Wellness; (iv) Remember: You Are Not Alone. Good advice, and it became a kind of reference point for us to stay physically and mentally strong during the past nine months or so.

We were delighted to be able to ‘host’ the online District Retreat back in October while Kevin continues his work with men’s spirituality through his work with MALE’s Ireland ( check the website here ). The weekly online meetings proved very helpful to men when physical face-to-face meetings were not an option while the Mid-November online weekend workshop “Alone Am I Among People - Aonar Domsa Idir Dhaoine" proved particularly supportive - especially for men living in isolation.

So we continue to live a life as ’normal’ as possible as we look forward to the festive season and joining our nearest community on Howth Road for dinner on Christmas Day. We wish all our Brothers at home and abroad and all our partners and their families a very happy and peaceful Christmas.

BK