2024 has been designated a Year of Prayer by Pope Francis. He asks us all to join in a great “symphony” of prayer, “to renew our desire to be in the presence of the Lord, to listen to him and to adore him."

At St Swithun Wells, we have been working on the Our Father prayer.  The SSW Pupil Chaplaincy team created a prayer tree, asking pupils to write their own prayers based on the ‘Our Father’.  They invited parents into school and planned and delivered their own reflection based on the scripture story in Matthew’s gospel, of the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ where Jesus taught us this very special prayer.

Pupils created their own ‘Our Father artworks’ to celebrate this wonderful prayer.  Some pupils chose to write the prayer in their home language.

The younger children were asked to record themselves praying the ‘Our Father’ and some chose to say this in their home language.

Following this Year of Prayer, we will celebrate the Jubilee year as ‘Pilgrims of Hope’. Pope Francis will be opening the Holy Door in Rome and will invite all Catholics to be pilgrims, and pass over the threshold.  To mark this occasion, as a school, we will be attending Westminster Cathedral and Sacred Heart Church, were their holy doors will be opened and we are invited to be like pilgrims and walk through these.