\u2018Christ the Lord has promised us the Holy Spirit: come, let us adore him, alleluia.\u2019 (Invitatory antiphon).<\/p>\n
\u2018Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!\u2019 (Anne Frank).<\/p>\n
A prayer journal might be an opportunity for a person to write their story of life. In deepening a person\u2019s relationship with Jesus, one might record happy and sad moments, doubts and certainties, events, feelings, relationships, times when Jesus was close or absent from one\u2019s life. Sometimes Jesus\u2019 presence is tangible, other times not so. The gentle voice of God might be audible in calling a person by name or God\u2019s voice maybe heard as offering consolation, peace or a word of challenge to discipleship.<\/p>\n
As Scripture says, \u2018For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.\u2019 (Hebrews 4:12).<\/p>\n
On writing the prayer journal the writer might experience a hint of how the Gospel ends today, \u2018If all were written down, I think the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.\u2019<\/p>\n
Today at Mass, the end of the Gospel according to St John is proclaimed (Jn 21: 20-25). This may be heard via the webcam or in the New Testament.<\/p>\n
The dialogue continues between Jesus and Peter. Jesus last words in the Gospel are spoken to Peter. He says, \u2018Follow me\u2019. Being a follower meant believing in the person of Jesus to the point of wholly loving him all the days of one\u2019s life and giving up everything for him alone. In T.S. Eliot\u2019 words; \u2018costing not less than everything.\u2019\u00a0 The Scripture tells us that Peter looks back, sees John, the Beloved disciple following Jesus and Peter talks to Jesus about him. Jesus doesn\u2019t engage with Peter\u2019s question at that point. He says to Peter, \u2018Follow me.\u2019 John was the last of the witnesses to Christ. Finally, we hear that \u2018Jesus did many other things.\u2019 Jesus continues to work today through his disciples. God is always present and creating anew.<\/p>\n
SEEK THE LINK IN THE GROW IN LOVE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION PROGRAMME<\/p>\n
As children work through the Catholic PreSchool and Primary Religious Education Curriculum for Ireland, in the Grow in Love Religious Education programme, they are helped to understand that God loves them unconditionally. It is not the child\u2019s love for God that is important but their understanding of God\u2019s unique, personal and unconditional love for him\/her. Children appreciate this love firstly, through the love of family and friends and subsequently they grow in God\u2019s love by keeping close to God and Jesus.<\/p>\n
The dialogue between Jesus and Peter in the Gospel (John 21: 1-25) models the dialogue that Jesus desires with his disciples. Jesus was eating breakfast with his friends and afterwards he spoke to Peter. He asked Peter, \u2018Do you love me?\u2019 On hearing Sacred Scripture, children encounter Jesus in dialogue with his followers. In prayer, these chats become very much part of children\u2019s\u2019 own reflection. Children are invited to listen and to chat to Jesus and God in their own words as they take a moment in prayer. They learn to listen and to ask God for their needs. In prayer, a child grows in trust and love of God. Jesus speaks directly and simply.<\/p>\n
Children hear Jesus saying to Peter \u2018Follow me.\u2019 They recognise the call of Jesus to follow him as an invitation to become a disciple. They explore the freedom they have to respond to the call.<\/p>\n
Children from Junior Infants\/P1 upwards participate in recording activities and writing prayers at age and ability appropriate levels. In Fifth Class\/P7 and Sixth Class, children engage in \u2018JOURNAL EXERCISES\u2019. Thoughts, prayers and reflections from their pondering on the \u2018BIG QUESTION\u2019 might be a subject of invitation for their journaling. Other entries to the journal may be from their engagement with \u2018Lectio Divina\u2019 (Sacred Reading) or \u2018Visio Divina\u2019 (Sacred Seeing) as introduced in Fourth Class\/P6. Journal activities may take the form of a diary, doodling or drawing in their journal. The important fact about the prayer journal is that it gives each child a unique and blessed space, to express thoughts and feelings and to record anything the Lord might bring to mind in prayer.<\/p>\n
There are many journal activities in the Grow in Love e-books accessible on the VERITAS website:<\/p>\n
Logon: www.veritas.ie<\/p>\n
Email: trial@growinlove.ie<\/p>\n
Password: growinlove<\/p>\n
INVITATION TO:<\/p>\n
READ IN Grow in Love\/I nGr\u00e1 D\u00e9 or in the Bible<\/p>\n
Mt 18: 21-35, Jn 14:6-12, Jn 2:1-10,<\/p>\n
Mt 26:20-30, Jn 21:1-14, Jn 8:1-11,Lk 15, 11-32.<\/p>\n
SING with Grow in Love\/I nGr\u00e1 D\u00e9<\/p>\n
\u2018The Summons\u2019, \u2018Tar Anuas, a Spioraid Naoimh\u2019, \u2019Spirit-Filled Day\u2019, \u2018Welcome Holy Spirit\u2019, \u2018Welcome\u2019, \u2019Send Forth Your Spirit\u2019.<\/p>\n
PRAY with Grow in Love\/I nGr\u00e1 D\u00e9<\/p>\n
PRAYER TO THE HOLY SPIRIT<\/p>\n
Holy Spirit, I want to do what is right. Help me.<\/p>\n
Holy Spirt, I want to live like Jesus.<\/p>\n
Guide me.<\/p>\n
Holy Spirit, I want to pray like Jesus.<\/p>\n
Teach me.<\/p>\n
PAIDIR CHUIG AN SPIORAD NAOMH<\/p>\n
A Spioraid Naoimh, ba mhaith liom an rud ceart a dh\u00e9anamh.<\/p>\n
Cabhraigh liom.<\/p>\n
A Spioraid Naoimh, ba mhaith liom maireacht\u00e1il mar a mhair \u00cdosa.<\/p>\n
Treoraigh m\u00e9.<\/p>\n
A Spioraid Naoimh, ba mhaith liom<\/p>\n
gu\u00ed mar a ghuigh \u00cdosa. M\u00fain dom \u00e9.<\/p>\n
ACT OF LOVE<\/p>\n
O my God,<\/p>\n
I love you with all my heart,<\/p>\n
with all my soul, and with all my strength.<\/p>\n
Lord, increase our love.<\/p>\n
Help us to love one another. Amen.<\/p>\n
\u2018Behold, I am with you all days, even till the end of the world.\u2019 (Benedictus antiphon).<\/p>\n
\u2018Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of your love; though the peoples spoke different tongues you united them in proclaiming the same faith, alleluia.\u2019 (Magnificat antiphon).<\/p>\n
\u2018For the Lord is righteous; he loves justice. The upright will see his face.\u2019 (Psalm 10:7)<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2026now we shall try to outline the major paths of dialogue which can help us escape the spiral of self-destruction which currently engulfs us.\u2019\u00a0 (Laudato Si\u2019, no. 163).<\/p>\n
Sr Anne Neylon<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2018Christ the Lord has promised us the Holy Spirit: come, let us adore him, alleluia.\u2019 (Invitatory antiphon). \u2018Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!\u2019 (Anne […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.growinlove.ie\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.growinlove.ie\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.growinlove.ie\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.growinlove.ie\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.growinlove.ie\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.growinlove.ie\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.growinlove.ie\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.growinlove.ie\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.growinlove.ie\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}