RE at St Thomas More School

An Advent Calendar is a popular way of counting down the days to Christmas. Nowadays, many Advent Calendars are filled with chocolate, and are decorated with popular cartoon characters, but traditionally they have a picture of a nativity scene, and each window opens to reveal a small image that has something to do with the story of the first Christmas.

Here is a link to the Woodlands Junior School’s Advent Calendar. By visiting this calendar each day, you will learn more about Christmas around the world.

There is also an interactive Advent Calendar aimed at younger pupils – perhaps you have a younger brother or sister who would enjoy playing the games on this calendar?

Finally, you could visit the Culham Institute’s 2007 Advent Calendar (I can’t seem to find a 2008 one yet – perhaps someone could help me out?) When you click on the day, you find out more about St Nicholas, as well as revealing part of an icon of that saint. There is then a link to an Advent activity.

You can find many more Advent resources on the REEP Advent Resources page.

An historical Advent calendar can be found at the Geffrye Museum.

Have fun – and happy Advent!

(The photo above was taken from the Calendars for Christmas website.)

Although we will celebrate our Feast Day this Friday, today is the anniversary of the day in 1535 that St Thomas More was executed for refusing to accept Henry VIII as the head of the Church of England.

To mark the start of the Year of St Paul, I have made this wordle of 1 Thessalonians, which scholars believe was the first letter written by Paul, and therefore the earliest writing in the New Testament, dating from around 50 AD – ie about twenty years after the death of Jesus. Look at it carefully – the size of the words shows you how often Paul used them in his letter. What were the main topics of St Paul’s letter to the people living in Thessalonica, according to this analysis of the words in the letter?

The Year of St Paul – Secondary Video from Catholic Westminster on Vimeo.

This Sunday, the Feast Day of St Peter and St Paul, is the start of the Year of St Paul, when the Church will celebrate the 2000th birthday of St Paul. This is the Cardinal’s message to you.

You can find out more information about St Paul on the Diocesan website.

It’s terrible, but I only just realised it was 23 April today – St George’s Day – so I thought I would wish you all a happy St George’s Day!

St George is the patron saint of England, Portugal, Georgia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Republic of Macedonia.

St Patrick’s Day, as you may know, is 17th March. But this year, the date has been changed, because the 17th March falls during Holy Week. Therefore St Patrick’s Day will be celebrate on Saturday 15th March. According to this article, the last time the day had to be changed was 1940, and the next time it will have to be changed is 2160.

Drexel House recently celebrated the Feast Day of St Katharine Drexel. St Katharine was born in Philadelphia in 1858. Her family had a lot of money, so she was able to donate money to helping black and native Americans. She wanted to do more than donate money, however, so she founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People. She also opened many schools for black and native Americans, and founded Xavier University in 1915. (See the official website here.)

St Katharine was beatified in 1980.

Today, Kolbe House celebrated the Feast Day of St Maximilian Kolbe. You can find out more about him at this site which also contains links to websites about the Holocaust.

Thursday 4 October is the feast day of St Francis of Assisi. He is sometimes described as the most loved of saints, and is certainly one of the most well known. You can read a long article about him here, find a slightly easier to read article and a picture here, and find a list of different saints’ prayers here.

Below I have copied one of St Francis’ most famous prayers, the Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon of St Francis:

Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon of St. Francis of Assisi

Most High, all-powerful, all-good Lord, All praise is Yours, all glory, all honour and all blessings.

To you alone, Most High, do they belong, and no mortal lips are worthy to pronounce Your Name.

Praised be You my Lord with all Your creatures,
especially Sir Brother Sun,
Who is the day through whom You give us light.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendour,
Of You Most High, he bears the likeness.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars,
In the heavens you have made them bright, precious and fair.

Praised be You, my Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air,
And fair and stormy, all weather’s moods,
by which You cherish all that You have made.

Praised be You my Lord through Sister Water,
So useful, humble, precious and pure.

Praised be You my Lord through Brother Fire,
through whom You light the night and he is beautiful and playful and robust and strong.

Praised be You my Lord through our Sister,
Mother Earth
who sustains and governs us,
producing varied fruits with coloured flowers and herbs.
Praise be You my Lord through those who grant pardon for love of You and bear sickness and trial.

Blessed are those who endure in peace, By You Most High, they will be crowned.

Praised be You, my Lord through Sister Death,
from whom no-one living can escape. Woe to those who die in mortal sin! Blessed are they She finds doing Your Will.

No second death can do them harm. Praise and bless my Lord and give Him thanks,
And serve Him with great humility.

Here is his Vocation prayer, which is especially ideal for Year 9s who are studying Vocation:

Most High, Glorious God, enlighten the darkness of our minds. Give us a right faith, a firm hope and a perfect charity, so that we may always and in all things act according to Your Holy Will. Amen.