Celebration of the World. Prayer and Liturgy

At St Malachy’s, Celebration of the Word is an important part of our Catholic life and worship. It gives pupils the opportunity to gather together in prayer, listen to Scripture and reflect on how God’s Word can guide us in our daily lives. These celebrations take place regularly in classrooms, key stages and whole-school assemblies.

During Celebration of the Word, pupils take an active role by leading prayers, reading from the Bible, choosing music and creating a prayerful focus area. This helps them to grow in confidence and develop their understanding of faith. The celebrations follow a simple structure of gathering, listening to the Word of God, reflecting and responding through prayer or action.

Celebration of the Word encourages our pupils to think about how they can live out Gospel values such as kindness, forgiveness and service to others. It helps to create a calm and reflective atmosphere where the whole school community can grow together in faith.

Prayer and Liturgy

It is our belief that Prayer and Liturgy in a Catholic school is concerned with giving glory, honour, praise and thanks to God. It is our loving response, in word and action, to the invitation to enter into a relationship with God, made possible through the work of Jesus Christ and the witness of the Holy Spirit.

It is also our belief that Prayer and Liturgy is far more than a statutory requirement. It is a crucial aspect to the spiritual life of our school and to pupils’ moral and spiritual development. Prayer and Liturgy is an important part of our distinctive ethos.

We believe that the undertaking of daily Prayer and Liturgy promotes community cohesion by creating a consistent structure around the core values of the Catholic Faith – at St Malachy’s, our core values are faith, hope, joy, peace and love.

Throughout the year, we will come together to celebrate important events in the Liturgical calendar as well as the start and end of the academic year. Through regular prayer and liturgy, including Mass, the structure of the Church’s year will become embedded within each pupil’s life. At St Malachy’s, we recognise that there must be a daily act of worship for all pupils as this is a legal requirement:

- Monday - We gather together in phases for Celebration of the Word on a Monday. This is led by class teachers in turn based on the Gospel reading from the previous Sunday.

- Tuesday – We celebrate and praise God through music and song at singing assembly.

- Wednesday – On Wednesday, we gather for our ‘Personal Prayer’ assembly. This assembly is based around the principles of Lectio Divina and forms the basis of weekly class worships. The Subject Leader creates the assembly using the Wednesday Word and the weekly Gospel reading and this is taken into classes for them to act upon.

- Thursday – All classes undertake their Prayer and Liturgy.

- Friday - We come together to celebrate our achievements and successes in our assembly