This year 'Search for the Light' - our open Easter retreat, is taking place from Thursday 1st to Sunday 4th April. Download the booking form here!
We are now taking applications for young people 16 – 18 (years 11 – 13) who are not in a Catholic school but want to go on our Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes. This is a great opportunity to celebrate our faith and serve members of our diocesan family on pilgrimage.
Live it Derby is working with the parishes of Derby to put on a musical interpretation of The Stations of the Cross. Click here to find out more.
The Briars and Reach4 are seeking applicants for next years residential and outreach team.
The photos from Advent 2009 are finally up, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
October the 9-12th saw the biggest ever reunion of past and present Briars team members. In part of a series of events to mark the 40th Anniversary of The Briars over 150 people dropped in at some point to make this weekend a truly memorable celebration.
As part of the visit of St Therese’s relics to our cathedral in Nottingham, the Youth Service led an All Night Vigil. Starting at 11.00 on Monday 5th October and finishing the next morning with Mass at 6.30, it was split into three parts, each focussing on a different aspect of St Therese’s spirituality.
This year’s reach4 team consists of four members. Tom Baptist, Eleanor Gambini, Marsha Cotter and Sinéad Mannion. Together they work in the schools and parishes accross the diocese. You can find out more about them by visiting thier individual pages, and you can find out more about the work of reach4 right here.
It’s been a busy few months, I can’t believe it’s nearly Easter already!
A huge hello to all the groups that we’ve worked with since January, sorry I haven’t done individual messages to each group. I’ve loved working with so many different groups from Lent days with Year 6’s, music and chaplaincy training to starting our Confirmation Programmes in different parishes.
All of the groups have been amazing and made the job a lot of fun!
Sinéad
Reach4
We had a brilliant afternoon with year 7 at Saint John Houghton talking about “Who is our neighbour?”, it was lovely to see you all again and thank you once again for the amazing lunch you gave us. It was great to see some of you from Saint John Houghton again when year 8 came here for a weekend at the centre. On Monday 18th Christ the king Year 8 visited the centre and it was really good to spend time with you during mealtimes and prayer times. Lunchtime on that Saturday with the Parish council of Our Lady of Good counsel was very enjoyable and the chicken pie was delicious! On Sunday 24th January we went to Nottingham cathedral for out Live it! event. It was a great evening for all who were there – thank you to those who came! Last week Benedicts Year 9 were in centre and it was good to see some familiar faces and especially to spend some time with you on Wednesday when we did the ‘Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus’ session. We went to St Patrick’s Leicester Confirmation group on Monday and learnt about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, it was a fun evening and I’m looking forward to visiting again soon. Thursday was an early start for us as we travelled to Boston to look at the music that we use in Liturgies, it was a very enjoyable day, well done to those of you who were brave enough to stand up in front of everyone in the choir. On Friday we went to my own School – The Becket in Nottingham. I really enjoyed working with those of you in year 8 and thank you to those 6th formers who helped with the activities that we did. A big thank you to you all for your hard work, hospitality (lunch was lovely) and to Kev who worked with us. Our most recent job has been with those of you in the Derby parishes who are preparing a production of Born For This. On Sunday we went through the songs that we will perform and those of you with cast roles found out who you were – exciting times! Now January is over I’m looking forward to what February has to offer!
Marsha
After a wonderful Christmas break we arrived back at The Briars to find LOTS of snow! We had to leave again pretty much straight away to go to Team Conference 2010 which was being held at the Hayes conference centre. It was great to meet youth workers from across the country and we all enjoyed having double beds and en suites!! When we arrived back we started planning and preparing our work for the year ahead and even found time to rearrange the desks in the office. So far we’ve had the pleasure of visiting CTU to start preparing our performance of Born for This and we’ve been to Blessed Robert Sutton to work with the year 9s and 6th formers. So far a great start to the year so I look forward to seeing you all soon!
Marsha
I had a great time this weekend preparing for Christmas. Thank you so much to those people who have never been up to the Briars before for coming up, it was great to see you here and I really enjoyed being able to spend some time getting to know you all. There were a lot of funny moments and mine and Conor’s small group were a lot of fun so thank you. hopefully we’ll see you al back here for Search for the Light at Easter or even sooner on a Saturday night at mass?
Hope you had a fab Christmas and a very Happy New Year
Marsha
x
…for not writing my weeky messages in such a long time!
We’ve been pretty busy recently working with some amazing groups!
A BIG hello to:
St John Houghton, Year 7 – Your school never fails to impress! I had so much fun with you all – well done with the boxes and all the team games!
St. George’s, Derby – A lovely day spent in my hometown Derby! You guys were wicked – the effort you put in to mass was brill! Nice work on our Creed and the Gospel for mass, J Factor! It was great to see some of you back up at The Briars for a weekend – “From our don’t know me’s to our only’s!”
CTK, Arnold – Oh my days! You guys were just amazing! Your school is so lucky to have such a genuine, fun and brave bunch of young people like you!
Our Lady’s Convent School – What a busy, busy day! Year 11 – you were SO much fun to work with during the Buzz session! Sixth Form – was really nice to meet you all. Thanks for all the laughs you guys provided during the games! Haha! Year 6 and 7 – AMAZING! You all got so stuck in with big smiles on your face, which made our afternoon so much fun together!
Our Lady & St. Edward’s, St. Ann’s - Our very first advent day and what a day it was! A BIG hello to my small group, who came up with a wonderful rendition of Black Eyed Peas ‘I Gotta Feeling’ for our sorry prayers!
St. Anne’s, Buxton – An inspiring day spent trying to change the world – you guys were just brilliant! Mass was a great way to finish off – you put so much effort in and it really paid off!
Year 10 Climate Change Day @ The Cathedral – What an AMAZING day spent waving good bye to climate change! How good were the goodie bags?!!!
St. Patrick’s, Lesicester – A lovely day spent preparing for Advent with Fr. Dave! I don’t think I’ve ever heard such beautiful singing in a primary school! The display for mass looked incredible – well done for every class for all the effort you put in to make it look so great!
St. Augustine Webster, Scunthorpe – Officially the first day of Advent and what a lovely way to spend it in such a lovely school! The Year 6 class Marsha and I worked in were lots of fun and your Advent Calendar looked simply amazing!
St. Mary’s, Hyson Green - I could tell from the very first time we met you all what a brilliant day we were going to have together and I was right! Your singing was beautiful and you all worked so well together which was just amazing to see!
St. Norbets, Crowle - I loved this day in your “OUTSTANDING” (fact.) school! You were all so lovely! Your art work for our Advent calendar was fantastic, as was the effort you put in to our mass!
Holy Cross, Whitwick – WHAT A MASSIVE TREE! It was our first time in your school and you all made us feel so welcome! The amount of energy you put in to everything was inspiring to see!
I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and a VERY happy New Year! BRING ON 2K10 (Just something I’m trying instead of the generic “Twenty Ten!”, except nobody seems to like it!)
Eleanor x
This was a great day to be a part of and it was inspiring to see so many people interested in making a difference to the climate and the effect that it has on others. The artwork that you created looked amazing and there were some great efforts put into the game. It’s an exciting thought that you will be a part of the day in London on December 5th when the videos that you made are shown for all to see! Thanks for a great day!
Marsha
x
After spending time with you at the Briars last year it was great to come and work with you in your own parish. The activities you did towards making a difference to the amount of water that is wasted and to climate change is something that you should definitely be proud of and I felt privileged to share that experience with you. The parts that you prepared for mass were fantastic and we’re looking forward to working with you some time soon!
Marsha
x
PS thank you so much for the lovely soup and toast – it was very much appreciated!
This was our first Advent retreat day of the year and I really enjoyed spending it with you all. Your singing was fantastic and the way that year 6 tackled all of their different activities was very impressive. It was a great day and I’m looking forward to coming back and seeing you all soon!
Marsha
x
It’s a while since I’ve worked in centre with a group but I had a lot of fun this weekend seeing familiar faces and getting to know you all better. I enjoyed working out which gift of the Holy Spirit went with which game and spending time with those of you from CTU was great too, hopefully see you all back here sometime soon!
Marsha
x
What a busy day!! We worked with so many people but it was really enjoyable and my only complaint of the whole day was that we didn’t get to spend more time with you all! The challenges completed were impressive and there are some very competent leaders your 6th form! Don’t forget to get an application form if you’re interested in joining the Briars team!
Marsha
x
