Year 7 Welcome Liturgies

Although we were not able to have our customary ‘Year 7 Mass of Welcome’ this year, we arranged to involve our new pupils in Welcome Liturgies for each form led by Chaplain Emily in our school chapel.

Emily introduced pupils to the school chapel, a sacred space where everyone in school can join together in the presence of Jesus, the centre of our school.

The liturgies continued with pupils learning about our Latin school name and motto which describes our school community being of one body and family and us all coming together from different backgrounds and primary schools to form one body with each pupil having an important part to play.

Pupils listened to the scripture reading Corinthians 12:12-20 similarly describing how the many parts of a human body just make one body and so it is with Christ. The reading further explained how each part of the body is so different but equally so important. Each part has a purpose and a task that only that part can do.  St Paul is helping us to see that we are all this body – the body of Christ and that each of us/ of you belong and have a special purpose.

Emily further explained that each pupil is different, completely unique and no one like you has ever existed in the past nor will exist in the future. The probability of you being born so uniquely is 1 in 400 trillion and were genuine miracles. Each pupil having their own unique DNA, physical characteristics, different personalities, talents, strengths, weaknesses and all those things make you exactly who you are right now.

Our school Gospel Value representing love, respect, service, humility, faithfulness, truth, forgiveness, dignity and acceptance were all explained and should be practised to help our school community work properly.

The liturgies concluded  with each pupil in their respective forms writing their names on a graphically constructed ‘hand’ and during reflective music place them onto a cross with our logo centred to symbolise pupils joining our school community to create a display for each form.

After a final prayer together Emily invited pupils to take a gift of a small Gideon Bible as a memento of the Liturgy and for pupils to read for guidance, joy, help, consolation, good advice and so much more during their first few weeks at Corpus Christi and their future five year journey.