Vulnerability

The topic of the final week of the Northampton Diocese Advent Retreat ‘Let the Wilderness Bloom’ was on a subject very close to my heart, ‘Vulnerability’. The term vulnerability is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as: ‘The quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally’ and

Let the Wilderness Bloom!

Getting the spiritual nourishment we need can be very difficult in the incredibly busy period from the end of November to December 25th: it can feel very much like ‘The Run Up to Christmas’ rather than Advent with the variety of different activities we have to attend. If you are caring or supporting someone it

Advent Lapbook

This year I’m going to be creating an Advent Lapbook to help support the understanding of Advent. I’m going to be drawing on a variety of sources and using different parts of resources that other people have created to make this suitable for the child I am supporting. The wonderful thing is that all children

Celebrate Advent Resources

If you are looking for Advent Resources then you may well find what you need in the latest Celebrate Advent 2023 Family Pack which you can access via this link: https://www.celebratetrust.org/ The pack includes ideas for activities, books you may enjoy, and family films that you can watch together during Advent. (The Star is a

Advent Atmosphere

One of the things that the Catholic church excels at is helping people to use their senses to worship and focus on God: We have a wealth of visual resources from a rich supply of art that has been commissioned by or created for the Church for hundreds of years and powerful symbolism which can

The New Church Year Approaches

The start of the new Church Year is nearly upon us and for many people the challenge of enjoying the spiritual benefits of the Advent season is lost amongst anticipation (both positive and negative) of Christmas. Advent is an incredibly important period in its own right and Emma from Tanglewood Atelier recently shared the below

Complex Learning Difficulties: What does this mean?

When people hear the term ‘learning difficulty’ they often think of cognitive difficulties and many people will find their thoughts jump immediately to Down’s Syndrome. This is often because when TV programmes, internet articles or papers want to show a visual image to go with an article about learning difficulties they tend to use a

Courage

Did you know that the word Courage has 2 ‘root words’. Cour – comes from the word for heart and age – comes from the word to act. Courage literally means having the heart to act and this is something I want to ‘unwrap’ in my last post before Christmas. I attended the last Advent

Trust Triggers Miracles

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the third session of the online Advent Retreat run by Northampton Diocese, Walking by Starlight. The topic was ‘Trust’ and Canon John Udris and Avril Baigent led a really meaningful hour of contemplation on what Trust is and what it means in daily life. Trust can be

Attentiveness

Last night I had the pleasure of joining the online Advent Retreat run by Avril Baigent of the Northampton Pastoral Ministry Office and Canon John Udris, Walking by Starlight. The theme for the first week was Attentiveness and I found it a deeply moving spiritual experience. I want to share a my thoughts on one