Today, we proudly opened our new Prayer Space, thoughtfully designed by the pupils in St Mary's. The newly created space was officially opened today by Father Hannigan, in a ceremony celebrating faith, reflection, and community spirit.
Thank you to Father Hannigan for blessing and officially opening the Prayer Space today- a truly memorable moment for everyone involved. A word of thanks also to our governors, Mrs Rosina O'Neill and Mr Anthony Mc Gonnell who joined us for today's ceremony. A special thank you to our wonderful Primary 7 boys and girls who led us in prayer at this morning's ceremony. We are so proud of you all!
Our Prayer Space is a peaceful place where we can spend time with God, take time to reflect, pray, and enjoy moments of calm during our busy school days. Our Prayer Space will support the wellbeing and spiritual growth of our whole school community. The Prayer Space will provide pupils and staff with a peaceful environment for prayer, reflection and connection. It features a beautiful ceramic art display mounted on a metal frame, flower displays, beautifully arranged planters and benches made by parent, Mr Joe Mallon. The central feature is an art display depicting Our Lady. Thank you to our parent and artist, Mrs Karina Avena, for creating this beautiful backdrop for our Prayer Space.
One of the driving forces behind this project was our former school principal, Mrs Louise Quinn. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our Parent Support Group “Friends of Cabragh” and Mrs Linda Corrigan, who secured the funding needed to help Mrs Quinn and the children in St Mary’s, to realise their dream and to create this beautiful space for reflection and prayer with God.
The pupils in St Mary’s played a central role in creating the ceramic artwork for our Prayer Space.
We were so lucky to be given the opportunity to work with artist Shauna Nelson, who we are extremely thankful to, for giving up her time and expertise, to lead us in the creation of this piece. A special word of thanks also to Mr Nigel Corrigan, who made a fantastic metal structure to display our ceramic artwork.
We dedicated our Prayer Space to Mary who holds a very special place in all of our hearts. She watches over us all, with motherly love and care and is the Patron Saint of our school.
Our Prayer Space is set in our beautiful Sensory Garden and is designed to help us all connect with God through the beauty of nature. We have included themes of nature, the world around us and God’s creation in our artwork. Pope Francis called on us all to take care of nature and as a school community we will continue to work hard, to protect our environment and to take care of our Sensory Garden and Prayer Space.
A very special part of our artwork remembers baby Frankie McCann, the much- loved son of our teacher Mrs Mc Cann. This special piece allows Frankie to always be in our hearts here at school. We were delighted that Mrs Mc Cann and Baby Ria could join us today, to celebrate the opening of our Prayer Space.
The Prayer Space is a beautiful addition to our school grounds and we are sure that this space will be enjoyed by our school community for many years to come. We are so proud of our pupils, for their creativity, respect and care and for their commitment to creating our wonderful Prayer Space! This initiative reflects the School’s dedication to fostering spiritual growth and community engagement.
Mrs Quinn was delighted to see the Prayer Space come to life, providing a peaceful sanctuary for pupils to reflect, to pray and to grow in the Faith.
Mrs Claire Mc Killion, on behalf of ‘Friends of Cabragh’, displayed a plaque in our Prayer Space, paying tribute to Mrs Quinn’s vision and commitment to the creation of our wonderful Prayer Space.
