“The Cabin”, Sligo Grammar School’s sacred Christian space, was built a number of years ago in order to provide a quiet and peaceful haven where students could come to pray and reflect. Currently, a small group of second year girls called “Cabin Fever” meet there every Friday lunchtime along with one of their teachers.

Since mid-October the group have been busy planning their advent prayer space. The aim was to let the group have as much control as possible over what went into the prayer room, and the themes that would be picked up on at the different stations. Since most of the students in the group had already been in church prayer rooms, or at least heard about them from their friends, they were full of fantastic and meaningful ideas of how to help their peers engage with God.

Exactly one week before the prayer space was due to open, the set-up operation commenced! Despite being busy with exams, the girls generously sacrificed their lunchtimes and dived head-first into all the usual tasks that accompany putting together a prayer space: losing the end of the sellotape, wrestling with fairylights, trying to avoid stepping on thumb tacks….. The sense of excitement as the girls saw all their ideas come together was palpable. By the end of set-up the students had decided that it was to be called “The Winter Wonderland Prayer Space”. The reason for this was simple- we had lots of blue and white fabric, as well as some fake snow!!!

From Wednesday 14th to Tuesday 20th December, the prayer space was open to the school. Over the first three days, all junior students (1st, 2nd and 3rd years) were sent down from classes in order to spend ten minutes quiet time exploring the different stations. This means that roughly 220 pupils passed The Cabin during this time. It was also open during break and lunctimes so that anyone who wished to come during their free time could do so.

One of the most popular prayer stations was the “Message in a Bottle” area. This station focused on private and personal prayers, prayers that were simply between you and God. By the end of the first day, the bottles were already nearly full, but determined pushing and shoving meant that every pupil who wished to managed to get their message sent. Of course, there were the few of us who managed to get our fingers stuck in the bottle necks!! Another well-used station was the “Big Questions” wall, where students were open and honest about their queries and doubts. We found that the presence of the wall was especially helpful to those students who may have been slightly more sceptical, as they realised that their thoughts were valued just as much as anyone else’s. In the words of one particular student: ‘I like the sticky notes with questions like “Are you real?” They show that the cabin is for loads of people”.

Stations designed by the pupils themselves included a “Thankful” area, which involved writing the things you were thankful for down on snowflakes. They also created a beautiful “Doves of Peace” corner, where students were encouraged to send their worries flying away to God by means of writing them down on the wing of a bird.

The centrepiece of the room was the crib, where the whole idea of “Emmanuel”- God with us was explored. This was intended to encourage the students to remember that they are not alone, God is always with them wherever they go. He is there with them every second of the day, even when they are at school!

By the end of the week, it was very evident that two very definite things had been achieved as a result of the prayer space. Firstly, the Cabin Fever group had experienced a great sense of achievement and ownership through their involvement in setting it up. Secondly, the prayer space provided the opportunity for many other pupils to come to the Cabin for the first time.

And before the week was over, the second years already had plans in the pipeline for a Lenten prayer room. So watch this space!