Blog
14th February 2025
Hannah O’Neill
Building balloon towers, performing surgery on bananas, and prayer spaces in schools were some of the activities on offer as part of our recent Retreat Day for 80 third years at the Mercy College Sligo. The day was ran by the Alpha Team in the school, an ecumenical partnership between different local churches who deliver Youth Alpha as part of the school Transition Year programme. We were delighted to be invited to facilitate a retreat day for third years, giving us the opportunity to get to know students who will hopefully participate in next years Alphas.
The day was centred around exploring how prayer can be helpful when life is difficult. We spent the morning thinking about what we do when life feels shaky and unsteady, and looked at the Psalms and how King David found prayer a helpful space for processing the difficult things he faced. We were joined by the local priest Fr Pat Lombard who shared with the students about his experiences of prayer, and encouraged them to pray when life is stressful. He finished our morning by praying a blessing over the students.
After break we had some creative prayer activities for students to try out and experience. Using bubble wrap they popped their worries, handing them to God. They wrote on luggage tags about the feelings they were carrying and they wrote prayers for the people they trust on paper people. These activities gave them a glimpse into prayer spaces, ahead of them creating their own prayer stations for the school prayer room.
Using some of the recently created TY material from prayer spaces in schools, we taught the students about how to create a prayer activity. Then each small group was given a material to use to create their own prayer activities. Materials included feathers, plasters, heart stickers, lollipop sticks, pompoms and stars. It was amazing to see the different activities the students came up with. One group drew faces on some leftover balloons from a game earlier in the day, and had students place plasters on the balloons as they prayed healing prayers for someone they knew. The group with feathers created an activity to help students think about the housing crisis and pray for the homeless. Another group assigned different feelings to different coloured pompoms to help students become aware of their emotions and reflect on them with God.
The completed stations were then set up around the hall, creating their third year prayer space. The students were then given time to explore the prayer space and try out the different activities. At the end of the day they voted on their favourite stations, and the top 3 were added to the school prayer room for other year groups to see and use.
Throughout the day it was incredible to see how positively the students engaged with the different activities. Some students shared their hesitancy to try religion or prayer as a way of coping with difficult life circumstances, whilst others were intrigued having never considered prayer a space for processing and reflection.
The team had some really significant conversations with students in their small groups. One student shared about her fears having recently transferred schools due to bullying. Others spoke of their struggles with their mental health, and a few shared about their experiences of grief and loss. There were lots of really beautiful moments filled with a sense of God’s peace and presence. I was particularly struck by the compassion the students carried, evidenced in the stations they created, the prayers written and the conversations in their small groups. These teenagers are well aware that life can be difficult and shaky, but their response is one of compassion and care.
