A busy Sunday - St Peter's Way

All busy working - Triptychs will be on show at
both churches soon

After Mass the Confirmation young people who have been meeting since February spent the day making their own Triptych of the sacraments of initiation - Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist.  Each sacrament they reflected on the symbols - for Baptism they remembered the people who had supported them in their faith journey, for confirmation we talked about the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit and recorded their names and those of their catechists, finally for Eucharist they listed the children who will be making their First Holy Communion and shared the things they are thankful as a reminder that Eucharist is thanksgiving.  
After a shared lunch reminiscent of the feeding of the five thousand where everyone shared what they had brought, we met with other young people from the churches making up Blessed John Henry Newman parish.  We then spent time talking about three sections of the Cathedral - the Ambo and Altar; the Cathedra and the big seven candles; and the oils which the Bishop blesses at the Chrism Mass and which are used for sacraments throughout the year. 

Looking at the Te Deum window 

In the bell tower

 

A view of the narrow walkway at the top of the tow

A highlight of any visit to the Cathedral is the trip up the spiral staircase to the Bell Tower where Fr Stewart showed them the bells and and then up to the spire with Kay Hill, who has taken many school groups during the Year of Faith, where the group had a splendid view over Lancaster. Before leaving the cathedral a chance to have a closer look at the Te Deum window which was looking its best with the sun shining through - an opportunity to try and identify some of the saints.  Finally, we returned to the cafe to eat up the rest of the shared lunch.  A busy day. 

Lancaster from St Peter's Cathedral tower

Left, looking for Popes in the Year of Faith Timeline and learning more about what the challenges were facing the Church and topics of discussion at the different Councils.
Below image from the top of the tower - although lots of sunshine it was very cold!.  If you look carefully you can see the shadow of the spire on the roof tops of the Lancaster houses.