Pastoral Centre helps students in transition

It’s third term at De La Salle Pastoral Centre Belfast and we’re in Transition mode. All our energies are now helping prepare P.7 children for the challenging and, at times daunting, move from a well loved, familiar Primary School to a large Secondary School with which they are unaccustomed.

Our aim is to encourage confidence in the children, to reassure them of the all the things which are constants in their lives, the love of family, support of friends and the understanding that God is always with them.

They sometimes think that as the sacraments of First Penance, First Communion and Confirmation were made in Primary School, that God has no place in the new life ahead. So it’s imperative to explain to the children that God is ready to help them and through their communication with God they’ll develop a relationship which is valuable and dependable, just like the friends they want to be and have.

When the young people come into the centre we ask them to write down what sort of day they hope to have and what they hope does not happen. Invariably children ‘hope for fun’ and ‘hope it’s not boring’ (don’t we all). However, never before have we had so many 10 and 11 year olds hoping that their retreat day will be ‘relaxing’, ‘calm’ and ‘not stressful’.

This particular cohort of children have had to deal with lockdowns resulting in restricted activities in school, disrupted family time and consciously or unconsciously this has affected them. This coupled with the cost of living, climate change and the wars graphically depicted on the media have created an unsettling of the young people, creating anxiety in some of them. We are always transitioning, from a world we took for granted two years ago, our own behaviours have certainly changed. But as with all changes we look to our loadstar, God, who is consistent and constant.

Students who recently attended for a retreat