St Cassian’s focus on true meaning of Christmas

St Cassian’s was a wonderful place to be for the Advent season and the Christmas spirit was evident right around the community in recent weeks.

We had the wonderful Advent retreats where we welcomed the primary schools of St. Bonaventures, St. Teresa’s, De La Salle Malta and Holy Family to the retreat centre. The programme involved everyone seeing the ponies and re-inacting the nativity story,

There were Advent-related art Workshops and a focus on what makes Christmas special for us and its true meaning.

Additionally, we also had a visit from the sixth form of De La Salle in Malta who joined for a 24 hour retreat and had a great experience. Everyone had a wonderful time and felt the festive vibe right across these events and we want to say a huge thank you to these schools for their participation and enthusiasm.

We also took part in an outreach to De La Salle St Helens school. This was a fantastic opportunity to meet the students, introduce ourselves, promote opportunities for volunteering within the DLS network and also taking part in their podcast.

This was enjoyed by everyone and we also had time to visit the city of Liverpool. We also visited many of the De La Salle Brothers in St Helens and had some uplifting conversations with each of them. We are very grateful for their welcome and hospitality.

In terms of hospitality groups, we had visits from St. Mary’s Parish, Zac Newman and the Wimbledon Scouts who also had a wonderful time here. We also had a successful visit from Head Teachers and leaders within the Lasallian District. They had a series of meetings, prayer and were treated to a Prosecco three-course meal at St. Cassian’s and had a wonderful time.

In terms of community events, we had a day dedicated to the annual decorating of the retreat centre with festive ornaments. This involved Christmas music, decorating several tries in the house, having hot chocolate, prayer and a lovely bonding time between everyone on team.

On behalf of St Cassian’s, we would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you, your friends and family and we look forward to the journey ahead in 2024.