St Cassian’s retreats and community in full flow

As the autumn season arrived St Cassian’s, the school retreats and community was in full flow.

We had a day retreat with the Year 8 Salesian’s College who provided us with a lot of enthusiasm and energy at the centre. Following this we had the hospitality group Newbury Baptist Church return to St Cassian’s, who also had wonderful time here with their games and the joyful vibe that they provided.

The Brazilian community, known as Holy Road Church, also returned to the centre and had a really successful weekend. They had marshmallows with a fire, 24 hours adoration, regular mass and various talks and praise sessions. St Joe’s Port Talbot Year 11 also came down to the centre for a 4 day retreat and had a wonderful time.

In terms of community events there were several in the last month. Heather gave the team training on the history of De La Salle and an insight into what it means to be Lasallian.

Marti had a celebration of her birthday which involved everyone dressing and suiting up and going to McDonalds one evening. Everyone on team had a really wonderful time and there was even a sing song on the mini bus trip back. It was also half term towards the end of October and the team travelled to various different locations including Liverpool, London and Spain.

We welcomed a new member to the St Cassian’s community. The Director Emma Biggins became owner of a new puppy called Rojo who has brought a smile to everyone at the retreat centre. We also had our first Intentional Community event of the year which involved prayer, reflection and also refreshments and an opportunity to socialise and catch up with wider members of the Lasallian Family.

As a community we all went to mass for All Saints Day. Following this, as many of the community is from Latin America, we had a celebration called Day of the Dead. This is in Mexican culture where members of the community put up photos to honour the impact of former friends and family who are dear to us who have passed away. We ended this by watching the Disney film Coco.

Dante, the Founder and Director of Bolivia Digna, came to visit St Cassian’s over the first weekend of November due to the positive things he had heard from previous Bolivian team volunteers and also joined for the Bonfire night. Everyone enjoyed this wonderful weekend and Dante was really positive about his experience here. To end with, our volunteer member Beti had a Birthday meal with the team at Toby Carvery in Newbury.