​​​​Prayer and Worship

• Teaching and using a variety of traditional prayers and devotions for individual and communal use.
• Identifying appropriate times and occasions for different forms of prayer and worship
  
• Preparing and disseminating a calendar to ensure a prayerful perspective in celebrations of liturgical seasons (e.g., Lent), feasts (e.g., St James day) and significant events (e.g., ANZAC Day, Mother's Day/Father's Day)
  
• Teaching students how to identify and use scriptural texts in prayer and worship rituals.
  
• Using predictable patterns in prayer and worship across the school (following the 'You, Who, Do, Through' and 'Gather, Listen, Reflect, Go' model)
  
• Involving students in the creation of prayers for use in school celebrations such as Prayers of the Faithful
  
• Establishing a culture and climate that values and emphasises a sense of the sacred during communal prayer times (e.g., liturgical prayer spaces)
  
• Regular whole school practice of Christian Meditation
  
• Providing professional learning opportunities for staff and students about the principles, structures and planning of liturgies (e.g., planning year level liturgies – student voice)
  
• Preparing students for full and reverent participation in liturgies (e.g., practice of readings and reflecting on scripture, rehearsal of music, explanation of actions and movements)
• Encouraging and supporting student participation in the St James Parish (e.g., School/Parish Family Mass, and promoting the Sacramental Program)
  
  

Spiritual formation at St James School invites students and staff to see the realities of our world in new and life-giving ways. It calls them to recognise the presence of God in daily life.  Staff participate in an annual whole day spiritual formation day that is based on an annual theme, and they also participate throughout the year in two other staff meetings that follow-up on this initial spiritual formation.  There is a planned approach to both student and staff formation through a formalised Staff and Student Formation Plan.  Students in the upper year levels of Year 4 – 6 participate in a spiritual formation day each year, either on a school level or led by BCE Catholic Identity youth ministry.

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All images  © ​ Brisbane Catholic Education​, St James S​chool (2023)​​