Ursula Frayne RE coordinator, Theresa Davis shares her Year of Grace initiative.
To introduce the Year of Grace, I ran a creative session with the RE teachers.
We were using the prayer on the bookmark but before we did I asked them to all think about what grace meant to them.
Then to imagine that they could use an ordinary item to explain their understanding of grace to the rest of the group.
They each received a brown paper bag containing seven items: a balloon, peg, pipe cleaner, chocolate, piece of blutack colour (can be shaped or used to stick), a prayer card (message: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me) and a birthday candle.
A little creative time was allowed to think up ways of using these things to explain grace.
Then about a third of the group shared their ideas.
Many aspects of grace revealed-gift, joy, wonder, mystery. Then we said the prayer together.