by St Mary’s University Chaplaincy
The first of three meetings with young people and the Cardinal on Vocation ahead of the Synod on Youth took place on Tuesday 15th May at Archbishop’s House. About 50 young people from across the diocese gathered with Cardinal Vincent, Bishop Nicholas Hudson, Fr Mark Walker and the Youth Ministry team to pray and reflect together. Twelve of us came as a group from the Chaplaincy at St Mary’s University, Twickenham. We arrived a bit early, and one of our favourite moments from the evening was Cardinal Vincent bringing around a plate of iced buns and offering them to those who were there.
The evening began properly with a time of prayer and reflection on the call of Samuel. Bishop Nicholas gave some input on ’Vocation and Prayer’, especially on the idea that our life is a mission. He gave us some suggestions on things that might help us to pray, including words from the Psalms, Blessed John Henry Newman and Pope Francis. He suggested in our prayer that we could ask God what it is that he wants us to do, and to be generous in our response.
We had some time for discussion, and then to ask the Cardinal and Bishop Nicholas questions. In our group, we really liked some of the words that Bishop Nicholas suggested, especially around scripture unlocking our hearts. We also talked a lot about generosity, and how we can be generous in our lives. One of our favourite answers to questions was that Cardinal Vincent advised us all to pray in the ways and places that suit us best.
It was really good to see so many people gathered to reflect on Vocation and Prayer and some of us hope to attend the next evening at the end of May.
