Written by Father Tom Simonds, SJ, NCEA Director of Secondary Engagement, [email protected]
When you begin planning for the new school year, turn to NCEA. We have numerous resources to assist you with getting your new school year off to a good start. In this blog post, I will share some resources available for start of the year prayer services for faculty, staff and students.
The key to creating a meaningful and effective prayer service is to choose a theme or focus point. The theme or focus point can guide the selection of prayers, readings and music, as well as activities. Your prayer service might focus on new beginnings, your school’s theme for the year or some aspect of your school’s mission.
Prayer Services for Faculty and Staff
The National Standards and Benchmarks for Effective Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools, Second Edition (NSBECS) states that faculty and staff faith formation ought to be engaging, include personal reflection and involve interpersonal interaction (NSBECS Benchmark 4.1). To create an engaging prayer service, ensure that participants are doing more than listening. Asking participants to offer petitionary prayers as a part of the service is one effective way to engage participants and help your group get to know about the faith journey of each person.
Pope Francis makes an interesting point about petitionary prayer in his book, A Gift of Joy & Hope (2022). He talks about how our petitionary prayer for other people is a way for us to offer assistance to others. At least for myself, this is a new way of thinking about service by engaging in the spiritual works of mercy. We can love and serve God and our neighbor through praying for others. You might consider including Pope Francis’ point about petitionary prayer in your prayer service for faculty and staff as a way to introduce a time for prayers of petition.
Sharing personal reflections on faith in small groups and how faith guides teaching and work in the school can be a helpful practice to include in a prayer service and an effective way to include both personal reflection and interpersonal interaction. To guide sharing in small groups, you can create sharing prompts focused on your theme for the year, a virtue or some aspect of your school’s mission, vision or charism.
I have developed a prayer service development guide that you can review as you create a prayer service. I have also created a complete start of the year prayer service for faculty and staff in grades P-12 which you are free to use.
Prayer Services for Students
NSBECS states that effective Catholic schools provide opportunities for students to grow in their relationship with Christ through prayer (Benchmark 3.1). Prayer also ought to be timely, that is, prayer is most effective when it flows from the season of the year, immediate life circumstances or special occasions at your school. The start of the school year is a special occasion and makes a great focus for a prayer service for students in elementary and secondary schools.
In collaboration with my colleagues at NCEA, I have developed a start of the year prayer service for elementary students and another prayer service for secondary students. You are free to download and use these prayer services.
Conclusion
Developing an effective prayer service is a skill you can learn. After reading this blog post, review some of the linked resources to learn more about how you and your faculty can develop effective and meaningful prayer services all year long.
To begin thinking about prayer services for later in the school year, check out NCEA Professional Development Resources. You will discover resources for Advent, Laudato Si’ and many others you can use throughout the school year.
