Year 8 pupils celebrate Mass at start of their journey

{module_photogallery,36874} Year 8 Pupils told to “Dream Big” at Mass to celebrate the beginning of their Dominican Journey The evening of Thursday 3rd October saw Year 8 pupils, their parents, families and teachers join together in celebration to mark the beginning of the year 8 journey here in Dominican. The theme for the mass was the power of dreams. Prior to the Mass, all our Year Eight pupils individually designed personal dreams which decorated the walls of the assembly hall. Their chosen dream, represented their uniqueness their personality and their aspirations. Our celebrant on Thursday night was our College Chaplain – Father Raymond and the special celebration coincided with his twentieth anniversary as our Dominican chaplain. This special evening will only be repeated when many of these pupils take their leave of Dominican in May 2026. Fr. Raymond told our Year 8 pupils that they too must pursue and find their beautiful dream and how God would both bless their dreams and help them to realise their dreams. He asked pupils to consider what God’s dreams for them would be. A group of our Year 8 pupils performed a special drama which focused on the importance of sharing love and how love only becomes love when it is a shared gift. In his homily Fr. Raymond told the story of three trees to illustrate the differences between what we might want for ourselves and what God might want for us each of which. Each tree had a big dream which seemed to be frustrated as they were chopped down; only later would they realise that they each played a key role in the Christ story. Fr. Raymond spoke about his deceased father, Joseph as “a quiet man”, much like the Joseph in the reading and showed pupils a small statue of the sleeping Joseph to illustrate the importance of giving your dream to God and contemplating how to make God’s dream come true. The post communion reflection challenged pupils to have big dreams and the courage to persist in pursuing them. Each year 8 pupil was given the gift of a Dominican book of prayer and reflection produced as part of our recent centenary celebrations. Ms. Ronan concluded the evening by thanking parents for entrusting the school with their children and welcomed them all into a new Dominican family. She paid special tribute to the work of Fr. Raymond as school chaplain and thanked the RE and Music departments for all their dedication in preparing the evening’s celebration. Most of all she thanked our newest Dominican parents for entrusting us with the gift of their child’s education. Well done to all our Year 8 pupils who read, sang and provided the music for this mass. {module_photogallery,36875}