Daily Themes
Summer School isn’t just a random collection of days, it’s a journey. Over the course of the 8 days of Summer School, we will move through a series of themes that will grow and build each day.
To help you understand what each day is about and where we will be heading, please see the themes below.
Welcome to
Summer School
DAY 1 - SUNDAY
This week is a great opportunity to retreat from the world and take time to retreat, kick-start, renew, or strengthen our relationship with Jesus.
If you’ve been to a Summer School before, you already know that there’s plenty of opportunity for prayer, reflection, learning, celebration, recreation and friendships. If you haven’t been here before, then here’s a little more on what you could expect to happen. Over the course of this week, we will learn about Jesus through the lectures and seminars, and through the teachings at Mass and the evening sessions. We will hear real, personal stories of His love and power in people’s lives. And we will experience Him for ourselves – we will meet Him in the Eucharist, and in our prayer times, and in each other.
Summer School may be new and different for you, so we encourage you to be open to the working of the Holy Spirit!
God's Love
DAY 2 - MONDAY
God made me, lovingly, carefully, intricately in His image. I have flaws - I am human, after all - but I am ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ and He knows and loves all of me, my weaknesses and my strengths. God loves me so much that He gave me free will; He won’t force me or overwhelm me but instead gave me brains and a heart and a will of my own to make my own choice. So I have no reason to be afraid.
The love of God answers my need. He sent his only Son so that I would have eternal life; He gives me the Holy Spirit to guide me. When I choose to turn to Him, He’s there.
Main Session Theme:
The Spirit you received is not the spirit of slaves bringing fear into your lives; it is the Spirit of sons and daughters, and it makes us cry out, ‘Abba, Father’. (Romans 8:14-15)
God’s love liberates us from the false self, shaped by the attitudes of the world, which seeks identity through our performance, achievements and opinion of others, rather than who we are as sons and daughters of God.
Reconciliation
& Forgiveness
DAY 3 - TUESDAY
The Holy Spirit shines a light on the truth. We are sons and daughters of God, and beloved of Christ, but we aren’t perfect. We fall; we make mistakes; we commit sin and separate ourselves from Christ. When we are apart from him we feel broken and disheartened. We forget his great love, endless forgiveness and grace. We come to believe that we are unlovable, we cannot be forgiven and there’s no way out of the dark places we find ourselves in. But there is hope! Jesus is always ready to forgive us and nothing we can do would make us unlovable in his eyes. By the grace of the Holy Spirit, we can turn to him and be forgiven, to start afresh again.
Main Session Theme:
We were dead through our sins, but he brought us to life through Christ – it is through grace that you have been saved – and raised us up with him and given us a place with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:5-6)
Jesus came to “set the captives free” by the forgiveness of their sins. This is the day to seek the sacrament of Reconciliation and experience an encounter with the merciful eyes and touch of Jesus. He will set you free from all your patterns of sin and bring you a share in the victory of his resurrection.
Commitment to Jesus
DAY 4 - WEDNESDAY
Jesus calls us to himself. Because he loves us, he offers us a new life and asks us to commit to him. We often make the mistake of thinking that commitment to Jesus is a sort of trap – and we turn away from him and seek freedom in the things of this world, following our own will. But it is only when we commit our lives to Jesus that we find true freedom!
This new life is a gift, freely given. It changes everything! With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can turn away from our old ways. By following Jesus, and calling on the Holy Spirit for guidance and strength, we can live a life of love and holiness, becoming more and more like Him. Committing to Jesus means living life to the full!
Main Session Theme:
Jesus says, Your Father well knows you need them. Set your hearts on his kingdom and these other things will be given as well. (Luke 12:31)
The only way to true freedom is to choose Christ and put your life in his hands. Jesus sets us free. We must not remain undecided. Not to decide is to decide. If you sit on the fence you fall into the power of the Evil One, because he owns the fence!
Baptism in
the Holy Spirit
DAY 5 - THURSDAY
To help us to live the life He has chosen for us, Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to us, to teach us and guide us. The Holy Spirit already lives within us from our baptism. However, if we do not open our lives completely to action of the Spirit, we can become indifferent and unresponsive to Him.
We need help to be able to hear His voice, and to tap into the power He offers. So tonight, there will be prayer teams available to pray with you for Baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Don’t worry about whether you are worthy of this precious gift, or ready for it. Simply ask the Lord to prepare you, and trust that He will.
Main Session Theme:
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22)
Opening our lives to the Holy Spirit frees us to love like never before. The Holy Spirit is the love between the Father and Son for all eternity. When he begins to act in us we find a new capacity to love God and also a new capacity to love others. Those who we may have found difficult to forgive we now can find a new grace to forgive.
Mission
& Evangelisation
DAY 6 - FRIDAY
Having experienced God’s love and forgiveness, and on fire with the Holy Spirit, we are called to take the light of Christ out into the world, into the dark places and everywhere we go. This may sound daunting but we do not go alone! The Church, the whole of the body of Christ, is called with us; and He sends us the Holy Spirit, to be our guide and our inspiration.
Main Session Theme:
The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour. (Luke 4:18)
In wanting God’s will we expect to experience something of heaven on earth. We want to be instruments of the kingdom of God coming about through hearts changing and consequently building a new culture of life and love in the world today.
Celebration &
Thanksgiving
DAY 7 - SATURDAY
It’s the last full day of Summer School and the perfect time to think over all that has happened this week. What has changed for you? This has been a week of great promise – a great opportunity to get closer to Jesus and to understand how the Holy Spirit works in our lives.
How has the Lord worked in you? What has He said to you? What have you learnt about the Holy Spirit? How will your experiences this week affect your life going forward? What will you do differently? Where will you go from here?
Today is the day to give thanks for the good things God has given us this past week and to celebrate the new life that he is offering to us.
Commissioning
DAY 8 - SUNDAY
We have had an amazing week of retreat and renewal in the Holy Spirit. Like the disciples, we are now sent out to share Jesus’ message with everyone we meet, to set the world on fire – not just in what we say, but how we act and in whom we are. This can be difficult, but with the Holy Spirit within us and Jesus ready to love us, lead us, forgive us, call us on and catch us when we fall, there is nothing we cannot do!