Blessing of the Reflection Garden

On Monday 1 July Father Diego visited our church school, Thomas Whitehead Academy, to conduct a service of blessing for the Reflection Garden in the school grounds.

To bless a place means to invite God to be there in a special way, so that all those who visit that place may be refreshed by his presence and his love for them. Blessing, in a sense, sets a place apart for a purpose that connects us with God. ​The readings at the service were adapted from Genesis 2 and the Canticle of Creatures by St Francis of Assisi, to help the children reflect on our common and God-given responsibly to care for the environment.​

A pdf of the booklet used for the Blessing service is available here. The Bible readings are taken from the New Revised Standard Version or the Good News Bible.
We generally do not use “children’s prayers” as such to minimise the differences between school worship and worship at the Parish Church. A few prayers for the blessing liturgy were gathered from online resources and adapted to our setting.