The Spencer Hurst Prayer Garden
Cardinal Michael Louis Fitzgerald opened and blessed our new Prayer Garden at St. Thomas of Canterbury School, Walsall, on Friday 14th February 2020. Governors, parents, staff and children were extremely grateful to the Cardinal for managing to find the time in his busy schedule to open our Prayer Garden.
The garden was created for two reasons, firstly in memory for Spencer Hurst, an absolutely beautiful, kind, fun-loving child who attended St. Thomas of Canterbury School but sadly passed away and secondly enable all our children and staff that come to our school, both now and in the future to spend time in prayer.
However, in this particularly important current climate along with Pope Francis's recent encyclical named 'Laudato Si' which discusses the need to care for our planet, we as a school need to show our love and commitment to being stewards of creation. Pope Francis explains that the earth is God’s gift to us, full of beauty and wonder and it belongs to everyone, that is why it was so important that all the children were fully involved with creating the prayer garden and together with the ‘Faith Committee’ will all be responsible for taking care of the garden.
The whole school participated in the blessing together with Spencer’s mother and his family. While the children were singing a member of Spencer’s family together with some pupils from the school planted some bulbs. During the final blessing, Cardinal Fitzgerald spoke beautifully about all the pupils in school and about Spencer’s family.
In this particular year ‘The God who speaks’ the staff, parents and children can come into our prayer garden, embrace the beauty, be still, listen and to hear what God is saying.