The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales have designated 2020 as 'The God Who Speaks': A Year of the Word to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Verbum Domini - Pope Benedict XVI’s Apostolic Exhortation on ‘The Word of the Lord’, and the 1600th anniversary of death of St. Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin.

Therefore, 2020 will be a year of celebrating, living and sharing God's word.

We are invited to listen afresh to the word of God as did Our Blessed Lady at the Annunciation, to encounter anew the presence of that word, and to proclaim it afresh in the Church and the World.

The Year of the Word at St James's

We started off the Year of the Word by learning all about the Bible in our phase worship. We heard all about the different books of the Bible, and learnt some interesting facts.

Year Five Prayer

Our Year Five children have created a join prayer with other Year Five children from Catholic schools in Richmond. The children's ideas were then collated together to create the prayer below:

We are now using the Year of the Word Prayer in school during our morning reflections and collective worship. We have also included the prayer in the children's individual prayer journals. 

Year of the Word Mass

We will be attending a joint Mass at St Mary's University with other Richmond Catholic Schools to celebrate the Year of the Word. This will take place in March.

To find out more about the Year of the Word, see here