Student-led Prayer Services at Holy Ghost Catholic School

When Holy Ghost Catholic School’s pastor, Father Hyginus Anuta, is in Nigeria between Christmas and Ash Wednesday, they are unable to celebrate weekly Masses. They look at this as an opportunity to teach their students about paraliturgies and involve them in planning and leading prayer services.

Prayer services allow for flexibility and creativity on the part of the classes; the service does not have to conform to the readings of the day or follow the structure of the Mass. Since the school is focusing on the virtues and the fruits of the Holy Spirit, each prayer service reflects one of those.  

Mrs. Jennifer Murphy-Dye, our Middle School Religion Teacher, meets with each class, 3rd through 8th grades, prior to their assigned day to lead, and together, they brainstorm what message they want to convey in the service. The classes are excited to have this opportunity to choose a virtue and plan what to do and decide who will do the various readings. What does this look like in practice? The 5th grade class, for example, chose joy for their theme, and looked through the Bible to find readings about joy. They also chose to read stories about what brings real joy. On the day of the prayer service, they lay out pictures they had cut from magazines and asked students to choose one that makes them happy. Then the 5th graders shared what they had learned about the differences between those things that bring fleeting happiness versus the genuine joy that Christians experience. There was prayer and song that reinforced the theme of the prayer service.

In addition to student-led prayer services for 3rd-8th grades, the 8th graders work in teams of 4-5 to facilitate shorter, hands-on prayer service experiences for our primary students. In the late 1990s, working as a youth minister, Mrs. Murphy-Dye became well-acquainted with the USCCB’s (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) 1997 document on youth ministry called Renewing the Vision: A Framework for Catholic Youth Ministry. In this guide, the Church in the United States identifies eight essential components of ministering to adolescents, two of which are Leadership Development and Prayer and Worship. These are the components that are being built and reinforced in our middle school students as they plan prayer services for others.

The 8th grade teams plan meaningful prayer experiences at a level that the Pre-K through 2nd graders can understand. During one of the primary prayer services, for example, the 8th graders read Scripture about the importance of being peacemakers and then acted out a scenario about building bridges instead of walls. The primary students were then tasked with each doing their part to build a bridge – using rectangular pieces of brown construction paper - over a river of unkindness. As they built their bridges, the 8th grade teams got down on the floor with the younger children and helped them.

Read the reviews from both the 8th graders and the primary students, and discover why Holy Ghost will continue to hold these prayer services!

Here's what the middle school prayer leaders have to say about the experience: