Cathal Barry
Ronan Barry. Photo Credit: Spiritan Education Trust Chaplains working in Catholic schools have urged stressed students sitting important State exams to turn to prayer to help them cope.
Belvedere College SJ chaplain Trish Carroll told The Irish Catholic that “faith when times are difficult can be a linchpin for many students”.
“Within my work as chaplain, I try to foster the spirit of prayer, taking time for yourself, meditation, journaling thoughts and journeying with the students.
“I feel that faith has a part to play in the life of the students and is something that we try to connect them with throughout their school journey, through retreats, religious education classes and social justice programmes,” the Dublin-based chaplain said.
Ronan Barry, Faith and Mission officer for the Spiritan Education Trust, insisted that “all faith schools should offer routines and rituals to help engage students in their faith and help them enter experiences that involve prayer”.
Doomsday
“When a student is focussed on an all or nothing situation, that they have to get a certain amount of points to further their career or life, if that fails, it can appear like a doomsday scenario.
“Whereas if you come at it from the perspective of faith and have an understanding of God and life, then any exam or any stressful situation can be seen as only part of life. It allows students to put the stressful situation in context,” he said.
Mary McDaid, who teaches at St Joseph’s College in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, said young people “are helped by prayer and in particular, structured prayer sessions where they can come together and be calm, relaxed and pray in a way that appeals to them, meeting them where they’re at”.
“These youth gatherings give them a sense of belonging, a real situation too that they are not alone with the stress, not alone with their need to achieve, this in itself can benefit them greatly. So prayer can help them to be more grounded, to rely on each other and be there for each other rather than be alone, lonely, afraid and ultimately unable to cope,” she said.
