SPIRITUAL LIFE
Liturgy
Gonzaga marks key moments in the life of the community with appropriate liturgical celebration.
Solemn celebrations of the mass, with the full community, in the College Chapel, and enriched by the college choirs, mark the opening of the academic year, the beginning of each term, major feast days, and the culmination of our educational endeavours at Graduation.
Daily mass is celebrated more simply each morning in the College Prayer-Room, attended by an ever-changing and eclectic group of students, staff, parents, past-pupils, and others. During Lent, to cater for larger numbers, this mass, offered by members of the resident Jesuit Community, takes place in the College Chapel.
The sacrament of Reconciliation is celebrated during Lent; Benediction takes place at the annual Sports Day; in November each year the dead of the college are remembered at a solemn requiem mass attended by families and friends.
Retreats
Rationale:
In Gonzaga we are committed to the growth and development of the boys in a range of knowledge and learning experiences, including the faith dimension of their lives. The purpose of the R.E. programme and the Retreats as part of it, is to integrate the spiritual with the personal development of the student, as well as to build up a Christian community, in the class and in the school. Faith formation is not a mysterious process. In the main, it follows the developmental patterns as other modes of learning. Spiritual growth requires exposure to spiritual values and information and most particularly, spiritual experience. This latter is what the retreat programme provides.
It is a deliberate policy of the school to have retreats running throughout the academic year. This helps to integrate faith formation as an inherent part of the general development of the pupils rather than have it seen as separate from or outside the normal developmental process. An attempt is also made to convey the insight of St. Ignatius of Loyola that God can be found, not just in ritual and religious formation, but ‘in all things’.
Enquiries about retreats can be addressed to Ms Desmond.
Sixth Year
The College offers Sixth Year retreats in a variety of formats, which have the central objective of helping each student to reflect, at this more mature age, on his daily human experience of life. What are your life principles and core values? What is the meaning of your life and how do you live it? Ignatius of Loyola asks a fundamental life question “What do you desire?” Sixth Year Retreats take place in November in the week following the winter examinations.
Fifth Year: KAIROS
Kairos dates 2022-23:
Kairos 48: 20-23 September
Kairos 49: 17-20 October
Transition Year
All TY students have the opportunity to attend a three-day Surf Retreat in Rossnowlagh, Co. Donegal, run by the Wild and Free Adventure Company. View photos of the 2022 retreat here.
Third Year
Each Third Year class group enjoys one full retreat day after the winter examinations in December.
Second Year
Each Second Year class group enjoys one full retreat day after the winter examinations in December.
First Year
First Year retreats will take place at the end of April. See photos of the First Year Retreat in Glendalough, May 2022, here.
Links
See here to view a set of talks recorded during a seminar called 'Faith in the Future - Seminar for Religious Education in Jesuit Schools' held in March 2107. Speakers included Tom Groome (Boston College) and Peter Knappen (Jesuit Education Delegate of Belgium).
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