Retreats

Students experience a retreat during each year of their time at St Mary’s to grow closer to each other as a community and develop their relationship with God.  The retreat experiences vary across the year groups to ensure that the experiences build on one another.

Retreats for Years 7 and 8, and the Sixth Form take place at St. Theresa of Lisieux Parish in Stansted. Activities include Mass, team-building exercises and small group discussions on the theme of the retreat, giving the students a moment to reflect on their journey and faith.

Years 10 and 11 have the opportunity to go on a residential retreat with SPEC, the Westminster Diocese Retreat Centre.

Pilgrimage

Our Year 9 students have an opportunity to go on pilgrimage to either The Basilica of our Lady of Walsingham or Aylesford Priory. During the day, they are able to deepen their understanding of pilgrimage and prayer.

To go on pilgrimage is not simply to visit a place to admire its treasures of nature, art or history. To go on pilgrimage really means to step out of ourselves in order to encounter God where he has revealed himself, where his grace has shone with particular splendour and produced rich fruits of conversion and holiness among those who believe.

- Pope Benedict XVI