turning concern into action

What Have the Mini Vinnies been doing?

June and July saw the Mini Vinnies continuing good deeds in their schools and the community and preparing for tasks and projects they could continue during the summer holidays.

Mini Vinnies from each school in our district reflected how much they had enjoyed the school year and what a difference being a Mini Vinnie had made to their personal development, the school and the community. They suggested that they would like to meet Mini Vinnies from other schools and parishes to share their experiences. On June 10th at St. Patricks Church, York Road, Leeds, an end of school year mass and celebration took place. It was a beautiful mass with carefully chosen hymns, prayers and readings and each school contributing and participating in the celebration. Thanks to the hard work of all the teachers and head-teachers the young people were able to come together and take part in this wonderful mass and later enjoy meeting each other, sharing their stories and experiences and of course drinks and snacks. It was wonderful to see the array of colours of the uniforms of each school: Fr. Kelly welcomed each school by name and the area : St. Patrick Torre Road, St. Anthony’s Beeston, St. Francis Beeston, St. Joseph Holbeck, St. Mary’s Rothwell, Corpus Christi Halton Moor, St. Nicholas Gipton, Our Lady’s Seacroft, St. Augustine Harehills, Holy Family Wortley, St. Francis Morley and when he said St. Philip - he had to ask the children ‘ Where is St. Philip’s?’ and the children shouted out loud and clear MIDDLETON and then one young man called out proudly ‘ MIGGY’. A very very big ‘Thank You’ to Mrs Sue Kneeshaw, headteacher at St. Patricks Primary school who organised the mass and this wonderful morning. The photographs are of the mass and the gathering afterwards.

Mini Vinnies and next steps
Many of the schools said goodbye to their year 6 Mini Vinnies as they transferred to high school. Corpus Christi Catholic College will welcome the new arrivals to the ‘Youth Group’ in Year 7, where they will continue the work as young Vincentians. The primary schools will recruit new Mini Vinnies from Years 3 and 4 and the great work will continue.

On September 27th, the feast day of St. Vincent de Paul, a mass will be celebrated by Bishop Marcus at the Cathedral of St. Anne. Plans and preparations for this started in October 2015 and all the hard work will come to fruition on our Patron’s feast day. There will be 45 schools attending from our Diocese and in the region of 650 Mini Vinnies plus their teachers and SVP parish members. The young people are really excited about the mass and meeting Bishop Marcus.

In this Holy Year of Mercy the Mini Vinnies are giving their time, gifts and talents to help others. Please remember in your prayers the young people – that they will ‘Turn Concern into Action’ by meeting, thinking and talking about their spirituality and connecting their beliefs and values with practical activities and tasks in the school, parish and community so they can help make their faith real.

I will continue to keep you all posted about the developments, events and progress of the Mini Vinnies in our Diocese.

Gaynor Markham