Fr Andrew Ebrahim SDB writes about the recent pilgrimage from St John Bosco College Battersea to the Isle of Wight

Our first Year 11 trip to the Benedictine monastery of Our Lady of Quarr took place in the middle of September, just before the weather turned. It was an ideal place for students to consolidate what they had learnt in RE last year and it was a subtle way of helping them to revisit topics that could well be examined next summer.

Students sat silently in the monastery's chapel in prayer and contemplation. For many of them, such silence is alien because they are used to noise or activity from the moment they get out of bed in the morning. The few minutes of silence were design to help lead them into prayer and from that to try and get some understanding of what we mean when we use the term 'numinous'.

We then went in silence to the pilgrimage chapel, a very small shrine, and talked a little about what a pilgrimage was and the purpose of going on pilgrimage. Trying to light candles in front of the statue of Our Lady was interesting to say the least, but that is another story for another time.

Students used their experience to recap what could be found in a church building; and then it was time to engage with God's creation. This took the form of feeding pigs, fish and ducks, in that order!

Fr Andrew Ebrahim SDB