[A] talented student from St Benedict’s School has helped complete a brand new booklet based on Stations of the Cross, by producing all of the artwork for the publication.
Every year the Knights of St Columbia (KSC) hold a national painting competition at Easter. Students are requested to paint a scene inspired by the Easter story. Stations of the Cross refers to a series of images depicting Jesus Christ on the day of his crucifixion and accompanying prayers.
Tyler Hartley, one of the school’s talented Year 13 students was approached to create the art work and as a result of her hard work and dedication St Benedict’s now have a truly inspiring set of paintings.
In recognition of the success of it’s students in the competition, the RE department in the school has encouraged a group of students to write a series of reflections covering each of the fourteen stations of the Way of the Cross.
These reflections combined with Tyler’s stunningly evocative art work has been published by the school and is now on sale, priced at £4.00 per copy, from the school and though local parishes. The Knights of St Columba are promoting the publications through their national network.
Archbishop Malcolm McMahon in his foreword says: “This traditional devotion has been transformed into a modern form of prayer without losing any of its power. That is quite an achievement for which the authors and illustrator should be congratulated. Lent is a particular season for celebrating the ‘stations’, but these wonderful illustrations and inspiring and prayerful reflections cry out for use throughout the year.”
In recognition of her work, Tyler has been awarded a Certificate of Merit for Spiritual Artwork and has received £100 from KSC.
Tyler commented: “I feel very grateful to be given this opportunity to work closely with the Church and produce something worthwhile for them.”
Also, last year as part of the school’s Literacy across the Curriculum work, over 200 students were entered into a national essay writing competition.
The students had to write an essay on a topic of their choosing and reflect upon what the Church teaches upon the topic, and why the Church could be seen as being counter cultural.
Two students from St Benedict’s achieved a top three place. Chloe Telford came third and is awarded a certificate and £30; Sonia Veneziana-Rocha came second and is awarded a certificate and £50. Both students wrote essays on a contemporary Catholic theme. The standard and quality of their writing was outstanding.
Chloe Telford was very pleased with the award: “I am very pleased that I won this award, it was very unexpected.”
And finally our local Whitehaven Council and St Benedict’s have been jointly awarded the Madonna Oakes Trophy.
This is a national trophy and is normally awarded to a province that has done outstanding work on Catholic Action and Youth Work. It was felt by the Board that the work of Council 74 and St Benedict’s was of such a high quality that the two should be jointly awarded the trophy.
