On Saturday 11th April 2026, Father Anthony SDB and Michelle Friend our Youth Leader together with our Confirmation Candidates and Catechists shared another special day of reflection together, in preparation for our fast-approaching Confirmation Day on Saturday, 25th April in Portsmouth at St. John’s Cathedral. Session One We explored how...
A reflection on mercy, youth, and the healing grace of forgiveness Seven months into my teaching career, I sent a student for the first time to “Reflection.” After the day’s activities, the student approached me and asked, “Do you forgive me?” I replied, “Oh yes, I do forgive you, but try to behave...
On Sunday 26th October 2025, the Confirmation candidates for 2025/26 met for our first session. This year, we have introduced a brand-new programme called Sycamore and we started with Session 1 – The Search for Happiness. To start the meeting off, Fr Anthony introduced the Catechists for the programme –...
On Saturday 8th June 2024, 39 youngsters from our parish of OLSD and 17 from the parish of Fleet and Church Crookham of the North East Hampshire Pastoral Area received the Sacrament of Confirmation by Rt. Rev. Philip Egan, Bishop of Portsmouth at St John’s Cathedral, Portsmouth. The groups were...
On Saturday, the 18 May was the 11th confirmation session for this year’s candidates and was also their second day retreat as a group. This theme of the retreat was ‘Forgiveness’ and more importantly the forgiveness and grace that Christ gives us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The sessions...
The focus of this week’s session was “Why did Jesus die?” During the session we looked at Christ’s ultimate sacrifice for our salvation, and why God sacrificed himself for us. Before the session began the candidates placed their phones in the box by the doorway. At the start of the session...
The focus of this session was Human Dignity. At the start of the session, we collected the phones of the candidates so that they could properly focus on the session and so that they could focus properly on the session and on the tasks and so they did not have...
On Saturday 24 February 2024 our 35 confirmation candidates gathered for their first retreat, led by Fr Anthony on the theme of 'The Real Presence of the Eucharist'.
On Friday the 2nd of February from 7-8.30pm was the 5th confirmation session for this year’s candidates. On Friday the 2nd of February from 7-8.30pm was the 5th confirmation session for this year’s candidates. At the start of the session, we collected the phones of the candidates so that they could properly focus on...
On Friday the 4th of January from 7-8.30pm our lead Catechist, Anthony led our confirmation group for its third session, the evening was like the last session a mix of prayer, fun games, a video testimony and meeting in small groups to discuss who Jesus Christ is?, and the power of...
