Prayers and Resources
Brother James Hayes, one of our school chaplains at
St Francis Xavier's College in Woolton, tells us what he has been
doing in lockdown as he goes back to his musical roots.
I’ve been keeping busy during lockdown by going back to my musical roots, a bit like St Peter in limbo after the resurrection, saying “I’m going fishing!” When in a limbo/unusual situation, I think it’s natural to go back to that for which you were trained. Evangelising “the digital continent”, or at least being present there with many other like-minded religious and priests (Twitter and Facebook especially) has been a major element of my activity in lockdown.
But, as a Music graduate, musician/chaplain it seemed natural and normal to try and share some worship song/hymn/secular pop tune performances on social media with our school community (past and present), fellow chaplains and the wider community. A couple of tentative forays were met with approval and requests for regular recordings to “cheer people up” during lockdown then followed. So, I persevered. I’m now up to 23, including a couple I’ve written myself during lockdown to the words of Franciscan hermit Twitter friend (“Bodmin Hermit”).