WALA our Saint Patrick's Parish Church

We went to the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit because it was the feast day of Mary's Assumption into heaven.

While we were there we had a visit around the church.

Mr Slade told us lots of things about our church.He use to be the principal of St James' Catholic School !

Van got dressed up in the Bishop's vestments. He wore a special hat with a cross on it.
Saint Patrick wore a hat like that.
We made up a rhyme : Saint Pat wore a hat like that!

This is a painting of Saint Patrick.

This is a statue of Saint Patrick. He is the Saint of our Church. At the bottom of his Statue is a snake because, a long time ago, St Patrick sent all the snakes away from Ireland.

When it is a sad time in church, like at Easter time when Jesus died, the priest wears purple robes.
When it is a happy time he wears white and gold and he wears green robes for other times. On our prayer table at school we have a green cloth  but at Easter we had a purple cloth. We put on a gold one after Easter when Jesus had come alive again. This matches what the priest wears.
 by Isabella

When we went into the church we saw lots of things.
This is the Altar where Father prepares the bread and wine.
We noticed that there is a cross at the base of the Altar.

Here is the lectern which is where people stand to read out of the bible or say prayers. There is a microphone in the top.
When we had our buddy mass Jake stood up here with Emma to read out the prayers of the faithful.

These are the seats where we sit when we go to church. They are called Pews.

Here is the chair for the Priest.

Here is the chair for the Bishop. It has a big cross at its back.

When we looked up we could see the Year Two children up in the choir loft. We could see the big brass pipes for the Organ. Then we heard Van ring the church bells!

We looked up at the ceiling of the church and it reminded us of a big upside down boat, a bit like Noah's Ark!

We saw a carving in marble of the Last Supper. 

We counted 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 disciples, as well as Jesus.

The stained glass windows were so beautiful and colourful. They told stories from the bible.

The sun shone through the windows and made the colours glow.

There is a special place to pray, called the Mary Chapel. Here is a statue of Mary holding the baby Jesus.

 

There is a really big candle with 2012 on it. That must be the Easter candle for this year.s

After our visit to the Cathedral we climbed onto the bus and went back to school. 
We sang " The wheels on the bus go round and round..."

We had lots of fun and did lots of learning about our church.