On Monday November 30th, St. Brigid’s Parish Pastoral Centre hosted a workshop on the theme: What Really Matters? – Our Stories and Memories Matter’.
Our Parish Mission Statement includes the words ‘Believing we are loved and accepted by God, our aim is to make this love visible, by working together to nurture a truly Christian community … as in a home, all know they are welcome and have a real sense of belonging.’
This has been the purpose and aim behind a series of Art workshops held in our Pastoral entre, where different generations in our cornmunity get to know each other and have fun collaborating on making something creative together. The finished works are displayed in the local Community Centres, the Church and in our local schools.
We approached a group of adults representing our local Parishes and also the wider community of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown and asked each participant to bring an object that would help share a story or memory of something ‘that matters’ to them.

The programme included simple team building moments, a ‘journalist style’ Q & A session and lots of animated conversation!

We took photographs, relaxed over a delicious Afternoon Tea provided by some very generous local volunteers and collaborated in an Art installation to support the theme
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The fruits of these few hours together were a wonderful collection of stories and memories.

The afternoon’s activities were enthusiastically supported by Transition Year Students from Loreto College Foxrock.

We aim to have an exhibition in Spring of 2016, curated from the completed artwork, photos and written accounts which highlight the worth of how our seemingly ‘ordinary’ of experiences become ‘extraordinary,’ when shared.

We were reminded of the value of finding ways in our busy lives to spend time connecting with others. When asked at the end of the afternoon ‘what really matters’, there were many responses… “friendship, empathy, integrity, authenticity, hope”… But we felt one participant summed up our time together when they answered, “listening matters.”

St. Brigid’s Parish.