Cube of love builds friendships across communities in Northern Ireland

 
Two schools, from different traditions in Newtownabbey, County Antrim have used the Cube of Love with their pupils as a tool for promoting pro-social education during their ‘Friendship Week’ this month. The week ran from 18th to 22nd November and was billed ‘Anti Bullying Week’ but following their participation at a ‘Learning Fraternity’ conference in Rome, the two school principals decided to turn the week into a ‘Friendship Week’ and teach the children in their schools a little more about the art of loving, through the Cube of Love.Mr Kevin McKeague, headmaster of St James Primary School and Mr Frazer Bailey, headmaster of Whitehouse Primary School were part of a group from Ireland who participated in "Learning Fraternity" an education conference held in early September in Castelgandolfo.

The Cube of Love, created by Focolare founder Chiara Lubich, is a program to help children concretely live the Gospel message of love. The six sided dice has a brief message that focuses the child’s efforts on caring for others. These include: Love everyone, Be the first to love, Love the other as yourself, Share the other’s hurt or joy, Love your enemy and We love one another.  The idea is to throw the cube each day at the beginning of school and for each person, children and teachers, to live out the motto for that day.

Mr Kevin McKeague, headmaster of St James’ Primary School and Mr Frazer Bailey, headmaster of Whitehouse Primary School were part of a group from Ireland who participated in “Learning Fraternity” an education conference held in early September in Castelgandolfo. It was while they were at this conference, that they came up with the idea to turn the  ‘Anti-Bullying Week’ into a ‘Pro-friendship Week’ where all would learn to live fraternity.

Their first ‘Friendship Week’ was held in their neighbouring schools in Newtownabbey from 18 – 22 November. Each morning both headmasters rolled the Cube of Love in their schools at School Assembly to encourage the pupils and their teachers to practise the art of loving each day.

“The cube has six faces. This is not without significance as each person who comes into our lives has a face and it is important that we take the time to look into the face of our neighbour, who at that time takes on the face of Jesus, if we take time to look for him beyond our busy work,” said Kevin McKeague.

In advance of the week, teachers of the two schools came together for an afternoon in October to learn about the Cube of Love.

During Friendship Week pupils created their own artwork based on the six points of the Art of Loving. From these, the schools’ student councils will chose the six best works of art (logos) to design their own Cube of Love, which each child will receive as a present to bring home for Christmas.
For more information on the Cube of Love in schools: cubeoflove@focolare.ie

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