Who am I?

My name is Brother James Hayes f.i.c.

I was born in Southampton in 1968, the youngest of five children. My parents were both born in Ireland, coming over to England after their marriage. When they both retired in 1991, they decided to move back to their beloved Emerald Isle and the green countryside of Co. Limerick.

I'm a former pupil of St. Mary's College in Southampton, run by the De La Mennais Brothers, and I am a life-long Southampton F.C. fan. I joined the De La Mennais Brothers in 1990 after completing a Music degree at Liverpool University. At the moment I am College Chaplain and part-time teacher of Music, RE and Film Studies in a Liverpool boys comprehensive run by my order, St. Francis Xavier's College. I have for many years worked in parish music ministry with and for young people and for 5 years was Music Minister at a LifeTeen youth group in St. Austin's R.C. Parish, Liverpool.

I am mad keen on cycling (and am a member of Birkenhead North End CC), swimming and sport in general. You will see on my blog information about various sponsored cycles for charity that I have undertaken over the years, the latest this year for the Royal British Legion (from Berlin to the Normandy beaches).

Much of my energies go into finding and arranging worship songs and Mass parts to use in youth Masses as well as sometimes writing my own. I am passionate about giving young people the chance to attend Catholic liturgies that, especially through the words and music of the worship songs we use, may bring them closer to God, may help them to start and develop a personal relationship with Jesus and may also help them to find a home in the Church. Such worship songs are a tremendous source of spiritual nourishment for me, so I simply want to share what I have been given.

Since 1993, I have brought various groups of young people on retreat to monasteries in England and Wales, to De La Mennais Brothers' youth gatherings in France (where our order was founded), to three World Youth Day festivals (Cologne, Madrid and this year in Krakow). I have also taken 4 groups of young people to Africa (Togo x2, Senegal and Uganda), as well as to Haiti, to participate in Educational Projects with local young people in each country.

I find my life as a Brother incredibly fulfilling. There are obviously challenges that one has to face, just as in any walk of life, but following what I believe to be my calling (vocation) from God has given me a level of joy, peace and fulfilment that I cannot imagine having elsewhere.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

District 9 - a sci-fi anti-apartheid allegory and the first handheld camera masterpiece?

Image
Following on from yesterday's post, here's an interesting article from The Guardian film blog . District 9: Where aliens come to Earth and handheld comes of age District 9, the shock blockbuster produced by Peter Jackson, isn't just notable for its box office dominance and viral marketing campaign. It's also the closest thing to a handheld masterpiece that's yet been made Handheld on handholding … A still from District 9 Lars, time to break out that cigar. When Dogme 95 was brewing, I wonder if von Trier seriously thought his cin-emetic had any chance of influencing pop culture. With the release of sci-fi blockbuster District 9 , we have the answer: the handheld style has finally come of age. The setup - filmed in to-camera interviews with its pencil-neck protagonist, Wikus Van de Merwe, and intrepid Unsteadicam as he enters the extra-terrestrial township - is jarring in the very best way. And traditional complaints of motion sickness, migraine and general inner-ea
Read more

God You don't need me, but somehow You want me - Tenth Avenue North, “Control”

Image
I sent the below message to my teaching colleagues in school this evening, braced as we are for the arrival of “those-who-shall-not-be-named” (i.e. OFSTED, national school inspectors) sometime between now and Easter. For those of you who live outside of Britain their job is to monitor and ensure high standards in all schools… the problem is that they keep moving the goalposts. Anyway, enough of that. Here’s what I said: I think that the attached video teaching is for us right now, to help us not lose sight of who we are and why we are here in a Catholic school. It's too late for the weekend just gone, but try to take on board its message of "wasting time for God" over the coming weeks, despite the pressures that we are all under. Even if you are not a believer yourself, give yourself some time alone with your thoughts, if you can… even just a few minutes.  The video teaching is by one of my favourite bands, Tenth Avenue North, and it accompanies a song of
Read more

Transcendent God

Over the past few months I have become much more aware of the beauty of the Grail translation of the Psalms that we use in Morning and Evening Prayer (Divine Office) - I will write more about this in the near future - and I am also finding that this has rubbed off on my attitude to the other prayers in the Office. For example, the following hymn that we prayed just over a week ago. The words struck me as if I was discovering them anew, and this after having prayed (or simply recited?) them at least once a month for about 25 years.  The optimism of the imagery struck me most forcefully and I love the idea of God hearing our prayer "before we call", i.e. as the paslmist says elsewhere "before ever a word was on my lips... you knew me through and through" (I paraphrase). See what you think yourselves... Morning Prayer of Sunday, week 3 Transcendent God in whom we live, The Resurrection and the Light, We sing for you a morning hymn To end the si
Read more