Fr Jakub Ruzniak SDB, Chaplain, writes about a caring Advent at Savio Salesian College, Bootle.

Advent is a time of preparation of Christmas. To do that we are invited to spend more time on prayer, perhaps find a good book or attend Advent talks in your local parish. We are also invited to think less about ourselves and more about others. With that in mind, this year at Savio, we have adopted four charities.

JOSPICE, The Whitechapel Centre and our local SVP are all very familiar to Savio students who like to put a smile on the faces of those less fortunate. We have asked for donations of food, toiletries and clothing. We sell small pins of the Christmas star for JOSPICE and will, of course do our Reindeer Romp on the last day.

Our fourth charity, however, is new: Salesian Students in Zambia. Zambia is a poor African country where there is quite literally no money for anything other than survival. But, globally, these are our brothers: Salesians across the world and like every other Salesian, they do enjoy their football! So, we have made the appeal. The students led the prayers and prepared a special appeal video (see it below) to invite anyone who has grown out of their football strip, boots or hoodies, or are thinking of replacing them this Christmas, think about donating them to this cause and put a smile on the boys faces. Can you imagine a Liverpool or Everton team member without their strip?

Fr Jakub SDB