Our Catholic schools start with prayer

Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

The superintendent presented challenges facing Catholic schools.
A teacher suggested they pray.
The response?
Eucharistic adoration in schools throughout the diocese.
    David Perda, superintendent of schools, said that after a school meeting several months ago a teacher said to him: “Strategic planning is all well and good, but don’t you think we should start with prayer?”
That teacher, Jennifer Nealon, said Superintendent Perda had talked about enrollment and other concerns which he said were being studied. She thought of praying for the schools, having them all do eucharistic adoration at once.
“These are God’s schools … Just put it before God,” said the teacher from Our Lady of the Valley School in Uxbridge.
    “We’re Catholic schools,” Superintendent Perda said. “Why wouldn’t we take the opportunity for our students to get closer to Jesus?”
He said he sought the advice of Sister Marguerite Timothy Young, a Sister of Notre Dame who was then an associate superintendent and has since died. She suggested that he ask Bishop McManus, who said it was a great idea, Superintendent Perda said.
    He sent schools a copy of a letter Bishop McManus sent to pastors. In it, the bishop thanked the priests for helping foster the schools’ Catholic identity.
The bishop said worship of the Eucharist outside of Mass “is certainly a traditional devotion which our students should understand and experience as part of their catechesis. …
    “The practice of eucharistic adoration has taken hold with many of our young adults who prize this opportunity for silence away from the commotion and confusion of daily life,” he wrote. “Pope Francis has referred to it as ‘wasting time’ before the Lord … so that we might come to know him intimately.”
    Msgr. Robert K. Johnson, director of the Office for Divine Worship, and Elizabeth A. Marcil, associate director of that office and director of the Office of Religious Education, helped with preparations for adoration, so schools could follow the proper protocol.
    Ms. Marcil said she gave principals material about the Eucharist and eucharistic adoration and appropriate prayers to use. Adoration must be focused on Christ, she said.
    Learning about the practice of adoration could be beneficial for more than just Catholic students in the schools.
    “I think they (students) have to continue to develop and refine their relationship with Christ, because it truly is a lifelong journey,” Superintendent Perda said.
    “I hope some of the non-Catholic students see this and I hope it piques their curiosity to get to know our faith a little deeper, and how beautiful it is,” he said.
    Originally all the schools were to hold adoration the same day, but then options were broadened, the superintendent said. Some have already held it and some are planning to do so.
    “It went very well,” said Denise Allain, principal of St. Peter-Marian Central Catholic Junior/Senior High School. SPM students attended adoration during theology classes throughout the day on Oct. 18. “We had a couple of kids that were moved to tears,” she said.
    Trinity Catholic Academy in Southbridge also had students go to adoration on Oct. 18. Josie Citta, principal, said Father Kenneth R. Cardinale, pastor of nearby St. John Paul II Parish, introduced the practice to them on Oct. 16 “because … we’ve never done it.”
    Father Cardinale talked about Jesus transforming bread into his body, even though it still looks like bread. He talked about reserving consecrated hosts in the tabernacle to take to the sick.
    “If he’s there, we can go and hang out with him,” he said. “It’s the best way to pray because we’re really with the true Jesus.”
    He told students he wanted them to be quiet when entering the chapel, because other people would be praying and because Jesus is God. Jesus would be exposed in a monstrance that looked like the sun, helping them focus on him at the center.
    “Just say, ‘Lord, you’re there; I’m here; I love you,” he said.
    He also gave other suggestions for how to pray there: thanking God, asking God’s help with problems and forgiveness for sins, and praying for others – “maybe even think about the people who are giving you a hard time.” He told students, “I bet you your 10 minutes won’t be enough time.”
    Middle-schoolers at St. Leo Elementary School in Leominster usually attend part of the weekly parish adoration, and will continue to do so, said Nancy Pierce, principal. But on Oct. 19 the younger students were invited to take turns going to adoration too.
    It was a tradition at St. Peter Central Catholic Elementary School in Worcester for students to go to the parish adoration and Benediction on first Fridays, said Meg Kursonis, principal. Those in kindergarten through grade eight would walk to St. Peter’s Church for the end of the adoration and Benediction.
    That changed when after months of inclement weather, Masses began being celebrated at the school and adoration for parishioners was moved to evenings, said Msgr. Francis J. Scollen, pastor.
    Mrs. Kursonis said the school plans to hold the diocesan adoration during its celebration of national Catholic Schools Week in January or February.
     “We’ll make it a wonderful day,” she said. “I think it’s our mission as Catholic educators to expose these children to the tenants of our faith, adoration being one of them, and the celebration of the Eucharist at Mass, because, in many, many homes” the children are not exposed to the faith. “The more things we’re able to expose them to, the more we do God’s work.”
    Andrea Tavaska, principal of Holy Family Academy in Gardner, said they will educate everyone about adoration before holding it. It is to be among topics that Father Stephen E. Lundrigan, pastor of Annunciation Parish in Gardner, addresses at a professional development day, then teachers will teach students about it, she said. Students attend weekly Mass, but not the weekly adoration, she said.
    Deborah W. Wright, principal of St. Bernard Elementary School in Fitchburg, reported that their students in grades 5 through 8 will participate in adoration with students from St. Bernard Central Catholic High School on Nov. 8 during the celebration of New England Catholic Schools Week, which runs from Nov. 5-9.
    Our Lady of the Valley School, where Ms. Nealon is a language arts teacher for grades 7 and 8, has scheduled its adoration for next Wednesday, during the Catholic Schools Week.
    She said she “was really happy” with the superintendent’s response to her suggestion. “I could tell that he was really into it the night of the meeting.”
    “I think we’re going to have to do it again next year,” Superintendent Perda said. “With the bishop’s blessing, maybe we can make this an annual practice.”