Wednesday, Aug. 27, marked the Mass of the Holy Spirit at Rosary Academy. This Mass is widely celebrated by Catholic schools at the beginning of the school year. The main part of the Mass focuses on the students praying for the Holy Spirit to come down on the school and bless them with wisdom and guidance in the new school year, as Fr. Ian explained in his homily.
It is Evelyn Espeleta’s ’29 first year on the Rosary campus, and her experience has already been one to remember. Her second Rosary Mass shows the way the Royals live everyday life; she explains, “I felt empowered by the love of Jesus and his presence. I thought it was amazing how we prayed over the victims from Annunciation Catholic School.” The Royals did, in fact, pray over the elementary school and their community, showing how they encourage the Holy Spirit to not only bless them in this new school year but also their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
A big part of Masses is also the people who set it up. Each Mass is carefully set up and taken down by Rosary’s Campus Ministry alongside their Executive Director, Mrs. Kearns. This group of girls arrives at school early every Mass day to go to the Karcher Center and set up a beautiful service for the rest of their school. They also stay after Mass to clean up the many chairs and take down the altar. In addition to this, they participate in the Mass by reading, altar serving and being Eucharistic Ministers.
The Royals ended their Mass by extending an arm over Fr. Ian in prayer for a safe pilgrimage and saying a prayer to their mother in heaven. Later, Campus Ministry could be seen folding chairs and putting away the altar plants. The girls enjoyed their Mass and prayed for a strong and successful year at Rosary Academy.
