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By Kathi Stearns
Staff Writer
ATLANTA--As Donald Sasso, principal of St. Pius X High School, makes the
morning announcements, he once again seeks the prayers of the school community:
one of his students has fallen from a window at home; her status is critical.
Knowing that preliminary reports indicate that the student may require a
miracle to simply survive, he asks the St. Pius community to pray for the
student, her parents and her friends as they deal with her life-threatening
situation.
As the bell rings and classes begin, those students with free periods begin
filling the chapel where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed each Thursday for a
period of adoration. Throughout the day students, faculty, staff, and even
entire religion classes, flock to the chapel.
According to Father John Hopkins, LC, chaplain at St. Pius X High School,
the school initiated adoration of the Blessed Sacrament each Thursday during
the 1995-96 school year in response to Archbishop John F. Donoghue's call for
an Eucharistic Renewal throughout the Archdiocese of Atlanta.
Father Hopkins said that in addition to teaching the students about the real
presence of Christ in the Eucharist, St. Pius wants each student who comes
through the doors to develop a relationship with Christ that will endure
throughout his lifetime.
"Youth ministry as a whole is very relational," Father Hopkins
said. "The most powerful and longest relationship each of our students
will have in their lifetime is their relationship with Jesus Christ. Just like
any other relationship, if our relationship with Jesus is to develop, we must
spend time with him on a regular basis, in addition to the weekly celebration
of Mass."
Father Hopkins added that during periods of crisis students now know
immediately where to turn.
"They go to the Lord first," he said. "If it isn't a day when
adoration is scheduled, they will ask for it. We hope that this devotion is
something the students will take from here and integrate into their lives after
they have left St. Pius. We want adoration to become a part of their spiritual
life now and forever."
Father Hopkins credits Sasso with introducing this rather traditional form
of worship to a school community which often uses contemporary approaches to
meet the spiritual needs of the student body.
“During the celebration of Mass we often use more contemporary music to
set the tone for the liturgy,” Father Hopkins said. “But Mr. Sasso
believed in the importance of introducing this traditional devotion into the
community and allowing the students to fall in love with Jesus Christ through
adoration. It is a beautiful thing to witness.”
Many students say that their lives will never be the same since being
introduced to eucharistic adoration.
Rachel Dunn, a graduating senior, feels that the very first time she went to
adoration and knelt before the Blessed Sacrament she was able to come to find
peace with the Lord who had called her father from this life while she was in
sixth grade.
"For years I had been very angry and confused about why the Lord would
take my father," she said. "As I knelt before him I was able to tell
the Lord that I was angry with him, and then let go of that anger," she
said. "I had wanted to yell, 'Where have you been?' And then I realized he
hadn't gone anywhere; I just hadn't gone to him. For the first time in a long
while I experienced a sense of peace and unconditional love and support that I
had never sensed before."
Jonathan Bonus, a graduating senior at St. Pius, feels that the experience
of participating in adoration helped him move beyond the teachings of the
Catholic Church on the real presence.
"Throughout my Catholic school education I have always understood about
the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist," he said. "But the
reality was, all the teaching was in my head. The first time I went to
adoration on retreat it wasn't something in my head. It was something I
experienced in my heart. It has changed my relationship with Christ
forever."
Melissa Dolgetta, the salutatorian of the graduating class, said that time
spent before the Blessed Sacrament helped her with the process of discerning
her academic future.
“I could get away from the many outside pressures and expectations that
people had of me, and that I had of myself. I could go before him and ask Jesus
Christ what he wanted for my life,” she said. "It was through our
time together that I felt the Lord calling me to Georgia Tech, a school with a
strong academic program, but more importantly, a strong Catholic campus
ministry organization which will enable me to continue to develop my faith and
my relationship with Jesus Christ. I have come to realize that faith isn't a
feeling; it is a way of life."
Sasso believes that many graces have flowed from having weekly adoration
available to students, faculty and parents.
"Adoration allows a quiet time and place for contemplation, the sharing
of our innermost thoughts and the fostering of this special relationship where
we listen to our Lord who is really present to us in the Eucharist," he
said. "And since our own archbishop has stressed the importance of
devotion to the Eucharist it also provides us the opportunity to respond to his
pastoral concerns as we integrate our initiatives with those of our
shepherd.”
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