Photos

By Erika Anderson, Staff Writer

DECATUR-They've spent the last five months establishing a new community. Now the only thing left to do was to make it official. On Feb. 8, St. Peter Claver students and faculty received a little help from a friend as Archbishop John F. Donoghue celebrated Mass and blessed the school, which draws students from the former Sts. Peter and Paul, St. Anthony's and Our Lady of Lourdes schools. The Mass was held at Sts. Peter and Paul Church which shares property with the school. Father Richard Wise, pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul, and Father T. J. Meehan, pastor of St. Anthony's Church in Atlanta, one of the school's feeder parishes, concelebrated. Deacon Alfred Mitchell and Deacon Whitney Robichaux assisted in the mass. In his homily, Father Wise explained to the students the significance of the archbishop's blessing. "You get strength from a blessing. The blessing of the school is more than just a sacred ritual. The sacred vestments and the holy water are an outward sign, but it is so much deeper than that," he said. "When you are blessed by the archbishop, you are blessed by the church, because he represents the entire universal church." "The archbishop comes to bless this school, not just the buildings, because they've been here a long time, but to bless this gathering of students from all the different parishes," he said. "The blessing will give us the spiritual strength we all need during the hard times in our life." Referring to the first reading from 1 Samuel about the story of David and Goliath, Father Wise encouraged the students to pray for all clergy and to use the grace from the blessing to fight their own giants. "The archbishop has come here today to bless you, but I hope you can be for him a source of blessing," he said. "We need to pray for the archbishop and for all our priests, deacons, sisters and teachers...and we can take on all the giants in our lives knowing that God's grace is upon us." During the offertory procession, along with the bread and the wine, students brought forth various items representing their school, such as the school's mission statement, textbooks and a pillow embroidered with the St. Peter Claver crest. At the end of the Mass, the archbishop spoke to the students. "It is a real privilege and a pleasure for me to come here today and celebrate the Eucharist and bless and rededicate the school," he said. Earlier in the day, he said, he was treated to a tour of the school. "It is newly renovated and beautifully kept," he said. "I was dually impressed with everything I saw. This is a magnificent school with magnificent facilities and I know God will bless each of you who attend St. Peter Claver." He told the students that they should be grateful for the sacrifices made by their parents. "They wanted you to have a good education, not just to learn reading, writing and arithmetic, but because they want you to learn the Catholic faith and to receive a set of morals and principles that you will live with for the rest of your lives," he said. "I hope during your years here that you take advantage of what you can learn here and how you can grow closer to God." Then, amidst dangling plastic snowflakes, colorful artwork depicting Black History Month, and photographs of smiling children, the archbishop made his way through the halls of St. Peter Claver, blessing the classrooms with a sprinkle of holy water. "Today we ask His blessing on this home of searching, of learning the truth about God and about life on the earth," the archbishop prayed. "We ask that the teachers of our young people always try to join the discoveries of human knowledge with the wise truth found in the Gospel, so that they will be able to keep the true faith and live up to it in their lives." In general intercessions, Queen Grady, school principal, prayed that those present may live fully the Gospel of Christ. "Lord our God, you have showered us with such great love that we are called and truly are your children," she prayed. "Help us to use what we learn in order to understand our Christian call more clearly and to live it more fully." Grady expressed her gratitude for the archbishop's presence. "Where we are as a school family at this point, having the archbishop come in and anoint us with his blessing is truly a sacred event for us," she said. "It signifies for us that we have made it. We are embarking on a new life together as a school family, and through it all we are embraced with one another's love and embraced with the love of the Lord."