At the Gallagher Gymnasium where students at St. John’s College High School in Washington, D.C., cheer for their basketball teams, at a May 18 Mass they offered spirited applause for fellow students being baptized, receiving their First Eucharist and the sacrament of Confirmation.
“It’s a day of great joy for the Lord and the Church and for this community,” said Washington Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, the main celebrant at the school’s annual Founder’s Day Mass that honors the legacy of St. John Baptist de La Salle, the patron saint of Catholic teachers and the founder of the De La Salle Christian Brothers who sponsor the coed Catholic high school.
During the Mass, Washington’s archbishop administered the Sacraments of Initiation to 27 St. John’s students, who were supported by the school’s student body of nearly 1,300 students, along with their teachers, family members, the school’s staff and students from San Miguel School, a tuition-free middle school in Washington for boys which, like St. John’s, is sponsored by the Christian Brothers.
A school community’s love and support
Emily Warden – a 17-year-old St. John’s junior from Silver Spring who was one of four students to receive the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist at the Mass – said “it was probably the most special day of my life.”
“Being surrounded by the St. John’s community and my friends and my best friend Corinne as my sponsor with her hand on my shoulder, I really felt the love of the St. John’s community,” she said.
After first feeling really nervous as the Mass began, Warden said she felt the support of the St. John’s community, especially with her friend Corinne Stringer beside her as her sponsor, after helping guide her on her journey of faith since they were freshmen together.
“My faith life started here at St. John’s, and I feel like it was truly special to have this moment be in front of everyone, all my teachers and peers who have guided me in this journey. I truly felt the love of the St. John’s community and the presence of God,” Warden said.
Those becoming full members of the Catholic Church at the Founder’s Day Mass also included three students who had already been baptized in other Christian denominations who entered into full communion with the Catholic Church, receiving the sacraments of Confirmation and Eucharist; and 20 students who were already Catholic who received the sacrament of Confirmation.
Founder’s Day and a saint’s legacy
As he welcomed the cardinal and the school community and guests at the beginning of the Mass, Kevin M. Haley, the president of St. John’s College High School, noted, “I think it’s appropriate as we celebrate Founder’s Day that we recall that St. John Baptist de La Salle 350 years ago founded our mission on the premise of a warm and welcoming approach to educating students from all backgrounds, and today Cardinal McElroy shares that same warm and welcoming approach to people from all backgrounds as he leads our Church” in the Archdiocese of Washington.
St. John’s, which was founded in Washington in 1851, is the second oldest Christian Brothers school in the United States. For the Founder’s Day Mass, the Gallagher Gymnasium – named for St. John’s legendary basketball coach, the late Joe Gallagher who coached there for 44 years – became a church space.
In his opening remarks, Cardinal McElroy said the school’s special identity “brings us together in Christ, in the Lasallian tradition… in which God is at the center and calls each one of us to sacrifice and service to others and to the world.”
A French priest’s heroic sacrifice
The cardinal in his homily told the story of Père Jacques Bunel, a French Carmelite priest who ran a boys’ boarding school outside Paris during World War II, and answered a Jewish mother’s dying plea to offer her son a safe place to learn, hidden from the Nazis. But when the Nazis discovered the deception, they took the priest and the boy prisoner as the other students watched from the front of the school.
The cardinal noted that the Nazi commandant told the boys that the lesson of that day was that if they defied the Nazis, they would be punished, but the priest told the students that “the true lesson of today is a life which is lived which has not known deeply what it means to sacrifice for others, is a life which has not been lived at all.”
The priest and the three Jewish students that he had hidden at the school were transported to concentration camps. Those boys died at Auschwitz. After being imprisoned at several Nazi camps, the priest who by then weighed only 75 pounds, was in a camp that was liberated by American troops in May 1945, but he died weeks later after suffering from tuberculosis. The website for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum notes that “In 1985 the Israeli Holocaust remembrance center, Yad Vashem, posthumously honored Father Jacques as one of the Righteous Among the Nations.”
In his homily, Cardinal McElroy, noted that the French priest’s words about a life of sacrifice, just like the example of Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross, reflects what students learn at their school named for St. John Baptist de La Salle, where Christ’s call to sacrifice one’s life for others is a centerpiece of the education. “This school exists because of the light of Christ’s love… this reality is at the heart of this school community’s existence, and I give great thanks that it is,” the cardinal said.
‘You have become a new creation’
Later in the Mass, the four students receiving the sacrament of Baptism stepped forward with their sponsors, and the Litany of Saints was sung. They made a profession of faith, and as the cardinal poured water over their heads and baptized each of them, he said, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
The congregation applauded them, and the four newly baptized students came forward wearing white baptismal garments, and their sponsors handed them candles representing their call to bring the light of Christ to the world. “You have become a new creation and have clothed yourself in Christ,” the cardinal said.
Then all 27 of those students being received into full communion with the Catholic Church at the Mass received the sacrament of Confirmation after making a profession of faith. The cardinal prayed that they would receive the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit – wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, fear of the Lord, and piety.
Their sponsors – many of whom were fellow students or St. John’s teachers – placed their hands on the students’ shoulders as they stepped forward to be confirmed.
As he administered the sacrament of Confirmation to them, Cardinal McElroy said, “Be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit,” while he made the sign of the cross on each person’s forehead, anointing them with chrism and announcing their Confirmation name from their chosen patron saint.
After the 27 students were confirmed, the congregation responded with loud applause.
Later in the Mass, the four newly baptized students and the three students from other Christian denominations received their First Eucharist.
As the Mass was ending, Cardinal McElroy encouraged the students to remember in life that “wherever you may go, and whatever you may fail to do, God will always be standing with you by your side, never diminished in his love for you.”
Then the cardinal posed for a group photo with the 27 students, and the choir led the congregation in singing the recessional hymn, “They’ll Know We are Christians by Our Love.”
‘I felt like a proud father’
The concelebrants at the Mass included Msgr. John Enzler, a veteran pastor and the former head of Catholic Charities for the Archdiocese of Washington who now serves as the chaplain at St. John’s College High School, his alma mater. Msgr. Enzler and Rachel Stott, a campus minister at St. John’s, met in recent months with the students preparing to become full members of the Catholic Church, joining them at OCIA (Order of Christian Initiation of Adults) formation sessions.
Witnessing the students receive the Sacraments of Initiation at St. John’s the morning, Msgr. Enzler said, “I felt like a proud father, watching young people I’ve come to know, seeing them grow and make a decision to be close to God and Jesus, it moved me emotionally on the altar.”
The priest noted that in their religion classes, St. John’s freshmen students study Scripture, sophomores study the sacraments, and juniors study morality. Since the students have that academic background, Msgr. Enzler said that at the OCIA sessions, “I was calling them to open their hearts to Jesus… (and to) what their heart was telling them.”
Normally teens would receive those sacraments at parishes, but the priest believes that for those students, “having it at St. John’s is a gift to them,” because their faith grew at their school, and they can tap into their friendships and the community around them for support on their faith journeys.
“My hope is what happened today will be in their memory forever,” Msgr. Enzler said, adding, “My hope is that in years to come, the Church will be their home.”
Rachel Stott said as she witnessed those students receiving the sacraments, “I was crying. It moves me to tears, because the Spirit is so present.”
The St. John’s campus minister said what inspires her the most about those students is “their willingness to be open to God’s work in their life, and their desire to answer the call to live a life of faith.”
She added, “I was proud of them. I was renewed by their faith and commitment, and the same is true of their sponsors.”
Stott noted that many fellow students and teachers served as sponsors for the St. John’s students receiving the Sacraments of Initiation. “It’s incredible. It speaks to the importance of an active faith life at St. John’s, inside and outside the classroom, inside and outside religion classes.”
Two of the students receiving those sacraments that day reflected on their faith journeys, and what is was like to have that experience at their school.
A sister’s invitation, and a friend’s support
Ethan King, a 15-year-old freshman from Gaithersburg who is on the basketball and football teams and is in the Cadet Corps Leadership Program at St. John’s, joined his older sister Gabrielle, a junior there, in being baptized, receiving First Eucharist and the sacrament of Confirmation that morning.
“Having her with me on the journey… Having her by my side today when I was getting baptized, I knew I was making the right choice, and she just confirmed that for me,” he said.
His sister Gabrielle drives him to school each morning, and she told him that at last year’s Founder’s Day, she was so inspired at seeing fellow students receive the sacraments that she cried, and she asked her brother if he wanted to become Catholic with her, and be baptized in front of the whole school community.
“I said, ‘Sure, why not? That sounds awesome,'” he said.
Ethan King’s sponsor that morning was his best friend Malcolm Hickey, a fellow St. John’s freshman. “I’ve known him since I was 7, we played baseball together. He was there with me. My Scripture teacher, she wasn’t my sponsor, she was there with me, my homeroom teacher was there. All my teachers were there watching me… My friends were there. Ms. Stott was there, Father John was there. We’d go to meetings every Tuesday and talk about faith. It was so inspiring that the people that are there for me every day were there for me when I was getting baptized,” he said.
Some of Ethan King’s cousins also inspired him on his faith journey. “They’re Catholic. They really inspire me to do what I do, because each and every one of them, they all go to church, they tell me what they do, Catholic-wise. They pray before bed every day, they pray before every meal, and that really inspired me to join OCIA,” he said.
Asked about what he will do next on his faith journey, Ethan King said, “This is only the beginning… Next for me is helping my brother Elijah, he’s only 6 years old. He doesn’t really know a lot about Catholicism. So teaching him what it is to be Catholic is going to be awesome. I want to help him in his journey and help him become a Catholic too, and that will help me know I’m doing the right thing for him.”
Asking questions and leaning into faith
Emily Warden, the St. John’s junior who had reflected on what the school’s support meant to her as she was being baptized and received the sacraments of Confirmation and First Eucharist, noted that her mother is Jewish and her father is Presbyterian, and she had grown up without religion in her household except on Hanukkah and Christmas.
“I was dreading coming here, knowing nothing about the faith aspect of the school,” she said. “But truly from the first day of my freshman religion class, I asked questions, I leaned in, I became immersed in the class. I overcame my fear of asking dumb questions, and from that moment on, I leaned into the faith aspect of St. John’s.”
Attending the retreats that St. John’s has for students each year gave Warden the opportunity to hear about other students’ faith journeys. She said that “having moments of silence and times to pray, which I never had in my busy life,” offered her time to think about her own faith life.
A St. John’s service trip to Chicago during the summer break between her sophomore and junior year was also impactful for her. She joined students in helping out people in need at soup kitchens and planting community gardens. She said each evening, the students reflected on “how we saw God in our service… What I saw was so special, seeing how people in need, they had such faith… Some of the most faithful people I met were the ones who were suffering, and that made me think about my faith journey and how I wanted to become closer to God.”
Warden joined the OCIA program at St. John’s, reflecting on her faith with other students and preparing to receive the Sacraments of Initiation at the school at the Founder’s Day Mass. She’ll never forget how her classmates and the students there clapped for her when her name was called and she was baptized, confirmed and received her First Eucharist.
“All my friends came up and hugged me afterward. People in the hallway who I didn’t think even knew my name came up to me and said, ‘Congratulations, Emily!’ It was so special… Having received my sacraments just really made me feel a part of the St. John’s community, a part of that faith community here at St. John’s,” she said.
Warden, who plays on the field hockey team at St. John’s and writes articles for the school newspaper, The Sabre, will be a peer minister there next year, participating in the ministry program for students, and she hopes that by sharing the story of her faith journey, she will inspire other students.
She noted how Msgr. Enzler in the OCIA sessions encouraged students to “show people your faith through your actions. That’s really something I want to lead with, and show God’s love through my actions.”
Reflecting on what’s next in her faith journey, Emily Warden said, “This is just the beginning. I’m excited to see what’s down the road for me… I really want to show my faith through my actions, attend Mass at my college and truly stay faithful wherever I go in life.”
