In an opening school Mass for the Archbishop Carroll High School community on Aug. 28, Archbishop Wilton Gregory encouraged the students to “explore their potential” during this new academic year.

Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, D.C., which is sponsored by the Archdiocese of Washington, is currently conducting virtual classes in accordance with the reopening plan of the archdiocese’s Catholic Schools Office during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Mass aired on the school’s YouTube page.

The Mass coincided with the memorial of St. Augustine, bishop and doctor of the Church. The day before, Aug. 27, was the memorial of St. Augustine’s mother, St. Monica.

“Each year, at the end of August, there are two feast days that are joined because they represent a family unit,” Archbishop Gregory said in his homily. “It gives us an insight into family life, and it’s also an appropriate way to inaugurate a new academic year.

“Augustine was a very bright young man, very bright like so many of our students,” the archbishop continued. “And yet, he didn’t realize his destiny. Monica did. Like most mothers, she was insistent that he live out his potential, that he find faith.”

Archbishop Gregory noted the faith of St. Monica, who prayed unceasingly for her son throughout her life.

“Perhaps Augustine didn’t realize his own potential like so many of us,” he said. “So many of us who have great gifts, but we don’t really understand the gifts until someone else helps point them out, often our parents. That is what good parents do. They insist that their youngsters use the gifts, the potential that God gives them.”

He added that the whole Archbishop Carroll community rallies around its students to help them both realize and actualize their own potential.

“May that same dynamic generate a lot of hope, success and joy in the Carroll community this year as our youngsters explore their potential and our parents insist they discover it and our faculty help them discover their potential,” Archbishop Gregory said.