Saint Paul, Be Our Guide

St-Paul-Be-Our-GuideWritten by Jane Scupham, principal

The official welcome of the new school year had an added feature this year. Immediately following our 9:30 Mass on the first day of school, the students, teachers, and any parents who were able to join us, processed from church and filed into the downstairs’ hallway where all waited quietly for Father Joe to arrive with his prayer book and holy water. Father Joe asked all the present to look upon the new statue of Saint Paul that now graces our front entryway as he proceeded to read a prayer appropriate for blessing a newly installed statue of a saint. The prayer asked that all who look upon the statue would be reminded of the saint’s life and virtues and try to emulate them. The blessing concluded with a sprinkling of holy water on the statue.

It was an inspiring sight to see the hallway brimming with people all looking forward toward the statue, praying for guidance to lead a faith-filled life and to hear the amen echo up and down the hallway. Now when I pray every day for our school children, I ask that their “blindness”, be it educational, emotional, or social, be healed this coming year that they might see as clearly as Saint Paul was able to see after his conversion experience.