Quincy, Mt. Sterling students celebrate Catholic Schools Week at all-schools Mass
QUINCY — More than 1,200 students from Quincy’s four Catholic grade schools — Blessed Sacrament, St. Dominic, St. Francis Solanus, and St. Peter — plus Quincy Notre Dame High School and St. Mary School, Mt. Sterling, came together at the QND gymnasium on Jan. 31 for Mass celebrated by Bishop Thomas John Paprocki. The liturgical celebration marked the start of Catholic Schools Week.
Despite an ice storm predicted to move into Quincy from Missouri by noon that day, and a heavy snowstorm predicted to follow, the all-Catholic Schools Mass began on schedule at 10 a.m. Concelebrating the Mass were: Msgr. Michael Kuse and Msgr. Leo Enlow; Fathers Roy Bauer, John Kennedy, Donald Knuffman, Jeffrey Long and Donald Blaeser, OFM. Assisting were Deacons Michael Ellerman, Terrence Ellerman and John Esselman, Father Daren Zehnle was master of ceremonies. Quincy Council Knights of Columbus served as the bishop’s honor guards for the Mass.
The QND choir and musicians led the singing.
“The task of every Catholic school is the education of our children in the arts and sciences, and above all — and this must not be forgotten — an education in the faith of the church,” Bishop Paprocki said in his homily, pointing out Catholic Schools Week this year was starting on the feast day of St. John Bosco, the patron of youth.
“St. John devoted his life to the care of poor and abandoned boys in the city of Turin, Italy. He taught them both the arts and the faith and he gathered others around himself for this work. By his own fatherly care and great humor he conveyed to them the deep love of God for each one of them personally and led them on the path to holiness, filling them with hope. Through an education in the Christian faith and of the world, we seek to form our students to use well the talents and gifts they have been given by God.”
Students from kindergarten through 12th grade filled the main floor of the gymnasium, the bleachers on either side of the gym, and part of the upper bleachers. To them, Bishop Paprocki said, “St. John gives this advice, ‘Be cheerful, but let your cheerfulness be genuine, stemming from a conscience free from sin.’
“The joy and enthusiasm of youth is no secret and even those who have grown old recall it with fondness, often desiring it again,” he continued. “Do not lose this joy! Do not let it be stifled, but let it come to perfection in Jesus Christ!”
School closings due to weather conditions forced most other scheduled Catholic Schools Week events in Quincy and throughout the diocese to be cancelled or rescheduled.