Led by Father Francis Noronha of St. Thomas the Apostle Church, staff and students connect over Microsoft Teams every Friday morning to kick off their school day.
On January 29, students listened as Father Noronha shared a reading from the Gospel of Mark where Jesus performed a miracle by healing a man of an unclean spirit.
Relating the Scripture passage to a modern-day context, Father Noronha explained how Jesus can help us overcome our feelings of greed, selfishness, laziness, and envy.
"It is true these negative feelings can take root in our own Spirit and they can be hard to escape," he said. "However, we do not need to be afraid of these feelings because today, as in the Gospel story, Jesus tells those unclean spirits to be silent and come out.' And they must, they are powerless against Him."
As students reflected, they were asked to give the Spirt of Jesus room to operate in their hearts to allow for "His love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" to enter.
"Slowly, these qualities begin to overflow in our hearts and more and more they help us become the loving person God created us to be," said Father Noronha.
In relation to the challenges faced with COVID-19, Father Noronha asked students to look out for one another.
"We need to take care of each other and make sure no one is struggling alone. We need to look out for people who might need some special guidance, encouragement."
Something as simple as a smile, he noted, has the power to heal.
"All those qualities that were mentioned in the reflection - may we become gentle, compassionate, kind, to all the people we meet. Especially in the school community so we can all be safe and get through these difficult days that we are in."
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