More than 600 students in various combinations of plaid jumpers, polo shirts, khaki pants and lace-up shoes gathered in uniform to kick off Catholic Schools Week with the Annual Mass Celebrating Catholic Education in St. Mary’s County. The Mass has not been held since the pandemic, so many principals and pastors were glad to be back this year at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Lexington Park, Maryland on Jan. 25. Students from five Catholic middle schools, along with one Catholic high school, gathered together to reflect on their faith-based education. 

While numerous priests from St. Mary's County Catholic schools celebrated the Mass together, Father Ryan Braam, the parochial vicar at St. John Francis Regis Parish in Hollywood, Maryland, represented St. John’s Catholic School and delivered the homily. Father Braam related the reading on St. Paul the Apostle's conversion to Christianity to the upcoming Catholic Schools Week celebration.

“We hear about this really kind of dramatic conversion experience. And by contrast, Catholic education doesn't really seem to look a lot like that, right? And kind of stewing on it, you know, it occurred to me that maybe the takeaway is, as a matter of prudence, to sort of hedge our bets, we're not really counting on everyone to have a sort of St. Paul conversion experience. So yeah, thank God for Catholic education because traumatic things like this don't seem to happen to most people,” Father Braam said. 

Despite the fact that Paul’s conversation was a significant event, Father Braam informed participants that faith is nurtured in more subtle ways at school.

“The reality is that the same God who dramatically transformed the mind and the heart of St. Paul by flashing lights, by booming voice, that same God wants to do the same incredible and beautiful transformative work in the minds of all our students in Catholic schools,” he said. “And rather than a booming voice and flashing lights, it's the, well, let's be honest, sometimes kind of strained voice of your teachers if you're acting up in class, right?,” Father Braam said. 

Father Braam stressed the importance of seeing that God is present in the everyday happenings to students and faculty attending the Mass. 

"As we enter into this Catholic Schools Week, we are invited to have this recognition, to have this supernatural outlook, to believe in firmness and conviction of faith, that God is doing this amazing and beautiful and incredible work in our Catholic schools each and every day,” Father Braam said. 

The Catholic schools involved typically alternate who is in charge of hosting and organizing the annual Mass. This year, Principal Caitlin Keeton from Little Flower School in Great Mills, Maryland, coordinated the event.

"It's important that they remember that they're part of something greater. At Little Flower, we gather as a whole school community every morning in our gym to start the day with morning prayer. I think that sets the tone for the day and reminds them this is what we're here for and this is what it's all about. To me this is kind of like a step out from that, like where now all the schools are physically coming together and reminding ourselves what we're here for and what it's all about," Keeton said.    

Keeton appreciates that working for a Catholic school allows her to feel she is bringing all aspects of herself into her job. 

"In Catholic school when you can bring faith and spirituality and prayer and morality and all of that into it to have difficult conversations about things that they are wrestling with in their own lives, I just think it makes all the difference and I feel like I can be my whole self in a Catholic school setting. I feel like I can affect the whole selves of the students and teachers that I work with in a Catholic school setting," Keeton said. 

Keeton said her school will continue to celebrate Catholic Schools Week with events including a pajama day, teacher appreciation luncheon, and a pep rally. 

Father Marco Schad – the pastor at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, as well as the temporary administrator at Holy Face Parish in Great Mills and the canonical administrator at Little Flower School – was one of the celebrants in the Mass.

“It's helpful for them to see...[and] get a little bit more of a connection with the other schools in a setting that's not the rivalry of sports or something like that. We are in this together and have a common mission and purpose," Father Schad said. 

Father Schad explained that Catholic Schools Week is an event that puts focus on what he considers to be true year-round, likening it to Christmas. 

"At Christmas, you know, Christ's incarnation is important every day of the year, but we take one short season at Christmas to really focus on that. Likewise with Catholic Schools Week, it gives us an opportunity to share the good news of Catholic schools with probably primarily other parishioners," Father Schad said.

Anthony Wojt, the principal at Mother Catherine Academy in Mechanicsville, Maryland, said he was excited for his students to attend this Mass along with other area Catholic schools for the first time since the pandemic.

"We're in isolation a lot of times in our Catholic schools. We're on the north side of the county, and bringing our Catholic schoolchildren together on common ground and letting them see that there's a whole bunch of other children in the county just like them. And we can come together and celebrate our faith together," Wojt said. 

Wojt believes that the staying force of people who grew up in the area distinguishes not only Catholic education, but the Catholic, Southern Maryland educational community as a whole.

"The families [in Southern Maryland] are steeped in the faith, there's a tradition of Catholic education here in Mother Catherine and in our Southern Maryland schools. We have several generations of students that went to Catholic school and are now coming back and teaching at Catholic school and volunteering at Catholic school. So I think it's a tradition, a huge tradition," Wojt said. 

Susan McDonough, the principal at St. John’s School in Hollywood, grew up in St. Mary’s County and attended parochial schools as a student. Like Wojt, she said that community plays a big part in the Catholic school experience in Southern Maryland. 

"Down here in Southern Maryland, in St. Mary's County specifically, it's about community. We did this [Mass] prior to the pandemic, and we had done it maybe about four or five years prior to the pandemic. It's just a beautiful way for all the schools to get together to share our faith and to celebrate our Catholic schools and our students and our successes," McDonough said.

Catholic education has played an important role in McDonough’s tenure as an educator. 

"We're trying to drag these kids to heaven, right? We're trying to make them saints, and this is how we can do it. It starts at home, but of course our Catholic schools have helped drag these kids to heaven. So it's very important to me. It's always been important to me. And just sharing the faith, not just with my own children, but with other generations of families that come through our doors is really quite special," McDonough said.

St. Mary’s County Catholic schools in attendance at the Mass included St. John’s School in Hollywood, Little Flower School in Great Mills, Mother Catherine Academy in Mechanicsville, Father Andrew White, S.J. School in Leonardtown, St. Michael’s Catholic School in Ridge, as well as St. Mary’s Ryken High School in Leonardtown.