The academic year at our school is filled with opportunities for the students to practice and strengthen their faith through para-liturgical and liturgical experiences. At least monthly, students take an active part in leading liturgies by being lectors, altar servers, and bringing up the gifts at the Offertory. Students in grades two through eight attend the sacrament of Reconciliation twice a year, and the students in second grade prepare for First Eucharist with their classmates. In October, the month honoring our Blessed Mother and the Rosary, grades five through seven present a school tradition, the “Living Rosary”. Weekly Advent wreath-lightings are held during the Pre-Christmas season, while the eighth graders lead the school in Lenten Stations of the Cross. The class also provides the school community with a most beautiful May crowning to honor Mary during her month of May.


 

Spiritual Life Committee

The Spiritual Life Committee is a group of parents striving to help our SJS students to put their Catholic faith into action. The spiritual theme for this year is “the Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church”. We are challenging our students to spend more time reading and studying the Word of God. We are also challenging them to “live” the Word through their actions.

Spiritual Life parents visit their classrooms regularly to do activities such as writing a Class Prayer (each class has their own unique prayer which they composed themselves). Younger students are also partnered with older students as “prayer partners”, and they participate in various activities together throughout the year. Spiritual Life parents also work with the students to create monthly bulletin boards that celebrate our school and our faith.

The most exciting part of the Spiritual Life Committee is that we are constantly guiding our students to follow in the path of Jesus through school-wide service projects. These projects help students to realize how blessed they are with families, food, shelter and many other good things. The projects then challenge them to share those blessings with others who are not so fortunate. Following is a list of some service projects we have completed this year:

• A coat drive for the poor in Morristown
• The Hoop-a-Goal-a-Thon – SJS students “played” hard to “Score against Poverty”
• Earning money for a donation to Market Street Mission to be used for Thanksgiving dinners for the poor
• Boxes of Love – decorated shoe boxes filled with toys and games and brought to a Pre-School in Paterson
• Supplies sent to our servicemen and women in Iraq

As part of our Catholic Christian tradition, service to those less fortunate is an integral part of our life.

Colleen Lynch
Spiritual Life Coordinator