Mass of the Holy Spirit & Matriculation Ceremony
On Friday, September 14, the Saint John's community celebrated the Mass of the Holy Spirit and Matriculation Ceremony for the Class of 2022. While the newest class of Pioneers has been on campus since late August, this ceremony truly marks the beginning of their journey here at Saint John's as they receive their official school pin by a member of the senior class. We invite you to read the remarks from Headmaster Alex Zequeira P'19 as shared with the students, faculty, staff and guests that wonderful morning.
Click Here to View Event Photos - Photoraphy Credit: Reese Brunelle '19
Saint John’s High School
Click Here to View Event Photos - Photoraphy Credit: Reese Brunelle '19
Saint John’s High School
Mass of the Holy Spirit 2018
Headmaster’s Remarks
I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for joining the students, faculty, staff, and administration here this morning at Saint John’s High School for our Mass of the Holy Spirit. We are grateful that you are joining us in prayer and in the celebration of the Eucharist as we start our 2018-2019 school year. An event like this does not happen without the hard work of many, coming together in a true spirit of community – especially with the change in venue. Thank you to all the grounds and maintenance team, the faculty, staff, administration, the great Campus Ministry trio, the advancement team, our students, and our student performers. Everyone, coming together, made this day possible.
A special thank you to Fr. Jose Rodriguez for celebrating today’s Mass – besides his work as our school chaplain, he is a dear friend to and supporter of Saint John’s. We are grateful for the great care he takes with our community and that he could be with us today – a day where we mark the 121st opening of our school. I also want to recognize the three Xaverian Brothers who live with us on campus – Bro. Conal, Bro. Paul, and Bro. Bob. We are grateful for your continued service to our community and our school.
And lastly, a final welcome to the Class of 2022 on the day of your Matriculation Ceremony. We welcome you and your families to the Saint John’s community. While you have been on campus as students since August 28, today marks the official beginning of four years the will last for many years. You join a community with a storied and vibrant past with an equally promising future for you and all future Pioneers. Welcome.
I want to begin this morning with an acknowledgment. An acknowledgement that we are living in a very challenging time for our Church and our world. I am very grateful, however, that we can gather together to reflect and pray as a community. I have already, this year, had the chance to address the faculty, staff, administration, the freshman class, and the entire student body at our opening prayer service on the first day of school, I very much look forward to the chance to share – with our entire community gathered – my thoughts and hopes for this coming year. In my first year, I spoke to our community of the importance of being a missionary and having the missionary spirit – even in our own backyards. Last year, I shared with you reflection on the Latin phrase “esse quam videri” – “to be rather than to seem” – and what we are all called to be as a member of the Saint John’s High School community. Today, I invite us to consider the true and deeper meaning of a word we hear all the time as members of this school community – the word “Pioneer.”
If you’ve followed our school on social media over the last year, you have probably seen us use the hashtag #BeAPioneer. We’ve used it to promote our admissions activity like open houses and the entrance exam. We’ve used it to celebrate the great work done by our students, student-artists, student-athletes, student-scientists, our faculty, staff and alumni. We use it to promote and highlight the very best of our Saint John’s Community – the very best of what it means to be a member of this community. But…what exactly do we mean when we say “be a Pioneer”? What does it mean beyond our school mascot, a unifying and inspiring image of a person running towards something? What does it mean to be a Pioneer in 2018?
Pioneer is one of those great words in the English language that is often used as both a noun and a verb – it is something you are and something you do. At Saint John’s – the Pioneer, as a mascot, came into existence in the early 1940s, where prior to that, we were known as the “Red Raiders” or the Saint John’s Red and White. The prevailing belief is that the “Pioneer” was chosen because our founding parish, Saint John’s on Temple Street in Worcester, was the first Catholic church founded outside of Boston – so the Church, established in 1834, was the “Pioneer” Catholic church in all of central and western Massachusetts.
You may have heard the word “Pioneer” used to describe a person who is among the first to explore or settle a new country or area or a person who is among the first to research and develop a new area of knowledge or activity. Is it often used to describe the action of developing or being the first to use or apply (a new method, area of knowledge, or activity).
Basically, “Pioneer” means to be the first – the first to be or to do. I’ve been wondering if it’s difficult to be a Pioneer in 2018.
One of my favorite museums to visit is the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. It is easy to identify Pioneers when it comes to air travel and space exploration. We think of the Wright Brothers, Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earnhardt, John Glenn, Chuck Yeager, Neil Armstrong, and Worcester’s very own Robert Goddard – the father of modern rocketry. The museum has a section of their website and in their museum dedicated to the “Pioneers of Flight” where they highlight pilots of the 1920s and 30s “who paved the way for the pioneers of today.”
The museum describes their pioneers as “someone who sees potential, an innovator who is willing to try new things. A pioneer pushes boundaries to advance a cause or idea or break a record. These men and women have experienced success in their field, sometimes by overcoming great challenges.” They use five criteria to identify their flight pioneers, and I wonder if we can use the same criteria in order to call ourselves “Saint John’s Pioneers”?
- Boldness/Courage
- Vision
- Dedication/Persistence
- Creativity
- Passion
Are these same criteria or characteristics found in all of us – us “Pioneers” – as we go about our day-to-day here at school, in how we compete, perform, and excel outside the classroom, and, most importantly, what we demand of ourselves in our own personal behavior and comportment, how we treat and work with others, and how we inspire. Can we, along with our five Xaverian spiritual values of humility, trust, zeal, simplicity, and compassion, use this as a road map or guide to truly become a Pioneer?
Boldness/Courage – to do the right thing. To do and be our best for our God, our community, and for each other. Will I be the first to stand up for someone who is mistreated or disrespected? Will I be the voice for a person or people who don’t have a voice? To try something new? To be different? That is being a Pioneer.
Vision – can I see beyond what I need and recognize what those around me need. Do I see a problem and address it with zeal and compassion? Can I see who I want to become and how I can and need to be something more for others? To be the hands and feet of Jesus. That is being a Pioneer.
Dedication/Persistence – to be the best version of ourselves possible. Can we commit to be present; to be there for friends and family? Are we willing and able to persist, to work through, the difficult and challenging times in our lives – knowing that, often, it is through struggle and challenge that we grow and become our best selves? That is being a Pioneer.
Creativity – the courage and strength to find a new and different way of doing something. To experiment. To dream. To make that dream a reality. To be bold. To make a statement. That is being a Pioneer.
Passion – the fire and desire. To love something or someone so much that you fully commit yourself to something or someone outside of yourself. It’s fuel. It makes you want to do more and be more. That is being a Pioneer.
As we move forward this year, at Saint John’s High School, let us commit ourselves to the courage, vision, dedication, creativity, passion that have filled so many giants throughout our history as a school and made them the first. The innovator. The Pioneer.
Whether you are an adult member of our community or a student, a parent or an alumnus, when we accepted the opportunity to come to Saint John’s High School, to be Pioneers, we accepted the challenge and the responsibility to be different, to live differently, and to be men and women of faith, prayer, intellect, and service. We have an obligation to our God, our families, to the Xaverian Brothers, and to the generations of Pioneers who came before us, to embrace that difference and do something special with it.
We are blessed, at Saint John’s High School, to live, work, study, and play in a community and culture of respect and decency – where we opportunity to BE all of these things, to be a Pioneer. It is through our gratitude for that blessing that we should strive and seek to be the best version of ourselves in the halls, in Salem, in our classes, on the stage and on the field, in the pool and on the ice, on the court and in the chapel.
May this school year be filled with many blessings, and great health and happiness for all in the Saint John’s community. Thank you.
