The Padua community celebrated the start of the 2024-2025 school year with its Opening Liturgy on Friday, August 23, 2024.
Friar Johnpaul Cafiero, OFM served as the celebrant, and was assisted by Fr. Stephen DeWitt, OFM, who spent the week visiting Padua Franciscan High School.
In keeping with the theme for the year of “Elevate,” the Mass contained messages of how Padua’s community lifts up others through love.
During the homily, Cafiero discussed his 19-day summer mission trip, where he led members of the Padua faculty, staff and students to Moshi, Tanzania, and worked with children at the Msamaria Orphanage.
Cafiero reminded the attendees of God’s love for every one of the students, faculty and staff, and how we have the privilege to share that gift with the world.
“Our readings today are about falling in love,” Cafiero said. “God wants to elevate us with His love. In that first reading from Ezekiel, we hear about dry bones. I don’t know about you, but there are some days where I feel like a bunch of dry bones, but God wants to breathe His life-giving breath into our dry bones to bring us alive.
“Jesus reminds us how we do that in the Gospel, that we love God above all else, our neighbors as ourselves, and we’ve got to start with ourselves.”
Cafiero, who during the service, wore a stole sewn by a woman in Moshi, continued his words by explaining the difference between love for oneself and ego.
“We love ourselves when we take care of these dry bones we call our bodies,” Cafiero said. “You love yourself when you eat healthy, when you drink enough water, when you get enough sleep, when you exercise. That’s how we take care of and love ourselves.
“We don’t love ourselves when we sit around all day, staring at a computer screen, or a cell phone, or a video game monitor. We don’t love ourselves when we overeat. We don’t love ourselves when we fill our bodies with all sorts of chemicals. We don’t love ourselves when we engage in dangerous or hazardous types of behavior.
“We don’t love ourselves when we push people away when we’re feeling down or alone. We love ourselves when we reach out.”
Following Eucharist, student leaders discussed their summer mission trips to the Dominican Republic and Tanzania, where they delivered messages of hope, instilling kindness in the world and understanding that the simplest of acts can have a lasting impact.
