A blessing for the beginning of the school year

More than 300 students – delegations of all Catholic schools in the diocese – came together for a Mass with Bishop Michael Mulvey in the Corpus Christi Cathedral.

The bishop, who had just returned from Portugal, wore the special mitre and garment from World Youth Day. He encouraged the students to plan to attend the next World Youth Day 2027 in Seoul and shared how it was meeting many young people, meeting Pope Francis, and eventually, meeting Jesus Christ: “Jesus Christ is the heart of everything.” Encountering Him is the key to being happy, joyful and hopeful. And His words in the Gospel would help us to get there.

The Gospel reading featured the workers who would get paid the same amount, whether they had worked the whole day or the last hour. “How many of you say sometimes, ‘That’s not fair!’?” God is generous and loves everyone. As human beings, we could be focused on ourselves and become jealous, “which is one of the most destructive feelings.”

Jesus died on the cross, and one could say, “That was not fair’ – yet He loved us so much that He did it out of love.

The Bishop encouraged the students to read the Gospel together in the family and ‘listen to what Jesus tells us today.”

He wished every student a blessed school year and announced that he wants to visit every school in the diocese this year – the principals should reach out to him soon and schedule his visits.