On Friday, September 15th, the HNMCS community gathered in the chapel to celebrate our first mass of the school year. The theme of our worship together was: “We are blessed and called to be blessings.” We have each been lavishly blessed by God, for we are alive, loved, and have access to food, shelter, and care. At mass, we listened as the Beatitudes were proclaimed and explored how we are called to live as blessings for others, by patterning our ways on the way of Jesus.

This theme culminated in an honouring and commissioning of the grade 12 students of our school. As these young women begin their last year of senior school, we asked them to commit to being women of faith, hope, and love for all to see. They have been given a mission, to follow in our foundress Blessed Mary Angela’s footsteps, by living lives marked by our core values of transformation, compassion, respect for human dignity, justice and peace, and solidarity with those in need. We called the grade 12’s to be blessings for each other and the world and then blessed them on their way, asking for God’s strength and favour to be upon them.

Whoever you are and wherever you are on your spiritual journey, as you read this reflection, may you also know, deep within your heart, that you are blessed. And because of this, you are able to bless the world so that it may conform more clearly to Jesus’ vision of abundant life for all people. May the Lord bless and keep you, may the Lord’s face shine upon you and be gracious to you all the days of your life. Amen.