A ‘BEAUTIFUL’ DAY!

St. Thomas the Apostle welcomes 13 new Catholics at school Mass

Father Matt Duclos, pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Church, baptizes baby Naomi, the younger sister of Liam, a first-grade student at St. Thomas the Apostle School. (Emily Benson photo)

A crowd of students and family members gathered around the baptismal font in the back of St. Thomas the Apostle Church.

Father Matthew Duclos, pastor, counted heads in a circle around the font. The crowd was so large, he paused for a moment and said the words any priest would love to hear before a baptism: “Am I missing anyone?”

It was a busy and beautiful day for the students of St. Thomas the Apostle School: At the weekly school Mass on April 23, four members of the St. Thomas school community received the Sacrament of Baptism, eight were baptized, confirmed and received First Communion and one parent was confirmed and received First Communion. 

In total, the church welcomed 13 new members into the faith. 

“It’s a beautiful shock,” Father Duclos said of the turnout. “I can’t do it by myself. I’m very grateful for our principal and our religious teachers who have been preparing the students for several months now.”

Father Matthew Duclos (top) baptizes Attikus, a middle schooler at St. Thomas, and anoints Lucien (below) with the sacramental oil during their confirmation.

“(It is) a testament to the work of the Holy Spirit in our school,” said Adam Biggs, principal of St. Thomas, in an email to The Evangelist. “It is a blessing to celebrate these sacraments as a school community and to see God’s love at work. Our teachers and families have cultivated a strong Catholic identity at St. Thomas that allows our students to grow in their faith, choosing to receive the Sacraments of Initiation.” 

At the end of last year and the beginning of this school year, a few families approached the school about having their children baptized or joining the church themselves.

Christa Strain, Spanish and Religious Studies teacher at St. Thomas, said that “we saw that there was this need and desire for this kind of community event.”

The school sent out an invitation to all school families, saying, “if there was anyone, for whatever reason, who didn’t receive First Communion but was baptized, or any situation that could possibly be, that they could receive the sacraments together at a school Mass, and the response was just really beautiful, and several families wanted to be a part of it,” Strain said. 

“It was beautiful,” said Yadilsa Peralta, whose daughter Bella, a second grader at St. Thomas the Apostle School, was baptized, confirmed and received First Communion. “I genuinely felt so overwhelmed with happiness.”

Christy Kissick, mother of two children who received the sacraments that day, was also confirmed and received her First Communion alongside her family.

“It was nice to be a part of the community, to do it in front of everyone,” she said. 

Her daughter Iris, a second grader at St. Thomas, was baptized, confirmed and received First Communion, and her son Lucas, still three years old, was baptized. 

Kissick always intended to join the church one day, having grown up Protestant, saying she wanted to be a part of the same faith her family was practicing: “To have us all be unified,” she said. “I wanted to be a part of it.”

“Father Matt and I were talking about how sometimes people just need an invitation,” Strain said. “Maybe they think they’re already too far behind, or it’s not for them, they can feel on the outside when really the church wants everyone on the inside and feeling part of the community.”