Students’ Lenten obligations observed in new ways

Catholic school students within the Archdiocese are approaching the 40 days of Lent — the season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving — in unique ways that reflect today’s world. 

40 days of almsgiving at Saint Joseph Regional High School 

At Saint Joseph Regional High School in Montvale, school leaders have been rolling out a new initiative during Lent focused heavily on almsgiving and community service. The new initiative is based upon “Vir Fidelis,” the school’s mission to educate “the faithful man who will think, lead, and humbly serve in brotherhood. 

During the 40 days of Lent, students at Saint Joseph’s will have completed 10 service projects within the community and are planning more for the future. 

President Robert Fazio, who began his leadership in January, said service is important to the entire Saint Joseph’s community.  

“During the month of Lent, I asked school leadership to partner with me to get the boys engaged with the community and do service projects every Wednesday,” Fazio said. 

To start off their 40 days of service, students made over 150 sandwiches for the St. Joseph Social Center in Elizabeth. 

The students have held multiple donation drives for clothing and food throughout the Lenten season. They delivered clothing and food supplies to the Mommy and Me Program at Straight and Narrow Rehabilitation Center in Paterson, The Human Need Pantry in Montclair, Oasis in Paterson, Women Rising in Jersey City, and to the Father English Community Center in Paterson. 

“It is my goal to make sure our students realize how fortunate they are with a roof over their heads and food on their table,” said Deacon Joseph Sisco, who advises the Saint Joseph’s High School Chapter of Unico National and has been facilitating the donation drives and drop-off events at the school throughout Lent. 

In March, students also made two trips to Mercy House, the archdiocesan resource center that offers a welcoming space for individuals and families in need. During these trips, students delivered food and clothing and spent time on site organizing, cleaning up, and helping staff prepare for upcoming donation events. 

Other students have been volunteering at the Bristal at Woodcliff Lake, a senior living community in Bergen County. They have been keeping the residents company by playing board games and through conversations. 

Scott Becker, the Director of Campus Ministry at SJR, said that the new initiative has helped define the role of the school in the surrounding community. “Lent is a particularly appropriate time, with almsgiving being one of the three pillars of Lent, that our students give of their time to load these donation trucks, help at Mercy House… This is time they could be spending doing sports or relaxing after a busy week, but they are taking time to instead do the work of almsgiving, give back to their community, and do the work for God.” 

Prayerful Stations of the Cross at Holy Trinity School 

At Holy Trinity School in Westfield, teachers adapted the nearly 900-year-old devotion of the Stations of the Cross into a walking tour and modernized each station to make the experience more relatable for teens of today. Parishioners and guests also participated in the walking tour on March 31, the final Friday of Lent, at Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church in Westfield.  

The Stations of the Cross, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB,) “commemorate Jesus’s passion and death on the cross. The 14 stations each depict a moment on His journey to Calvary to die on the cross, usually through sacred art, prayers, and reflections. The Stations of the Cross are commonly prayed on Fridays during the Lenten season. Tradition holds that Christ died on a Friday at 3 p.m. so many Catholics pray the Stations on Good Friday. 

Inspired by a recent pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Director of Religious Education Diana Galante, Holy Trinity Church pastor Father Anthony Randazzo, and Sister Terry Rickard, OP, adapted the traditional Stations of the Cross into a walking tour around the grounds of the school and church campus.  

The students are given objects at each station to help them focus their thoughts on each part of the series, said Holy Trinity School Marketing Specialist Rebecca Nott. Students were handed, for instance, a nail to represent Jesus being nailed to the Cross; an actual cross to represent the burden Jesus carried upon his shoulders; a ribbon to symbolize the garments he wore. 

For the students who experienced the walking tour, “it was a solemn and contemplative time to look into their own hearts and pray for others,” Nott said. 

“I know that sometimes the Stations of the Cross can seem like ‘what does this have to do with me?’, especially at the age of 12-14,” Nott said. “They [Sr. Terry Rickard, Fr. Anthony Randazzo, and Diana Galante] did a fantastic job of merging the traditional history of each station with how it could be relevant to students today, 2000 years later.” 

Cellphone ‘fasting’ at Oratory Prep 

At Oratory Prep in Summit, students have been practicing the art of sacrifice by giving up their phones during lunchtime on Thursdays during Lent.  

Father Matthew Dooley, the School Chaplain, said the initiative is an invitation for the students to share the 40-day Lenten journey together without the distraction of modern technology. 

The initiative — in its second year — encourages students to make a conscious sacrifice and to connect socially with one another.  

“It is about the idea of being present in the moment and present to one another,” Father Dooley said. “It is in the spirit of Lent: sacrifice and powering down so that God can power us up.” 

“While it may not seem desirable to ‘power-down’ during lunch on Thursdays, I have personally found many benefits to spending time away from my phone,” said junior Nicholas DeRosa, who has been participating in the phone-free lunch this year. “All-in-all, I have found that ‘powering down’ on Thursdays has brought me closer to God this Lent, because it has provided me with more meaningful time with friends instead of engaging in a selfish distraction.” 

Another student, Aiden Mowen, said he was inspired to participate in the phone-free lunch after hearing about it at Mass.  

“I recognize all that God does for us every day which is why I was willing to sacrifice my phone for a lunch period,” Mowen said. 

On average, 30 students per lunch period volunteer to participate in the phone-free lunch initiative by placing their phones on a table at the front of the lunchroom each day. Father Dooley hopes that the phone-free lunch will one day become an Oratory Prep tradition.