On Friday, I accompanied representatives from our seventh and eighth grades to the Diocese of Trenton's Eucharistic Congress in Holmdel. When we arrived, we were seated in the main stage area for an opening concert, followed by solemn Morning Prayer. After that, we moved to the Outreach Tent. At this tent, some of our students created cards for the students of Burkina Faso, while others worked to package food for this same country. The packaging was very organized, with some students measuring rice, soy, and dried vegetables and using a funnel to bag these items, others weighing the bags and adjusting the contents, still others using the heat sealers to close the bags, and a final group of students packing the boxes with the sealed bags. This was a very enriching experience. I am thinking about working with the Diocesan Outreach Office and Catholic Relief Services to have a similar outreach project for our entire Academy during Lent.

After we left the Outreach Tent, we moved back to the main stage for Mass celebrated by Bishop O'Connell and priests of the Diocese. Fr. Trammell represented us! The Mass was a very moving experience. After mass we at lunch and then departed back for St. Gregory's.

Through the whole day, our students shined! It is no exaggeration to say that out of the 8,000 students in attendance, none were more well behaved than our representatives. During Morning Prayer and Mass, some others (from other places) were not as respectful as they should have been. Our students were respectful throughout -- not because we told them to be, or threatened them, or peered at them, but simply because they knew how to act.

There is no one like a St. Gregory the Great Academy student, and I am very proud of each of them!

Below, Fr. Trammell and I are in the Outreach Tent with the students as the package the meals. Check out Fr. Trammell's blog for photos of the students in action.