Students participate in "Liturgy to Begin the School Year"

Nearly 700 students filled the Corpus Christi Cathedral on Tuesday morning, Aug. 26, for the "Liturgy to Begin the School Year," with Bishop Michael Mulvey as celebrant. It was the 15th annual celebration of the Mass.
 
Bishop Mulvey said to the students that he still had very happy memories from his visits to each of the 19 Catholic schools earlier this year. He recalled one question that he was often asked by students, "is it hard being a bishop?" He answered with a question, "is it hard being a student?", to which the students nodded "yes".
 
"Lot of things in life make things harder," Bishop Mulvey said, including peer pressure, problems at home, fights with friends, math and English teachers with their grammar rules.
 
But he reminded the students of Jesus' words in the day's Gospel reading from Matthew, ?Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me?"
 
"Jesus is saying to us 'come to me', come to Jesus Christ," the bishop said.
 
The beautiful thing about Catholic schools, Bishop Mulvey said, is that you can talk about Jesus and your faith openly.
 
"We all like to think that I can do it by myself and for myself," the bishop said. "That is a very distorted notion in the world today. God didn't put us in the world to do everything for ourselves. He put us on this Earth to learn to rely on Him and to work with others. Learn to work together and be together. That will help us as we move forward in life."
 
The bishop returned to his original question and told the students that "yes it's hard but nothing is impossible with Jesus Christ." He invited the students to keep their eyes fixed on Jesus.
 
The bishop suggested to teachers that they consider posting a sentence from the Gospels everyday in their classrooms and have the children memorize it. "That's called evangelization," he said.
 
He closed his homily by telling he children that he would pray for them through the school year.
 
Students from all of the Catholic schools in the Diocese of Corpus Christi participated in the Liturgy. Only students from each school's exiting grade attended.
 
Students did all of the parts of the Liturgy reserved for the faithful, including the readings, bringing the gifts, presenting the petitions and serving as altar servers.
 
One unique aspect of the Mass was the choir that came together for this one and only performance. Members of the choir represented each of the schools and practiced for one hour before the Mass with Cathedral choir director Lee Gwozdz.