On Wednesday, April 27, students, faculty, and staff commemorated the Easter season with a schoolwide liturgy at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola. Coming together to honor Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, the Regis community also gathered to celebrate five students completing the sacrament of Confirmation.
Bishop Edmund Whalen, an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of the Archdiocese of New York, served as the main celebrant of the Mass, and was joined on the altar by Fr. Anthony D. Andreassi, CO, Fr. Arthur C. Bender, SJ ’67, and Fr. James P. Ferus, SJ.
During the Mass, Alex O’Donnell ’22, Octave Manteau ’23, James Lurz ’24, Lucas Mejia-Fanjul ’24, and Ethan Ouattara ’25 received the sacrament of Confirmation in front of friends, family, and the school community. These students had expressed their interest in being confirmed earlier in the year, and with the support of Campus Ministry, the Regians formally began the process of receiving the sacrament. Confirmation classes, modeled off of the four weeks of St. Ignatius Loyola’s spiritual exercises, took place at Regis, and helped to instill in the students a fuller understanding of the Church, the meaning and function of the sacraments, revelation, and our mission as disciples. Before the Easter break, the young men took part in a “Rite of Welcome” and special blessing in the Chapel of the Sacred Heart.
“As a senior, Regis’ confirmation process has served as an apt capstone to my transformative four-year journey. It provided me the opportunity to advance my faith just as I have advanced my education,” O'Donnell said. “Now, as I prepare to embark on a new journey in college, the sacrament of confirmation has acted as an excellent celebration of the faith that was engendered by my Jesuit education. It was especially befitting that I was able to be confirmed in front of the classmates who have deepened my faith as well as the faculty members who have honed it. And, in this vein, I selected St. John Francis Regis for my confirmation name as a token of my gratitude to Regis.”
Please see below for photos from the day's Mass and Confirmation ceremony.
