"Be sealed..."

Last month, on the same day our new bishop visited Trinity, Cameron Pichette '11 stopped by to say hello. Cameron joined the Marines after graduating from Trinity and was on leave until he had to head to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.  He used the occasion to thank Trinity for everything we did for him during his time here and he asked Bishop Libasci and Bishop McCormack if he could be baptized before leaving for his next assignment!  Bishop Libasci turned to Mr. Mailloux and said, "What more could you ask from a Catholic school?"

Bishop McCormack happily agreed to let Cameron receive the three sacraments of initiation - Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist - without having to go through the traditional process of RCIA and waiting until Easter.  After working for a bit on the basics of the faith with Mr. Carnevale of our Theology Department, Cam was ready and today was the big day.

The Mass was held in the beautiful chapel at Saint Joseph Cathedral with Father Jason Jalbert presiding.  In addition to Cam's immediate family, seven Trinity faculty members were there - Ms. Risdal, Ms. Kudrick, Mrs. Trachim, Mrs. O'Gorski, Mr. Carnevale, Mrs. Lennon-Morf, and myself.  As luck would have it, a four member choir was singing at a Mass earlier in the morning and when they heard about Cameron's Mass, they asked if they could sing at it!  As they were going over the music, they said they would like to sing the Prayer to St. Michael as the final hymn.  Father Jason asked why they chose that hymn and they said they had just learned it and thought it was beautiful.  What they didn't know was that Cameron picked the name Michael as his Confirmation name and Saint Michael is the patron saint of the military.

The Mass began outside to symbolize Cameron literally entering into the Church.  Cameron was dressed in the formal Marine uniform and looked very sharp (his father said he lost 15-20 pounds since entering which made me wonder for a split section if I should sign up too).  The Mass proceeded inside as usual and his baptism and confirmation came after Father Jason's homily.  As Cameron was being baptized, all of the Trinity teachers (including yours truly) began to cry tears of joy.  It was so moving to see him embrace Jesus Christ and become a disciple.  Cameron went on to be confirmed and receive Communion.

As I was sitting there, I said to myself, "This is why we do what we do."  This is what it's all about folks and is why we sacrifice so much to work at a Catholic school.  God is so good.

Welcome to the Church, Cameron Michael Pichette and Semper Fi!

Below is the Prayer to Saint Michael:

Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host -
by the Divine Power of God -
cast into hell, satan and all the evil spirits,
who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.

Amen.