We welcomed Fr. Thomas Doyle, Pastor of Good Shepherd and Resurrection Parishes as our principal celebrant.
In his homily Deacon Andy Ciccaroni, Director of Campus Ministry reflected on the life of St. Edmund and the parallels to our lives here at St. Edmund Prep.
"After being stillborn, Edmund was given a new life by baptism. Literally, a new life. Isn't that what happens to us as we enter the doors of our school? Some of you 4 years ago, some of you only a few months ago, walked through the doors on Ocean Avenue and were invited to look at things differently. New experiences in this community different from where you may have come from.
In a dream, St. Edmund was in his classroom where he had all the diagrams on the wall. His mother appeared to him and asked him. What are you doing? What is this you're teaching? You're teaching the wrong thing. And what appears to Edmund? He gets a he gets a vision on on his chalkboard of 3 circles that are intertwined, a symbol of the trinity. And she said, you should be teaching that. And Edmund at that point says to himself, she's right. And Evan goes off to become a priest. And he has this priestly, experience, eventually becomes the archbishop of Canterbury.
And when he does, one of the first things he does is he sees all of the people who are suffering. And he does what many of our saints did, he starts to sell his possessions and give the money away. He starts to give his money away. He starts to not send any money home to his mother. He starts to give it to the poor. He was noted for helping others.
And so each day we try to emulate St. Edmund in all that we do here at The Prep. He lived his life differently. Each day we are called to learn things differently, to listen for God working in our lives differently, and to serve one another and those in need differently.
By virtue of our baptism, we are all called to holiness. We are all called to be saints. How lucky are we to have such an example for us to follow in St. Edmund."
Let us pray.
O God, you raised up St. Edmund to be father of the poor and patron of afflicted children. Please grant that we may learn from Edmund's example how to love all God's children, however poor or afflicted; that we may become, like him, eyes for the blind, feet for the lame, and a friend to strangers in trouble; and that by this intercession we may be protected from all evil and distress.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord,
Amen.
St. Edmund of Canterbury, Pray for us!