On Wednesday, Sept. 6, Prep and Villa celebrated their third shared mass in the Joann Mullen Gymnasium. Along with the two sibling schools, the brand new Erie Diocese elementary school Mother Teresa Academy joined for the mass. The homily was given by Cathedral Prep and Villa Maria president Father Scott Jabo. Other priests present for the service were Father Feigh, Father McCormick, and Father DeMartinis.
Many of the participants in Wednesday’s mass were students from Prep and Villa. Readers in the mass were Prep students John Hagerty, Christian Colontonio, and Simon Peter Mizner. Reading participants from Villa were Alexandra Karlinchak, Mary Katherine McGovern, and Brooke Kimet. Besides the readers, other high school student participants in the mass were servers Patrick Kelly, John MacKenzie, Allie Dugan, and Abbie Stubenbort.
Later in the mass, Cathedral Prep and Villa Maria students Thomas Uht and Tori Purchase presented the gifts of the Eucharist. The Eucharist was presented during communion by students, faculty, and priests from the Cathedrel Prep and Villa Maria community. After communion was finished, an amazing, flabbergasting performance of Amazing Grace was sung by Mother Teresa Academy seventh grader Jyleek Evans.
This mass not only showed the strong relationship shared between the two sibling schools, but also the readiness for these two high schools to accept Mother Teresa Academy as a member of the Erie Diocese school system and community.