St. Anthony Indian Mission
I find it hard to believe that another school year has come to an end. Our graduation ceremony concluded as the students departed for the long summer vacation. I am both sad and happy at the same time. I know that as the students leave, a dull cloud will descend on the campus, but I am happy that we will have completed another successful year at the school moving forward at a steady pace in life. I feel that the measure of our success has come to light in a series of non-academic ways over these last few busy weeks.
Before Easter we had the pleasure of our bishop visiting to celebrate Conformation. The Bishop asked me to schedule the celebration a little early so that he could be with us. This year, for the first time, we had both First Holy Communions and Confirmation at the same time. On the day we were joined with youngsters from our sister parish of St. Patrick’s. It was a great celebration with 24 young people being Confirmed. A touching moment was when a mother and her daughter were confirmed together. St. Anthony’s students proved to be genteel hosts to our visitors and together they charmed our bishop. We are forming some wonderful young people into great citizens.
Immediately following the excitement of Confirmation, we had another exciting moment as our graduating class headed to Indiana for an experience at Notre Dame University. The students and parents had been helping fund the trip. An ever-popular raffle was held for donated prizes. (Our students excel at selling raffle tickets!) This was followed by a Sunday “cake walk”. I was surprised at the popularity of that event. There were only six families involved and they raised over $2,000 to help covered our expenses.
The trip was of course fun for the students but also successful in its purpose. The object was not sightseeing, but to encourage Native American students to think about college education, explore opportunities, see the benefits as well as meeting up with students at the university. Successful? Well, all of the students have been re-thinking possibilities open to them, and at least one has already set in motion applications which I pray will lead to a university degree in a few years. Needless to say, when I asked one of them what was his strongest recollection of the trip, the answer was “the football field”! (Apparently, they were allowed to pass through the players’ tunnel onto the field. Whatever stimulates their ambition can’t be bad.)
I had the task of driving them to the airport, buying them lunch and setting them on their way. I should not be surprised, but was delighted at their good manners and respect for others. We raise ladies and gentlemen at St. Anthony’s.
Hot on their return, our 8th graders, led our May service of crowning the statue of our Lady. From start to finish, it was conducted by the students in traditional Zuni attire in a truly respectful and sincere devotional exercise. The “May Crowning” is a moment of affirming their identity as Zuni Christians moving on to serve their people and build a better world.
