St. Michael Special School students embrace an extraordinary mission

by Kim Roberts

By Kim Roberts
Kids' Clarion

St. Michael Special School in New Orleans celebrates a weekly Mass and has always had parents and faculty serve as extraordinary ministers of holy Communion to serve in that role.

Zoe Smith, faculty member, began the process by contacting the archdiocesan Office of Worship to get the ball rolling. First, she made sure there were students who understood and could tell her that the consecrated bread at Mass is Jesus or the Body of Christ before she even started to bring the idea up to the Office of Worship.

“When we had our Joy Center pin Mass, I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be amazing if the parents were receiving the Eucharist from the students instead of the faculty members?’” Smith said. “So, I emailed back and forth with the Office of Worship until we were able to get a meeting set up where our principal, campus minister and I were able to present our case.”

During the initial meeting, she told the group that the students would always be accompanied by a faculty member while they were serving as extraordinary ministers to make sure everything went smoothly. After this meeting, Sister of Mount Carmel Mary Ellen Wheelahan, safe environment coordinator, and Betty-Ann Hickey, associate director of the Office of Worship, presented the request to Archbishop Gregory Aymond.

“I honestly was so relieved that the meeting went well and they were excited because I was so nervous that they were going to say no,” Smith said. “This meeting was in March, and I kept pestering them until I heard back around May, when we got the approval. I couldn’t believe it.”

After receiving the approval came the next step – deciding who would serve and how the training would be conducted. Since it was the end of the school year, Smith had to wait until the next school year (2024-25) to introduce the idea to the students.

“I took the class over the summer for how to train and had discussions with the principal and head of school on how we were going to proceed,” she said. “We decided to send home a survey and to find out who might be interested. We then interviewed about 10 students, and we chose four to start off with. Training started in September, and we had a few training sessions.”

“We practiced giving the Eucharist on the tongue, in the hands, the blessings and we went over this multiple times,” she added. “I even sent them home with unconsecrated hosts to practice before the first Mass they would serve. They definitely exceeded my expectations during practice.”

Three of the students have Down Syndrome and one has autism, and fine motor skills sometimes need additional practice. But, they adapted and figured it out just perfectly.

“This is the first time that the students who attend St. Michael in the lower school, upper school and the adult programs have ever had the opportunity to receive Communion from someone who is one of them – a person who looks like them (is) giving them Communion,” Smith said. “The purest of souls and hands giving out Jesus. How much closer can you get to Jesus?”

“The emotions felt at the first Mass on Oct. 1 were incredible,” she said. “The parents were crying, teachers were tearing up or crying themselves, classmates were smiling. A teacher, Lisa Mansfield, who serves alongside the students said that she had chills. It is beautiful and you can feel the presence of Christ.”

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