School remembers deceased alumni, educators, friends at liturgy

SOMERVILLE – A line formed at the back of the gymnasium of Immaculata High School, each person in line holding a carnation in the school’s colors -- blue and white -- in remembrance of a departed loved one. One by one, they processed to the front, presenting their carnations to be placed before the altar for the school’s 19th annual Spartan Memorial Mass held Feb. 26.

Dappling the gymnasium before reaching their final resting place, the individual carnations were grouped in vases alongside a yearbook emblazoned with the school’s motto, “Unitas Caritas,” meaning unity and charity, a symbolic display not lost on the hundreds who were gathered for the Mass.

“We gather here today to honor the lives of our beloved Spartans, those who’ve gone before us and those we continue to carry on in our hearts and in our prayers,” Principal Edward Webber, a 1999 graduate of the school, remarked before the start of the Mass. “Their absence, felt so deeply by those left behind, requires that we gather as followers of Christ and as a larger Immaculata family to celebrate life after death and to place our trust in the victory of the cross,” he said.

For many, the Mass was a reunion of sorts, but also a reminder that this life, while only temporary, is meant to be lived in friendship with Christ and one another.

In his homily for the Mass, held the first Sunday of Lent, Msgr. Joseph G. Celano, pastor and director of schools, said discipleship “is a way of patterning our lives on the self-giving of Jesus the Lord, taking unto ourselves the humble role of the servant, and forgetting about ourselves,” hallmarks of the ways in which many of the deceased members of the school community led their lives.

“Repentance, my friends, is nothing less than making those real-life changes that help us to conform more completely to Christ and his teaching,” said Msgr. Ceklano, who was flanked throughout parts of the

Mass by Church of the Immaculate Conception deacons Frank J. Quinn and John R. Czekaj, both members of the class of 1966, the first graduating class of Immaculata.

Honoring the hundreds of alumni, faculty, staff, and benefactors who have passed away since the school’s founding in 1962, and comforting their loved ones, retired faculty member Terry Lavin Kuboski gave the closing remarks, saying it is a comfort for the annual Mass to be held in the school’s gymnasium.

“Nearly everyone in this booklet has walked on these hardwood floors,” Kuboski said, referencing the worship aid for the Mass and noting the gymnasium had once temporarily served as the parish’s worship space when a fire burned the former church building to the ground in the 1960s. “In this room, we had Sunday Mass, weekly confessions, first Friday liturgies, retreats, and graduations. Of course, we also had physical education classes, basketball games, Spartan Spirit game nights, dances, concerts, back-toschool nights, and maybe even a prom or two,” she said, adding that the gymnasium “is a fitting location, representing our faith, as well as our deceased Spartans.”

A 1969 graduate who helped establish the Memorial Mass and is soon to join the ranks of those inducted into the Immaculata High School Hall of Fame, Kuboski said it is a blessing to have a “three-tiered support system” for grief.

“The first is our faith, the second is our family, friends, and grief communities, like this one; and the third is our deceased loved ones, who inspire us daily,” she said.

“Recovering from grief takes as long as it takes -- no more, no less,” Kuboski advised. “Be kind to yourself. Everyone’s grief journey is custom-made. There is no roadmap. Take the time you need to heal from your heartbreak, but honor your loved one’s memory by not becoming mired in sadness, but allowing their joy to shine through you.”