Traditions at Holy Spirit Prep

Fr. Juan incenses the altar at an All-School Mass.

Each year, you can count on a bevy of traditional events to mark Holy Spirit Prep’s academic calendar: the 3 rd grade will research famous Americans and present their findings in a living wax museum. The Lower School will host an Interdisciplinary Day, when every class will address the same topic, “Hawaii” or “St. Francis.” Students will celebrate their respective heritages with an amazing spread of international foods at International Day. There are field days and fall festivals and father-daughter dances. What other traditions are unique to Holy Spirit Prep, that mark the passing of our academic seasons and the milestones of each class?

SPIRAL STAIRCASE AND MATRICULA

A student ascends the spiral staircase during the Tying Ceremony.

The spiral staircase that towers over the entrance to the Reese Memorial Library at the Upper School is, in fact, off-limits to students for all but two days in their academic career. First, they ascend the spiral staircase in the Upper School library at their Tying Ceremony, marking their initiation into the House system.

At a special Mass marking their official enrollment into the high school at Holy Spirit Prep, 9th-grade students are given a candle signifying the light they bring to the world around them in Christ. At the close of that Mass, they sign a leather-bound book called the Matricula.

On graduation day, all of these traditions of initiation meet. Before their graduation ceremony, students will sign out of the Matricula and descend the spiral staircase, marking their graduation from Holy Spirit Prep and the House system.

That same graduation day marks another tradition: ending graduation by candlelight. Graduation traditionally ends with an address by the valedictorian. As he or she ascends the lectern, the graduating class gathers together and lights the very candles they received at their Matriculation Mass. Lighting them, the valedictorian gives parting words to the classmates, and the graduating class exits with candles lit, symbolizing the light they carry into the world.

Graduates hold candles at the close of the 2019 graduation ceremony.

FAITH

Candlelight is a powerful symbol of the light of Christ dwelling in us, and we see it in another traditional event at Holy Spirit Prep, the candlelight Mass that marks the first day of the Upper School each year. The reason, though, is a little more practical: the first day the Upper School opened in 2004, a power outage affected the neighborhood. Undeterred, the Upper School remained open that day and celebrated Mass in Holy Spirit Catholic Church by candlelight. The Upper School marks the opening of each school year with a candlelight Mass, commemorating that first one.

Other Masses are a traditional part of the school year, particularly our four All-School Masses celebrated at Holy Spirit Catholic Church, including a fall Mass preceding the annual Tying Ceremony, an All-Saints Day Mass, a Mass during Catholic Schools Week usually celebrated by our local bishop, and a final Mass celebrating our 2nd grade First Communicants.

Each campus celebrates the first days of May with a May Crowning ceremony. The observance looks different at each campus, but each includes Marian prayers, hymns - and students bring flowers to school to honor Mary during the ceremony, laying them at the feet of a statue on campus. At the Upper School, it’s traditional to announce the Head Boy and Head Girl for the coming school year at the end of the May Crowning Ceremony.

Head Boy William Arnold helps Lower School students place flowers at the May Crowning ceremony.

PRAYERS

One of the important ways we live out our Catholic identity is through our daily routines of prayer – at the beginning, middle, and end of the day, and before each class begins. The Upper School opens each school day praying the Veni Sancte Spiritus, which begins “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of Your love.” The Lower School, meanwhile, ends its day with the official school prayer, which asks God to “grant us magnanimity, a greatness of soul, so that all the other virtues we might seek to acquire will blossom.”

Whenever they gather to say a rosary (which is regularly), it is a tradition at the Lower School that the oldest grade – currently 7th – leads the rest of the campus in the rosary.

Every October, the Lower School gathers for a special prayer service honoring St. Francis of Assisi on his feast day, October 4. The day is coincidentally Monsignor Dillon’s birthday, and the Lower School tries to celebrate him at the prayer service when possible.

CHRISTMAS

What a time for traditions – Christmas concerts, liturgies, and pageants! Among Holy Spirit Prep’s Christmas traditions, you can count on students gathering in the Rotunda at 2:00 cookie break (another tradition!) to sing “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” On the Feast of St. Nicholas, you’ll see shoes lining the halls at each campus and students hoping to find candy in them after class – there always is!

CONTESTS

Anna Neligan celebrates winning the 2019 Logos Cup.

Can you even call yourself a school if you don’t have a spelling bee? While our editors look into that, we’ll note that each year we host not only a spelling bee, but contests in geography, public speaking, classics, and theology. Each year, the Upper School hosts the Delneo Cup, a contest in ancient Greek and Roman mythology, culture, and language. The Lower and Upper Schools each host a theology bee during Catholic Schools Week testing student knowledge of Catholic theology, saints, and history: the Lower School’s Monsignor Dillon Trivia Bowl and the Upper School’s Logos Bowl.