As the new school year begins, we invite all parishes across the Diocese of New York to celebrate this season of learning and growth. Last year, many of you shared beautiful photos of Backpack Blessings, prayer services, and creative ways of honoring students, teachers, and school communities. Those images were full of joy and hope, and we’d love to see them again this year!
Please send Lucy Breidenthal your favorite photos. These glimpses of community will be featured on our website and social media to inspire and connect us all.
As students and educators step back into classrooms, we remember: each backpack, each prayer, and each act of encouragement reflect God’s love accompanying us on our journeys.
Thank you for celebrating and uplifting these sacred transitions.
A Backpack Blessing
Written by Lucy BreidenthalGod of wisdom, you created us in your image, igniting in us the fire of curiosity. Help us to know the joy of discovery as we unlock the mysteries of numbers, dig deep into the science of the earth, escape to mysterious lands in the majesty of great books, write our own stories of adventure, travel the globe in the breath of a new language, and become historians of the past and inventors of the future; Bless these tools of learning—our backpacks, pencils, paper, laptops, tablets, that we might have the courage to continue to learn and the conviction to change the world.
In your name we pray,
Amen