Farewell Mass for Ursuline seniors held virtually in empty chapel

Father Peter Finney III, school chaplain and pastor of St. Rita Church in New Orleans, celebrated the Mass with fewer than 10 people inside the Our Lady of Prompt Succor Chapel. Others in the Ursuline family of students, teachers, faculty and sisters were invited to watch it on Facebook Live. 
    

Father Finney acknowledged that “there is a lot missing in our life right now, but, there is a lot that connects us,” even during the coronavirus. He wanted them to measure their challenges against three Christians who came before them and also faced great challenges yet persevered because Christ was their light. 
 

Models of perseverance
    

He said it is our Christian faith that gives us the strength to carry on, no matter the adversity. He traced the history of Ananias of Damascus, who helped a man named Saul, who later became Paul and “traveled the world for Jesus”; St. Joseph the Worker, who raised the son of God through quiet and consistent work; and the 12 Ursuline sisters, who landed in New Orleans expecting a convent waiting for them but had to wait seven years before even a shoddy one was built.
    

They persevered through  rugged conditions until 1752, when  the Old Ursuline Convent on Chartres Street was completed.
    

God has a plan for us, Father Finney told the faithful.
    

“I really don’t want to do all this – be uprooted, be challenged, be separated from normal expected life,” Father Finney said the seniors might be feeling right now, as they are missing ice cream Fridays or being together. 
    

“But, it’s this hard stuff that can help us stand closer to Ananias, St. Joseph, those Ursuline sisters, to help us stand closer to each other, to Jesus. … When we acknowledge to still choose to serve God in little and big ways, Ursuline is no longer a bricks-and-mortar school, it’s a living breathing spirit, spread out all over our city. … It’s you and me, staff and alumnae, trying to become people that God desires.
    

“There is a lot of stuff I want to do, but I can’t. A lot of stuff I really don’t want to do but have to. May our choice be to love, right now. Like Ananias, St. Joseph, Jesus, show a love that is distinctly Ursuline.”
    

At the end of Mass, a video produced by yearbook coordinator Sara Quinlan was shown featuring photo highlights of the senior Class of 2020 playing to the songs “Lean on Me” and “I Am the World’s Greatest.” Then, the Ursuline alma mater was sung.
    

Beth Joubert, campus minister and an Ursuline graduate, said she knows that students, especially the seniors, are hurting right now.
    

“But, like Father Peter said, we’re all hurting and have to put it in perspective and see the good in it,” Joubert said. “Being here was good for my soul. I hope they’re feeling that.”
    

The day before, all 69 seniors were hand-delivered a rose – that they would have normally received at their farewell Mass – at home by faculty, with a note that read, “The Ursuline Academy faculty and staff believe in your ability to do great things and to live Serviam. Congratulations Sioux of 2020!” A quote of Eleanore Roosevelt also was attached: “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
    

Christine Bordelon can be reached at cbordelon@clarionherald.org.