For a century, it’s been both name and mission
The school was supposed to be temporary, but it permanently has imprinted the Eucharist in young hearts for a century
By Jay Sorgi
for the Register
Catholic school in Lincoln’s Irvingdale neighborhood is celebrating a century of proudly living out its name in educating kindergartners through eighth graders on the True Presence of Christ, both in the literal sacrament and in the everyday.
Blessed Sacrament School on Lake Street was initially supposed to just be a temporary school, as a church was to eventually be constructed.
“Temporary” has turned into 100 years of permanent commitment to the truth of the Catholic faith, and the school headed by the School Sisters of Christ the King is celebrating with initiatives that center students on that very Savior.
“How grateful we are as a school community that we get to continue to have our doors open every day and continue to just love Jesus the best that we can,” said Sister Marie Caritas, C.K., the principal at Blessed Sacrament.
She said the school, which currently serves 178 students, began as a one-story building in 1926. It was supposed to eventually give way, as a church would be constructed in the neighborhood. But as the school became rooted in the community, plans changed.
“In 1948, they built a second story and decided just to keep it as the dedicated school building. Three years after that, they built our current church,” Sister Marie Caritas said. “In 1983, we added a much-needed addition to the school that includes a gym and more classroom space.”
She said the School Sisters of Christ the King are now in their third year leading the school. The Sisters of Mercy and Marian Sisters both previously staffed the school.
She joins Father Michael Morin, pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish, along with new associate pastor Father Bradley Moss in leading what she calls a tight-knit school in a diverse neighborhood.
“It feels like a family,” she said. “People from all over, speaking a lot of different languages and a lot of parents learning English. We just have a great love for our patron, Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Everything we do is focused towards that and focused towards Him.”
She said the school has started adoration and benediction on each month’s first Friday. Just like a monstrance has rays that extend from Christ at the center to all people, the atmosphere Blessed Sacrament creates helps foster a recognition of Jesus in each other, particularly in older students modeling the way.
“When I see the love and the care that the older students have towards the younger students and the way that the younger students look up to older ones and try to model them, to imitate them, I really see a real beauty there and the give and take of just sharing Christ with one another,” Sister Marie said.
The marking of 100 years has included even more reflections of Christ in the True Presence throughout the building. Each month of the previous school year, students studied a different piece of Eucharistic artwork which has helped beautify the school.
“Father Morin does monthly visits with the students,” Sister Marie Caritas explained. “He did a picture study with each of those images with the students during his monthly visits. All of the children got a photograph book with all those pictures in it.”
The celebration ramps up Sept. 8, the day after Labor Day, when Bishop James Conley will celebrate the daily Mass at the school to mark 100 years.
Sister Marie Caritas said the year will also include Father Moss making monthly visits to join her in teaching the children more in-depth lessons about the Mass which they attend daily. Father Morin will additionally head to classrooms each month with Sister Marie Caritas to educate the youth about Eucharistic hymns, with a different hymn each month that will include Gregorian chant on the year-long playlist.
Each month of the school year will also empower children to offer prayers of thanksgiving for different communities that have supported the school over the years, and to have the school offer a Eucharistic prayer by St. John Henry Newman to the Sacred Heart for the year. It says, “O my God, when Thou dost condescend to suffer me to receive Thee, to eat and drink Thee, and Thou for a while takest up Thy abode within me, O make my heart beat with Thy Heart.”
Sister Marie Caritas said influencing children each day with the lessons of the Blessed Sacrament continually builds the blessed moments where a young person takes in the truth of the Eucharist and “gets it.”
“You see the light bulb go off for a child,” she said, “‘Oh my goodness, this is Jesus!’ Sometimes you can experience it with the younger children that they get it.”
Sister Marie said that as the dedicated faculty live the calling of the Blessed Sacrament, they will honor those who have lived and taught the Catholic faith for a century inside that initially temporary school building.
“We’re standing on the shoulders of giants, the many priests and religious, lay teachers, students, everyone that’s gone before us. We’re benefiting from all of the work and dedication and love for Jesus that they have already put into the school,” she said. “We’re just getting to continue that and grow even more as disciples of Jesus Christ.”
