Sophomores and Juniors Take Steps in Their Notre Dame Journey

Sophomores and Juniors Take Steps in Their Notre Dame Journey

Julie Billiart Hall underwent some colorful, albeit temporary, color changes recently. Last Wednesday the juniors and their families and friends celebrated in a hall filled with teal and yellow, the colors of the Class of 2013 Superheroes.  Partaking in a long-established ritual, the Junior Blessing Ceremony, the girls celebrated the talents of their class members and their sisterhood with song and dance, laughing and cheering together.  After receiving a personal blessing from their individual class mentors, the Superheroes joined family and friends in a feast of food and hugs, generously sprinkled with the sound of laughter!

A week later it was the red and purple Class of 2014 Phoenixes, wearing myriad combinations of their class colors, that took their places in JB Hall to partake in another rite of passage, the Sophomore Stepping-up Ceremony.  The young women of the sophomore class were challenged by Principal Mary Beth Riley to become up-standers, stepping out of their comfort zone, stepping up their commitment to justice and community service and stepping up their level of study.  With arms and hearts linked, they sang and celebrated yet another Notre Dame milestone as the ‘link’ class, who will this year say goodbye to their senior big sisters as they get ready to welcome the incoming class of 2016, their little sisters.

Steeped in tradition and history, the Notre Dame community embraces the opportunity to mark each year of a student’s journey with ritual and prayer.  For the freshman, it is the Freshman Family Mass & Prayer, scheduled for next week.  The sophomores and juniors mark their journey with the ceremonies described above and the seniors close out their Notre Dame journey with a Baccalaureate Mass, a beautiful, thoughtful component of their graduation festivities. 

St. Julie believed that, “Peace and union of hearts, that is the bond of all the earth.”  That unity of hearts is evident in these rituals, marked with joy and thoughtfulness – both for the students as they partake in their personal journey and for the rest of the community as we watch them grow from girls to young women, ready to take on the challenges of the world.