ZANESVILLE — Our Lady of the Rosary Chapel at Zanesville Bishop Rosecrans High School is different this school year.
Pews with kneelers were installed; white, green and purple tapestries and altar cloths reflecting the liturgical season have been made; and sacramentals now fill the chapel.
The biggest addition, perhaps, is not something but Someone.
Jesus Christ is now present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the chapel’s formerly unused tabernacle.
Changes to the school chapel came after several students expressed frustration that they were not able to pray in the presence of Christ and that Adoration was not available on school grounds, said Jonathan Medaugh, campus ministries director for the Catholic Schools of Zanesville.
Clergy and staff worked together to address the needs and make the chapel a holy site for students to pray and the Lord to dwell. Adoration began being offered after chapel renovations were completed.
Father Brian Beal, the campus chaplain, said the school is blessed that students can now adore the Lord.
He recalled the words of Pope St. John Paul II, who said communal worship at Mass must be accompanied by personal worship of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament for love of God to be complete.
“We wanted to give the kids weekly Mass and then combine that with Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament so that they could have their hearts and minds fixed and focused on Jesus: really, truly and substantially present, so that they could have a personal, covenantal relationship with the living God,” he said.
Father Beal also serves as parochial vicar at Zanesville St. Nicholas and St. Thomas the Aquinas churches.
Students at Bishop Rosecrans attend Mass every Wednesday at St. Nicholas, which is located down the street. At the beginning of the school year, after a Mass at the church, the Blessed Sacrament was processed up to Bishop Rosecrans and placed in the Our Lady of the Rosary Chapel tabernacle.
The Eucharist is displayed in the monstrance for students to adore Christ every week.
“They’re made for eternity, and I think their souls are receiving what they’ve been made for, and I think they’re being fed,” Father Beal said.
“It will be an ongoing formation process to continue to give them catechesis on the Real Presence and how do we adore. So, they’re starting from very square one in the beginning, and we’re trying to help them grow.”
Members of the Knights of Columbus purchased a humeral veil and cope, which is worn by a priest or deacon during Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
Pews were acquired from the former Crooksville Church of the Atonement, located south of Zanesville in Perry County. Glass block windows in the chapel were covered with drywall and then painted.
Lynn Shaffer, the school’s finance director, used her sewing skills to make tapestries and altar cloths. A 1981 graduate of Bishop Rosecrans, Shaffer has fond memories of Our Lady of the Rosary Chapel.
“I loved the chapel for lots of reasons,” she said. “I just remember it when I went here. We’d have little Masses in there. We used it a lot. And then, there was a time period … it wasn’t even hardly used at all.”
Shaffer’s four sons also graduated from Bishop Rosecrans.
“When people ask me over the years, ‘Why do you send your kids to Catholic school?’ I could say, ‘We have great teachers, our academics … ’ I always say, ‘Because you can pray,’” she said.
Now, students at the school can pray in front of Christ present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.
Students expressed not only appreciation, but they recognized a difference in praying in the chapel with Christ fully present.
“I’ve seen it with my own eyes,” senior Conner Wells said. “People have become a lot closer to Jesus and the Catholic faith.
“I’ve seen people who are saying they want to be baptized now, and I think – I don’t know 100 percent – but I think that this probably helped them a lot because it helped open that door for them.”
For a number of students who are not Catholic, attending a Catholic school and participating in Adoration might be their first exposure to the faith.
School staff guiding students through Adoration also appears to be contributing to spiritual growth.
“I think guidance is very important for people growing closer to God,” Wells said. “If they have that guidance, it can do great things, but all they need is that first step. This helps them take that first step.”
James Goggin said he appreciates spending a portion of his senior religion class in the chapel. Every week, the class reflects on the upcoming Sunday Scripture readings for Mass and spends time in prayer.
“It’s been very nice,” he said. “We go once a week, and it’s been really nice to be able to go have some quiet prayer time and have it in there because we walk down the hill for church, but to have Adoration in the school has been nice and very convenient.”
For Chris Wilson, who is also a senior this year, Adoration every Friday is a great way to end the week. It also makes a difference during the time he spends in the chapel.
“You can just look up while you’re kneeling and the Eucharist is right there, so you can just talk to God directly instead of having to look up at the ceiling or something,” he said.
“Being able to think of prayers and things like that, it’s so much easier because, a lot of the time, when you’re praying on your own, you’re kind of scrambling to find things. Every time that I walk in Adoration, I just know what to pray about, and I think it has something to do with being in the presence of Jesus.”
Senior Evan Tolliver credited Adoration for increased focus during the school day. He said taking a break during the day to spend time with Christ in the chapel helps him perform better academically.
He said it also increases his focus on homework and studying later in the day.
More than simply being in the chapel, Tolliver recognized a difference with Christ in the Eucharist versus being in the chapel without Him.
“Before, when it was just empty most of the time, you walked in and it was just kind of like an empty room, but now that Jesus is present, it’s a different feeling when you walk in there,” he explained. “It’s like more of a homey feeling.
“I feel more comfortable stepping into the chapel now than I did before. I think that’s due to Jesus being present.”
Students in kindergarten through eighth grade at Zanesville Bishop Fenwick School – located next door – also visit the chapel for Adoration each week.
Janna Pitcock, who serves as a lay administrator for the school’s K-5 Adoration program, brings groups of elementary students to the high school for Adoration.
Elementary students are divided into two groups. Each group visits the chapel one Monday a month for 30 minutes.
Students in grades 6-8 come to the chapel for Adoration the other two Mondays of the month.
Pitcock and two women met with Father Beal at the beginning of the school year to design and implement a children’s Holy Hour. Pitcock said the goal of the program is to bring students to Christ so they can have a lifelong love of Jesus in the Eucharist.
She said the program began with catechesis: teaching students about the Real Presence and how to properly adore Christ.
“It’s just been very beautiful to watch Him work,” she said. “We’re like the gatekeepers. We just open these avenues for them to learn how to adore and what it means to adore, and He does the rest.”
Each half hour the children spend in Our Lady of the Rosary Chapel consists of four elements: Scripture; a song; learning various prayer types, such as intercessory prayer, petitions or mysteries of the rosary; and time for silence.
“We’ve had little people share with us – during their private time to pray – afterward that they told Jesus how they were sad that day, or one child even surprisingly … said, ‘I told Jesus that I’m angry with myself,’” Pitcock recalled. “So they’re having these beautiful moments with Him – even the young ones – and so, they’re feeling Him here.
“But also, we’re seeing some of them intellectually being reached with their questions. We have an opportunity sometimes for them to ask questions, and they’re asking about the Real Presence. One of them asked, ‘Why is He little?’ ‘Why is He coming to us in bread?’ So, they’re being very contemplative.”
Pitcock said she envisions the children’s Holy Hour eventually consisting of more silence and listening to God. For now, the program remains focused on catechesis and teaching students various ways to pray.
The long-term goal, she shared, is engaging families in Eucharistic devotion and inviting them to participate in a Holy Hour together. Pitcock said developments are underway to expand Adoration to the parish level.
She expressed gratitude for the support of clergy, faculty and administrators.
“It takes a team, and you can’t do it without that, but through prayer, the Holy Spirit makes it happen and sends the help needed to grow it,” she said. “So, it can be anywhere – anyone can do it. You just have to be willing to put the time in and the prayer.”