Spiritual Life

Eucharist Day

This annual spiritual event fosters devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. Each class spends time in prayer before the Eucharist and is led in a gospel reflection by a priest from one of our seven parishes. The day culminates with a school-wide Eucharistic procession and Benediction.

School Masses

The school community comes together at least monthly to celebrate Mass in the Katie Fitzgerald Center. Each grade has the opportunity to host the Mass, which includes proclaiming the readings, writing the petitions, serving as ushers, gift bearers and altar servers. The liturgy is enhanced with singing led by our school choir and cantors. Our primary students learn the Mass responses and appropriate behavior from their middle school prayer partners.

Throughout the school year, each individual class in grades two through eight celebrates a private Mass in the school's chapel. The small size of the chapel allows the students to experience the Mass in a deeply spiritual and unique setting.

Service

In the example of Christ, Mary of Nazareth School students are encouraged to reach out in service to those in the local community as well as abroad. Students partner with A Wider Circle, a non-profit organization in Montgomery County dedicated to ending poverty. Working closely with this organization raises student awareness and provides multiple opportunities to support those in need. Additional school-wide efforts are organized to help the homeless, raise funds for the Shady Grove Pregnancy Center, and feed the hungry at St. Martin’s Food Pantry. Grade level service projects are conducted twice a year in collaboration between parents and teachers.

Vocations Awareness

Mary of Nazareth School maintains a religious presence through instruction and visits by the priests and deacons from our parishes and faculty members in consecrated life. Our Vocations Week activities include boys' and girls' vocations dinners, closed circuit vocations infomercials, and guest speakers. Our eighth grade students attend the annual Archdiocesan Vocations Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

May Crowning

The Mary of Nazareth School community honors Mary, our patroness, with a Mass and May Crowning. In gratitude for her many graces and the intercession of our Blessed Mother, the eighth grade students crown Mary and make an offering of flowers. Each individual grade also honors Mary with a classroom May Crowning and prayer service.

March for Life

Our eighth grade students have the opportunity to live their faith by attending the annual Rally and March for Life sponsored by the Archdiocese of Washington. Along with their peers from across the country, our students give witness and stand up for the dignity and protection of all life by attending Mass, praying, and marching to the Capital.

Holy Communion

After much instruction and preparation our second grade students and their families join together to celebrate Mass and receive Jesus in the sacrament of the Eucharist. It is a time of joy, thanksgiving and reflection as these boys and girls participate more fully in the liturgy and come to understand the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

Prayer Life

A relationship with God is developed with a regular and varied prayer life throughout the day. The primary and intermediate grades pray in the morning, mid-day, and in the afternoon. The middle school students pray before each class. All students learn the traditional Catholic prayers and families are encouraged to pray them as well.



Prayer Partners

Primary and middle school students are paired for Mass, special activities, prayer services and school-wide events. This program fosters responsibility, builds community, and often leads to lasting friendships.

Communal Prayer

The school prays as a community with the opening daily prayer, grace after meals, and the closing prayer. At the end of the week, the community listens and reflects on the Sunday Gospel and applies it to our lives.

Rosary

Students become familiar with the recitation of the rosary. The rosary is recited as a school throughout the year, with a multilingual Living Rosary during Catholic Schools Week.

Reconciliation

Students have the opportunity to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation twice during the school year as offered by the priests of our seven parishes during Advent and Lent.

Stations of the Cross

As part of their Lenten prayer, students may reflect on the Stations of the Cross in the school chapel.