Parents in Prayer

The Class of 2023 rose to the challenge last Wednesday in BTA's annual Junior Chapel. The juniors presided over the entire service, from the Call to Worship to the closing prayer.

Olivya Charles, Ehi Idemudia, and Taylor Tucker explained the meaning of the Advent Wreath: four candles, each representing a different aspect of the Christmas story and of the Christian life. The first candle is the Prophets candle, representing hope; the second, the Bethlehem candle, representing faith; third, the Shepherds candle, representing joy; and fourth, the Angels candle, representing peace. The girls encouraged Chapel attendees to strive to exhibit these values.

Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. –Philippians 4:6-8

Chapel attendees had to listen fast when Mrs. Alice Drew, Visual Arts Faculty, spoke about recognizing God in 'your story.' "Everyone has a story," Mrs. Drew said. "This is how I've seen God working in my story." When Mrs. Drew was in college, she told God she wanted three things: to be an art professor (specifically teaching ceramics), a company to make her own dinnerware line, and her work to be represented in a gallery. She had her life all planned out, she said, with the idea she would remain single and live in London. However, she met someone special and got married but never made it to London.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? –Matthew 16:24-26

Boston Trinity's annual Veterans Day Chapel opened on Wednesday, November 10, with a moment of silence in honor of our country's many veterans. Selected members of the ninth grade class recited the poem "In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae, after which Lieutenant Commander Jason Ragain III, Chaplain, U.S. Navy, encouraged Chapel attendees to be "All In". 

"But what about you?" [Jesus] asked. "Who do you say I am?" –Matthew 16:15

Who is Jesus? "This is the most important question you will ever answer," began Mr. Dee Silveira-Baptista, CTO of Westfield Capital Management, when he spoke in last week's Chapel. However, Mr. Silveira-Baptista wanted his audience to think of another "who" question: Who do you think you are? "Have you ever had someone say something about you that wasn't true?" Mr. Silveira-Baptista asked. "Accuse you of something you didn't do? Say that you said something you didn't say? Why do we get upset? Because," he continued, "that 'someone' is stealing your identity and misrepresenting you". 

“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. This is my command: Love each other. If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you. They will do all this to you because of me, for they have rejected the one who sent me.” –John 15:9-21

Director of the Trinity Institute for Leadership and Social Justice, Mr. David Mawhinney, told last week’s Chapel attendees, “Some of you think you lead a boring life. It does not need to be that way.” Mr. Mawhinney grew up during the time of the ‘cold war.’ There were two parts to the world then: the free west and the totalitarian east. The threat of nuclear war seemed very real and many people were predicting the imminent end of the world. It was in this context that Mr. Mawhinney, as a very young man, experienced his least boring day.