Loyola will hold Baccalaureate Mass for seniors

Starlight Williams

Before seniors walk across the graduation stage, they have the opportunity to attend their final service at the Baccalaureate Mass.

The Baccalaureate Mass is an annual Mass celebrated the day before commencement. The Mass will be held Friday, May 8 at 4 p.m. in the University Sports Complex.

While graduating seniors are not required to attend the Mass, Ken Weber, university minister, said that the Mass is important because it gives graduates a chance to express gratitude for their Loyola experience and for God.

“The Mass signifies God’s love for us through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Celebrating Mass, which is fundamentally a communal act of gratitude, signifies Loyola’s commitment to preserving this orientation toward the magis in our graduates, their families and the entire Loyola community,” Weber said.

Patricia J. Calzadilla, graduating business mangement senior, said that she is looking forward to the Mass.

“I haven’t been to one yet, but I believe that it’s something that represents the culmination of my time here. It signifies the values I have instilled in myself in the past four years and how I’m going to carry them with me now that my time here is over,” Calzadilla said.

Denise Powell, graduating biological sciences senior, said that the Mass is a great way for the class to connect before graduation day.

“After attending my own at my all-girls Catholic high school, I think it’s a more intimate way to come together as a collegiate community and realize how far we’ve come as a class,” Powell said.

According to Weber, the Mass progresses as normal with the exception of music provided by a professional choral and instrumental ensemble from the College of Music and Fine Arts. It also includes the presentation of the Ignatian Awards for Outstanding Undergraduate Male and Female and Graduate Student.

“St. Ignatius may say that the greatest Jesuit value of all is the fundamental value of loving God. The graduates’ main function in the Mass is to participate the way all people who celebrate Mass participate — by responding, singing and praying,” Weber said.
Weber said he wants the Mass to give graduates and their guests a sense of joy before they leave Loyola.

“I hope they will take away a spiritual feeling of joy and gratitude for the many blessings that God has bestowed on all of us that have culminated in this special event in all of our lives,” Weber said.