Creating a spirit of faith and service at St. Brigid School
“We are all called to be Jesus in this world.”
That is the message that Barbara Vassallo is seeking to bring to life at St. Brigid School in Portland.
“We become the sign of God’s love to other people. That’s what we try to tell the students — that God lives in us so that we can be Him to other people. We are His feet. We are His hands. We are His smile. We are all those things that can change a person’s day and even their direction in life because of something we said or did.”
Vassallo is St. Brigid’s spiritual animator, a job she began last August. The aim of the position is to help the school community grow in faith, from the students to the faculty and staff to the parents.
“The academics and all that are super important, but helping people grow in that other dimension, that faith dimension, and seeing the interconnectedness of all of that, that’s what makes us special here,” says Principal Bill Burke.
Father Paul Sullivan, SJ, pastor of Our Lady of Hope Parish, which includes St. Brigid School, says he got the idea for a spiritual animator from a presentation that Cardinal Gérald Cyprien Lacroix, ISPX, archbishop of Quebec, did for the Diocese of Portland’s Clergy Institute in 2019. Father Sullivan says the cardinal spoke about large parish clusters and how to keep the faith alive in smaller communities where there may no longer be regular Masses.
“He was really working on and wanting to promote the idea that in these small communities where there may not be a Sunday Mass, certainly not a Sunday Mass on a regular basis, to have somebody on the local scene to kind of keep the momentum going. And the word he used was ‘animateur,’ ‘animateur,’ ‘animator,’” Father Sullivan says. “It’s to be a resource person, a creator of spirit. I think that’s a good way to put it.”
While faith has always been at the forefront of the school, Father Sullivan and Principal Burke say amid busy schedules, it can sometimes be difficult to accomplish all that was intended.
“The idea wasn’t to bring someone in to do all these things but to bring someone in to facilitate, to be a resource, maybe to provide some ideas, some encouragement, and some help,” says Father Sullivan.
“What we have found is that if we have someone owning and managing specific areas that are mission oriented for us, we get things done. I have a development director. I have an admissions director. I have a facilities director. Well, why not have a mission identity director, which we’ll call a spiritual animator?” says Burke.
The search for a spiritual animator was a lengthy one, but both Father Sullivan and Principal Burke believe they found the right person for the job.
“She is a very service-related, very faithful person who understands what it means to be Catholic,” says Burke. “And one of her great gifts is building relationships with people.”
Vassallo’s career in religious education spans more than 40 years. She holds a master’s degree in religious studies with a minor in religious education. After college, she served as director of religious education for a parish in Providence, Rhode Island. She then transitioned into teaching theology at Mount Saint Charles Academy in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, a job she held for 28 years before coming to Maine. She wanted to move here because both of her daughters and their families live in the southern part of the state.
“I was like, this is the perfect position for me,” she says.
One of Vassallo’s priorities has been getting to know the St. Brigid community. With 372 students, along with faculty, staff, and parents, she says it’s a tall task. At the start of each school day, you will find her outside greeting students and their parents. She also works in the school’s after-care program.
“That has been a tremendous benefit for me to really get to know the kids,” she says.
During the school day, Vassallo spends time with different classes, preparing students to read at Mass, teaching them hymns, and helping in the planning of faith-related activities, for instance, making paper flames, which are on display throughout the school.
“They symbolize that we are keeping the St. Brigid fire burning by our actions and our love. So, every time you see one in the school, you’re going to be reminded: Are you loving? Are you being kind? Are you being faithful?” she says.
Vassallo has worked on training altar servers for both school and parish Masses, and Father Sullivan says he would like to see her develop a student retreat program. She and Principal Burke also meet regularly with Father Sullivan and Mickie Abatemarco, Our Lady of Hope’s parish life director, to strengthen ties between the parish and the school.
“When you’re running a school, you’re so focused on the school, but we’re also part of the parish. We’re part of Our Lady of Hope, so how do we bridge that gap between the school and the church? We’ve got to bring those together,” says Burke.
Vassallo has also sought to increase service opportunities, something that has long been a passion of hers.
“That’s how I started with my own faith growth and seeing my faith come alive when I was young and involved with my own parish in New Jersey. That’s where I felt my faith was most alive. I could feel it. I could see it. I could see Christ in others. I could see myself being Christ for others,” she says.
Vassallo says, for her, there is no way to separate faith from service.
“I just can’t see one without the other. I can’t. For me, it’s about loving people, caring for people, helping people, helping people know that we feel that they are important, that they have dignity, that you have respect for them,” she says.
The service opportunities she has helped to facilitate at St. Brigid include regular visits to nearby senior residences, including The Park Danforth, which is within walking distance, and Deering Pavilion, which is owned by the Diocese of Portland.
“Wednesday afternoons, from 1 to 2 p.m., a different class goes to Deering Pavilion, and we pray the Rosary with them,” says Vassallo. “Some of the classes have prayed and then given cards. Now we’re thinking that we might pray and do a craft to have more interaction.”
Small groups of sixth through eighth graders also volunteer a couple times a month at the St. Vincent de Paul Soup Kitchen in Portland, after which they discuss the experience.
“We begin with prayer, and I also end with prayer, making sure that they realize that you are Christ when you’re doing this,” she says. “Because His spirit is in you, you become Him when you serve these people.”
Vassallo invites parents to accompany the students to the soup kitchen, one of the ways she is trying to increase family involvement in the school and parish communities.
“The piece that we’re trying to get to is to get families more involved with Church life, however that might be: in education, in faith-filled activities that we do, just to really make that connection,” she says.
“One of my great and ongoing desires is to involve the parents,” says Father Sullivan. “We’ve got to reach the parents or everything we’re doing here has limited value among the kids because it doesn’t tend to continue.”
Another opportunity for parents that Vassallo helped to facilitate was the formation of a new book club. The first book the group is reading is The Anxious Generation, which examines the harmful effects of having children grow up in a virtual world. Next, they will dive into something more spiritually oriented for Lent.
While the fruits of having a spiritual animator are already evident, Father Sullivan, Principal Burke, and Vassallo all see the potential for much more.
“It’s going to take time to make all of this happen, but I think the sky’s the limit because I think there is a real commitment here at the school and the parish to help people grow in their faith,” says Burke.
“It is evolving,” says Vassallo. “There is so much going on, and at times, I feel overwhelmed, so I try to take it slow and say, ‘You’re not going to change the world.’ I know I’m not going to change the world, but sometimes I feel very motivated to try.”
