Be accepted. become spiritual.

Welcoming students of all faiths, St Joseph High School is dedicated to preparing students intellectually and spiritually for life-long discipleship.

Students Walking in Front of Chapel


Spiritual Life at St Joes

The Spiritual Life Program is coordinated by the School Chaplain and the Director of Campus Ministry. Every student is welcome to join Campus Ministry programs at any time throughout the year.

Liturgical Celebrations

  • Daily Mass is offered each morning in our Alumni Chapel.
  • All Theology classes are invited to arrange for special Masses, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and other prayer services during Advent and Lent.
  • The school community celebrates: Opening of School Mass, Freshman & Transfer Student Mass, Junior Ring Mass, Sophomore Family Mass, Baccalaureate Mass, All Saints Day Mass, Thanksgiving Mass, Immaculate Conception Mass, Christmas Prayer Service, Catholic Schools Week Mass, Distribution of Ashes, Mass for the Solemnity of St Joseph, and Mass for Ascension Thursday.
  • During Lent and Advent, there are special school-wide Reconciliation opportunities during the school day.

Community Service

Community service is an integral part of our school community and campus ministry. School-wide projects include the following:

  • A food collection at Thanksgiving
  • Midnight Runs for the homeless in our local communities
  • Tutoring students in area elementary schools
  • Delivering Christmas gifts to children at The Caroline House
  • The Advent Giving Tree
  • Habitat for Humanity
  • Camp Sunshine in Casco, Maine
  • Volunteering at local soup kitchens and homeless shelters
  • One week mission trip to Appalachia

Retreat Opportunities

Retreats are a wonderful way to learn mindfulness and vulnerability as students open themselves up to each other and to God

  • The Freshmen Retreat
  • Sophomore Class Retreat
  • Kairos Retreats
  • Pizza & Prayer
  • St Joe's Leadership Institute Retreat (SJLI)

Peer Ministry

Peer Ministry is an elective Theology course open to seniors. Peer Ministry trains students to embrace servant leadership and its application outside of the classroom. All lessons are in response to the Gospel, the teaching of the Church, and the larger mission of our school. Topics range from diversity and stereotypes to perception and behaviors of concern. These skills are used in leading small groups, retreats, workshops, and directed service to their peers. The course seeks to take students interested in growth and equip them for lifestyles of leadership through service.

 


 

Meet our Chaplain

FatherEricSilva

Father Eric Silva grew up in Trumbull and is a proud SJ alum. The beauty and the wonder of the Catholic faith was introduced to Fr Silva during his high school years and it was there that the seeds of his vocation to the priesthood were planted. Fr. Silva's first assignment and his first two years of priesthood were spent serving at Saint Joseph’s Parish in Brookfield, CT. In the spring of 2018, the Bishop asked him to be the next Episcopal Chaplain of St Joseph High School where he serves the students, faculty, staff, and entire St Joseph’s community.


 

Meet our Campus Ministry Director

Jordan Smith, Director of Campus Ministry

Mr. Jordan Smith graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in MA with a dual degree in Classics and Theology.  Upon graduation, he taught at Notre Dame High School in West Haven, CT where he developed their Kairos Retreat Program in addition to grade level retreats and a student-led retreat program called BRO (Brothers Reaching Others). 

His training by the Jesuits at Holy Cross helped him realize that his work in service to others is - always - the most rewarding. 
 


 

about our alumni chapel

The Alumni Chapel is the center and heart of St Joseph High School, familiar to generations of St Joseph High School students as a place of prayer and worship.
 

Alumni Chapel


WHAT HAPPENS DURING MASS?
While Mass takes place each day in our chapel, whole-school Masses are celebrated in our gymnasium. During all-school Mass, students, faculty, and staff gather together. A program is provided by Father Silva that guides us all through music, prayers, and readings.  


ABOUT THE CHAPEL
Throughout the years, the Chapel has been enhanced and beautified, so that today’s students can be given a place of great dignity and beauty in which to encounter the Lord in prayer and in the sacraments.

The tabernacle, crafted in Madrid, Spain, was the gift of an anonymous benefactor, in 2005. Blessed and installed that year on December 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the tabernacle houses and safeguards the Holy Eucharist. A vigil lamp burns beside the tabernacle whenever the Blessed Sacrament is present inside it, reminding us of the presence of Christ with us.  

The confessional provides an atmosphere of dignity and privacy for students to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The outside features a framed reproduction of Rembrandt’s Return of the Prodigal Son, given in memory of Meri-Lyn Raw, ’06.  

The altar was dedicated by Bishop William E Lori of Bridgeport in the spring of 2007.  The original St Joseph High School altar stone, containing relics of saints, was placed by the Bishop into the top of the altar, which is constructed of African mahogany and green Italian marble.
 

"Each generation of students that come to St Joes, regardless of what their faith background may be, are both welcomed and accompanied throughout their time here and know first and foremost that they are loved infinitely by God and that they are called to be agents of that love in a world that so desperately needs it."

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Spiritual Life