FRESH MEADOWS — Students at St. Francis Preparatory School are celebrating the Franciscan Jubilee Year by taking part in an eight-week challenge designed to bring them closer to their faith by having them follow their patron saint’s example of service and sacrifice.
Bishop Robert Brennan highlighted the challenge during a Mass celebrated in the school auditorium to mark the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi. The school held the Mass two days early, while the kids were in school, because the Oct. 4 feast fell on a Sunday this year.
The Franciscan Jubilee Challenge, set to begin on Oct. 4, asks students to perform one special act each week — a prayerful act, an act of kindness, or an act of service — for eight weeks and document their activities.
The school is named in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, who died in 1226. In honor of the 800th anniversary of his death, Pope Leo XIV declared 2026 to be a Franciscan Jubilee Year.
Senior Fabriana Ferrazzoli said she cannot wait to get started on the challenge.
“I’m very excited about that, yes. I hope I can reflect and learn from it and just grow in faith,” she told The Tablet.
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Brother Damian Novello, OSF, superior general of the Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn, who addressed the students following the Mass, said the challenge will give them a unique opportunity.
“You will be making such a big difference in the world around you and bringing to it a reminder of the love of God as expressed by St. Francis,” he said.
“I notice when I look at this challenge that some of the challenges are environmental, some of them are rational or peacemaking. And some are meditative: spending time in chapel, leading prayer for your family,” Brother Damian explained. “Some are very easy to do, and some will ask you to really stretch yourself. All are ways that St. Francis followed Jesus.”
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The suggested tasks include holding a door open for people and smiling at everyone, mending a strained relationship, decluttering a closet and throwing out items no longer needed, donating to a soup kitchen, and setting aside 15 minutes of prayer in the school chapel.
St. Francis has much to teach today’s Catholics, Bishop Brennan said.
“One of the aspects of Francis’ life is that he was always discerning, always trying to figure out God’s will for him,” he told The Tablet. “But Francis, as a young man, teaches us all, young and old, to always be asking not just what does God want for me, but who does he want me to be?
“Francis teaches us that by following the example of Jesus, our lives are not for ourselves alone.”