FLUSHING — Jayden Moreta, a seventh grader at St. Mel’s Catholic Academy in Flushing, gave up chocolate for Lent. He said he misses it but feels he gained a lot more when he attended a Lenten Youth Rally because it gave him food for his soul.

Jayden was one of 300 middle school students from Catholic academies in Northern Queens who took part in a Lenten Youth Rally at the Church of St. Mel on March 11. 

The students hailed from four schools in Queens – St. Mel’s, St. Luke, St. Michael’s, and St. Andrew Avellino Catholic academies — who got together to pray, sing, recite the rosary, and spend quiet time with the Blessed Sacrament.

The prayer rally ended with a procession around the block of the church led by Father Joseph Fonti, pastor of the Church of St. Mel, who held a monstrance containing the Eucharist. The students silently followed behind him.

Jayden took turns leading the decades of the rosary in the church. 

“I feel awesome because I’m representing my school,” he said before the rally. “It’s something that I love to do, representing my school and sharing how I love and trust in God.” 

Deacon Kevin McCormack, superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Brooklyn, was there, praying alongside the students. The rally was valuable because it provided a break from routine for the youngsters, he said.

“The kids got to step out of the regular everyday stuff and to be quiet with God, for about an hour,” Deacon McCormack said. “What’s better than that? That’s what makes Catholic schools different.” 

Another benefit of the rally was that it allowed sixth, seventh, and eighth graders to be around their peers from other schools and share the faith, Father Fonti said.

“Here in our deanery we have four vibrant schools that often don’t intercept or interconnect and this is good way for us to show them what a deanery model means — that we’re going to be working together — and to see that they’re not alone in their experience of being a teenager, let alone being a Christian, Catholic teenager,” he said. 

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The four schools are a part of Queens Deanery 4. Deaneries, or groupings of churches in specific geographic areas. Bishop Robert Brennan has emphasized the importance of the deaneries to enhance the working relationship between parishes.

Father Fonti added that Lent is a perfect time for a gathering like the Lenten Youth Rally.

“There’s diversity in this northern part of our diocese, the northern part of Queens,” Father Fonti said. “And I think one of the truths of Lent is to break down any barriers that are within us and around us.” 

Genesis Lin, an eighth grader at St. Michael’s Catholic Academy, said she enjoyed seeing students from other schools. 

“Usually teenagers, they’re pretty far away from God nowadays. It’s pretty reassuring that we’re all here in his name,” she explained.

The Lenten prayer rally idea is spreading. St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Flatlands hosted one on March 18 for four Brooklyn schools: Midwood Catholic Academy, St. Mark’s Catholic Academy, St. Edmund Elementary School, and Good Shepherd Catholic Academy.

McCormack said he is hopeful that the students can take away from the rally something that stays with them.

“It’s a moment in time, and they’re kids, but I do think it sets a foundation where they can remember this day, remember the peace, remember that when they were in school, what they had was, was an experience with Christ that will echo in their life,” he said.