WOBURN -- As she drove to the opening Mass of St. Charles School in Woburn on Sept. 5, Archdiocese of Boston Superintendent of Catholic Schools Eileen McLaughlin thought about how much had changed in the last eight days.

On Aug. 27, two children were killed and 21 people were injured in a mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis. The shooting took place during a Mass for students of the adjacent Annunciation School during the first week of the school year. It was the first mass shooting at a Catholic school in the U.S. Now, McLaughlin was on her way to attend a similar Mass celebrating the beginning of a new school year at St. Charles.

"World events sometimes shift things in our schools, and yet, in the midst of Mass, those worries and anxieties recede a bit," she told The Pilot.

She said that she felt Christ's presence in Father John Capuci, pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Parish, who celebrated the Mass; St. Charles School Principal Donna Cargill; and the students, teachers, and families in the assembly.

"I think it was a nice reminder of what our faith can do for us in a troubled world," she said.

In his homily, Father Capuci gave the students three ways to overcome what he called the "'I'm bored' mentality." First, he told them that every morning when they wake up, they should say to themselves "Jesus, I am ready for you."

"We want to make a decision to Jesus today because in our world, we have all these weird things that are happening, of people who are doing mean and horrible things everywhere," he said.

Second, he told them that they have to practice being Catholic the same way they would practice an after-school sport, particularly by doing random acts of kindness. Third, he told them to pray every morning when they wake up and every night before they go to bed.

"All around the United States right now, young people are finding out that there's something about the Catholic Church that's powerful and interesting," he said. "Young people all around the United States are, for the very first time ever, walking into a Catholic church, going to Mass, and are astounded about what they've seen, what they're hearing about in the power of our Mass."

He said that lifelong Catholics can "take that for granted," and told the parents in the assembly to set an example for their children by going to Mass regularly.

"I don't want to hear any silliness from our playground," he told the students. "I don't want to hear about people calling each other names, because we don't call each other names because we're Christian. I don't want to hear the silliness of petty arguments because, as people who are in Jesus, that stuff needs to go away."

After Mass, McLaughlin wished the students a good day as they filed out of the church.

She said that the Archdiocese of Boston's Catholic schools "are doing well" when it comes to safety.

"I think the Archdiocese of Boston, for many years now, has had a really good center of support in preparing schools for all sorts of risks," she said.

Cargill took McLaughlin on a tour of St. Charles School after Mass. She visited the cafeteria, the gym, and the seventh-grade science class, which recently got a pet tarantula, which has yet to be named. Student suggestions included Cocoa Baby and Spider Dave. Fourth grader Samuel, who likes riddles so much that he gave one to Archbishop Richard Henning in the school's invitation for him to visit, gave this brainteaser to McLaughlin: "A man walks outside in the rain. He doesn't have an umbrella or hood, but his hair never gets wet. How?"

Both McLaughlin and one of Samuel's classmates figured out the answer: The man is bald.

In the first-grade classroom, students were talking about how they felt the night before the first day of school. Some were happy, some were sad, and others were nervous. Beside the door, beneath a statue of Mary, there was a sign that read, "This is a no whining zone."