For years, Mitty students have reflected their goals of compassion, community, and more through a song—the liturgical theme sung at Mass and other school gatherings. This year’s theme, Brandi Carlile’s “Carried Me with You,” fits the spirit of support and community among Mitty students. Much consideration and purpose goes into selecting and working out the theme. 

At the end of every school year, a new theme is chosen to reflect the goals of the next year. The liturgical theme is not merely a song for gatherings; its message provides an anchoring point to view the year from. The theme is meant to provide a continuous, universal view for all to reflect upon in liturgies, prayer, and everyday life.

In the spring, Campus Ministry begins to consider the liturgical theme for the next school year. Suggestions are initially taken via a Google Form survey. During this yearly process, all students are welcome to recommend songs. Campus Ministry encourages students to think about potential songs and their messages throughout the year.

The Campus Ministry team then considers the recommendations and determines the overarching themes they present, along with how the themes fit with the focus for the upcoming year. They search for recommendations that meet their criteria—energetic, uplifting, and easy to sing, so that all can participate. The ability for everyone to interpret the song is also considered, so that each individual may connect to it in personal ways.

The most important purpose of the liturgical theme is to represent what defines Mitty through the values its community upholds. This year, the overarching message is to carry each other in support, collaboration, and kinship. Mitty students are called to servant leadership by caring for others and nurturing our community. In doing so, the community recognizes how each individual inherently deserves support.

A line from this year’s theme song, “From the highest of the peaks, to the darkness of the blues,” represents how students can build up the Mitty community by ‘carrying’ each other through both good and bad times. 

The accompanying hand movements of the theme song offer another opportunity to engage with it. Whether someone does not want to sing or lacks the confidence to, they can still participate along with the community. Nevertheless, hand movements are not merely an alternative option; they are a way to share the message of the theme by moving in harmony with others. Ms. Jamie Visser, director of Campus Ministry, adds, “I think it brings an energy to the song, that if we were just singing, wouldn’t be there. It’s just a way to engage every person and get our whole bodies moving in prayer.”

The job of creating these hand movements is given to LIFE Corps, Campus Ministry’s senior student leaders. For this year’s song, they worked through the song line by line during an August retreat. Senior Maria Mukhar described the process as a “super interactive way of getting everyone’s opinions.”