At St. Mark Catholic School, we strive to live our faith by building
and sustaining a community of believers who make gospel values come
alive daily. Every morning, before announcements we dedicate our
day to God, pray for each other and the world and ask for God's
blessings. Students take turns leading these prayers, and we often
get requests from students and staff for prayers for relatives or
friends who may be ill, or in need of prayers for any other reason.
Individual classes add to their daily prayers at lunch with grace
before meals, and again at the end of the day. Each classroom has
a prayer corner in their classroom, where students can go to read
stories of faith, from books or from Scripture, and can look at
various items of religious significance which may be on the prayer
table.
Our faith comes alive again during the many celebrations which
occur during the year. We have a blessing for the new year in September,
recitation of the Rosary in May and October, a prayer service for
Remembrance Day in November, Advent celebrations in December, an
Ash Wednesday celebration, prayer services during Lent, Stations
of the Cross, and an end of the year prayer service and summer blessing.
We go to Mass every Thursday morning at St. Mark’s Parish
and enjoy a wonderful relationship with Father Robert Giroux, the
Pastor of St. Mark’s. He even cooks lunch for us once a year,
which we enjoy together with some members of the parish, in the
church.
We also celebrate our faith by reaching out to those in need by
collecting food in our food drives, raising money for Share Lent,
making charitable donations to other worthy causes such as cancer
and heart foundations, children in hospitals and families who have
children suffering with cancer. Many of our students send cards
and messages to our troops in Afghanistan and to veterans.
We recognize our students who demonstrate Catholic values by giving
certificates to those students who are peacemakers in our school.
We will be dedicating each month this year to the Beatitudes, encouraging
students to try to live out the beatitudes in their daily lives.
We at St. Mark Catholic School, are indeed a "School to Believe
In", and a School of Believers!
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