Student Leaders Participate in Devotional Program

Four eighth graders from SIJ have served as student leaders for the Diocese of Joliet Devotional Project for the 2014 - 2015 school year. The title of the project is Immersed in His Saving Grace. It explores the devotional life in the Catholic Church that leads us to the Eucharist, the source and summit of our faith. Caroline Bourjaily, Callum Burke, Avery Ferguson and Gavin Wilson participated in a Mass for student leaders, teachers and families from around the diocese at the Divine Mercy Polish Mission and Shrine. This beautiful church displays a special devotion to Saint Pope John Paul II and Saint Faustina. In the year 2000, at the Canonization of St. Faustina, Pope John Paul II declared that the second Sunday of Easter (the Easter Octave) would be known as Divine Mercy Sunday. The Church would recognize the infinite gift of God’s Mercy toward his people and the obligation to, in turn, let that Divine Mercy flow from God through us to others.
As a means to further explore the devotional practice of Pilgrimage, the leaders of the Devotional Project selected a shrine in the diocese to travel to and participate in the Mass and reception of the Holy Eucharist. Father John Belmonte, SJ, Superintendent of Schools for the Diocese of Joliet, was the celebrant of the Mass and spoke to everyone about the infinite Mercy of God. He used mathematical terms to show that no matter what number you subtract from infinity ~ infinity can never be diminished ~ it will always be infinite and so is God’s Mercy!