FOREST HILLS — The Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Academy community came together for the feast of Epiphany with a chalking ceremony on Jan. 6 to celebrate the coming of the Wise Men and the close of the Christmas season.
Annmarie Dry, a seventh-grader who said she was proud to participate as an altar server, appreciated learning about the symbolic meaning behind the chalking and now looks forward to sharing what she learned.
“This school is more like a community for us. It’s an especially good way to interact with the kids and let them know about their faith, community, and ancestors,” Annmarie said. “It was even better because I like altar serving and helping people.”
The seventh- and eighth-grade altar servers put a modern twist on the tradition of chalking front doors by writing the Magi’s initials (C, M, B), the year, and a cross on a chalkboard.
The boards were blessed during a prayer service led by Msgr. John McGuirl, the pastor emeritus and temporary administrator at Our Lady of Mercy. Students then went to sacramental classrooms to drop off the boards, marking the occasion of God’s presence in their lives and at school.
Msgr. McGuirl said he was proud of how attentive the students were during the ceremony and encouraged them to spread their light during the service. He said it is customs like these that allow students to leave the academy closer to God.
“I want students to realize the reason this exists is so we can find Christ and grow closer to him,” Msgr. McGuirl said. “Particularly those that are going to high school in a couple of years, we tend to lose touch with them, so we hope that what they learn here is going to stay with them.”
Msgr. McGuirl added that the day reminded him of the academy’s true purpose.
“This whole place exists … to help them find Christ, and that’s what the Wise Men were doing,” he said. “The whole idea of Epiphany is all of us greeting Christ into our minds and hearts, and this demonstrates that.”
Seventh-grader Tobias Koo said it was fun learning the meaning of Epiphany and plans to follow Msgr. McGuirl’s request to share the word of God with the younger students.
“Being one of the older kids, I feel a sense of responsibility to help other kids by leading by example,” Tobias said.
Our Lady of Mercy Principal Dana Murphy said the ceremony is an important way to start the new year, and she enjoyed seeing students and teachers sharing the day.
“Some of the students shared with us that they do this in their own homes, but we look at Our Lady of Mercy as a second home,” Murphy said. “It was great to see what they already knew and to see them all coming together and sharing and celebrating.”
