Immaculate Heart High School Honors Mary’s Day with a Focus on Mercy

Video courtesy of Immaculate Heart School Photographer, John Dlugolecki

Immaculate Heart’s annual Mary’s Day celebration this year proved a fitting occasion to honor the high school’s 110 years, but amidst the singing and dancing the April 29th event also called on students to focus on mercy as a way to renew the world.

For decades, Mary’s Day – Immaculate Heart’s most anticipated tradition – has honored Mary, the mother of Jesus and the school’s patroness, with festivities that open with a theme-based liturgy and close with a potluck lunch on the grassy campus quad.

This year, organizers chose to emphasize the Jubilee Year of Mercy declared by Pope Francis by selecting “Mary, Mother of Mercy” as the event’s theme. Indoor auditorium decorations featured a cluster of lighted clouds that shimmered overhead with dangling beaded strings of raindrops. Outside, large banners proclaimed “Let Mercy Reign.”

“So many people are suffering in this world, and our call is to lift them up with love and mercy,” stressed Father Frank Mendoza, pastor of St. Finbar Church in Burbank, who presided at the Mary’s Day Mass. “Mary, our mother of mercy, serves as our example,” he added. “With faith, hope and love, we can break the cycle of hate and rain down mercy and love on others.”

Following the liturgy, students formed a formal procession to the quad where Associated Student Body President Anne Bonino-Britsch crowned a statue of Mary as students sang “Immaculate Mary.” After a group of seniors and juniors danced around a maypole, the entire school community – comprised of nearly 500 students – joined together in the traditional “Great Lawn Dance,” which this year featured the hit song “Pon de Replay” by Rihanna.

Among other Mary’s Day highlights, students in Honors English I classes addressed the day’s theme by offering a verbal collage before the school audience. Other student performers also emphasized acts of mercy in both song and dance presentations. Students then linked hands and sang Immaculate Heart’s Alma Mater before enjoying a lunch with friends – and more dancing – on the quad.

About Immaculate Heart

Founded in 1906, Immaculate Heart is located at 5515 Franklin Avenue, at the corner of Western Avenue, in the Los Feliz foothills near Griffith Park in Hollywood. The school educates young women in grades sixth through 12th. The school has a long and distinguished history, with more than 10,000 graduates. Today’s student body of more than 700 young women is both geographically and ethnically diverse, drawing on students from throughout Los Angeles County. Last year, virtually 100 percent of Immaculate Heart graduates matriculated to colleges, including the most prestigious schools in the country.