I Marvel at the Service of these Catholic Students

http://www.catholic.org/diocese/diocese_story.php?id=26293

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Named for the man who requested Jesus’ body from Pontius Pilate for a proper burial, the Joseph of Arimathea Society grew out of the work of the Christian Action Team, the umbrella organization for service activities at St. Ignatius High School. “We wanted to have service in place that accomplishes all the corporal works of mercy,” explains Ed DeVenney, campus minister.

Various programs feed and clothe the poor, tend to the sick and visit the lonely, but team leaders wanted to do more.In 2003, St. Ignatius was the first high school in the country to provide the pallbearer service. It has necessarily grown to become the largest extracurricular activity at the Near West Side school.

“It’s even bigger than football,” DeVenney says.

Open only to juniors and seniors, students are restricted to serving one funeral per semester to limit time out of the classroom. The society averages about two funerals per week and has upwards of 300 members.

In service to God

Five of student pallbearers gather in the office of campus ministry for last-minute instructions. It is their first time as pallbearers and they are quiet.

“I want you to pray and remind yourselves what it is you’re doing today,” DeVenney says. “You’re in service to God and to Mrs. (Marian) Lombardo. She has no one left in her life and there will probably be very few people at the church.

“Be prayerful, participate in the Mass and remember that sometimes your voices are the only voices in the congregation,” he says.

As the navy blue St. Ignatius High School van pulls up in front of St. Stephen Parish on West 54th Street, the boys face the reality of their advisor’s words. With the exception of a Greek Orthodox bishop, they are the only ones in attendance at this funeral.

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Read this whole article, you will be inspired, as I am, with the maturity of these students. They truly are serving God and exhibiting marvelous qualities and deeds of charity and dignity.