Peace Pole at St. Mary's South Side

Curt Sidorski, Ministry Lead of Marianist Encounters at St. Mary's South Side in St. Louis, MO, sends us this update about the Peace Pole, which brings together the school's educational community in prayer and hope for a peaceful world.

On April 9th, St. Mary’s South Side Catholic High School had a blessing of our recently installed peace pole.  We gather as a school community to pray for peace.  The St. Mary’s peace pole was the product of the hard work of our fine art teacher, Ms. Sorgea.  Earlier this year, each member of our community took turns painting one small part of the pole.  The colors symbolize our school’s academies named after long-serving Marianist brothers and priests in St. Mary’s community, Father Barber, Brother Haug, Brother Heyer and Father O’Shaughnessy.  The pole has the prayer, “May Peace Prevail on Earth,” inscribed in English and Spanish. A Peace Pole is an internationally recognized symbol of the hopes and dreams of the entire human family, standing vigil in silent prayer for peace on earth. Each Peace Pole bears the message May Peace Prevail on Earth in different languages. It is estimated that there are over 250,000 Peace Poles in every country in the world, dedicated as monuments to peace. The hope is that this pole will serve as a reminder that we are all called to the labor of building a peaceful and equitable world.  The bilingual prayer will hopefully serve as a small but visible symbol that St. Mary’s South Side is an educational community that welcomes, loves, and serves young men from all backgrounds, cultures, and traditions. 

Many of our students with immigration in their family backgrounds have expressed understandable anxiety in recent weeks.  To this end, as a community, we have chosen to recite the Lord’s prayer in Spanish during our all-school masses.  Our school’s administration has also empowered students to post educational signage from the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc., providing students with information regarding their rights and resources available should they or their loved ones require assistance.  We are doing what we can to make all our students feel loved and supported and provide them with the safest educational space we can.