By Katie Vasquez
From kindergarten to 8th grade, students are united in prayer in the Diocese of Brooklyn. Their main intention? The health of the Holy Father.
Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Academy has been following the updates on Pope Francis since he was admitted into Gemelli hospital on February 14.
“I just hope he recovers,” Ming Hui Lin, a 7th grader at the school, told Currents News.
Right now, the pontiff is showing signs of improvement and remaining stable.
“We really want Pope Francis to continue. He’s been a wonderful pope,” Our Lady of Perpetual Help teacher Catherine Aquilino said of the Holy Father.
The Sunset Park school is praying the rosary every Friday during Lent. While they are holding their beads, they are thinking of Pope Francis, who is thousands of miles away.
“We wanted to pray for his recovery and for the strength of the church during this time, because it’s trying all over the world, so we wanted to offer prayers,” explained Aquilino. “Perhaps saying the rosary and we would take the five decades and Fridays are the days allocated to the sorrowful mysteries. So that’s how that all came about.”
The rosaries have also offered an opportunity for students to connect with Christ.
“I think it’s been good for the little kids so that they get to know more about their faith and know more about the rosary and Mary,” 8th grader Erla Chua told Currents News.
It is a call that Chua said she doesn’t take lightly.
“The rosary is very important to me,” she explained, “and my family is very religious, and we take church and Mass and the rosary very seriously. We’ve been praying for Pope Francis, my family, for good health.”
And as the pope recovers, these students believe their prayers are being answered.
“I feel like we’re helping because when we’re praying, we’re asking God, for a blessing for another person,” Christopher Fernandez, a 7th grader at the school, said of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Academy’s prayer efforts.
“It is helpful,” added Lin. “It takes, a lot of stress off of someone.”