Oona Holahan
The students of Immaculate Heart High School in Los Feliz gathered to sing Marian hymns and pray during Mary’s Day in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, an event typically held on the first of May, the month of Mary.
On April 28, student president Oona Holahan placed a golden crown adorned with flowers on the school’s statue of Mary. The event’s theme, “Ave Stella Maris” (Mary, Star of the Sea), was a tribute to Mary as the guiding star. “Our Blessed Mother is our North Star and may we look to her as an example of courage and faith as we follow the Lord in our journey,” Father Francis Mendoza of St. Finbar Church in Burbank, who led the liturgy, told the students.
The event ended with nearly 500 students at the all-girls’ school singing and then joining together for the Maypole dance, known as the school’s “Great Lawn Dance.” The dance song of choice this year was “Love Makes the World Go Round,” a Jennifer Lopez and Lin-Manuel Miranda charity single released last year in honor of the victims of the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting.
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