In a sign of solidarity with schools across the country participating in the #ENOUGH National School Walkout Day, the Good Counsel community gathered last Wednesday, March 14, to pray for the victims of gun violence, and to encourage student activism.

Students walking to the grotto for Wednesday’s prayer service. Photo Courtesy: OLGCHS

As Mr. Campbell and Dr. Barker like to remind us, “in today’s world, the loving good person, even alone, can make a difference.” Inspired by this, Caterino Ieronimo, Quincy Powers, and I decided to organize a walkout and prayer service lasting seventeen minutes in remembrance of the 17 lives lost in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. At around 10 AM, students were dismissed from class to gather around the new Our Lady of Good Counsel grotto.

Valerie Odonkor and I addressing the Good Counsel community. Photo Courtesy: OLGCHS

I commenced the event by stating that, “we gather to show compassion, trust that righteousness will come from such low moments, and hope to encourage a zealous, proactive attitude to stand up as one.” Senior Valerie Odonkor recited a prayer with the response “if we want peace, we must work for justice.” To conclude, she read the names of each of the seventeen victims of the Stoneman massacre and called for the community to observe a minute of silence.

Seniors Quincy Powers and Caterina Ieronimo reflected on GC as a Xaverian community, and how we are called to improve our world and promote peace. In Father Tom’s Founder’s Week homily, he likened the Xaverian mission to a pebble thrown in a pond that creates ripples that expand farther and farther outward to illustrate how an individual’s actions can influence an entire community. Building on this, Caterina explained how “We don’t have to wait until [the next election] to take action. What lawmakers do now will impact whether they remain in office, so it is imperative that we do our part in letting them know what issues are important to us. Calling and writing letters to representatives, lobbying, and protesting are just a few of the ways we can influence state and federal policy.”

Senior McCall Brown and Junior Alexia Ayuk leading a prayer. Photo Courtesy: OLGCHS

Senior McCall Brown then invited everyone to participate in the Saturday, March 24th’s March for Our Lives in Washington, D.C., organized by the survivors of the Parkland shooting. Junior Alexia Ayuk concluded the prayer service with a call-and-response of the Prayer of St. Francis, and asked for the intercession of our patrons.

As I looked out onto the sea of Good Counsel administration, faculty, staff, and students, I was empowered by the embodiment of compassion and the intolerance for injustice pulsing, not only, through the veins of our community, but also nationally. We must remember, that at the very core of the gun control discussion, is the fact that so many lives have, senselessly, been cut short. Good Counsel, through its Catholic Social Teachings and Xaverian Values, prides itself on the belief that all life is equal, and that silence is complicity. As one of my favorite authors, Elie Wiesel, said:“To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.”