Students at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic School in Grand Rapids gathered early in the morning on January 23, 2017, to pray for an end to abortion and to remember lives lost and affected by it.
This is the 16th year 8th grade students at IHM have led this Luminaries for Life vigil. The students lined sidewalks around the school with more than 300 candles, marking the anniversary of the January 22, 1973, Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.
At the end of the vigil, the rest of the student body and Bishop David Walkowiak joined the 8th grade students outside to pray the rosary.
“It’s really a sight to behold that early in the morning,” said Amy Hamilton, parent advisor of IHM’s Spiritual Growth Committee. “It takes your breath away – not just seeing the lights when you come over the hill, but the reverence and dedication the participants have for those who didn’t have a voice. People driving by call the school every year, thanking us for making the voices of those children heard. It is peaceful. It is powerful.”
See photos of the vigil in the gallery at this link.
Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic School serves 300 students in preschool through 8th grade. Learn more here.