High School Students Serve the Dead — and Find Life in the Process
- Guest Contributor
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 5 hours ago
What began as a simple service project became a living lesson in mercy, prayer and gratitude for St. John Paul the Great High School students at Mount Olivet Cemetery.
By Dr. Shawn Mollenhauer
Music Fellow, St. John Paul the Great High School
“Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd, Or wak'd to ecstasy the living lyre.” From Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray
A trip to a cemetery is the ultimate palate cleanser. It doesn’t matter what was on your plate before your arrival; once you’re sauntering through a sea of headstones, all thoughts and impressions hitherto become neutralized.
And yet, unlike Thomas Gray and other “Churchyard Poets,” it was not melancholy or spiritual unrest that stirred in the hearts of the volunteers from St. John Paul the Great High School in Denver (JPG) on a surprisingly warm October morning, but gratitude.
A group of junior young men from JPG alighted a noisy yellow school bus at Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery in Wheat Ridge as part of their Formation Friday service. Throughout the year, students at the school have the opportunity to perform corporal and spiritual works of mercy for those in need throughout the greater Denver area.
Many in our contemporary secular culture may see a group of students arriving at a cemetery intent on rendering service and wonder if perhaps the students had arrived too late. After all, the dead are beyond help — aren’t they? But those with a Catholic worldview easily find such an endeavor ennobling, enriching and dignifying.
“It’s a good opportunity to get outside of yourself and serve others. It may seem an uncomfortable situation, but it really draws you deeper into relationship with all of the Church — militant, suffering and triumphant,” said Ben Johnson, junior at JPG.
Erin Scherer and Rachel Huser, outreach coordinators at Mount Olivet, welcomed student volunteers from JPG. Volunteers move through the cemetery and its environs, picking up trash and debris left after the brisk Colorado winds shift and scatter the various offerings left on the grave sites. Flags, flowers and other accoutrements left in memoriam mortuorum (in memory of the deceased) are tidied up in an effort to beautify the final resting places of the more than 150,000 people buried at Mount Olivet.
A seemingly mundane task becomes a source of silent spiritual reflection for students. Jameson Newland, also a junior at JPG, enjoyed contemplating “what effects made by the deceased in their lifetime may still be rippling through the world today.” But beyond the grass grooming and tomb tidying, students also provided an unseen yet powerful spiritual service.
Students walked through the cemetery, praying the Rosary, and made special stops at places like the Crypt of All Souls and the graves of indigent persons who may not have been able to afford a burial. Students and chaperones pray for those who may have otherwise had no one to pray for them at the end of their earthly life.
“It’s beautiful to spend time aiding the groundskeepers in their effort to dignify the physical space and also aid the departed souls in their journey towards the Beatific Vision,” said junior Jack Doherty.
Be the pre-resurrected souls famous astronauts (like Apollo 13 crew member Jack Swigert), famous philanthropists (like Servant of God Julia Greeley), or simple laity whose works and lives will never be known outside of their families, Mount Olivet is dedicated to “filling the void of loss with faith.”
Pursuant to this mission, a group of young Catholic students in their prime joyfully come to pitch in their time. Having departed from the departed, students speculated on whether future JPG students will someday render similar services to them after their death. With the beautiful faith formation at JPG and the compassionate staff at Mount Olivet, it seems quite likely.
