Virtual Immersions
Throughout the spring semester, OLP students have had the opportunity to virtually immerse and educate themselves with non-profit organizations that are doing powerful justice work in their community. In March, we met with Catholic Charities Dioceses of San Diego, to learn about their work with immigration services and refugee resettlement services. In April, we met with Homeboy Industries and Dolores Mission Parish in East Los Angeles to learn about restorative justice and holistic programming for the community they serve. We focused on the power of healing through art therapy. Later this semester OLP students will virtually meet with Father Greg Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries, for a personal conversation with him.
Retreats
Following our annual Retreat Week earlier this semester, we created an additional, optional retreat specifically for the Class of 2021. This two-day retreat was an opportunity for our seniors to come together to hear life stories from OLP faculty, intentionally reflect on how they have grown over the past four years, and spend quality time together as OLP sisters. Additionally, a group of OLP students have been meeting virtually quarterly with all four CSJ high schools in California for our CSJ High School Leadership Conference, with our final meeting coming up this month. Later this semester we are hosting a new virtual retreat in partnership with SAHS, which will focus on leadership development for the incoming senior class of retreat leaders.
Liturgies and Prayer Services
Our Liturgical Planning student faith leaders have had an incredibly busy semester creating important programming for our OLP community. These students created intentional, specialized prayer services to address the unique social justice issues of our time. These prayer services have included: a Catholic Schools Week Prayer Service, a One Year COVID Anniversary Prayer Service, a Stations of the Cross Prayer Service, a Stop Asain Hate Prayer Service, and an Interfaith Prayer Service in celebration of Diversity Week and Earth Day. This same group of student faith leaders has also planned our beautiful spring liturgies for the Ash Wednesday Mass, St. Joseph Jubilee Mass, Junior Unity Mass, and the upcoming Community Day Mass and Baccalaureate Mass. The Liturgical Planning class also supported OLP’s Asian Pacific Islander Association (APIA), who planned and hosted an incredibly powerful and beautiful prayer service to raise awareness and to pray for an end to discrimination and violence against the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.
If you are looking to get involved with OLP immersions, retreats, service learning, or our campus liturgies, please reach out to Mrs. Wilson at [email protected].
