Hermitage room at Mercy creates a quiet place to pray in the middle of a busy day
Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published January 26, 2006
Catholic Schools Supplement
Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic
A sculpture in Mercy’s hermitage room, carved by Mercy alumna Suzanne Young, features Christ touching the face of the Blessed Mother. | Farmington Hills – Students and teachers at Mercy High School have reported finding a rare and precious commodity on the school's campus: Silence.
With a deluge of chattering and school bells, the beeping and ringing of high-tech gizmos, and a zillion things for students to do from the time they walk in the door to the time they leave, religion teachers decided to put a hermitage room in the school's chapel.
The room, dedicated last November, serves as a place where students can receive a little spiritual direction from a teacher, then spend a heavy dose of quality time alone in a silent setting with their King and Creator.
"It's awkward at first," says senior Alyssa Risk, "because you're not used to it. But after time I think you can benefit from the silence, and you really feel God's presence because you're there concentrating on it."
The hermitage room isn't much larger than a spacious confessional. It has room for a chair, and a bookcase with spiritual reading. On the wall is a sculpture of Christ and the Blessed Mother, created by Mercy High School alumna and well-known liturgical artist Suzanne Young. And just outside the door is the sacramental presence of Christ in the chapel's tabernacle.
The space, the staff said, is valuable insofar as it offers students some solace within the high-speed, iPod-touting, hyper-social lives they lead.
"We know that God can be found in every moment in every day," says religion teacher Mary Pinkerton. "But at the same time we recognize that it's in the silence, in the quiet that we can hear the Spirit speaking to us in whatever way we can understand. As we come to understand ourselves better, I think we can come to understand the action of God in all the events of our lives."
The idea initially came to religion teacher Anne Lusch, who has been assigning alone-time with God to students in her prayer class. Lusch read about a school in New Jersey that had implemented a similar idea, and found a positive impact on the student body.
What surprised her, though, was how new the concept of silent, one-on-one prayer was to some of her students.
Nadine Maynard | Mercy High School
Mercy High School student Ayanda Dorsey (right) hands a cross and offers a blessing to her classmate, Vanessa Johnson, in the high school’s new hermitage room. The room was built in the school to give busy students a place to rest and meditate on the presence of God in their lives. |
"For some of the girls, it's jumping into something new for them," Lusch says. "I had one student say at the end of her time (in the hermitage room) that she'd never spent an hour by herself (in prayer) before."
Senior Maggie Silgasi says she's used the room once for her assignment, but hopes to use it more.
"It's more of a personal experience," Silgasi says. "When you're alone with God, you can open up more to Him."
For the assignment, students sign up in advance to pray for an hour, either meditating, doing spiritual reading or journaling. A religion teacher is assigned to pray with them at the beginning of the hour, and also to close their session with a prayer.
"It's a good way for the teacher to really connect with you and help you feel safe," says senior Luree Brown. "Even though you're alone in the room, it's in a good way."
While Mercy's prayer room initially is open just to students in the prayer class, the religious studies staff at the school plans, eventually, to open it up to at least the upperclasswomen.
Another religion teacher, Sue Ewald, opines that the room should be open to teachers, too. After all, everyone in the school is busy and the message from Scripture to "Be still and know that I am God" (Psalms 46: 10) never expires.
"As far as time alone with God, I think it's tremendously diminished because we run," Ewald says. "We run constantly to meet our appointments and schedules. I think this would be a great thing for adults, and I think this should be an assignment for everybody to have this hour of alone time with God."
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