St. Mary Catholic Secondary School DREAMS
St. Mary Catholic Secondary School’s DREAMS students and their chaperones recently returned from the Dominican Republic, where they spent March Break working alongside local families to help build homes and support community needs. Rooted in their Catholic faith, the experience brought together service, prayer, and connection, as students encountered Christ in the people they met, the work they carried out, and the community they became part of.
Their experience is captured in the following reflection, shared by Deacon Aidan Murphy, DREAMS chaperone:
We Saw Him in the Mountains
We saw Him in the mountains,
And in the people too;
Our God was very present,
In all we had to do.
Laying blocks and mixing mortar,
Beads of sweat mixed in with water;
Became prayers from a rustic altar;
For these, His sons and daughters.
We worked with friends who don’t have much,
But shared their joy with every touch;
Side by side we spent our days,
We learned from them in many ways.
We thought them poor, but we were wrong;
Their faith in God was very strong;
In a simple way they lived their days,
Richer than us in many ways.
And now it’s time for us to leave,
With all the blessings we received;
How blessed are we to have come here,
In this very special year.
The DREAMS program is so alive,
As we celebrate our twenty-five;
We continue our missions just like the old days,
Gracias a Díos y Benedictiones!
~ Deacon Aidan Murphy, DREAMS chaperone
Photo by: Naysa
