Two students at St. John Berchmans School on the North Side can see a work of art they helped create in every Catholic school in the archdiocese.

Stephanie Libreros and Amy Ryczek worked with classmate Susan Gray, who has since moved away, drew the poster featuring a globe, a star, a sun, an American flag and the words “Pray for Peace,” as part of a project suggested by their religion teacher, Jeanne Devriendt.

“Our students were feeling the same frustration which so many people experienced,” Devriendt said. “I asked our students to think about their own feelings, to dialogue with other students and to focus on what might be done to help avoid such tragedies in the future. Finally, I asked them to express their feelings on paper.”

The Office of Catholic Schools photographed the students’ picture and added the Prayer of St. Francis, which begins, “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace …”

“This poster captures the true spirit of the Sept. 11 anniversary—a moment of prayer and remembrance,” said Catholic schools Superintendent Nicholas Wolsonovich. “If there’s one lesson we need to learn from Sept. 11, it’s the urgency to bring love, forgiveness and hope to our children, our community and our world.”

Wolsonovich attended an event at the school Sept. 5 where the artists and their teacher autographed oversize portraits.

Meanwhile, hundreds of parishes and schools from all over the archdiocese planned to remember the events and the victims of Sept. 11 in their own ways.

St. James at Sag Bridge Parish in Lemont held one of the first anniversary memorial Masses on Sept. 8 and invited Father Daniel Brandt of St. William Parish, who spent a week volunteering at Ground Zero in Manhattan, to speak.

Most such events were planned for Sept. 11, after this issue of The Catholic New World went to press.

- Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights will remember one of its own Sept. 20 when it dedicates a flag pole to Navy Lt. Cmdr. Patrick J. Murphy, Marian class of 1981, who was killed at the Pentagon during the attacks. The school also has established a scholarship fund in Murphy’s memory.

- Holy Family Villa, a skilled nursing facility operated by Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago, and the firefighters of the Lemont Fire Protection District honored the firefighters who responded first to the attacks, especially those who lost their lives trying to save others, by dedicating a flag pole and raising the flag for the first time Sept. 10.

- Religious communities also are reflecting on the anniversary in their own ways. The leadership and members of the Adrian Dominican Sisters asked Americans to remember other victims: those who go hungry in the United States, those who are discriminated against on the basis of their race, religion or income status, those who are abused in their homes, those who are executed and civilian victims of U.S. bombing in Afghanistan, among others,

“The events of Sept. 11 call us to global citizenship exemplified by the highest measure of respect, compassion and commitment to the common good. For us, there is no other way,” the sisters said in a statement.