St. Gertrude Catholic School seventh grader Grace Schare looked forward to cleaning graves for a second year at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Cincinnati. In fact, all 90 sixth, seventh and eighth graders were excited about their trip there last month for Make a Difference Day, the largest national day of volunteering in the United States “It was really nice to be at the cemetery. I have a lot of family buried there, and it makes me feel good to be able to help where it’s needed,” Schare said.

Students learned about the call to pray for the souls in purgatory before heading to morning prayer at Gate of Heaven’s St. Joseph Chapel. There, they had an opportunity to name loved ones they wanted to remember, as well as call on St. Gertrude and other saints to join them in prayer

“It’s a beautiful experience for the student to witness an act of love for the person they miss so much,” said St. Gertrude religion teacher Matt Schlotman. “This prayer time is an important beginning to the day.”

After prayer, students divided into groups that were each assigned a small area of the cemetery to care for. While some used toothbrushes, soap and towels to gently clean the stone and pull out weeds around the gravesite, one student recited St. Gertrude’s prayer for the souls in purgatory. Students said this prayer over every grave they cleaned, while also speaking the deceased person’s name.

“This is first and foremost a trip about answering God’s call to pray for the souls in purgatory,” Schlotman said. “It’s also about the family members left behind, by giving them a clean gravesite to visit. And third, it’s about teaching the students about the beauty of God letting us participate in his love.”
His students appreciated the lesson.

“At first I was worried it was just going to be work, but when I got out there and started praying it didn’t feel like work at all,” said seventh grader JP Conlon. Another seventh grader, Henry Baute, agreed, “We aren’t doing this for ourselves. It’s self-sacrificial, and it feels good to help people who don’t have anyone to take care of their grave.”

Schlotman said the volunteering opportunity was a two-fold act of stewardship. “The purpose is to take part in the Spiritual Work of Mercy of praying for the souls in purgatory and the Corporal Work of Mercy of burying the dead.”

Over 47,000 people have been interred at Gate of Heaven since it opened in 1948, according to Kate Thesing, Community Outreach Coordinator. Every morning, the cemetery’s team prays together for the individuals interred that day. On Make a Difference Day, they were very excited to be joined by St. Gertrude’s students.

“It was beautiful to see the students sharing their faith and praying together as classmates on the sacred ground for the souls of the faithfully departed,” Thesing said.

“I witnessed students down on their knees reading the names, praying, and respectfully cleaning and trimming many, many markings. This really made a difference,” she continued.

Making a difference is a lesson Schlotman strives to instill in all his students. “It’s about being charitable and loving our neighbors. We are teaching the students to do practical service in the love of our neighbor.”

Thesing said, “It would be wonderful to see more schools here. We have so many opportunities for students to get involved.” She mentioned Make a Difference Day, during Lent (to pray the Stations of the Cross) and All Souls Day, but there are additional opportunities, such as helping with the flags for Memorial Day and Veterans Day.

Baute agreed, “I hope other schools hear about our day at Gate of Heaven and do it too. There are thousands and thousands of graves that need care. We can’t do it alone.”

This article appeared in the November 2023 edition of The Catholic Telegraph Magazine. For your complimentary subscription, click here.