On Mater's Feast, the students are asked to think of Mary as a young girl, someone who went through the universal adolescent struggle of growing up into an unknown future. Mary (Mater) has not figured out what she is being called to in life or by God. Her relationship with God, love for God, and desire to be faithful to God’s word, all grow as she does. Mater is the Patron Saint of Sacred Heart students because she is like them, waiting and wondering on the threshold of life.
One of the Sacred Heart Schools traditions on the Feast of Mater, is to give each student a medal of Mater. The first medal, struck in 1848, portrays Mater surrounded in a garland of roses. Mater’s Medal is a precious heritage to children of the Sacred Heart. It is a reminder of Mater’s generosity to the world at large, the glorious hope which she has given to so many to follow after God’s own heart.
~ Lisa Buscher, RSCJ
