IWA remembers events of 9/11

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Incarnate Word Academy held special commemorations across its campus to honor those lives lost and those lives that were forever changed by the tragedies of 9/11.  This historical event of our nation holds additional special significance for the IWA community, since Sept. 11 is also the anniversary of the death of the foundress of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament order, the Venerable Jeanne Chezard de Matel.
 
A ceremony was performed prior to Mass where high school students presented a piece of rock from Ground Zero, obtained by Sister Camelia Herlihy, principal of IWA’s Elementary School, and a painting of Jeanne Chezard de Matel by alumna Diane Peters. Students also presented 11 flags of the countries where the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament minister.
 
“The rock was brought to remind us of our need to pray for peace,” Abbey Shockley, a junior at Incarnate Word Academy High School, said during the presentation. “We pray for all the 9/11 victims, their families and the brave young men and women who risked their lives in order to rescue others.”
 
The Middle Level offered a special 9/11 prayer and a moment of silence in the morning.  Later in the day, the campus prayed the Jeanne Chezard de Matel’s prayer of abandonment.
 
Jeanne Chezard de Matel, who founded the order of the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament in 1625, encountered many struggles in establishing the order before her death on Sept. 11, 1670.
 
She was called to be a mystic, author, teacher, spiritual director and theologian — at a time when women were not recognized in any of these roles. Click here to read more about Jeanne Chezard de Matel.