An outpouring of mercy in South Florida

By Emily Chaffins -

Photography: Emily Chaffins | FC

MIAMI | Ninth-grader Ericka Alfonso has always gotten to celebrate two mothers on Sept. 24: one biological, one spiritual.

Ericka has long been devoted to Our Lady of Mercy, whose feast day on Sept. 24 coincides with her own mom’s birthday. She habitually asks for Our Lady’s help “when I have a problem with discernment or making choices,” she said. “I say a Hail Mary because it centers me.”

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So it was no surprise that the new student at Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart in Miami jumped at the opportunity to participate in the 39th annual Feast of Our Lady of Mercy Mass at HCA Florida Mercy Hospital.

According to Henry Garcia, Mercy Hospital’s vice president of mission integration, this year marked the first time that the hospital asked every Catholic school from the southeastern deanery to help run the celebration. Although schools have attended in the past, this year the invitation was expanded, and students took over Mercy Hospital staff’s usual job of leading the pre-Mass prayer of the rosary.

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Students from the participating schools - Carrollton, Cristo Rey Miami High, Immaculata-La Salle High, St. Agnes Catholic Academy, St. Michael the Archangel, and Sts. Peter and Paul - carried school banners in the entrance procession, provided the music for the Mass, and read Mass readings.

St. Michael School’s pastor, Father Elvis Gonzalez, served as main celebrant. “Today we present to [Our Lady of Mercy] our intentions; we present to her our doctors, our nurses, but especially we present to her those who suffer,” he said. “May Our Lady intercede for all of us, but especially intercede for those who are sick.”

In the midst of an often-divided society, this year’s feast day united schools, medical professionals, first responders, businesspeople, and community members in honoring Jesus’s mother under her title of Our Lady of Mercy.

The wide array of participants mirrors Mercy Hospital’s “embrace of Catholicism at all its levels: education, healthcare, coming together for this celebration,” added Garcia.

 

Fostering students’ interest in medicine

Encouraging more schools to participate in this year’s feast day Mass is part of Mercy Hospital’s long-standing goal of giving the youngest generations an opportunity to support the outreach of the only Catholic hospital in Miami-Dade County.

According to Garcia, students from Immaculata-La Salle High in Miami have long been given the opportunity to gain experience at Mercy Hospital College of Nursing. The high school’s STEAM Program Health Science track empowers students interested in healthcare careers to gain volunteer hours with the school of nursing, visit training labs, and network with medical professionals.

Mercy’s educational offerings expanded this year thanks to Cristo Rey Miami High’s recent partnership. Garcia was instrumental in coordinating the placement of two ninth-grade students, Nailah Civil and Marcelinesarah Senecharles, in professional roles serving the hospital. The students will be working there from August 2026 until the end of the academic year.

According to Mayra Castrillon, director of the Corporate Work Study Program at Cristo Rey Miami, and Lezziet Benitez, executive assistant to the president, the students are immersed in many tasks essential to making a hospital tick. In their capacity as “student associates,” the girls are learning about data entry, undertaking clerical and administrative roles, working in the rehabilitation department and mailroom, authorizing and registering family visitors at the main lobby’s front desk, and even shadowing a nurse and learning how to transport patients.

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“Both Nailah and Marcelinesarah are extremely grateful for this opportunity and are interested in pursuing careers in the medical field,” said Castrillon, noting that Nailah is looking into a career as a surgeon, and Marcelinesarah wants to explore both clinical psychology and trauma surgery.

Amelie Ferro, president of Cristo Rey Miami, explained that the Corporate Work Study Program is designed to empower their low-income student population to cover approximately 50% of their high school education while gaining resume-building job experience from law firms, banks, engineering firms, and more.

“What’s unique about the jobs is that it’s not a traditional job that a teenager would be able to have,” she said. “These jobs are in professional settings where everyone else there has a college degree. These students are exposed to these career tracks that they haven’t seen, that they may have heard of, but that nobody in their family is in.”

“Our students go to school longer days for four days a week. Then, on the fifth day, they go to work,” she said. “These kids are really in the driver’s seat of their future because they’re doing all these additional things to be able to have this educational opportunity.”

And the hard work is proven to pay off. Every student from the high school’s first graduating class, the class of 2026, was accepted into college. The class earned a total of $45 million in merit-based college scholarships.

As for the two ninth-graders beginning their jobs at Mercy Hospital, “We have already heard great things from their supervisors,” said Ferro. “It’s so wonderful that they’re able to gain this hands-on experience early on.”

 

The many faces of mercy

Many of the organizations represented in the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy entrance procession stood for particular aspects of mercy present in South Florida.

Dressed in robes with crosses on the chest, the Coral Gables-based Cuban Association of the Order of Malta is known for hosting medical missions to the Dominican Republic twice per year.

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Carrying a flag with their heart logo, members of the Centro de Espiritualidad Santa María, a volunteer group serving in loss and bereavement ministry, supports members of the Mercy Hospital community dealing with grief.

Michelle Lopez, co-founder of Los Momenticos Family Care Packages and Causes, was happy for her organization to be represented in the entrance procession. This is the first year the nonprofit began serving Mercy Hospital, sending care packages for families with sick children.

“Our care packages are to inspire families to choose faith, to increase their hope, while they’re in a hospital stay,” said Lopez.

She and her husband, Asis, who co-founded the nonprofit, suffered the loss of four children.

“We’re grateful to be here at Mercy, serving a hospital where two of our children were born,” said Michelle, who brought her daughter, Avila Marie, to the Feast Day Mass.

The nonprofit’s care packages include a statue of the Holy Family, a rosary, a book, a journal, snacks, and a letter sharing the Lopez family’s background to “encourage families that they’re not alone and that their faith is important and can be strengthened at this time that it’s tested.” They have provided approximately 1,000 care packages to three local hospitals this year.

Dr. Angel Sanchez finds in Our Lady of Mercy a source of inspiration in the midst of his work as medical director of Catholic Hospice and program director of the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program at HCA Florida Aventura Hospital.

“One of the most important domains in palliative care is the spiritual domain,” he said. “I’ve always asked Our Lady of Mercy and found protection and peace whenever I turned to her.”

Young Ericka Alfonso from Carrollton sums up why it’s important to celebrate Our Lady of Mercy: because “she gave mercy to us by giving us Christ.”

What does the Catholic Church say about the Virgin Mary?

• As Catholics, we respect and honor the Virgin Mary as the mother of Jesus and ask for her prayers to lead us closer to her Son. Contrary to a common misconception, Catholics do NOT worship Mary. As Pope Francis once said, “Mary is always the mother that brings us to Jesus… She points to Jesus.” For a deep dive into the basis for what the Church teaches about Mary, check out Catholic Answers’ “The Biblical Roots of the Marian Doctrines.”