Since its founding, Everest Collegiate High School & Academy has celebrated a special charismatic devotion to certain patrons who have particular significance within the Regnum Christi Movement and the history of the school. Our Lady has stood as a model of Christian virtue and an intercessor for Everest Mountaineers since the earliest days of its founding. It is a devotion that was taught by founding priest, Fr. Lorenzo Gomez, LC, who ensured that images and statues of Our Lady were placed prominently on campus as well as in the physical architecture of each building on campus. Everest Mountaineers consider as a special patroness and model Our Lady under the titles of Our Lady of Sorrows and Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Our Lady of Sorrows is a model of following Christ faithfully, even in suffering. Mary’s sorrows were immense, but they were all redeemed and turned into glory, because they were all suffered with Christ the Redeemer. And so, when we look to her in the midst of our own sorrows, we can find compassion, comfort, hope, and a strong help in keeping our crosses united to Christ’s. Further, as a Regnum Christi school, Everest focuses on forming apostles who share in Christ’s mission of redemption. Mary, in her sorrows participates uniquely in this mission, standing with her Son and offering her suffering in union with His. Everest Mountaineers seek to emulate Our Lady of Sorrows’s example of following Christ faithful and sharing in His redemptive mission.
This fall, a year after Everest’s Christ the King Shrine was dedicated on the athletic field, a statue of Our Lady of Sorrows was installed and blessed as a part of the shrine. Through the generosity of alumnae parent and former trustee, Brian Kitz, and his wife Kristi Heft, Our Lady now stands at the foot of the cross in the shrine. The statue was blessed on Founders’ Day with the entire student body present.
