page_title: Stonyhurst Saint Mary's Hall
section_title: Religious life
hierarchical_section_title: Stonyhurst Saint Mary's Hall / Religious life
caption_attribution_description: English: Chapel, SMH, Stonyhurst
context_page_description: Stonyhurst St Mary's Hall is the preparatory school to Stonyhurst College. It is an independent co-educational Catholic school, for ages 3–13, founded by the Society of Jesus. It is primarily a day school but has some boarders. As the lineal descendant of Hodder Place the school lays claim to be the oldest preparatory school in the country.
  It is adjacent to Stonyhurst College, outside the small village of Hurst Green, near Clitheroe in Lancashire, England.
context_section_description: St Mary's Hall is a Roman Catholic school, overseen by the Jesuit order. As such, the Jesuit ethos pervades the life of the school, with emphasis upon spiritual development, reasoning skills, and the creation of Men and Women for Others.
  Mass is celebrated for the whole school on feast days, prayers are said at morning assembly, and night prayers in the chapel bring the day to a close. Charity is encouraged through the observance of CAFOD lunches, where money saved from simplifying the menu is given to charity, and through the school's own charity "Children for Children". Each year St Mary's Hall plays host to the "Stonyhurst Children's Holiday Trust" week, when children with disabilities or from disadvantaged backgrounds are looked after by senior pupils from the College.
  St Mary's Hall has its own chapel where Mass is said, as well as the Stations of the Cross during Lent and the Rosary throughout October and May. A portable altar also enables the Centenaries Theatre to be used for school Masses.
  Religious iconography is present throughout the school. A statue of the Sacred Heart, restored by the College stonemason in 2008, stands atop the entrance to the old Jesuit escape tunnel in the garden; a statue of Mary and a mosaic altar occupy a position beneath the main staircase in the hallway; there is a grotto beside the stone steps adjacent to the building, where night prayers are said during the Summer Term; and there are statues in the playrooms and crosses in every classroom and dormitory.
  It is a long-standing tradition for pupils to write "May Verses". These are poems written in honour of Mary, Mother of Jesus. During the month of May they adorn the school's main staircase. Since the opening of Hodder House in 2004, the nativity, performed by the youngest members of the school, has become an annual fixture on the calendar.
  As at the College, pupils write AMDG in the top, left-hand corner of any piece of work they do. It stands for the Latin phrase Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam which means "To the Greater Glory of God". At the end of a piece of work they write L.D.S. in the centre of the page. It stands for Laus Deo Semper which means "Praise be to God Always". These are both traditional Jesuit mottoes.
  Religious Education is compulsory for all pupils at the school.
caption: The Chapel at St Mary's Hall
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