St. Mark Church will hold a Mass to pray for peace and safety in North Georgia schools on Wednesday, Oct. 25, at 6 p.m.

During the celebration of the Mass, pastor Father Abel Guerrero-Orta will confer a blessing on all schoolteachers, paraprofessionals, students and school administrators.

Participants are invited to prepare cards of sympathy and hope for the victims of the recent school shootings at the Amish school in Lancaster County, Penn., where a gunman killed five girls and wounded several. Also to be remembered are victims from attacks in September where a gunman sexually assaulted hostages and then killed a teenage girl and himself in Bailey, Colo., and in Cazenovia, Wis., where a teenage boy killed a principal. These cards will be collected during the offertory of the Mass and then mailed to the victims’ families.

Saint Mark Church is located at 5410 Highway 197 South in Clarkesville.