Campus Ministry Newsletter
December 2017
Be a part of the 29th Annual Festival of Lessons and Carols!
Join us for an inspiring Loyola tradition that will awaken the Christmas Spirit within you!
Gorgeous music by the Loyola Chapel Choir and guest artists, magical lighting and the strong sense of community gathered together will flood your senses with Christmas. If you can't join us in person, watch it online- live-streaming or later!
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MORE UPCOMING EVENTS
Mindful Meals: Ally -- a Responsibility, not a Title
Weds. Nov. 29 at 12pm in College Center Room 107
Join us for a faith-based meal and thoughtful dialogues surrounding social justice issues. Mindful Meals is a monthly program structured around the Catholic Worker House round table discussion model. This program promotes awareness and dialogue about specific justice issues prevalent in our world today. Through a simple meal and shared conversation space, participants gain a better understanding of our human role in contributing to and addressing these issues. All are invited to the dialogue to provide multiple viewpoints and understanding. Lunch provided and no RSVP needed!
Contact: CM Intern, Alex Agee.
SpiritualiTEA: Islam
Weds. Nov. 29 at 8pm in Fava Chapel
We invite students from all spiritual backgrounds and identities to gather in community to explore different spiritual practices and reflect over a cup of tea. This month's SpiritualiTEA will be featuring a spiritual practice from Islam.
Contact: CM Assistant Director, Rev. Scott Adams.
Ethical Trade Holiday Sale
Thurs. Nov. 30 - Fri. Dec. 1 from 3pm-7pm in the Boulder Atrium
Catholic Relief Services Student Ambassador Group will be having an ethical trade sale outside of Boulder. Stop by to get your holiday shopping done in an ethical way, supporting the dignity of the workers who supply us with these goods.
Evensong with Stephon Smith '20
Thurs. Dec. 2 at 5pm in Alumni Memorial Chapel.
Evensong, or evening prayer provides the community with an opportunity to come together in song and prayer. One student presides over the service each week. Free pizza always follows in Cohn Hall 133 for fellowship and conversation. No RSVP necessary!
This will be the last Evensong of the semester. It will begin again on January 25.
Info Session for Campus Ministry Internships!
Learn more about our opportunities to work as a leader rooted in faith and justice. Campus Ministry Intern positions are $10.10/hr. direct hire work opportunities. Applications available now and accepted until Tues. March 13 at 3pm. Additional information sessions will be held in the spring semester. For more information, visit the internship website.
Contact: CM Assistant Director, Megan Linz Dickinson.
Sacred Text Circle
Come and share ideas and perspectives with three scholars from Catholicism, Islam, and Judaism every first and third Wednesday. Lunch provided and no RSVP necessary!
Contact: CM Assistant Director, Rev. Scott Adams.
End of Semester Examen
The Examen is a method of prayerful reflection for examining your day in the presence of God. Join us for a guided Examen to reflect on God’s presence in your life this semester.
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SPRING PROGRAMS & EVENTS
Sign Up Now!
Kino Border Initiative May 12-19
Application due Nov. 30 at 11:59pm.
The Kino Border Initiative is a new immersion in which participants will be offered the opportunity to spend time with migrants and learn from their stories, as well as understand the broader context of the border and immigration. The immersion includes time in the comedor (soup kitchen), where participants serve food and have the chance to speak with recently deported migrants. Groups will also participate in mass with ranchers in a rural town in southern Arizona and learn about their experiences and perspectives, attend a criminal prosecution of immigrants, meet with border patrol, and hike in the desert. Over the course of the immersion, students will engage in reflection, dialogue and advocacy, translating their learned experience into action. Program Cost information available soon.
For information about additional immersions through Campus Ministry and CCSJ.
Contact: CM Assistant Director, Elise Gower.
Encounter El Salvador May 21-31
Application due Nov. 30 at 11:59pm.
For almost twenty years, CCSJ has partnered with CRISPAZ for a faith-based immersion experience where participants learn from Salvadoran people about their lives, histories and hopes for the future. A major focus of the encounter is to reflect on the meaning of working for justice rather than working for charity, understanding one's role as a global citizen and humanizing the different issues that are present in our societies.
Justice Walking Spring Semester
Register by Weds. Dec. 6
During the spring semester, join us for Justice Walking, a small group of other students who are seeking to respond with compassion to the injustices in our world. As a group of Justice Walkers, we will meet weekly for reflection, discussion, prayer, and action with our community partner. Key to this process are the relationships that develop within each Justice Walking community and those encountered at the margins of our society. Check out the Campus Ministry Website for more information or to register.
Contact: CM Graduate Assistant, Elizabeth Nawrocki.
IgnatianQ 2018 Conference at Loyola Feb. 9-11
Join a Koinonia Group
It's never too late to join a Koinonia small group!
Koinonia is Greek for "community," and Koinonia groups are small, faith-based discussion groups that meet weekly for prayer and meaningful discussion. Groups are student-led and are held at a common location on campus. Koinonia is a great way to meet other students and form a sense of community on campus. Sign up for a group at any point during the semester and get more information.
Contact: CM Grad Assistant, Tara Carleton at Koinonia@loyola.edu.
Save the Date: Hope & Renewal Interfaith Prayer Service
We invite you to join us for the first annual interfaith prayer service to begin the spring semester together as a community.
Contact: CM Assistant Director, Rev, Scott Adams.
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CELEBRATING ADVENT
Advent Mass Schedule
December 10 -- Mass will be celebrated at 11 AM and 6 PM in Alumni Memorial Chapel. 8 PM will be celebrated in Fava Chapel. 10 PM will be celebrated in Hopkins Court.
December 17 -- Mass will be celebrated at 11 AM in Alumni Memorial Chapel only.
December 24 -- Christmas Eve Mass will be celebrated at 4 PM in Alumni Memorial Chapel.
Mass will not be offered over the Semester Break. See you in January!
Feast of the Immaculate Conception
Fri. Dec. 8 at 12:10pm and 5:00pm in the Jesuit Residence
In the Catholic Church, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception is a holy day of obligation, a day in which faithful Catholics are obliged to participate in the Mass. All members of the Loyola community are welcome.
THINK | PRAY | ACT
THINK
"Perhaps my Advent prayer is like the author of Lamentations, voicing frustration both to and at God. Lamentations cries out in more than just sorrow. Jesuit theologian Richard J. Clifford states that Lamentations expresses “grief, anger, something near despair, acceptance, glimmers of hope and joy, and an indomitable will to carry on.”
Indeed, Advent turns to that glimmer of hope and joy. A common Advent image is the light fighting back the darkness. As winter collapses in around us, we turn to the flickering candlelight. We focus on the light we know is coming. We acknowledge that yearning for God’s justice and mercy.
But I cannot run from the darkness to the light. That would be unfaithful.
If I go straight to that light, then I deny the real pain and suffering around me, the darkness that I and others so deeply experience. I deny that I have hollered at my computer when reading news of hate crimes. If I go straight to the light, I deny the pain of my Latino students being told “Say goodbye to your parents.” If I go straight to the light, I reject the fear of my Muslim students, told that they are terrorists. If I go straight to the light, I tell my black students that swastikas and KKK symbols appearing in their neighborhoods are of no concern.
If I go straight to the light, I am telling my students that their fear is invalid and showing my friends that their grief is unfounded."
From Fr. Ken Homan, SJ's article, "Advent--It's NSFW." Read the whole article on The Jesuit Post. Image copyright Marnie Baehr.
PRAY
In every part of our Advent days, joyful or otherwise, we can turn to God in prayer.
The world seems darker than it has in the past and I am less sure of myself.
Maybe that's a good thing; maybe now I am turning to you with a realization that I need you so much more and that my life is not in my own control.
Let me not forget all of those around the world who are frightened at this moment.
Help those who are victims of terrorism and war.
Be with those who have lost so much in the past year.
Hold us all in your loving arms and let us be comforted by the strength and peace you want to much to offer us through the birth of your son, Jesus.
Thank you for the many gifts you offer us.
From Creighton University's Online Ministries. Image copyright Marnie Baehr.
ACT
What are the key first steps to enter into Advent?
We can all slow down. We can all breathe more deeply. We can all begin to trust that this will be a blessed time. Then, when we let ourselves be who we are, and hear the Scriptures, we can begin to quietly pray, “Come, Lord, Jesus.” We might expand that prayer, in quiet moments of our days ahead, “Come into my life. I trust you don’t mind if it is still messy. I believe you love me, because I need your love. I don’t fear you can’t find the way to my heart. Come and fill me with peace and the love only you can give.” Some of us will want to open our hands on our laps or hold up our arms in the privacy of our rooms and say out loud, “Come, Lord, Jesus, come into this house, into my family, into our struggles. Come and heal us, and give us joy again. Come and unite us and let us experience, each in our own way, a bit of the joy you are offering me now.”
And, before a single decoration goes up, we have prepared for Christmas’ message with the foundation of faith, with the mystery of Advent’s gift. God wants to be with us. Advent is letting God’s will be done in our hearts and in our everyday lives.
From Creighton University's Online Ministries. Image copyright Marnie Baehr.
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