Students can often lose sight of the crucial season of Advent in light of all of the looming deadlines and tests, but Campus Ministry events and liturgical efforts make embracing Advent less of a task and more of an aspect to look forward to. 

Campus Ministry is hosting its annual Adopt-A-Family Drive, spearheaded by campus minister Simonie Anzalone. The drive, unlike past drives, is a fundraiser for gift cards only. In past years students and their families were given a list of necessities such as clothing and toiletries, whereas this year the students are being asked to donate a gift card to a store of the family’s preference. 

St. Francis Community Services is the featured charitable organization for the drive this year. 

“We want to honor St. Francis community services and their wishes—that we purchase gift cards for the folks at their agency. It offers them a sense of dignity to go and purchase for their own children, and allow them that joy to be able to do so,” said Anzalone.

The change of donations happened as a result of Covid. 

“It was a lot of things that we were donating and I think through Covid, they didn't want to have all of that stuff,” said Anzalone.   

Campus Minister Fr. Matthew Stewart, S.J.  also observes the process and the work and mission of the drive. 

“I can say from a campus ministry perspective: our school is committed to caring for our neighbor and particularly those who feel excluded from society,” said Stewart.

Since morning prayer services have ceased, it has become even easier to forget about the reason for the season, Jesus Christ and his coming. Despite the loss of morning prayer service, reflective prayers are still broadcasted to the whole school by senior Anthony Fahim as well as the regular daily mass. 

“Typically last year, we had morning prayer services that were dedicated to themes around Advent, but with Advisory, it's a little bit different. So we're just kind of trying to adjust to that,” said Anzalone. 

Along with the Adopt-A-Family drive, every theology class will be attending confession; here every student is offered the chance to confess their sins and receive a penance.     

“Christmas is about the three comings of Jesus. Christmas is the first, the second is at the end of time, and then the third is when we encounter God in our everyday lives. All of our sin gets in the way of us being able to encounter all three of these comings,” said Stewart.  “I think it's a really important moment for us as a school to be able to offer the space to take a step back.”

Confessions will be heard by Jesuits, and campus ministers will do an introduction to confession in each theology class to remind students of the process and procedure and purpose of the sacrament, said Anzalone. 

Stewart and the other campus ministers hope that making time slots available for confession during class time will help students clear their minds and accept the Lord is equally as important. 

“So more important than any programming that we can ever put on, these confession times are carving up the space and the time for people to find some peace in the midst of this busy time,” said Stewart.

Many St. Louis U. high Students feel preoccupied with exams, ACTs, SATs, grades, assignments, extracurricular activities, and many more complications that come with being a SLUH student. Through all of this, students are called to find God and stay awake, looking for God, which can sometimes seem impossible without support. 

“I think schools are the hardest places to celebrate Advent because Advent is about quiet and peace and getting our hearts in that place to celebrate Christmas,” said Stewart. “Meanwhile, it's like final papers, final projects, exams, senior project stuff getting ready to go.”