Catholics across the world embarked last week on the 40 day journey of Lent, a time to prepare oneself for the Easter season through fasting, prayer and almsgiving. In an effort to help the student body grow in these areas, the Junior Pastoral Team and Fr. Joseph Hill, S.J. have developed a program that emphasizes these three areas through weekly challenges. 

“The church sets aside this time of Lent to help people refocus their spiritual lives, to dedicate themselves to penance and prayer,” said Hill. “There's always ups and downs in our spiritual lives. Sometimes we are much more fervent, sometimes we sort of feel as if we're falling away or slacking a little bit. Lent is that time to pick up the slack and focus our energies back on  growing closer to God and growing in holiness.”

This need to use Lent to turn back to God appears especially prevalent this year. Many people have experienced a sense of spiritual dryness during the Covid-19 pandemic due to the lack of community available and Masses going online last year. 

“I feel that the pandemic has affected my spiritual life because it has prevented me from growing closer to God especially through going to Mass on Sundays. It has been hard for me to make it to Mass with worriment of the pandemic and trying to limit my exposure,” said junior Jared Thornberry. 

Realizing the apparent desire for God within the SLUH community, Hill wanted to develop a program that would help students reinvigorate their faith lives and re-encounter God during this Lenten season. 

“My impression is that religious practice has gone down within SLUH, like most places,” said Hill.  “So this Lent is a call more than ever to return to the Lord and to return to what is our consistent, Christian practice.”

To help SLUH recconnect with God and each other, Campus Ministry is offering a set of Lenten challenges for those who wish to sign up. For the seven weeks of Lent, Campus Ministry will be sending a weekly email with different challenges, based on the three themes of Lent: Prayer, Charity, and Fasting.

“I think that sometimes it's hard for students to understand or know what the next steps are for spiritual growth, such as: how can I really engage in prayer at a more profound level? How can I rededicate myself? That's what the Lenten challenges are about, is to give students a framework for doing that,” said Hill.    

With the start of Lent last Wednesday, the Junior Pastoral Team released the first challenge: praying a different daily prayer every day. Every day, an email containing a different prayer, such as praying a decade of the rosary, listening to a reflection on the daily readings, or praying a litany, is delivered to each participant's inbox. The prayers differ every day to provide students with exposure to new types of prayer.

“The daily prayers are very important because they allow people to truly foster a real relationship with God and keep in touch with Him on a daily basis,” said Junior Pastoral Team member Joey Inserra. “I hope that through these prayers, guys are able to reconnect with Jesus and truly come to love Him through their prayer.”

This past week, the participants were also challenged in the category of almsgiving, to donate in a school supplies drive, organized by the Junior Pastoral Team, to support the Little Bit Foundation in conjunction with Mission Week.

“It is so important because I want to give these impoverished students the same opportunity I have,” said Thornberry. “I think this week is specifically important because we are in the season of Lent and a big part of Lent is almsgiving and we wanted to give students a chance to grow their faith by donating their own money and supplies to  those less fortunate.” 

Another option that Campus Ministry is offering to help students deepen their faith lives during Lent is by hosting the annual Lenten confessions next week, where every student will have the opportunity to receive God’s grace during their Theology class time.

“Confession is one of those sacraments that we can return to over and over again and it has such a powerful effect on people,” said Hill. “The grace is very much there, it's one of those sacraments that I would say, students, often comment on that they really feel (God’s presence), sometimes they don't feel it at Mass, but in confession I think they really feel that the grace is there, like a weight is lifted off and forgiveness is received.”

For students that are still searching for a way to encounter the Lord in this Lenten season, it is not too late to sign up, and all are encouraged to. Sign up by scanning the QR codes on flyers throughout the hallways.

"Now is the time. Now is the time to return. Now is the time of salvation." said Fr. Hill, quoting second Corinthians.