Spring Semester Recap!

Dear Readers,

Wow. Has it really been over 2 months? Alright, here's a little recap of how things are going so far this semester. Much of this was in my latest newsletter, but there's also some video footage and stories below which didn't make the mailing. Enjoy!

January 2012

From January 20-22, nearly 1,000 students from over 60 campuses from across the country gathered for the FOCUS Student Leadership Summit in Baltimore, MD. The summit was unlike FOCUS's much larger conferences, which have had several thousand more students in attendance in recent years, and instead was catered to a more select crowd of students who expressed a keen interest in starting Bible studies, and learning how to become missionaries themselves to their dorm rooms, class rooms, clubs, relationships, and sports teams. 

The weekend was full of talks, presentations, and workshops on practical, and more importantly, sincere and charitable ways to share the Gospel with students on campus. "Christ loves us exactly where we're at, but too much to leave us there, and we are called to imitate Him," said one speaker. Here's a pic of us and our student leaders!

The end of each day was highlighted by several hours of Eucharistic Adoration with Confessions available from nearly 100 priests from across the country. 

Following the Summit, in a very real desire to "walk the talk" (no pun intended), the students boarded charter buses from Baltimore, MD to Washington, D.C. to take part in the 39th Annual March for Life. Curiously enough, while nearly 300,000 gathered for the march from across the country, in crumby and damp weather, newspapers such as The Washington Post only reported "Thousands Gather for Annual March for Life" and only posted images of the 10 to 15 pro-choice individuals who were standing opposed to the hundreds of thousands... So, if you were only able to see the photos from such a source, look below for more accurate pictures :)

And finally, a little video from the Montclair Students' perspectives and some NJ missionaries:

February 2012

At the beginning of February, several of the men from my Bible studies decided to form an intramural basketball team for the Newman Center... and in true Bad-News-Bears fashion, we went the whole season winning one game! But, who cares?! There were a couple of free-agent walk on players who wanted to get involved in a Bible study and start coming back to Sunday Mass, so if we have to play a game to get people back to the Sacraments - sign me up!

Our last game. Final score: 75 to 42... "last shall be first?" 

Now, contrary to popular opinion, we missionaries do have social lives outside of working with students on campus :) One of my best friends from college, and long-time roommate, Alex came up from Virginia to visit one weekend in February, and we had a blast catching up and talking about everything from campus ministry to his grad school classes. We also got to go down the road on Saturday night and get a good view of the NYC skyline from Hoboken, New Jersey, and then on Sunday Alex showed me a great Jewish Deli in NYC called Zabar's that his family has gone to for years, and has some of the greatest coffee I've ever tasted.

NYC from Hoboken, NJ

Zabar's Deli
Upper West Side, NYC

On February 22, we celebrated Ash Wednesday on campus, and nearly 1,000 students, teachers, and members of the administration came to Mass! See the "Lent on Campus" article for more information!

On the first Saturday of Lent, the Newman Center hosted a one-day mini-retreat for students, with renowned Catholic speaker, Chris Stefanick. In his own entertaining style, Chris reminded nearly 100 students who attended of the importance of an authentic and transformative relationship with Jesus Christ, as opposed to the all too common 'cultural Catholicism' that pervades the college campus today.

Chris Stefanick, February 25th