Here on campus there really isn't much support for graduate student spirituality. In sharp contrast to the undergraduate student body which is 80% Catholic, only 54% of graduate students identify as Catholic, and I would guess that fewer are weekly Mass-goers. Most graduate students I've met are either not Catholic or rather apathetic about their faith. There are masses in the chapel at FOG, as well as a weekly rosary, but the majority of grad students are off-campus like me and there are few activities especially for us. There is one club, the Thomas Aquinas Society, that exists for the Catholic graduate students, but due to the demanding schedule of grad students it isn't always very active. The guys that run it are great - but busy just like the rest of us! It doesn't help that we don't get a whole lot of support from Campus Ministry - but I digress.
TAS had a happy hour at Legends two weeks ago to mark the beginning of the semester, and we were invited to share our ideas and thoughts for activities for the coming year. I suggested the idea of a book club for Catholic reading, which was enthusiastically received by a number of students. Since we have a pretty small group so far, I would like to invite my Domer readers to join up. This semester I will have the participants vote on the book they want to read. We will be choosing between a study of Pope Benedict's encyclical Spe Salvi and the book Life of Christ by Abp. Fulton Sheen.
I am trying to find a place for us to meet, either on or off campus. I'm going to try to contact Campus Ministry about meeting space in CoMo (a building I'm totally unfamiliar with) but eventually I'd like us to meet off-campus to make things a bit more relaxed. I'm in the process of checking out area cafes and coffee shops. This is going to be a busy semester for me - but I'm excited about the book club and hoping it will provide some intellectual and spiritual stimulation.
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3 comments:
Thanks for the comment over on my blog.
Yes, we do take handmade items at WCC :-)
The book club sounds great! Let me know when you're planning on meeting.
TAS/TAC are a good group, but I, unfortunately, have not been able to make it to anything this semester yet. I miss the weekly lunch we had last year.
BTW, the Coleman-Morse Center is a building you should be familiar with, if, for no other reason, than that the Chapel of Notre Dame our Mother is located there, and this is the place where Adoration takes place. Also, I find the chapel a nice place to visit even when Jesus is not exposed, because, unlike the Basilica, the chapel is not visited by noisy tour guides.
Hey James, thanks for the tip about the Adoration chapel. I really need to check it out sometime. And yes, lack of tourists would be a huge, huge plus, especially now that it's football season!
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