Forming the Faith Community
When you head off to college people say, “You'll have the time of your life. You'll make lifelong friendships. You'll find yourself.”
As you walk onto campus, and hundreds of students at dozen of tents are there to greet you, those phrases began to look very real. It is easy sign up with any group, but there can be a cost for many Catholic students. Club meetings, socials, friends and events can completely consume your time and soon you can very easily find yourself not attending mass and even losing your faith in the noise.
I know this because I have experienced this first hand. By mid-September I was busy every day with classes, friends welcome events. I had not been to mass in almost a month, there was little talk of faith and I sure wasn't taking charge of what faith I had. The break in the noise came on a rainy September night when there was nothing to do, nowhere to be and I felt lost staring at the soaked ground. I walked aimlessly until I stumbled upon a group of people playing capture the flag and they invited me to play. Turns out they were a retreat group from the Newman Center. What I thought was another distraction, was actually God shouting above it telling me he needs me back. From that day forward, I started regaining my faith and now I am a leader among my peers at Newman.
A simple invitation is all it takes to change someone's life. The past three years that I have been here, the Campus Ministry has sought to form a faith community. From Aggie Awakening to the Aggie Catholic Experience and even a project on bringing people to church on Sundays the CMLI teams and campus ministry teams at New Mexico State University have been working hard to form a faith community. Our core participant group has grown from a couple dozen to nearly 100 with another 200 plus showing up to the different masses. All of this was through simple invitations to friends and strangers to come share in our experiences.
In a time where it is easy to go down the wrong path and lose your way, it is important that we reach out to our fellow students and offer them a helping hand to return to the right path and to grow in faith. Community is the first aspect that many people experience when they join a faith group. As more people join, the community grows stronger. Our community started with one, Jesus Christ. And now, with a billion others with us, we must continue to be "fishers of men" and bring people into this community and closer to Christ.
For us, this starts on campus.
Steven Garcia, Student Intern to Campus Ministry, New Mexico State University