Campus Ministry During Coronavirus: Still Doing It, Just Differently

At the core of campus ministry is connectedness— with Christ Jesus and with each other. During these times of substantial and unexpected changes to daily life, it would be easy to say “Well, we really can’t do any campus ministry since all of our students are home.” But this is not that case at any of our five campuses.

We are doing everything we can to maintain, and even strengthen our campus ministries. Through all of the uncertainty, we Brothers are clinging more firmly to Jesus, our hope. As our emblem signifies, amid the storms of life, Jesus is the “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul” (Heb 6:19).

So even though our students have been sent home because of the coronavirus, we are still doing campus ministry… just a little differently.

Here are some of the ways we are responding and staying connected during these times at our campus outreaches across the country:

• The Catholic Center at Northeastern University (CCNU) and the surrounding schools of Boston normally join together for Mass at 12:30 p.m. on Sundays. To maintain some regularity and to help foster spiritual communion, students can pray with Fr. Paul online as he celebrates Mass at the same time as they usually do, with the entire CC community.
  • Pray with Fr. Paul as he celebrates Mass every Sunday at 12:30 p.m. EST
• The Catholic Student Union at the University of Minnesota live streams afternoon prayer sessions at 3pm on Facebook and Instagram.

• The Catholic Campus Ministry at the University of Central Florida and the Catholic Student Union at Florida State University both hosted their weekly large group gatherings (“Knighlife” and “Spirit Night” respectively) online, sharing the joys and hardships of the times and discussing how to keep the faith alive when not together as a community.

• The Catholic Student Association at Rutgers encouraged students to tune in and pray the Mass with the student and parish community of St. Peter the Apostle Parish (the university parish) as it was live streamed on Facebook.

• Brothers at all our campuses continue to stay engaged with one-on-one spiritual advising, now by phone and video.

• We’re sharing messages of encouragement on the social media platforms of each outreach, as well as links to spiritual resources to foster connectedness.

• Many campuses have also taken advantage of various communication tools such as Zoom, Google Hangout, and Slack. CCNU even elected next year’s student leaders online!

• We’ve encouraged students to stay connected by continuing to virtually meet in small groups and men’s/women’s groups.

• Br. Ken’s letter posted on our website offers words of encouragement to all of our students and friends reminding us that Jesus promised, “I am always with you.”