Blest to do our best

There is a great Chinese restaurant near the University of Minnesota with an unpronounceable name. Behind the main counter is a series of awards going back almost ten years proclaiming this Chinese restaurant as “The Best of Minneapolis”. It must be very helpful for their business and an encouragement to the owners. As we all know, it is nice to be noticed once in a while.

I recently had a conversation with a significant leader of a Catholic Campus ministry. This person travels extensively and is very familiar with what is happening around the country with Catholic college ministry. He offered the Brotherhood an incredible compliment: he said, “I wish the Brothers were serving at every college campus in the country.” I tried to respond in what would appear to be a humble and professional manner, but inside my heart leaped for joy!

We are a new and still-small religious community that, as you know, has a particular passion and mission for college students. We do not receive many national or public accolades. We have been serving the Church’s mission on college campuses for 30 years and have witnessed some remarkable transformations in the lives of the students we serve.

While we’re very proud of our missionary fruitfulness, we must first acknowledge our debt to the Holy Spirit. We didn’t learn how to serve campus ministries overnight: the Holy Spirit has been guiding us for decades in developing approaches that actually help today’s young people encounter Christ. We’ve had our share of setbacks and failures along the way – but we’ve been faithful to the promptings of the Spirit, while humbly acknowledging that God always has a better plan.

And finally, I’d like to “pay forward” this compliment to all of you who are our friends, alumni, students, staff, families and supporters. If you did not recognize the value of this mission, and lend your support, then we simply could not do it anywhere close to a “best of the best” level! The next time you see a “Best of….” sign out there, I pray that your heart would rejoice in the part you have played in our mission together.

This article originally appeared in our Fall 2017 newsletter.