Saturday, July 14, 2012

Why "The Glory Days": Behind St. Mary's Welcome Week



Why "The Glory Days"?
Here at St. Mary's, we really searched our hearts long and hard for this welcome week and semester's theme.  We went through a lot of silly moments as we racked our brains, but in the end God spoke through our crazy thoughts and gave us "The Glory Days."



A Definition:
We have always heard the phrase that high school consists of your glory days, but what about college?  It's the first time you're really out on your own without your parent's supervision.  It basically means (in a captive's free terms): eating whatever you want, staying out as late as you want, and doing whatever you want.  We all figured college was a little more in the light than high school.

But what does that mean for us at St. Mary's?  We're always talking about freedom, but does itreally mean doing whatever we want, whenever we want?  Yes, college is the taste of freedom for any young adult, but the full grasp of it is in Christ alone.  So our theme is "The Glory Days" for the Glory that we are seeking.  For those days that we can taste here on earth, but knowing the banquet is in Heaven.

Behind the Words:
If you notice, in the banner is an asterix that goes to Matt. 10:6-7 which says, "Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  As you go, make this proclaimation: 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'"  There were about a million verses similar to this one we could have chosen, but this one felt right.  It's under the great commissioning of the apostles and it tells us, basically, we must take up the glory that God has given each of us and seek more lost souls.

To some Catholics, this can seem a little intense, especially if it's taken the wrong way; we seem to like staying behind our own walls sometimes.  But if we really dive into scripture, we see it is a message of hope and Love.  Jesus tells us constantly "Do not be afraid," and we think it's time to finally take that advice.  If we claim to know truth, then why aren't we spreading it?

Which brings up JPII's quote: Do not be afraid to go out into the streets...like the first apostles.  If that's not GLORY, we don't know what is!  We must respond the call, we don't have to succeed.  But we MUST respond.

The Great College-Mission:
So, this welcome week, this semesters, this year, this ministry is fully responding to the Call, and we're calling it the "Great College-Mission."  We know it'll be hard, we're promised that (Matt. 10:16), but we know we must try.  We will go out into the sidewalks and onto our college campus to find God.  Keep us in your prayers.  We need them!



God bless and Mary keep,
St. Mary's Interns


If you would like to help us in our mission, please consider becoming a donor at St. Mary's Catholic Campus Ministry! Thank you so much. Every little bit helps!

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