Hello from Chicago!

Dear Newman Community,

Hello from Chicago! This week Fr. Ray and I are with a group of five students at St. Xavier University in Chicago for Campus Ministry Leadership Institute (CMLI). This five-day training and working institute gathers student leaders and campus ministers from across the country as campus teams.  Grounded in the U.S. Bishops' Pastoral Letter, Empowered by the Spirit, the Institute is designed to produce effective leaders who work collaboratively to develop and implement successful Catholic Campus Ministry programs on college campuses, both private and public.
 
A large portion of our time (over 10 hours!) at the Institute is dedicated to working in our campus team on a project to bring back to NMSU in the fall. We are so fortunate, the students on our campus team all came up with innovative project ideas aimed at growing faith and community at Newman. After careful discernment, the project we decided to work on is developing a new Prayer & Fellowship Team.
 
Please pray for our campus team as well as the campus teams from other universities across the nation participating in CMLI this week. Please also pray for Sal and the students and campus ministers working hard to put on the Institute.
 
Peace,
Mona
 

​Our CMLI Project
 
The project we will be working on is developing a new prayer/discipleship/fellowship team. This team will act to deepen already existing friendships and try to help new students feel welcome. The team will work on improving communication with students around (before, during, after) events, ie. send students personal reminders of when Newman events are coming up. The prayer team will also check in with people during the week, schedule coffee, lunch and dinner “dates” and ultimately develop deeper relationships with students involved in campus ministry. Through this increased one-on-one interaction, students will grow in faith as they attend and reflect on all the different activities within the context of a closer community.