02.03.19

View this email in your browser Stay Warm! Probably from time immemorial human beings have associated love with warmth. (God knows, after the week we have had we could use a little warmth!) There are some very simple anthropological reasons for this. When we embrace a loved one, hold a child, or gather with family and friends, there is physical warmth in that. Just to think of those we love seems to bring a sense of warmth. The risk we run, though, is in thinking of love as merely a “warm feeling.” And so, what happens in a relationship, in a marriage or in a family when, on a given day or perhaps for a period of time, that warm feeling no longer seems to be present? Has the love gone away? This is where we need a deeper understanding of what love is. Saint Paul offers just this kind of understanding in the second reading for Mass this Sunday. You’ll recognize it immediately, as it is without a doubt the number one requested reading for weddings:  “Love is patient, love is kind, etc.” While this reading is probably so frequently chosen for weddings precisely because of its sentimental poetry, to listen to it carefully one is quickly disabused of any merely sentimental notion of love.  After all, Paul describes here a “patient” love, in other words, a love that can ride the waves of emotion.  It is a love that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things,” a love that “never fails.” In the end, it is an intentional, chosen, enduring love for the sake of the other, just as God loves us. It is just this kind of love that we strive to cultivate here at St. Ambrose.  With that in mind, stay warm!  Fr. Thom Peer Campus Ministers APPLICATIONS DUE FEB 4   Looking for a way to "bee" a leader on campus next year?  Want to help your fellow students form community and grow in their faith?  Consider being a Peer Campus Minister!  Click here to learn more! SPRING BREAK SERVICE TRIP DEADLINE EXTENDED Due Monday, February 4 @ noon We have extended the deadline to sign up for the Spring Break service trips!  Taking place between March 9-16, these trips are a great way to give back and help those in need!  Click here to sign up, and check out the attached flier or contact Kaitlinto learn more! Service on Saturday Help out our QC community every Saturday!  Click here to sign up. River Bend Food Bank February 2 - 1:00-3:00 pm Pack backpacks with food for schoolchildren. Jesuit Volunteer Corps A representative from the Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest is coming to campus Wednesday and Thursday (February 6-7).  Be sure to catch her at Mass & More, or come meet over coffee at a Drop-In at the Beehive on Thursday from 9-11 am. Showing of "The Dating Project" Monday, February 11 @ 7:00 pm Beehive Join us for a showing of the movie "The Dating Project."  This movie follows the lives of 5 single people trying to figure out dating in this world of social media, texting, and hook-up culture.  All are welcome to join - single or dating.  Followed by snacks and discussion. Busy Student Retreat February 24-28 Mark your calendars for the Busy Student Retreat at the end of February.  A great chance to experience some time for retreat in the midst of your busy schedule.  All it takes is a half hour of prayer and half hour meeting with a spiritual director over the 4 days.  Click here to sign up!                    QUICK BUZZ                    BeesKnees is our prayer chain for the needs of our St. Ambrose community.  Email BeesKnees@sau.edu Have a prayer request, or want to join. Have a question about a program or event going on in Campus Ministry? Got an idea for something you'd like to see happen? EMAIL US at ministry@sau.edu. Follow us online for news, events, prayer and spiritual resources, plus much more: Twitter Instagram Facebook

01.27.19

Feeling Buried To look around campus right now, you would think we were at the North Pole. We are buried in snow, and as I write this I’m told there is even more on the way. This feeling of being buried may be all too familiar to our students in other ways as the new semester begins to intensify.  At our recent presidential assembly our campus counseling center shared some sobering statistics. In 2018, 69% of our male students and 92% of our female students reported feeling overwhelmed by all they had to do at some point in the past 12 months. Similarly, 61% of male students and 84% of female students reported feeling exhausted (not from physical activity) in the last 12 months. In addition to carrying full class loads, many of our students work one or more jobs. Pile onto that the emotional stress of “self-discovery” typical of this time in life, relationship stress, family concerns, worry about the future, employment, college debt, etc. and it would be easy to feel “buried.” At the beginning of this new calendar year and semester, we need to hear Jesus confidently proclaim, as he does in the Gospel this Sunday, that he has come “to bring glad tidings to the poor...liberty to captives...sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord,” quoting the prophet Isaiah. When we are the most overwhelmed, we also most need to turn to Jesus to hear his reassuring voice speak in the depths of our hearts and to feel his consoling presence. In time the snow will melt, the green grass will break through, and we will feel the warm sun on our faces.  Fr. Thom Campus Ministry Service Trips APPLICATIONS DUE JANUARY 30 Sign ups now for our Spring Break Service Trips!  Come serve those in need in Memphis, TN, Chicago, IL, Wilmington, NC, or in our local Quad Cities!  Click here to register and see the attached flier or contact Kaitlin for more info! 2019-2020 Peer Campus Ministers Applications Due Monday, February 4 We are currently taking applications for next year's Peer Campus Ministry positions.  Peer Campus Ministers (or PCMs for short) are student leaders who are assigned to and live in one of the Residence Halls on campus where they promote spiritual development and Campus Ministry programming in their respective hall.  In addition to leadership and spiritual development opportunities, PCMs receive a stipend and early selection of housing.  Click here to learn more and apply, or contact Tammy for more details. Service on Saturday Help out our QC community every Saturday!  Click here to sign up. Hand in Hand Chili Cook Off January 26 - 4:30-6:30 pm Volunteer with kids activities and clean up. River Bend Food Bank February 2 - 1:00-3:00 pm Pack backpacks for kids with food. Sacrament of Confirmation Preparation sessions for the Sacrament of Confirmation begin THIS SUNDAY, January 27.  If you missed out on receiving the Sacrament when you were younger, now is a great time to do so!  Contact Tammy to learn more.                    QUICK BUZZ                    BeesKnees is our prayer chain for the needs of our St. Ambrose community.  Email BeesKnees@sau.edu Have a prayer request, or want to join.

Have a question about a program or event going on in Campus Ministry? Got an idea for something you'd like to see happen? EMAIL US at ministry@sau.edu. Follow us online for news, events, prayer and spiritual resources, plus much more: Twitter Instagram Facebook

01.20.19

Now is the Time! Welcome back! I hope you all had a good break. After some time visiting my family, I was able to squeeze in my annual retreat. For five days I lived in a simple, but comfortable hermitage in the woods.  Each day I woke up naturally, celebrated Mass, prayed, read, walked the grounds, ate simply, and went to bed early.  It was wonderful. I like doing my retreat between Christmas and New Year’s as it is such a natural time to look back on the past year to take stock of its many blessings and to hope and dream a little for the year to come.  Of course, our designation of a “new year” is a little arbitrary.  The path of the earth around the sun aside, in some sense it is a “new year” because we say it is.  We live in chronos - linear, measured, chronological time.  And as useful as this is on this earth (think schedules, appointments, etc.), we can all too easily forget the there is another kind of time - kairos.  This is time in the sense of “Now is the time!”  It doesn’t mean a specific chronological moment, but the right time, an opportune moment.  When it comes to our life in relationship with God, there is never a bad or a wrong time.  Now is always the right time.  We need not wait for some chronological marker, but can always begin now.  As we enter into this new calendar year 2019 (by our designation) let’s commit ourselves to seizing upon the seemingly infinite opportune moments before us.  Now is the time!  Fr. Thom Civil Rights Week Celebration Take part in all of the events going on for #SAUCivilRightsWeek, including: March to Remember Tuesday at 3pm, beginning at the Chapel Civil Rights & Human Liberties Mass Wednesday at 9:15pm Community Service Project Thursday at River Bend Food Bank Leaving from Rogalski Center Rotunda at 3pm Register Here Service on Saturday Help out our QC community every Saturday!  Click here to sign up. Davenport Community Food Pantry January 19 from 8 am - noon Contact Kaitlin to learn more. Hand in Hand Chili Cook Off January 26 from 4:30-6:30 pm Volunteer with kids activities and clean up. Campus Ministry Service Trips Sign ups now for our Spring Break Service Trips!  Come serve those in need in Memphis, TN, Chicago, IL, Wilmington, NC, or in our local Quad Cities!  Applications are due January 30. Click here to register and see the attached flier or contact Kaitlin for more info! Sacrament of Confirmation Preparation sessions for the Sacrament of Confirmation are starting next week.  If you missed out on receiving the Sacrament when you were younger, now is a great time to receive it!  Contact Tammy to learn more. 2019-2020 Peer Campus Minister Applications NOW LIVE Looking for a way to "bee" a leader on campus next year?  Want to help your fellow students form community and grow in their faith?  Consider being a Peer Campus Minister!  Click here to learn more! Retreat Dates for Spring Semester Busy Student Retreat February 24-28 Antioch Retreat April 5-7 Mark your calendars for these upcoming retreats later in the semester!                    QUICK BUZZ                    BeesKnees is our prayer chain for the needs of our St. Ambrose community.  Email BeesKnees@sau.edu Have a prayer request, or want to join.

Have a question about a program or event going on in Campus Ministry? Got an idea for something you'd like to see happen? EMAIL US at ministry@sau.edu. Follow us online for news, events, prayer and spiritual resources, plus much more: Twitter Instagram Facebook