DIOCESAN NEWS
03/09/07
..............................................................................................................................................
College students
focus on Lent
during weekend retreat
By Fabvienen Taylor
DURANT — Lauren Waggener, 20, classified a senior in the nursing program at Mississippi University for Women (MUW), decided recently not only to s
witch her major but her university as well.
In the fall at Mississippi State University (MSU) Waggener will enroll as a junior, majoring in social work.
“It’s crazy, you know. I have senior hours and I’m changing my major. But over Christmas break I experienced something very traumatic. I’m a strong person and I came through it pretty well. But I want to be able to help other people. I thought about it, prayed about it, and it changed my heart and my gut feeling about my major,” she said.
Waggener especially wants to help children. “I want to work with kids; they are my joy, my heart and soul.”
That decision and thoughts about her prayer life, about being grateful to God for every day, and looking forward to the next day filled Waggener’s thoughts on a recent three-day retreat for college students at Holmes County State Park.
Sixty-two students from MSU, MUW, University of Southern Mississippi (USM), the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) and Meridian attended “40 Days and Two Nights,” which focused on the three pillars of Lent: prayer, fasting and alms giving. Presenters included Father Kent Bowlds, vocations director for the Diocese of Jackson, Scott Thomas, seminarian, and Father Godfrey Mullen, a priest from St. Meinrad Abbey in Indiana.
Thomas, who attended MSU for two years before heading to St. Joseph Seminary in Covnington, La., said retreats give students time to reflect, time to step back and look at their decisions, and time to pray.
“It’s a good chance to get away, to reset your engine, to reboot your energies,” he said. “Lent is a good time to have this retreat because mid-terms are coming up and from my own experience I know it can ignite a fire in you to go back to school and work even harder than before.”
February’s annual diocesan weekend retreat for college students is one of the many activities receiving funding from the annual Catholic Service Appeal (CSA) for the Diocese of Jackson.
“Share Your Blessings” is the theme of this year’s appeal. The diocesan-wide collection will be held the weekend of May 5-6.
Additional areas receiving funding are evangelization, Catholic Charities, retired priests, clergy assistance, mission schools and parishes and seminarian education.
There are 6,000 Catholic students on 21 college and university campuses in the Jackson diocese.
The diocesan weekend retreat consisted of presentations, icebreakers, small group sessions, journaling, morning and evening prayer, a penance service, praying the rosary, stations of the cross and guided meditation.
Father Bowlds focused on fasting, Father Mullen on alms giving, and Thomas on prayer.
Time spent in prayer – communicating with God — can be a time of discernment, an examination of conscience, a way of connecting with friends and others, of praying for others and yourself, he said.
“God knows me better than I know myself,” said Thomas. “Prayer is a two-way street. You come to God in good times and difficult times. Let God fill up your time here, let him have control. We pray, speak our needs and worries and then we have to listen to what God tells us.”
Earl Lagraize, 21, admitted to having not thought a lot about prayer before the retreat.
“I will leave here thinking more about it,” said the junior from USM in Hattiesburg. “While I’m here I can get to know my faith better and meet some people I will probably be friends with for a lifetime.”
A member of the Catholic Student Association (CSA) at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, Lagraizewas one of 13 students from Hattiesburg.
“This is the big retreat,” he said. “Everyone wants to come up here.”
Laura Parker, MSU junior liked Thomas’ talk on prayer. “He did a good job this morning. “He helped me to redirect my prayerlife, to make sure that in the routine of daily things it makes a difference to take time out to pray.”
After Thomas’ presentation, Fran Lavelle, interim diocesan director of campus ministry, directed the students to go outside and spend time with God in nature. “Prayer is more about quality, not quantity,” Lavelle said.
During Lent, Lavelle, whose main job is CSA director at MSU, is leading a book club discussion on Thursday evenings. The CSA group is reading Henry Nouwen’s “Can You Drink the Cup?”
“I give little assignments every week, we have questions to reflect on, and they share about the chapters we have read, and then we have time to share. We will finish with a meal on Holy Thursday and then go over to the church for the service,” she said.
Waggener recommends the retreat for all college students. “I wish there were more retreats for college students because we are at a stage of life when we make decisions for the rest of our lives. And we can have some hard times. It’s good to be able to come out here with people of the same faith and just be with God.”
Back to Diocesan News
