Wednesday, August 5, 2020
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Five months ago, students left Dickinson College for Spring Break and little did we know that we would not see each other for the rest of the year. These last five months had been some of the most challenging times of our lives as we have faced the impacts of COVID-19. These uncertain times have called us to lean more into our faith life, and we have experienced new and different ways of encountering God through prayer.
In our campus ministry, we have been fortunate to have the ability to share live-stream Masses from Saint Patrick’s Church in Carlisle to our Facebook page for anyone to view. We have also had the blessing of joining with other young adult ministries to provide to the spiritual needs of Dickinson students, including but not limited to bible studies with Shippensburg University’s Catholic Campus Ministry and praying the Liturgy of the Hours with the 1822 Connection from Saint Patrick’s Church. We have also continued our weekly praying of the rosary and praying for all the intentions that we have, which have been many in these last few months.
Despite having to remain in the online world, there is much to look forward to with our campus ministry this coming semester. We have already had the opportunity to connect with some of our incoming first-year students through email and social media. We are excited to start collaborating more with Penn State Dickinson Law, which our campus ministry also serves, through the Law School Liaison position on our Leadership Team. We are also excited to say that a student from Dickinson College is going through the Rite of Christian Initiation (RCIA) process with the hope of being initiated to the Catholic Church.
Finally, we are excited to announce a slate of virtual events that we will have this semester for our campus ministry:
-Sunday Masses on Zoom
-We will have several Zoom Masses, as announced, specific for DCCM
-Other Zoom Masses will be the Saint Patrick’s 9:00 A.M. Facebook and YouTube-live Mass which will be screen-shared on Zoom later in the day.
-Weekly rosary
-Bible study once every two weeks
-Opportunities for prayer and fellowship with other campus ministries (to be announced)
There are admittedly many unknowns as we head into the semester, and there may yet be more initiatives we announce as we head into the semester, but we hope to start with these events as a way of getting back into the semester and getting to grow in faith and fellowship among the Dickinson Catholic Campus Ministry community. If there are any questions, please reach out to us through our Facebook or Instagram accounts or email us at newmanc@dickinson.edu.
God Bless,
Dickinson Catholic Campus Ministry – DCCM
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