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FA LL 2019 k uc at hol ic .org
c a t h o l i c s on the h i l l
KU students enrolled in the The Institute for Faith and Culture at the St. Lawrence Center journeyed to Colorado this summer for Nascantur in admiratione: “Let them be born in wonder.�
The mission of the St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center is to form the students, faculty and staff of the University of Kansas, and others who wish to join in this mission, in the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the Catholic intellectual, moral, liturgical and spiritual traditions.
LETTER
from the
DIR ECTOR DEAR CATHOLIC JAYHAWKS:
It’s been fun showing off the renovated space, both inside and out. Thank you so much for all of you who prayed for and contributed to this enhancement of our Catholic home at KU. My favorite comment from a student so far? “I had no idea that all this was over here; I had only ever have gone to the church, never the Student Center. This is awesome!” My favorite new thing to do? Sit near the new fire pit in front of the old Williams home and watch the hundreds of students walk right through our front lawn, praying for each one as they go. Just this last Sunday three young alumni families planned a little reunion at the St. Lawrence 11am Mass, and planned a picnic together on the new outdoor patio. Totally impromptu - but exactly what we envisioned for the new space. It’s yours. It’s for the students. It’s OUR Catholic home at KU. It takes work to create spaces and a culture of having people over. Yet it’s where the Holy Spirit can do His incredible work: one new introduction, one new friendship and one new conversation at a time. It all counts. It all adds up to the next chapters of great stories written in and through our beloved St. Lawrence. Thank you for the new space. Keep trusting us to fill it with faith!
Fr. Mitchel Zimmerman, Director
Background Photo: Family Weekend, September 22
WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING
at St. Lawrence
Building Dedication September 18 On September 18, we gathered together with Archbishop Naumann, our Board of Directors, and our generous benefactors to dedicate the newly renovated space.
MINISTRYUpdate Good Company hosted Meat and Greet, our opening BBQ, on August 25, welcoming over 500 students back to their Catholic home at the University of Kansas.
The Institute for Faith and Culture took 20 students to Nascantur in admiratione (“let them be born in wonder�) in the mountains of Colorado. Over 90 student leaders spent 3 days over Labor Day weekend preparing for mission, diving into what it means to provide genuine hospitality, seek the Kingdom of God here on earth, and guide great stories.
FOLLOW US:
KU Catholic: Instagram @kucatholics and Facebook @kucatholic
IFC: Instagram @instituteforfaithandculture
Student Profile: MEGAN SHULFER YEAR & MAJOR AT KU? I am a sophomore majoring in Spanish and minoring in Linguistics.
WHAT ARE YOU INVOLVED IN AT ST. LAWRENCE? I am the prayer coordinator for the Institute for Faith and Culture, and I am on team for Koinonia. As prayer coordinator, I lead other students in praying the liturgy of the hours together at least half a dozen times a week, and the Divine Mercy chaplet weekly as well. HOW HAVE YOU GROWN IN YOUR FAITH SINCE BEING AT ST. LAWRENCE? I have learned so much about my faith. My faith has become more firmly rooted in Truth and I am able to understand more of why we believe what we believe. St. Lawrence is a big huge Catholic family, and there’s a place for everybody. DESCRIBE ST. LAWRENCE IN 3 WORDS: Holy. Family. Home.
By the Numbers...
200 students attending RISE monthly, hearing the message of the kerygma
50+ students participating in Samuel Group, a discernment program facilitated by the Apostles of the Interior Life
90 student interactions on average each
“Wescoe Wednesday,” taking the faith to campus
1000+ hours of student adoration during the month of September
24 students in RCIA 25+ small groups and Bible studies reaching over 400 students
and Facebook @St.LawrenceInstituteforFaithandCulture
Good Company: Instagram @goodco.ku and Facebook @goodco.ku
ALUMNI Update FR. JOEL HAUG When I arrived at KU, I can say in retrospect that I was looking for a place where I could really belong and flourish. I lived the typical college first semester with my spiritual life being more or less absent or ignored. Things changed for me when I experienced the authentically loving and joyful St. Lawrence Center community through the March for Life in Washington D.C. and Koinonia. Suddenly, I belonged to a community in a deeper way that I hadn’t experienced since my own family life. It wouldn’t be long before I realized what was at the heart of this community’s depth, unity, and natural goodness: Jesus and His presence in the Eucharist. With regular spiritual direction with Sr. Elena, I was guided to a deepening relationship with Jesus and His Church through a committed daily prayer life. As I began to live a more intentional time of silence in conjunction with going to Mass and confession regularly, I naturally began to shed some negative aspects of my life and of the culture and became happy in a way that I had never experienced before. I remember distinctly posting my new status on Facebook with great satisfaction in the summer of 2009: “I have never been so healthy in mind, body, and soul!”
SR. KALIN HOLTHAUS My greatest desire upon arriving at college was the pursuit of truth. I certainly had my life planned in detail and was not going to be deviated from pursuing my goals of becoming a scientist, but I also could not help but be driven by my desire for true knowledge. So, while I was getting a bachelor of science degree in Microbiology, I was also curious as to why humans do what they do and I thought that I would find the answer to that in Religious Studies. I have been Catholic my whole life, but growing up I considered going to Church our societal and familial duty. I wanted to be sure to be connected to my roots in college, so I continued the family tradition by going to the St. Lawrence Center for Sunday Mass. When I heard that there were free theology classes with no homework and no commitment in an announcement during Mass, I immediately thought that they would be beneficial for my Religious Studies minor. When I started going, I began to realize that the Church really does have thousands of years of wisdom and answers to all of my questions. I started to fall in love with the Church through the great teaching and Christian example of my teachers. Then I had to take a leap of faith. The same professor who was extremely intelligent also talked about being able to talk to Jesus in prayer. My scientific brain objected but my heart wanted it to be true. I signed up for something I had never heard of before called Spiritual Direction with an Apostle of the Interior Life and asked to learn how to pray. I started with a half hour of prayer a day and in a short period of time I was praying for 30 minutes a day plus daily Mass and a weekly adoration hour.
Then my junior year came and I had two great inspirations: 1) Samuel Group and 2) the inaugural Great Books class at St. Lawrence. Both experiences were pivotal in determining the Born on the same exact day. Same number of siblings. person that I am today. Samuel Group opened Both Jayhawks. Both Apostles of the Interior Life. my eyes to the reality of discernment and the Celebrated our 21st birthday together. possibility of consecrated life. The Great Books A natural consequence of Celebrated our 30th birthday together. class taught me how to see Beauty and that my experiencing this tremendous joy Brother and sister in Christ in so many special ways! desire for truth was really a desire for He who in my heart was wanting to share is Truth. At the end of the year, I had a powerful it with others. I wanted other prayer experience in which that Lord asked me if I wanted to spend my people to experience the transformation I had through prayer, the life with Him and I said “yes.” And all of my plans happily fell apart. sacraments...I felt a tremendous peace and joy with the thought of giving my life completely to the Lord in order to help as many other people as I could live this life to the fullest in order to be ready for the next. Two weeks after graduation in May 2012, I hopped on a plane to Rome and began my formation with the Priests of the Apostles of the Interior Life. I completed two years of studying Philosophy in Rome and just finished my fourth year of Theology at KenrickGlennon Seminary in St. Louis, leading into my priestly ordination on May 25th of this year. As a new priest, I am blown away by just how blessed this life is. To be Jesus for others, to bring His Self with myself to others in the Eucharist, to forgive sins and bring the heavily burdened freedom in the Spirit: this is the most awe-some life imaginable. Jesus asks for everything, but He gives so much more in return!
It was a long interior road to discovering my call to the Apostles of the Interior Life because they seemed so much like family to me that I did not even consider them at first. I was already basically living the four hours of prayer a day that an Apostle lives and my desire was for asking the deep questions of life with people; something very similar to what happens in Spiritual Direction. Eventually the Lord made it clear that the Community that felt like my favorite cozy sweater was where I could actually obtain holiness. I joined the Apostles on August 18th, 2012 and professed the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience on December 9th, 2017. St. Lawrence was a home for me because I knew that I would be fed in every way there: from the beauty of the candle-lit Mass, to the truth of the theology classes, to the goodness of the friends I made there, and of course: Sunday Supper.
SHANNA & RICHARD ALEXANDER
“I am so thankful to St. Lawrence, who showed me how to unwrap the amazing gift of faith and share it with others.” -Shanna When did you graduate, and what was your major? I graduated from KU in 2006 with a Bachelor degree in Social Welfare. Tell us your story. I started college in 2002 and was living in one of the dorms on campus. I had always had a Catholic faith, and believed in Jesus; but after high school into college I had slowly stopped going to Mass each Sunday. I was loving the parties and social opportunities that KU had to offer; and was excited to see what my college life would become without boundaries and restrictions. There was a very nice girl in my dorm who would never go out with our group of girls. She always said that she was going over to the St. Lawrence Center instead. Every time I thought, “who on earth would want to hang out at church when you could go to a party?” One weekend I decided to attend Mass at St. Lawrence with her. After Mass they were inviting people to sign up for student trips: the March for Life in DC and the Satillo Mexico Mission Trip. Little did I know that those trips would be the beginning of my new life, new conversion, new faith in Christ our Savior. How did St. Lawrence impact your faith in college? After the trips that I took I had a complete conversion of heart. I wanted to learn as much as I could about my Catholic faith. I took every theology class, began attending daily mass and frequented the sacraments as often as I could. To say that St. Lawrence “impacted” my faith is a complete understatement. St. Lawrence saved my life, my soul and my future.
SACRAMENTS Celebrated
ORDINATIONS
Br. Jared Loher LC (May 4th, St. John In Lateran, Rome, Italy) Joel Haug AVI (May 25th, Church Of Ascension, Overland Park,KS)
BAPTISMS *Bolded names are Jayhawks! Mar 21: Ella Marie Burns, daughter of Robert and Eliza (Smitson) Mar 23: Kyndal Janae Moritz, daughter of Colby and Kirsten (Heimerman) Apr 6: Theo Ambrose Zarse, son of Jordan and Marie (Humphrey) June 18: Mary Nora Schippers, daughter of Lucas and Sarah (Bergkamp) June 29: Cecilia Marie Dill, daughter of Mike and Grace (Del Nero) July 16: Lucia Rosamund Kemnitz Daughter of Matt and Olivia (Childs) Aug 18: Marie Bernadette Schaeperkoetter daughter of Andrew and Elizabeth Aug 25: Daisy Lane Dorman daughter of Taylor and Madison Wiedeman Sept 2: Clare Faustina Wertin daughter of Mark and Anne Marie (Martin) Sept 21: Zelie Louise Bowen daughter of Matthew and Leanne (Tracy) Bowen Sept 22: Arimathea Rose Skoch daughter of John Marc and Kelsey (Bob) Skoch Oct 2: Xavier Thomas Clark of Matthew and Theresa Clark Oct 19: Oliver Arends son of Mitch and Sarah (Reagan) Oct 20: Bruce Thomas Lange of Scott and Emily (McEnroe) Lange
SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE Apr 27: Gianna (Fitzsimmons) and Jacob Morales (former FOCUS missionary) May 18: Coleen (Hand) and Nathan Osterman June 1: Adam and Bailey (Brown) Wagner June 1: Jamie (Radakovich) and Stuart Scheer June 8: Michael and Nicole (Burkhart) Wilson June 8: Miriam (Walski) and Jacob Terneus June 8: Michael Tinio June 15: Alex and Annie (Sneed) Biddlecombe June 22: Tony and Sarah (Stuhlsatz) Raper June 29: Morgan and Heidi (Hedges) Minnis July 12: Joel and Peyton (Adams) Spain July 13: Katherine (Hybl) and Daniel Masin July 27: Greg and Meredith (Hiller) Heron Aug 24: Marissa (Gingrich) and Ryan Lutzkanin Aug 30: Joey and Elizabeth (Gaffney) Crane Aug 31: Taylor (Laures) and David Stodden Sept 14: Matt and Lauren (Easton) Sherman Sept 14: Jeff and Shannon (DeVol) Pelzel
Clark Baptism
Dill Baptism
Heron Wedding
How does your faith look today? St. Lawrence shaped my adult faith and has thus shaped every decision that I have made after graduation. Though I had to learn how to practice my faith outside of the wonderful faith circle that St. Lawrence offers; my faith has never been stronger. I met and married an amazing man and we work on getting each other and our 4 children closer to God and closer to Heaven each day. Our kids attend St. James elementary school in Liberty, MO. I lead a session of our women’s bible study, and recently joined the Pro-Life group. We are raising our children in faith and ensuring that they know how much Jesus loves them.
Fr. Joel Haug Ordination
Schaeperkoetter Baptism
Schippers Baptism
Did we miss your big news? Be sure to send an email to jconrad@kucatholic.org with any sacrament updates you have so we can include them in the upcoming issue!
Raper Wedding
Address Change? Receiving multiple copies? Want to unsuscribe? If so, contact us: 1631 Crescent Rd. Lawrence, KS 66044 (785) 843-0357 kucatholic.org | jconrad@kucatholic.org
NON PROF IT ORG . U. S . P O S TAG E PA I D L AW R E NC E , K S PE R M IT NO. 19 1
STAFF Fr. Mitchel Zimmerman Fr. Dan Morris Sr. Elena Morcelli, AVI Sr. Ruth Kuefler, AVI Sr. Michela, AVI Stacy Cretors Nick Hardesty Linda Hornik Elizabeth Rhea Kirk Kyle Kuckelman Emily Liuzza Jen Meitl-Conrad Luke Murray Brian Nelson Mark Wertin MaryCason DeWitt, FOCUS Kelvin Gothman, FOCUS Jessica Little, FOCUS John Michael Lucido, FOCUS Catherine McManus, FOCUS
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