Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas offers young men an excellent, Catholic education.
One needs to look no further than the first sentence of Jesuit’s mission statement to find that directly at the root of Jesuit, is a Catholic education. And with new faces and bigger roles, the revamped Campus Ministry team seeks to further bring the central Catholic values to everything Jesuit students and faculty do.
Although the true face of Campus Ministry is the students, the faculty make up a huge portion of the spiritual development at the school. The Campus Ministry team is recruiting some familiar faces from around Jesuit and welcoming new ones. Among the current faculty joining the staff are physics teacher Mr. Dominic Golab and math teacher Ms. Sara Krusekopf. New to both the staff and to the Campus Ministry program are World History teacher Mr. Kbrom Yohannes and Theology teacher Mr. Daniel Dion.
In recent years, the Campus Ministry department has pushed for a more involved student body. As the Campus Ministry Director Gretchen Crowder said, “we have tried to give as much responsibility to the students as we can,” in order to have as many voices in the spiritual community as possible. To facilitate this, Campus Ministry has designated student and coach chaplains to help “form a spiritual life for the team,” commented Crowder. However, this change had mostly been seen in the bigger varsity sports, like football and basketball. Now, Campus Ministry has extended the chaplain program to all varsity and non varsity sports, all the way from freshman baseball to the varsity soccer team.
The next big change coming from the Campus Ministry department is more opportunities for clubs and teams to strengthen their unions with prayer. Specifically, instead of just volunteers and student council reading the announcements, large clubs and sports teams will have weeks of prayer, in which they will have a different member read the prayer over the morning announcements every day.
Additionally, Mrs. Crowder and the campus ministry team wanted to make masses during the week more accessible to students. Previously held before school, now masses are being held after school at 4pm. Another change, is that sports teams can volunteer to lead mass, in an attempt to break from the hectic schedule of a Jesuit athlete and share the sacred meal together.
Another big change to Campus Ministry is the tailoring of examens and prayer services to Ignatian Day topics. Ignation Days, a fairly recent addition to the Jesuit schedule, are mandatory in home reflections covering myriad topics, and how they relate to the student body’s religion. Mrs. Crowder says this change is “meant to make faith more fluid throughout the year,” with the same themes for personal reflection in the Ignatian Day as in the daily respite of the examen, and in the communal reflection of a prayer service.
Finally, the most unique change is coming to the all-school masses spread throughout the year. Mrs. Crowder says that she and a “small group of guys read through the readings and tell the priest what the school needs to hear…and what the intentions will be,” having students tailor the homilies and intentions to the needs of the school. Mrs. Crowder hopes this will aid in making “students participants in mass, not just observers.”
This small group meets before mass. All students are encouraged to come and have their voice heard. If you are interested in Jesuit Campus Ministry, please contact Mrs. Crowder in her office, or email her at gcrowder@jesuitcp.org.
