Welcome back to Miami University’s Catholic Campus Ministry! Over the past year, our ministry team has worked tirelessly to bring the Lord to campus and fuel the flames of faith within the hearts of Miami students. College is a difficult time, filled with major life decisions and spiritual challenges. Our mission is Christ’s mission -- to help Miami students grow closer to God and center our choices around His guidance. Whether you’re a returning Catholic student, new to campus, or even new to Catholicism, don’t worry! We’ve got you covered with all the resources you need to engage with the faith.
First things first: you have found our new website! This place has everything. Mass times. Confession times. Adoration times. Contact info for our FOCUS missionaries, Chaplain, and Ministry Team. RCIA resources. If you can’t find what you’re looking for here, join us in the Student Lounge located behind St. Mary’s Main Church or at our new Student Chapel located inside the Catholic Newman Center.
However you decide to seek out Christ on Campus, we are here to support you. We will be posting regularly on this blog to bring you snippets of Christ’s joy as we know Him in our lives to help you better recognize His presence in yours.
“For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him.” John 3:17
This week, I have been studying and working at my internship, among many other things that occupy my time away from Christ. Sometimes it’s easy to let other things distract me from my relationship with Jesus. What I’ve been praying with lately to draw my attention back to Jesus has been the Student’s Prayer by St. Thomas Aquinas:
Creator of all things, true source of light and wisdom, origin of all being, graciously let a ray of your light penetrate the darkness of my understanding.
Take from me the double darkness in which I have been born, an obscurity of sin and ignorance.
Give me a keen understanding, a retentive memory, and the ability to grasp things correctly and fundamentally.
Grant me the talent of being exact in my explanations and the ability to express myself with thoroughness and charm.
Point out the beginning, direct the progress, and help in the completion. I ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
This prayer serves me as my reminder before every academic endeavor I undertake that the Lord was there from the very beginning. His love precedes all things and endures all things, including assignments and exams.
It is easy to let certain aspects of our lives overwhelm us in anxiety, but what those anxieties reflect is our desire to control the outcome. An outcome that we’re so dang close to accomplishing that it consumes our thoughts entirely. Pressure is a privilege. It means we’re doing something right and we care about what we do. But it also can sometimes mean we fear or even resent failure.
Why I love this prayer is because it is not me simply asking God for a certain output, goal, or desire. This prayer leads me into a mentality of stewardship. In other words, I am viewing this overwhelming assignment as an opportunity from God to do great things in His name. It is no longer my burden to bear but rather my sacrifice to start living for God.
So as we get ready to start up another academic year, I hope you too can use this prayer and call on the Lord throughout your day and see how much He can do for you!