Dear Newman Community, Happy Easter! He is Risen! The past week has been so full of rich experiences of faith for our campus ministry community. Last weekend more than 50 students participated in our Aggie Awakening X retreat at Holy Cross Retreat Center. A big thanks to the dozens of students who gave countless hours in preparing for and putting on the retreat, as well as those who participated as retreatants, giving an entire weekend of their time during the semester. I invite you to join me in praying for all the students who participated, both retreatants and staff, as they return to the busy-ness of school, work, and life that they take their retreat experience with them back home and that they continue to be open to the new life it may bring. Please also pray for them as they approach the end of the semester, especially as they prepare for final exams and for graduating seniors, the new beginnings to come following graduation! Peace, Mona |
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Dear Newman Community,
This week I offer us a different sort of column, a reflection to take to personal prayer. It is from Rev. Robert Hater, PhD Professor Emeritus: University of Dayton and Professor of Pastoral and Systematic Theology. Blessings on your Holy Week! As Jesus traveled to Jerusalem for the last time, his time to fulfill the Father’s plan for the salvation of humankind was drawing near. Jesus’ actions in washing his disciples’ feet, giving us his Body and Blood at the Last Supper, and accepting his agony and subsequent death on the Cross give us hope in difficult times and model faithful endurance when darkness envelops us. In times of suffering, failure, family breakups, loss of friends, or a loved one’s death, Jesus’ death gives us hope for a new tomorrow. Uniting our suffering with his helps us to see that to know ourselves we must turn our lives over to the Father. With hope, we trust that he will sustain us, thus preparing us for our eternal resurrection. Such enduring hope is the bottom line, if we are to recognize our true identity. Uniting our suffering with Jesus’ suffering during Holy Week, we ask:
Mona Greetings!
Many thanks to all who have contributed to the Lenten Almsgiving! As of last Sunday, donations of food items and funds have equaled 98 food distributions. There are still a couple of weeks left in the Lenten season to keep working towards the goal to serve 250 families. Another component of the Lenten Almsgiving is to share information about the two food pantries we regularly support. Two weeks ago, I shared some info on La Bodega, our parish food pantry. This time, I’d like to share some information on the Aggie Cupboard, which is the emergency food pantry on campus. Over the Fall 2016 semester, the Aggie Cupboard served 297 clients and distributed 441 bags of food. Since Aggie Cupboard began serving the NMSU community in October of 2012, they have distributed 3,237 bags of food. The Mission of the Aggie Cupboard is to provide free emergency food assistance to the NMSU community, including Las Cruces and DACC students, faculty, and staff. We do this through the work of NMSU staff and students, and the generous food and financial contributions of NMSU and the local community. We endeavor to create an atmosphere of care, concern, and support for those in our campus community who may be struggling with a lack of food. We also work to educate the campus on the prevalence of food insecurity and hunger. (From Aggie Cupboard website). Thanks again for your generous support and partnership in responding to the needs of our local community! Peace, Sal
Greetings!
The initial response to our Lenten Almsgiving efforts has been positive. Well over 500 shopping list handouts have been taken, and several food distributions have already been dropped off. Our goal is to provide 250 food distributions at the Newman Foodshare event on April 29th. This is a oneday event where clients and volunteers will come together for a festive community gathering. The food items collected over the Lenten season will be distributed, hot dogs will be served by Newman’s Knights of Columbus council, local social service agencies will be invited to share information with the clients. Mark your calendars so you can be a part of this event! Given the generous spirit of our parish, we anticipate receiving items beyond our goal. These items will be shared with La Bodega and the Aggie Cupboard. Both of these food pantries provide emergency food assistance to our community. La Bodega is our parish food pantry. Several volunteers serve yearround in this ministry, responding to Jesus’ words to reach out to those in need, "Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” La Bodega distributes food on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month to about 90 families per month, or about 1,080 distributions a year! Families are able to receive a food emergency distribution (about 25 items) once a month. La Bodega is staffed and supported year round by Newman parishioners. If you bring in your items for the Foodshare event during the weekend Masses, place them near the Almsgiving display wall, donations for La Bodega are to be placed on the rolling cart near the Lunch Bunch counter. If you have some spare time to offer, we can use some help after all the weekend Masses to carry the food items from the church over to Casa A for storage. We will also sort through donations on Tuesdays from 3 to 4pm. If you are able to help, contact me via email at [email protected]. Thanks! Sal
Greetings! Aggie Awakening X preparations are underway! It is hard to believe that we are working on the tenth Aggie Awakening. The first one happened in Fall 2012! We began the process of building up AA with a small head staff, with Ivan Torres, Carmen Duran, and Carlos Briseno directing thirteen other student staff members. This semester, Javyn Sillas, Justine Del Castillo, Dante Avalos, Andrew Dominguez and Tori Null are serving as AA X’s head staff. They have already had several meetings, including an all staff meeting with the other twenty seven students who will serve on the different supporting staffs. One of the many blessings of the Awakening experience is the enthusiasm participants exhibit in their eagerness to serve on subsequent Awakening staffs. The initial retreat experience is a very formative spiritual experience which is built upon as the students serve is the various staff roles. We will gather again at Holy Cross Retreat Center for AA X on April 8, 9 and 10. If you are a student who has yet to experience Aggie Awakening, we invite you to prayerfully consider joining us! I promise this experience of the ever-present, unconditional love of God through prayer, community, music, and Sacrament will be a highlight of your Lenten journey. Justine will be happy to get you registered, you can email her at [email protected]. If you aren’t a student, but know a few, encourage them to sign up! And of course, please keep the staff and retreatants in your prayers! Peace, Sal Dear Newman Community,
Last weekend Sal took a group of students to Bonita Park Retreat Center in the Ruidoso area for an adventure style, ropes course based retreat we called Camp Amistad. Here is a bit of the experience as told by a few of our students who were able to participate: Carlos Trujillo: Camp Amistad was great. It was nice to get away from school and take in the beauty and fresh air of southern New Mexico's mountainous region (it reminded me a lot of home, which was a welcome surprise). The group building activities were really fun...we definitely found ourselves laughing a lot. This was a great retreat to reflect on our individual walk with God, as well as reflect on the significance of community and companionship. It was good time, I'm glad I went! Clara Roberts: Camp Amistad was an opportunity for me to deepen my relationships with Christ and with the Newman community. The cooperation and support shown by everyone throughout the retreat was beautiful and I am blessed to have been a part of it. My highlight was probably the zipline and the leap of faith, because I never would have imagined doing those things before this weekend. But through God's grace and the love of everyone around me, I was able to find the courage to trust in Him and not worry about what might happen. Renee Baca: My biggest takeaway from this retreat is that trusting is a choice. We make countless choices each day that contain some amount of trust we place in them in hopes of a greater good. But even when we doubt ourselves and everything around us, God trusts us. He continues to give us life and a mission each day because He believes we can accomplish and overcome them even when we think it is impossible. It brings comfort and peace to know that the most perfect being trusts me, with all my imperfections and mistakes. And, since I now know He trusts me, I am able to freely choose every morning to put all my trust in Him no matter what that day may bring. Peace, Mona Greetings! As the calendar inches closer to the Lenten Season, campus ministry, is running on all cylinders! This weekend a group of students are up in Ruidoso for Camp Amistad, our annual winter mini-retreat. This retreat offers a great opportunity for students to get away from the stress of studies to blow off steam with some team building activities, prayer and reflection in the beautiful Sacramento Mountains. A new initiative, Men’s and Women’s groups began meeting on Tuesday and our Campus Outreach team is working on energizing tabling. Tabling serves as a great initial opportunity to interact with students and share not only our events and programs, but also the energy and enthusiasm of the NMSU Catholic community. When we gather for these events, and the all the other events throughout the semester, I am keenly aware that we are truly blessed with some amazing students who put so much of their time and energy into these activities. They are faith filled and work tirelessly to balance their studies and part time jobs as they put their faith into action. Please continue to keep them and their efforts in your prayers! Peace, Sal
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AuthorsSharing the 'Good News' of Campus Ministry! Archives
August 2018
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St. Albert the Great Newman Parish
2615 S. Solano Dr Las Cruces, NM 88005 575-522-6202 Mass Schedule
Monday - Friday: 5:30 pm Saturday: 5:30 pm Sunday: 8:30 am, 11 am Confessions: Saturday 4 pm |