Just 30 minutes after their final exams the 24 Group Leaders of next year's Freshman Retreat met to begin the planning of next year's retreat.  While November 10 seems a long way off we all recognize it will be here before we know it.  The juniors and seniors who are next year's leaders talked about the retreat and what they hope the members of the class of 2016 get out of the retreat.  They used words like "brotherhood", "community", "advice", and "leadership" as words they hope the freshmen will come to understand and appreciate. 

The theme of this year's retreat will be "IGNITE! - Breaking barriers, sparking friendship".  The leaders hoped this theme will get the freshmen excited about this unique overnight experience and the impact it may have on each one of them.  On behalf of the entire Freshman Retreat Team, we would like to say "Welcome Class of 2016!"

Yesterday the Archdiocese of Baltimore welcomed our new Archbishop, William Lori, who was installed as Archbishop at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen.  Several representatives from Loyola were in attendance at the Mass including Mr. Anthony Day and Fr. Pesci.  Also representing Loyola were Timothy McLaughlin '12 and Joseph Alston '16 who were invited by the Archdiocese to represent our school in the opening procession.

You can read more about the Mass and Archbishop Lori in this article from the Baltimore Sun: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-lori-20120516,0,2074256.story

The 7th Grade students (with the help of a lot of Loyola Moms) helped organize the Ridge Ruxton Carnival this past week.  This annual event is a great opportunity for our boys to meet and share with the students from the Ridge Ruxton school, they organized indoor and outdoor games, music, dancing and lots of other opportunities for the students to get outside and have a great day.

This past weekend the Archdiocese organized a Youth and Young Adult Pilgrimage through Baltimore.  Pilgrims walk 4 miles from St. Mary’s historical Site to St. Casimir and stop along the way. The Archdiocese described the event as a "wonderful start to our Holy Week."

You can read an article about the service here:

http://www.catholicreview.org/article/home/for-all-that-he-did-for-us

To promote awareness and raise money for needy families in the area, this year the Office of Campus Ministry along with the Office of Ignatian Service) are sponsoring a video game tournament called "FIFA 4 Food".  Students will pay an entry fee to compete in the tournament and the money raised will go toward needy families in the Baltimore area.

This past weekend we had our inaugural Freshman Overnight Retreat, we had over 180 members of the Freshman class here over the weekend and they  participated in a variety of activities meant to introduce the students to much of the Loyola Blakefield experience.  The theme of the retreat, chosen by the student leaders, was “Finding Your Way: Open to Opportunities, Building Brotherhood, and Exploring Faith.” 

It would be difficult to encapsulate the experience in words and instead we would like to share the photo slideshows we used at the beginning and end of the retreat.  Thank you to the 47 faculty and 32 students who gave up all of some of their weekend to contribute to the success of this retreat.

This past weekend, Catholic Charities and Jobs Housing Recovery Inc sponsored the inaugural Baltimore Sleep Out an overnight event with the mission of promoting a better understanding of poverty in Baltimore.  Eight Loyola students along with two faculty chaperones participated in the overnight event.  Hosted at Our Daily Bread Employment Center, the students had time to listen to speakers share about their experiences of homelessness, prepare and serve a meal for homeless guests of the shelter as well as take time to discuss the issues that surround homelessness and poverty.

For more information about the event you can click here to view the article on the Baltimore Sun website.

A special thank you to Mr. Sebastian Price and Director of Ignatian Service, Mr. Ben Horgan for organizing this event.

These days you can do nearly everything online, including improve your spiritual life! Here are three websites that may be helpful to those of us who struggle to find the time to pray daily or for those looking for a little direction. 

Pray-as-you-go.org
This website, brought to you by the Jesuits in Britain, provides you with daily scripture readings that you can play online through your computer or download to your mp3 player.

Sacred Space
At Sacred Space they invite you to spend ten minutes a day praying using their on-screen guidance and scripture passages.  This site is produced by the Irish Jesuits who also put out books and booklets by the same name.

Ignatian Spirituality.com
This site describes Ignatian spirituality as "a way to pray, an approach to making decisions, a point of view about God, and a practcal guide to everyday life." A service of Loyola Press the site is rich in resources on Jesuit history, retreats, and other Jesuit organizations.

Thank you for taking a look around the Campus Ministry page and for stumbling across this blog.  From time to time we hope to post information for you about the many exciting programs we offer and also some content you may use for your own personal spiritual journey.

For now I would encourage you to also become a friend of Loyola Campus Ministry on Facebook.  Our "spokesperson" is Don Ignatius de Loyola.  Next time you're on Facebook please look us up and send us a friend request.