By Drew Hines
Director of Development St. Thomas Aquinas Newman Center
One of my favorite things I get to be a part of at the Newman Center is the monthly gathering with our staff and the FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) missionaries called “Bagels and Graces.” It is what it sounds like—we have bagels and share graces.
While the gathering itself is a very simple thing, it’s truly incredible to hear and witness the things being shared around those tables every month.
This past month, a missionary shared a story of a current freshman, John, from the Bronx who had visited Nebraska in the spring last year and went to Palm Sunday Mass at the Newman Center. John was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and self-consciously turned to someone and said, “I wish I was dressed a little better.”
The student responded to John and said, “Hey, I’m just glad you’re here.” John said the response was so welcoming and impactful that he credits coming to Nebraska for school in part because of that interaction.
That is one anecdotal story of many interactions that are happening constantly around the Newman Center. It’s hard to quantify the way the Lord is working in people’s lives, but to paint a picture of just how many of these stories exist, we estimate our students, missionaries, and staff had more than 4,000 interactions with other students in just the first two weeks of school. These spanned from Mass registrations to volunteering at the dorms during move-in to the 25 events and opportunities hosted throughout those first weeks. Those aren’t email interactions, text messages, or just counting people that attended Mass. They are person-to-person conversations and real connections. As a ministry, we are incredibly invested in those first weeks because it is crucial to let students know it is good they are here and there is a place for them.
People frequently ask me, “How is it going at the Newman Center?”
Sometimes I’m honestly self-conscious about my answer because it’s almost too hard to articulate the breadth of what the Lord is doing. The truth is far better than any pitch. There is simply an abundance of grace flowing—so many quiet conversations, students discovering not only that they belong but what the Lord desires for them—that I can’t help but share how tangible the faith is on campus and among the students. The hope, the excitement, the purpose lead to a charged atmosphere. It’s so hopeful, in fact, that it can sound like an exaggeration, but that’s far from the truth. Have hope that the good news is being shared. And it is being received!
