Friends, Food, and Fun: Fordham on Retreat

If you ever find yourself in need of some rest and relaxation during the semester--and let’s be real, who doesn’t want to take a break from the city that never sleeps every now and again--then one of Fordham’s weekend retreat programs are perfect for you. 

Retreats have a variety of themes, but new friendships are always the result!
If you’re not convinced to go on retreat already, then here’s the final push: the food is excellent, with snacking opportunities abound! Spending time with friends old and new, talking about what matters most to you over a delicious meal in a beautiful setting...it doesn’t get much better than that!

Fordham students at the McGrath House of Prayer
Run by Fordham’s Campus Ministry, all of the retreat programs take place at the beautiful McGrath House of Prayer in Goshen, NY. Here, students are able to unplug from the constant flow of responsibilities and stressors of college life and instead put aside time for reflection, growth, and the development of new friendships with other Fordham students. There’s a wide variety of programs available throughout the school year, with each month presenting a number of retreats that revolve around a specific theme and focus: from year-specific programs to faith-based retreats, Men’s and Women’s retreats to social justice and LGBT-specific programming, there’s a stay in Goshen perfect for each Fordham student. Spend a whole weekend at the McGrath House or just stay for a twenty-four hour retreat; either way, you’ll experience growth and learning that will help you far beyond the confines of Fordham’s campus.

Ignatian Week 2015

“You may not have S.J. after your name, but Ignatius is still your father and you are still part of our family.” (President Fr. Joseph McShane)

Keating Hall decorated for Ignatian Week!

Before I came to Fordham University, I didn’t know anything about the Society of Jesus and I had never met a Jesuit priest. I chose Fordham because I knew I wanted to be involved in community service and an education that prepared me to serve others in whatever career I choose. Fordham has provided me with both these opportunities, but it has also gone so much deeper. St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, firmly believed in education as the best means to better serve others. Being an integral part of a Jesuit university doesn’t require any religion; it requires a willingness to search for truth and work for justice, while caring for and understanding others (including our Earth) and constantly bettering oneself. President Joseph McShane, S.J. always says students should graduate from Fordham feeling “bothered” by the world, with the skills and the heart to go out and change it. Each fall, Fordham celebrates Ignatian Week: a week full of activities for us to celebrate the Jesuit tradition of our school and to challenge our own individual lives by learning about and connecting through Ignatian spirituality. 

"Jesuit Storytelling" in the St. Ignatius of Loyola Room

Tuesday evening at the Rose Hill campus, I went to an event titled “Jesuit Storytelling: Three Generations of Jesuits Share Their Journeys”, pictured to the right. We learned about the best and most challenging parts of being a Jesuit from an 87-year-old biology PhD, a graduate professor of religious studies, and a 23-year-old Scholastic who will be graduating from Fordham this spring. Getting to know the Jesuits who live, work, and study at Fordham has been a crucial part to my understanding of being a member of the Jesuit family.

I also attended Wednesday’s dinner event titled “Finding God in Failure: Ignatian Spirituality for Our Dark Nights of the Soul.” College will probably introduce you to more failure than high school ever did, and so it was great for students and faculty alike to hear the presenters’ takes on how Ignatian Spirituality can inform your confidence in the face of failure. Tomorrow, I am really looking forward to attending the lunchtime conversation on “Global Justice and Solidarity.” If you're interested, check out this link to the full calendar of Ignatian Week 2015; these events are all examples of typical events put on by Fordham Campus Ministry.

GO!ing to the Dominican Republic

This spring break, I had the opportunity to travel to the Dominican Republic on a Global Outreach mission trip. Global Outreach, or GO!, is a student-run organization at Fordham that sponsors domestic and international trips that allow students to become better aware of social, economic, political and environmental injustice. These projects range from learning about women's rights and immersing in the culture of Nicaragua, to participating in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in New Orleans. With over 30 different locations, there is definitely a project for everyone and many students participate in a GO! trip during their four years here.

My team walking towards the Monumento a los Héroes de la Restauración in Santiago, DR

After six months of weekly meetings, bake sales and community building, my team of twelve students finally departed for the Dominican Republic. We volunteered with the Joan Rose Foundation in Esperanza, DR, which provides lessons, meals and a safe haven for the children of the impoverished community. We were able to witness the extreme racism in the country that Haitian immigrants experience, as well as the living conditions in bateys, which are communities of sugar cane workers. Many families in the area live off of $0.90 a day, so it was extremely eye-opening to witness their lifestyle. The Joan Rose Foundation was such a loving community and we were able to make many new friendships with the children. My GO! experience was nothing less than life-changing, and I would definitely encourage everyone to apply for a trip!

My team at the Joan Rose Foundation

GO! on Spring Break

My roommate Emily is currently on a Global Outreach spring break project in the Adirondacks. Here's an interview with her to learn about GO! at Fordham.

Name: Emily Tormey
Major: Mathematics
Year: Junior
Hometown: Plainville, MA


What is GO!?
GO! stands for Global Outreach. The Global Outreach office is part of the Office of Mission and Ministry. They hold projects 3 times a year: winter break, spring break, and at the beginning of summer break. The projects are cultural immersion and service opportunities that all have a different and unique focus on different cultures and different social justice issues. There are 32 projects total a year between Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses, offering both domestic and international projects.

What GO! project are you going on?
I will be going on GO! Adirondacks.

What will you be doing? 
My team will be learning about the culture and history of the Mohawk and Abenaki tribes with a focus on their stewardship of the land and its resources.

What has your team done to prepare?
My team has been having weekly meetings since November. Every week we come together as a group and focus on a different aspect of the GO! mission and our particular trip’s focus.

Emily and some members of her team at GO! commissioning.

What are common practices of GO! projects?
GO! is centered on four pillars that are taken very seriously by the entire GO! community. They are spirituality, social justice, simple living, and community. Each of these pillars is extremely important to having a successful GO! project and they are all discussed in detail at our weekly GO! meetings.

What is the process to go on a trip?
First you have to submit an online application and interview with the project’s leader for each project you are interested in participating in. Once you have been selected, you meet with your group each week for about 2 hours. Additionally, each week you go on a one-on-one with a member of your group. That could be getting coffee off campus, grabbing lunch, or doing something fun in the city. The fun part of one-on-one’s is that you can do whatever you guys want together.

Another important aspect is fundraising. Each project does come with an estimated cost, but individuals are allowed to do personal fundraising and teams always do fundraising events together. Just a few weeks ago my team had a very successful fundraiser delivering bagels to students in their rooms or off-campus apartments. Also, the fundraisers are a great time to bond with your team and get to know them better.

What are you most looking forward to?
Well, one of the exciting things about GO! is that you don’t actually get a full itinerary of what you will be doing before you go. So, right now I know some general details of what the focus of our project is, but I do not know what activities we will be doing or what will happen on a day-to-day basis.

What are you least looking forward to?
Nothing. I am beyond excited to go on my project and spend a week with the amazing people I am lucky enough to be on a team with.

One of Fordham's Best Kept "Secrets"

One of the best-kept secrets at Fordham is the Saturday night mass in Keating Blue Chapel. I say “secret” because it is a small, intimate mass that generally only about twenty or so members of the Fordham community attend. Since Sunday masses are so popular and lively most of the community will begin their week/end their weekend by attending the 11:00 AM, 5:00 PM, or 8:00 PM masses on Sundays.

This is a photo taken from the back of Keating Blue Chapel. You can see it is beautiful, little chapel. 

However, Saturday night mass is offered at 5:30 in Keating Blue Chapel for people who are unable to attend mass on Sundays due to their busy schedules. The Blue Chapel is on the third floor of Keating and it is a small, beautifully decorated chapel in which I find myself able to reflect deeply on my Jesuit values. The chapel seats about 20 people, but recently I have noticed more and more members of the campus community attending. I enjoy celebrating mass in this smaller setting and was glad when my friend and I came across this mass time last year when we were unable to attend mass one Sunday.  If you like attending mass on the weekends, but find Sundays too hectic you should definitely try going to Saturday night mass!  

Holiday Season: Campus Ministry Edition

Campus Ministry is always planning something, and that especially holds true now that the holidays are coming up!  Over the past month there has been a Thanksgiving Food Drive collecting all nonperishable, canned, and baby foods as well as monetary donations.  The drop-off locations included the Rose Hill, Lincoln Center and Westchester campuses, making it convenient for all Fordham students to participate.  Countless donations were collected to help provide for our neighbors and friends in need this holiday season.

Keating Hall in the snow

Now that Advent is around the corner, kicking off right after we return from Thanksgiving break, those programs are getting planned as well.  On December 3rd at 8pm there will be a Praise and Worship Advent Special, and the following night at 5:15pm there will be an Advent Reconciliation Service.  For students interested in retreats, there will be an Advent Mini-Retreat on December 7th from 10am-2:30pm.  This will be followed by a Fordham favorite, Lessons and Carols at 3pm in the University Church.  (The best way to spread Christmas Cheer is singing loud for all to hear.)  Also, the annual Campus Ministry Holiday Party will take place on December 10th at 5:30pm in the Ignatius Room.

University Church decorated for Christmas

Starting tomorrow, November 24th, there will be Holiday Coat and Toy Drives through December 17th.  They will be accepting donations of clean and gently used coats, gloves, mittens, hats, scarves, and boots in good condition.  The three campuses will also be collecting new unwrapped toys appropriate for children ages newborn to teenager, and each campus will be donating to a different cause.  Toys collected at Rose Hill will be distributed by Fordham Big Brothers and Big Sisters to our local community partners.  Donations from Lincoln Center will benefit Hour Children, and those from Westchester will be given to the Elizabeth Seton Pediatric Center.  There are endless ways to get involved and help out during the holidays at Fordham!

Nativity Scene by the entrance to campus

CLCs...A Unique Community at Fordham

Fordham, as you probably already know, is a Jesuit University. One of the ways that Fordham stays in touch with its Ignatian roots it through its incredible Campus Ministry Office. Campus Ministry has an array of programs, organizations, student groups, and events so that every student has the opportunity to strengthen and deepen their faith lives. One way in which I have become very involved in Campus Ministry and the larger Fordham community is through CLCs. CLC stands for Christian Life Community, and it is an international organization of lay faith-sharing groups founded in the tradition of Ignatian spirituality.

My awesome group from last year! We still make an effort to stay close, even if we aren''t meeting every week.

What exactly is Ignatian spirituality? In CLC we concentrate on establishing a community first, and then seeing our faith lives through "all things" in our lives. I am currently leading one of roughly 15 CLCs at Fordham, with about 8-10 students in each group. My group, both this year and last year, are incredibly important parts of my life. Meetings only last for an hour each week, but we try to make time in our busy lives to get together for dinner, to hang out, or just catch up over coffee during the rest of the week. CLCs, to me, are first about being there for each other no matter what, and for establishing tight, close friendships through a common interest, our faith.

The beautiful stained glass in Keating Blue Chapel, where my group met last year, as well as this year. 

My group this year is an incredibly close group of kids, and for that I am incredibly thankful and happy. It is primarily freshmen, with one sophomore, one junior, and one senior. The freshmen look to us upperclassmen for advice about anything and everything. We meet in the beautiful Keating Blue Chapel, on the third floor of Keating. I could talk about how great they are for eternity, but I think the fact that we consider our group to be a family and the fact that I am called "Mom" by my group members speaks for itself. So if you are looking to enrich your faith life and make some incredible friends in the process, look no further than CLC!!

My group is really excited for our meeting!

Kairos Silent Retreat

I attended a silent retreat last month with Fordham's Campus Ministry, and it was wonderful, so filled with meaning and reflections of God's love. A basic Kairos retreat, the weekend was filled with reflections on the life of Jesus so that we can better model our lives off of His. More than just content, the location was perfect; Fordham owns a retreat house in Goshen, New York that is absolutely gorgeous (it's both creatively built and large) and the perfect place to a break from busy life. Of course, silence didn't hurt, either. It was good to spend a weekend without my own yammering! I spent a lot of time reflecting, praying, thinking and reading Living Simply in an Anxious World. In the words of another woman on the retreat, it was "sweet times."

Of course, I was able to snap a few fall photos, as well.