The 2014 Holiday Season at MSJ

The 2014 Holiday Season at MSJ

Every year at Mount Saint Joseph the students and staff make an extraordinary effort to keep our Mount traditions ongoing while keeping the Xaverian Brothers faith alive! Campus Ministry and Student Activities take on and contribute to many of the school events and donations during the holiday season. Below is a little recap from our holiday season this past year!

December is always a busy time of year.  This is especially true of life here at the Mount with Mid-Terms, winter sports, Christmas Concerts, deadlines for college applications, Founders Week, and preparation for the Christmas holidays.  In the whirlwind of the season, it’s sometimes easy to miss the Advent messages of patience, slowing down, stepping back, and preparing our hearts for the coming of Christ.

Our Campus Ministry tries to help us focus on those important messages of Advent, and challenges us to “Fall in love with the service of God through the common, ordinary, unspectacular flow of everyday life”. Our students lived out this charism during this season of abundance in many ways.

As the month began, the sights and sounds of Christmas were apparent as soon as we returned from Thanksgiving.  The Can-struction campaign – and the resulting tower of cans collected in November -- made for a generous donation of over 500 pounds of food to a local food pantry at St. Jerome’s Parish.  Likewise, the Toy Drive organized and managed by Student Activities afforded our school community an opportunity to share with and care for our neighbors in need at St. Bernadine’s Parish.  We provided 108 families (487 individuals) with shoes  and gifts for Christmas.

Toy Drive Below:

Each day during the month of December, we began our day with an Advent reflection or the daily Gospel reading.  The beautiful Advent Wreath in our Campus breezeway also helps us keep our focus on the season and on Christ as the light of the world. 

On December 3^rd we gathered as community to celebrate the founding of our school at our annual Mass on the feast day of St. Francis Xavier.  As part of this long-standing Mount Saint Joseph tradition, we were blessed to have a dozen Xaverian Brothers with us to renew their vows and to remind us of the dedicated men, including Theodore Ryken, who founded our Xaverian sponsored schools. On Friday of Founders Week, Campus Ministry helped “sweeten” the celebration by serving Feast Day cake to the entire school community.

Moving from feast to fasting, ten of our students participated in the annual MSJ Hunger Fast this year.  The boys organized the event, which included a 24 hour fast beginning on Friday at lunch until Saturday afternoon.  The student-lead Stations of the Cross, and a late night movie and discussion, focused on poverty and homelessness.  Afterwards, the students spent the long, cold night outside, sleeping in a shelter that they had built out of boxes, garbage bags, and aluminum foil – in an effort to be in solidarity with the homeless. The next morning, we served lunch to our neighbors in need at My Brother’s Keeper, and later broke the fast with a community meal.

Midterms and the coming winter weather were met with seasonal comfort and joy, as Campus Ministry provided hot cocoa and cookies for the student body.   The treats and cheer were served daily between exams, and were warmly appreciated.

These holidays are truly “holy days” at Mount Saint Joseph.  We join the entire community in wishing and praying for a blessed Christmas for all.  May the One who brings light to the world, shine brightly in our hearts and continue to bless our community in the coming year.

We look forward to continuing our call to service the next few months by participating in the March for Life in Washington D.C on 1.22.2015 and hosting Junior retreats!

--Campus Ministry