Ashes to ashes, dust to dust

Today is as Ash Wednesday all over the world and the first day of the Lenten season. This is the time of the year where Catholics (well, Christians in general) remember and reflect on Christ's ultimate sacrifice for the world, himself, so that we will all be redeemed. Lent and Easter is the focal point of the Christian faith because it is, as one of my religious studies professors once said, what proved that Christ was the Messiah. I'm not going to give an Ash Wednesday lecture or Lent etc but I figured I should preface. If you're not Catholic, it may be more familiar to you as the time where people give up something for 40 days etc. (See this awesome video in case you want to know more).

I grew up Catholic and every Ash Wednesday, I would come to school with a mark like the one above on my forehead and the first thing I would hear was, "You have dirt on your head." I never went to Catholic school or Christian school until Notre Dame (kindergarten doesn't count, right?) and I remember always having to justify and explain to everyone what the cross of ashes on my forehead meant, how it was a mark of the beginning of a season of sacrifice. I still remember all my friends' confused faces every year. It's nice being at a school where I don't have to explain anything at all and where having ashes on my forehead is the norm (but it's cool too if you don't do that).

I think one of the coolest things about Notre Dame is that we are a Catholic school that embraces other faiths. It allows you to grow your own spirituality while simultaneously being exposed to Catholic Social teaching. As president of Lighthouse/Campus Ministry, one of my initiatives and challenges for my board this semester was to get us all out of the materialistic mentality of Lent and back to the essence of sacrifice, alms giving, and reflection of our blessings. By materialistic, I mean this whole "fad" of giving up candy or facebook or soda without really understanding what they're doing. During Lent, we are supposed to immulate, to a much lesser degree at least, Christ's sacrifice. (Have you ever heard of Christians not eating meat on Fridays of Lent? Well it started during the time when meat was only affordable to the rich. One year a rich community decided to buy the meat but rather than consume it themselves, they offered it to the poor, who could never afford it. Hence, we give up meat for a bigger reason!) 

We are supposed to be reflective and ultimately give something up for a greater good. I think the example I used with my board was that if they were giving up facebook, they should use those extra hours (let's face it, it's hours...) to spend time with their families. Or if they give up candy or whatever to use that money they would buy those things and give it to charity--something that serves those who most need help. We as a society have fallen trap to this idea of "hey, look at me, I'm sacrificing" and doing it just because it's the time of the year for it. As Notre Dame women, I think it is a part of our being and core to serve others and what better way to learn than with starting with this Lenten journey and lead by our example. So here on campus, Lighthouse is educating on giving up in service of someone in need or instead of giving up, doing something that enriches our spiritual self  (so in a sense, giving for something).

In my college search, I was a seeking a school that could educate me better on spirituality and my faith. I chose to be confirmed here on campus last spring and I am looking forward to becoming a (hopefully) Eucharistic minister in the fall. This campus has nurtured my faith through inquiry, acceptance of questions, and openness (and honesty) with responses. As a part of my personal journey of faith here on campus, I have chosen to be more reflective in lieu of extreme emotions, to (as Father Bob used to say) give up and let God. I am also hopefully going to be able to commit to a few service projects and spend some quality time with the SSNDs at Villa Assumpta, our mother house. This is my Lenten journey and I challenge you ladies out there looking at Notre Dame to become your home to think about Lighthouse's message of giving up in service of others. It doesn't have to be about religion--what's important is that we look beyond ourselves and see the bigger picture of a world at large that could use the compassion, talent, heart, and mind of a Notre Dame woman :)