Caught Up In Faith

Friends of the Newman Center,

There is a lot of excitement these days around the Newman Center, thanks be to God. Many students have made the same comment to me since the new school year started: “this will be a good year here”. We are offering many exciting and attractive programs and events to which the students are responding in larger numbers. My guess is that we’ve had over 500 different students come through the doors of the Church for students Masses and the Newman Center for different events in September. God is good!

We spent about $10,000 this summer in making necessary improvements to fix up the Newman Center (see my posts, “Fixing up the Newman Center”). All of the comments from students and friends of the Newman Center regarding the changes have been positive. The Center is more attractive and inviting for the students, and we have a steady stream of them visiting their “home away from home” each day.

We also invested around $5,000 in our Opening BBQ and to promote our Masses, programs, and events. The investment has paid off so far. Approximately 300 students enjoyed free Chipotle, Outback, and Coldstone at our Opening BBQ, the largest crowd in years. Many of these students signed up for our fall programs and student groups; almost 50 of them have already participated in our Freshmen Retreat, Bible Study, and RCIA. Most importantly, attendance at our student Masses on Sunday nights has doubled; this past Sunday brought our largest crowds since Opening Masses.

Of course, Tuesday Night Dinners continue to be a very popular draw, with 70 to 80 students coming weekly to enjoy our free, home-cooked meals. As much as we all enjoy these excellent nights to socialize with one another, the best parts of Tuesday Dinners have been the Masses which have preceded the meals. Like the Sunday Masses, attendance at these Masses has been growing; last week, 25 students freely and joyfully participated in Holy Mass. Those of us who know the importance of the Mass and the Eucharist know how huge this is! Finally, we added many new, fresh, and helpful resources to the Newman Library which our students have already been enjoying as they build their theological and moral knowledge.

So, as you can see, we have gotten off to a good start and have some momentum going, thanks be to God. We need to keep the momentum going! But, in order to do so, we need your help. Would you consider making a donation to the Newman Center? Your tax-deductable donation will help us to bring many GW students to Christ and to bring Christ to many GW students. No donation is too small. The generosity of the friends and alumni of the Newman Center and the goodness of God have brought us to this exciting point. Let’s keep it going!

If you would like to make a donation, please make checks out to “Newman Center” and mail to: Fr. Greg Shaffer, GW Newman Center, 2210 F St, NW, Washington, DC 20037. On behalf of the students and our campus minister, Meg Miller, thank you very much for your prayerful consideration of making a generous contribution to the Newman Center.

In Christ,

Fr Greg

I’ve been getting thoughtful emails and notes from former parishioners and friends, asking how things are going here at the Newman Center.  A few of them have made the comment that it’s probably quiet here now, with the students away on summer break.  Sha! I understand their thinking, but there has been much going on here this summer. We’ve undertaken many projects to fix up the Newman Center; most to address structural problems in this 100 year-old home and some to improve things aesthetically.

Here are pics of the Center – these qualify as “before” pics – and some of the projects that we are working on.  I will post their “after” counterparts in the next few weeks.  It’s very exciting!!  Btw, we welcome donations – these are expensive repairs and improvements.

Let’s just say that the Center will get a facelift!

We’ll spruce up the front yard with some flagstone and new landscaping.

We’ll clean up the mess in the backyard and build a brick door at the pit.  Also, the University will be replacing the broken fence.

If you’ve been in the kitchen anytime in the recent past, you’ve seen the mold problem on the wall. The basement has some pretty bad water damage.  We’re waterproofing the foundation as much as possible and then putting up new drywall.  Also, we just got a new stove! Score!

Ewww..dirty kitchen floor.  We’ll clean it and make it shine as much as possible.  Also, we’ll replace broken tiles.

Water has been leaking from the balcony roof into the parlor ceiling…not good!  We’ll fix that, and then maybe even rearrange the parlor a bit.  I want the Center to have a mini-library of cool Catholic materials (brochures, pamphlets, booklets, books, etc.). The parlor is my first choice, but it may disturb the “lounge area” of the parlor, so we would just put the resources elsewhere in the Center.

The deck on the roof will be looking sweet in a few weeks after some repairs, powerwashing, and staining.

One change we did not wish to make has to do with our beloved campus minister, Alecia. Alecia and her husband, John, are moving to North Carolina this month because John recently accepted a position at Wyngate University.  We will miss Alecia very much! She has given her heart, mind, soul, and strength to GW students for the past four years.  We wish her and John well.  We will never replace her, but hope to find someone to fill her position asap.  Please pray that God sends us the right person.

Hello, GW students! I’m Fr. Greg, the new chaplain of the Newman Center. I am psyched to be here to serve you for the next several years, God willing. I served here before as a seminarian from 2004-2005, so it’s great to be back. During my year here, I started a blog site, “GW Catholic Q&A”. I have continued to blog since then, setting up sites in three parishes. My hope is to post there regularly and copy it to the other sites.

Please check out the site (http://gwcatholicforum.blogspot.com).  It is a forum for you to ask any (appropriate) questions about our Catholic faith or to make comments and insights to which others can respond. Thanks be to God, there has been much activity on our sites the past 4+ years with almost 150,000 hits and tons of questions and comments. I hope you can join in the fun by making a post. Although I would prefer you to leave a comment with your first name on it, you can post anonymously. If you’d rather write me your question or comment, please email me at chaplain@gwcatholic.com ; it will be kept confidential.

Here are two posts from bloggers on one of the sites (St. Andrew’s Q&A). The first is a comment made in response to my post, “Wear Your Sunday Best” (7/30/07). You can check out this and other posts by going into the “Archives” section on the home page of the site. Hope to hear from you; remember,”be not afraid” to post… your question or comment could really help someone else!

1)“Jacqueline” wrote:

“I’m a 19 year old college student and I am heavily into wearing my sunday best for church. The way I see it, God blessed you with nice clothes, so shouldn’t you wear them to one of His spectacular events that is the Mass? (I’m a new Catholic so I’m super excited about it all) I also see it this way, church, whether it’s a Catholic Mass or a Baptist service, it is a special occasion. God and Jesus and the angels are there, especially (litterally) in the Mass. Yes you are accepted as you are, but think of it this way: your sister is getting married. She loves you no matter what. But would you really wear shorts or jeans and spagetti straps or a t-shirt to that occasion? Out of the question, besides your sister would end you with her glare alone. God wouldn’t do that, but doesn’t he deserve the respect of your best because He gives you his best? Always? Anyway I think this was a great entry. Sunday best is the only way to go, unless all you have is your cleanest t-shirt and your nicest pair of jeans, the effort is what counts. Wow, that was a lot of words. Thanks for reading this. Have a great day and peace be with you! :0)”

2) “Anonymous” asked:

“Was there salvation before Christ? What happened to all the holy forefathers of our faith who sinned but also did God’s will?”

Thanks for the question, Anon. The Church teaches that “Baptism is necessary for salvation” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1257). This is based on what Christ solemnly proclaimed in Jn 3:5, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit”. We understand our Lord to be referring to Baptism because it is in Baptism that one is “born of water and Spirit”. But, the Church teaches that there are three types of Baptism: water, blood, and desire. Baptism by water is most common. Those who are martyred for their faith in Christ receive baptism by blood. Baptism by desire is the one to which your questions refers. How can they be saved if they lived and died before Christ (i.e., without having the opportunity to be born of water and the Spirit)?

They can be saved if they, as you wrote, “did God’s Will”. The Church teaches that a person who “is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, can be saved” (CCC, #1260). This baptism by desire can apply to people who lived before Christ as well anyone who has ever lived in ignorance of Jesus Christ and His Call to be baptized by water. Sadly, there are still people today who fall into that category even though the Church continues her great, world-wide mission of evangelization. God will not fault people for what they don’t know; but, He will judge us on how well we lived with what we know. He gave every one of us minds and hearts to know and choose what is good. May all of us choose what is good and do His Will in our lives.