A capacity crowd came over for dinner on the North Campus last night and a good deal of students stayed to hear lil’ ol’ me talk about discernment. Great insights were shared around the tables and I felt good about it…this was an abbreviated version of a talk I’ve been giving for the past 9 years but I felt like people were attentive and engaged.
In particular, there is a small group of students from the South Campus who made their way over to the North side who stayed to hear me, their campus minister. Now that’s dedication and a nice vote of support. I can tell that they’ve been waiting for someone to start ministering on this campus. So we’ll hit the ground running this weekend.
My job is going to be challenging as the folks who come regularly will need to be accentuated by others who can bring different gifts and help provide us with some different activities. Then we start to get a critical mass. But the folks who are already engaged are so nice and so dedicated to being part of the ministry that I know that they will be a great help in helping me to engage the rest of the campus.
There are 27,000 students on UB’s campus. 50% of them are Catholic. Take another 50% and that makes about 6750 Catholics on one campus which is a huge pool to shoot for. I’ve got a lot of work to do.
I loved the fact that the students asked me what possessed me to come to Buffalo from NYC. I replied that the job was open and the great Patty Bubar Spear who is our youth minister encouraged me to apply. Another friend Ann Marie from the Center for Ministry Development also has an office at our church, so I was enthused by the possibility of working with them and then when I met the rest of the staff I just knew it was a good fit.
But the real answer is that I’m here for them. That God has led me to realize that I’m called to be a pastoral minister for young people. To guide them in their prayer, to give them opportunities to serve others, to lead them on retreat and to simply give them an opportunity to socialize with people they are proud to be associated with.
We’ll start feeding people soon and then the numbers will start to jump. It will take some time to learn the place but that’s not an excuse. The Spirit waits for nobody and I think it’s already beginning to flourish here. A huge hat tip to Katie Trapp, my colleague over on North Campus who has done such a great job and whom I will have much to learn from and much to share with as well.
Sunday is a big day. I get to do a reflection on the Gospel and on World Youth Day.