Personal Essay: Prioritize religion to discover on-campus community |
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At the beginning of the school year, I attended my first Catholic Mass at Hendricks Chapel, Syracuse University’s multifaith chapel. I remember seeing a long line of students waiting to shake the priest’s hand or hug him after Mass. The line started inside the chapel, stretched past the looming, white columns and cascaded down the stairs, ending where Father Gerry Waterman, the Catholic chaplain, stood.
Waterman’s kind nature made me feel personally welcomed at Hendricks. I enjoyed being a lector there, as I had been back home in Pittsford, New York. I initially attended Sunday Mass at Hendricks often, but it’s grown harder to go amid mountains of homework, projects and meetings for student organizations.
I’ve met other Catholic students who also struggle to fit their faith into their daily lives. Despite initially finding comfort in knowing I wasn’t alone, I realized we still need to carve out time in our day for God or risk weakening our........