Bishop Ruggieri celebrates Mass with University of Maine students
What would make you feel more connected to the Church?
Do you believe the Church is addressing issues that are important to your generation?
How can the Church better support young people in navigating modern life and challenges?
Those were among the questions that Bishop James Ruggieri posed to University of Maine students during an informal discussion on campus on Sunday, March 2.
The bishop traveled to Orono to celebrate Mass for the students and then joined them for a potluck supper that concluded with the discussion time.
Dozens of students attended the Mass and dinner, which were held in the Memorial Union because a new Newman Center and Our Lady of Wisdom Church are under construction.
With Lent just around the corner, the bishop, in his homily, challenged the students to consider what type of Lent they desired, suggesting that the season could be an opportunity to grow in virtue, perhaps by focusing on a particular one, such as patience, humility, chastity, obedience, or diligence.
“Whatever you do this Lent, it's a wonderful opportunity to grow in grace, to grow spiritually, to grow in friendship with those who are meaningful in our lives, and, ultimately, to grow in friendship with God,” the bishop said.
The bishop stressed the need for them to continually strive to strengthen their relationship with God.
“Matthew 5:18 speaks so powerfully to us about the human heart and the necessity to continue this process of conversion so that we are hopefully developing, having a heart more and more like the heart of Jesus,” he said.
Bishop Ruggieri also asked the students to reflect on why they come to Mass on Sundays, saying while some may come out of a sense of guilt or a feeling that something might go awry if they skip it, Mass offers much more than that.
“[There are] various reasons for our presence here, but I would like to just present to you one of the realities of Mass. And it's the reality of receiving, through participating in the Holy Eucharist, through receiving Jesus’ body, blood, soul, and divinity in the sacrament, receiving grace, sacramental grace.”
Acknowledging that sacramental grace can be a hard concept to understand, he compared it to being in a spring rainstorm and, rather than putting up your umbrella, allowing the rain to fall upon you.
“We're being down poured upon by God's abundant love, God's abundant life. So, regardless of why we may be here, personal reason-wise, one of the realities is the Lord is downpouring upon us, in this Holy Mass, his divine love, his divine life,” the bishop said. “I recognize [that] on the way to heaven the Lord is showering grace upon me through his sacraments, giving me opportunities through the community to grow in holiness. And one of the ways I grow in holiness, of course, is developing my character, my person, becoming the man I'm called to be. And those character traits that really define me as a son of God, as a saint in the making, are the virtues, these beautiful character traits emulating the humanity, the heart and mind of Jesus.”
This was the bishop’s second visit to the University of Maine Orono campus, and he spent several hours with the students. Among the thoughts they shared with him: the desire for truth and tradition, rather trying to chase the latest trend, the desire for a Church community that is welcoming, something they said they have found through UMaine campus ministry, and the challenge of attending Mass when they return to their various hometown churches and not seeing many other young adults like them in the congregation.
