Campus Ministry

 

As a Catholic community, Fordham Prep finds the source of union and strength in its relationship with Christ. There are a number of special Masses and liturgies celebrated throughout the year and each morning, students, faculty or staff lead a prayer over the loudspeaker.

Morning Prayer Program

Each morning, students, faculty or staff lead a prayer over the loudspeaker. These prayers - some original, some traditional - set the tone for the day and are an integral part of the spiritual life of the school. On Fridays the entire school prays the Examen, an Ignatian prayer.

Liturgical Celebrations

This year we will continue to celebrate our school-wide community Masses throughout the year; each planned by a Liturgy Committee made up of faculty and students. While in-person participation will be limited due to social distancing constraints for now, the entire community will be invited to participate virtually and we will still need students to participate in a variety of ways.

November 2022 Remembrances Mass Livestreams:
Add the names of your departed loved ones to our Prayer Wall

Wednesday 11/2  Friday 11/4  Monday 11/7  Wednesday 11/9   Monday 11/14

Wednesday 11/16  Friday 11/18  Monday 11/21  Monday 11/28  Wednesday 11/30

Daily Prayer/Virtual Prayer Group and Intentions

As we began in the spring, we will continue to offer student-led morning prayer, opportunities to submit prayer intentions virtually, and all will once again be invited to be a part of the virtual prayer team to pray for intentions submitted by members of the Prep community.

Reconciliation Services

Reconciliation Services are planned for each grade during Advent and Lent.

First Friday Adoration

Each first Friday of the month, students, faculty, and staff are invited to reflect and pray for their specific intention(s).

 

Several programs provide the opportunity for students to develop leadership skills that enable them to serve the Prep community through liturgical and retreat ministry. Students also serve as leaders in educating the community about social justice issues and Catholic Social Teaching.

MINISTRY LEADERSHIP TEAM

The Ministry Leadership Team is an opportunity for students to deepen their own faith, spirituality and commitment to Social Justice, while learning valuable leadership skills that will enable them to help other Prep students do the same as they take on leadership roles at the Prep. Participants dedicate themselves to a program of daily prayer and weekly meetings where they have the opportunity to reflect on their prayer experiences, learn about social justice issues, and develop the skills necessary to be effective leaders in the Prep community. Rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors are selected for this program in the spring through an application process along with recommendations from Prep faculty.

JUST SERVE

Just Serve, a subgroup of the Ministry Leadership Team, is a voluntary group open to all students. The goal of the group is to learn about justice issues and how Catholic Social Teaching impacts our understanding of these issues. Armed with this knowledge the group plans service projects related to these justice issues.

SOCIAL JUSTICE COMMITTEE

The Social Justice Committee is a voluntary group open to all students interested in justice issues. The committee comprised of faculty and students serves as the leader in educating the Prep community on specific justice issues. They meet regularly to plan assemblies, special events, and lobbying and letter writing efforts related to current legislation. This year the group focus was on Environmental Sustainability.

LITURGICAL LEADERSHIP TEAM & LITURGY COMMITTEE

The liturgical life of the Prep offers opportunities for students to take leadership roles as Eucharistic Ministers, Lectors, Altar Servers and as members of the Liturgical Choir and/or Liturgy Committee

 

The Prep puts a special emphasis on student retreats with a sequence of events including a freshman overnight retreat, sophomore three-day Discovery Retreats, junior three-day Emmaus Retreats, and senior retreats based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.

FRESHMAN YEAR RETREAT

The Freshman Retreat, required for all ninth graders, focuses on building community among the class and the Ignatian theme of "finding God in all things." It is a three-day retreat with one overnight, and is held in the school building with upperclassmen serving as leaders and grounds crew.

March 23, 3-7pm
March 24, All Day/Overnight
March 25, Ends at 11am

SOPHOMORE YEAR DISCOVERY RETREATS

These three-day retreats are designed to afford sophomores the time to take a step back from their daily lives to reflect on significant aspects of their lives and to spend time deepening their relationships with their classmates. The retreats offer a wide range of activities from reflection and prayer to sports and hiking. The retreats are led by a team of juniors, seniors, and faculty.

October 25, (Departs 3pm) - October 27
December 14, (Departs 3pm) - December 16
March 1, (Departs 3pm) - March 3
April 3, (Departs 3pm) - April 5

JUNIOR YEAR EMMAUS RETREATS

Each month, groups of about 20 juniors spend three days away in a community experience exploring the encounter of the disciples on the road to Emmaus with Jesus after His resurrection and their recognizing Him "in the breaking of the bread".

The Emmaus retreat provides an opportunity for a student to become more aware of himself along with his human and Christian potential. It offers a setting to explore the meaning of his life, his relationships with family, friends, and the Lord, and his responsibilities within the Christian community for mature choices and personal growth. By doing all this in a community setting, the retreat offers a model of generous sharing and giving of self to others which is at the heart of all community experiences. The retreat is led by a team of faculty and seniors and ends with a liturgy at Fordham where the retreatants are welcomed home by family and friends.

All are encouraged to remember the participants in their prayers. A list of the participants is posted in the Commons across from the Dean's Office.  

Registration takes place during Orientation in September.

Emmaus 317: September 19, (Departs 3pm) - September 21, (Homecoming 7pm)
Emmaus 318: October 4, (Departs 3pm) - October 6, (Homecoming 7pm)
Emmaus 319: October 18, (Departs 3pm) - October 20, (Homecoming 7pm)
Emmaus 320: November 15, (Departs 3pm) - November 17, (Homecoming 7pm)
Emmaus 321: December 6, (Departs 3pm) - December 8, (Homecoming 7pm)
Emmaus 322: January 24, (Departs 3pm) - January 26, (Homecoming 7pm)
Emmaus 323: February 7, (Departs 3pm) - February 9, (Homecoming 7pm)
Emmaus 324: March 7, (Departs 3pm) - March 9, (Homecoming 7pm)
Emmaus 325: April 18, (Departs 3pm) - April 20, (Homecoming 7pm)

SENIOR YEAR AD AMOREM

This 3-day retreat for seniors is a guided religious experience led by a group of Jesuits, lay teachers, and alumni. A senior gathers together his experiences of God and of life in preparing for the choices of a college and a profession in his future. The retreat offers him the opportunity to invite the Lord into these choices, asking God to reveal what He wishes, so that he may continue to follow the Lord in his life.

All are encouraged to remember the participants in their prayers. A list of the participants is posted in the Commons across from the Dean's Office.

February 15, (Departs 3pm) - February 17

 

Campus Ministry in cooperation with the Christian Service Department offers a number of programs each year to help our students respond to our Christian call to be committed to working for a more just world.

Web resources to follow and engage in Jesuit social ministry:

www.nysj.org/socialministries
www.capwiz.com/jesuit/home
www.ignatiansolidarity.net

Social Justice Committee

The Social Justice Committee is a voluntary group open to all students and faculty/staff interested in justice issues.  The committee serves as the leader in educating the Prep community on specific justice issues.  They will continue to meet virtually to plan assemblies, special events, and lobbying and letter writing efforts related to current legislation.   In the past they have focused on issues such as Environmental Sustainability, Immigration, Poverty, and Human Trafficking. This year environmental sustainability and racial justice will be a focus.

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Just Serve

The Just Serve Club, a subgroup of the Campus Ministry Board, is a voluntary group open to all students.  The goal of the group is to learn about justice issues and how Catholic Social Teaching impacts our understanding of these issues.  Armed with this knowledge the group plans service and advocacy projects related to these justice issues. The group will meet virtually for the first semester and will assess as the year progresses.

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The Ignatian Family Teach-in

The Ignatian Family Teach-In which will be held virtually this year, invites students and faculty to gather with Jesuit schools throughout the country. This event sponsored by the Ignatian Solidarity Network will invite participants to reflect on various justice issues and learn skills to do effective advocacy work. 

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Hunger Awareness Month/Great Ignatian Challenge

November is the Prep’s annual Hunger Awareness Month, sponsored by the senior Ministry Leadership Team. It is an opportunity for all in the Prep community to learn more about the issue of hunger in our world and in our own community, and how our Catholic faith challenges us to respond to these needs. Our faith reminds us that the right to life for all persons, based on their identity as precious children of God, means that all people have basic rights to those things that are necessary for them to live and thrive, including the right to food.

Each year the Prep collects non-perishable food items during the Month of November to   assist the work of three local Agencies:   
1- Part of the Solution (POTS), a local soup kitchen and community service organization on Webster Ave.
2- Concourse House, a Home for Women and their Children that works to eliminate homelessness by providing families with safe, stable, transitional housing.
3- Mercy Center,  a community center for women and their families located in the Mott Haven section of the South Bronx, offering programs and services that empower women to reach their full potential and become agents of change in their families and communities.

Each of these organizations provides a pantry service for the people they serve to assist in helping them meet their monthly food expenses. The food donated by Fordham Prep helps to stock these pantries. Last year, our goal as a community was to collect 23,000 pounds of non-perishable food items. Beginning on November 4th and continuing through November 24th donations were brought to the Hall of Honor each morning from 8 am to 8:35 am. Through the efforts of our students and parents, faculty and staff, and our alumni - our goal of 23,000 pounds was surpassed! We collected 64,959.25 pounds of food! As a reward for everyone's commitment, Fordham Prep was closed the day after the Super Bowl. Most importantly, we helped to ensure that families in our community would not go without food during the winter season!

Items Most Needed List

 

The following resources are available to help you learn more about the issue of hunger:

What the Church Teaches:

Catholic Social Teaching and Food: http://crs.org/emergency/downloads/cst-food.pdf

Catholic Reflections on Food, Farmers, and Farmworkers was developed by the Committee on Domestic Policy of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:

http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/agriculture-nutrition-rural-issues/for-i-was-hungry.cfm

Hunger in US:

http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/us_hunger_facts.htm
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/32800.php
http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-hunger-us

Hunger around the world:

http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm
http://www.bread.org/hunger/global/
http://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/10/16/one-billion-people-around-the-world-go-hungry/7843/

Facts about Hunger in our world:

• Almost 800 million people – about 1/6 of the population of the world’s developing nations are malnourished. 200 million of them are children. (Food and Agriculture Organization)
• In developing nations one in every five people is hungry (841 million people).
• In developing nations one in four persons lacks access to safe drinking water.
• 790 million people are chronically undernourished in the developing world. Another 34 million people in the industrialized world, mostly in the former Soviet Union, are said to suffer a similar fate. (Food and Agriculture Organization)
• 828 million people in developing countries around the world lack enough food to sustain normal activity.
• One third of the population of the developing world, or nearly 1.3 billion people, lives on less than $1 per day. One World Bank report estimates that 1.9 billion people may be under the dollar-a-day line by 2015.
• Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that there are 185.9 million hungry people in sub-Saharan Africa. That is 34% of the population.
• In Sub-Saharan Africa only 4% of the land is irrigated.
• The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 28 million people in Africa face food shortages, and many will need food aid this year to avoid starvation.
• In the industrialized world 100 million people live below the poverty line, more than 5 million are homeless, and 40 million are jobless