MADISON — If young Catholics begin to form a deeper personal relationship with God during their college years it will continue with them throughout their whole life and impact their future families, jobs, and parishes.
Need for prayer
That is why St. Paul’s Catholic Student Center at UW-Madison is focusing on the importance of prayer and teaching students more about how to grow in their relationship with God this spring semester.
“Our soul needs prayer because we need God, and our souls are made for Him. We need to be in touch with our Creator and recognize that He is creating us and holding us into existence moment by moment. That changes everything — how we see the world, who we are, and what the meaning of our life is,” said Helena Dziadowicz, the director of evangelization at St. Paul’s working with Fr. Eric Nielsen, about the importance of prayer.
St. Paul’s Catholic Student Center is available for all UW-Madison students to attend Mass, study, and attend the young Catholic socials.
With all that is done at St. Paul’s, one of the most important goals they focus on is helping students form a habit of prayer and a personal relationship with God.
Two of the main ways they are accomplishing that is through their daily Morning Prayer service and their annual winter retreat.
At Morning Prayer, around 30 to 40 students gather with Fr. Eric Nielsen, Fr. Tim Mergen, and 15 full-time staff members to pray in the chapel. They spend the time silently reading a spiritual book or praying the rosary, or other devotions. The event hosted at St. Paul’s begins at 8:00 a.m. and goes until 9:00 a.m. each day of the week.
Before students left for winter break, 75 young Catholics filled the chapel, starting their day with prayer and attending a breakfast hosted by St. Paul’s afterwards. This was record-breaking attendance for this daily event at the Catholic Student Center.
This spring
This spring, the staff are looking forward to continuing to assist students on their faith journey and personal relationship with God.
At the Winter Retreat this February, the theme is living in freedom and learning to pray. It will be about healing and how God wants us to be free.
“Why do we pray? So we can be free — free of attachments to the world and free of enslavement to passions. We have to learn the virtues and pray in order to have the freedom to love as a human is meant to,” said Dziadowicz.
175 to 200 students will be attending the winter retreat in February. St. Paul’s is looking forward to this event and to engaging a wider range of students in the Catholic faith at UW-Madison.
If you haven’t been to St. Paul’s yet, they would love to invite you to experience the Catholic Student Center for a special organ concert on Saturday, Feb. 4. The evening will begin with evening Mass at 5 p.m.. After the concert at approximately 6:15 p.m., there will be a reception. You can RSVP online at uwcatholic.org/alumni-donors/saint-pauls-organ-concert/
Please keep UW-Madison students and the staff of St. Paul’s in your prayers.