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Campus Ministry Family Newsletter

October, 2023

Campus MinistryFamily NewsletterOctober, 2023

Updates and Info.

Welcome to October, a beautiful month in the Church! October is known as the Month of the Rosary. Please see below to learn more about the Rosary, a beautiful meditative prayer, and how you can join in praying the Rosary with our school family. In October, our Blessed Mother, who is the perfect model of discipleship, reminds us that we need to go to her Son, Jesus, and give everything to Him.


October is also Respect Life Month. Pope Francis encourages us, to "... enter fully into the fabric of society, sharing the lives of all, listening to their concerns, helping them materially and spiritually in their needs, rejoicing with those who rejoice, weeping with those who weep," so that we all work together to bring about a culture of life through radical, sacrificial, Christ-like love. Please say some prayers as 10 students travel with me and other youth from our diocese to Columbus for the March for Life on Oct. 6.


Please read on for information about our whole school Mass this week, the meditation and prayer app called "Hallow," some great prayer opportunities/challenges, Junior Retreat, the November 1st Eucharistic Revival Rally and Mass, and other Campus Ministry odds and ends.

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Hallow App - 3 Months Free For Parents

Thanks to a generous donor, STVM is blessed to have schoolwide access to Hallow, a Catholic meditation and prayer app. The Hallow app provides a wealth of resources, including audio-guided Bible stories, prayers, meditations, and Christian music. The students and staff were introduced to the app last week, and we are looking forward to fully enjoying its features, especially prayer challenges and daily prayer. I'm excited to tell you that parents can also join in on the app for free for 3 months. Here are the details:

1) Go to Hallow.com/redeem;

2) Enter the following promo code: SVSMOHparents23-24

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October 5 Mass - Celebrate Donors

The entire school body will celebrate Mass together this Thursday, October 5. Special guests will be the school's scholarship donors, whose generosity we will honor and celebrate. Mass will be at 1:30 p.m., with a donor reception afterward, during which scholarship recipients will have time to visit with the donor families.

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October 24 - Junior Retreat

The Junior Retreat on October 24 will take place in STVM's Cosgrove Center and at sites around Akron, such as Haven of Rest, Access Shelter, Salvation Army, Akron Canton Food Bank, and a few other sites. This retreat is a "Servant Leadership Retreat," helping our Juniors understand social dilemmas, especially poverty, and how they are called by their baptism to be on mission to serve and find solutions. Juniors will spend half of their day learning and the other half serving at the sites listed above. Juniors have been given permission slips, which need to be returned by Oct. 12 to their Theology teachers or to me directly at the Campus Ministry Office. We are looking forward to a fantastic day of serving and leading in our community!

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Kairos Updates

Senior Kairos Retreat Dates:

November 12-15

January 14 - 17

March 18-22


There are still spots available for the November Retreat, so please encourage your senior to attend this amazing program that our students always say is one of the best experiences they ever had in their high school years! Applications are available in the Campus Ministry office and from Theology teachers. The application for the November retreat is due October 20.

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Prayer and First Friday Mass

The Marianist LIFE student group is leading several opportunities to have students share their faith.


Every Friday morning, other than First Friday Mass days, our LIFE students will meet in the Chapel at 7:15 a.m. to pray the Rosary. Parents/guardians and students are always welcome!


Every Wednesday, Marianist LIFE leads "5 Minute Prayer" in the LRC from 3:05 to 3:10.


First Friday Masses will begin this Friday, October 6. Please join us at 7:15 a.m. in the Chapel. Parents/guardians and students are always welcome!

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Sign Your Child Up Today!!

Parents! Please don't miss out on this incredible faith-filled opportunity for your child.


All high school teens have been invited to this unprecedented event for our diocese, and STVM wants to take 100 of our students! What a tremendous way to celebrate the beauty of our faith! Please encourage your student to participate in this unique event on November 1! Click here to sign up.


National Catholic speaker, Chika Anyanwu, will be the keynote speaker. Worship will be led by Damascus Worship, with Fr. Eric Garris, Vocation Director, as the emcee. Bishop Malesic will preside over the Mass, along with Bishop Woost and Bishop Amos. We will fill the buses on a first-come, first-served basis.

Volunteer and Support Campus Ministry

Volunteer Opportunities: Help Needed!

Below are several opportunities for parents and caregivers to lend a hand to the Campus Ministry program. Many hands make the workload lighter, and I simply love working with our families and getting to know them.


  • Office: Assist with paperwork for the Junior Retreat.
  • Marianist LIFE Night: Donate cash or food items for Marianist LIFE Night (Oct. 25).
  • Peter Maurin Center: Support the donation drive for the Peter Maurin Homeless Shelter.
  • Junior Retreat: Help with lunch organization, set-up, meal service, and tear-down for the Junior Retreat on October 24.
  • Adopt-A-Family: Work with Mrs. Goshe to organize and present this year's Adopt-A-Family Program.


Email Mrs. Goshe (jgoshe@stvm.com) if interested interested in any of the above opportunities.


SNACKS! -- We are always in need of donations for snacks to share with students in the Campus Ministry Office. You may send donations in anytime with your student (please label the items with "Campus Ministry"), or you can Venmo (@stvmirish ) a donation and mark that it is for Campus Ministry. Our students love snack-size chip varieties, granola bars, apple sauce, and cheese crackers!


CAR RAFFLE: And last but not least, another way to support Campus Ministry is by clicking on the button below for the special Campus Ministry link to buy car raffle tickets.

Service Notes

Thank you so much to your students for the service activities they completed on Grandparents Day! The blankets and cards they made will warm bodies and warm hearts for people in need in our community!


The Mobile Serve app is up and running, and many students have accessed their account and are inputting service hours. I encourage you to ask your child(ren) if they have activated their accounts. If they have not, please ask them to find the email they received from Mobile Serve in August, or they can reach out to me or their Theology teacher to help get them set up. The Mobile Serve app also has lists of places where students can do service around Akron, so it is an easy way to find things they can do to earn hours.


While Mr. Dan Larlham takes on a new role, please know that the school's commitment to service is still strong. As a reminder, here are the expectations regarding service. Our students at all grade levels need to complete 25 hours of service. A minimum of 15 hours must be completed at an organization outside of STVM. Here is last year's Service Opportunities List. This will be updated for this year but will still be located at this link.

Marianist Moment

This month, as we focus on the Rosary and Respect Life, let us open our hearts to how God wants to increase our faith through prayer and building a culture of life .Please click here to learn about why we pray the beautiful meditative prayer of the Rosary, which calls us to reflect on the significant moments of the life of Christ, so as to know him and follow him better. Click here to learn how to pray the Rosary.


This month, we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of the Pillar on Oct. 12. Our Lady of the Pillar has a connection to Blessed Chaminade, who founded the Marianists. Blessed Chaminade,

while in exile from religious persecution in France, traveled to Saragossa, Spain. He spent time praying at the site of Our Lady of the PIllar. A snippet from his autobiography says about this time, "There he prayed daily at the shrine of our Lady of the Pillar, continuing a devotion to the Blessed Mother that was formed in the earliest days of his childhood. During this time in exile, Chaminade, with Mary's help, conceived a plan that would sculpt the rest of his life. When he was able to return to France in 1800, Fr. Chaminade began implementing his vision. He formed small faith communities called sodalities. In a country where there had been no religious instruction for a decade, he believe this would be the most effective way to reignite Christianity."


Not many people have heard of Our Lady of the Pillar. You can get to know a bit more about her here. And please take a moment and read this article to get to know Blessed William Joseph Chaminade better and why he formed the Society of Mary. We also invite you to download the Marianist App for lots of great resources and information.


It is also important to understand why we, as Catholics, hold Mary in high esteem, call her our Mother, and ask for her intercession. This short video with Fr. Mike Schmitz gives a good introduction and explanation to help us to understand our relationship with Mary.

Upcoming Events

October 5 - Whole School Mass - Celebrate Donors 1:30pm

October 6 - First Friday Mass at 7:15am

October 6 - March for Life, Columbus

October 7 - Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary

October 10 - Marianist World Day of Prayer

October 12 - Junior Retreat Permission Due

October 12 - Feast of Our Lady of the Pillar

October 13 - Rosary 7:15 am Chapel

October 20 - Rosary 7:15 am Chapel

October 20 - November Kairos forms due

October 24 - Junior Retreat Day

October 25 - Marianist LIFE Night 6-8pm LRC/Maker Space

Campus Ministry Theme, Mission and Vision

THEME - Make Your Own FIAT! Say YES to God! Luke 1:38 says, "Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." Mary said yes to God, even when she was unsure of what it all meant to be chosen to be the Mother of God. She was the age of most of our students when she made this FIAT - her YES - that forever changed the world.


MISSION - Teach, share, support, and live the Mission of St. Vincent- St. Mary and the Marianist Characteristics of Education with an emphasis on invitation and hospitality.


VISION - Every day, every person, every interaction, an encounter with Christ.