After a summer of prayerful preparation, Hillsdale’s student-led religious organizations set out into a new academic year with a task of biblical proportions: helping overstressed students learn to flourish spiritually.
Senior Anna Gjerde remembers upperclassmen encouraging her to engage with Lutheran Society as a freshman. Now as president of the society, she strives to do the same for the current freshman class.
The group defines its core commitments by its daily morning and evening prayer, a staple of Lutheran life on campus. Students gather at 8 a.m. to pray a collection of songs and Scripture. In the evening, a regular group of about 30 students comes together to close the day.
“That’s one of the biggest things that grounds our community and keeps us together by living day by day in prayer with each other,” Gjerde said. “During your most busy weeks, your happiest weeks, your saddest weeks, no matter what your life is looking like there’s always that constant community and that constant comfort.”
In September, the society will offer a weekend retreat in Indiana at Camp LutherHaven. Students will travel there to hear from speakers and have a chance to combine spiritual and social activities.
“I am blessed to see how relationships go beyond denominational ties,” Gjerde said. “How there’s so much more joy and pleasure in being able to be fellow Christians who uplift each other and support each other and can talk about all the things we’re doing for our respective clubs.”
Likewise, the Anglican Student Fellowship meets for daily morning and evening prayer in the day chapel, a small space in Christ Chapel lined with colorful stained glass. In one image, the archangel Michael stands tall, foot crushing the head of the devil.
Senior Warden of the Anglican Fellowship Griffin Johnston said these morning and evening prayer sessions will take attendants through the entire Bible in a year.
“The attitude that I have had to work on really as a faith leader on campus is just supporting my friends in whatever helps them love Jesus more,” Johnston said.
The Anglican St. Fellowship will continue their lecture calendar, as well as adding a new tradition of celebrating feast and saints days throughout the year.
The fellowship’s regular prayer meetings largely encouraged sophomore Micah Miller to further develop his spiritual life.
“Prayer has been one of the most stabilizing influences on my life last year,” Miller said. “I attribute a lot of my emotional and spiritual stability to a constant discipline of being in prayer and God’s word.”
Catholic Society found its yearly theme within the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop’s call for a eucharistic revival. “Mone nobiscum Dominum,” reads the society’s motto for the academic year.
“Remain with us Lord,” Catholic Society President Noah Hoonhout translated.
With more freshmen sign-ups at the source than any year before, Hoonhout and his executive board plan to seek out opportunities to incorporate and encourage new members. Representatives from Catholic Society will now act as connections for each dorm on campus, reaching out and providing information to students within that dorm.
“These people will really be on the ground and have ears to help form small groups within the larger Catholic Society,” Hoonhout said.
Speakers Erika Bachiochi, a leading pro-life scholar from the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and Dr. Angela Franks, professor of theology at St. John’s Seminary, will join the society’s roster of speakers for this semester.
As college chaplain, Adam Rick offers a valuable perspective that reflects his hope for an ecumenical, faithful presence on campus.
“Discipleship, Christian formation, the rhythms of Christian discipline, that’s my bread and butter,” Rick said. “My biggest mission is to make Christ present among our students on our campus and to make him known and adored.”
