Faith Formation & Retreats

Weekly Programs

Campus Ministry offers several opportunities and venues, throughout the week, for students, faculty and staff to come together in worship, reflection and fellowship. In addition to Community Wednesday’s and our Catholic Spirituality Night, we collaborate with student and faculty groups to offer diverse, ecumenical programs around campus. Such efforts include: Soup and Substance, a prayerful gathering for food and reflection on a theme of the Lenten season, Finding God in the Movies, which explores faith in the context of cinema, and various dormitory programs involving Ignatian Spirituality, domestic and international service experiences, and social justice issues.

This fall semester we’re planning on hosting first-year student gatherings, music events featuring musicians from the Le Moyne community, and film viewings with discussions to follow.

Spiritual Direction

Spiritual direction is available to all members of the Le Moyne community. Rooted in the Catholic and Jesuit traditions, spiritual direction is offered by experienced, professional lay and religious ministers.

Faith Communities

Our resident chaplains serve as an immediate resource for students; through dialogue and spiritual conversation, general support, and presence. Resident Chaplains make themselves available to accompany the students in their journey as maturing women and men, and to cultivate the spiritual life of each floor and dormitory.

We recognize and celebrate the fact that the Le Moyne community expresses its faith through many different religious traditions. Presently, our office works intimately with the Muslim Student Association of Le Moyne College and has collaborated with the MSA’s of Syracuse University and SUNY Upstate Medical University, the Muslim American Society and other local Muslim communities, to host a number of events raising awareness of Islamic concerns locally and abroad. Our intimate relationship with these Muslim communities, and our desire to reach out to the entire Le Moyne community resulted in the establishment of a Prayer and Reflection room, located adjacent to the Shanahan Chapel, and the re-appointment of the Drescher Community room, which now holds works of art from the Jewish, Christian, Buddhist and Islamic traditions. We remain strongly committed to the ideals of freedom of religious expression and interreligious dialogue.

We recognize religious diversity as a cause for celebration, and seek to cultivate this conviction on campus.

Pastoral Counseling

Campus ministers are trained professionals who are available for the psychological, emotional, and spiritual needs of faculty, staff and students. Issues discussed in pastoral counseling include family, academic, work or peer relationships, sexuality, morality, faith development, grief, alienation and loneliness, self-esteem and depression. All sessions are strictly confidential.

Faith Formation & Retreats

Retreats

The Community retreat is held twice a year at the Jesuit Villa on Lake Cazenovia. Grounded in the Catholic and Jesuit traditions, this retreat provides an opportunity for students in the Le Moyne community to grow in self-awareness, appreciation for others and love of God. Our hope is to empower students to engage their lives reflectively and with the insight and purpose of building communities on campus and beyond. For most students, this is their first step into the retreat program.
Discernment
Our Athletic Team retreat is a unique collaborative experience between Campus Ministry and Le Moyne’s various athletic programs. The first one took place in mid-August of this year with the women’s soccer team. It was an opportunity to: introduce ourselves as campus ministers (our vision and our programs), introduce the team to each other (9 incoming first year student athletes), learn about Ignatian spirituality, clarify the team’s goals for the season and strengthen the bonds that will enable them to meet their goals. We look forward to continuing our relationship with the women’s soccer team and working collaboratively with other athletic programs.
We are planning a Faculty/Staff and Spouses retreat for the spring semester. It will be an opportunity for working members of the Le Moyne community to come together in prayer, reflection and fellowship. Our hope is to further cultivate the spiritual life of our college community by reaching out to and offering our faculty, staff and their spouses a weekend to reflect on and share with each other the often undisclosed spiritual dimensions of their lives.
Ignatian Reflective retreats, the first of which was offered this summer to the department of Institutional Advancement, seek to integrate Ignatian reflection in any work or group environment. Generally a day in length, the retreat is available to all groups of the Le Moyne community. This year we hope to use this retreat model to introduce first-year students to our programs, and as a follow-up to former retreatants and alternative break participants.
The 19th Annotation is open to all members of the Le Moyne community, and is facilitated in collaboration with the Spiritual Renewal Center of Syracuse. Religious and lay spiritual directors lead this experience, which begins in the fall semester.

Community Retreat

Derived from Ignatian Spirituality and other popular retreat models, the Community Retreat is designed to assist students in discovering more deeply who they are, their relationship with God, and how to further their discovery and growth. This weekend retreat has a strong fellowship component and is led by a team of students. It is open to all students and takes place each semester. This is a fun and rejuvenating experience.

Discernment Retreat

Rooted more deeply in Ignatian Spirituality, this weekend retreat for Juniors & Seniors allows students to focus more deeply on their own personal journey of faith and in discerning God's unique call for him/her. This is a quieter and more contemplative experience aas students prepare for their postgraduate journey.