PUBLISHED ON August 15, 2025
Introducing the Campus Ministry Theme for the 2025-2026 School Year:
Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
By Ms. Lannan
This year’s campus ministry theme is inspired by Romans 8, where St. Paul describes the power of God’s love for each of us and that nothing can separate us from this love that you and I are made for. He says:
What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?...No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39)
When the campus ministry leaders and I were talking about the potential theme at the end of last school year, the idea of trust continued to come up. As I prayed more about this theme, I was reminded of this passage from Romans, and I found myself wondering what it would look like to have a student body that trusted God not just when things were going well, but even when difficulties, sufferings, and trials came our way. What if we had the type of trust that kept us faithful to God even when things were hard, a trust that continued to pray and praise Him even when we felt abandoned, let down, or alone? After all, this
is the reality. God is intimately close to us even when things are difficult or when He feels far away. He is not defined by how we are feeling, but is an ever present and living reality, closer to you than the air you are breathing right now. Archbishop Hughes once told me that what first may seem like a stumbling block on our journey to God, can actually become a stepping stone that leads us closer to Him. Sufferings and difficulties will come - it is a part of life that cannot be escaped. The Enemy wants these sufferings to become stumbling blocks in your faith life, a hindrance that keeps you from Jesus. But if we turn to God even when things are hard, those same stumbling blocks that Satan tries to put in our way become stepping stones to walk closer with the Lord.
In my own life, I have time and time again found that when I turn towards Jesus in my suffering, difficulties, loneliness, or trials (instead of away from Him), there is a deeper peace and intimacy there than even in times of consolation. I have turned away and run to other things to fill me or distract me more than I can count, but these never satisfy me in the end. When I turn to Jesus, I know that I am not alone and that He is in the suffering with me. It doesn’t mean things automatically become easier and the suffering disappears, but turning to Him does fill me with a peace that nothing else can offer. And at the end of the day, I realize that any suffering He allows is not because He doesn’t care about me - it is actually quite the opposite! Anything He allows can be an invitation to draw close to Him, a stepping stone that unites my heart more to His than it was before and joyfully fills me with the love I was created for.
Throughout this year, I pray that you will join campus ministry in this journey to grow in trust! Wherever you are in your faith journey, whether you have been walking with God for years or you're unsure of who God even is in your life, you are welcome and wanted at all campus ministry events and occasions. In addition, campus ministry leaders will be writing monthly reflections on trust throughout the year. I pray that these reflections move your heart and draw you closer to the God who is always waiting for you!
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