Faith – College Admission at Loyola

LUC MSA Sisters’ Retreat 2016

By Husna Afzal | November 9, 2016

It has been a quite stressful couple of weeks as I wrap up midterms, exams, papers, and my first semester of Sophomore year. Whenever I feel overwhelmed, I try to find something that I look forward to; it makes the wait worthwhile and makes me want to work twice as hard to get through the weeks. Something I have been looking forward to since last year is the LUC Muslim Students’ Association Sisters’ Retreat 2016. Unfortunately, I did not have the chance to attend last year, so I made a promise to myself to go this year and thought I would share a bit information of what it is about.

The MSA Sisters’ Retreat is an opportunity for members to not only get closer to the Creator, but to also strengthen the ties of sisterhood on campus. The retreat is a weekend long combination of activities and spiritual talks and this will help serve to meet this purpose of strengthening the bonds amongst the sisters at Loyola.

The weekend retreat takes place from Friday, November 18, 2016 at 5:15 PM to Sunday, November 20, 2016 at 4:00 PM. It takes place at the LUREC – Retreat and Ecology Campus and is restricted to women only.

I will also be sharing my experience via Loyola University Chicago’s Undergraduate Admissions’ Office Instagram story – Please follow @luc.admission on Instagram and join us as we venture out to strengthen our bonds with Allah as well as each other!

Thankful Loyolans

By Lindsy Fagerstrom | November 25, 2014

In order to show their gratitude and thankfulness this year, Ramblers took hundreds of post-it notes to a chalkboard on-campus to share what they were thankful for:

Happy Thanksgiving from our Loyola family to yours!

Ministry at Loyola

By | April 19, 2012

I think a lot of people come with disparate views on how Loyola’s Catholic identity will affect their daily life. As a non-Catholic I have to admit this was a concern when I was looking at schools. But working with someone from Ministry last night reminded me just why I love them so much.

Catholicism at Loyola is like cat content on the internet: it’s there when you want it, but you can go as long as you like without noticing it it too. That’s why I like the Jesuits: they care about service and eduction, not pushing any agenda. Every priest that I have had the pleasure to meet (and I have had the pleasure to meet quite a few through my various work-study jobs) has always had the same attitude.

They are here on a mission of service and education. They are so happy to be there for any student with questions about their faith, and they are always excited, engaging, and gracious whenever I’ve wanted to clear up questions about their faith. But they never judge you for not being Catholic, and if you don’t bring it up then they won’t either. I respect that, a lot.

But if you do happen to work with them, you’ll find that they are some of the nicest people in the world. Not just the priests, but the other people involved in ministry too. I met with Steven Betancourt last night from Sacramental Life, the Director of Liturgical Music. He and I are working together to put on an event in the Madonna Della Strada Chapel. He is always so accommodating and easy to work with. I sometimes worry about how my department’s events will run once I leave with all my specialized knowledge and connections with other departments, but he reassures me that at least concerning the Chapel we will still be OK.

So for you non-Catholics out there thinking about Loyola, don’t worry. I have had a great time here and really enjoy the Catholic presence. But unless you actively search it out, the only reason you’ll know you’re at a Catholic University is that you get extra time off for Easter, they call it Christmas Vacation instead of Winter Break, you have to take 2 religion classes (any religion) and you’ll hear the church bell toll on the hour.