Catholic Campus Ministry chapels

Students at Lake Superior State University (LSSU), Michigan Technological University (MTU), and Northern Michigan University (NMU) are all able to grow stronger in their faith due to the efforts and environments of their respective Catholic Campus Ministries. A large part of this is thanks to the chapels available to the students.

Students at Northern Michigan University in Marquette have the opportunity to pray and spend time in the Our Lady of Good Help Oratory 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There are weekly Holy Hours offered to students, as well as a weekly Mass in the evenings. The oratory was recently renovated and received a number of items from the now closed Marygrove Retreat Center. The renovation had initially begun in the latter half of 2020 after having been shut down due to the pandemic, and it was determined that Father Dustin Larson, the new chaplain at CCM, would implement the project. It was completed in early 2021.

Some of the items that can still be seen from Marygrove include the altar, the chairs, and the ambo, as well as the statues framing either side of the tabernacle. They were donated through the generosity of Father Larry VanDamme, chaplain of the Cursillo movement. “That ‘special something’ that could be felt at Marygrove continues to make itself known in the lives of the campus ministry students,” Kendra Youren, administrative assistant at NMU’s Catholic Campus Ministry, said of the items donated from Marygrove.
 
“The Oratory has become the heartbeat of Catholic Campus Ministry at NMU; ensuring that students always have an opportunity to encounter Christ in the Eucharist,” she continued.

The Catholic Newman Center is available to students at Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie. Offered to students are weekly opportunities for Eucharistic adoration, confessions, and Mass in the Newman Center Chapel on Sundays. Students are also able to participate in retreats, other faith-based programs such as student-led Bible study groups, and various community service efforts. 

“Our chapel is at the heart of our campus ministry. It’s where we have Mass, adoration, and small group prayer,” said Father Brad Sjoquist, pastor of LSSU’s Catholic Newman Center. “It’s a sacred space adjacent to campus where students can come and spend time with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. I’m always so edified when I see students praying there.”

St. Albert the Great University Parish in Houghton is attended by many Michigan Technological University students, who are able to participate in adoration, confession, and Mass weekly. Perhaps most notably during MTU’s Winter Carnival, some of the Masses and Confessions are held outdoors in the Ice Chapel of Our Lady of the Snows, a yearly tradition for those at MTU and the surrounding community.

This year, MTU students and Houghton community members alike once again braved the cold to work on creating the Ice Chapel for the Winter Carnival held annually at MTU. The Ice Masses drew more than 700 worshipers in total, with 350 in attendance at one Mass the first evening.

On average, it takes about one month to build the entire Ice Chapel, with the construction of this year’s chapel beginning on Jan. 10, and completing on Feb. 10. Some of the features of this year’s Ice Chapel included an ice altar made of multiple slabs of ice which were carved and pulled up by hand from Lake Superior, stained ice windows, a confessional carved from snow, and even a Marian grotto. 

The first Ice Mass took place in 2016, after a group of students and Father Ben Hasse at St. Albert the Great University Parish decided to give the building of the chapel a try. 

“The students get really excited to share the Mass with their fellow students, Catholic and non-Catholic. It gives a deeper purpose to building in the snow,” Allison Hadjis, director of communications, said of the impact that the chapel and its building process have on the faith of the students. “Not only are the students building the Ice Chapel as a backdrop to glorify God, they are building it for their community to come and experience Him in a very unique way. It centers the importance of Jesus and the Church in an unusual, yet very usual environment. What is more common than snow in the U.P.?”

To read this story and others in The U.P. Catholic, visit https://www.upcatholic.org/UP-Catholic-03102023-e-Edition/10/