As many, especially Christians, know, Lent is the time for observing the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, starting on Feb. 14 (Ash Wednesday) and continuing for six weeks. This time period ends three days before Easter Sunday, when Jesus is said to have risen from the dead after his crucifixion. A total of forty days is filled with prayer and fasting.
For Farmville’s Catholic Campus Ministry (CCM) at Longwood University, this is also the time for the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and the Sacrament of Reconciliation, also referred to as “Adoration Night.” On Feb. 27, the CCM held these two important events as part of a singular ceremony. CCM services both Longwood University and Hampden-Sydney College.
“This is actually new,” said the Catholic Campus Minister of CCM, Dana Scarantino. “This is the first time we've actually ever done this here.”
Scarantino became involved in youth ministry after graduating from Longwood in 2010, when she discovered an internship opportunity in the field.
“And so I thought it would be a great way to spend my first year after college as I was trying to figure out other things in my life,” she said.
Most denominations of Christianity practice Lent, but Catholicism has some unique approaches to the celebration. The Eucharist is another way of referring to the bread used in Communion, and is the Christian ceremony dedicated to remembering the Last Supper held between Jesus and His disciples.
“As Catholics, we believe that Jesus is fully present in the Eucharist, and so the act of adoring Him is very important to us,” said Scarantino. “And so the priest comes and he puts the Eucharist in what we call a monstrance [a ceremonial storage device] so that we can kneel down and adore Him [Jesus] and just be in the presence of our Lord.”
This is a very quiet time of reflection, as Kaitlyn Long explained. She is a junior at Longwood who transferred this past fall from Virginia Western Community College and has since become a regular attendee of CCM.
“Adoration is very, very quiet; it's a very still time,” said Long. “We just sit in front of it [the Eucharist] and just pray and reflect. Some people bring scripture to read, and some people just choose to sit there and think about their lives and reflect.”
Also involved in this ceremony is confession. Through the visiting priest, Christ is believed to absolve the sins of worshippers. This past Adoration Night, a priest from St. Theresa Roman Catholic Church came to listen to confessions.
CCM is a lot more than just Adoration Night, however. The Ministry’s building, which is next to the Chick-fil-A at the bottom of the Longwood Landings’s southeast apartment complex, hosts meetings every Tuesday night. The gatherings are host to a free dinner, as well as games and other community building activities, including speeches by members of the Farmville community. On Thursdays, there is a weekly Bible study led by students at the Ministry. Not all of these are indoors, either. Long went on a hiking trip with the other members of the CCM this past fall.
Through these community events and ceremonies like Adoration Night, Long feels that she has increased the strength of her faith. She sees that in the sharpening of her spiritual skills. These include being able to minister and talk about her beliefs with those who do not share them or might come from a different background.
Long describes herself as someone who goes to “all the Jesus things,” including Longwood’s Baptist Collegiate Ministry and the university’s chapter of InterVarsity, a nondenominational Christian group. This comes from her upbringing in southwest Virginia, which is dominated by Protestants. She said, “My whole best friends in the entire world have come out of ministries like that, so I just love getting as involved as possible."
“We choose to grow together, in ourselves and our faith,” said Long. “My faith grows and expands every day, so absolutely the people in CCM have helped me through that. It's an everyday process for me."
