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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I just listened to a sermon by the late, great pastor Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. He summed up Paul’s epistle to the Romans as “Soli Deo Gloria!” The summum bonum of the cosmos and all of redemptive history is the glory of God in Jesus Christ. As we near the completion of this fall semester, God’s glory is particularly evident on the campus of Penn.
Dear Prayer Partners,
I deeply appreciate you and all the prayers that you have offered to the Lord on our behalf in 2019!
As you may know, every Christian Union Bible Course on every campus studied Colossians this fall. The theme of Thanksgiving resounds throughout Paul’s letter. As this holiday season can easily be filled with unchecked expectations and the strangest of insecurities, I encourage all of you who know and love God to enter into the Christmas season “already full”. Full of joy with the good news that God has lifted the crushing burden of sin off our shoulders. Full of the abundant life Christ has given us in exchange. Full of many good moments with family, friends, and members of Christ’s body. Fully assured in all the will of God — that he is working out holiness in you and bringing to more maturity in Him.
Psalm 2 is a majestic description of Christ’s coming and rule. God gives the Psalmist the ability to look beyond earthly constraints and context to see a place of transcendent and righteous rule - whose kingdom reaches to the very ends of the earth. This vision of a righteous kingdom runs through the narratives of both old and new testaments, and motivates the events and initiatives we do in New York.
Our meditation as a ministry recently has been on Colossians 3:1-4:
Harvard Chaplains Pat and Tammy McLeod are sharing the account of their son’s traumatic brain injury and resulting disability in a new book entitled, Hit Hard: One Family’s Journey of Letting Go of What Was – and Learning to Live Well with What Is.
“Whose Are We?”
By Aidan Stoddart, Harvard ’21
Editor’s note: The following staff editorial is reprinted with permission from The Harvard Ichthus, a journal of Christian thought and expression produced by undergraduates at Harvard University. This editorial is part one in the journal’s three-part series (to read parts two and three, visit http://harvardichthus.org).
In an article published in October of last year, The Harvard Crimson explored the ramifications of a new study from Harvard Medical School Professor Cindy Hsin-Ju Liu. A national survey conducted by Liu and her colleagues found that 20 percent of college students reported suicidal thoughts, 25 percent reported diagnosis or treatment for a mental health disorder in the previous year, 20 percent reported self-harm, and 10 percent reported having attempted suicide.
Testifying in Song
By Catherine Elvy, Staff Writer
Stanford Testimony Christian A Cappella kicked off the new academic year by welcoming members of the class of 2023 during a spirited performance on the opening evening of classes.
On September 23, Testimony joined with nine other student a cappella groups to stage the annual O-Show, Stanford University’s biggest a cappella event of the year. Each of the groups performed two songs during the 9 p.m. show at Memorial Auditorium.
Stanford’s largest indoor performance facility was nearly filled to its 1,705-seat capacity for the annual gathering. The a cappella organizations banded together to greet students, especially frosh, and to invite undergraduates to audition for the coveted slots in the celebrated choirs. Per tradition, alumni of the musical groups returned for the back-to-school event. The O-Show is “one of the best ways we reach out to the campus broadly,” said Nate Marshall, president of Testimony. “We bring together the larger community. It’s a big a cappella scene.”
'Go and Make Disciples'
By Shelby Brainard, Princeton ’22
Most Princeton students spend their summers engaged in activities such as internships, summer jobs, or backpacking trips, but undergraduates Jack Monaco and John Smith dedicated their long break to sharing the Gospel.
The students’ spiritual fervor on summer break was the direct result of an effort at advanced discipleship by then-Princeton senior Mikal Walcott. During the latter half of the 2019 spring semester, Walcott led a group of five underclassmen (including Monaco and Smith) in an intensive, seven-week spiritual “boot camp” that included an hour of morning prayer and two hours of afternoon instruction, Monday through Friday.
Walcott created this cohort after feeling called by God to pass along his knowledge and experience in advancing God’s kingdom to younger disciples. Although the commitment of nearly fifteen hours a week to prayer and instruction was difficult at a university like Princeton, the five young men immediately began to testify to incredible fruit and growth in their lives as a result of their commitment to the Lord and to each other during those six weeks.
Institute for Catholic Life Fosters Religious Discourse
By Jon Garaffa, Princeton ’20
The Aquinas Institute for Catholic Life is a new initiative that will focus on the faith formation of Princeton students. Directed by married couple Alexi Sargeant and Leah Libresco Sargeant, and coordinated by Dr. R.J. Snell, the initiative comes out of the Aquinas Institute, the Catholic campus ministry at Princeton. Focusing on members of the undergraduate community, the Institute for Catholic Life offers a variety of seminars and guest speakers and hopes to create new conversations on campus related to faith and religious scholarship.
“As we develop, the vision is to provide a full range of formation,” explained Dr. Snell. “This includes liturgy and sacraments, small groups, Bible study, mentoring and spiritual direction, prayer, and also solid intellectual offerings in theology, philosophy, arts, and literature dealing with perennial Christian themes, as well as responding to contemporary questions and topics.”
Ministry Leaders Seek to Foster Hope, Community
By Catherine Elvy, Staff Writer
In the wake of the suicide of Gregory Eells, the University of Pennsylvania’s Executive Director of Counseling and Psychological Services, local campus ministry leaders pledged to actively support students battling depression.
Christians with ties to Penn also expressed a desire to help foster a better sense of community and to emulate the hope of Christ to their collegiate peers.
“Community is a big help. Welcoming people in and being especially attentive to those who are struggling is important,” said Patrick Travers, a director with the Penn Catholic Newman Community (newman.upenn.edu). In light of eternal matters, “the good news of the Gospel and the new life that Christ invites us to is quite different from the ‘successful life’ that Penn preaches.”
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