It has been said that the word ‘eternal’ refers not so much to the duration of time as it does to the quality of time. The Kingdom of God is the ‘already/not yet’ reality within us. Its invitation is not delayed for some post-mortem event. Rather it is for an encounter in the present. Saint Paul’s Outreach (www.spo.org), an organization founded decades ago in Minnesota, extends this invitation to college students around the nation. Readers discouraged by the spreading nihilism we read about on our university campuses would do well to acquaint themselves with this apostolate for young adults. Could SPO be a harbinger of the new springtime Pope John Paul II predicted? Here are excerpts from SPO’s website.
College campuses are battlegrounds for the minds and souls of young people and many are leaving the Church. Only 10% of Catholic students attend Sunday Mass. Many are lonely, isolated from God and lacking authentic friendships. Students are hungry for truth, for meaning….for relationship.
We train full-time missionaries and student leaders to build these communities – communities that reach out and invite college students and yon adults into a transformative encounter with Christ, into deep relationship wit him and with his people…into a lifelong adventure of mission.
Community on Mission: We are made for communion with God and with one another. Flowing from tis conviction, community is at the heart of SPO. It is both the source and the fruit of our mission. We are a people sacrificially committed to one another and a common way of life, creating an immersive culture that transforms lives. Centered around Household and the formation community, this culture forms potent environments that awaken faith in Christ and bring it to maturity.
Brotherhood & Sisterhood: Since we have been adopted in Christ as sons and daughters of God the Father, we are brothers and sisters. This constitutes the fundamental basis of how we relate to one another. We respect our complementary identity and dignity as men and women, and foster a culture in which healthy masculinity and femininity are upheld. We prioritize building strong men’s and women’s environments and support an approach to relationship and vocation that aligns with these convictions.
Relational Evangelization: We share Christ’s compassion for the lost and live with a missionary impulse. The primary way in which we evangelize is relational, by getting to know others and inviting them into our lives and our community: person to person, to a people. It is in this context that those we are reaching experience the love of God and the power of the Gospel, beginning a comprehensive process of conversion, formation, and mobilization in mission.
Renewal In The Holy Spirit: We invite people to a personal encounter with Christ, and deep conversion in the power of the Holy Spirit. We seek to be a prophetic people, to grow in the fruit and gifts of the Spirit, and to live fully the call to holiness and mission received in baptism and confirmation. In all things, we trust in God and rely on his grace. We are part of a movement of renewal in the Church, faithful to the magisterium, and committed to the unity of God’s people.
Wholehearted Worship: We strive to offer God all of our lives for the rest of our lives as a sacrifice of worship. We are a people of worship with a liturgical spirituality, including a daily prayer and the sacraments. Our worship of God – communally and not just individually – is essential to our relationship with him and a natural response of the will to who he is and wat he has done for us in Christ. We praise and thank him wholeheartedly and expressively, as our duty and our joy, always for his glory and not our own.