Every Friday during the fall and spring semesters we offer weekday Mass in our chapel at 12:15 pm.

After Mass, students are invited to join us in the upstairs Dining Hall on campus for lunch together. Just look for the table with the Catholic Campus Ministry sign any time from 1:00-2:00 PM.

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Did you know?

Every Friday during the year is a day of penance — not just during Lent! “Penance” is a pious act meant to help us repent — that is, something we do to help us orient our lives to God. This can be an act of self-denial, such as fasting. It can also take the form of prayer or works of charity.

According to Canon Law, “the penitential days and times in the universal Church are every Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent” (Can. 1250).

While canon 1251 says that abstinence from meat is the normal means of observing penance on Fridays, canon 1253 says conferences of bishops may decide to “substitute in whole or in part for fast and abstinence other forms of penance, especially works of charity and exercises of piety.”

The Catholic bishops of the United States have declared in their Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence that “Friday itself remains a special day of penitential observance throughout the year” (para. 22), and that every Friday should be a day of “self-denial and mortification” (para. 23). While they lift the requirement to abstain from meat on Fridays (outside of Lent), the bishops commend the practice while also encouraging the faithful to engage in other forms of penance, such as prayer and works of mercy.

We hope that by providing the opportunity to attend a weekday Mass on Friday and join in prayer, we are helping you to practice Friday penance in a way that draws you closer to Christ.