I hope that you all are having a good first week of classes and that new students are starting to navigate campus a little easier each day.  It was good to see so many new people at our first Mass this past Sunday and at Valley Ballyhoo on Saturday.  I hope to meet more of you in the days to come.

A reminder that our chapel and student center is open until roughly 10pm each evening during the week for your use.  The Blessed Sacrament is reserved in our chapel.  Please pop in any time during the day for a few quiet moments of prayer.  Upstairs we have couches that are great for napping, a TV, a Wii, a kitchen to heat your lunch up in; my office is there, too, and I have an open door policy, so please do feel free to drop by.  (If my car is in the drive but you don't see me in my office, I'm probably out and about campus somewhere – feel free to send me a text).  

We have some fun activities scheduled for this week that you don't want to miss.

Calling all freshmen!  We are having an Open House for freshmen at 5:30pm tomorrow.  (Transfer students are welcome to come, as well). This is a great opportunity for new students to get to know one another and learn about our campus ministry.

Supper @ the Center:  Each Wednesday at 6:30pm we offer a free home cooked meal, followed by a faith-based program which generally runs to 8:30.  This week our meal will be provided by the Catholic Daughters of the Americas, who are cooking up some yummy sloppy joes and a variety of veggie dishes for us.  Afterwards we will enjoy our unusually cool August weather by roasting marshmallows on the fire and offering praise to God with music led by our choir master, Joseph.

Sunset Picnic and Hike:  Meet at the Catholic Student Center at 6:00pm and catch a ride with us up to the Blue Ridge Parkway.  We will have a picnic (we will provide PB&J sandwich, chips, little debbie and bottled water).  Then we'll hike to the top of Waterrock Knob.  It's a short easy-to-moderate hike where on a clear day you can see three states.  Wear comfy shoes for hiking, bring a camera and a good attitude.  (For anyone who has peanut allergies, let me know in advance and we'll make a special sandwich for you).  

Our usual Sunday schedule is Mass at 7:30pm with a rosary prayed 30 minutes before Mass.  Father Voitus will be available for Reconciliation during the rosary.  You can also ask him to hear your confession after Mass.  

Lector Meeting:  This Sunday after Mass there will be a meeting for anyone wishing to be on the lector schedule for this semester.  

Mass Intentions:  Fr. Voitus has asked that any student wishing to have a special intention offered for a Sunday Mass to get in touch with me and I will put the intention on the calendar. (There is no stipend for this).

Small Group Prayer & Scripture Study:  Starting next week, we will have student-led small groups meeting in various locations around campus three evenings each week.  We encourage any student who would like to deepen their faith and grow in their relationship with God and with fellow students to consider participating in a small group.  Our current small group schedule is:

While you are welcome to simply show up at a small group, we do have a sign up sheet on the bulletin board outside of our chapel.  Please consider signing up to help us get an idea of numbers. We are also putting together a small group for graduate students and young adult faculty.  If you are interested in that, please contact Tim Segert at timsegert@gmail.com.

Rummage Sale.  Campus Ministry is organizing a rummage sale at St. Mary's parish Sept 5-7.  This is a fund raiser to help with our ministry to WCU students.  I am in need of students willing to help with set up the Monday and Tuesday before, as well as during the sale from 6-8pm on that Thursday, 8am till 2pm on Friday, and 8am till 3pm on Saturday.  Please email me if you are interested.

Eucharistic Congress  The Diocese of Charlotte is holding its 9th annual Eucharistic Congress in Charlotte Sept. 13-14.  College students from across our diocese are participating in a Friday night gathering with free pizza and a special talk, all-night Adoration and lock-in at St. Peter's parish in downtown Charlotte, the Eucharistic Procession on Saturday morning, and a day of talks and "getting your Catholic on" all day Saturday.  To participate in the event, we ask you to register.  It costs $15 and that gets you breakfast and lunch on Saturday, plus a t-shirt.  We'll be car pooling down from WCU on Friday afternoon.  Click here to register.

Take a look ahead at what else we have going on this semester.  Bookmark our calendar at:
http://wcucatholic.org/calendar.html

That's it for this week.  Please join our Facebook group (link below) for more information and do feel free to come by and say hi!  

God bless,

Matt

—