Not Even Covid-10 Can Stop Fr. Dyer and Campus Ministry from Spreading Spirit

By Andrew Cavignac ’22, Staff Writer

Although this year has posed many challenges, Jesuit’s faith life still thrived through the difficulties. To gain some more insight on religious activities this school year, I spoke to Chaplain Fr. Kevin Dyer, S.J.

Fr. Dyer told me that there were two major challenges this year, both dealing with the sense of community at Jesuit. The first was the inability to run overnight retreats, which usually create unique bonding experiences that one-day retreats are unable to provide. Celebrating Mass by theology class also provided hardships this year because the culture of the entire school was not able to flourish at the same time. Despite these issues, spiritual growth is alive at Jesuit High School. Retreats have still been held this year, although there were some differences. For example, students had to go home each day instead of spending the night at Kairos retreats; these retreats were successful regardless of this change. The multiple Masses have allowed more students to assist in these celebrations as servers, readers, and
Eucharistic ministers.

In addition to activities in the Jesuit High School community, students were able to participate in the worldwide Jesuit community. To celebrate the 500th anniversary of St. Ignatius’s cannonball moment and the upcoming Ignatian year, a global initiative began allowing people, including students from our school, to write reflections on disruption of life. These reflections will be sent to thousands of people around the world.

To end the interview, Father said that trying times such as these show us what is really important in life. He also reminded me that in all circumstances there can be both difficulty and opportunity. The desire to “make it work” and the love of Christ have allowed faculty members and students to take advantage of these occasions in order to create an unwavering spirituality that binds everyone together.