Spirituality and Service
Central to Bellarmine's mission is its Campus Ministry and Christian Service Program. Campus Ministry, in the tradition of Jesuit spirituality, offers the Freshmen Retreat, one day Sophomore Breakaways, three day Junior Search, and the four day Senior Kairos, the capstone of the Bellarmine retreat experience. Other retreats also include weekend Mother/Son and Father/Son retreats, the Silent Retreat, and the 4th Day Retreat. Campus Ministry also provides personal counseling, assists in student sponsored monthly liturgies, guides the Student Campus Ministry Team, leads Christian Life Communities, sets up daily Mass and morning prayer, and fosters spirituality among Bellarmine's staff and faculty.
Campus Ministry's partner, The Christian Service Program (CSP) provides each student opportunities to engage directly with groups that are often marginalized including youth, the physically and mentally disabled, and the socio-economically disadvantaged. Students are required to complete 75 hours of service before graduation, including an extensive senior service project. CSP also oversees service learning in the school curriculum, administers service projects for alumni and faculty and staff, and guides the student run CSP Corps. Members of CSP also run several Bellarmine clubs, which focus on organizing fundraisers and events for the Bellarmine community. Emphasizing direct experience and compassionate human interactions, Bellarmine sponsors Immersion trips to Guaymas, Tijuana, Uruguay, downtown San Jose, rural Salinas, and El Salvador in order to directly experience the lives of the poor. Trips have also been added to Los Angeles, Guatemala, Appalachia, Central Mexico and India.
Read more about this topic: Bellarmine College Preparatory
Famous quotes containing the words spirituality and/or service:
“Zen ... does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.”
—Alan Watts (1915–1973)
“The service a man renders his friend is trivial and selfish, compared with the service he knows his friend stood in readiness to yield him, alike before he had begun to serve his friend, and now also. Compared with that good-will I bear my friend, the benefit it is in my power to render him seems small.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)