Staying Catholic in College
At the beginning of this school year, I was given the chance to speak at my Newman Center’s freshman retreat on the topic of staying Catholic while in college. I’ve adapted the talk to what is below; it contains some of my testimony along with things that I think are vital to being Catholic during the stage of life where everything is always changing.
Finding the Importance of Our Faith
I’m here this afternoon to share my story and give some tips on how to maintain and grow your faith in college. Before I get into my talk though, I’d like to tell you a little about myself. I’m a senior advertising major, with concentrations in emerging media and event planning. Along with that, I work on campus at a place called the Digital Corps, where I design and build websites and apps with other students. I’m originally from a super small farming town in southern Indiana, and for several summers I worked at an amusement park called Holiday World, so my go-to fun fact about myself is that I know how to operate a roller coaster. But besides just knowing how to operate them, I love pretty much everything about roller coasters and will literally talk about them for hours if I’m given the chance. I don’t know this for a fact, but I would guess that the only things I spend more time talking about than roller coasters are things I find on Twitter, and Catholicism. And honestly, almost everything interesting I find on Twitter is also a Catholic thing, so it’s probably the clear winner.
It hasn’t always been this way though. I came into college with the mindset that I was going to continue living out the Catholic faith I was raised with. I had some understanding of the faith at that point, but I was still pretty clueless about most of the things that I now realize are fundamental elements of our faith. I knew I needed to keep going to Mass on Sundays and I thought that I would be able to find friends if I came to this Catholic club thing called the Newman Center, so that’s what I did. Without even realizing it, I slowly started to learn more about the faith, and I began to see how immense it actually is. Just to give a few examples, I began to understand the Church’s teachings on the Eucharist and on Mary; I started forming authentic, Christ-centered friendships; and most importantly, I began to have a real prayer life and relationship with the Lord.
None of this was immediate; it was almost a year-long process to even begin any of these things. The second semester of freshman year was crazy stressful for me and there were times that I didn’t really see the purpose of going to Mass on Sunday mornings, and by extension, I wondered if it was worth the effort to keep practicing my faith. But by the end of my freshman year, I had experienced enough to know two things: One, that God was real and that He was very present and active in my life; and two, that I wanted to do whatever was necessary to pursue a relationship with Him and eventually reach heaven.
Now when I say it like that, it seems like a huge deal. But in reality, the changes came fairly slowly. I was really just seeking the things that brought me joy — adoration and friends. My friends provided an amazing support system for me, while I found immense peace each time I visited the Adoration chapel. In all honesty, that’s how you can live out your Catholic faith: keep seeking the things that bring you true joy.
Through time spent with friends and in prayer, I was slowly learning more about the faith. And the more I learned, the more I realized it’s actually a pretty big deal to be Catholic. We can’t just spend one hour in Mass on Sunday mornings and say that our faith is strong — no, we must let our faith effect the other 167 hours of each week as well. Think about it: if we actually believe that Jesus Christ became man and died on a cross in order for us to be saved from eternal hell, we should probably give him more than one hour of our week, right?
I don’t want to scare you off by emphasizing it, but I think it’s necessary. To be Catholic means to live up to the standards given to us by the Church, by Jesus Christ himself. I think C.S. Lewis put it best when he said “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, is of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” If the faith is true, then it is of infinite importance, and so our lives, our actions each day, must reflect that.
Starting Points
So, what does that look like? I know I hate talking about things in theory, so I’m going to try and give you some concrete ways to live out your faith, right here, as Catholic college students.
First of all, and this is true of any state of life, you must obey the 5 precepts of the Church. To be considered a practicing Catholic, you must:
Go to mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation.
Go to confession at least once a year.
Receive the Eucharist at least once during the Easter season.
Observe the days of fasting established by the Church.
Help provide for the material needs for the Church.
These five things are considered the bare minimum to be Catholic because you can’t really participate in the life of the Church without them. They are a reminder that a Christian life requires a commitment to prayer and active participation in the sacraments.
But again, these are just the minimum. I know that this is a very diverse group of people, and that some of you may be far exceeding these requirements at this point in your life. But I also know that some of you are barely maintaining this, and others might not even be able to check off all 5 items. Some of you any not even know these things exist; I know I didn’t as a freshman. And to that, I just want to say: it’s okay.
The place you are right now is a starting place. And if you have a starting place, that means you also have somewhere to go, right? The Lord loves us too much to leave us right where we are, so he is constantly calling us to be better, to grow in holiness. You and me and everybody else here has something to improve on. Where we are starting doesn’t matter so much as where we are going, and how much we desire to take those next steps.
Life of Virtue
To truly live out our Catholic faith, we must realize that we are called to something greater during this life. This “something greater” is called a life of virtue. A virtuous person is someone who strives to be a good person, seeks things that are good, and chooses to act in a good way. I think we can all agree that that sounds like something we should try to do, right? So how does that specifically apply to your life as a college student?
1. Be a student first
First, it means that you must be a good student. Classes and homework must always be a high priority for you if you want to consider yourself virtuous. Why? Because that’s why you’re here. A lot of money is being spent in order for you to graduate with a degree in a few years, so you need to care about them. This means that you need to go to class, you need to pay attention in class, you need to do your homework, and for goodness sake, please pull your weight on group projects. The quickest way to make enemies in college is by being the slacker in your group.
There will be plenty of things to distract you and there will probably be times when you feel like there just isn’t enough time in the day to finish all the work you need to do, but I promise you are able to do it. Learn how to manage your time, learn how to say no to hanging out with friends if you have a big test the next day. Learn how to prioritize your life so that you don’t have to pull an all-nighter to finish up that essay before your 9am class. (Guilty.)
Being a straight-A student came easily to me in high school, but after I got an A- in my first semester, I realized that college really was a different place. Yes, the classes were harder, but the thing I struggled with even more was motivating myself to do my homework on time. I still struggle with that, but I promise you college is a lot more enjoyable when you are able to discipline yourself enough to get good grades.
On the flip side — don’t make your grades the most important indication of your success. College classes are hard and believe it or not you will fail a test or two. But at the end of the day, a grade is just a letter and you aren’t going to care about that one C you got in 20 years from now. Grades are important, but they are not the greatest indicator of your future success. If you’re a perfectionist, go ahead and let go of some of that pressure right now.
2. Care for your body & mind
If you don’t take care of your mind and body, you will literally not be able to function correctly. So here’s a few things that I consider musts when it comes to personal wellbeing:
Eat, sleep & exercise well. There’s no way to get around it: you must give your body proper nutrition, let it rest when necessary, and make it work at times when your mind may not want to. We know this because of science, but I can also vouch for these by personal experience. Not only does proper self-care keep your body in shape and help you avoid the freshman 15, it’ll also make your classwork a ton easier to do because your brain will be functioning at a higher capacity. Taking care of your body correctly takes a lot of virtue — discipline to go to the gym, the self-control to say no to that extra cookie, the prudence to go to sleep at a reasonable time. It’s easy to say “oh, I’m young and my body can handle it” but before you know it, you won’t be so young anymore and the precious body that God has given you will be suffering from the choices you’re making now.
Don’t seek the “college experience”. We all know what I’m talking about. Alcohol, parties, hookups, hangovers, weed, maybe some other drugs here and there. We’re told college students aren’t here to get an education, but to live a life with no consequences for four years.
Well, I’m here to say this is all a lie. Popular culture has been feeding us these lies for so long that it seems if we go to college with the desire to live differently, that we’ll be deemed boring, that we won’t have any friends, and that we’ll probably be so lonely we’ll wish we never left home in the first place. It’s all one, big, fat lie. College can be whatever you wish it to be. It doesn’t need to include any of the things that contribute to the “college “experience” because there isn’t one type of experience you’re allowed to have.
In fact, there’s countless types of experiences that you can have. And it truly is up to you to make that experience. There’s no one to tell you what you can and can’t do every day, so be sure you’re making the virtuous decisions. If you avoid things that are going to harm you — like partying and underage drinking — you’re not a prude, you’re not a loner, you’re not a buzzkill. You’re just taking care of yourself and staying on the path to heaven.
Pay attention to your mental health. This is the last thing I want to talk about in relation to taking care of your body. I wish I was able to say more here, but in reality, I am just not capable of it. But here’s what I do know: your mental health is probably the most important thing for you to take care of. It is connected to everything. It’s huge. So I want to encourage you — if you’re dealing with anxiety or depression, don’t be afraid to talk about it. Tell a good friend, talk to a therapist. Whatever you do, I hope you don’t feel like you’re weak for struggling. Don’t feel like you’re alone. I have personally dealt with anxiety and I can count many friends who’ve had other mental health problems since coming to college. So don’t be afraid to seek help and do whatever you need to make sure your brain is healthy.
Uh…that’s a lot.
How the heck are you supposed to do all that??
I am aware that these are a lot of “rules” that I’m telling you are necessary. I mean, it’s basically a summary of your whole life. Good news is, you’re not the first to go through this. I’ve found, in my own experience and through the experience of others, that two things are the most beneficial for me to live out a virtuous lifestyle: friendship and prayer.
Authentic friendships
The people I’ve befriended at the Newman Center are a large part of the reason I am still Catholic today. When I was going through that really rough patch freshman year, a lot of it was because I didn’t have many friends.
It wasn’t that I was purposefully avoiding people or that people didn’t like me; quite the opposite actually. I went to Newman events all the time and several girls were trying to develop friendships with me. But because of my own insecurities and anxieties, I never really let anybody in. I’d keep them at arms length, but then get upset because it seemed like they weren’t really getting to know me. Once I finally did though (late second-semester freshman year), they became shining examples of Christ’s love for me.
Because these friends were also Catholic, we were always able to bond over at least one thing: we’re just trying to live virtuous lives and make it to heaven one day. All the stuff I mentioned earlier — it’s a lot easier to follow through on those things when somebody is by your side doing the exact same thing.
It’s so important to surround yourself with good people in college. We all know the cliché about you become the people you spend the most time with, but here’s the thing about clichés: they’re almost always true. If I’d only made friends who wanted to party every weekend, then I’d probably have eventually joined them even though I knew it wasn’t what I wanted. But instead, I became best friends with a girl who calls me out on my BS when I need her to. True friends will love you and encourage you to be the best you can be, which means they won’t let you sit around and watch Netflix all day or eat pizza for the fourth night in a row. Authentic friends will remind you that you are called to something higher and encourage you to live a life of virtue, because that’s what real love is.
The Habit of Prayer
It seems like such an obvious answer now, but I cannot overstate the importance of prayer in my life. I remember sitting here as a freshman completely clueless about prayer. Like, am I supposed to just pray Hail Mary’s and Our Father’s all the time. I legitimately had no idea. But, by the grace of God, I’ve learned a bit over the years.
Basically, prayer is the relationship you have with God. The means it’s everything from you telling him about your day to sitting in silence and just being with him. It includes the basic prayers many of us grew up knowing, but it also includes the very personal prayers that can only come from your heart.
Just like with friendship, you have to put in effort to develop this relationship. Take the time out of your day to stop by the chapel. Dig in deep to scripture. Understand what’s happening at Mass. There’s countless ways to pray, but you have to consciously try. The Lord absolutely loves when we spend time with him, even though we feel like our attempts are feeble.
There isn’t a real rules to how much you should pray, but a good rule of thumb is that more prayer is always better. But for real — a recommendation that I’ve often heard when you’re just beginning to build a habit of prayer is to spend 5–10 minutes a day in prayer. Once this becomes a habit, then you can begin increasing the time. Prayer should be part of your daily routine. For some people, like me, that may mean scheduling it into your day. Because let’s face it, our lives are busy and prayer often becomes a second thought. I will literally block off time in my calendar as I would class or a work meeting so that I make sure it happens.
To whom else shall we go?
To end this talk, I want to reflect on the gospel reading from today. We read from the very end of John 6, after Jesus explains the Eucharist. In response to the new teachings, some disciples ask, “This is hard, who can accept it?” and then many of them walk away. They encountered difficulty, and so they just left. Returned to their former way of life.
We will also face many difficulties when trying to live out a virtuous, Catholic life in our culture. I’d be deceiving you if I didn’t admit that. When we face these difficult situations, we have the choice to leave just as some disciples did. But we also have the choice to persevere and choose to continue following Christ.
When the disciples left, Jesus turned to the 12 apostles who remained and asked a simple question: “Do you also want to leave?” He asks us this same question every day, in the face of every difficulty. I hope and I pray that we may have the same faith and courage as St. Peter and be able to respond:
“Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

