The air in the chapel was thick with the scent of incense. Candlelight flickered along the windowsills and altar, encasing the monstrance in a beacon of light. Students, pilgrims and parishioners lined the pews as Father Conrad Murphy, Catholic chaplain at the University of Maryland, stepped up behind the ambo.
“Hope is the virtue for weak people,” he said.
It was Feb. 7, the first Friday of the month, and instead of going out for the start of the weekend, some students decided to spend the evening praying and adoring.
Cardinal Gregory named the University of Maryland’s Catholic Student Center one of 12 Jubilee Churches within the archdiocese. Father Murphy and the Catholic Terps created “Nights of Hope,” a series of events comprising praise and worship, adoration, student testimonies, prayer teams, confessions, and preaching to encourage and invite local Catholics to make their pilgrimage.
“St. Thomas says that hope is fundamentally leaning on Christ,” he said. “When we have no more strength, when we are too broken to go on when we fail too many times, and when the shame of that failure weighs on us, we can’t carry it anymore; we lean on Christ, and He carries us.”
The new initiative occurs on the first Friday of every month at 7 pm. Father Murphy hopes the events will spark fires in students' hearts across campus, creating a burning love for Christ. For the center’s inaugural Night of Hope, he focused on how admitting our weakness and depending on the Lord allows us to hope for strength and courage.
“If you’re in need of hope, all you need to do is say, 'Lord, I need you. I need your strength. I need your love.' And then try to walk,” Father Murphy said. “You’ll find that even if you’re limping, He’s standing there beside you, holding you up. The beautiful thing about hope is that it doesn’t matter how many times we fall down. It doesn’t matter how many times we’re beaten down. It doesn’t matter how many times we betray Him. His hope and His love are irreversible.”
Daniel Kootz, a junior computer science and math double major, is the pianist for the music ministry’s worship team. He and other students practice together weekly to prepare for praise and worship adoration events at the Catholic Center.
This past fall, Kootz helped rejuvenate the worship team by playing in Pack the Chapel, a bi-weekly musical holy hour available to students on Monday evenings. For the upcoming
Jubilee Year, Kootz shared that he’s generally hopeful for what the Lord has in store for the semester, especially for his fellow students and visiting pilgrims.
“I really hope that they just find this to be a place where Christ is. They can sit here, and they can recognize that Christ is moving this place in a really beautiful way for so many, especially in that chapel, and are able to have a moment to sit and rest with Him,” he said.
Outside of the chapel, people are encouraged to write “Notes of Hope,” small messages that share what their hope means to them and examples of things they’re entrusting God with. On another table, a visitor’s log is available for pilgrims to sign, letting others know that they’ve made their Jubilee pilgrimage.
Maryland Class of ‘24 graduate Adriana-Isabela Melendez signed her name in the log. She shared that she made her pilgrimage to receive plenary indulgence and visit her friends.
Melendez believes it’s crucial for young perishes such as the Catholic Student Center to be so heavily involved in the Jubilee Year.
“The young people are the future of the church, obviously, so I think that by really bringing them into these occasions like this, you’re really inspiring them to do great things, especially in the church,” she explained.
The next Night of Hope will take place on Friday, March 7.
Here is a listing of all the designated Jubilee Churches within The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington:
• Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington D.C.
• Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, Washington, D.C.
• Holy Comforter - Saint Cyprian Catholic Church, Washington, D.C.
• Shrine of Saint Jude the Apostle, Rockville, Maryland
• Saint John Neumann Catholic Church, Gaithersburg, Maryland
• Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Bowie, Maryland
• Saint Bernard of Clairvaux Catholic Church, Riverdale, Maryland
• Saint Anthony Catholic Church, North Beach, Maryland
• Sacred Heart Catholic Church, La Plata, Maryland
• Saint Aloysius Catholic Church, Leonardtown, Maryland
• Saint John Paul II National Shrine, Washington, D.C.
• University of Maryland Catholic Student Center, College Park, Maryland
(Elizabeth Polo is a journalism student at the University of Maryland and is a contributing writer for the Catholic Standard.)
