Consecration to St. Joseph
A CAMPUSWIDE CONSECRATION 33 DAYS,
ONE SAINT By MACKENZIE HUNTER ‘21
Several times each semester, the Habiger Institute Leadership Interns, on behalf of the Department of Catholic Studies, plan and execute the Tommie Catholic events. In December they coordinated an event about the power and protection of St. Joseph and how Catholics can grow in devotion to him. The Leadership Interns desired to provide further opportunities after this event. The idea of a campuswide consecration to St. Joseph was born. The word was spread around campus that the consecration was to take place the beginning of January, and students who signed up were organized into small groups of five people with designated leaders. The groups met weekly for discussion, prayer and fellowship. At the end of Tommie Catholic is a weekly student event sponsored by Catholic Studies, Campus Ministry and St. Paul’s Outreach. These Catholic campus groups come together for faith, formation and fellowship.
the 33 days, the small groups came together for a privately-held Mass for the formal consecration. There was a lot of divine providence involved with the planning of this event and consecration, according to Teresa Perrin ’22 , one of the event organizers. The Tommie Catholic event took place on Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. The group found it providential to be celebrating St. Joseph on his wife’s feast day. Dec. 8 was also the day Archbishop Bernard Hebda was consecrating the archdiocese to St. Joseph. The morning of the Tommie Catholic event, the group discovered that Pope Francis proclaimed Dec. 8, 2020, to Dec. 8, 2021, a Year of St. Joseph. “Everything fell into place so perfectly,” Perrin says.
Perrin believes that this was an incredibly important project. It was her idea to make the Tommie Catholic event more than a one- night event. “We didn’t just want to teach people about St. Joseph,” Perrin explains, “but bring them on a journey closer to him so that they would know him deeper and love him.” Perrin did the consecration back in October and then again while leading a small group in January. She believes that it was significantly more fruitful as a group. Perrin was especially touched by the power of seeing the other female students bloom in their unique love for St. Joseph and be present during the vulnerable parts of the conversation.
Page 12 stthomas.edu/catholicstudies
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