Office of Evangelization
Living the Church's Deepest Vocation
"Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize,...to preach and teach, to be the channel of the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners with God, and to perpetuate Christ's sacrifice in the Mass, which is the memorial of His death and glorious resurrection."
Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, 14
Our Mission of EvanglizationIn our Ministry of Evangelization at Franciscan, we are committed to helping our University family embrace the call to conversion through fostering a personal relationship with Jesus Christ by first recognizing our call to be evangelized. We then aim to bring the message of the Gospel to others on campus and beyond.
Since the Church exists to evangelize, we strive to support our University family in living Gospel-centered lives in the heart of the Church and reaching out to all.
Regular Evangelization Events
Festivals of Praise
One Saturday each month during the semester from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., Finnegan Fieldhouse welcomes all University family and friends for student-initiated, student-led ministry. We strive as a community to be open to the gifts and charisms of the Holy Spirit through song, exhortation, inspirational sharing. Student teams lead the worship and the music, along with student teams of intercession, discernment, and prayer.
Festivals of Praise 2011-12
All dates are Saturdays
Fall 2011
- September 3
- October 8
- November 5
- December 3
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Spring 2012
- February 11 (time changed to 8-10 p.m.)
- March 3
- March 31
- May 5
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Born of the Spirit Retreat
This semesterly off-campus, student-led retreat aims to help students deepen their life of Discipleship. Talks and testimonies are shared to promote and explain what it is to be open to the gifts and charisms of the Holy Spirit.
BeLoved
FUS Men's Ministry
Heeding the Second Vatican Council's declaration that “whoever follows Christ the perfect man becomes himself more a man” FUS Men's Ministry strives to foster Christian discipleship among the men of Franciscan University of Steubenville by pursuing the following goals:
- Empower men to live an adult Christian life through instruction in the Catholic faith and practical life skills
- Encourage men in their commitment to Jesus Christ and his Church through group fellowship and prayer
- Exhort men to live a life of ongoing conversion, growth in Christian virtue, and missionary zeal
Looking to the example of the great male Saints of our Catholic tradition and recognizing the signs of the times, FUS Men's Ministry earnestly endeavors to deepen in men the awareness of their true masculine identity in Jesus Christ. Thus by “speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (Eph 4:15).
FUS Women's Ministry
Believing that the feminine genius is inherent in the soul of every woman, FUS Women’s Ministry seeks to awaken and encourage womens’ gifts of receptivity, sensitivity, generosity and call to motherhood as taught by Pope John Paul II in Mulieris Dignitatem. To that end, Women’s Ministry seeks to accompany women on the journey toward holiness and help them to fully embrace their feminine genius by fostering growth in the following areas:
- an appreciation of the feminine intellect
- harmonization of reason and emotion
- equipping women to experience healthy relationships with God, self and others
- an understanding of the prophetic role of woman
- upholding women saints as models of femininity transformed by grace
- cultivation of the Marian virtues
As Pope Paul VI said at the closing of the Second Vatican Council:
And now it is to you that we address ourselves, women of all states—girls, wives, mothers and widows, to you also, consecrated virgins and women living alone—you constitute half of the immense human family. As you know, the Church is proud to have glorified and liberated woman, and in the course of the centuries, in diversity of characters, to have brought into relief her basic equality with man. But the hour is coming, in fact has come, when the vocation of woman is being achieved in its fullness, the hour in which woman acquires in the world an influence, an effect and a power never hitherto achieved. That is why, at this moment when the human race is under-going so deep a transformation, women impregnated with the spirit of the Gospel can do so much to aid mankind in not falling.
It is our hope that through our ministry the Women of Franciscan University of Steubenville will truly become women “impregnated with the spirit of the Gospel” who bear the light of Christ to the world.
S.E.N.T. (Student Evangelization Network Teams)
Teams of students travel to local parishes throughout the semester to conduct retreats for high school students. Short dramas, testimonies, and other means are used to teach the youth.
SonLife
This Spring Break evangelization trip to the beaches of Florida brings Christ's Word to other college students, the marginalized, and to non-believers.
Weekly Praise and Worship
Every Tuesday night from 9:00 to 10:00 Christ the King Chapel hosts student-led worship in music, praise, testimonies, and prayer team ministries. This weekly praise and worship of God fosters openness to the gifts and charisms of the Holy Spirit.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Fr. Dominic Foster, T.O.R.
Director of Evangelization
740-283-6277
dfoster@franciscan.edu
Sr. Eliana Day, T.O.R.
Assistant Director of Evangelization
740-283-6502
eday@franciscan.edu
Sr. Elizabeth Beussink, T.O.R.
Pastoral Associate of Evangelization
740-283-6518
ebeussink@franciscan.edu
Br. Patrick Whittle, T.O.R.
Evangelization Intern
740-283-6962
pwhittle@franciscan.edu
Michael Blackenberger
Student Assistant for Evangelization
740-284-6849
evassistant@franciscan.edu