Your prayers matter

At the Easter Vigil forty years ago, I joined the Catholic Church at the tender age of 20 not fully realizing the path I was choosing but convinced that God would bless it. Coincidentally, a few months later that same year another Catholic was born - St. Mary’s College, the first Catholic institution of higher education in the Diocese of Calgary.

I think it’s fair to say that the founders of St. Mary’s also had little idea what they were stepping into or where this plan would take them, and yet God has richly blessed their efforts. What started as just a small group of students taking transfer courses has grown into a fully recognized university with over 1,000 students and plans to double its capacity over the next several years. 

The importance of St. Mary’s to Calgary cannot be understated, for an authentic Catholic education has the ability to transform not only a person, but society and culture as well, not only the university, but an entire city and province. Any work rooted in the example of Christ Himself, in Sacred Scripture, and in the 2000+ years of the Catholic intellectual tradition is sure to leave its mark and while St. Mary’s University has been around for 40 years, there’s still much “building” to do. ​

Under the leadership of Dr. Scott Morrison, the university’s newly appointed president, the physical work on campus is well underway. Shovels are hitting the ground this spring to build a dome-style facility featuring two full-sized basketball courts that will finally provide a permanent home for the St. Mary's Lightning Athletics teams. St. Mary's is also preparing to take over the neighbouring Father Lacombe Care Centre site, with extensive renovations underway to add 10 new classrooms and roughly 80 on-campus student residences. The most important work, however, is what’s happening on the inside - in people’s hearts. With mass and adoration taking place weekly, the work of the Holy Spirit is evident, palpable. There’s a vibrancy on campus that draws students in. As in my own life, the Lord has laid the foundation and now asks us to join Him in this endeavour. 

Yet as with any great work of God, it will take time, along with the prayer and sacrifice of many, to bring His plan to fruition. What’s more, the Lord desires MANY souls to be involved, working together to build on the foundation of Christ, our cornerstone: a house of prayer to withstand the storms and challenges of the modern world. And this is where you come in, by making a commitment to pray with us. We invite you to join in this work so that we can build something bigger than ourselves, a Catholic community where each person is nurtured: mind, body, and spirit, and where all who enter feel loved and seen. That’s really what’s at the heart of every truly Catholic endeavour and at the heart of St. Mary’s. 

To that end, the St. Mary’s Prayer Guild began as a grassroots effort among friends to support spiritually the vision of St. Mary’s University becoming Canada’s preeminent Catholic university. Rooted in faith and community, the Guild invites members to a simple yet powerful commitment: to pray each week for the university's intentions. Now more than 250 members strong, the Prayer Guild continues to grow as more people join in lifting up St. Mary’s through prayer, carrying its needs to the Lord. Trusting that God has a profound plan for the university, the Guild seeks to support that mission by engaging the hearts and prayers of the wider Catholic community.

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Submitted by Kelley Holy, Prayer Guild of St. Mary's University, Calgary. 

• ​To learn more about the Prayer Guild, please contact Kimberly at [email protected] or online at www.stmu.ca/prayerguild.  ​