The Fellowship of Catholic University Students (Focus) has a presence on 16 new campuses this academic year, with missionaries at Harvard University, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and a new “digital campus.” “We believe that the key to building a better future lies with the young leaders on campus,” Focus' president, Curtis Martin, said Aug. 23. “Our goal is to inspire thousands upon thousands of men and women who, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, 30 years from now, will be in positions of influence — such that they will transform our culture.” The Colorado-based organization’s lay missionaries are typically recent college graduates who have committed two years or more to work in evangelization and campus outreach. They go to college campuses at the invitation of the local bishop and with the local Catholic campus ministry’s support. They aim to communicate the Gospel to young adults through personal outreach and friendship. Four missionaries based at the main office in Genesee, Colo., will offer missionary support to campuses without a team physically present through the new “digital campus.” Missionary teams serve 74 campuses in 31 states, including the District of Columbia. The organization has been a seedbed for vocations, with 384 participants entering religious life since its founding in 1998. In 2012 alone, 41 men and nine women who participated in Focus made a commitment to religious life. New campuses include Franciscan University of Steubenville, Baylor University, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Oklahoma, Northwestern University and the University of Virginia. Other new campuses are the University of North Texas, Tulane University, the University of Mary Washington, the University of Tennessee, the University of Tulsa and the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse. The same missionary team will serve Farleigh Dickinson University and Drew University in Madison, N.J. The missionary organization began with two part-time missionaries on a single campus. It has grown to 361 full-time missionaries today.
The spiritual climax of the Gospel of John, as Father John Waiss points out, occurs at the foot of the Cross, where Jesus utters his parting words: “Woman, behold, your son!” and “Behold your mother!” (John 19:26-27). While these words were addressed to the Apostle John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, the Church has long understood this moment as a universal adoption. To truly image Christ, we must share in His parentage; if we embrace God as our spiritual Father but reject Mary as our mother, we treat Christ as a half-brother rather than our "firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. 8:29). As Origen noted as early as the third century, the profound depths of the Gospel are only accessible to those who, like John, rest their heads on Jesus’ breast and receive Mary into their own homes. This maternal role is deeply rooted in biblical typology, positioning Mary as the fulfillment of the great mothers of the Old Covenant. She is the New Eve , the mother of all the living according ...