About the Catholic Studies Center

In the liturgical calendar of the Church, Saturdays belong in a special way to Our Lady. The Roman Missal provides for the option of celebrating a feast in her honor each week when an annual feast does not take precedence. 

Remembering the Mother of the Lord in this way week after week, we enter into her unbounded Yes and deepen our own disposition of active receptivity to the Holy Spirit. 

On Saturday mornings, students, staff, alumni and friends join together in praying the Rosary, attending Mass, and enjoying fellowship with coffee and donuts. Families of faculty, staff, and alumni with young children are especially warmly welcome.

The Catholic Studies Center offers two retreats each fall semester, one for our men's and one for our women's communities. Students travel to a nearby off-campus location to enjoy time with one another outside of the city. These weekends focus on a particular theme and provide retreatants with the opportunity to spend time in prayer, silence, and the sacraments. Visiting retreat directors collaborate alongside our resident Jesuit priests to guide students in Ignatian meditation and contemplation.

The Catholic Studies Center offers two retreats each fall semester, one for our men's and one for our women's communities. Students travel to a nearby off-campus location to enjoy time with one another outside of the city. These weekends focus on a particular theme and provide retreatants with the opportunity to spend time in prayer, silence, and the sacraments. Visiting retreat directors collaborate alongside our resident Jesuit priests to guide students in Ignatian meditation and contemplation.

Amidst the busyness of the spring semester, Catholic Studies offers a day of recollection for students to "come away and rest awhile" (Mark 6:31). Whether on or off campus, this day-long experience is a perfect opportunity to slow down, celebrate the sacraments, and spend time with one another.

The Well is a scriptural fellowship program deeply rooted in the Catholic Faith—with its members studying Scripture and observing Tradition in community. Through a Christological reading of the Bible, the members aim to know, love, and serve the Word Made Flesh and understand their place in His Church.

Parlor is an opportunity for the University to share its fruits of truth-seeking with the larger community in which it lives. The practice goes back to the medieval university tradition of a disputation. Disputations were times to publicly discuss important questions with people of varying levels of education and areas of expertise. Instead of lectures just for students in a particular discipline, university members would publicly answer and discuss the questions of their day.

The Sodality (from “sodalitas” meaning “fellowship”) began in at the central College of the Society of Jesus in Rome shortly after the founding of the Jesuit Order. A young Jesuit teaching in the College, Fr. Jean Leunis SJ, gathered together a group of students who committed to regular prayer and other formative activities inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. The great apostolic value of the movement was soon confirmed by Pope Gregory XIII who, in the letter Omnipotentis Dei published on December 5, 1584, officially approved the Sodality and called for its further dissemination and development by the Jesuits. Branches of the Sodality quickly spread to the other Colleges of the Society around the world, each of them aggregated to the one Sodality based in Rome called the “Prima Primaria”.

Once a month we gather for Mass and lunch as a community to reflect on the graces we have received in recent weeks, to plan what is coming ahead, and to enjoy each other's company.

The Campion Lectures

Ongoing Adult Education Program

Each semester, we invite a scholar to offer a four-week seminar to members of our volunteer community. Past series include: 

• Tragedy and Christian Faith, Matthew Baugh, S.J.
• Shakespeare and the Interior Life, Maria McNair, Ph.D.
• The Bible and the Holy Land, Charles Samson
• Guilt, Atonement, and Human Flourishing, Eleonore Stump. Ph.D.
• Romano Guardini on the Virtues, Greg Beabout, Ph.D.

At the end of the Fall semester each year, our volunteers gather at the Catholic Studies Center for an Advent Day of Recollection. We spend the day in prayer and fellowship in order to prepare our hearts to receive Our Lord anew in the Christmas Season. 

• Wednesday: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• Thursday to Friday: 3 p.m. to 3 p.m 

Each period of Adoration ends with Benediction

• Monday: 6 p.m.
• Tuesday: 8 p.m. (Jesuit Center)
• Wednesday: 8 p.m.
• Thursday: 8 p.m. (Jesuit Center)
• Friday: 3 p.m.
• Saturday: 9:15 a.m.

• Monday: 5:40 p.m.
• Saturday: 9 a.m.

• Monday: 5:15 p.m . to 5:55 p.m.
• Friday: 2 p.m. to 3p.m.