Letting Faith Flourish: Nurturing Spiritual Spaces for a Fresh School Year
The back-to-school season is a familiar part of fall. With it comes a new grade in school, new friends, and new classes. For families embarking on the new school year, there can be excitement surrounding the purchase of books and supplies as they prepare for a fresh start. However, with the hustle and bustle of preparing for the new school year, many things can become secondary. Faith sometimes becomes one of them. Mass is forgotten, prayer becomes scattered, and spiritual reading is done less frequently. It can be hard to remain diligent in our spiritual lives while moving into a new school year, but there are some concrete ways that make it easier. As the school year kicks off, it's essential to create spaces in our homes or dorms that nurture our spiritual growth, so that our homes will constantly remind us of who we are and whose we are. Here are seven practical ways to prepare your space to help faith flourish:
The back-to-school season is a familiar part of fall. With it comes a new grade in school, new friends, and new classes. For families embarking on the new school year, there can be excitement surrounding the purchase of books and supplies as they prepare for a fresh start. However, with the hustle and bustle of preparing for the new school year, many things can become secondary. Faith sometimes becomes one of them. Mass is forgotten, prayer becomes scattered, and spiritual reading is done less frequently. It can be hard to remain diligent in our spiritual lives while moving into a new school year, but there are some concrete ways that make it easier. As the school year kicks off, it's essential to create spaces in our homes or dorms that nurture our spiritual growth, so that our homes will constantly remind us of who we are and whose we are. Here are seven practical ways to prepare your space to help faith flourish:
1. Display a crucifix in your space as a reminder of Christ’s presence
Hanging or placing a crucifix in any room can be a constant reminder that Christ is always around you. When school gets to be too stressful, finding the crucifix and praying in front of it can help calm any worries about grades and assignments.
2. Keep Holy Water on hand for a daily blessing
While most commonly done when entering a church, blessing ourselves with Holy Water can occur in our own homes, college dorms, or apartments. Having a small Holy Water font at the doors in your space can remind you that you belong to God and that there is more to life than classes and homework. Many churches have a small dispenser filled with Holy Water near the entrance for parishioners, who can either fill a small bottle to take home or ask church staff for assistance.
3. Inviting a priest to bless your living space
This is a beautiful practice that can benefit you and your family. Blessing your living space is a wonderful way to start living there for school, or a home. This blessing serves as a consecration to God and as a protection against spiritual dangers, similar to how locks and bolts protect against physical dangers.
4. Explore having sacramentals that inspire you and hold beauty
Sacramentals serve as a reminder of what they represent and inspire devotion to the faith through their beauty. Sacred art is a great example of this. Whether it depicts one or more of the saints, the Holy Family, Jesus, or any other image from our faith, it serves to draw us closer to God and the Church. Keeping these sacramentals on your desk is a good reminder to pray and to ask these holy figures to intercede for us throughout the school year.
5. Surround yourself with photos that bring you joy
Whether you are experiencing a stressful workday or just a regular Monday, having a bit of happiness and joy in your day can go a long way. Keeping pictures of saints, angels, or even family and friends around can all help keep this joy in your life. For college students, seeing the smiling face of a loved one can be a reminder to text or call that person to catch up.
6. Find a special corner to grow your spiritual life
Finding time to pray can be hard when mixed with a busy schedule. One thing that can help with this is having a part of your living space set aside for the specific purpose of prayer and growing your spiritual life. Some things that can be put here are a Bible, a rosary, spiritual art, and anything else that reminds you of the faith. Whether it’s in the corner of your room or in the middle of your living room, the sight of this space will be a visual reminder to pray and read the scriptures. Even when studying, just looking at the prayer space can remind you to offer a prayer up for your studies.
7. Having a rosary
Our final tip to keep your faith alive while coming back to school is to keep a rosary around. Many churches hand out free rosaries, or you could even learn how to make them. Praying the rosary before an important test could bring a sense of calm and focus, grounding you in the moment.
Olivia Henderson is a sophomore college student at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
