Twenty-six years ago, we brought a job candidate to Franciscan University for final interviews. Tom Sofio’s visit began on the feast of St. Francis, so we attended the all-campus Mass in Finnegan Fieldhouse. As we chatted afterward, he said, “You don’t usually have that many people at a daily Mass, do you?”
I acknowledged that, as the major feast of the Franciscan calendar, it had drawn more attendees than most Masses, adding, “But our daily Masses are very well attended.”
I could tell Tom didn’t quite believe me, but I didn’t press the point. The next day, as we arrived for the 12:05 p.m. Mass in Christ the King Chapel, he opened the foyer door for me and started to follow me in. He stopped dead when he saw the filled pews and blurted out, “Geez! You were right!”
Many campus visitors feel a similar shock at seeing hundreds of students, faculty, and staff at a weekday Mass. I still feel it myself on rare occasions when I drag myself to a 6:30 a.m. Mass and find a full chapel. Or open the heavy wooden Portiuncula Chapel door on a Saturday and see the tiny space packed with Baron athletes kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament.
The Chapel Office reports an astounding 7,544 people on average—most of them students—attend Mass in Christ the King Chapel every week. Each semester, 400 members of our campus community sign up for 24/7 eucharistic adoration in the Port, covering over 5,300 hours.
But the stats don’t begin to tell the story.
Countless minds, souls, and lives have been transformed and healed because Jesus Christ gives himself to us in the Eucharist at every Mass. Because he remains hidden in tabernacles in every residence hall, offering comfort and aid to all who seek his Real Presence. And because Jesus looks on us with love from the monstrance in the Port, Holy Hours, Festivals of Praise, and eucharistic processions.
No matter the number of people in any chapel at any given hour, Jesus comes to each person individually. And each of us has a story to tell about that mysterious encounter with our Eucharistic Lord. Here are a few from our Franciscan University community. In this time of Eucharistic Revival, may they cause us to reflect with thankful hearts on our own stories—and inspire us to seek Jesus more in the Sacrament Most Holy.
“The Lord Healed Me”
In the middle of my first semester on campus as a freshman, I stepped off the sidewalk on the way to class and twisted my ankle. I was still able to walk up the hill to Egan Hall, but by the end of that three-hour evening class, my ankle had swelled up so greatly that I could no longer walk on it. My buddy Brian Kelsch ’07 gave me a ride on his back all the way to Tommy More.
The next morning, since I couldn’t go to class, I hopped across the hall to the dorm chapel. I prayed there alone with the Lord for an hour or more. When I was finished, I was able to walk out of the chapel. My ankle no longer hurt, the swelling was gone, and I resumed my life.
Two years later as a junior, I sprained my ankle again, in much the same way, and that injury took months to recover. I now know the Lord healed me that first semester, and I cherish all the hours I spent with God in the dorm chapel that year.
–Allison (LeChevallier ’07) Auth, Catechetics
“He Remains”
When I graduated from Franciscan, I was terrified. I’d grown complacent in the University’s vibrant, faith-filled culture, and the “real world” turned out to be as scary and painfully lonely as I’d feared.
Missing my friends and the campus I had called home, I clung to frequent Mass and adoration for comfort. For the first time, I fell deeply in love with Jesus personally.
My loneliness ultimately saved me by driving me to a habit of seeking the Eucharist in a way I never knew before. As much as I missed the campus and community, it took me leaving Steubenville to fully realize what I needed most was Christ himself. When everything else goes away, he remains.
As a typical 20-something, I don’t know exactly where my life is headed. I don’t know what my ultimate career will be, or if I will ever live in Steubenville again and enjoy the Port as my local adoration chapel. Sometimes that uncertainty can hurt. But when I kneel down in front of the Real Presence, I know Jesus is not only leading me to a destination he is preparing—I know I’m already home.
–Victoria Snell ’18, Mathematics
“A Real Love”
I came to personally know every moment at Franciscan as inevitably formative through experiences at Festivals of Praise, weekly Port Holy Hours, hall Masses, and Monday night dorm commitments as a sister in Crown of Creation Household. I was struck by the devotion and commitment of each individual in the collective community and was definitely formed and motivated in my own growth and devotion by these active witnesses every day.
One form of these encounters, which is special to me, is the love I saw from so many of our eucharistic ministers. I watched friends, like Jill or Elizabeth, as well as strangers physically carry Christ to others. I saw on their faces a real love that saw the persons and the Person in the sacred moments before them.
Their reverence and passion for Christ, his beloveds, and bringing the two to each other brought me to tears and revealed to me, with a new, revitalizing, and impactful depth, the weight and grandeur of his Presence in the Eucharist, the goodness of the human person, man’s fulfillment in this sacrament, and the reality and intensity of Christ’s desire for complete intimacy with each of his greatest loves. This will stay with me forever.
–Alyssa Mondarez ’23, Clinical Psychology
