New Theme: 'You Are the One I Have Chosen'

Our Lady of Guadalupe Is Focus of Benedictine College’s New School Year

Friday, August 15, 2014

Benedictine College announced its theme for the 2014-15 school year: ‘You Are the One I Have Chosen.’

\The quote are taken from the words St. Juan Diego reported from Our Lady of Guadalupe at her second apparition in Mexico in 1531: “Listen, my child: There are many I could send, but you are the one I have chosen for this task.”

Benedictine College in Fall 2014 will open two new residence halls — the 10th and 11th new dorms on campus since 2000. One is named Guadalupe Hall and the other is named Lemke Hall after Father Henry Lemke, a founder of St. Benedict’s Abbey in Atchison.

“Our new theme emphasizes that Benedictine College is a chosen place with a special mission,” said President Stephen D. Minnis. “It is our hope that students will see in Our Lady’s words to Juan Diego the call to each of them to the tasks of the New Evangelization.”

Minnis said Benedictine College students have a special relationship to the Blessed Mother.

“We receive many applications and that as I sign the letters of those who have been accepted I pray a Hail Mary for that specific person asking Mary’s intercession in their lives,” he said. “It is through the grace of Our Lady that they are at Benedictine College. There are many she could send to Benedictine, but it is the ones attending the college that she has chosen for the task.”

In the 1999 document Ecclesia in America (The Church in America) St. John Paul II named Our Lady of Guadalupe “Patroness of all America and Star of the first and new evangelization.”

Our Lady of Guadalupe is a cherished devotion at Benedictine College. Students have used the Guadalupe Chapel on campus, in the crypt of St. Benedict’s Abbey, since the 1950s. In 2013 and 2014, Benedictine College  was one of a few Catholic colleges in the United States to be chosen to participate in the Vatican’s Ecclesia in America conference, which focused on Our Lady of Guadalupe.

“When we were looking for a theme for the school year, we came across the words of Our Lady of Guadalupe and immediately knew we found it,” said David Trotter, Director of Mission and Ministry. “We know these words will be the perfect tie-in as we form young men and women to answer Christ’s call to bring his Gospel into every sector of society.”

Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego in Mexico in December 1531. To confirm the authenticity of her appearance , she led him to roses that had bloomed in the winter and caused her image to appear on his tilma (cloak). The miraculous image brought about a sea change in Mexico, attracting millions to the Catholic faith. Despite the age of the tilma, the image has survived to the present day.

Founded in 1858, Benedictine College is a Catholic, Benedictine, residential, liberal arts college located on the bluffs above the Missouri River in Atchison, Kansas.  The school is proud to have been named one of America’s Best Colleges by U.S. News & World Report as well as one of the top Catholic colleges in the nation by First Things magazine and the Newman Guide.  It prides itself on outstanding academics, extraordinary faith life, strong athletic programs, and an exceptional sense of community and belonging.  It has a mission to educate men and women within a community of faith and scholarship.

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