Cor Unum: One Heart

This past weekend we arrived at the Newman Center in Champaign, IL for our summer training. Before NST (New Staff Training) started FOCUS hosted a first-time event called Cor Unum, (which means One Heart) for all staff and their families. It was a wonderful time of fellowship, talks, and prayer.


Curtis Martin, founder of FOCUS, gave a very inspiring talk. I want to include a few points from his talk:

* We have to evangelize the person because people make up the culture.
* FOCUS is striving to grow deeper and stronger and is not worried about growing exponentially bigger.
* He said that by 2022, FOCUS will have graduated 75,000 students, which is enough to put 4 people at each Catholic parish in the US. The goal of FOCUS is to "launch college students into life-long Catholic mission" so it doesn't end after they graduate. We give them the tools to get to know Christ and share the Gospel with others while they are in college, with the hopes that after they graduate they will continue on in this work in their local parish and communities. That is how we are striving to reach the whole world for Christ!
* The Church will get smaller in order to get stronger, before it can get bigger.
* As we live in the re-participation of Christ's life, we have an opportunity to draw closer to Him like the early Apostles did (in regards persecution and suffering.)
* We all need to help our Priests and Bishops with the New Evangelization.
* We can invest in parishoners and do tasks so Priests don't have to do everything; that way they can be there for the pivotal moments, such as the Sacraments.



One night we had a picnic at a local park and the band L'Angelus came to play. It was a beautiful evening and a great time to relax and enjoy everyone's company. Lots of people from the support center in Colorado, where FOCUS headquarters is located, came which was such a blessing to get to meet them. Often we just think about the missionaries on campus, but if it weren't for over 50 missionaries at the support center, we couldn't be doing what we are doing on campus!


After Mass on Pentecost Sunday we had a Eucharistic Procession around the campus. We did this last year and I was really looking forward to doing it again. The Priests are in the front, processing with the Blessed Sacrament, we are are behind them following them while singing.

It is a very powerful thing to be in the presence of Christ, and to be able to take Him out onto campus and to adore him in public is such a gift.