Campus Ministry bonded four women in a lifelong friendship

Maria and Megan didn’t know about the Newman Center at Slippery Rock University when they arrived on campus as freshman 12 years ago. When the new roommates went to the local parish for Mass, Fr. Matt McClain, then-pastor and campus chaplain, encouraged them to check out the student Mass and campus ministry at the Newman Center.

Megan met Becky on her dorm floor and Lynnette in a writing class. She invited both women to come to Rock Catholic with her and Maria. Soon the four women attended Mass and Rock Catholic together regularly. They became close friends.

“I think the relationship we built through campus ministry was so strong because we shared  life there,” Megan recalled. “It was a safe space to be our authentic selves and receive unconditional acceptance. We could go deep in sharing our feelings and our faith.”

Becky added that the upperclassmen who were the student leaders fostered an environment that facilitated that deep acceptance and faith sharing.

“It was a place to belong, to come as you are,” Lynnette recalls.
Through their four years at SRU, these women grew as leaders in Rock Catholic and their close friendship widened to include many others.

Megan, supported by her friends, started a Ladies’ Prayer Group that became a strong, long-standing ministry. It had a huge impact on other women through its weekly small-group meetings. It also hosted a Facebook group for sharing prayer intentions, which still exists today.

The women’s friendship did not end at graduation. The four women reunited at the Newman Center for annual Oktoberfest celebrations, made road trips to each other’s new homes, and held Christmas and summer gatherings every year until the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

All four women attended each other’s weddings. Maria had her first daughter in 2018, and the other three women had their first babies within that year. Between the four friends, there are now six children in all.  The kids are building fast friendships just like their mommas.

Because of the pandemic, these friends have not been all together since January 2020. The four of them gathered for a recent Zoom call, and reminisced about their college experience, campus ministry and their friendship.

“I honestly can’t think of a (good) college memory that doesn’t tie in some way back to campus ministry,” Megan shared.
Becky echoed that gratitude.

“The Rock Catholic community was the thing I didn’t even know that I needed but am so glad I found,” she said.