THE CATHOLIC FISH!!
ARE YOU READY?!?!!? This is going to be my favorite post yet!
Coming to Vanderbilt, I knew I was going to be involved in University Catholic, the Catholic community only a block off-campus. I knew from the first mass at Benton Chapel that I wanted to be involved with the freshmen and upperclassmen who filled the pews around me. I knew I wanted to play violin, possible lector, and one day even be able to make an announcement from the podium. I knew that I wanted to be part of University Catholic from the very first opening song of the mass.
Imagine having a place only a block off campus that’s open 24/7 to any Catholic undergrad, graduate, or medical student who wants to pray, study, hang out, or eat. Enter Frassati House. Imagine having THREE daily masses a day for students who want to take 30 minutes out of their schedules to meditate and reflect on their lives and Jesus’s. Enter the 7:00 AM, 12:10 PM, and 5:30 PM masses Monday through Thursday at the Cathedral of the Incarnation. Imagine having about a 100 people from all different majors and colleges (and even universities—University Catholic partners with Belmont as well!) to eat dinner with on Sunday (Sunday Supper!), play intramural water polo with, and talk to during study breaks at Frass. Imagine University Catholic.
Yeah, it’s amazing.
The best part about UCat is that it’s fairly young. It’s still growing, changing. The composition of the board (there’s four pillars: Intellectual, Spiritual, Human, and Apostolic) changes every January, and each freshman group is tighter than the last. Currently, the freshman of UCat are about 24-strong, and we have not one, but TWO Group-me’s! We meet for Rosary almost every night, swing dance quite frequently, and recently hosted a Masquerade Murder Mystery party which was a stunning success. But most of all, we’re always inviting more people to dance, eat, and pray with us. We have non-religious events so that we can reach out to people—just to share the joy of living with, because life is so fantastic!
I love UCat so much and more posts will come, I promise. As the unofficial president of the Catholic fish (what we call ourselves as the freshmen), I can tell you that in the coming months we’ll be hosting more swing-dancing tutorials, making our own Escape Games, playing Laser Tag in Nashville, and even going to my aunt’s lake-house (a lot of planning, yes, but totally worth it!) sometime in April. And remember! If you have any questions, feel totally free to email me at sophia.druffner@vanderbilt.edu. I would LOVE to hear from you cause you’re AMAZING!!!!!!
ever most sincerely,
SOPHIE!!!!!!!!