Dante Benford UNIV 101 Campus Event Reflection 9-17-2012 Recently, I attended my first Catholic mass; while this

is not a unique campus event, I feel it held a significant impact on my experience and understanding of what it means to be a part of the Loyola community. I have never been a very religious person, but attending a religious service served to expose me to a wealth of new ideas and observations that I had not previously made. While I didnt experience any sort of spiritual awakening resulting from going to the mass, I felt an entirely new path of personal development was opened for me. Coming from a public high school in downtown Chicago, I had received little exposure to outwardly expressed religious faiths amongst my peers. So I expected that coming to a Jesuit university would certainly be eye-opening for me. I had not planned on making so many observations about the general dynamics and structure of the service. While I was there, I felt an overwhelming sense of community even though it was a highly ritualized set of procedures. Just seeing the unity and synchrony of such a large group of people lead me to realize just what brought them together; an unwavering sense of faith. With no religious background, I had never been exposed to these types of things. So seeing such a high degree of unity gave me a more sound understanding and insight into the mechanisms by which people bond and make deep, withstanding connections with one another. After the mass, I found myself thinking about the Student Promise; more specifically with regards to caring for myself and caring for community. Though I didnt discover a new faith or develop any spiritual connections, I became much more aware of the ways people bond with one another. I got a glimpse into the mechanisms by which communities are established. Having never been a part of a religious community, I was stunned to see such unity amongst people that

didnt even seem to know each other. Experiences like this seem to exemplify the idea of a transformative education. I got the chance to see what its like to learn new things outside of a classroom in a setting that I least expected to do so. Attaining such insights after attending little event that occur as often as a mass excite me with regards to what other transformative experiences Ill have here at Loyola. Even though I felt insightful after the mass, I felt an almost unbearable sense of nervousness during it. Being in a place where everyone knows the customs of a particular religion, its rather difficult not to be nervous. However, the nervousness facilitated a profound level of curiosity once it passed. Attending the mass also served to give me a different idea of diversity than that I am used to. Before coming to Loyola, I was mostly used to diversity with regards only to race; but here, Im finding out about the wide range of faiths that people in the school have. Overall, an hour long service provided an almost endless amount of substance for the purpose of exploring the depths my education will take me.