Beyond Sunday Fellows Explore Spirituality & Mental Health While Serving Others

Vision of Peace Hermitages Service Project

The Beyond Sunday Fellows Program provides more than just tuition support. In addition to scholarship assistance, Beyond Sunday Fellows (high school Beyond Sunday scholarship recipients) also enjoy Catholic community-building, which includes annual Foundation-sponsored service projects and a shared faith experience. At last fall’s Beyond Sunday Fellows faith experience, many of the same students who participated in the recent Vision of Peace service project learned from a panel discussion on mental health issues. Needs and ideas that arose during that discussion influenced the service activities planned for spring 2019.

At the March 2 Vision of Peace service project, Fellows began the day with a session from Msgr. Edmund Griesedieck, who serves as chaplain for Vision of Peace Hermitages. Msgr. Griesedieck spoke about the discipline of prayer and the spiritual side of mental health, and students received a variety of resources that will serve them as they continue on their spiritual journeys.

Following the session on prayer, students performed their service project in the serenity of nature that surrounds Vision of Peace Hermitages. Students cleaned the hermitages, chapel and library and spent time outdoors, cleaning and raking leaves, tending to their own mental health while offering real assistance to Vision of Peace Hermitages so that future retreatants will have more pleasant and meaningful experiences.