(KNSI) – Sunday night mass at St. John’s University is heading to the Great Outdoors this weekend.
The 9:00 service will be held on the frozen waters of Lake Sagatagan. Director of Campus Ministry Margaret Nuzzolese Conway says they adjust the mass to deal with the exposure to the elements.
She ticks off some of the changes that are made. “So, little things like using a clam to make sure that the bread and wine don’t freeze, and we pre-record music so that our musicians are able to sing and perform to the best of their ability. We bring out chairs and hand warmers and hats, things like that.”
Everyone is welcome but Nuzzolese Conway still expects it to be overwhelmingly students from St. John’s and the College of St. Benedict. She programs event services like this one with that in mind. “It’s the idea that faith for young people ought to be fun and relevant. We take the best of our university culture and our Benedictine tradition and we say, let’s do our favorite thing in one of our favorite places, so liturgy in the outdoors, and it’s an encounter of God and creation. It’s pretty unique.”
The schools say it is the country’s only mass of its kind.
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