Residence Life, Campus Ministry and DOVE Partner to Encourage Neighborliness through the Love Your Neighbor Lent Programming Series

As students returned to campus after Spring Break, Residence Life and Campus Ministry looked to their return with great anticipation. Ash Wednesday, which fell during Spring Break this year, kicked off the Lenten season and Seton Hall’s inaugural Love Your Neighbor Lent series of programs, which began on Monday, March 10th. 

Love Your Neighbor Lent encompasses more than a dozen events hosted by Residence Life, Campus Ministry and the Division of Volunteer Efforts (DOVE). Each event centers around the guiding theme question: “Who is my neighbor?” adapted from the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37. Through this theme, programming will center on the value of community while highlighting the Lenten pillars of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. This series will encourage the Seton Hall community to recognize peers as neighbors and challenge students to engage meaningfully with their neighbors here on campus—as well as in the local and global community. 

“The sacred season of Lent is one of the most ancient and most profound customs of our Christian faith,” said Father Nick Sertich, director of campus ministry. “It is a time for drawing closer to God and to one another through prayer, fasting and almsgiving. I’m proud that we, as a Catholic university, are encouraging our students to make this Lent even more meaningful by helping them explore a deeper meaning to their lives through growing in neighborly love to one another.” 

Each of the three pillars of Lent—prayer, fasting and almsgiving—are represented by the major programs in the series. Focusing on prayer, the Candlelit Prayer Concert was hosted on March 10th at 7 PM in the outdoor University Center Amphitheatre. Students enjoyed a hot pretzel—a symbol of prayer—and lit a candle to pray for a neighbor in the campus community, while student-musicians played acoustic hymns.  

With an emphasis on fasting, the Phone Fast Lunch will be hosted on March 24th from 11 AM-1 PM in the Bishop Dougherty Dining Room. During this event, community members will be encouraged to set aside their phones and consider speaking with a friend—or even a stranger at a neighboring table—to promote connection over digital distraction. 

In recognition of the practice of almsgiving, the Clothing Swap will be hosted on April 7th from 11 AM-2 PM in the University Center Event Room, where community members will be able to shop for new-to-them clothing items from the generosity of other Pirates’ donated items. Resident Assistants (RAs) are hosting clothing drives in the weeks leading up to the exchange, with support from DOVE. The Pirate’s Closet will have a special corner at the swap for business-appropriate attire, highlighting their mission in the campus community as well. 

“The Clothing Swap is another event I think works perfectly with DOVE’s mission,” Amanda Cavanaugh, director of DOVE Mission, said. “The concept of building community by service to one another is rooted in the Catholic mission. It fits that DOVE volunteers help with sorting and moving the clothing donations, and that the DOVE department assists in providing a location for leftover clothing to be donated.” 

Additionally, DOVE has partnered with Residence Life and Campus Ministry, in the spirit of neighborliness and almsgiving with the broader North Jersey community, to facilitate RA-hosted Service on Saturdays (SOS). Students will join RAs at one of four SOS volunteer days throughout Lent with community organizations including Branch Brook Park, the South Orange Community Garden and Pillar Care Continuum. 

“I love any opportunity to get more student leaders in action, and it has been a consistent goal of mine to expand DOVE’s leadership opportunities,” Amanda Cavanaugh said. “Love Your Neighbor Lent offers a perfect opportunity to provide a unique servant leadership opportunity to RAs without reinventing the wheel. Usually, SOS events are only held in the fall semester; however, I had already planned to expand the program to the spring of 2025 in a smaller capacity, due to the number of interested students. With the help of [Residence Life], I was so glad to tap into amazing leaders such as the RAs for these Love Your Neighbor SOS events.” 

Throughout the residential community on campus, student leaders are energized by the spirit of Love Your Neighbor Lent too. Outside of these larger-scale, departmental programs, RAs in the residence halls are hosting several programs around the themes of the Good Samaritan parable, neighborliness and Lenten traditions as well.  

RAs from Boland and the Complex are partnering to host Fast and Curious—a program where residents will learn about the fasting customs of Catholics and Muslims during the coinciding liturgical seasons of Lent and Ramadan. And in Boland, RAs are hosting a game show style program called Do You Know Your Neighbor? where residents will play trivia games to learn more about each other. 

RA Zainab Pieh, who is hosting Fast and Curious, was inspired by her beliefs and her experience as a Muslim student at a Catholic University. “I wanted to create a program that took the beauty of Lent and Ramadan being at the same time during March and letting the residents interact with one another and learn about the differences and similarities of both practices,” Pieh said. While the weeks between Spring Break and Easter Break often fly by, Residence Life, Campus Ministry and DOVE hold sincere hope that this series during the contemplative season of Lent can create valuable space for the campus community to honor one another as neighbors more intentionally—and even create new campus traditions. 

In order to bolster the campus community’s remembrance of the season, Residence Life and Campus Ministry have created custom prayer cards for each week of Lent, focusing on a different theme, such as “connect with your neighbor” or “share with your neighbor.” Students will recite the prayers every Monday on the @hallstudents and @shucampusministry Instagram accounts, and anyone who attends a Love Your Neighbor Lent event will receive that event’s exclusive prayer card. The prayers intend to set the tone for each week and center the community around a shared mission. 

Father Nick affirmed this sentiment, describing his vision for Love Your Neighbor Lent, “It’s my hope that the students will not only gain a more profound love for their neighbors but also grow in their love for God.” 

Love Your Neighbor Lent events will occur now through Easter. See the full schedule of events below: 

Join us this Lenten Season! 

March 5 – Ash Wednesday Services 

• 8 a.m., Noon, 5 p.m. in the Chapel
• Receive your blessed ashes and contemplate on the Lenten season as we remember Jesus’s sacrifice and anticipate His Resurrection

March 10 – Candlelit Prayer Concert

• 7 PM in the UC Outdoor Amphitheatre (rain plan: the Chapel)
• Enjoy a hot pretzel, light a candle and pray for a member of your community. Student-musicians will be playing acoustic hymns while you stop by to practice a moment of prayer or contemplation for your neighbors. Those who attend will also receive a prayer notebook.

March 15, March 22 and April 12 – Service on Saturdays

• 3/15 - Pizza Party with Pillar Care
• 3/22 - Branch Brook Park Clean Up and Pizza Party with Pillar Care
• 4/12 - South Orange Community Garden
• Join the RAs and DOVE for Service on Saturdays, where you will engage with your North Jersey neighbors through volunteer activities. Registration is required for these events – sign up at the links above! Participants will receive an exclusive LYNL-edition SOS tee shirt. 

March 24 – Phone Fast Lunch

• 11 AM-1 PM in the Bishop Dougherty Dining Hall
• Stop by the Caf and challenge yourself to enjoy lunch without using your phone—instead, find a neighbor to have a conversation with! Conversation cards will be available if you don’t know where to start. Those who accept the challenge will receive an exclusive vinyl sticker to remember “DND is for your phone, not your neighbor.”

April 7 – Campus Community Clothing Swap

• 11 a.m.-2 p.m., in the UC Event Room
• Donate gently-used clothes to the bins at any residence hall or at DOVE between March 26-April 6 — then join us on April 7 to shop the swap at NO cost! The first 250 people to browse the Clothing Swap will receive a tote bag to fill with any items they want to bring home. 

April 13 – Palm Sunday

• 8 PM – procession starts at the Seal and service is in the Chapel
• Spend your Sunday evening in worship and fellowship as we culminate the Lenten season with the traditional Palm Sunday service before Holy Week. 
  
  PLUS – look out on Engage for neighbor-focused, RA-hosted events across the residence halls and a special Love Your Neighbor Lent-themed Agape Latte Chat on March 27. 

Categories: Campus Life