September 3, 2024 // Bishop

Bishop Blesses ‘the Beating Heart’ of New ND Residence Hall

Paula Lent

“This chapel should be the beating heart of this residence hall,” Bishop Rhoades told those gathered in the St. Augustine Chapel on Friday evening, August 30, in Notre Dame’s newly opened Graham Family Hall men’s residence. “Here you will offer Christ’s sacrifice on this altar.  Here you will be nourished by His body and blood. And here, filled with the Holy Spirit, you will become one body, one spirit in Christ. Here you can come any time of the day or night to rest with the Lord in prayer.”

The St. Augustine Chapel, which was blessed and whose altar was consecrated during the Mass celebrated by Bishop Rhoades, has a beautiful simplicity to it due to its mostly sparse neutral walls, black and white tiled floors, and the natural light that streams in through the many unadorned windows. These features invite one to enter into a reverent encounter with the Lord with simplicity of heart, simplicity of posture – letting all be exposed before Him, and then finding one’s rest in Him.

Accenting this simplicity are three stained-glass windows honoring the chapel’s namesake, St. Augustine, and his mother, St. Monica. The windows flank the tabernacle and cross, above and beside them. On the opposite wall, Augustine’s famous quote – “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in you” – is painted high on a wall, under the clover-shaped dome of the chapel’s ceiling. This arched extent of the ceiling unites the tabernacle to the quote. Elsewhere the ceilings are lower, creating a more intimate sense of space within the pews, where so many men will gather weekly to pray together, cultivating a sense of community that is centered on the Lord.

On the evening of the chapel’s inaugural Mass, the pews were almost full, as one after another, the male undergraduates, dressed in attire honoring the occasion, arrived to celebrate.

Their presence and participation was so striking, in fact, that Bishop Rhoades took a minute to honor them at the close of Mass, saying, “On this Friday evening, when you could be doing so many other things, it shows your faith and love for the Lord – number one, first and foremost.”

Bishop Rhoades continued: “Number two: You’re the best dressed community of any of the residence halls,” he said – a declaration that received thunderous applause in response. “And number three: You also participated so well at Mass, with the responses and music,” Bishop Rhoades concluded.

In addition to the assembly and lectors, the residents’ participation in the celebration of the Mass also took a few forms unique to the altar dedication ceremony itself. As Bishop Rhoades explained at the beginning of his homily, during a dedication, the altar is anointed with chrism oil. Chrism is the same holy oil, made of olive oil and balsam, that is used at baptisms and confirmations, and which is placed on the hands of priests and the heads of bishops when they are ordained. “To be anointed is to be dedicated to God and consecrated to Him,” Bishop Rhoades underscored.

As part of the ceremony, a prayer of blessing was read; then the altar was sprinkled and incensed. Afterwards, several residents helped to wipe the altar down; then, they adorned it with the altar cloths, candles, and other accoutrements before placing a large bouquet before it.

Their participation in this portion of the Mass was a particularly meaningful display of the men of the dorm honoring the altar upon which the Liturgy of the Eucharist – that which above all will continuously bind them together in community through Christ – will take place time and again for many years to come.

During his homily, Bishop Rhoades spoke about the unifying nature of the Eucharist, weaving into his speech reflections from the chapel’s namesake, St. Augustine.

“I was very happy when I learned that the new chapel here in this new residence hall at Notre Dame would be named in honor of the great Father and Doctor of the Church, St. Augustine,” Bishops Rhoades said. “And it dawned on me: We didn’t have a chapel here named in honor of St. Augustine. It’s taken a couple centuries, but finally,” he continued, partly in jest.

“St. Augustine helps us to understand the dynamics of holy Communion,” Bishop Rhoades said. “He says that normally when we eat, the food we eat is assimilated by our bodies and nourishes us. He says that the Eucharist is different. We don’t assimilate the Eucharist, but it assimilates us to itself. Christ assimilates us into Him, so that we become conformed to Him, into one with Him. In Eucharistic Communion, Christ transforms us into Him. In this encounter, our individuality is opened up, freed from its self-centeredness, and placed in the Person of Jesus, who Himself is immersed in the communion of the Trinity.”

Bishop Rhoades continued: “In teaching about the Eucharist, Augustine exclaimed: ‘O sacrament of devotion! O sign of unity! O bond of charity!’ His theology stressed this proper effect of the Eucharist: the unity of the mystical body of Christ. The Eucharist has this effect of binding us together, binding the members of the Church together, because we receive the real body and blood of Christ,” Bishop Rhoades said. “In other words, the charity that binds the Church together is the proper effect of receiving the body and blood of Christ. It is truly ‘Holy Communion.’”

Following Mass, the men of Graham Family Hall and several special guests, including the benefactors who had made the chapel possible, rejoiced further in the celebration of community and the Lord’s blessings as they enjoyed a meal on tables set outside in the archway of the hall and in the stretch of lawn between it and neighboring dorms – a visible symbol of the communion of their newly formed community.