Loyola students are approaching Lenten season with intention and reflection

For Gabriela Rosina (BA ’26), Lent this year is less about what she wants to give up and more about who she wants to be. 

“This Lent, I really want to focus on changing my thoughts and ideas, using Lent as a time to recenter,” said Rosina. “I want to try to do some type of gratitude journal every day to be grateful for everything that I have in my life and to thank God for everything he’s given me.” 

Across Loyola University Chicago’s campuses, students and faith leaders are reframing the forty day season of Lent as an opportunity to grow, personally, spiritually, and communally, rather than only being a season of sacrifice. 

Traditionally rooted in three pillars of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, Loyola’s Campus Ministry emphasizes that the heart of Lent is an open invitation to deepening one’s spiritual life.  

“[You] don’t have to be Catholic, Christian, Muslim, Jewish or any particular religious affiliation,” said Aleja Sastoque, assistant director for faith formations for Campus Ministry at Loyola University Chicago.  “The biggest step that you have to do is knock on our door and then from there everything will be easy.” 

Moving beyond sacrifice 

For many Loyola students, the practice of fasting, or “giving up,” has shifted to “giving to,” as encouraged by Pope Francis during his papacy.  

“If our Lenten practice is purely just giving up desserts, it’s not asking the deeper question: How does this practice … help me love God, love myself, and love others more freely, then we’re not necessarily participating. And we’re just choosing to go to the gym more frequently,” Loyola Chaplain Brother Bobby Nichols, S.J., said. 

Students within Loyola’s faith community are approaching their Lent with intention rather than just restriction.  

Amelia Simone (BA ’29), a member of Loyola’s A.M.D.G. faith community, has decided to give up using TikTok and spend the time she would normally be online deepening her spiritual life.  

Grounded in prayer and contemplation 

For many, strengthening prayer practice is an anchor in their Lenten journey. As a Jesuit, Catholic institution, Loyola faith leaders and community members draw on simple Ignatian practices to encourage slowing down and reflection, such as the daily examine. Nichols explains, “My daily examine often consists of two really simple questions. The first is, what am I grateful for today? And then the second question is, what do I need assistance with?”   

This basic check–in helps ground and center a person with God, and through this they approach life with a stronger spiritual intentionality.  “Ignatian [practice] is all about contemplation and understanding by having a deeper understanding of ourselves,” Nichols says. “We can then have a deeper appreciation for how God loves us and how we are then called to love others.” 

Faith in community 

In addition to being a deeply personal practice, prayer also is strengthened by community. The Catholic faith groups at Loyola, diverse both in their backgrounds and approach to faith, gather regularly like a family to pray together.   

Simone frequently attends 9 p.m. Mass at Ignatius House, home to Loyola’s Jesuit community, with many of her peers. “It’s always really special to go and catch up with everybody because a lot of times [I may not] see these people unless it’s at Thursday night Mass and we can share our faith together and afterwards hang out and really enjoy our time together.” 

Lent culminates in Holy Week, running from Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday. During Holy Week, Loyola’s faith groups will gather to walk the Stations of the Cross. The service focuses on social justice, inviting participants to pray for the many cultural and ethnic groups within the Chicago community.  

Junior Natalie Dominguez-Partida (BA ’27), who has attended in past years recalled that she felt “very present” throughout the service, experiencing “intimate” moments of connection with God. At the same time, she felt strength praying alongside her peers. “We’re going to do this together, walking through this period of time through prayer,” she said.

From reflection to action

The final pillar of Lent, almsgiving, encourages to give back to their community through service. Whether volunteering, giving to charitable causes, or simple acts of kindness, Nichols says Lent calls people to see beyond themselves.

“Lent should be a time where the ‘my’ becomes ‘our,’ where we see our community is not just my family, not just my church, not just my faith, not just my country, but all,” Nichols says. He recommends that people look inward to discover what they might be able to give and then look out to the many communities that may be in need.

Taking an Ignatian approach to Lenten spirituality—analyzing the self, connecting to God from that space, and growing outward towards connection with others—makes the journey more approachable and opens doors to personal and spiritual discovery.

“I think what Lent is really trying to do is ask a deeper question: what is God inviting me to become in these months leading up to Easter?” Nichols says. “What is it within myself that I need to let go of so that new life can come?”