THERESA BALICK AND JEN HANTZ
STAFF WRITER AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGER
Students across campus cleared their schedules for Household Life Week, an annual event dedicated to celebrating the community offered to all by households.
The festivities and excitement commenced Thursday, Sept. 5 at 10 a.m. with the Household Fair outside of the Finnegan Fieldhouse.
The households set up tables advertising their commitments and charisms while groups of students served free hamburgers to passersby. The loud music also contributed to the lively atmosphere, attracting the attention of the hundreds of students who passed by on their way to class.
“At first, when I was a freshman, I wasn’t really into households,” said Kayla Anderson, a senior in The Little Flowers household. “And then, when I started coming to commitments and meeting the girls and really getting to know the household and what they were about, … I felt right at home.”
Junior Emma Jeanne Warren also commented on the way her household, Illuminata Pace, reflected a homey community. “Pace just felt like home,” she said.
Friday, Sept. 6 at 4:45 p.m., a rainbow of household shirts filled the Finnegan Fieldhouse for the Household Life Mass. The moment the song “Lift High the Banners of Love” by Graham Kendrick began, students began to clap along to the music and wave their colorful household banners as they processed toward the altar.
The Rev. Matthew Russick, TOR, celebrated the Mass and gave a homily appreciating the fruit that springs from the households. He challenged household members to find new ways of fasting and to cut back whatever is preventing their growth toward God.
“Sometimes our prayer needs to be embodied. Our desire for change needs to be felt in our bodies,” Russick said. “It’s a call to a new level of authenticity in your household.”
The energy of the week came to a climax the morning of Saturday, Sept. 7 as students clustered together at the annual Household Olympics. Each team received a score card for twelve events, and each person got a bag of paint for the opening game: a paint war among all the households.
Once students were thoroughly colored, the twelve main events began. Households faced off one-on-one in each event, the winning team earning a point. Students egged each other in the face, dunked their own team members into a dunk tank and slid across a tarp of soap and beans, all attempting to score for their team.
The five finalists for the men’s households were In His Image (IHI) 1, Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, IHI 2, Koinonia and Lions of Judah. The women’s household finalists were Metanoia et Missa, Servants of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, The Little Flowers, Stella Mariae and Regina Angelorum.
After a fierce tie-breaking wheelbarrow race, Lions of Judah and Regina Angelorum took home the trophies.
Senior Patricia Villegas from Regina Angelorum expressed the team’s gratitude. “We’re really grateful, and I really think we learned the true meaning of ‘fight the good fight,’” she said.