While activities like Rush are happening on campus, it can be difficult to look past all the noise and flash to see the quieter activities that take place. However, just as the Department of Student Life and the Campus Activities Board provide students with louder, more social opportunities, they also provide quiet, more personal opportunities for students to focus inward.

One such example is this year’s Spiritual Emphasis week. This year’s speaker is Shane Claiborne, back by popular demand. Claiborne spoke at a chapel last year and moved many students to reconsider their ideas about poverty and ministering the way Jesus did. As the Spiritual Emphasis speaker this year, Claiborne will be leading two extra chapels in the evenings so that students can choose to spend more time with him.

The weekend following Spiritual Emphasis will also offer more options for students to get away from the bustle and egocentricity of academic life. Saturday, October 21st, a campus ministries work project is scheduled. While the details of these periodic work projects vary, they usually entail students working with a local ministry like the food pantry or Dove Harbor.

The same day is this year’s first Season Alone with God. This event provides students with a retreat from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. for seeking God in nature and solitude. Its organizers hope to give students time to purposefully pursue God and re-center on Him for the remainder of the semester. While it’s easy to lose track of our devotions, skip a chapel here and there to work on a paper, or fall behind in our prayer lives, opportunities like these aim to get students back on track and refreshed.

The Sunday after these events will see the second Vintage Prayer Meeting of the year. The first was held Sunday, September 27th in Miller Chapel, and the event exactly matched its title: students meet for an hour to pray together and alone. The prayer meeting is scheduled to be a recurring event throughout the year.

Although it is ultimately the student’s responsibility to make spiritual growth a priority, the Department of Student Life and the CAB office do their best to facilitate that growth and provide opportunities to focus specifically on God and personal issues. Through events like the Vintage Prayer Meetings or the retreats that they organize, Student Life is doing its best to invest in and improve AU students’ spiritual lives.