On a recent afternoon, Bishop Noll junior Angel Casares swayed back and forth while singing an Elvis song with a resident of Albertine Home. The smiles were big and conversations plenty while Noll's Campus Ministry Team bonded with residents of its neighboring retirement home.
The visit aimed to engage students in community service outreach during Catholic Schools Week, which celebrates Catholic education, said Nina Hartman, an intern with Bishop Noll’s Campus Ministry team.
“This was our first time that we took students to the Albertine Home and we are hoping to get in the routine of doing it about twice a month,” she said. Students loved the visit and many hoped to return soon. They enjoyed chatting with residents, some of whom attended or taught at Bishop Noll.
“As we were making the 30-second walk back to BNI, I saw many smiles and many students radiating with the joy and love that they had just spread to the residents there,” Hartman said. Residents and the Albertine Sisters also loved having visitors.
“Experiences like this are not only important but necessary for our students because it shows them how joyful and blessed it can be to be a servant of the Lord. Community service can sometimes be seen as a chore that must be completed. However, I think the students who went to Albertine saw that community service, if done out of love, can actually be a fun, life-giving experience in which our actions become like a cheerful prayer to God. It shows that even though the Christian life may be the more difficult path sometimes, there is a lot more joy and peace that comes out of it. Although we all may be called to different careers and ways of lives, our first vocation is to love. The Albertine Home gave the students the perfect place to share and experience that grace. Serving the Lord with joy, laughter, and kindness is one of the greatest virtues that a Christian can have and we hope to instill these gifts into our students to take with them for the rest of their lives by continuing visits to the Albertine Home.