While most college students spent their spring breaks relaxing, Christendom students and staff spent their break living out the mission of the college to “restore all things in Christ” with mission trips and pilgrimages to Honduras, Chicago, the Dominican Republic, and Paris this past month.
Over the past 25 years, more than a thousand Christendom students have traveled abroad over spring break to serve the poor by evangelizing, building homes, and completing countless other projects for them. Students have served in locations such as the Dominican Republic, Malta, Peru, Colorado, the Bronx, and Mexico.
This year, twenty-five Christendom students and staff traveled to the Dominican Republic in partnership with the Diocese of Arlington and served at their mission in Banica, continuing the work of founding faculty member Dr. Raymond O’Herron, who started the annual trip. Students helped local workers rebuild two old chapels by making cement and painting.
Students spent time with families in the Dominican Republic, helping rebuild two old chapels.
“I believe every Christendom student should go on a mission trip because it’s an opportunity to see the world, experience poverty and learn to be grateful, discover new friends, and most importantly, learn a lot more about your personal relationship with God,” says sophomore Paddy Deighan, who spent his first mission trip in the Dominican Republic.
Students who traveled to Honduras lived with locals for the week, immersing themselves in the daily life of the village and evangelizing in other nearby villages.
Once again, the college sent a group to serve in Honduras alongside the Missioners of Christ as well. Ten students and staff members lived with locals for the week, immersing themselves in the daily life of the village, evangelizing in nearby villages, and assisting the Missioners of Christ with physical therapy in their medical center.
Seventeen students and three staff members, led by assistant chaplain Fr. Gabriel Flynn, also embarked on a pilgrimage to Paris and Lourdes. They visited sites including Notre Dame, Sainte-Chapelle, and the Louvre, encountering astounding art and architecture, while spending time in prayer and contemplating the beauty of these sacred places.
Seventeen students and three staff members, led by assistant chaplain Fr. Gabriel Flynn, also embarked on a pilgrimage to Paris and Lourdes.
Experiencing France’s rich history and religious significance was profound for freshman Siena Do.
“We stood where kings, saints, popes, and apparitions of Mary herself stood, and that was almost overwhelming,” says Do. “As a history lover, I found it hard to even comprehend how much history has happened in and left its mark on Paris alone.”
Meanwhile, ten students and two staff members worked on domestic projects, cleaning and painting high school locker rooms and a church basement in Momence, Illinois, and beginning renovations at a community center in Hopkins Park, one of the state’s poorest regions.
Students who traveled to Chicago spent the week working on domestic projects, cleaning and painting a church basement and beginning renovations at a community center in Hopkins Park, one of the state’s poorest regions.
Freshman Bridget Palm was moved by the gratitude that greeted the missionaries’ work and the service offered in return.
“Our work didn’t feel like it was enough to fully answer the needs of the communities we served, but we realized that our efforts were significant simply because there was no one else to do what we were doing,” Palm says. “It was powerful to receive such heartfelt gratitude from the communities we served, and the experience was made even more beautiful by the fact that we were served by the very people we had come to serve, with a warm welcome, food, housing, resources, and prayers.”
Junior Matthew Rodriguez, reflecting on his first Christendom mission trip, says, “The opportunity to serve others and practice true Christian charity, especially during Lent, is an experience you will never forget. During my mission trip, I made lasting friends, connections, and experiences that I will carry with me for the rest of my time at Christendom and beyond.”
These spring break trips follow a January mission to Guadalajara, Mexico, where students and staff built houses for families in need, exemplifying Christendom’s mission to ‘restore all things in Christ’ through service.
Christendom’s Spring Break mission trips provide students with a variety of opportunities to perform spiritual and corporal works of mercy during the Lenten season, helping them grow while they assist others. Christendom exists to educate the lay apostolate and “restore all things in Christ.” The spring break mission trips are a natural extension of that mission, as students work to bring Christ to the less fortunate throughout the world, both this year and in the years to come.
Contributed by Bridget Palm ’28.