St. Vincent-St. Mary's Sodality Faith Groups

Read about the Sodalities, small faith-sharing groups, formed at St. Vincent-St. Mary Catholic High School in Akron, OH. Julianne Goshe, Ministry Lead for Marianist Encounters, shares this initiative with us.

The purpose of a Catholic Marianist school is to allow our students to know, love, and serve Jesus so that they can become disciples of Christ. Our Marianist Founders took Mary’s words at the Wedding Feast of Cana in John 2:5, “Do whatever he tells you,” to heart when forming sodalities in post-revolutionary France to awaken, enliven, and spread the gospel and the Catholic faith.

There are alarming statistics on the number of young people who will leave their faith and the Church before age 23. I realized, like Father Chaminade, that new times called for new measures in high school Campus Ministry. It was clear that building trusting relationships, meeting students where they are in faith, allowing choice and voice to learn and grow their faith and providing students with at least one adult witness was truly needed.

The Sodalities are comprised of single-sex groups of 5-8 students. Each Sodality has a Catholic younger adult mentor from outside our school community. We currently have five small groups up and running with 32 students sharing faith together. These groups typically meet once every other week at a time they select. Besides prayer and faith support, they participate in bible studies, book studies, video series studies, or whatever the group has decided with their mentor is the direction their faith life needs to take. The hope with the Sodality Small Faith Sharing Group program is that our students will truly encounter the love of Jesus; a love that transforms.