CCO is a nationwide, student-focused evangelization movement and has been present on the downtown campus since April. Its first initiative, the faith study, is “a collection of helpful resources, which clearly and simply explain the truth and principles for living the Catholic faith,” said Cheryl-Lynn Lina, CCO campus leader at Ryerson.
Discovery Faith Study is focused on Jesus — who He is, why He is relevant in a person’s life, how He can become part of an individual’s life — and the core message of Christianity.
For six weeks in the fall semester, a small group consisting of about four students and a faith leader will meet for one hour each week. The groups are kept small to provide participants with the opportunity to contribute, said Lina.
“Faith for some people is very personal and so you want to give them a safe environment that will help them discover more about their faith life. And so we find that small groups tend to be better for that kind of development and conversation.”
A typical session of the study begins with a short prayer, icebreakers and small talk. It’s important to help participants build relationships with one another, Lina said.
Sessions include Scripture passages and reflection questions meant to focus on the themes and principles relevant to Christian life. The first session is on God’s love, for example, where Scripture will focus on that subject with questions, which are based on the reading, used to draw out the theme of God’s love.
Before the closing prayer, the study ends with a challenge.
“This challenge is put into place to help us live out the principle that we just learned or apply it to our every day,” said Lina, calling the entire study a very simple and straightforward opportunity for students to understand their Catholic faith and to meet other students they would not have otherwise known.
At the end of the six weeks, there will be a celebration and students will be invited to take another faith study.
Aside from Discovery, there are four other CCO faith studies: Source, Growth, Obedience and Commission. Lina says Source, which will be run as the winter semester faith study at Ryerson, is about knowing that “the Holy Spirit makes a difference in our lives.” Growth provides the “essential elements for spiritual growth.”
Obedience focuses on “practical lessons on obedience, surrender and trust in God.” Lastly, the Commission faith study is “how to understand the motivation to spread the message and the mission of Christ.”
Aside from Lina, the CCO team at Ryerson consists of two other missionaries, Megan Crowe and Ben Turland.
“Their role as missionaries, all of us really, is to create a presence on campus, a place that fosters relationship building and to create a variety of programs that suit the different needs of the Ryerson students,” Lina said.
CCO has partnered with the student group Ryerson Catholics and Oriana Bertucci, director of Chaplaincy at Ryerson University.
“We are really working in collaboration with Ryerson Catholics. We see ourselves as one group and so together we’re going to create a variety of programs that meet a variety of needs; some are outreach oriented, some are faith related, some are just social,” Lina said.
For more information on CCO Ryerson visit www.cco.ca or e-mail toronto@cco.ca.