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Freshmen Care for our Common Home

October 14, 2021
By Office of Communications

The Cheverus Class of 2025 concluded their two-day retreat Ignite Your Spirit with a service day on Thursday, October 14. In this Ignatian year, the service day focused on the Jesuit’s Universal Apostolic Preference to care for our common home.  All freshmen, along with their senior leaders and faculty and staff chaperones, spent a spectacular October morning outside working at orchards, community gardens, farms, and parks across greater Portland. Together they maintained trails, put gardens to bed, laid mulch, hauled brush, removed invasive species, and picked up litter. Special thanks to Boyd Street Urban Garden, Hurricane Valley Farm, Mt. Joy Public Orchard, Riverton Community Garden, Portland Parks Conservancy, and  Portland Trails for welcoming Cheverus students and showing our students how to be more active stewards of our environment.

The freshman retreat focuses on the gifts of our Ignatian heritage, including the Universal Apostolic Preferences. Unveiled in 2019, the preferences will unite the Jesuits and the Ignatian family in their shared mission. The preferences include showing the way to God, walking with the poor, journeying with the youth, and working together to care for the earth, our common home. The preferences are four areas vital for our world today. 

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