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Summary
Mary’s Marines learn the greatest lesson: they are uniquely known and deeply loved by the God they seek, who has been seeking them all along.There are classrooms on campus where acrid, dusty chalk has given way to pungent whiteboard markers.
There are classrooms on campus where the green or black chalkboard trimmed in oak or pine has evolved into a whiteboard complete with an aluminum tray.
But there is one classroom on campus where neither the rapid staccato of chalk nor the squeaky legato of the whiteboard marker is heard.
In this classroom, no one speaks audibly. Feet shuffle over the carpet. Someone shifts in his seat. A suppressed cough.
It is the “classroom of silence,” as Ave Maria University President Mark Middendorf calls it. It is the classroom where each of us can sit (or collapse, as the case may be, at least interiorly) at the feet of the Great Teacher.
Classroom of Silence
This is the classroom of Eucharistic adoration. It’s the place of heart-to-heart encounters with Jesus, who is present body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Eucharist. Whether exposed in a golden monstrance or hidden behind the golden door of a tabernacle, He is really, truly, and substantially present in the Eucharist.
And while it is true that we can pray to God anywhere and that He is within us, it is especially powerful to adore Jesus in the Eucharist.
“My favorite thing is that no matter what’s going on in my life, it’s an opportunity for me to slow down and sit at the feet of Our Lord and really outpour my heart to Him and trust that He hears every prayer that comes from me,” said Adrienne Driver (’25), coordinator for the University’s Eucharistic adoration initiative, Mary’s Marines.
She continued, “I became a Mary’s Marine after a talk that President Middendorf gave. He really emphasized the importance of daily adoration, and I was convinced after that.”
Mary’s Marines is an inspiration of President Middendorf to invite students, faculty, and staff to spend 15 to 60 minutes daily in Eucharistic adoration. His inspiration came after listening to a retreat recording by Venerable Fulton Sheen.
Moved by the Retreat
The retreat moved President Middendorf to begin practicing a daily holy hour in his own life. In assuming his new role as President of Ave Maria in 2022, he invited others to experience the graces that he received before the Lord. Since then, Mary’s Marines have grown to 286 members.
“In the classroom of silence, in that adoration chapel is where God can speak to people on their unique and distinctive gifts given to them to change the world around them,” President Middendorf said.
Dr. Sam Shephard, an associate professor of biology at Ave Maria and a Mary’s Marine, said, “I go for half an hour before work in the early morning. And sometimes that daily prayer can be really profound and beautiful and wonderful. I feel so close to God. And then other times I just sit there and say, ‘Lord, what are you doing?’”
“I think,” Dr. Shephard continued, “that the more of us there are from the different parts of the University that are in adoration, the more that it penetrates through into the heart of the mission.”
Mary’s Marines
In addition to the graces wrought throughout the times of personal prayer, each Mary’s Marine is assigned a religious sister from around the world to pray specifically for that Marine. “I thought it was really neat that I could have a sister praying for me every step of the way during my college years,” Driver said.
The student Mary’s Marines are currently being formed in the classroom of silence, a formation that they will bring into the world and that allows them to turn their hearts and bring their troubles, doubts, and failures to the Lord and to remember the greatest lesson: that they are uniquely known and deeply loved by the God they seek, who has been seeking them all along.
And all this can be done without one spoken word. In silence.
And, for all of us, especially when we cannot get to adoration but carry within us our worries and concerns, it’s important to turn—even for a moment—our minds and hearts to the Lord and simply repeat back to Him the perennial lesson He teaches us: I love you.
More About Ave Maria University and Mary’s Marines
About Sarah Chichester
