Hope That Doesn’t Disappoint: Ten Practices to Grow Living Faith on Campus
by Rosie Chinea Shawver, MDiv
This last Tuesday, I was invited to the Los Angeles Prayer Breakfast. The keynote, Bishop Joseph A. Espaillat, offered a word our campuses need right now: hope that does not disappoint (Rom 5:5). For many students, college is a whirlwind of questions and pressures—loneliness and anxiety, ideological crossfire online, the temptation to numb out or give up. For ministers, the load can feel heavy: limited time, limited budgets, unlimited needs. Into that mix, the bishop reminded us that Christian hope isn’t wishful thinking or a pep talk; it is a virtue anchored in God’s faithfulness.
We also can’t ignore the ache beyond our campus borders. Headlines of violence at home and abroad weigh on our students and on us. Without dwelling in despair, we can name the pain, lament with those who suffer, and intercede for healing. The Gospel invites us to be peacemakers - to guard our words, build bridges one relationship at a time, and bear Christ’s mercy into places frayed by fear (Mt 5:9).
Hope, he said, is not a mood or a marketing angle; it is the fruit of living faith - faith that engages our whole person and our daily work. Living faith moves our mouths to speak blessing instead of cynicism. It moves our feet to go toward the student in need, to serve, to invite, to reconcile. It moves our hearts to persevere in prayer when outcomes are slow and hidden. This is the kind of faith students recognize as real, because it is honest, embodied, and rooted in Jesus, not in vibes, slogans, or mere ideas.
What follows are ten concrete practices to cultivate that kind of hope on campus-simple enough to try this week, yet substantial enough to shape a semester. Each one translates the bishop’s challenge into everyday habits that help us believe, accept, and respond to the Lord’s call in the real circumstances of university life.
1) Begin where hope begins: ask for faith
Hope doesn’t appear out of thin air. “We must first have faith to have hope.” Faith is not merely agreeing with statements about God; it’s trusting Jesus in the very places where students feel pressure, loneliness, doubt, and fear. When faith deepens, hope takes root.
Try this week: Open every meeting (staff, student leaders, small groups) with a one-line prayer said out loud together: “Lord Jesus, increase our faith so your hope may abound on this campus.” Pair it with Romans 12:12 - “Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.” Read it slowly; let it set your week’s tone.
2) Walk the path: Believe → Accept → Respond
Bishop Espaillat laid out a path that’s both bracing and freeing.
Believe: “I believe in God.” But, as he quipped, so does the devil. Mere assent is a starting point, not the finish line.
Accept: Welcome Jesus’ Lordship into concrete circumstances - budget stress, roommate drama, exam anxiety, family grief.
Respond: Act in love. Faith without works is useless. Hope becomes credible when it moves into our hands and habits.
Try this week: Ask each student leader to name one place they will “accept” Jesus’ Lordship (e.g., I’ll forgive my teammate; I’ll set an honest study plan; I’ll go to Confession), and one small response they’ll take in 48 hours.
3) Pray like you mean it - out loud
“God gave us a mouth-use it.” We often keep prayer in our heads, but spoken prayer trains young hearts to trust and to hope. If a student can articulate a fear, they can also articulate a petition.
Try this week: After someone shares, ask, “Can I pray for you right now?” Keep it short and specific: “Jesus, bring peace to Sarah’s mind before her exam. Strengthen her with your Spirit. Amen.” Invite the student to say one line, too.
4) Speak life: if you can curse, you can bless
Our words either bless campuses into bloom or scorch them with cynicism. As ministers, we’re not called to take life; we’re called to bless it-to speak God’s good over people, projects, and places.
Try this week: Issue a Blessing Challenge to your team: one explicit blessing per day.
Examples:
“In Jesus’ name, I bless your courage to face today.”
“May the Holy Spirit give you clarity and calm.”
“Lord, bless our campus with truth and charity.”
Keep a tally; celebrate the stories that follow.
5) Be ruthlessly authentic - “real recognizes real”
Students are not allergic to authority; they’re allergic to inauthenticity. They don’t need perfect answers; they need ministers who are real about their own walk with the Lord. Authenticity is not oversharing; it’s integrity-your words and your life pointing the same direction.
Try this week: Begin your next talk with a two-minute testimony that names a current pressure and how Jesus is meeting you there. Then ask: “Where do you need hope right now?” Give them silence to answer.
6) Keep watch for hope (and record your “hope sightings”)
Hope often shows up small: a student returns after months away, a roommate asks a genuine question, a lab partner agrees to come to Mass. If we don’t watch for hope, we’ll miss it.
Try this week: Start a physical or digital Hope Board (whiteboard, Slack channel, shared doc). Invite your team to note “hope sightings” daily: tiny resurrections and small obediences. Review them every Friday and thank God-persevering in prayer grows easier when you can see the fruit.
7) Answer the cultural fog with the Person of Jesus
The bishop named headwinds our students face - relativism, nihilism, proportionalism-and we see their fallout: depression, anxiety, addiction. The answer isn’t a louder ideology; the Gospel is not an idea or an ideology. It is the living Person of Jesus encountered in Word, sacrament, community, and service. Truth is truly true, and students actually want it when it’s lived with love.
Try this week: Build every event around four encounters:
Word: 10 unhurried minutes with Scripture.
Sacrament: A real next step toward Confession and Eucharist.
Community: Share a meal with intentional conversation.
Service: One reachable work of mercy this month (dorm move-in help, note-writing to the homebound, campus clean-up).
8) Don’t outsource evangelization - go person to person
“Don’t wait for our leaders to do it. Do it alone, person to person.” Baptism already commissions us. Titles help with coordination; they aren’t prerequisites for mission.
Try this week: End your leader meeting with a mini-sending: trace a small cross on each forehead or palm-“You are sent to bring Christ’s light here.” Ask each person to name one peer they will listen to, pray with, or invite this week.
9) Make mission your identity, not an add-on
Pope Francis writes that each of us can say, “I am a mission on this earth.” When we split “ministry” from “real life,” everything goes gray. We become performers seeking recognition instead of disciples offering ourselves in love. Keep the soul in your work.
Try this week: Revisit your rule of life-daily prayer, weekly Sabbath, monthly Confession, spiritual friendship. Mission flows from communion; when the well is full, hope overflows to students.
10) Put your hope to work-serve, build, and bless
Faith without works is not just incomplete; it’s useless. Hope matures when it’s embodied: tutoring a struggling freshman, walking with a student to counseling, starting a Scripture-before-screens habit with your small group, offering Eucharistic Adoration during midterms.
Try this week: Choose one concrete act that costs you something-time, convenience, attention-and do it with joy. Name it aloud: “I’m doing this because Jesus is my hope.” Watch how contagious that becomes.
Why this matters now
So many young adults whisper, “I don’t know what to believe,” and slide toward nothingness. That “nothing” hurts-showing up as anxiety, numbness, self-medicating. Our campuses don’t need hot takes; they need holy presence. They need ministers who believe, accept, and respond-who speak life, bless, and keep watch for the quiet seeds of resurrection.
Hope does not disappoint because it’s anchored in the living God. Let’s put hope to work-one blessing, one conversation, one act of love at a time.