Photo by Matt Cashore/University of Notre Dame
I serve as the rector of Knott Hall, a men’s residence dorm at the University of Notre Dame, and I just received my new freshmen list. Despite the long hours and somewhat chaotic disorder when they arrive to move in, Notre Dame’s Welcome Weekend in August is my favorite time of the year. The first year young men show up wide-eyed, enthusiastic, and sometimes comically naïve – learning that they have to add water to ramen before microwaving it at 3 a.m. so as not to set the fire alarm off. Others struggle more obviously with the adjustment to a bigger league.
On every week’s staff agenda there is a line item for people of concern: the ones holing up in their rooms, the ones struggling socially, and the ones dealing with mental health or family issues. If we spend 90% of our time on 10% of our population, it’s because the others can mostly make their own way without much help. This reminds me of the parable Jesus told 2000 years ago about leaving the ninety-nine for the one lost sheep. Comparing the work of the residence hall team with that of Jesus as the Good Shepherd makes sense also when we recall what Blessed Basil Moreau wrote almost 130 years ago about showing preference for the “lost sheep” we encounter in our ministry:
“If at times you show preference to any young person, it should be the poor, those who have no one else to show them preference, those who have the least knowledge, those who lack skills and talent, and those who are not Catholic or Christian. If you show them greater care and concern, it must be because their needs are greater and because it is only just to give more to those who have received less.”
More than a century later, Bl. Basil Moreau’s words still resonate among us at Notre Dame and our other institutions of higher education. In Holy Cross, we are “educators in the faith,” striving to educate both the minds and the hearts of students and leading them to grow in Christ’s love.
Fr. Jim King, C.S.C.
Published on July 23, 2025
