On Friday in the Common Good Lounge at Saint Mary’s Student Center, students of different faiths and spiritual backgrounds came together to learn from each other and talk about their beliefs.
The group, led by sophomore Jasleen Ghattora and spiritual life staff, started the meeting with a review of the dialogue rules and then everyone had the opportunity to answer the different questions the leaders prepared for the meeting.
“We always have ground rules. We give them a bit of events and insight, and we ask for ideas. Then we have three or four discussion questions. We’ve never really got into all of them. What I try to do with my discussion questions is make them as engaging as possible and try to make them a little bit more deep every week,” Ghattora said.
Students don’t need to have a specific religious background that they identify with. The idea is to bring together students from different religious and cultural backgrounds and learn from their beliefs and experiences.
“I don’t subscribe to the Catholic faith and I think it’s important for other students who aren’t Catholic, on a Catholic campus especially, to find community with each other but also connect them with Catholic students,” sophomore Ava Hess said.
She continued, “I think we all need to respect each other and where we’re coming from. I think connecting on that level, even if my God is not your God, we still have something that’s driving our lives and that can help us work together to get to our goals.”
The group goes back and forth, sometimes stopping to ask each other questions on what a practice that their religion follows means or just to say they believe in something similar. These questions are meant to lead to a better understanding of themselves and their peers.
“We have a lot of people who were Catholic and are now questioning. But I think I’m the only one [in the group] who’s really just kind of exploring, not in a box. I'm not upset about it in any way because that means when I come here, I get to pick up bits and pieces of everyone's religion. That’s what I love doing so much is connecting to other people and learning about them and their beliefs because it helps me expand my own,” Hess said.
Hess continued, “My favorite thing to tell people is that I’m not Catholic and I love it here. It is a safe space for everyone to come in, even if they don’t participate in the conversation. That’s still an opportunity for them to think and experience new things.”
A crucial part of the meeting is about respecting other beliefs and learning from other students. Ghattora wants to bring together people no matter what religion they are and be able to have open conversations.
“I think religion divides and spirituality unites. Although we all distinguish ourselves like, ‘Oh I'm this religion and I'm this,’ we all have the same kind of concept of spirituality. We can stand on the grounds of one basic thing. It’s just a matter of bringing that to light and realizing, you’re Catholic and I’m Hindu but we have the same beliefs and we can be nice and respect each other which is what I think Saint Mary’s needs,” Ghattora said.
The next Interfaith Dialogue meetings will be on Feb. 9 and March 8 at 12 p.m. in the Common Good Lounge.
