Mount Carmel students pray for and with each other

By Christine Bordelon
Clarion Herald

Praying for the well-being of others is the simple concept behind the new Cor Carmeli intercessory prayer team at Mount Carmel Academy (MCA), an all-girls' Catholic high school in New Orleans.


Team leaders and eighth-grade religion teachers Kaitlyn Saal and Maris Nixon, who are also the new campus ministers at Mount Carmel, saw the unifying effect that intercessory prayer had at Christ the King Parish and Catholic Center at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and sought to make it a priority at MCA.

“I witnessed a lot of fruit from that,” Nixon said about moms praying for them as LSU students. “We saw conversion and miracles. We saw that prayer really made a difference. It moved a lot of us who graduated to think that we need to spread this everywhere.”


The MCA team – composed of students, parents, alumnae and friends of MCA – held its first event Nov. 5, a Cor Carmeli Morning of Prayer that offered fellowship, prayer and a testimony by Lisa Flood, the originator of LSU’s intercessory prayer team, whom Nixon and Saal had met in college. The team will meet once a semester.

Divine providence
When Nixon, who has a master’s degree in religious studies from Notre Dame Seminary, and Saal, who is working toward a master’s degree, became Mount Carmel religion teachers four years ago, they enjoyed the camaraderie among faculty and students, but never felt there was enough time during class to guide students wanting to further explore their faith.

They desired to offer students more opportunities to encounter Christ outside of the classroom as well as have others pray for them.

“We knew that’s where we had to start; that was what we wanted to make our priority – getting a community of people praying for these girls, our teachers and administration and staff,” Nixon said. “We knew that had to be the beginning.”

Nixon approached MCA principal Beth Ann Simno with her ideas about establishing both campus ministers on campus along with an intercessory prayer team. Neither she nor Saal expected to be named campus ministers or lead the prayer group.

“It was something the Lord was putting heavily on my heart last year,” Nixon said. “The Lord kept confirming it in prayer,” and their fellow religion teachers supported it.

Saal said it was miraculous that everything fell into place this year. She credits Flood, their LSU mentor, for encouraging them, saying that leading intercessory prayer was not more work, “it’s just prayer to help you. I think the girls really deserve someone outside of class to pray with them, too.”

“It was the Lord’s providence,” Nixon said.

Nixon and Saal say as dedicated campus ministers they create a safe space for students to ask faith questions and help religion teachers plan liturgies and retreats. Having a team of people praying for everyone at MCA – students, teachers and the administration – should make an impact this year, they said.

“We have really good religion teachers who witness to our girls, but we are limited (in the classroom),” Nixon said. “We wanted to be more intentional with students outside of the classroom. … I could see these students wanted more than I could give them in the classroom.”

Will only enhance faith
The two now split their time between teaching religion and being campus ministers available to students through a Google appointment system. Most students come in for 15 minutes at lunch or during independent study periods.

“One of us is theoretically always in the office,” Saal said. “A lot of girls who have come so far have had simple questions – they just want to know how to pray or how to start praying because they have a desire. Ninety percent of the conversations have been that. We walk with them in their prayer life, giving them practical tools. … I tell them they don’t need to give God that much time; God takes that little you give him and brings out that desire to be with him more. It’s been cool to spiritually mentor them. It’s the heart of what we do in walking with the girls.”

Saal sees campus ministry as an extension of her desire to fill students with the Holy Spirit.

“I’ve already seen the impact of just having a safe space where they can be honest about their desire about their relationship with God … and connecting them with other girls who feel the same way,” Saal said. “My hope is that it will change the culture at Mount Carmel so that everywhere you look, you are seeing the Lord working through the students and teachers and creating more unity.”

Nixon said she can’t teach encounter, but now she can provide a space for it as a campus minister.

“In the classroom, our job as catechists is to deepen students’ faith and understanding of the truth of the church,” Nixon said. “If the girls aren’t getting opportunities to encounter the Lord, then what we are teaching them isn’t going to mean anything. I think they were encountering the Lord before because we have great teachers, who witness to them while catechizing them, but it’s hard to do both. As campus ministers, we can be more intentional about ways in which we’re building bridges for evangelizing – we are giving more opportunities for girls to come in and be more real. ... My hope, as a culture, is that we go deeper because the Lord’s always drawing us in deeper.”

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