Growing together as a community and house is important to get to know your classmates. The goal of communities is to bring people together and grow in your faith. The first annual Community Retreat Day took place on September 22, 2021, and was planned by Campus Ministry and school directors. The goal of this retreat was faith, fellowship and fun. This is planned to alternate every year with the XCEED conference, when speakers come in and discuss a variety of topics and connect them to faith with students and staff. Throughout the day, the five communities: Catherine of Siena, John Paul II, Juan Diego, Mother Teresa and Padre Pio, did activities together to grow more within the community and to meet new people. “We hope students, faculty and staff will take from the day feelings of joy and connection,” Mrs. Jody Esker, head of Campus Ministry, said. Each of these stations was 50 minutes long, with the stations being a Star Wars themed speech, service project planning, nuke ‘em tournament, a blow up obstacle course and one faith activity that students chose. Although most of the volunteers were from the Cedar Rapids community, the Star Wars themed speech, was given by Anthony Digmann, an author and Catholic Youtuber who has been featured on many Catholic radio stations and podcasts. He has been on the Council of the Archdiocese of Dubuque since 2006. Digmann says students explored the reasons behind faith in God, Catholicism and Christianity, connecting Star Wars with Catholic theology. The service project that was done by each house is also new to Xavier. The service project planning of the day started with talking about the Corporal Works of Mercy. From there, each house chose and planned a service project that they will work on throughout the year; this could include food drives, clothes drives, fundraisers and more. Before the retreat, students and staff picked which faith activities they would like to participate in, which included Rosary, media and prayer, workout and worship, prayerful journaling and finding the quiet. Confession was also offered throughout the day with Fr. Richmond. At the end of the day, students met back up in house for a prayer that ended the first annual Community Retreat Day, where students grew in faith and fellowship, as well as had fun.