The AMDG program at Boston College received a 10 million dollar grant from The Lilly Endowment to launch the AMDG program. AMDG stands for Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, which means “for the great glory of God.” The goal of the program is to have participants partake in service opportunities that are designed for them to deepen their faith and to have a stronger connection to the teachings of Jesus, creating faith and service among the youth and young adults.
The program has over 600 hundred participants from 16-29.The program collaborates with 15 high schools and 5 colleges and 5 parishes across the United States, wth Bellarmine being one of the 15 high schools.
Theology teacher Debra Savage will be the leader of this retreat at bellarmine. She is working with a group of 10 sophomores for this program: Lex Achziger, Logan Caudill, Jack Chambers, Nuala Crowley, Daniel DeWeese, Heidi Hallett, Ryan McDaniel, Athena Pacleb, Gavin Ranes, and Hannah Yeam.
This year the program is specifically for them because the program runs for two years, so by the time the program is over they will be in their senior year.
They will be participating in all parts of the program and will be walking the Camino this summer, all of the coasts are covered for them.
The program is a year of faith exploration and service journey. The goal of this program is to get more young people excited about their faith and to participate in other religious practices. Drawing from Jesuit traditions the program involves mentorship opportunities for 50 ambassadors and beadles (ceremonial officers), Jesuit retreats and transformative pilgrimage on the Camino in Spain.
Each year of the program participants will make the 10-day pilgrimage on the Camino Ignaciano in Spain where they will follow the path that St. Ignatius took in 1522.
To foster new faith through community service, the participants also participate in the Boston College Excel program.
The AMDG program is drawn on the success of Boston College’s other programs. The Ever to Excel program.Its an initiative for high school students, where they spend a week at Boston College learning about how to create a more meaningful life. The Ever to Excel program was started in 2016 and has had over 1,500 young people who have participated in the program.
The AMDG program is very new and the 1st time it will be starting is in July of this year. The grant from the Lilly foundation allows the AMDG program to be run for 2 pilot years.
Along with the AMDG program, students will also see parts of Boston’s colleges ever to excel. A new ever to excel program, that is offered to young adults will be a part of the faith formation elements of AMDG. The other steps include a 4 day in person retreat on Spiritual exercises, an online retreat that highlights catholic liturgical practice and devotions, and a virtual pilgrimage that goes into the locations and the spiritual formation journey that Saint Ignatius loyola wnt on.
The other formational element will be modules, and group discussions based on the book conversational word of God, that is to help people deepen their ability to participate in spiritual conversations.
Another part of the AMDG program will offer the mentorship of 25 adults each year. They will be the program’s ambassadors, where they will be able to complete the IAJS (Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies) certificate of Jesuit studies. It’s a 5 year program that deepens knowledge of the history of Jesuits.
The program hopes that the ambassadors from the AMDG will not only help the participants of the AMDG program but will also be working to serve as future leaders for different missions in different networks of Jesuits schools and parishes.
Another 25 students from Boston College will be selected to serve as beadles, assistants for the program.The students will be mentors to the AMDG participants, they will attend all retreats, and will go with the group on their pilgrimage on the Camino.
This Lilly endowment grant will cover the piloted phase of the AMDG program, which runs from July 2025 to August 2027.
Bellarmine students will start their journey in July of this year. They will spend 5 days at Boston College for a retreat.
They will also be going to a silent retreat in Louisiana,
What makes this experience so special is that it is completely paid for by the endowment so participants won’t have to pay for it.
Bellarimine is one of the 15 schools participating in this program. Savage has stated that she did not have to apply for this program. They found Bellarmine and reached out to the school and asked if we wanted to participate because Bellarmine is a Jesuit high school, and the retreat is about involving Jesuit values into everyday life.
Savage is very excited to see what this experience will be for her and her students, for it is still very new, and not much information about the program is out yet.
She is most excited about going on the Camino and what that experience will be like for her, she says that she has heard about it from other religion teachers in how it has changed their lives.
She says that they have selected sophomores because it’s a 2 year program, and with the development of faith she hopes when the now sophomores turned Juniors that they will have a better understanding of their faith as they enter leading Encounter, or even participating in Encounter.
She also hopes that Bellarime will continue to work with the AMDG program in the future and hopes to offer this experience for future Bellarmine students.
