Marianist LIFE Communities, or MLCs, is a way to bring the High School and Middle School community together through Faith and Fellowship. Organized and run by the Saint Louis School LIFE, Living In Faith Experience, Team, MLC connects the community in many ways. 

MLC’s are “about sharing our faith together… and just being in a community where we can just have Fellowship” explains Senior and LIFE Team Member, Michael Salehi. For twenty-five years, These Marianist community events continue to evolve each year, with a focus on bringing the student community together. “MLC’s in the form that they are in now began in 1998,”  says Director of Campus Ministry, Christopher Casupang. 

This monthly event is led by the Saint Louis School LIFE Team, aspiring seniors, who want to become spiritual leaders on campus. One way to become a spiritual leader on campus involves running the MLC’s.  For LIFE team members, it is important to “take up more of a leadership mantle and step up and be strong in your Faith because… no one’s going to really want to follow you and participate in the MLC’s” Salehi describes.

Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers learn new things from the LIFE team. “They share what they know about religion and share their personal experiences during MLC’s,” Senior MLC Participant Kailer Ogata describes. MLC’s provide the opportunity for students to “strengthen their faith but also to help them find ways to articulate their faith for themselves and in doing so it helps them witness their faith to each other,”  explains Brother Brandon Alana S.M., Associate Director  of Campus Ministry at Saint Louis.  This event gives students the opportunity to show their Faith with others and with themselves.  It helps students have a chance to connect with God and be open about their Faith. “The questions asked during the MLC’s get your mind thinking about how I can do the thing that we’re talking about like getting closer to God,” Ogata explains. 

MLC’s are not just about building one’s own Faith; it is also about building relationships with one another while having Faith as the center of it.  “Our faith also requires some external action. It’s like Love is made manifest by how we treat one another,” describes Alana. This event expresses its devotion to the school community by hosting a variety of  activities for participants, allowing them to simply enjoy each other’s company.

From playing “Charades” to building a “Marshmallow Tower,” these activities are fun and interactive for everyone. It allows students the opportunity to create new friendships and bonds through Faith that bring  “different people from different grades.” says Ogata.  The “Brotherhood” is brought together through the MLC experience because, “Faith is something that is really big at Saint Louis…,” notes Salehi, “so that shared connection is what kind of brings us together during these MLC’s.”