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Sacred Spaces Project

Rekindling wonder. Reorienting attention. Regrounding presence.

The McGrath Institute for Church Life is proud to present Sacred Spaces of Notre Dame (SSND), an interactive, media-enhanced campus pilgrimage developed to showcase the sacred spaces that line Notre Dame’s storied grounds while igniting a sense of sacramental wonder. Inspired by a desire to elevate the Institute’s existing ND Campus Pilgrimage Booklet, SSND rehouses that resource within a larger participatory experience and narrative ecosystem. 

Informed by a robust theology of place and shaped by McLuhanesque media ecology, each of the Project's digital assets has been intentionally designed to cultivate sacramental wonder through the reorientation of attention. The Project represents more than a wish to highlight the sacredness of Notre Dame for the world to see: it is a personal invitation to friends and admirers of the University to cultivate their own encounters with the sacred — on campus and beyond. By shining a spotlight on particular holy sites and by sharing the individual stories they witness, we will reinforce the idea that Notre Dame is a sacred space, uniquely set apart as a force for good in the world.

Fueled by the generous support of the Lilly Endowment, the initial phase focuses on crafting beautiful narrative content that accentuates the holy character of the sites and collecting personal stories of sacred encounters. SSND will include a dedicated website, a video introducing the project (see below), an interactive map, a mini-documentary series, a curated gallery of community contributions, and an array of other complementary media.

The Project serves as both a reminder and an invitation to the Notre Dame community: remember our beloved University's identity, ground yourself in the sacred, become pilgrims of hope.

Share your own reflections using #SacredND for a chance to be featured in the gallery we are curating.