Family is Important.

As I sit on the plane on the way to watch Notre Dame play Boston College at Fenway Park in the 2015 Shamrock series game, I am struck with the very poignant point that family is important.

I am traveling to this game with a life-long friend, a sister who is not blood related, but a sister all the same. The fact that we are embarking on this adventure together is important.

Another friend who is like a sister to us both has graciously offered us her apartment for the weekend, even though she won’t be there herself for the majority of our stay and even though we’re rooting against her school. The love and hospitality she has exhibited to us as family is important.

I have spotted many Notre Dame hats, sweatshirts, and laptop stickers on the bus and at the airport during our journey to Boston so far. It is important that we are all traveling to cheer on our beloved Irish together. The Notre Dame family, who happens to have a large contingent gathered in Boston instead of South Bend on this Shamrock Series home game weekend, is important.

My friends who are not going to the game are planning various game watches in their dorm rooms and at homes of friends who are from the South Bend area. Notre Dame fans across the globe – students abroad, families, friends, and alumni at home – will get together to watch the game. They will participate in this event in a special way, even if they are unable to be there in person. The spirit, festivity, and zeal generated by the global Notre Dame family is important.

While in Boston, we plan to gather together for rituals such as Drummer’s Circle on Friday night (being held in Copley Square, Boston rather than Golden Dome, Notre Dame) and a 5K run on Saturday morning (starting and finishing at Boston Common) in anticipation of the game. The Band of the Fighting Irish will perform their usual pre-game concert on the steps (albeit on different steps than usual), a Saturdays with the Saints lecture will be given in Boston just as it would usually be on campus on game day, and there will be a Play like a Champion Today sign for the players of the Fighting Irish to tap as they emerge onto the field at Fenway. The Notre Dame fan community that has gathered in Boston this weekend will celebrate Mass together in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, accompanied by the trumpet section of the band. We will practice the act of praise first at this Mass, and then, in a very different but not insignificant way, at the game later Saturday evening. Ritual and tradition when it comes to family help us to preserve memories of generations past and to fuel connections with those to come. Liturgy, ritual, and tradition are important.

And then we will cheer on the Fighting Irish to victory, together.

After Drummer's Circle in Copley Square 

***

This weekend, I entered into the blue-, gold-, and green-clad throng that was the Notre Dame community in Boston with a huge smile on my face and a joyful heart in my chest (alongside my doubts as to whether I would be able to successfully navigate the Boston T). It was a privilege to witness the incredible gathering of family and friends the 2015 Shamrock Series game generated and to be an active member of the zeal that is the fandom of Notre Dame football, even in a different city.

After participating in many community events throughout the twenty-four hours leading up to the big game and cheering our favorite team on to victory (yes, we still did push-ups at Fenway!), the members of the Notre Dame community present engaged in one of the most poignant moments of the importance of family of the weekend at the conclusion of the game, when the players slung their arms over one another in front of the small student section in Fenway Park and started swaying. The band played the opening notes of “Notre Dame, Our Mother.”

After all of the excitement, at the close of a tough game, and following a whole day of celebration leading up to the night game at Fenway, the Notre Dame community still took time to celebrate the members of the ultimate family in song and prayer: the Holy Family. Clumps of Notre Dame fans all over Fenway Park swayed back and forth to the time of the band’s song and the player’s movements: “And our hearts forever, / Praise thee, Notre Dame. / And our hearts forever, / Love thee, Notre Dame.”

Family is important.

Fenway Park - Boston, MA - Shamrock Series vs. Boston College 11/21/15