Construction of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church and Student Center’s new adoration chapel is now underway.

Father Mitch Semar, the pastor of St. Thomas, felt that God put it on his heart to create a place of prayer on Nicholls State University’s campus.

Semar immediately spoke with parishioners about the concept and told them his vision for St. Thomas was to have an adoration chapel that would be open twenty-four hours a day for prayer.

The chapel was able to take form when the community donated over $200,000 in only 24 hours. The money was raised through the #iGiveCatholic campaign, which paid for the entirety of the project.

Soon after the money was raised, St. Thomas began working alongside Duplantis Design Group and Lea Rutter, who did the contracting work for the project.

Semar said the chapel is being constructed to be very beautiful, filled with statues, paintings and mosaics so that anyone who goes in will enjoy it.

“You can never argue with beauty. Beauty just is, and in the midst of the stressful life of college, I think a quiet oasis of peace is always helpful,” Semar said.

Whenever the chapel is open, the community will be asked to select a one hour time slot during the week that they will be able to go in and pray, this way there is someone in the chapel praying twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Semar said people who sign up to be a part of this will be given specific things to pray for. Individuals will be asked to pray for President Clune, Nicholls staff and faculty, Nicholls students and for the protection of families and priests.

The chapel is scheduled to be finished and open before the end of the semester.