Father Ben Hasse, who directs student ministries at Michigan Technological University (MTU), said that the annual building of an ice chapel builds faith and community in Houghton, in the remote Upper Peninsula.

Over the last nine years, students have built “Our Lady of the Snows.” The students of St. Albert the Great University Parish completed this year’s chapel in time for “Ice Masses” to be celebrated in the evening of Feb. 7 and morning of Feb. 8.

Interest has grown in recent years, Father Hasse said, which prompted him to offer two more such Masses. Our Lady of the Snows accommodates 500 people. Candles light the altar and walls are made of compacted snow, while students use panes of ice colored to resemble stained-glass windows.

Freshman Thomas Shaw hails from the Detroit area and said a reason he came to MTU was the opportunity to build the ice chapel. Over the last month, Shaw has put at least 40 hours into the chapel in addition to a full load of courses.

“It makes a great evangelization tool,” he said of the chapel. “You can tell people, ‘Hey, do you want to build the ice chapel?’ and then invite them to the ‘Ice Mass.’ So it works to invite non-Catholics into the Church. Besides, there is free food, and students love food.”

“Long projects for the glory of God, and with fellow students, are quite good and spiritually good as well,” Shaw added.

Father Hasse told the Register that students at the institution on the shore of Lake Superior look forward each year to sculpting snow and ice into a worship space. The university is at least an eight-hour drive from Detroit, which means students are likely to remain there on the weekends to look for something to do amid blizzards, frigid temperatures and icy roads. (Michigan Tech has produced a Catholic legacy in alumnus Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland, Oregon, who was ordained in nearby Marquette, Michigan.)

Building Community

Father Hasse told the Register that a student’s mother approached him with the idea of an ice chapel, having seen them in Eastern Europe. In 2016, word spread about the plans, which students discussed at weekly gatherings Father Hasse organized at St. Albert. When a student told him that even non-Catholic students asked to attend the “Ice Mass,” Father Hasse reflected:

“I could see that this had traction that we hadn’t imagined. We had 140 people show up that year. And we hit 800 two years ago. We stumbled into this, but it caught people’s imagination.”

Since then, attendance has grown. Local and international media have covered the event every year. Students take about one month to build the chapel by compacting snow into plywood forms, then carving blocks into walls, an altar made of an ice slab, and a confessional. It even features a grotto of the Virgin Mary and niches for candles. It measures at least 35 by 60 feet.

Building the ice chapel, Father Hasse said, allows him and associate pastor Father Romeo Capella to become acquainted with students on a personal level. “This is an example of evangelical enculturation,” he said. Like the FOCUS apostolate on campus, Father Hasse said he sees success with a strategy called “Win. Build. Send” for discipleship — stages in helping the unchurched or lapsed Catholics to encounter Jesus Christ and his Church. “The first stage is to ‘win’ the opportunity to build a relationship and to have something to say about the faith that would interest people,” he explained.

“This is a lot easier to do on a college campus, which is why college campuses have vibrant growth in the U.S. There are many campuses that have doubled their student involvement in the last 20 years, and FOCUS and similar organizations have been a huge part of that,” Father Hasse observed. Other parishes, he said, might have success in evangelizing by offering activities to which parishioners can invite friends. He said activities need not be specifically religious. “We do a lot of hiking, and in the spring I lead a hike with students,” said Father Hasse, who was raised in the Upper Peninsula and enjoys all of the outdoor activities offered.

“We do a lot of meals,” he said — noting that students often say, “This is the best food ever,” — “a lot of bonfires. While it's not as though we are not spending time at Mass, adoration, catechesis and discipleship, it’s those ‘win’ events that are the start of that process. If you don’t have people stepping into it, then you don’t have people going further.”

The ice chapel and student outreach has borne fruit, Father Hasse said. Since 2018, 14 men from the university have entered seminary formation, dozens of marriages have taken place, and numerous lay missionaries have begun their work, he said, adding that Mass attendance has doubled in 10 years. “Two of the guys who have spent days working on the ice chapel are not Catholic, but are preparing to enter the Church,” he said, explaining the blessing of building community together as they constructed the chapel outside.

Father Capella, who is often seen riding a motorcycle, told the Register that St. Albert’s offers retreats, mission trips and opportunities for students to visit retirement homes. “Activities are a great way to get people to tag along and draw people in. It gives students something to do in addition to going to church. It brings a community aspect,” he said.

Franciscan Sister Jacqueline Spaniola, the university parish’s pastoral associate who leads retreats and assists with marriage preparation, explained that when she came to the parish in 2017, a student told her the very first Mass he ever attended was at the ice chapel. He has since become Catholic.

The special “Ice Masses” are part of MTU’s “Winter Carnival” that dates back more than 100 years and is deeply connected to the university and the broader community. Since then, student fraternities and other groups have produced ice and snow sculptures for the event, which lasts a month. There has long been a contest to choose the best snow sculpture among numerous entries. Catholic students also contribute a statue, and some of them spent most of the night of Feb. 5-6 completing a sculpture representing Notre Dame de Paris. Father Hasse said Catholic students have won the competition 10 times over the last 11 years.

As students worked overnight this week carving their entry for the sculpture competition, Sister Jacqueline explained how “Father Ben and I made a meal and fed students working on sculptures even if they were not members of the parish.”

Drawing Students to Christ

Former student Madi Hollman told EWTN in 2023, “There is nothing like spending time with students and parishioners, chopping things, stomping snow and painting stained-glass windows. And for many people, this is their first Mass.”

“We have students coming to us and knocking on our door and saying ‘Let me in,’” Father Hasse said, adding that students from Protestant and even atheist backgrounds are entering the Church. “We don’t think that we should be sitting here waiting for them — we should be out looking for them. Real stuff is attractive even though it is less and less available in a screen-based or skim milk-based world.”

In a weekend homily for Mass in the ice chapel, Father Hasse told a packed crowd, “The ice chapel offers us a chance to reflect upon what the Lord wants to do in your life and mine.” Reflecting on the Scriptures, the priest said, “What he wants to with our lives is to love us, but to what end? It is very clear from the Scriptures and the Church that the Lord labors for our joy.”

While adding that there are delightful things happening during the Winter Carnival, he said, “Are any of them more beautiful than the ‘Ice Mass’? — which is not about you or me or Houghton, but it is a place of encounter with God who calls, with God who joins us on the altar now.”