Yesterday at Sacred Heart University we honored Father James Martin, SJ with an honorary doctorate during the convocation and induction of the Class of 2014. In addition to offering some words of wisdom to the students gathered for the occasion, he also offered an evening lecture that filled our chapel with laughter and rejoicing.
Father Martin is probably best known to our students as the “Colbert Report Chaplain,” but is also a celebrated author, culture editor of America, and (obviously) a Jesuit priest. Below is a little humor and joy found in a joke told by Father Martin about a Dominican, Franciscan, and Jesuit and their encounters with some sharks…
Sarah Heiman is Campus Minister for Education and Spiritual Life at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT.
The beginning of the academic year is a traditional time to call upon the Holy Spirit to guide our academic communities and help us grow in wisdom, faith, hope, and love. I find myself frequently praying for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and was only recently introduced to the following prayer. I’m sure that some of you are already familiar with it, as it was the prayer used before every meeting of the Second Vatican Council. Hopefully this introduction to or reminder of this prayer will help guide our ministry throughout the upcoming year!
We stand before you, Holy Spirit,
conscious of our sinfulness,
but aware that we gather in your name.
Come to us, remain with us,
and enlighten our hearts.
Give us light and strength
to know your will,
to make it our own,
and to live it in our lives.
Guide us by your wisdom,
support us by your power,
for you are God,
sharing the glory of Father and Son.
You desire justice for all:
enable us to uphold the rights of others;
do not allow us to be misled by ignorance
or corrupted by fear or favor.
Unite us to yourself in the bond of love
and keep us faithful to all that is true.
As we gather in your name
may we temper justice with love,
so that all our decisions
may be pleasing to you,
and earn the reward
promised to good and faithful servants.
You live and reign with the Father and the Son,
one God, for ever and ever.
Sarah Heiman is Campus Minister for Education and Spiritual Life at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT.
Let me add a hearty welcome to our new and returning readers! As we immerse ourselves in the chaos of welcoming new students to our campuses, training our student leaders, and preparing everything so that our faith community may grow and produce rich fruit, we can sometimes forget why we do what we do. More than one of you, I’m sure, is a campus minister because you feel called by God to do so.
I recently had the opportunity to evaluate different resources that could be used to help assess individuals’ gifts and talents. When talking through these resources with a student leader and deciding which would best fit the needs of our community, I offered an overview of my results with each. The simple response took me aback, but was something I think we all need to hear sometimes, “given your particular gifts, you’re really in the right line of work!”
I think that’s often the heart of our vocation as campus ministers and as Christians: to help those we minister to to understand how their God-given gifts and talents may be used vocationally. We offer a powerful witness to our students when we model that vocational awareness.
Today is the traditional observation of the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord, 40 days after Christ’s resurrection on Easter morning. When I think of the significance of this feast, I often relate to it more as a reminder of my baptismal call than of a particular moment in the life of Christ. With the semester winding down on many of our campuses and already ended at some, there is also an interesting connection this year of thinking about how we continue to live out Jesus’ message and our ministry even when the students and faculty may be gone. (Although it’s probably fair to say that they haven’t exactly ascended to heaven…!)
This Feast of the Ascension, at the end of a long academic year for most of us, let us give thanks for the ministry of the past year, and look ahead to how we may better proclaim the Gospel and serve as witnesses to our faith community in the months and years to come. Taking Jesus as our example, may we sometimes step aside to let others exercise their ministry and discipleship, may we reach out to the poor and marginalized and give of ourselves in service to others, and may we welcome all to celebrate with us the mystery of our God who is radically immanent and transcendent.
Sarah Heiman is Campus Minister for Education and Spiritual Life at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT.
While familiar to anyone who is ordained or a member of a religious community, I think the Liturgy of the Hours is often the most overlooked and under-appreciated prayer within the Church. Since Vatican II its profile has been raised, but it is still not as familiar to most Roman Catholics as the celebration of the Eucharist, Novena prayers, or any of the other ways we pray individually or communally.
In the midst of the craziness of the end of the semester, the rhythm of stopping at various points in the day to pray the words of Scripture, uniting in the continuous universal prayer of the Church, is a welcome reminder that we need balance in our lives. And, hopefully, that our prayer to and praise of God is without ceasing. Psalm 57, said this morning, proclaims the powerful statement: “My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready.”
Is our heart ready for all that will come, all that will be, all that has already taken place? How do we embrace God in our daily life? Can we and do we proclaim with confidence our trust in God, our openness to the workings of the Spirit, and our belief in the Risen Christ? How do we communicate this readiness of heart to our students and those to whom we minister each day? Perhaps today we can make sure our heart is open and ready to encounter God in all we meet.
Sarah Heiman is Campus Minister for Education and Spiritual Life at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is Risen! Especially within this Easter season I am reminded of that oft-repeated maxim from St. Augustine that singing is praying twice. There is something about the joy of this season that simply compels us to raise our voices in song to the Lord.
I confess the Easter Vigil is my favorite liturgy of the entire Church year, in part because I love the Easter Exsultet. And because I think it’s so beautiful, below is a link to the Exsultet as sung at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC. At the end of this busy week, I hope it serves as a wonderful reminder of the beauty of our communal prayer!
Sarah Heiman is Campus Minister for Education and Spiritual Life at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT.
Each year the Jewish community marks Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, on the 27th Day of Nisan. Commemorating the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, this year Yom Hashoah falls on April 11, the same day we will be celebrating the Second Sunday of Easter. Fr. Peter offered a wonderful reflection on the significance of Christ as the wounded healer on Tuesday, and I’d like to build upon that as we consider how we might best pray with our Jewish sisters and brothers on this occasion.
Part of our message in our communities this Sunday might be being honest about the wounds our Church and some of its members have inflicted in the past on the Jewish community, and remembering the opening words of Gaudium et Spes, “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.”
The Holy See offered this reflection in 1998 as part of We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah:
At the end of this millennium the Catholic Church desires to express her deep sorrow for the failures of her sons and daughters in every age. This is an act of repentance (teshuvah), since as members of the Church we are linked to the sins as well as the merits of all her children. The Church approaches with deep respect and great compassion the experience of extermination, the Shoah suffered by the Jewish people during World War II. It is not a matter of mere words, but indeed of binding commitment. . . . We pray that our sorrow for the tragedy which the Jewish people has suffered in our century will lead to a new relationship with the Jewish people. We wish to turn awareness of past sins into a firm resolve to build a new future in which there will be no more anti-Judaism among Christians . . . but rather a shared mutual respect as befits those who adore the one Creator and Lord and have a common father in faith, Abraham (no. 5).
May we all work to ensure that the Shoah and its victims are never forgotten.
Sarah Heiman is Campus Minister for Education and Spiritual Life at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT.
Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Annunciation, a joyful event honoring Mary’s great fiat, “Let it be done to me according to your word.” This is a wonderful opportunity to ask how we respond to God’s call, whether it’s done in joy or resentment, for example, or whether we’re even open enough to hear how God is calling us. May we all become more attentive to the voice of God in our lives, and follow Mary’s example of faith and trust in God who loves us.
Enjoy this video of a plainchant of Ave Maria!
Sarah Heiman is Campus Minister for Education and Spiritual Life at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT.
Inspired by Fr. Peter’s post on Tuesday, I want to reflect on silence as well. Every time I go on retreat with my students, I urge them to consider a “technology fast.” This isn’t because technology is a bad thing (see Katie’s posts on Mondays!), but because sometimes our reliance on technology can keep us from being present in the moment. Too often I think we characterize silence as the awkward moment when no one is talking, nothing is happening, and we don’t know what we’re supposed to be doing. And having that cell phone to text someone about it or being able to instantly update our Facebook status allows us some relief from dealing with the question of why that silence is there.
Clearly, not all silence is sacred silence. Sometimes silence really is awkward because no one knows how to respond or what to do next. But I really think it’s in the sacred silence, when we intentionally embrace those naturally occurring moments of silence or set time aside specifically to be silent, that we allow ourselves to strip away our illusions of what we “should” be doing and instead listen to the whispering voice of God.
One of my favorite scripture passages is the story of Elijah hiding in a cave, waiting for the Lord to pass by (1 Kings 19). Elijah endures strong winds, an earthquake, a fire, and finally, in a tiny whispering sound, knows that God is present. How can we find God in the stillness today?
Sarah Heiman is Campus Minister for Education and Spiritual Life at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT.
Campus Ministry programs offer a diverse list of ministries that are meant to address the diverse gifts of the community and the multiplicity of ways in which the Holy Spirit continues to move and work in the world today. These programs and events are essential for our ministry, but I think it is undeniable that the primary way in which we minister to the faith community is through liturgy. Hands down, attendance at a Sunday Mass is the primary way our students encounter Christ and the biggest opportunity we have to communicate our support and encouragement for these students as they discern where God is calling them in their lives.
A friend recently recommended I check out another Catholic blog, this one edited by Fr. Anthony Ruff, OSB, and a joint project of Liturgical Press and Saint John’s School of Theology-Seminary. PrayTell offers reflections and information on liturgy and worship, and I’ve found it to be fantastic. One post that has captivated my imagination is from Teresa Berger (full disclosure: I was Teresa’s student at Yale Divinity School) on whether we long for liturgy; check it out here.
How does liturgy fill our own wells? Do we long for liturgy, for the encounter with the Risen Christ? How do we communicate that longing to our students?
Sarah Heiman is Campus Minister for Education and Spiritual Life at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT.
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