Posted by admin on March 9, 2010 under 2. Fat Tuesday | 
As Katie mentioned in her blog yesterday, she had the privilege of crafting the 100th post of this collaborative blog. I have the joy of posting 101, which as you all know is the number often given for basic undergraduate courses (basket weaving 101). A number of years ago, one of our interns devised a catechetical program titled Catholic 101, which was an attempt to update young Catholics on some basic information about the faith. Topics ranged from prayer forms and liturgical celebrations to Catholic Social Teaching. You have to begin somewhere and 101 is a good place to start.
As I write this, Yale is on a two week spring break. Many other campuses have spring break somewhere in the middle of March. That means for many of our students, the season of Lent includes an interruption for some time with families, fun in the sun, or service projects during an Alternative Spring Break trip. But while our communal celebration of the season is in hiatus, it is helpful to remind students that Lent doesn’t take a break! While it is popular to think that “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” the reality is that certain experiences have a way of staying with us for quite some time. More importantly, campus ministers have to be sensitive to ways of incorporating experiences students have during break once they return to Sunday Mass. How do we incorporate references to spring break into the homily or the prayers of the faithful in ways that help students bring some reflection to their time away and the choices they made during break?
This Sunday’s readings from Cycle C speak eloquently of choices–good choices and bad choices. As the first reading reminds us, the people of Israel continued to keep the Passover celebration even during their pilgrimage through the desert and into the Promised Land. Well, not ever one remained faithful, but some did! As they enter the land of Canaan, their faithfulness to God’s call out of slavery and to the covenant God established finds fruition in the promised land. No longer are they sustained on manna; now they will enjoy the fruit of the land. Just as much as want posed a challenge to their fidelity, prosperity–and the choices they will make with the wealth of the land–will pose equally difficult choices. Much of what the prophets criticized about Israel some centuries after this Passover remembrance is their failure to be faithful to the great value of solidarity and their responsibility to the common good with the wealth that the land would provide.
In the gospel, some of these choices get played out in dramatic fashion. The younger son burns through his inheritance at break neck speed and finds himself destitute and desperate. The older son, though obedient to his father and frugal in his management of wealth, doesn’t quite live up to being faithful, in the sense that he hasn’t internalized the values of gratitude and compassion so clearly evident in the father. Sometimes even the right choices we make fall short when we do so grudgingly or in a way that is judgmental of or ignores the needs of others.
As much as he is criticized for showing partiality, the father is the only one who makes good choices with both sons. His bountiful compassion is like a land flowing in milk and honey, which is our great hope during this Lenten season.
Fr. Peter Walsh, CSC is an assistant chaplain at Saint Thomas More, the Catholic Chapel and Center at Yale University.
Posted by admin on March 4, 2010 under 4. Thursday's Spiritual Smoothie |
As I write many of our students, faculty, and staff are preparing to spend the next week serving in places all over the world during our spring break. More and more I am convinced that these “alternative” breaks are actually becoming the new “standard” trip; if students aren’t headed home just to catch up with family and on their sleep, they’re choosing to actively support others through acts of solidarity and service.
Now, this could be because my data is coming from my own experience and those of other campus ministers (and we all work with extraordinary people!), but I think there’s something else behind this as well. As society has become more aware of its role in a global economy and community, I think there’s also been a raised awareness of how one individual’s actions can affect the experience of another that they may never have physically met. Technology allows for enhanced communication, contemporary theology calls us to proper stewardship of the environment, and I think we’ve all seen how financial decisions in one country can affect the global economy. Perhaps more now than at any other time we are aware of how we are all one human family.
Whenever your break comes, whether it’s in the next couple weeks, at Easter, or not until the end of the quarter or semester, here is a quick prayer. Whether you’re heading to far-off lands or to your neighbors down the road, may this experience of service be a time to embrace the ordinariness of your actions, and not seen as an extraordinary alternative. May we truly become one human family, living in solidarity and encountering Christ in one another. And for those who will be at rest or play, may you find in these moments of joy and peace a renewed sense of God’s presence in your life.
Sarah Heiman is Campus Minister for Education and Spiritual Life at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT.
Posted by admin on February 23, 2010 under 2. Fat Tuesday |
For this Sunday’s gospel, we are given a transfigured Christ and a transfiguring message: “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.” The Church places the Transfiguration narrative on the Second Sunday of Lent more because this is a turning point in the ministry of Jesus. Up to this point, he has been experiencing great success in his Galilean ministry. The signs of the kingdom have accompanied his preaching. After this experience during the day of prayer on the mountain, Jesus sets his face to Jerusalem and “his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.”
Though it is only the Second Sunday of Lent, we are heading soon to Holy Week and to our celebration of Christ’s Exodus, our own Passover. Many of our campuses have Lent interrupted by Spring Break. The opportunities of Lent are fleeting.
Amid the hubub of Peter’s activity on the mountain, the command is clear: “listen to him.” This Sunday is a good opportunity to encourage students to stop and listen during Lent. Suggest an “unplugged day,” much like a meatless Friday, to give oneself a chance to listen to Christ. As T.S. Eliot wrote in “Ash Wednesday” only in stillness can the Word be heard:
Where shall the word be found, where will the word
Resound? Not here, there is not enough silence
Not on the sea or on the islands, not
On the mainland, in the desert or the rain land,
For those who walk in darkness
Both in the day time and in the night time
The right time and the right place are not here
No place of grace for those who avoid the face
No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny
the voice.
We need his prayer to become ours this Lent:
Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks,
Our peace in His will
