Wrighton Award

Those of you who attended the 9:00 mass last night at the CSC were witness to Chancellor Wrighton receiving the first-annual Catholic Campus Ministry Association's Exemplary Administrator Award. Below is a photo of the chancellor receiving the award, as well as the full text of the essay that was submitted to nominate him for the honor.

Mark S. Wrighton, Chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis and champion of the Catholic Student Center at that institution, is a chemist at heart. After graduating from Florida State University with a B.S. degree with honors in chemistry in 1969, Chancellor Wrighton spent the next 21 years in chemistry-related academia. He is blessed with the skills of joining covalent bonds to charged particles, of linking elements together to form complex compounds. He is blessed with the ability to make connections.

Upon his election and appointment as the Chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis in 1995, Chancellor Wrighton took his abilities in the field of chemistry and transferred them to the student body and greater community. Instead of melding molecules, he forged relationships between donors, alumni, parents, faculty, and the people of St. Louis. He recognized that the Catholic Student Center and its director, Fr. Gary Braun, were important assets in keeping those bonds firmly in place. He also saw the CSC as a house open to students of all denominations, a home away from home for students who need a place to feel grounded and comfortable in their own skin. By identifying and affirming the CSC’s efforts to be open and inclusive, Chancellor Wrighton established a precedent for Washington University to welcome students and organizations of all faiths. Chancellor Wrighton continues this tradition by making several appearances at Interfaith Alliance meetings every year.

During his years in the field of chemistry, a major focus of Chancellor Wrighton’s research interests was discerning and creating new catalysts. In his role as the Chancellor, he himself has embodied the role of a catalyst as he has sought to expand the Catholic Student Center’s potential energy. When the CSC determined that it needed to expand its chapel to accommodate the crowds of students that filled the seats every Sunday, Chancellor Wrighton was there to support the initiative from the beginning. At the campaign kickoff for the chapel expansion in 2005, which coincided with Chancellor Wrighton’s birthday, he served as the keynote speaker. Even though Chancellor Wrighton is not Catholic, and even though the university’s charter does not allow it to support any particular religion or religious university, he extended the generosity of his time to the CSC community to support the cause.

But Chancellor Wrighton has acknowledged from the beginning that the CSC is more than a chapel. He believes that the CSC plays an integral role in student life, not just as a physical place, but also as a living campus ministry that positively affects the lives of the students at Washington University. Through Chancellor Wrighton’s guidance, the university now receives over 22,000 applications for about 1,350 openings in a typical entering class (a two-fold increase from before his appointment), and he has opened his arms to campus ministers walking among those students.

Despite his impressive academic background, Chancellor Wrighton continues to learn from those around him. Immediately following the tragedy on September 11, 2001, one of the first people he called was Fr. Gary. He welcomed Fr. Gary’s counsellorship, and he sought to better understand the spiritual side of how to deal with the aftermath of the terrorist act. Chancellor Wrighton has also striven to give students the opportunity to learn more about faith and religion, most recently by adding a full-time Chair of Catholic Studies to the university’s faculty. The addition, he noted in his announcement, allows Washington University to “foster a deeper understanding of the historical, philosophical, theological and social impact of the Roman Catholic Church. And it will create new opportunities for greater interaction with the St. Louis Catholic community.” This position complements the previously established programs in Jewish and Islamic studies.

In the chemistry lab, Mark S. Wrighton successfully replicated photosynthesis, the conversion of solar energy into usable, chemical energy in biological organisms. As the Chancellor at Washington University in St. Louis, he has found a way to connect students to the various sources of energy in their lives. The Catholic Student Center and other campus ministries are vessels of such energy, and we are blessed to have Chancellor Wrighton as a champion of our ministry.

What Does Writing Do For You?

Today one of my favorite people at the CSC reminded me of something I've known for so long but usually somehow forget. She said that while I can be so specific and descriptive in writing about what I feel or think, whenever she asks me in person how I'm doing I inevitably answer in some quiet and vague manner. I'm not as good of a communicator in person as on the page, she said to me tonight.

Like I said, this was hardly breaking news to me or to anybody who knows me. Not only do I come from a family that internalizes just about everything, but for years I struggled with a speech impediment that stunted my confidence and muzzled me even more. Nurture and nature. And to be really honest, I still struggle with it. Every day. I say this openly and frequently, but getting to the point to where I am today--a teacher, retreat director, campus minister, and a coach--is an achievement in which I take more pride than just about anything else I've accomplished. The achievement isn't in the fact that I've conquered anything. Just that I've learned how to harness my fear.

But why is it so difficult for me to open up to a friend in a one-on-one setting? This is never an issue of literally struggling to speak; that's a perpetual gift saved for other numerous opportunities. I wish I knew the answer, because deep down, I long to have that connection. I long to have intimate relationships. I anticipate one of the greatest and deepest joys of my life will be when I find the woman with whom I will share everything. And I've already received great blessings and graces through real and sustained friendship. So it's not that I desire to ever come off as shallow, detached, or worse, uncaring. In fact, when I look at myself in the morning, I look at someone who strives to be quite the opposite.

So what does writing afford me, the writer? What does it do for you?

One thing I love is reading reflections on the art and craft of writing. But real quickly, I believe that the act of writing inherently puts an arrangement around feelings or anchors actions that may lack any other real nucleus. Once written, words allow the writer the opportunity to get a more objective perspective on things that have rumbled around inside of him or her. Once I see what's on my paper or computer screen, I'm more able to find the words to speak about those very things in a more coherent manner. It's a process.

But thanks to my challenger tonight, I'm re-resolved to taking the same risks in conversation that I do on the page. Even though vastly more people could theoretically read what I post on a blog, the real and immediate presence of a one-on-one conversation is somehow more threatening to me. Threatening and scary, but an intimacy that bonds friendships anew and strengthens ones existing. Two things I can get on board with.

Catholic CSC Vocabulary

When I first came to the CSC and was thinking about becoming Catholic, I had to learn a whole new vocabulary. There were so many unfamiliar words and phrases which people would toss around during conversation, and it took me a little while to place them all in context and make definitions for them. For example:

'The gifts' brought up to the altar during Mass are the bread and the wine, not the collection baskets that go around church.

A 'monsignor' is a fancy priest, whereas a 'monstrance' is the gold stand which holds up the consecrated Host during eucharistic adoration.

'Perpetual' adoration means it's going to be at some terrible hour of the night.

The 'Our Father' is the same thing as "The Lord's Prayer.'

The 'Gary' in 'Father Gary' is his first name, not his last name.

'OCD' refers to the initials of the Discalced Carmelites, not Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. And CCD is something totally different - a Catholic education class.

All the different "ladies" in Catholicism are not actually different. Names like "Lourdes" and "Guadalupe" are not these women's names, but refer to the places where Mary was seen.

When you're new to the Catholic Student Center and somebody comes up and invites you to 'Masensupe on Tuesday,' they mean a Mass service first and then a soup dinner afterwards :P

'Scoot to the middle of your pew' isn't meant literally, but rather means you're supposed to scoot towards the end of the bench closest to the middle of the church.

In any case, I've enjoyed getting more familiar with all the linguistic idiosyncrasies of Catholicism and the CSC, and I'm currently in the process of trying to figure out this term: charism. I've heard Fr. Gary use it as a synonym for "ministry" but sometimes people use it as a synonym for something more vague like "community spirit." And yet other people talk about it as though it's a quality you're born with, like an extra chromosome or something. So, for example, what does it mean to talk about the "charism of the CSC"? I'm trying to build a working definition for this word and this is what I've got so far:

"A charism is the shared principle by which the members of a particular community articulate the love of Christ in their interactions with God, one another, and the world. A charism is not a static quality possessed by an individual, but rather a relational capacity manifested in community. This articulation of love is infused and guided by the Holy Spirit and thus, with God's help, individuals can grow into the community semantic. Fulfilling this potential lends efficacy to the community's abstract spirit. When a charism is shared by the members of a community, it forms the grammar of their love in everyday prayer, relationship and ministry. The manifestation of charism is essentially the continued speaking of god's eternal word through the lived language of a particular community."

Okay, does that definition work according to your experiential understanding of the term? And if we buy this definition, then what would the "CSC charism" be? What is our particular gift in articulating the love of Christ?

Managing Faith: Why Do You Go to Mass?

Why do you go to Mass?

Really, why do you do it? What's your motivation behind it? Why don't you just celebrate God and faith at home? Why don't you just pray in your dorm room for an hour every Sunday?

The answer, I would suspect, is that you go to Mass to celebrate your faith with other people. Even if you go alone, you go to celebrate your faith with other people of the same faith. You go for the Communion of it all.

So why, then, do so many forget that there are other people around them in the chapel?

Let me explain. And I'll preface this by saying that this is a post I've wanted to write for a while, but I didn't know if it was my place to write it. I still don't. But I think someone needs to say it.

On several occasions when I've sat in the chapel at the CSC on Sunday, I've noticed people being completely inconsiderate of those around them. I've noticed the following things:

1. People with crying babies who remain in the main chapel. This really, really disrupts people's spiritual experience. At the CSC, we have a special area for that in the Commons, where you can still experience Mass on the TV (and you can still see into the chapel).
2. People who don't scoot over when the congregation is asked to scoot toward the middle aisle. To me, when you don't scoot, you're saying that you don't want other people to share the Mass experience with you. You're saying, "You're not welcome in this pew."
3. People who don't sing. I understand that not everyone has a good voice. I've been told that I have a horrible voice, and as a result, I don't sing loudly. But I sing. Fr. Gary had a homily about this last year, about how you not singing discourages other people around you from singing. If we put our voices together, we can create beautiful music.
4. Couples who are extremely touchy-feely during Mass. Frankly, this is really distracting to everyone around you. Holding hands is one things. But coddling and constantly touching and reverting all of your attention to the person next to you is pulling your attention--and the attention of those around you--away from God, away from the point of our Catholic rituals. I don't see this very often, but when I do, it really disrupts my mass experience. I want to say, "Get a room! This is a chapel!"

I am certainly culpable of these transgressions at times. But I'm very conscious of them. I'm conscious that I'm in a room full of other people who are trying to get in touch with the Holy Spirit.

The next time you're at Mass, be aware of how the things you're doing--or not doing--are affecting the people around you. Offer that gift to the community, and to yourself.

Peace, Purpose and Potential

How do you know that God is involved?



Today I was chatting on the phone with a friend from Illinois who is making a lot of those college-age decisions we're all thinking about - what to do over the summer, what to do with life, where to move after graduation, etc. She and I were having a very light conversation joking about the possibilities, when she got very serious and asked: "How does a person know for sure that the Holy Spirit is in something? What are the indicators, the tests, the variables that have to be there?"

The wording of the question initially struck me as rather odd because I'd never tried to parce up the Holy Spirit's presence and agency with such scientific vocabulary. My brain doesn't usually think in scientific ways, and I've usually felt this issue out in terms of synchronization: is my heart beating in time with God's, or not?

But her quest for a God indicator is a useful question in many ways. In the ways we spend our time, the activities we engage in, the dreams we cultivate... how exactly do we know and articulate that it's all coming from God and not merely our own fancy? I'd love to know how you approach this issue, and how your experience would lead you to articulate the Holy Spirit's agency... so please comment if you've got an answer!!

So far my mess of musings has distilled into this: I can trust that the spirit activating me is from God if I have a sense of Peace, Purpose, and Potential.

The sense of Peace is necessary because it saves us from rashness or regret. I think the author of the Book of Sirach was talking about peace when he wrote "Do nothing without deliberation, but when you have acted, do not regret it" (Sirach 32:19).

The sense of Purpose is necessary because this is the fire which makes life decisions matter. In today's postmodern world where everything - including religion and altruism - is so easily reduced to meaninglessness, the Holy Spirit is the little voice that whispers, "But it DOES matter! It's part of the building of the reigning kingdom!" Sometimes I feel a great sense of purpose and sometimes the world seems absolutely arbitrary... but I've noticed I'm always much happier in the first state, and so I think that must be linked to the presence of the wholesomeness of God.

The sense of Potential is necessary because it ensures that the proposed decision is in our best interest. There are lots of good options out there, but for whatever reason, some of the choices are marked by a personal sense of thriving while others are marked by a personal sense of dead-end-ness. Jesus said, "I have come that they might have life, and have it abundantly" (John 10:10) and I think that gives us license to choose what will make us most fully human and fully awake. Do you ever get the feeling that your heart is opening wider and that it's capacity to learn and love will keep on increasing forever? I think that's God.

What do you think? Would you find Peace, Purpose and Potential to be useful tests of God's agency in your life? What are the 'variables' that you look for? How has the presence of God sorted itself in your experience?

~Stephanieeeee

The Birthmother Perspective

As a follow up to Adopting Me, an article about adoption I wrote for Crosswalk.com that has been widely read (3 weeks after publication, it's still on the top 10 most popular list on the site), my birthmotherwrote about my adoption from her perspective in a piece published on the site today. This piece should be followed in a few weeks by an article by my parents on the same subject, the trifecta offering perspectives from all sides.

The Adoption Option: One Mom's Decision to Give Up Her Baby

Consecration Inevitably Implies Mission

What does it mean to be 'elect'? How does being 'the people of God' differ from any other kind of existence? How does being chosen through baptism translate into the real world?
I came across this quote in some reading I was doing for a discussion group, and it immediately made me think of all those in RCIA who are preparing to receive the Holy Spirit in the Easter sacraments:

"When God consecrates a person, he gives a special gift to achieve his own kind purposes: the reconciliation and salvation of the human race. He not only chooses, sets apart, and dedicates the person to himself, but he engages him or her in his own divine work. Consecration inevitably implies mission. These are two facets of one reality. The choice of a person by God is for the sake of others: the consecrated person is one who is sent to do the work of God in the power of God. Jesus himself was clearly aware of this. Consecrated and sent to bring the salvation of God, he was wholly dedicated to the Father in adoration, love, and surrender, and totally given to the work of the Father, which is the salvation of the world."*

After I became Catholic, much of my family didn't understand why it had to be such a big part of my life. They understood that I had become part of this religion, and that made sense in the realm of ideas; but they didn't understand why this metaphorical switch had me running off to do Catholic things all the time like the Catholic Worker House. It just seemed weird.

I couldn't explain why it was so important to live out Catholicism as well as think it out, but now I think this quote above explains it well. I think all of us are in a continuous process of consecration, and thus we all are constantly being pulled toward mission: these are two facets of one reality.

This past Tuesday in RCIA, we were discussing morality and social justice, and Carla mentioned that social justice is often the "best kept secret in the Catholic Church." That's such a shame, but it's probably accurate since most people see spirituality and mission as different sorts of things.

This Lent, let's all take some time to think about what it means for us to be personally consecrated to loving and serving God!! - Stephanie

*"Essential Elements in the Church's Teaching on Religious Life as Applied to Institutes Dedicated to Works of the Apostalate." Sacred Congregation for Religious and for Secular Institutes, Rome: 1983.

Managing Faith: The Dilution of "I Love You"

Last night I was watching the reunion episode of Top Chef, a competitive cooking reality show. All contestants had congregated in a studio to film the episode, and there was plenty of joking around and underhanded jabs at one another.

Following a slightly inflammatory comment from one of the contestants to another, the contestants said, "No, really, I love you" in a tone that actually said, "Let's move on."

After that, I happened to catch the tail end of American Idol, during which a contestant was particularly crestfallen after being eliminated. Paula Abdul reached out to her, grabbed her hand, and said, "You know we love you."

Call me old fashioned, but I consider the combination of those three words--"I love you"--to be the most powerful in the English language. In any language. Why are people throwing them around so easily?

I wouldn't mind someone saying those words if they meant them. If Paula truly loved that contestant, if the guy on Top Chef truly loved his competitor, by all means, say it. But it's painfully apparent that there's no love there. Sure, Paula feels for the contestant and maybe has enjoyed her stint on the show, but she doesn't love her. She likes her. "You know we like you," she should have said.

I'm probably being nitpicky, but it's just a big turnoff for me to hear those words thrown around. It dilutes their power; it dilutes their meaning. Do we really want the three most powerful words in our vocabulary to be diluted down to "Let's move on"?