The Link

One of my favorite parts about Mass and the CSC is the Lord's Prayer. At Mass this past weekend, I looked up and was reminded that at the CSC, people link hands across the aisle, creating one seamless chain throughout the entire church. For that minute that we spend praying, we're all linked together. We're all one body in Christ.

The next time you're praying the Lord's Prayer at mass, look around at the congregation. You are linked to every single person in the chapel at that moment, sharing words that have been passed on from generation to generation for thousands of years. It's an incredible feeling, to be so connected to so many people.

Teambuilding with Eggs

I put together a little teambuilding exercise for the staff on Tuesday. I gathered the staff together and presented them with two eggs, and I asked them to achieve the impossible (as they attempt to do every year with the students--some very fragile, some not as much):

I asked them to drop an egg from the third floor onto concrete and prevent it from breaking.

The guidelines were simple: The egg had to be dropped by me, an impartial party, and it had to land on the concrete. The only tools they had were as follows, and they were to be used to created some sort of structure around the egg to prevent it from breaking:

One sheet of 8.5 x 11 paper
A small piece of duct tape and a small piece of blue tape
Two paper clips
A foot of ribbon.
A small paper plate
A rubber band
A business card
Two coffee straws

We divided into two teams, but interestingly enough, they decided not to be competitive with each other. Rather, everyone decided they wanted to save the eggs. They just thought that working in smaller groups would prove more productive than working in one big group.

In the end, one egg shattered on impact, while the other barely cracked. The trick is that even though your instinct is to protect the egg--securely wrapping it in paper and tape--what you really want to do is reduce the velocity of the drop. That's what makes the biggest difference. Comparing it to our ministry, I'd say that we try to bring out the gifts in students and young adults that give them the abilities to be whole in the post-collegiate world, not find temporary fixes that aren't going to help them in the long run.

We also had a great discussion over lunch following this exercise. We talked about working in teams and how positive energy can provide a team with a much better result than if even one team member comes in with a negative attitude. We also talked about possible solutions we can use to teach students and young adults whose default attitude is more negative to recognize that and start to diffuse it.

All in all, I think everyone enjoyed this egg drop teambuilding activity.

A Message from the 2009 Newman Gala Co-Chairs

By now you’ve likely heard about the annual Newman Gala. Many of you have attended the Gala in previous years. As the 2009 Gala Chairs, we hope to see you at the Gala this year, when we’ll share a wonderful evening of community and fellowship in support of the CSC. If you’ve never attended the Newman Gala, please know that you are welcome and encouraged to join us on Saturday, October 10th.

The CSC holds a special place in our hearts. We have been members of the Washington University Newman community for fourteen years, first as undergraduate students, then as graduate students and young adults (in Melissa’s case, a former intern-in-service), and now as supporters of the CSC. In our time as community members, we have benefited from some of the greatest experiences of our lives. We both grew up at the CSC in our student days – attending and later leading retreats, participating in service trips, organizing social functions, and meeting lifelong friends. We met at the CSC. We got married at the CSC. We named our first born son after Fr. Gary. Well, not actually, although he did encourage the idea more than once.

Having received so much from the CSC in our time as students, we have always wanted to give back and make sure that future generations of students could experience the same type support, friendship, and affirmation that we received in our journey of faith, growth, and discovery. We can never do enough to achieve that goal, but we can always try. In the years since graduation, giving back has taken many forms, but our favorite way continues to involve attending and volunteering for service at the Gala. It’s an event that we look forward to each year.

To us, though, the Gala is more than just a one-night event. And it is more than just an annual fundraiser. It is a celebration of community and an affirmation that hundreds of people believe in and support the CSC’s mission. The Gala doesn’t come together overnight, and it doesn’t stop when the music ends and the lights are turned off in the ballroom. It is the culmination of countless gifts contributed by numerous people – the various committees who organize and plan the event, the many individuals who procure auction items, the students and adults who volunteer on the night of the event, and the supporters of the community who generously contribute financial resources. The Gala continues after the evening has ended, too – when mass is celebrated at the CSC the next day, when a student in search of support finds a home at the CSC, when a young adult joins with other CSC community members in service halfway around the world. These things can occur because of the outpouring of support at the Gala.

So, while the Gala is still months away, we hope that you can reflect in the coming months on the countless experiences at the CSC that would not have been possible without the success of past Gala events, and at the same time consider joining us for an evening of celebration on October 10^th.

Sincerely,

Melissa and Bob Zaegel

Are you a duck?

Have you ever heard someone say, "It's water off a duck's back"?

I have always loved the phrase because it speaks of a self-integrity not willing to be compromised by outside forces. I wonder if Jesus came back from his forty days of temptation in the desert and said to his Apostles, "Yea, that was really tough... really tough. But, hey, it's water off a duck's back, right?" Or maybe, when people scoffed at his miracles and criticized him for doing God's work on the Sabbath, he thought to himself, "Gosh, I was just trying to help that man walk, didn't mean to be offensive - well, it's all water off a duck's back, and I'm glad my brother can walk now." Or even in the good moments, like his entry into Jerusalem when people were shouting 'Hosanna' and praising him for the royal king they thought he'd be; perhaps even then he prayed, "God, it's water off a duck's back. Part of me would love to bask in this adulation and maintain it, but I've got serious work to do for you. I have to remember who I am."

So, are you a duck? Do you shed distractions from God the way that a duck sheds water?

I don't mean to promote imperviousness as a kind of stubbornness or self-righteousness; it's all too easy to fall into an attitude, which is not at all holy, of "I'm right and I don't care what anybody thinks, because I'm right." Rather, I mean the kind of imperviousness that maintains our core identity as holy creations. This is something that should be protected and defended, and sometimes it takes self-confidence to hold true to our best selves.

Today, for example, would have been a good day for me to be a Catholic duck. This afternoon my Dad was in a bad mood, which, of course, happens to all of us at some point or another. But he was being just awful to my mom, and then kept baiting me about being Catholic and kept hounding me on the issue of my conversion last year, angry about various positions the Catholic church has taken on topics like the death penalty .... on and on, kept following me around yelling in my face no matter where I tried to find a place to study in the house. I'm normally pretty good at tuning stuff out and staying serene on the inside, but for some reason, today I just felt unbearably frustrated and couldn't keep it at bay. I walked out the door and walked around my neighborhood for about an hour, shaking because I was so mad.

I imagine that hell is having the worst brought out in us. Hell is probably the agony of being reduced to our worst, most impatient, most frustrated, most stupid selves. On my walk this afternoon, I was nothing more than a creature of irritation, rended into anger by a stupid situation; now it was me who was in a bad mood. It was a long while before I was able to regain my calm and sense anything like a soul within me. And to think that I let my soul get so unsettled and hateful, so utterly unholy, by jibes against my Catholicism! How ironic. Where was the solid Catholic duck that stays loyal to its own holy dignity no matter what? Where was the solid Catholic duck that keeps its soul in love with the God who is Love, no matter what?

Anything that would trickle into our souls and divert us from the heart of God should be shed like a duck sheds water. It's not wrong to feel irritated or frustrated in a passing way, but our beings, on the level of heart and soul and identity, must be unshakeably sealed in Love.

A prayer:
Dear God, thank you for life. Please seal us in your holy integrity, so that, no matter what situations we find ourselves in, we can always be true to ourselves in you. You have called us to be holy in many contexts - happiness, worry, growth, defense, support, joy, criticism, etc. - so help us remember that these are only contexts and not the substance of our Love. St. Paul wrote, "I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances, I have learned the secret of being well fed and going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through the One who strengthens me." So strengthen us, God, and seal yourself within our hearts. Thanks! Amen.

Finding Work Without Losing Heart

My aunt, a nun in Philadelphia, sent me a link to a free e-book that a priest friend of hers wrote a while back. If you check it out, feel free to post a comment below.

http://www.sju.edu/academics/hsb/resources/findingwork/index.html