Job Seeker

An active CSC grad student is looking for a temporary summer job within the following possibilities: Art Therapist, Counselor, Higher Education Student Affairs.

Please contact Jamey at stegmaier@washucsc.org to get in touch with this student.

Job Opportunity

Two former community members are looking for an intern for the January/February 2012 course, Beyond the Biologic Basis of Disease, an annual four-week social medicine course designed for medical students in their clinical years. Linking clinical tropical medicine with social medicine, the course merges a number of unique pedagogical approaches including field visits, classroom based presentations and discussions, group reflections, student presentations on previous international work, films, patient clerking and presentations, and bedside teaching.

The position would be from January 9 to February 3, 2012. If interested, please send resume and cover letter of interest to Michael Westerhaus and Amy Finnegan at social.medicine@yahoo.com by July 1, 2011.

Graduation Day!

Camp Counselors Needed (not for CSC)

We just received this e-mail from a local camp and thought it might interest some students:

Annie's Hope needs your help BIG TIME.

We have a desperate need for MALE cabin counselors for Camp Courage and Camp Erin-St. Louis. Not having enough male cabin counselors will, unfortunately, require us to decrease the number of grieving kids that can attend our camps. For the kids' sake, we don't want this to happen.

If you know any males who are 18 years or older, who are high school graduates, who are energetic, work hard, and work well with kids, please share this information with them. In fact, to be most helpful, pass this urgent need to your email contacts too.

Camp Courage and Camp Erin- St. Louis are overnight camps for children who have experienced the death of a loved one. Annie’s Hope- the Bereavement Center for Kids, puts on these camps. Don’t think Camp Courage and Camp Erin will be a sad experience, though. This is a fun, energetic experience where kids can be kids. We are looking for a great group of people over the age of 18 to volunteer as cabin counselors for both camps. If you enjoy the outdoors, kids and teens, and love having fun then this opportunity is for you!

Here are some details on the camps:

Camp Courage serves grieving children ages 6 to 12.

Dates: June 5 -9

Camp Erin - St. Louis serves grieving teens ages 13 to 18.

Dates: June 11-15

You can volunteer for one camp or both. Remember, this experience will look great on a resume!

Please feel free to call or email us with any questions. You can find more information and the volunteer application for Camp Courage and Camp Erin- St. Louis on the homepage of the Annie’s Hope web site www.annieshope.org

From the campers and from the Annie's Hope staff, thank you TONS!

Peace,
Becky Byrne, Executive Director

Job Opportunity (Summer)

Harding Security Associates, a member of the Six3 Systems family of companies, is currently accepting resumes/portfolios for a 2011 Summer Graphic Support position. This will be a paid summer position set aside for current college students that are US Citizens. This opportunity is a great place to start for those looking to use their skills in an industry where graphic artists are not only respected for what they bring to the team, but are also rewarded for their contributions.

Please contact Jamey for more details (stegmaier@washucsc.org).

Tsunami Homily Transcript

Gospel Question: What images coming out of Japan this past week have stayed with you the strongest?

The images have been arresting as they have flowed to us day and night from Japan and across the world. Some will stay with us for a very long time.

One that is very much with me still is of a guy driving along a coastal road and his camera is on and this huge 30 foot waves begins to cross the road in front of him and starts lifting up his car and carrying him like a boat. It was frightening and disconcerting to watch. How powerful that we have those images of this thing called a Tsunami! Now we’ve heard of Tsunami, we’ve known of the terrible toll they take on life and cities, but we’ve never had so many images….

Revelation is happening all the time, right in front of us. Sometimes revelation happens through the events of nature, even when nature is at its most ferocious. Revelations are the deepest down things shown us about ourselves, about our God, and about what matters in life. Some are so obvious, but some perhaps take a little deeper listening for us to really get it.

What might a Tsunami reveal? What might a tsunami teach us about our own true nature? 7 LESSONS OF A TSUNAMI:

1) Know your own power and the power of your impact on others and on the earth. You are powerful! YOU are powerful. And you have the power to destroy.

2) You can go someplace and and leave a mess and never clean up after yourself. If you make a mess of things (and you will!) at work, at home, in your friendships, a relation with God, clean up after yourself. It’s the least you could do!

3) Be prepared, all the while knowing there are some things for which you can never be prepared.

4) JUST 6 WORDS: Things can change in an instant.

5) The tsunami is oblivious to human life; indifferent to you and every person in its path. There are so many in our lives who we will encounter along the way who will not care about you in the least, take no interest in you, and even be out to get you–hurt you–even destroy us in the work of your hands and your loves along with it, maybe even your life. As the Scripture shows from its beginning to its last pages: “you will not go through this world without enemies.” We’d so like it to be otherwise—that maybe if I do it right, say it right, everybody will like me, but truth is the “haters” will always be with us.

6) JUST TWO WORDS: Nothing lasts. Absolutely nothing lasts! That home full of memories, that you worked so hard to build and invested so much of your life into, so full of memories of tears and laughter and conversation and making love, washed away, forever.

7) After a tsunami the skies can shine beautiful and blue as if nothing happened when really everything is changed. Nothing is the same. Life goes on—our worst days are somebody else’s best days. We stand on a street corner after our mom dies or a best friend and the bottom has fallen out for me, but everybody, 99.99% of the world goes on like nothing is changed at all.

Ya see, Encounters with the divine Love can take place in scenes of utter desolation. Love speaks thru the rubble of our lives. Telling us the Truth about ourselves. Love rebuilds even where the devastation has been most awful and terrifying, as people chose hope and people from half a globe away respond to each of these scenes with compassion in the One who is compassion itself.

What does all this have to do with Transfiguration? If we listened to life, if we listen to even disaster when it strikes, if we listen to what is happening right in front of us, we can be changed to. We can be changed for the better. If we take these lessons to heart, we can be transfigured! Something of light, something of glory, will shine through us. So that even the most terrible disaster can open us and help us discover something of our true nature.

As we watch these scenes in Japan, played out again and again, nature at its most ferocious, JUST ONE WORD: listen….

Job Seeker

This community member has gained valuable experience through event management and development work, but has discovered that their true interest lies in communications. They would like to find a position that allows them to focus more heavily on those skills. They're mostly looking for mid-level communications, corporate communications, marketing specialist, writer/editor positions, etc.

If you have any leads, opportunities, or questions for this community member, please contact Jamey at stegmaier@washucsc.org. And if you are a community member (student or non-student) who is looking for a job or has a job opening that you'd like the CSC community to know about, let Jamey know so he can post it on this blog.

"Love" by George Herbert

This is the poem that was read at today's ecumenical Ash Wednesday service:

Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack'd anything.

"A guest," I answer'd, "worthy to be here";
Love said, "You shall be he."
"I, the unkind, the ungrateful? ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee."
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
"Who made the eyes but I?"

"Truth, Lord, but I have marr'd them; let my shame
Go where it doth deserve."
"And know you not," says Love, "who bore the blame?"
"My dear, then I will serve."
"You must sit down," says Love, "and taste my meat."
So I did sit and eat.

Job Opportunity (Summer)

Wash U grad looking for a babysitter for their son (who will be 6 months) from June 27th- July 23rd. Their regular nanny will be out of town. Variable days and hours (mornings, evenings and weekends) but can try to work with your schedule. Could do MWF or T/TH, or M/F or any variation. Please contact Jamey (stegmaier@washucsc) if interested in getting in touch with the family.

Job Opportunity

Soon-to-be historical theology Ph.D. (and CSC community member) seeks full-time teaching, mentoring, and/or administrative employment in higher or secondary education.

Contact Jamey at stegmaier@washucsc.org if you're interested in getting in touch with this person.

A Reflection from John Aughey

Last weekend I attended a silent retreat at White House Retreat House. As part of this retreat, we had group prayers throughout the day, but one prayer that stuck with me is the Angelus. This prayer is said three times daily, and in the morning is followed by two additional prayers. The Angelus by itself takes only a minute to recite, and the morning extensions add just a few additional minutes.

During one of the talks of the retreat, the presider spoke about our addiction to noise. We wake up in the morning and turn on the TV or radio. We walk with iPods bombarding us with music. The instant we get into the car, we turn on the radio. We even go to bed with white noise generators because we can't stand the silence. We are addicted to noise.

My 25 minute drive to work is filled with noise and information. I'm either listening to music or news, or thinking about what I am going work on once I get to work. By the time I get to work, my senses and brain are in overdrive and rather than being prepared to dive into work, I find myself so over stimulated that I can't focus on a single task.

So I have started to incorporate the Angelus and additional prayers into my morning drive to work. I still listen to the radio, but at a set point in my commute I turn off the radio and recite the Angelus by memory. The additional prayers are intentionally not committed to memory, as this allows me to remain in a prayerful silence state until I arrive at the parking lot. Once I arrive, I don't bolt out of my car, but rather sit there with my book and finish the final prayers. These minutes of intentional silence and holding back help to center me and prepare myself for the challenges of the day.

Have a spiritual reflection to share? Send it to Jamey to be posted on the blog: stegmaier@washucsc.org

Library Update from Frank Freeman

I have added two new books to the library. The newer one is medical Ethics by Richard

A. McCormick. The title is, Health and Medicine in the Catholic Tradition. Subtitled,

Tradition in Transition. The moral theology department of Creighton University, Omaha,

Nebraska singles out McCormick. See Tod Salzman at Creighton U. and look under

deontology.

The best thing about McCormick is that he writes an American English. There are very

organic, very meaty examples taken from life. Those examples can bring us up short,

as when McCormick takes us inside a heroin addict house in New York City. Or goes

into a cancer ward with the famous Alexander Solzhenitzen. Or he drops a line about

a friend who went insane. Was anything worth that? McCormick asks us why? do we

really believe that these self-ruined people are God’s special creation? Is this really His

way of revealing? We can’t know. But until we ask this unanswerable question the rest

makes no sense at all.

McCormick is very careful to identify his own position: he features himself as “the radical

middle,” an identity that he acknowledges could be arrogant. The book is a great read.

No harm in skipping to the last chapter on abortion and sexual ethics. It is the best part.

Not to mention the great footnotes. A tour de force, McCormick spells out his opinions

and our options. ... really! It is a book that can fully reward a fifteen minute quick-skim

read. Then, dare you to put it down.

The other is the 1963, essays on The Renewal of the Liturgy. Skip to the last one, The

Future, its Hopes and Difficulties, for a frank and open discussion of the obstacles.

Not to be outdone, there is a reflection posted. By me.

Egypt and the Arab world are one the edge of a cultural explosion. Some of it, at

least, was anticipated by Egypt’s Nobel Laureate. Naguib Mahfouz. Many Arabic

speaking people grew up with his novels and the movies made from them. His Nobel

Laureate Address is recommended for a fresh insight into the world view of an Arabic

writer.

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/

1988/mahfouz-lecture.html

Job Opportunity

Barry-Wehmiller, a large, well-respected comapny in Clayton, has a full-time job opening. A big part of this person’s role will be helping project managers handle more by doing a lot of the adminstrative and technological legwork. The technology portion has the potential to be intriguing, but a lot of what this person does will be helping our team function like a well-oiled machine. The ideal applicant is someone who has been in an administrative role and is looking for a similar, but more challenging role. Please e-mail Jamey if interested at stegmaier@washucsc.org

Job Opportunity (Summer)

Two jobs from the New Sector Alliance

New Sector Summer Fellow
Join New Sector for a summer experience in social enterprise! Spend 11 weeks on a capacity-building project at a nonprofit in Boston or San Francisco, while you learn about the social sector and nonprofit management through New Sector's Social Change Leadership Curriculum. Read more here. The official deadline is February 4th. Pass it on or apply yourself - http://www.newsector.org/application/application.php.

New Sector Resident in Social Enterprise
Are you passionate about creating positive social change? Interested in nonprofit management, capacity-building, or social enterprise? Do you know anyone who'd be interested in New Sector's year-long AmeriCorps program? We are opening a small second round of applications, and the deadline is March 1st. Pass it on or apply yourself - http://www.newsector.org/application/application.php

Applications due on February 11 at the latest.

Job Seeker: Work with Children and/or Immigrants

A recent graduate from the University of Notre Dame is looking for a position in the social work field where she can work closely with children and/or immigrants in St. Louis. Rachel is fluent in Spanish and is passionate about social justice.

If you're interested in connecting with Rachel about a job or networking opportunities, please contact Jamey at stegmaier@washucsc.org.

2009 Intern Reflection

2009-10 CSC intern-in-service Elizabeth Bundy reflects upon her experience at the CSC...as an introvert.

::ahem:: Hi, My name is Elizabeth Bundy (formerly Doveno)...and I am an introvert. My energy comes from having time to myself and I am drained from talking to lots and lots of people in a day. Yes, it may come to some as a shock because I am very well known to chat someone's ear off; however, I insist that it is true. I struggle with outreaching to others in large group settings. I get petrified at the thought of going up to complete strangers and engage in a conversation with them. I am not very smooth or comfortable with small talk. I can get anxious in a social situation where I receive blank stares and expressionless statements-especially if I feel that what I share is really personal or important. I rather engage in a small group conversation or even better one on one with deep meaningful insights. I become easily drained by trying to milk a conversation that is not going anywhere. Now, don't get me wrong, not all times does a conversation need to end in a deep enlightenment of life. Primarily though, the conversations I remember most, entail something deep and meaningful. So, how did I ever work in an environment like the CSC that relies heavily on engaging new students/and community members?! My job is to constantly meet and greet new people and create an environment that is open, loving, and welcoming. I need to get out of my introverted self and stretch what I think I can do.

I remember VERY clearly the first weekend as an intern at the CSC. All through the first Mass I could only think about questions I could ask new people and what my approach was going to be. I decided to stick to what I knew and was more comfortable doing. This approach is to look for those individuals who are similar to myself where they feel overwhelmed just going up to new people and usually are on the outskirts taking several trips to the food table hoping to bump into someone there. I found a young grad student working on her MSW at the Brown School at WashU. I honest to God could not have asked for a better first meeting of a student! We chatted about her home, why she was passionate about social work, adventures she has had in the city, and even more meaningful a small insight to her faith. This spring board gave me my confidence and helped me to continue my established means of meeting new people. I could introduce myself to someone new and have a brief meaningful conversation with them! Holy cow...no way! I took this new found energy and found confidence to meet people in smaller groups not chatting with too many others. In this, I had some great conversations and continued to gain confidence.

Now, there was still some hurdles for me to overcome. I needed to still outreach constantly and not just continue to go to those students and community members I knew. So, I decided every weekend to meet one new person at both Masses. Now, this may seem a little too small of a goal, but for me...it took some time. My gifts and talents are more of running in the background making sure things are going smoothly and handling crisis situations of sorts. My gifts and talents are NOT having a group of people surround me and entertain them with tons of witty remarks or being the one playing master of ceremonies. Regardless, I needed to stretch myself and challenge myself to try.

By the spring semester of last year I was proud of my efforts. I was successfully meeting new students weekly and creating new relationships. When the end of the intern year came, I truly felt like I gained skills that I had previously not worked on. I had the satisfaction of knowing I could engage in small talk, introduce myself to someone new when I did not know them rather than sit in the back and wait for them to come to me, and jump into a group while in conversation. I will not lie and tell you that now it all comes naturally. I recently have found it once again challenging to just jump into a group conversation when maybe only knowing one other person of the group or not even knowing anyone. Regardless, the experiences given to me through the internship were invaluable to growing into a better me. I am still introverted, and that will not change. I am now, however, more confident and able to put myself in situations that just a couple of years ago would find myself avoiding.

Job Opportunity

Two working parents at the Wash U medical campus with variable schedules looking for a very flexible nanny to work approximently 20 hours a week for our infant starting late March. Needed for days, evenings, and weekends. Schedule changes monthly. We live less than one mile from the Loop. Non-smoker. I graduated from Wash U in 2001. Please email or call me if interested.

Contact Jamey Stegmaier at the CSC if you're interested in this position. (stegmaier@washucsc.org)

Job Opportunity

A recruiter for A Christian Ministry in the National Parks (acmnp.com) will be at Washington University on Thursday, Jan. 27 from 11-1 in the Danforth University Center Tisch Commons. Each summer ACMNP places students in 25 different National Parks to lead worship services, work full-time guest service jobs, and live in community with people from all over the world. Contact Melody for more information at Recruiter1@acmnp.com

Johnny's Immaculate Conception Reflection

The following was written and delivered by intern Johnny Holloway as a reflection on Tuesday, December 7.

Friday evening I decided to go to another (not the CSC) church for Mass at 5:15.

I got in the habit of occasionally going to weekday Mass this summer, shortly after becoming Catholic. Maybe it was because of the St. Louis summer heat, but I liked how they served their communion wine chilled. It was refreshing in every possible sense.

I met Sandy (not her real name) during one of those first summer visits to SLU, and ours

has become an unlikely relationship. Sandy must be in her late 50s, although

she looks older. She has seven kids, all of whom have children of their own,

and she is jobless. She lives on $687 a month, and is hard pressed to pay the

bills, and buy food for her poorly educated family. She’s either incompetent

to work, or unwilling to, so each day she takes 2 buses from the crowded

home she shares with her children, down to the SLU area to beg for money and food.

I’m 23 years old, I’ve never been hungry for more than a few hours, and my

parents purchased the car that I drive and the degree I got from Wash U.

I don’t want to paint a romantic image of Sandy or make her out to look like a

saint. She’s not one. She knows how to get what she wants. Often she needs

a ride somewhere. She always manages to get herself down to SLU and

then complains about how much trouble it is for her to get back home on

the buses. “I’m broke down, I’m strugglin’ too much” is her refrain. After

seeing some of the places she’s asked me to take her in the past (the Section

8 housing office, her home, KFC), I’m becoming convinced that though she

has very real needs, more than anything, she just wants to go for a ride in a

car and to have someone to listen to her for a brief while.

Friday was the feast of St. Francis Xavier, a co-founder and patron of the

Jesuits. From the homily I learned that Francis was a smart student and a

good athlete, a man after my own heart. But he was frustrated by how many

good Catholics were content to sit around at Universities studying about

God, but were unwilling to go out and take the Good News to the people

of God through humble service. On top of this, I remembered John the

Baptist’s words from this Sunday, “Bear fruit as a sign of your repentance.”

With all these pious thoughts filling my mind, I left the chapel on a spiritual

high…and then I ran into Sandy. “Crap. I’m going to have to drive her

somewhere.”, I thought. “Maybe she won’t see me.” I started walking away

and only got a few steps before I heard her calling my name. I tried to be

firm and came up with something like “Sandy, you know I can’t give you a ride

anywhere”…but the truth was that I could, and she knew it. She reminded

me of how hard her life is, how cold she was, how she didn’t have any

money for a Christmas tree, let alone gifts for her children or grandchildren,

etc.…she wanted a ride home. How could I say no?

I drove her home…and found out that she only wanted to go there to check

her mail. Where she really needed to go, she then said, was to this other

place where her son was staying, so we arrived there…only so that she could

tell her son where she was actually wanting to go was this place in South

City, where there was heat and furniture... another detour.

I was angry, and Sandy knew it. She had lied to me, and I felt used. “This is not

cool Sandy, you knew where you needed to go before you asked me for a ride,

but you weren’t honest with me about it.”

“I know”, she said “but you wouldn’t have taken me otherwise.”

As we rode in silence to her friend’s place in South City, I could tell that Sandy

was feeling bad about the whole thing. She turned to me and said she was

sorry. She asked if I could forgive her so that we could start over fresh. I

thought about Christ on the Crucifix, and how despite having been used, His

love overflowed in Mercy and Forgiveness even on the Cross. It was also

clear to me after seeing how she lived, that Sandy was the one who was truly

being crucified in this life, not me. I swallowed hard and said “Yes Sandy, I

forgive you. And I’m sorry for trying to avoid you at Church.”

My “yes” did not lead me where I expected it to. It was actually very messy.

In fact, I think all of our “yeses” are pretty messy in some way, but I do

know that we will always meet God through them.

Brian's Immaculate Conception Reflection

The following was written and delivered by intern Brian Blosser as a reflection on Tuesday, December 7.

I have said YES to God in his call to continue to seek him, to not give up on the Divine. You see, for a number of years now, I have struggled with the question of whether or not God exists. I have struggled with whether my faith could stand up to my intellect and my skepticism. I have felt that there was as good a chance of God not existing as there was of God existing.

Emotionally, it’s not hard for me to imagine that I am talking to God in prayer, or thanking God in church, and there is so much I love in our Catholic tradition. However, intellectually, I ask myself questions all the time: Is our belief in God a product of human evolution that can be explained through evolutionary psychology or cultural evolution? Although God could be the source of all the universe and of evolution, it’s possible that he wasn’t, too. Is God necessary? Am I clinging to God because I need to believe in God, because I want to believe in God? Am I afraid I couldn’t handle a Godless world?

I have a brother who is atheist, and we have very lively conversations about what religious people believe, and whether or not those beliefs hold water. I think in addition to the intellectual standards I hold myself to, I often think of my brother in the back of my mind. Would he approve of my belief? Is it something that would stand up to his reasoning?

During last Spring semester, when I was deciding what I was going to do this year, I felt that the CSC was a place where I could explore these questions, explore whether or not God existed and if he did, what I could know about him. However, I worried that I wouldn’t fit in as an intern without a strong faith. During my interview for the CSC internship, I expressed my concern about fitting in to Troy and Sr. Linda. Sr. Linda’s response was, “Brian, the only thing that we ask is that you have an open mind, that you be open to God acting in your life just as much as you be open to God not existing.” It was a really powerful thing that she said.

I think I have said yes to God this year in that I have not stopped seeking: I have not stopped pursuing an understanding of God and the God question. I have been able to read several books about God which have intrigued me and given me hope: from a book that posited God as the source of moral progress, to a book which introduced me to eco-theology, to works of scholars in the field of science and religion, who are able to wrestle with the God question in light of what we know about the natural world through science.

In addition, in light of the openness requested by Troy and Sr. Linda, I have tried my best, with their loving encouragement, to learn from the diverse understandings of God of those around me. Although all of the understandings don’t always make sense to me, I recognize that they can hold much wisdom and value.

To be clear, I haven’t always been diligent in my seeking: there are times when laziness or lack of interest slows my search for God. There are also times when I let my mind close to others’ understandings and lose out on their wisdom. But I hope that when that happens I do my best to renew my commitment, to again say Yes and continue to seek an understanding of God.