Author: Jamie Kralovec

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An Invitation to Ride the Georgetown Circulator Bus!

This week’s post encourages SCS community members to ride the new Capitol Campus Loop provided by the Georgetown University Transportation Shuttle. 

The French Jesuit and social theorist Michel de Certeau was particularly interested in reclaiming the poetics of urban life by embracing the everyday practices of the city that help shape a community of people in a physical place. His concern was that top-down planning efforts and the highly abstract architectural forms of the city would work against the textures of spontaneous human interactions that make up the organic city.  In his essay “Walking in the City,” Certeau encourages the everyday practices of urban life like walking: “The ordinary practitioners of the city live ‘down below,’ below the thresholds at which visibility begins. They walk – an elementary form of this experience of the city; they are walkers, Wandersmanner, whose bodies follow the thicks and thins of an urban ‘text’ they write without being able to read it. These practitioners make use of spaces that cannot be seen.” 

This somewhat mystical and very poetic understanding of the city and its practices can inspire our own encounter with the city. As an urban planner, I highly value the way that I can get to know places and people in the city by walking the city and making time and space for unplanned interactions and observations. Too often, our lives are driven by the demands of rushing to our next meeting. But it is necessary, once in a while, to simply relish in the humanity that makes up an urban community. It is with this theoretical understanding in mind that I encourage everyone at SCS to ride the bus! 

Georgetown’s growing physical presence in Washington, D.C., principally at the developing Capitol Campus, is connected via a set of highly dependable Georgetown University Transportation Shuttle (GUTS) bus routes. These routes were already critically important to helping members of the University community access campus locations efficiently and safely. And now that the Capitol Campus is becoming more and more of a reality, the GUTS network of routes will become even more important. Georgetown recently announced a special dedicated Capitol Campus Loop, which connects rides with local neighborhoods and major points of interest, including Union Station and Trader Joe’s. 

This expanding University-wide network of access and connection to the various geographic homes of Georgetown in the city is about more than transportation logistics. As a regular GUTS commuter during my time at SCS, I can share that this experience of riding the bus over the years has led to actual sustained friendships and new insights about the city and the University. Every time I ride the GUTS bus between the Hilltop Campus and the SCS Campus, I learn something new about either the city or the University. In my rides across town, I’ve learned about centers and offices at Georgetown I’m not aware of where bus riders are commuting to. I’ve also observed the physical and human city during these voyages, enjoying the beautiful vistas and views of the skyline and the Potomac River but also growing in greater awareness of the reality of urban challenges, like the current crisis of homelessness and a considerable population of unhoused people present along these routes. Each trip is a new learning experience, and I look forward to what I might encounter and experience such that it might inform my own actions in the city. 

History: Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio (R), now Pope Francis, is pictured travelling by subway in Buenos Aires
Pope Francis, shown here when he was an archbishop riding public transportation in Argentina, describes the environmental and social benefits of riding the bus. 

In his landmark environmental sustainability teaching encyclical, Laudato Si, Pope Francis describes the “ecology of daily life,” which very much resonates with Certeau’s understanding of the everyday practices of the city. Pope Francis describes the need for quality public transportation that makes integration easier between the different parts of the city. Riding the bus is an environmentally sustainable practice that reduces car trips and even contributes to greater kinship and solidarity among people. Having ridden the buses of Buenos Aires as an archbishop, Pope Francis knows from direct experience that encountering humanity in rich ways is possible on the bus. 

I hope that members of the SCS community will consider riding the GUTS network during their time at the University. This is more than a transport system as I believe it is a vital way to grow deeper connections between the various places and people of our campus communities.

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Lent Offers Opportunity to Confront Personal and Social Realities, Commit to Healing

An image of a concrete cross sculpture installed in an outdoor garden. The words
This week’s post invites deeper reflection on the Christian season of Lent. Sign up to receive daily Lenten reflections from Georgetown students, staff, and faculty

One of the greatest strengths of Georgetown is the way it honors the holidays of the different religious traditions represented across campus. As a Jesuit and Catholic university grounded in a centered pluralism, Georgetown seeks greater mutual understanding and dialogue about the broader significance of special events on each tradition’s religious calendar. In this way, those outside of a particular tradition, or no longer practicing within one or not affiliated with one at all, can still find personal and collective meaning because of the invitation to learn more, follow along, and potentially commit to some actions related to journeying alongside particular religious communities. 

This week, Christian communities at Georgetown and around the world entered into the holy season of Lent. These 40 days, which lead to Holy Week and Easter, focus on the journey to greater spiritual freedom by embracing the paths of fasting, almsgiving, and prayer, which Fr. Mark Bosco, S.J., Vice President for Mission and Ministry, described as the “the touchstones of this spiritual journey each year” in the introduction to this year’s Lent Devotional series (sign up for these daily Lenten reflections from students, staff, and faculty across the campuses, including SCS). In Christian terms, the season is an opportunity to follow Jesus along the path of suffering that ultimately leads to redemption and new life in the Resurrection of Easter. 

Such a seemingly solemn season, so often associated with “giving up” one’s favorite treats or enjoyments for a month and a half, is about recognizing the ultimacy of our lives. What are we living for? And what is getting in the way of realizing our deeper purpose and calling? In his practical theology book, I Was and I Am Dust: Penitente Practices as a Way of Knowing, David Mellott presents a “dust theology” based on the Scriptural passage, “For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  Lent, which begins with the marking of ashes on Ash Wednesday, invites participants to consider how they form a part of the Cosmos and each of these parts, however finite, has much to contribute to the ultimate purpose of the whole. In Mellott’s telling, these Lenten practices are about “coming to terms with reality, and in particular, with oneself.” This notion of growing in clearer awareness of reality is critically important to becoming the kinds of agents of consolation and love that we are called to be. 

The broken reality of the world and the need for great repair, healing, peace, and justice should animate all of our activities at Georgetown. The commitment to using our gifts and talents, resources and knowledge in service to the common good is shared across spiritual and religious traditions. Lent presents the Christian community with a particular opportunity in the religious calendar to more deeply commit to this work. 

One excellent opportunity to deepen a personal and communal commitment to non-violence is a training being offered by Georgetown’s Center on Faith and Justice, MLK Initiative, and endorsed by the Justice and Peace Studies Program. On February 16, the DC Peace Team will offer a session on Active Bystander Intervention and De-Escalation. The purpose of the session, in the context of situations of potentially escalating violence, is to equip participants with the “tools to recognize when you’re a bystander, understand the potential outcomes for all involved, and take nonviolent action.” You can RSVP and learn more here.

Sign up to receive Georgetown’s Lent Daily Devotionals! 

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SCS Student Retreat to Explore the Meaning and Practices of a Good Life

 This week’s post considers the deeply philosophical question: What constitutes a good life? Recent publications have taken up this question, which is a welcomed inquiry at an institution like Georgetown. SCS students have the opportunity to reflect about it at this year’s student retreat from March 9-10. Students should sign up today! 

What constitutes a good life and how does one’s life contribute to the common good? I cannot think of many other questions that keep universities in business. And in a Jesuit heritage institution like Georgetown, this question has even more meaning because of the open inquiry about the religious dimensions of the potential answers. 

But the question of the good life is not just a religious concern. In fact, the history of philosophy expresses various answers to this investigation, with some thinkers religiously motivated and others who are not. The systematic consideration of the question of the good life and how one’s own individual pursuit of it factors into a more common or collective good should energize us at the University, regardless of where we sit and what we do on campus. 

It is with this universal resonance in mind that the annual SCS overnight student retreat from March 9–10 will be organized. 

What is especially exciting about this framing is the considerable increase in literature, both popular and more academic, about the philosophy of the good life. Two recent examples of this trend are philosopher and power pull-ups record-holder Adam Sandel’s book, Happiness in Action: A Philosopher’s Guide to the Good Life, and Meghan Sullivan’s book, The Good Life Method: Reasoning Through the Big Questions of Happiness, Faith, and Meaning. Sullivan, who is a popular philosophy professor at the University of Notre Dame, participated on a panel at SCS (reflected upon by Mission in Motion) convened by Georgetown’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life. A simple internet search of this very question manifests the many paths to considering the good life, which touches upon psychology, philosophy, and medicine among many other topical areas. 

What makes the SCS annual retreat especially important this year is the way that the good life is being compromised and threatened by increasing social polarization, economic inequity, and global conflicts. The threat of harm looms in communities most vulnerable to violence and disintegration. And institutional leaders across the realms of politics, culture, and sports do not seem up to the task of inviting the society to more noble aspirations for realizing a good life together. The SCS student body, already directly impacting society, marketplace, military, and many other domains of life, is in such an important position to positively influence the shape of our collective life. Realization of the common good depends in large part on how we all work together to create conditions for individual and shared flourishing. 

The 24-hour retreat will take place at Georgetown’s idyllic Calcagnini Contemplative Center in Bluemont, Va. As in past years, the experience includes both individual and group activities, time for quiet rest and relaxation, and fellowship over food. This natural setting is a welcome home-away-from-home. SCS students with questions should reach out to me at pjk34@georgetown.edu. RSVP deadline is March 1, 2024. Sign up today! 

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2024 Dr. King “Teach the Speech” Emphasizes the Ongoing Struggle for Freedom and Human Dignity

Lionell Daggs III, Associate Director for Racial Justice Initiatives at the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service, and Tony Mazurkiewicz, chaplain for the Athletics Department, led an anti-racism examen meditation at the 2024 Dr. MLK, Jr. Teach the Speech event. 

Every year, Mission in Motion reflects on Georgetown’s chosen speech of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and offers some suggestions for how its content and themes might be incorporated into courses and other activities at SCS. The 2024 Teach the Speech selection, “Eulogy for the Four Little Girls,” is Dr. King’s memorialization of the four young girls killed in the 1963 terrorist bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. 

In his eulogy, Dr. King mournfully prays for the souls of Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, Cynthia Diane Wesley, and Carole Robertson. The speech is more than a remembrance of these lives, however. Dr. King draws attention to the larger moral and spiritual questions presented by such an act of racialized violence. How can we exercise non-violence and a spirit of non-retaliation in the face of such hate and destruction? Dr. King maintains that we “must believe that the most misguided among them can learn to respect the dignity and the worth of all human personality.” Speaking to bereaved families in the aftermath of such tragedy, Dr. King, who would ultimately be killed in an act of racialized violence, inspires a call to redemption. This road is not easy, however, and requires resistance to “evil systems” and overcoming a tendency to remain silent and complicit in the face of such injustices. 

This year’s event includes a helpful set of teaching resources that can accompany the 1963 speech. This resource document traces several approaches that faculty in any discipline might consider in making the content of the speech align with particular course learning objectives. The resource guide suggests some critical questions for individual and group discussion, including: 

  • King addresses the families of the victims and talks about death as the ‘irreducible common denominator of man.’ He speaks on the importance of faith in these moments. How do we deal with grief and the sense of loss after death? What are the practices in your culture, in your personal lives? 
  • Have I consciously or unconsciously acted to advance racism through my own inactions or silence? Am I culpable? Have I turned a blind eye to racial injustice? How? Why? 
  • How will we hold ourselves accountable to one another on the moral imperative of anti-racism? 

I was particularly interested in the suggestion that Dr. King’s “Eulogy for the Four Little Girls” could become the basis for an anti-racist self-reflection. Readers of this blog will recognize the Jesuit-inspired examen practice and will know that this framework can be flexibly utilized for particular issues, topics, situations, and events. For example, Mission in Motion has previously reflected on an anti-racist examen published by the Association of Jesuit Colleges & Universities. I was so grateful to attend the guided examen led by Lionell Daggs III, Associate Director for Racial Justice Initiatives at the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service, and Tony Mazurkiewicz, chaplain for the Athletics Department. Lionell and Tony modeled the examen practice in a dynamic way, using the audio of Dr. King’s eulogy, historical images, a recorded conversation with a survivor of the Birmingham bombing, and other media to stimulate deeper reflection. Between these visuals, groups at tables in Copley Hall were invited to individually reflect on guided questions in silence and then turn to their table partners for brief conversation. 

I was moved greatly by the sacred atmosphere of this examen and how table partners, many of whom entered the event as Georgetown strangers, developed a trusting bond formed over intimate reflection and active listening. True to Ignatian pedagogy, the examen experience focused not only on reflection but also consideration of discerned actions that can be taken individually and collectively about the ongoing struggle for racial justice in our university, our communities, our country, and the world. My impression is that participants left the morning session more grounded in Dr. King’s moral and spiritual invitation to human dignity and freedom. This struggle and the journey continue. 

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2023 Dean’s Report Highlights SCS Commitment to Integrating Jesuit Values

The 2022-2023 SCS Dean’s Report shines a spotlight on how Georgetown’s Jesuit values come to life across the school’s diverse portfolio. 

Regular readers of Mission in Motion should be well aware of this platform’s enthusiasm for the diverse ways that SCS students, faculty, staff, and alumni uniquely live out the University’s Jesuit values. In recent years, the blog has especially focused on how the set of values in The Spirit of Georgetown present invaluable opportunities for deeper personal and social transformation during times of conflict, adversity, and challenge. As we continue to transition away from the COVID-19 global pandemic and face ever-changing social and economic dynamics in the world around us, the mission of SCS to deliver a “world-class, values-based education to a diverse array of communities and individuals throughout their academic and professional careers” could not be more important. 

The 2022-2023 SCS Dean’s Report, “Catalysts for Change,” exemplifies the spirit of the SCS commitment to living out Georgetown’s Jesuit values across the School’s extensive portfolio of educational offerings. What really distinguishes this year’s report is the degree to which every article and every piece of data presented connects to a thread of The Spirit of Georgetown. You will read about students and alumni across a range of professional disciplines who are applying their values-based SCS education in the service of justice and the common good. Those unfamiliar with the organization of SCS and its many different programs will learn how each professional field represented at the School has something to offer in making the world more just and generous. For example, the report highlights the way that Amanda Fratterelli, 2023 graduate of the Master’s in Integrated Communications program, used her Capstone project to raise global awareness among Gen Z about malaria. The skillful and creative deployment of communication and media resources to inspire others to care about the needs of the least advantaged and most vulnerable is truly at the heart of Georgetown’s Jesuit values. 

The Dean’s Report tells the story of how SCS shares the Spirit of Georgetown with students, faculty, and staff through inclusive retreats and other spiritual programs. 

This year’s report also features several articles that call attention to the very explicit ways that SCS manifests The Spirit of Georgetown. In particular, an article I authored about how SCS offers inclusive, Ignatian-animated retreats for students, faculty, and staff, “SCS Cares for the Whole Person: Restorative Spiritual Retreats,” tells the story about what is possible when adult professionals take time for spiritually grounded rest and renewal. Always faithful to the dynamics of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, SCS retreats strive to faithfully meet participants where they are on their professional journeys and present resources and practices that can deepen their interior lives. Readers of the report will also find an interview with Rabbi Rachel Gartner, SCS Senior Advisor for Spiritual Care, and learn how SCS delivers retreats in a way that recognizes and honors the incredible diversity of our community. 

An article about the School’s partnership with Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), “Empowering Bright Futures: SCS and the Jesuit Refugee Service Increase Educational Access,” amplifies a deeply mission-aligned project that speaks to how SCS leverages its educational assets in service of the world’s great needs. Mission in Motion has previously reflected on this incredible partnership model, led by the English Language Center (ELC) at SCS, which connects SCS staff and faculty volunteers with JRS-support refugees seeking weekly English conversation and mentorship. My hope is that readers of the Dean’s Report will take away from these examples how it is possible to deliver a transformational suite of applied professional programs in ways that meet both the needs of the marketplace and the needs of the common good. 

It is with healthy pride that I encourage you to check out the 2022-2023 Dean’s Report and reflect on how SCS continues to advance Georgetown’s critical mission in many unique ways. 

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SCS Convenes Interdisciplinary, Intersectoral Series on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence

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This week’s post considers the deeper ethical questions at the root of artificial intelligence and highlights a series of events at SCS on this topic. 

A day does not go by without artificial intelligence, or AI, making headline news. The advent of new AI applications, like ChatGPT, has been much discussed in higher education. Georgetown is no exception to this phenomenon, with the University devising new protocols around the use of AI in classroom settings in an effort to preserve academic integrity. The growth of AI tools, and their deployment through commercial and military entities, has sparked much discussion in the academy. There is growing recognition that AI brings both possibilities and perils as this set of techniques and technologies becomes more broadly adopted. 

Pope Francis, for example, in his New Year 2024 World Day of Peace message, comments on both the enormous potential for human flourishing presented by AI as well as the ethical pitfalls. On the one hand, Pope Francis notes that advances in science and technology remedy “countless ills that formerly plagued human life and caused great suffering.” These gains for human flourishing are notable and reflect the awe-inspiring power of scientific discovery and new applications of research. On the other hand, Pope Francis comments about the significant ethical and moral challenges posed by this burgeoning technological movement: 

“The inherent dignity of each human being and the fraternity that binds us together as members of the one human family must undergird the development of new technologies that serve as indisputable criteria for evaluating them before they are employed, so that digital progress can occur with due respect for justice and contribute to the cause of peace. … We need to be aware of the rapid transformations now taking place and to manage them in ways that safeguard fundamental human rights and respect the institutions and laws that promote integral human development.”

Christopher Brooks, a professor of Computer Science and Engineering at peer Jesuit institution the University of San Francisco, echoes these points in an article in Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education: “Artificial Intelligence: The Brave New World of Moral Issues.” Brooks makes four fundamental claims related to potential misunderstanding that the operation of AI is automatically a net positive for humanity. He advises that ethical caution is necessary as this set of practices and tools become more commonplace because 1) Data is not information; 2) Information is not knowledge; 3) Knowledge is not understanding; and 4) Understanding is not wisdom. He goes on to affirm the contributions that Jesuit education can make to growing a base of wisdom about the ethical applications of AI. Given that “idea of reasoning about reasoning, asking those deeper, more fundamental questions, is a hallmark of Jesuit education,” Brooks argues that Jesuit education can advance the ethical considerations of this conversation through ideas of discernment, invitations to choose the “Magis” or better choice, and solidarity, which “reminds us to know and connect with the people affected by this technology.” The imperative to deeply interrogate the ethical and moral repercussions of AI has a special place, therefore, in the teaching, research, and service that occurs at a Jesuit institution like Georgetown.

Georgetown SCS is taking a leading role in this ongoing public discourse by launching a semester-long series, entitled “Responsible AI: Intersectoral Seminar Series.” This timely series investigates how diverse sectors, many of them represented among the degree programs offered at SCS, are navigating the challenges of AI deployment. The series is an excellent representation of how SCS uniquely advances the larger Georgetown mission to encourage “reflective lifelong learners” who might become “responsible and active participants in civic life.” 

Rooted in the SCS scholar practitioner model, the series showcases on speaking panels a diverse professional array of leaders working in fields like urban planning, project management, marketing and communications, and journalism. The mission commitment of Georgetown to advance knowledge that supports human flourishing and the common good is manifested in how the series presents an interdisciplinary approach to these vexing ethical questions that touch upon overlapping and interdependent facets of human life. The fact that every degree program has something important to say about this ongoing discernment is a testament to the enduring ethical importance of the SCS programs. 

Emerging technologies should be rigorously assessed from the vantage point of various ethical frameworks. Georgetown SCS is bringing interdisciplinary attention, rooted in the ethical principles that animate the mission of the University, to these important questions. I hope you check out the remaining events in the spring semester series! 

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Toward a Meaningful Diversity: Ignatian Resources for Realizing an Inclusive Community

Diverse student group
This week’s post considers the resources of Ignatian spirituality for the work of justice, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Check out how SCS is committed to this work through its Diversity, Equity, Belonging, and Inclusion Council (DEBIC). 

A new semester is underway and with it comes a new group of students beginning their educational journeys at Georgetown. This week, SCS welcomed these new students and intended to do so in an evening reception featuring remarks by Dean Otter and other school leaders. While inclement weather postponed the formal welcome event, program staff and faculty oriented the new arrivals with information, resources, and advice about how to succeed at the University. A central piece of this orientation to SCS is the Catholic and Jesuit heritage of Georgetown and how it influences student experience in tangible ways. 

An introductory reflection for new students about what they can expect from studying at the nation’s oldest Catholic and Jesuit university might begin with this e-story: “What’s So Different About a Jesuit Education? Seeking Something Greater.” This post makes clear that students are encouraged to cultivate spiritual practices that develop a healthy interior life as they pursue their SCS programs. The attention that Georgetown places on interiority, through guided reflections, retreats, religious services, and daily meditation, is a distinctive feature of the SCS experience. This attention to interiority is emphasized because such an inner life of contemplation ultimately leads to healthy and generous actions in the world that advance social justice and the common good. New students will quickly come to learn that Georgetown distills the five-century-old tradition of Jesuit education into 10 values, The Spirit of Georgetown, that reflect our “way of proceeding” as a learning community. In this week’s post, I would like to call attention to the value “Community in Diversity.” 

Most institutions of higher education emphasize the importance of a diverse community as part of their mission statements, programing, and marketing. The value of a diverse workforce, manifested in many markers and indicators of human diversity, is undisputed. In today’s globalized world, it is imperative that well-prepared professionals have the competency and skillfulness to meaningfully engage with diversity in all of its forms. But at Georgetown, a religious heritage university anchored in the Catholic tradition, diversity is more than a secular value. The Catholic and Jesuit moral and spiritual tradition prizes human diversity as a gift of a creative and loving God who desires that communities flourish by sharing together the richness of their various gifts. Celebrating diversity then becomes both a moral and a spiritual imperative. What, you might ask, does the advancement of a diverse community have to do with spirituality? 

This week, a group from Georgetown and other Catholic colleges and universities is gathering at the University of San Diego for a conference, “Lighting the Way Forward: The Purpose of Catholic Higher Education in a Changing World.” The gathering, organized around four themes, seeks to reflect on how Catholic higher education in the United States is being called upon to help address the most pressing social challenges of our age, including “climate change, structural racism, lack of trust in institutions and breakdown of communities, polarizing political discourse, religious disaffiliation, and more.” One of the core themes is Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging, reflecting the moral imperative at the heart of Catholic Social Teaching to create truly inclusive communities by combatting the forces in social, economic, and political life that exclude, marginalize, and “otherize” individuals and groups in the social minority. The Jesuit tradition, embodied in the practices of Ignatian spirituality, has a particular contribution to this work of advancing meaningfully diverse communities. 

The root of all Ignatian spirituality is the Spiritual Exercises. This retreat framework, developed by St. Ignatius, is offered in various formats and is structured as a relationship between a retreatant and a spiritual guide or director based on the retreatant’s experience of daily prayer. The entire journey of the Exercises, divided into four major themes of self-discovery and development, is guided by the principle that all human beings need to free themselves from “disordered attachments” in order to fully realize their deeper meaning and purpose in life. These attachments, which impede the realization of personal and social flourishing, are the kinds of impediments that get in the way of realizing our full capacity to love. Some of these impediments are “blind spots” that we possess, preventing us from seeing reality clearly and truly. Blockages to true freedom might be in the individual, like a tendency to continually self-doubt or self-criticize in ways that chip away at our healthy self-esteem and self-understanding. Other blockages might be social, like an intentional lack of awareness or curiosity about social and economic injustices in the world around us. Whatever these blockages might be, the Spiritual Exercises journey aims to help the individual realize, with the assistance of a loving God, how to attain true inner freedom for the sake of participating in God’s project of justice, hospitality, and kinship. 

At the “Lighting the Way Forward” conference, I will be presenting with Tony Mazurkiewicz, Chaplain for the Athletics Department, on an Ignatian retreat being co-sponsored by Georgetown and Holy Trinity Parish. The presentation, “The Long Journey to Spiritual Freedom: Making the Mission Case for a Racial Justice Integration Role at Catholic Colleges and Universities,” is centered around Setting Captives Free, a 6-week retreat in daily life modeled on an adapted format of the Spiritual Exercises. Georgetown faculty and staff are invited to register for this retreat. 

Retreatants participate weekly in a small reflection group where they share about the spiritual fruits of their daily prayer. Each of the six weeks is organized around a different theme in which participants ask God for a particular gift related to the journey of growing in freedom about one’s own participation in the structures of society that maintain racism. This journey to freedom begins by growing in greater awareness about the reality of racism and the retreatant is challenged to experience this not as an abstract, distant reality but one that is personalized and evident in one’s participation in the structures of daily life. 

Ignatian spirituality is well-suited to this critical work of striving for racial justice because the developmental framework of the Spiritual Exercises is ultimately about personal and social transformation of unjust and sinful personal and social structures. How is God moving and calling me to advance a more inclusive community not only at Georgetown but in the world beyond? What work is there for me to do in combating the forces that marginalize and exclude on the basis of race and other categories of human diversity? This journey to spiritual freedom might be long and arduous, but it is a path to realizing an inclusive community that flourishes amidst its differences. 

If you’re interested in learning more about the Setting Captives Free retreat, taking place from the weeks of February 11 through March 17, please check out the retreat website or reach out to me (pjk34@georgetown.edu) for more information. 

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An Examen To Review 2023

This week’s post invites quiet reflection on our year together by using the Jesuit spiritual practice of the Examen. The May 2023 student retreat stands out as a moment of great gratitude. 

Readers of Mission in Motion recognize the Examen as a common feature of the blog. Many articles describe this core Jesuit spiritual practice or use it to inspire reflection about an event or program at SCS. Sometimes, the blog even constructs a post as a form of Examen. This practice is one that invites interior reflection on the events of a period of time with the purpose of prayerfully and sensorially re-engaging with those experiences and making spiritual meaning of them. 

The reflective steps of the Examen process involve settling in and becoming centered in the presence of the Divine and then growing in awareness of particular encounters with gratitude, consolation, desolation, and a hoped-for resolve for the future. The point is to sift through the data of experience to discern how one is called to move from reflection on experiences, both the joyful and the challenging, toward choices and actions of greater love and generosity. Individuals can do the Examen and so can entire groups or organizations, like Georgetown, which is currently undertaking its own Mission Priority Examen, a reflective self-assessment of the University’s commitments to Jesuit mission and identity.

As we sit on the precipice of a new year, I offer a brief Examen on SCS in 2023. In next week’s post, Rabbi Rachel will offer some reflections about the year we had and the year to come. In this spirit of deeper meditation on the meaning of our shared Georgetown experiences in 2023, I invite you to join me in this Examen. Take a few minutes to settle into some quiet. This is especially important as we transition from a long semester of work and study and prepare for some time of quiet and rejuvenation. As you settle in, I invite you to ask for insight and new self-knowledge during this time of quiet. When you feel grounded in the silence, I then invite you to ponder these questions slowly: 

  • Take a few minutes and notice all of the significant events of the last year. These might be personal events or events you experienced with a group (for example, a class, a work team, family, community organization, etc.). Allow these significant moments to flow by in your consciousness one-by-one as in a parade. Do not yet judge or assess the moments, just allow them to pass back into your present awareness. 
  • As you sift through all of these significant moments, what experiences rise to the surface? In particular, what encounters with Georgetown feel most important to you at the end of the year? I invite you to focus on the most important moments and let the less significant experiences move to the side. 
  • What is one significant moment from this last year that brings you deep gladness and joy? A moment that, in Jesuit spirituality, brings consolation? These kinds of moments stir within us an impulse and an inclination to savor more greatly, express more gratitude, and share ourselves with others with more magnanimity. 
  • Take a moment to explore a moment that brings the opposite feelings of desolation. Was there a significant experience in 2023 that challenged you to the core of your being, perhaps causing you to doubt your self-purpose or become skeptical about the good intentions of others? Did times arise in this year that drained you of energy and led to nagging self-doubt or disbelief? 
  • As you consider the year ahead, what from 2023 would you like to do differently, or better, or more lovingly in 2024? Grounded as we are in the Spirit of Georgetown, how are you called in the next year to be an agent of more justice in the world and more generosity and understanding in your communities? 

As I look back on our SCS 2023, I notice lots of gratitude that arises from my prayerful Examen. I recall the generous availability that students demonstrated during our annual retreat (“SCS Student Retreat Steps Outside of the Ordinary into Rest and Reflection”). I also remember students, staff, and faculty coming together to support one another after the tragic loss of a member of our community (“Coming Together in Times of Challenge and Loss”). I remember the inspiration I felt during Jason Kander’s 2023 Commencement address when he challenged us to reconsider what it means to be brave by acknowledging our needs for mental health support (“SCS 2023 Commencement Emphasizes Celebration, Care for Self, Commitment to Others”).  

There are so many other important moments from the year that rise to the surface of a longer reflection on our SCS commitment to Jesuit mission and values. For now, I am going to look ahead with gratitude and hope for another year of journeying together with you in this sacred work. 

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A Seasonal Invitation into Wonder

This week’s post is a seasonal invitation into wonder based on the annual SCS faculty and student party. 

Tis the season for festive gatherings of all kinds. Convenings across Georgetown in December have brought the university community together to celebrate the beginning of Hanukkah and the coming of Christmas and usher in a time of holiday rest and enjoyment after a long semester.

A few weeks ago, Mission in Motion reflected on the spiritual meaning of gratitude, noting that such a disposition is hard to come by especially when gratitude seems to be in short supply. The same caution about gratitude can be applied to the sense of celebration that these many holiday gatherings are meant to cultivate. In light of the ongoing reality of war and suffering around the world and in our homes and communities, it would be wise to put any holiday celebration into a proper context. We can still come together and celebrate, however, in spite of significant challenges and adversity in ourselves, our communities, and the world, and seek out and receive the gifts of being in community. 

This week, SCS came together for the annual student and faculty holiday party. I had on my mind the wisdom of Cole Arthur Riley, a spiritual writer and liturgist, as I experienced the glow of the SCS atrium on a dark and cold December evening. Riley writes movingly about wonder and how wonder relates to growing one’s capacity for greater love of self, others, and world: 

“Wonder includes the capacity to be in awe of humanity, even your own. It allows us to jettison the dangerous belief that things worthy of wonder can only be located on nature hikes and scenic overlooks. This can distract us from the beauty flowing through us daily. For every second that our organs and bones sustain us is a miracle. When those bones heal, when our wounds scab over, this is our call to marvel at our bodies – their regeneration, their stability or frailty. This grows our sense of dignity. To be able to marvel at the face of our neighbor with the same awe we have for the mountaintop, the sunlight refracting – this manner of vision is what will keep us from destroying each other. … Wonder requires a person not to forget themselves but to feel themselves so acutely that their connectedness to every created thing comes into focus. In sacred awe, we are part of the story.” 

My own sense of sacred wonder wandered from various details and scenes at the festive gathering. I noticed students chatting with faculty members and faculty members meeting other faculty from different programs. I saw the line of guests waiting on a delicious spread of food and drink expressing their gladness with looks of excitement and contentment. I wondered at the meticulous details of festive lights and colors and sounds. I experienced wonder in the way that the shared experience of being at Georgetown could bring so many people together for this occasion. I marveled at the joys of spontaneous sparks of laughter and conversation and merriment. There was a lot to wonder about in the particular details of the party. To Riley’s invitation, I was filled with the beauty flowing through this brief occasion and hoped that others felt this way, too. 

As you look around in these days and weeks of holiday rest, how can you cultivate a sense of awe and wonder about humanity? 

As the semester wraps up and we prepare ourselves for the coming weeks, I invite you to practice a sense of wonder about the world around you. A stance of wonder does not need “scenic overlooks” but the details of the everyday. Habits of awe and wonder, especially in times of stress and challenge, can help us all feel the sacred connections that make us a community.  

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Reflecting on “Eloquentia Perfecta” as Center for Social Impact Communication Celebrates 15 Years

This week’s post highlights the 15th anniversary of CSIC and the ways that this mission-serving Center brings to life the Jesuit characteristic of perfect eloquence. 

In an article in Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, “Rhetorical Education in the Jesuit Mode With Five Bullet Points for Today,” Jesuit historian and long-time Georgetown professor Fr. John O’Malley, S.J., reflects on the distinctive characteristics of Jesuit education. Central to O’Malley’s presentation is the way that the art of communication factors into the training and education provided in Jesuit schools. He makes note of how the humanistic tradition values the gifts of oratory and public rhetoric as a way of serving the common good. The schools run by Jesuits for the last five centuries have evolved and taken on many new forms, but one consistent thread is a commitment to eloquentia perfecta, or perfect eloquence. Fr. O’Malley describes the concept in this way: 

“This expression took hold in the Jesuit tradition as capturing the most immediate goal of rhetorical training. The goal was achieved through the study of great literature in one’s own language and in the languages of other cultures. Eloquence, a word sadly out of fashion in most quarters today, is the skill to say precisely what one means and to do so with grace and persuasive force. It is the fundamental skill needed by anyone in a leadership position, however humble. It is a skill, as well, that helps one ‘get ahead’ out in the marketplace, and sometimes get farther ahead than those with nothing more than the technical skills of the trade.”

The notion of perfect eloquence arises as SCS prepares to celebrate on December 4 the 15th anniversary of the Center for Social Impact Communication (CSIC). This Center has stood out since its founding as an indispensable mission-serving entity at Georgetown. CSIC’s focus is on supporting the social impact sector to meet the most intractable issues faced by society and it does this by “embracing the blur.” What does this mean? According to CSIC, “embracing the blur” acknowledges “the level of effort it takes to create measurable—and sustaining—social impact. The problems we seek to solve are too complex for one sector to tackle, or one functional area to own. … Embracing the blur means uncovering your own unique strengths and recognizing how they can work synergistically with those of your collaborators to ultimately create impact.” As an educational unit, CSIC accomplishes this critical social change vision in several ways. 

The Center works through applied research, graduate courses, community collaborations, and thought leadership. CSIC helps clients apply for pro-bono services, including marketing, communication, fundraising, and journalism services from SCS graduate students. By matching real-world clients addressing real-word social needs with Georgetown students, CSIC is integrating the Spirit of Georgetown values into the applied curriculum of SCS. One of the Center’s signature courses, “Cause Consulting,” provides students with the opportunity to share integrated communication services for non-profits and socially responsible businesses. The measurable positive impact of this course alone is notable, with over 22,000 pro-bono support hours contributed over the last decade and more than 75 clients served through the partnership. This is just one example, in addition to others like applied research and “Strategic Storytelling,” in which CSIC at SCS is helping support social transformation through the power of effective communication. 

The story of CSIC is truly one of using communication with both “grace and persuasive force,” a combination that reverberates with the Jesuit tradition of eloquentia perfecta. 

The 15th anniversary celebration for CSIC will take place on December 4. Be sure to visit CSIC at its homepage.