Tag: Reflection

Posted on

An Examen for the Summer Months

Summer can be an excellent time for deeper reflection. The prospect of some rest and relaxation with friends and family is energizing and renewing. Of course, not everyone has a lighter schedule of activities and work when others are headed to beaches, pools, or outdoor barbecues. At SCS, the school’s summer team handles both the Summer Session and Summer High School programs at Georgetown. The dedicated staff expects nearly 3,000 students and the team is hard at work preparing for the first in-person summer program since 2019. Mission in Motion has previously amplified the work of the summer team, particularly the Summer College Immersion Program, a deeply mission-aligned three-week Georgetown curricular and co-curricular residential experience for rising high school seniors from the Cristo Rey Network, KIPP Foundation, and other select school systems, networks, and community organization. 

This week’s Mission in Motion invites readers to take some time in the summer for quiet meditation, suggesting a form of the examen tailored to summer-time. 

No matter how much down time you can expect this summer, I encourage you to make some space for dedicated reflection, prayer, and meditation. There are many options for engaging in such spiritual exercise. You might consider logging into one of the SCS Daily Digitation Meditations (sign up here), taking a nature walk, or doing some slow reading. You may also consider adding the Jesuit-styled Examen of consciousness to your menu of inner practices. The examen, a style of reverential reflection on the meaning of your daily experiences that arises out of the tradition of Jesuit spirituality, is an especially useful tool for busy people. St. Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits, emphasized flexibility and adaptability in the selection of spiritual practices that meet one’s needs. You can try out the examen in a way that works with your life circumstances and commitments. 

If you find yourself this summer with extra time and space to devote to your inner life, I encourage you to try out the examen. And here is a suggested framework for a uniquely summer-time reflection: 

  • Take a few moments to enter into a time of stillness. Attend to your body and mind quieting down. As you transition into quiet, put yourself into contact with the Transcendent of your life, whatever the sacred relationship that grounds you. Allow yourself to experience the nearness of the Divine. 
  • As you feel yourself letting go of your distractions and preoccupations, allow yourself to settle your body, mind, and spirit. Quiet yourself by taking some intentional breaths. Try breathing in “peace” and breathing out “distraction.” Move onto the next step when you find your whole self quieting down and settling into this sacred experience. 
  • Now, use all of your senses to experience again the major moments of your day (or if you are reflecting on a longer period of time, your week, or month, or past semester). Savor all of the significant moments, tasting, smelling, and hearing again all of the details. Imagine that you are at rest in the shallow waters and these experiences are like the incoming waves that come into shore one after the next. Just let yourself feel all of these memories again. 
  • As you sift through the major moments, get in touch with your feelings of gratitude. For what in the past day (or week, month, etc.) fills you with gratitude and connects you more closely with the source of these gifts? In the spirit of summer time, what experiences of your life help encourage you to take time for rest and relaxation? Where in your life are you finding peace? 
  • Now spend some time with the opposite experiences and feelings. What in your life is drying you out and sapping up your energy? Moving from the personal to the interpersonal and then to the societal, what events in the world cause you desolation and even despair? How are these feelings of desolation affecting your actions and habits? Sit with these feelings, however difficult, for a little time. 
  • Begin to bring your time of quiet examen to a close by looking ahead. With whatever new insights or deeper awareness that you’ve gained in these moments of stillness, how would you like to make a change in your next day, week, or month? Are you sensing an invitation to become a more generous, loving, and mindful person? End your examen by giving thanks for this time and reminding yourself of your goodness. 

This whole sequence can take 10-15 minutes. One of the best things about the examen is that you can do it at any point in your day. In these summer months, as you take stock of your need for rest and recharge, I hope that this invitation to quiet reflection gives you some inner resources for the journey ahead. 

Posted on

We Are Called To Be Agents of Consolation

In the last few weeks, I have struggled to find sensible words to use in response to the mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York. I know that I am not alone in this feeling. Words feel unsatisfactory to the task of making sense of these hate-filled massacres. The pattern of mass violence is all too predictable in our national life: unimaginable death has been routinized and, as a consequence, a temptation sets in to become numb to the carnage and inert about making positive changes in the way we live as a collective. 

In this week’s post, Mission in Motion considers hope in the midst of the misery of recent mass shootings and other armed violence. The recent Class of 2020 Baccalaureate Mass, with reflections from President DeGioia and a homily by Fr. Greg Schenden, S.J., centered on the theme of hope. You can watch the mass here. 

So it might come as a shock to some that the resource that I’m going to these days is hope. Let me be clear at the beginning: I am not talking about a facile, saccharine, naïve hope that is based in wishful and unrealistic thinking. No, I am talking about the kind of critical hope that arises out of Georgetown’s Catholic and Jesuit tradition and the other religious traditions that have their home at this university. In the midst of this continuing cycle of despair and desolation about the now routinized cycles of senseless loss, I think that a bold and daring hope is what grounds me and can serve as a shared resource for all of us in these difficult days. Because hope is a virtue that extends beyond individual thoughts and actions and calls on everyone to share together in the work of healing, mercy, and justice. 

Hope is especially important to name as it relates to our task as a university community in responding to the crisis of armed violence in the United States. The educational mission of Georgetown, grounded as it is in Catholic Social Teaching, reminds us that a just society balances rights, on the one hand, with responsibilities, on the other. We are responsible for one another and have a special obligation to the most vulnerable in our society. Our learning, teaching, and service at Georgetown invites us to evaluate how we are called to participate in the healing and restoration of the brokenness in our society and culture. How can we apply our learning and our professional gifts and talents to build a society that makes its members, especially its most marginalized, feel safe and welcomed? 

The actions needed in a time like this are both small and large. In our daily lives and interactions, how can we instill the virtues of tenderness and compassion? How can we extend grace, forgiveness, and seemingly minor acts of charity in the day-to-day? How can we be more sensitive about the language we employ and consider how it is received by others? And in the larger work of structural change: how can we contribute to changes in law and policy that can help reduce the overall incidence of armed violence? What gifts, talents, and resources of our own can we add in a shared struggle for peace and justice in our country and throughout the world? 

All of this talk of hope, as unexpected as it might seem these days, comes on the heels of two weekends of Commencement celebration at Georgetown. Dr. Shaun Harper invited the 2022 graduates of SCS to live into the continuation of hope as an antidote to the social ills that plague us. And this past weekend, both President DeGioia and Fr. Greg Schenden, S.J., Director of Campus Ministry, in the Baccalaureate Mass for the Class of 2020, called out the theme of hope from the Jesuit tradition of spirituality. President DeGioia, reflecting on a reading from St. Paul, invited the assembly to be witnesses to hope and consolation through all of the loss, pain, sadness, difficulty, and disruption. And Fr. Schenden, referring to the writing of the Jesuit historian Fr. John O’Malley, reminded the audience that our mission at Georgetown is to form people for others who serve as ministers of consolation. In a wounded and weary world, this is the kind of hope that we so desperately need. 

Posted on

Georgetown Honors Sr. Thea Bowman, an Inspiration for Ecumenism and Social Justice

This week, Georgetown honored Sr. Thea Bowman during a naming ceremony of the Copley chapel. Mission in Motion reflects on the significance and implications of Sr. Thea’s life for us today. 

As spring semester comes to a conclusion and the joyous celebration of Commencement approaches, Georgetown made time this week for several significant events related to Sr. Thea Bowman. Bowman, a Roman Catholic religious sister considered a “Servant of God” (meaning that she is on the path to canonization by the Church), made important contributions in her lifetime both to her faith community and to the world. University President DeGioia captured some of Sr. Thea’s defining legacies in his announcement: 

“[H]er vibrant Christian faith; her Protestant roots; her joining the Catholic community and the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration; her courage in calling the Catholic Church and our nation to more fully engage with Black Catholics and to reject racism; her own academic background and role in establishing scholarship around the Black Catholic experience; her embrace of music as a form of ministry; and her faith-filled service and witness in living the Gospel.”

The context for honoring Bowman at the University is the naming this week of the chapel in Copley Hall in her honor. The chapel in Copley is both a consecrated Catholic chapel and the spiritual home for Georgetown’s Protestant community. An ecumenical service took place to commemorate the naming of the chapel and included the Roman Catholic Cardinal Archbishop of Washington, Wilton Gregory, as well as Fr. Mark Bosco, Vice President for Mission and Ministry; Rev. Ebony Grisom, Interim Director of Protestant Ministry; and Rev. TauVaughn Toney, Protestant Christian Chaplain. The event featured lively music provided by Georgetown’s Gospel Choir along with reflections by President DeGioia and testimonials about Bowman’s life from religious women who knew her well. 

The celebration of Sr. Thea continued into the evening as the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life hosted a Dahlgren Dialogue: “Faithful Life, Powerful Legacy, Continuing Lessons.” The panel of distinguished leaders explored key questions about the implications and lessons of Bowman’s life. At the center of the discussion was the recognition of the burdens Sr. Thea bore in battling the intersecting oppressions of racism and patriarchalism. She faced these challenges along with other marginalizations as she sought to lift up the Black Catholic experience in a Church and society that too often excluded and excludes the fullness of Black identity and experience. 

As part of the celebration of Sr. Thea Bowman’s life, a panel at Georgetown explored the lessons that we can take away from how she lived. You can watch a recording. 

All of the panelists pointed to Bowman’s 1989 address to the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops for insights about how to proceed today with hope in spite of the dispiriting challenges to greater inclusion and justice for marginalized persons and communities. Sr. Thea’s lively and courageous embrace of her own authentic self was a resource for her loving actions in the world and offers inspiration for us today: 

“What does it mean to be Black and Catholic? It means that I come to my Church fully functioning. That doesn’t frighten you, does it? I come to my Church fully functioning. I bring myself; my Black self, all that I am, all that I have, all that I hope to become. I bring my whole history, my traditions, my experience, my culture, my African American song and dance and gesture and movement and teaching and preaching and healing and responsibility – as gifts to the Church.”

The panelists described a necessary caution in interpreting the significance of Sr. Thea’s life. It would be a temptation to reduce her life’s work only to the cause of racial justice and fail to appreciate the many other ways that she worked against social structures of exclusion. To honor Sr. Thea in a genuine way, the panelists agreed, is to live out her message by proactively and continuously standing with people of color, through policies, practices, and ways of being community, in the pursuit of justice and the common good. That would truly be honoring Sr. Thea’s legacy!

Posted on

Engaging in Solidarity with the People of Ukraine 

“What can I do?” 

This question has become common in recent weeks as the war and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine grow. Observing images of human suffering and senseless destruction on television, in newspapers, or on the web is dispiriting and potentially demotivating. One might feel like there is nothing that can be done in response to a conflict half-way around the world. And when one appreciates that the war in Ukraine is only one of nearly a dozen other armed conflicts occurring in the world at this very moment, the sense of hopelessness in the face of human suffering and unnecessary loss can only grow.

What can we, as a Georgetown University community, do in response to these events? What might we discern as action steps, individually and collectively, in response to the war in Ukraine?  

This week’s Mission in Motion explores what can we do as members of the Georgetown community in response to the war in Ukraine and the growing humanitarian crisis it has caused. Tetiana Stawnychy, president of Caritas Ukraine, participated from Ukraine on a virtual Georgetown panel and offered ways to support the people of Ukraine (watch the recording).

The University’s mission and values offer insights about how to proceed. Georgetown students are educated “to be reflective lifelong learners, to be responsible and active participants in civic life and to live generously in service to others.” We live out these commitments through values like “People for Others,” “Faith that Does Justice,” and “Interreligious Understanding.” These principles are being animated at the University in the weeks following the beginning of the war. 

Georgetown’s official University landing page details several ways for members of the community to support growing humanitarian needs arising from the war. In addition to statements and expressions of support, one finds at that site resources for supporting mental and spiritual well-being in response to these destabilizing world events. Consistent with the University’s academic mission, the page also features timely scholarship, commentary, and public convenings that shed light on the many dynamic issues that the war brings up for the global community. 

This week, for instance, Georgetown’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life hosted an event, “War in Ukraine: Human Agony, Global Crisis, Moral Principles.” The event, which featured speakers from around the world, including Tetiana Stawnychy, president of Caritas Ukraine, who was participating from within Ukraine where she is leading humanitarian assistance on the ground. This event was focused on practical questions, namely “what is the best way for event viewers to help?” But the discussion also pointed to the need for deeper individual reflection about the meaning of the war. One panelist offered that discerning what one is called to do in response to this war depends on first understanding the underlying issues. How did this war come to be? And what are the implications for the people of Ukraine in the short, medium, and long terms? Such reflections, which can occur in interdisciplinary curricular and co-curricular ways at Georgetown, bring up critical questions about globalization, religion and nationalism, international governance, economics, etc. 

There are many international humanitarian organizations addressing the human needs arising from the war in Ukraine. The Jesuit Refugee Service has set up this page with suggestions for how to become more involved in the humanitarian response. And from April 6–9, 2022, Loyola Press, a Jesuit publishing company, will donate all of the proceeds from book sales on its site to the JRS. 

Posted on

Georgetown Event To Reflect on Two Years of COVID-19: “So What Did I Miss?” 

One of the significant benefits of being a member of the Georgetown community is the opportunity to attend informative, entertaining, provocative, and reflective events throughout the year. Situated in Washington, D.C., leveraging the intellectual and moral resources of our global capital city, Georgetown puts together on a weekly basis an incredible menu of events that span topic areas and disciplinary perspectives. The week of March 28 is no different as the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life is hosting its first in-person convening in over two years. Taking place on March 28 at 6:00 p.m. EDT in Gaston Hall and livestreamed (RSVP here), the event is titled: “’So What Did I Miss?’ A Look Back, A Look Around, A Look Ahead After Two Years of COVID.” 

Georgetown’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life hosts its first in-person event in Gaston Hall in over two years. You can also livestream. The event is open to all members of the Georgetown community. 

The Initiative, which has collaborated with SCS and hosted some of its programs on our campus at 640 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, building, was not quiet during the two years of global pandemic. It hosted 44 online dialogues in the last two years, attracting 154,000 viewers in the U.S. and around the world, and addressed pressing issues in faith and politics, racism, human life and dignity, and so much more (visit the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life). These events, while diverse in their content and focus, all share a common characteristic: they bring together leaders from across the world working at different levels and sectors of society. The defining aspect of each convening is applying the lens of Catholic social teaching in an inclusive and invitational way to motivate deeper reflection on current events. I personally appreciate how the Initiative complements views offered from both the bottom and the top: there are voices from the highest levels of authority and the voices of folks working on the ground to serve individuals and families in their communities. 

The event on March 28 includes five accomplished writers, thinkers, and emerging leaders who will engage in a comprehensive dialogue on the myriad social, economic, faith, and cultural issues that the global pandemic has surfaced. The Initiative describes the themes of the March 28 event in this way: 

“In the musical ‘Hamilton,’ Thomas Jefferson returns from France to find a different country and asks, ‘So what did I miss?’ James Madison responds: ‘Thomas, we are engaged in a battle for our nation’s very soul. Can you get us out of the mess we’re in?’ This dialogue will examine our nation’s soul after what we have been through and how to ‘get us out of the mess we’re in.’ It will use Catholic social teaching as a lens to look at COVID-19, politics, and faith over the past two years. What are the impacts of the pandemic and the lessons we should draw from them? Where are we now? What are hopes and fears for the days ahead? Pope Francis reminds us that we can’t go back to normal, so where should we go?”

With the continued pandemic transitions, ongoing war in Ukraine, persisting economic uncertainty, and other significant social stressors, this feels like an opportune moment to pause and consider where we are going from here. I hope you will check out the event and enter into the conversation about the soul of the nation. 

Posted on

Students Find Community, Contemplation, and Snow at Annual SCS Retreat 

This past weekend, over 20 SCS students from across 11 different programs experienced an overnight retreat at the Calcagnini Contemplative Center, “Going Inward, Growing Outward, Seeing Things New.” The first in-person SCS student retreat since the global pandemic began, the experience invited registrants to say “yes” to a weekend of rest and to recharge along with interior spiritual practices taking place in individual and group activities. 

The 2022 SCS Student Retreat, “Going Inward, Growing Outward, Seeing Things New,” took place at Georgetown’s Calcagnini Contemplative Center.

A series of pre-retreat readings and preparation activities framed the weekend. Students had a chance to read in advance about silence as the foundation for meditative practices by exploring some of the wisdom offered by the Center for Action and Contemplation, a contemplative teaching organization grounded in the Christian tradition that explores interior practices from an inter-spiritual lens. In addition to silence, students read about the relationship between meditation practice and inter-religious dialogue from the book, “We Walk the Path Together: Learning from Thich Nhat Hanh & Meister Eckhart.” More than reading, registrants were also encouraged to practice mindfulness meditation in advance of the retreat and to select a sacred object to bring along to help them more deeply introduce themselves and their sacred stories to their fellow Georgetown classmates. 

The weekend offered some surprises. A mid-March snow and wind storm made for an unexpected background throughout the overnight event. And while the spring retreat did not feel “spring-like” in a certain sense, the packed snow offered a layer of natural beauty in the already breathtaking setting of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Retreatants explored the snow while taking advantage of the Calcagnini Contemplative Center’s many walking paths and trails during solo and group nature walks. Much of the retreat took place indoors in the Arrupe Community Room with chairs arranged in a circle and a fireplace warming up the space. Group mindfulness and Examen meditations encouraged participants to experience silent reflection in a community setting. And a time for individual contemplative reading about Jesuit notions of interior freedom helped realize the retreat’s theme of “seeing things new” in the spirit of the Ignatian 500 year. 

 A snowfall made for a beautiful natural setting on the SCS student retreat. 

Beyond the potential mindfulness and spiritual benefits, the retreat was also fun! Delicious meals and the ever presence of snacks, coffee, and tea made for enjoyable conversation and fellowship among students, many of whom had never met others outside of their program at SCS. By the time the retreat concluded, a common refrain was a wish that it had lasted longer. 

 Students enjoyed the fireplace in the Arrupe Community Room, using the space for individual and group reflections and meditations. 

Making time and space for such an intentional physical retreat from daily life is an important ingredient of the whole person education articulated in the Spirit of Georgetown. Students had an opportunity to reflect on what the time away meant to them and how it shaped their self-understanding. This is a sampling of what the students shared: 

  • “I feel more calm and centered.” 
  • “The retreat brought about some important interior awareness that I should further explore and contemplate.” 
  • “I feel grounded in my sense of peace and community here at Georgetown.” 
  • “I feel more conscious about not judging myself so harshly. I feel more conscious about the importance of leading a balanced life.” 
  • “I am more grounded in the present moment and noticing things that I want to work on in myself. I feel great about the connections that I made with others.” 

If you missed this year’s retreat but are still interested in exploring opportunities for spiritual growth at Georgetown SCS, you might consider: 

  • signing up to receive newsletters from the different religious chaplaincies operating at the University (sign up)
  • registering for the SCS Daily Digital Meditation that I lead on Zoom Monday-Friday at 12 p.m. ET. I offer a version of the centering mindfulness meditation on Monday through Thursday and an Examen on Fridays (sign up) 
Posted on

Finding Friends in the City, Opportunities for Encounter in the Everyday 

I recently spoke with Jesuit-run America Magazine for a piece entitled, “Urban planning can facilitate friendship – and the Catholic Church can help.” These conversations are nourishing for me because I can speak to my passion for helping readers walk a bridge between the professional resources of the practice of urban planning and the moral and spiritual wisdom of a Catholic, Jesuit education. Georgetown’s Master of Professional Studies in Urban & Regional Planning, where I serve as a course instructor, intentionally integrates ethical reflection into its coursework and I consistently find that students desire philosophical discussions that build upon the professional skills that they are cultivating at SCS. 

Photograph taken in front of the SCS building in late February 2022. The opportunity to encounter other people in the city in a spirit of friendship is the focus of this week’s post. 

The article’s author, Eve Tushnet, makes the case for why civic life in the city needs social friendship and why realizing this kind of connection is difficult in the contemporary city. She presents concepts that go back to the classical philosophy of Aristotle and Cicero: “Friendship was meant to fill the public square; in a sense, friendship creates public life, as one of the primary ways people move beyond domestic concerns into the broader life of the city.” She goes on to diagnose many of the ways that contemporary cities fall short in realizing this vision, including the prioritization of making cities for autonomous individuals who do not need to encounter one another in urban spaces. She points out “anti-homeless” street designs and an emphasis on surveillance that work against social cohesion and organically formed friendships. We can also add to this list the very real threat of violence, which the ongoing situation of war in Ukraine brings into stark relief (see the statement on Ukraine by Fr. Mark Bosco, S.J., Georgetown’s Vice President for Mission and Ministry). 

One major takeaway of the piece is that society makes tradeoffs in realizing certain public goods, like autonomy, control, safety, order, and comfort, but losing other goods like community and solidarity. The thread back to the Jesuits and their spirituality is the language of “encounter” used by Pope Francis. He describes a culture of encounter in his encyclical Fratelli Tutti: 

“Human beings are so made that they cannot live, develop and find fulfillment except ‘in the sincere gift of self to others.’ Nor can they fully know themselves apart from an encounter with other persons: ‘I communicate effectively with myself only insofar as I communicate with others.’ No one can experience the true beauty of life without relating to others, without having real faces to love.” 

With the University returning to in-person instruction and my own urban commute to the SCS campus downtown becoming more routine, I find myself engaging with the invitation to “encounter” in the city. Recent walks in the downtown neighborhood suggest that the pandemic continues to significantly influence urban life. Many storefronts remain vacant, the lunch rush of office workers is not as large as it once was, and the unhoused community continues to struggle in a city that can be unforgiving to persons experiencing homelessness. But there are signs of public life returning to some vibrancy, and with that come new opportunities for civic friendship. 

One practical way to go about this culture of encounter, rooted in the University’s mission and values, is to sign up for a Hypothermia Outreach Team at Georgetown. Run by the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service, the outreach teams help prevent death from exposure and encourage unsheltered individuals experiencing homelessness to seek safety in available shelters and warming stations. 

Posted on

SCS Spring Series “Shift Your Career Into Gear” Presents Opportunity for Jesuit-Inspired Discernment

The first event in our SCS Spring Series, “Shift Your Career into Gear,” offers an opportunity for personal reflection about how professionals can live values-driven lives of meaning and purpose. Jesuit discernment techniques can support reflections on careers. 

This spring, SCS is helping students jumpstart their career development by offering a series of events focused on resources, interview tips, and networking opportunities that leverage Georgetown’s considerable alumni network. These events demonstrate the holistic commitment at SCS to live out its unique mission to “improve employability and develop workforces” for a “diverse array of communities and individuals throughout their academic and professional careers.” In addition to the practical knowledge, skills, and networking potential that students may develop by participating, this career series presents a valuable opportunity to consider how the resources of discernment in the Jesuit tradition can assist students in their vocational decisions while at SCS and beyond. 

At its core, a Jesuit discernment framework for a career is about making professional development choices that align most closely with an individual’s most authentic and truest self. In this worldview, every human person has a unique calling or vocation in work, but realizing this calling takes lots of self-reflection and conversation with trusted guides and mentors. In Jesuit discernment, the idea is that God has specially implanted in each person a distinct vocation that can be uncovered by paying close attention to interior movements and following the direction of these movements. Ultimately, the hope is that discernment in this style will lead individuals to career opportunities that maximize one’s gifts and talents and promote greater generosity and justice in the world. It is very possible to do work that is both personally meaningful and socially good. But we must always enter into this choice by considering the practicality of our context (e.g., family obligations, skills required for certain fields, etc.) and the hopeful possibilities of realizing our deepest desires and flourishing as human beings. 

Jesuit Fr. Kevin O’Brien, S.J., in his book The Ignatian Adventure, describes how making discerning choices requires getting in touch with both our own desires for our careers and God’s desires for us. Gaining such awareness necessitates regular practices of prayer or meditation to pay attention to the various interior movements when we consider different choices along the path of professional development. For example, we might consider reaching out for an informational interview at an employer we’ve long considered as a dream job. In discernment, we will spend some time quietly reflecting on how this possibility of having an informational interview makes us feel. Does the possibility fill us with excitement, joy, pride, contentment, challenge? Or does the prospect of an informational interview, and imagining ourselves working at this organization, fill us with uncertainty, doubt, and desolation? 

The questions we ask, according to Fr. O’Brien, are ultimately practical, but require vulnerability on our part in order to honestly listen to the answers. He offers the following: 

“As we’ve seen, the Election [a Jesuit term that refers to the process of making a significant choice] can be an exercise in determining what your vocation in life is. Frederick Buechner, a popular theologian, writer, and Presbyterian minister, offers one of the most quoted definitions of vocation: ‘The place God Calls you to is where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.’ 

“Similarly, Rev. Michael Himes of Boston College distills discernment about vocation to the following three questions: What gives me joy? Am I good at it? Does the world need it? This kind of discernment requires us to dig deep inside us, to be honest about our gifts and limitations, and to be generous with what we have.”

Jesuit Fr. Kevin O’Brien, S.J., in his book The Ignatian Adventure,

As you engage with the SCS Spring Series on careers and continue to pursue your professional aspirations at Georgetown, I encourage you to consider the deeper dimensions of career discernment. Our University mission invites us to this depth as we are about forming “reflective lifelong learners” to be “responsible and active participants in civic life and to live generously in service to others.” 

Regis University offers a helpful definition of Personal Discernment. Please reach out to Jamie Kralovec, SCS Associate Director for Mission Integration, at pjk34@georgetown.edu if you would like to discuss the role of discernment in your career development. 

Posted on

Teaching MLK’s “I Have a Dream” Speech in 2022

An annual activity of the University’s MLK Initiative: “Let Freedom Ring!” is to take one of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s signature speeches and use it as a curricular launching pad for deeper reflection about the enduring legacy of Dr. King and what his movement building for economic and racial justice means for living out our Georgetown mission today. Mission in Motion reflected on last year’s efforts that included speeches from both MLK and Congressman John Lewis (D-Ga.), timely selections for locating hope amidst the desolations of social injustice, particularly manifested in the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. 

For this year’s MLK Initiative: “Let Freedom Ring!” at Georgetown, Dr. King’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech will be the focus of Teach the Speech, an annual effort at the University to encourage reflection within curricula about the meaning of MLK’s legacy. Join the Teach-In via Zoom on Tuesday, January 11 at 11:30 a.m. ET (RSVP).

This year’s speech, the famous “I Have a Dream” address in 1963, is a fitting choice for 2022. Georgetown’s Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service (CSJ), one of the co-sponsors of  the initiative, commented that this “choice might seem cliché or obvious.” But the inspiration for choosing it arises in part from an article by Dr. Ibram Kendi, who lamented the myriad ways that Dr. King’s dream speech has been distorted by intentional efforts to convert the landmark speech into advocacy for “color-blind civil rights.” Rather, Dr. King’s speech is actually a challenging and demanding call, issued then but still reverberating today, to work for justice in a multiracial democracy by directly addressing the roots and effects of structural racism. 

In his own lifetime, Dr. King would address some of these distorted impressions caused by a single line in the speech that he dreamed “that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” He remarked in 1965 that “one day all of God’s Black children will be respected like his white children” and in 1967 that the “dream that I had [in 1963] has at many points turned into a nightmare.” 

As the United States continues to experience social, cultural, and political polarization around persisting racial injustices in all facets of society, MLK’s iconic 1963 speech presents a valuable opportunity to renew the discussion in 2022 and re-commit to tangible actions at Georgetown. For SCS students, staff, and faculty, integrating the “I Have a Dream” speech into classes and co-curricular spaces can spur critical reflection and action about racial inequities in the various professional industries that are the subject of SCS academic programs. For faculty and staff interested in Teaching the Speech in their classrooms and educational spaces this year, please fill out this form to learn more about the pedagogical resources to support this work. 

If you want to more deeply explore Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, you should also attend next week’s annual Teach-In event over Zoom on Tuesday, January 11 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. ET (RSVP). The Teach-In will feature:

  • 11:30 a.m.: Community Gathering with Music
  • 12:00 p.m.: Welcome by Ryann Craig, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs followed by a student reflection by Veronica Williams (C’23) and mini-keynotes by Virginia State Senator Jennifer McClellan and Neonu Jewell (L’04) of the African American Policy Forum
  • 1:00 p.m.: Dialogue with our three speakers facilitated by Ijeoma Njaka (G’19), Senior Program Associate for Equity-Centered Design at the Red House
  • 1:40 p.m.: Gratitude by Maya Williams, Office of Student Equity and Inclusion

Faithfully celebrating the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. means more than taking a day off from work. To witness to Dr. King’s legacy is to make a commitment to carry on his movement efforts for social justice and the common good. I hope you are able to attend the January 11 Teach-In and find ways to reflect and act at Georgetown on the enduring lessons of “I Have a Dream.”

Posted on

An Examen Reflection on 2021

With 2021 coming to a close, now is a good time to invite deeper personal and collective reflection at SCS about the year that we have experienced. A helpful resource for such a reflection, which comes out of our Ignatian heritage as a Jesuit university, is the Examen. This style of reflection has been highlighted many times by Mission in Motion, including posts about Examen formats customized for transitioning back to in-person learning during the fall semester, committing to the daily work of anti-racism, and navigating difficult emotions in the midst of the pandemic. The Examen helps us move forward by looking back.

This week’s post invites us into an Examen of the past year. Follow the suggested reflection questions to review your experiences and consider how you are being led into 2022. At Georgetown SCS, many events rise to the surface, including celebrating the Ignatian Year in October, honoring graduates in-person at Nationals Park in May, and promoting Black History Month. 

At the heart of the Examen reflection practice is the idea that engaging with the data of our interior lives, including our memories, desires, emotions, stirrings, repulsions, and attractions, can help us live authentic, nourishing, and generous lives. By paying attention to our interior movements we put ourselves in position to respond to our deeper callings in life. In a spirit of openness to how God is at work in our lives and in our world, the Examen asks us to engage honestly and directly with all of our interior experiences. This type of reflection surfaces both consolations and the desolations, requiring that we be generous and loving with ourselves in the process. The hoped-for outcome is that we come to see more clearly how we can commit to personal and communal actions that convert our deeper gladness into gratitude and our adversity into self-growth and community connections. Such a year-end reflection is all the more necessary as we grapple with the stress, exhaustion, and uncertainty presented by the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. 

I invite you to enter into an Examen on the past year by considering these three questions:  

  1. Where have you been this year?;
  2. Where are you now?; and
  3. Where do you want to go in the coming year?

Looking back: Settle into a time of quiet, allow your body and mind to calm. Then engage with all of your senses and, in your imagination, go back through all of the relevant experiences of the past year. Allow yourself to let each of the most significant moments of 2021 float by as if in a parade of memories. Hold off on judging or analyzing these experiences – just let them come to the surface. What events of this year brought you the most joy? What challenged you or caused you to feel disconnected from yourself, others, and God? As a member of the SCS community, where did you find yourself in 2021 feeling the most gratitude for your Georgetown experiences? When and where did you find yourself struggling in your life as a member of the University community? You might refresh your memory about the significant experiences that we lived through as a community, including the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, an in-person Commencement at Nationals Park, and the celebration of the Ignatian Year. 

In the present: As you sit in the current moment, how do you find yourself as a result of this year’s experiences? Do you feel in touch with your true, authentic self? Are your work, your study, and your personal life bringing you energy and motivation? Are there parts of your life in need of healing and change? Have the realities of social injustice caused you to feel disconnected and hopeless? Are you feeling inspired and encouraged by the people in your life who support you and provide you with loving attention and care? How have you changed this year? Do you feel closer to living out your vocation and purpose in life and work? 

Looking ahead: An Ignatian Examen is always oriented to making choices and committing to actions. As a result of your reflection on this last year, how do you want to grow in the next year? Are there particular challenges you are being invited to undertake? Are there habits of mind and heart that you want to engage in order to live a healthier, more grounded, and more generous life? Are there things that you learned in 2021 that you want to continue into the next year? How do you feel called to work for justice in your communities and in the world beyond? 

I hope this Examen helps you recollect your experience of 2021 and inspires a renewal and a recharge for 2022!