Tag: Spiritual Life

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Former Georgetown President, Fr. Leo O’Donovan, S.J., Reflects on “Coming Home”

This week’s post reflects on the Sacred Lecture given by Fr. Leo O’Donovan, S.J., during Jesuit Heritage Month. 

A signature event of November’s Jesuit Heritage Month at Georgetown took place this week in the Dahlgren Chapel of the Sacred Heart. Organized as a Sacred Lecture (which Mission in Motion has written about before), the event featured former Georgetown President, Fr. Leo O’Donovan, S.J., reflecting at length about “Coming Home.” The intention of the lecture was to promote deeper consideration about the various meanings of the word “home,” which can be opened up with questions like: “Is ‘home’ the place we can always return to? How does the Gospel call us to respond to ‘the homeless’? Is ‘home’ an appropriate image for heaven? And what practical effect does our understanding of home have on how we live our daily lives?” In an hour’s time, Fr. O’Donovan gave the audience plenty to think about in response to these questions. 

The lecture provoked some deeper pondering about how “home” can be understood both as a particular place in time with material reality as well as a more cosmically-significant reference. Fr. O’Donovan had in mind the person of Jesus who was incarnated, in one sense, into the material history of human existence at a particular place in time but also, on the other hand, is a living, present reality according to Christian Theology in the wider cosmos. In this way, God is both very particular and very much totally complete in a way that no finite person, place, or thing can be. This might seem like a very philosophical observation, but I think that the duality of “home” as particular and universal has much relevance for us at Georgetown. 

A panoramic view of Dahlgren Chapel during this week’s Sacred Lecture. Dahlgren is the spiritual home of the University’s Catholic community. 

Recently, Mission and Motion has increased explicit reflection about the meaning of the Capitol Campus’s evolution  in downtown D.C. I found myself making some concrete connections between the various meanings of “home” presented in the Sacred Lecture and our understanding of the Capitol Campus as a growing “home” for Georgetown. Fr. O’Donovan talked about how beauty can be uncovered in the “always new, always surprising.” In so many ways, the Capitol Campus, a project very much still in progess, reflects this potential. So much is new and so much is and will be surprising about this experience. But the Capitol Campus is also already a home to so many: both the existing academic units that inhabit the spaces of the Downtown East neighborhood, but also the student residents who occupy the rooms of the 55H dormitory. This literal home will grow to become more of a home to more students as the Capitol Campus enlarges. 

As we reflect on the meaning of the Georgetown “home,” we are invited to consider the many ways that the University is a home. In the religious sense, Georgetown is a Catholic, Jesuit home for all faiths. In the disciplinary sense, Georgetown is a home for a wide array of humanistic, professional, and graduate programs. In the geographic sense, Georgetown is a global home for many different campuses, institutes, and experiential learning opportunities. And in the urban sense, Georgetown is a “home” within the home of Washington, D.C., a physical reality becoming more and more evident as the Capitol Campus emerges in new buildings and facility renovations. In these ways, there are both particular manifestations of Georgetown as a physical home but also ways that Georgetown is a more universal home in light of our mission. 

Fr. O’ Donovan shared that “home” is at one level the places where we most learn to be ourselves. This process is only realized if we give our time in a “home” to patience and fidelity to our truest selves. As we end this week and prepare for the months ahead, I invite you to consider where you are finding your “home” these days. How might you be called to grow in self-awareness and self-actualization about who you most authentically are in the places you call home?  

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Fall 2024 Graduate, Law, and Professional Student Retreat Emphasizes Listening to the Voice Within

This year’s Graduate, Law, and Professional Retreat attracted nearly 40 students from across Georgetown’s campuses. 

A now established annual tradition is an overnight fall weekend retreat at the Calcagnini Contemplative Center that brings together graduate, law, and professional students from across Georgetown’s campuses. This milestone will become even more important as the Capitol Campus grows and the population of graduate students becomes more spatially concentrated downtown. Georgetown’s graduate students represent such a diverse portfolio of academic and professional disciplines that building community spaces for this dispersed population is important. Developing a greater sense of communal culture and identity at the graduate level can yield fruitful outcomes, including partnerships and inter-disciplinary connections that lead to new research and new applied projects. 

This year’s retreat took place on the weekend of October 19-20, attracting nearly 40 students from all of Georgetown’s graduate, law, and professional programs. The cross-campus collaborative spirit among the students was also matched by the retreat leadership team, which included both student leaders, as well as Mission and Ministry staff and chaplains from the John Main Center for Meditation and Interreligious Dialogue, the Law Center, and the Capitol Campus. 

The retreat theme, “Rest, Recharge, and Renew,” provided opportunities for individual and group reflection as well as time to enjoy the majestic fall weekend at the Calcagnini Retreat Center. 

The retreat, themed again as “Rest, Recharge, Renew,” featured a mixture of short presentations led by the retreat team, structured small and large group reflections, unstructured time for individual reflections, as well as lots of time for fellowship and socializing. The autumn sun was resplendent and provided an inspiring background for the retreat’s meals, solo and group hikes, and general rest and relaxation. While the experience is fundamentally about students taking a break from their busy personal and academic lives, the retreat does present meaningful opportunities to more deeply explore the resources within and across spiritual traditions represented at Georgetown. 

Students took advantage of the opportunity to rest during the annual Graduate, Law, and Professional Student Retreat. 

One common theme in all of the talks and personal reflections from retreat guides was the need for active listening skills. So often, we assume that active listening is only about how we listen to other people. Certainly, developing the internal capacity to listen patiently with a desire for understanding others is greatly needed in a society and culture that does not always value true dialogue and intentional interpersonal communication. But there is also a need to actively listen to oneself, including the small voice inside of us that animates and expresses our truest selves. The ancient Greek axiom, “know thyself,” cannot happen without cultivating these methods of growing in interior awareness to the direction of one’s inner compass. 

Doing this consistently and regularly means committing to certain practices of rest, recharge, and renew. Michael Goldman, Jewish Chaplain for the Law Center, pointed out in his talk that we all need to take time for a kind of Sabbath or rest each week. Sonia Robledo, Program Coordinator for the Law Center, emphasized that we need to cultivate mindfulness about when our human batteries need recharging with rest, fun, healthy food, and prayer. Lisa Directo Davis, Program Director for the John Main Center, noted that regular somatic reflection about the state of our bodies is foundational to healthy contemplation and meditation. And I offered up the Ignatian examen of consciousness as a routine way for busy adults to take needed daily rest. Such moments offer an opportunity to contemplate the subtle emotional movements that move in us and ultimately lead us to spiritually-grounded discernment that our adult vocations call us to.

The hope is that students left this weekend experience with a small taste of retreat, so that they return to their active lives with a living memory of what is possible when we actively integrate rest, recharge, and renew into our daily lives.

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Mass of the Holy Spirit on the Hilltop Invites Community to Rediscover Our Shared Purpose as Academic Year Begins

May be an image of 3 people, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and text
This year’s Mass of the Holy Spirit, an annual tradition at Jesuit institutions that dates back five centuries, emphasized the spiritual gifts needed to flourish as an academic community. 

The annual tradition of the Mass of the Holy Spirit, a practice celebrated across the global network of Jesuit institutions since the religious order first founded schools five centuries ago, presents a welcome opportunity to consider the meaning of a Georgetown education. Each year, the Mass presents both the same and new reflections at the dawning of a new academic year. The readings from Scripture all point to the need for greater reliance on the Holy Spirit as a giver of spiritual gifts that we most need to realize our mission. Of special importance at an institution of higher learning are the gifts related to knowledge, inquiry, communication, and discernment. While a traditional Catholic religious ritual, I think emphasizing the universe of spiritual gifts needed to sustain the academic enterprise of Georgetown can resonate with people of all faith traditions and those with no tradition at all. 

The homilist for this year, Fr. Bill Campbell, S.J., the new Superior of Georgetown’s Jesuit Community, focused his reflections on the historical analogy between the founding of the Society of Jesus (or the Jesuits) by college students attending the University of Paris in the 16th Century and our contemporary experience at Georgetown. The similarities in these situations are striking: Both Paris and Washington, D.C., have prominent rivers that their prominent universities abut; both the founding Jesuits and today’s Georgetown students come from homes around the world; and both of these student populations knew how to have a good time after working hard in their courses. 

The urban experience of these educations presented many opportunities for both reverie and reverence, a reminder to us today that our experience at Georgetown is enlivened by our embeddedness in a global capital city. 

But Fr. Campbell’s main point was not just about the urban similarities in this comparison. He ended his reflection about the early Jesuits by noting that we still remember the names of the seven early companions (Faber, Xavier, Laynez, Ignatius, Rodriguez, Salmeron, and Bobadilla) because they wrote history with their lives. By professing in faith their vows to a new religious order, at a time of great challenge and resistance to such a formation, these Jesuits chose to use their higher education in the service of a noble purpose that still benefits the world today. 

The question to us in 2024 at Georgetown: How will we use our Georgetown experience in service of a larger, more noble purpose than our own personal aims or professional goals? To what do we owe our faith in the transformative possibilities of a university education rooted in the Jesuit tradition of academic excellence?  

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SCS Daily Digital Meditation Enters Its 5th Year – Join Today!

This week’s post celebrates the fifth year of SCS Daily Digital Mediation, which takes place on Zoom Monday through Friday from 12:00 to 12:17 p.m. ET. Sign up online to receive a link to the virtual meeting. 

Four years ago, in the week that global lockdowns began in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, SCS started offering a 15-minute daily digital mediation over Zoom. The virtual practice, which you can sign up online , was never intended to be a permanent event, but a temporary resource to help ease some of the disquiet and anxiety that surrounded the early days of the pandemic. 

Since March 2020, more than 350 people from across Georgetown have signed up to receive the link to participate. Throughout the four years, a remarkable community has formed through this contemplative convening. What is beautiful about the daily event is that there is no pressure to attend and who shows up on a daily basis is almost always a surprise. And even in silence a community has formed, with unspoken bonds of affection and solidarity created by the fact of simple presence in a virtual meeting room.

While each attendee brings their own invisible needs to the space, there is a shared understanding that all are seeking quiet, centering, stillness, self-awareness, and pause (among other things). 

This week, I want to highlight the value of this resource that is “here to stay” and no longer considered a temporary event. Past posts from Mission in Motion have explored the meditations from different angles, include participant testimonials about their value:

In recent weeks, Mission in Motion has touched upon the value of mindfulness and its relationship to professional practices and concern for the common good. For instance, Becoming Spiritually Grounded Strategic Thinkers and Discerning Leaders examined the relationship between effectively mediating conflicts and achieving organizational objectives. Good leaders need to be able to tap into their own inner life and sensory awareness in order to manage high-stakes disagreements occurring in a group. 

In another post, SCS Retreat Invites Students Into Reflection on the Meaning and Practices of the Good Life, I emphasized the importance of taking “retreat” from one’s daily habits and obligations, even if for a single day (as is the case for the annual SCS student retreat). What so often emerges in these experiences is a recognition of how easy it is to forgo regular reflective practices in busy daily life, yet how important it is to reclaim this simple habit of an examen reflection or a “mental pit stop” as a way of staying true to one’s ultimate purpose and identity. 

Most recently, An Ongoing Journey Toward More Belonging: Some Recent Efforts took a closer look at some Georgetown efforts to create a more inclusive community . Central to the task of building inclusive spaces is the cultivation of individual habits of growing in greater awareness of how one’s own blind spots get in the way of recognizing barriers to flourishing for all members of an organization. The positive contribution of mindfulness to this work of inclusion is affirmed by Rhonda Magee (the subject of this Mission in Motion post in 2020) in her piece, “How Mindfulness Can Defeat Racial Bias.”

What better time than now to treat yourself to the treasure of quiet mindful contemplation? Sign up today! 

If you have any questions about the SCS Daily Digital Meditation, please reach out to me: Jamie Kralovec, SCS Associate Director for Mission Integration, at pjk34@georgetown.edu. 

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SCS Retreat Invites Students into Reflection on the Meaning and Practices of the Good Life

This year’s SCS student retreat, “Journeying the Good Life,” sold out and brought together participants from 15 different degree and non-degree programs. 

Every year, SCS hosts an overnight retreat at the Calcagnini Contemplative Center that is made available to degree and non-degree students. There is a certain rhythm to this yearly experience. First, the retreat developers brainstorm a theme around which the event will be organized. Second, marketing, communications, and program staff teams work to amplify and promote the retreat. Third, students across the School sign up and claim their spots. Fourth, participants receive detailed instructions (mostly logistical in nature) about what to expect at Calcagnini. Fifth, the retreat day arrives and participants descend upon the 640 Massachusetts Avenue SCS campus to meet the departing bus and each other. Sixth, the retreat takes place and all who are gathered deeply engage with the schedule and activities. Seventh, the retreat ends with a bus return to the SCS campus, evaluations are shared, and the community disperses back to their respective home locations. Eighth, reflective evaluation of the experience leads to new insights and new ideas about how to meet the spiritual needs of the SCS student community. 

Each of these steps necessitates great leaps of faith and trust that the retreat will be received in nurturing and life-giving ways by all who engage it. There is certainly some doubt that finds its way into the process. Will students actually sign up? Will the retreat theme and the practices inspired by it resonate with the group? How will this seemingly random collection of individuals, diverse in every indicator of diversity, come together in unity and form a group? Will the weather challenge the contemplative spirit and recreational activities? Will everyone find the food and accommodations suitable to their expectations? 

This year’s retreat involved asking all of these same questions and receiving some resoundingly positive feedback about what is possible when SCS students say a big “Yes” to an uncertain experience and allow themselves to be personally transformed.

The 2024 retreat, “Journeying the Good Life,” certainly had some unexpected and unplanned moments. No one could have predicted that a steady and strong downpour of rain would persist throughout the first day of the retreat. But instead of worrying about the weather, the group made a firm commitment to accept the sogginess and make the most of it. This embrace of wet slightly complicated the nature hikes sprinkled throughout the agenda, but it also led to some memorable moments. 

It was somewhat unexpected for the group to gel so quickly, becoming interested from the beginning in each other’s stories and making space for intimate and vulnerable sharing in small and large groups. One measure of a fruitful retreat is the vitality and volume of chatter over meals in the dining hall. In this case, I was struck by the handful of engaged table conversations happening over delicious meals. 

Rabbi Rachel Gartner presented on the good life by sharing “Arguments for the Sake of Heaven” from out of the Jewish tradition. 

The retreat’s principle content is shared through two short talks delivered by me and Rabbi Rachel Gartner, SCS Senior Adviser for Spiritual Care. I shared some insights, “The Good Life from the ‘I’ to the ‘We’ to the ‘Universal,’” based on two primary sources. Philosopher Adam Adatto Sandel’s recent book, Happiness in Action: A Philosopher’s Guide to the Good Life, and Jesuit Greg Boyle’s book, The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness, get at the topics of the good life in slightly different ways. Sandel argues that ends-oriented goal-setting, a hallmark of contemporary economic culture, needs to be upended by three virtues—self-possession, friendship, and engagement with nature—which cultivate flourishing and deeper happiness in the means/practices themselves. Boyle contends that the root of some of our individual and collective despair has to do with the need to recognize the “unshakable goodness” that exists in ourselves and in each other. Finding goodness in this way leads to loving, especially important when loving is made harder by structures that exclude those we allow to be “othered.”  

 Students enjoyed the Calcagnini Contemplative Center in spite of heavy rains on the first day of retreat. 

Rabbi Rachel built on these foundations in her talk about “Arguments for the Sake of Heaven.” She utilized the primary source texts of the Talmud and presented on the Jewish sages Hillel and Shammai. The reflective interpretation exercise invited close and careful reading and a discussion about the ideas of the good life rooted in this spiritual reading of texts. One particular outcome of Rabbi Rachel’s talk was deeper consideration about the importance of healthy and respectful argumentation in making communal claims about what constitutes virtuous living. 

Throughout the experience, the community brought to life Georgetown’s mission values, especially a commitment to Contemplation in Action. By the retreat’s conclusion, it was evident that students would return to their engaged lives refreshed and renewed by this brief interruption in their daily habits and responsibilities. 

As with any retreat, the effectiveness of the effort depends on how participants felt about the experience. Here is a sampling of responses to the question: “How are you returning home?”

  • “I am more grounded. I take away the importance of a community and how we are all connected and can learn from each other.”
  • “I’ve discovered more about myself in the sense I know what my mission is and I should hold onto those I love.” 
  • “I feel more grounded, peaceful, and grateful. I want to hold onto that as long as possible through daily meditation and physical connection with nature.” 
  • “I am definitely more grounded. I have a better understanding of my priorities in life. I know I must continue to explore other worldviews.” 
  • “I am returning as a more open person. I take away more connection and viewpoints. I am taking away an appreciation for Georgetown.” 

SCS students can learn more about the School’s approach to sharing Georgetown’s mission values on our Spiritual Life page and can learn about more retreat options here.

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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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There is Always Light Somewhere: Rabbi Rachel’s Reflection to Begin a New Year

Friends,

The Hasidic masters taught that as hidden, elusive, or otherwise hard to find, there is always light somewhere. The world could not exist without it.  Sometimes we only find the light after we crack open all that obscures it. 

Life teaches us that the cracking is so often a bitterly painful thing.  Shattering hurts. And religion teaches that we must become better, wiser, more compassionate people—people who protect light, nurture light, guard it from that within us and among that threatens to obscure it—so we need not go through shatterings again and again and again.

Judaism enjoins that as we grow into better versions of ourselves, we not let our despair that we are not yet there overcome us and snuff out the search for the light that already inheres in our world, again however obscured. Judaism insists we remain unflinching in our seeking, even when we feel so very lost in the dark. 

This tenacity in the search for light and resistance to being overcome by despair is what Hanukkah has always signified for me, and it does so now more than ever.  

This is what I pray that all lights of all the holidays of the season will reignite in all of our souls.

Particularly during these heartbreaking times, I find glimmers of hope in all efforts to humanize and connect across vast differences and seeming impasses—efforts both longstanding and entirely new.  Recently, I joined such an effort as Associate Director for In Your Shoes™ Research and Practice Center.  I am moved to share with the SCS community what I wrote in the piece welcoming me to the role:

In Your Shoes™  offers me a way to double-down on my commitment to pursuing a better world, and to contribute to the ongoing, tenacious peace and justice work of the countless individuals and organizations I have been privileged to engage with over the years. Along with all those doing this work, I refuse to give up on the values and visions that we have worked so hard to bring to each other and our communities. It isn’t easy. But it is the best way I know to remain fully alive and to live purposefully, openly, and with hope in this broken and blessed world.  

For those particularly invested in engaging with the issues facing Israelis and Palestinians, I commend you to learn more from this small sampling of co-existence organizations and resources I have personally worked with over the years, including: 

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A Thanksgiving Reflection on the Spirituality of Gratitude

A view from Georgetown’s Calcagnini Contemplative Center during last month’s Graduate, Professional, and Law Student Retreat. This week’s post invites pre-Thanksgiving reflection on the meaning of gratitude. 

The last month has been a time of profound challenge for so many. The war in Israel and Palestine, along with so many other conflict situations throughout the world, has surfaced deep divisions within our spaces and the visible and invisible suffering that many are carrying with them. For years, Mission in Motion has attempted to communicate the myriad ways that Georgetown, through an abiding commitment to its mission and values, seeks to accompany everyone on their journeys of life, especially during times of adversity and challenge. This offer of “care for the whole person” was especially evident during the COVID-19 pandemic and in response to the increasing awareness of the need for greater racial justice and urgent social change that leads to greater diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

In many ways, then, next week’s celebration of Thanksgiving might not have its usual glow. It is incredibly difficult to force a spirit of thanks and gratitude at a time when such dispositions seem so far away and unnatural to our lived experience. In this post, I would like to affirm that it is ok to feel less than enthusiastic about the coming holiday. I would also like to offer a reflection about how a spirituality of gratitude, which is at the root of Ignatian spirituality, has to be appreciated in a larger context. Gratitude alone is not sufficient to making our way through difficult times. We have to find ways, individually and collectively, to become more aware of the challenges that divide us as human beings and then work together, aided by the knowledge, skills, and values cultivated during our time at Georgetown, to repair harms and restore healing in the world. 

The Ignatian practice of the Examen, featured many times on the blog and practiced each Friday during the SCS digital meditations, revolves around gratitude. The cornerstone of the practice is becoming aware of our gratitude. We might ask ourselves during a regular practice of Examen: For what am I grateful as I look back at the last day/week/month? When I let myself be washed over with gratitude looking back at a period of time, what comes to the surface? The idea here is that locating a gratitude becomes an opportunity to self-reflect on my own giftedness and how I might be invited to share that thanksgiving through generous actions in the world. Gratitude is the soul of generosity and loving kindness in the world. It is difficult to express gratitude for others when we are not finding it within ourselves and our experience.  

There are so many possibilities to living life in a spirit of gratitude. But there are also some cautionary lessons about this way of proceeding spiritually. In their article, “Ignatian Spirituality and Positive Psychology,” Phyllis Zagano and C. Kevin Gillespie pick up on the work of Jesuit psychologist Charles Shelton, who is concerned about the potential to over-idealize gratitude. For Shelton, the gratitude disposition can lend itself to “optimistic exuberance” that covers up personal challenges that need to be addressed or more realistic engagement with a complex world that needs to be reappraised. Zagano and Gillespie maintain that gratitude has to be balanced, recognizing that the goal of life is not always the “simple pursuit of happiness” and “personal self-development.” Instead, spiritually mature people qualify happiness when situations of injustice and moral complication arise. 

So how does this connection to Ignatian spirituality relate to your Thanksgiving holiday? My hope is that you can take some time to recognize that while you might desire to feel gratitude, this feeling might not arrive. Instead of forcing it, I invite you to consider what you need in this moment of life to address the challenges you’re experiencing personally and professionally. We do not journey alone and this little Thanksgiving respite from work and study might be a good time to reach out for more support on your path ahead. 


Resources at the University are available to help you navigate the path ahead. In addition to professional counseling services (for faculty and staff, please consult the Faculty & Staff Assistance Program; for students, please consult Counseling and Psychiatric Services) and pastoral care resources (please consult Campus Ministry chaplains and staff), we are here to listen.

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You’re Invited! Renew Your Mindfulness Habits at SCS Daily Digital Meditations

It is hard to believe that we have been continuously offering the SCS Daily Digital Meditation for over three years! What began as an immediate spiritual care response to the stress and anxiety experienced at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic has persisted and become a stable and durable virtual community of meditators from across the SCS community. In this post, I would like to remind all members of SCS about this daily resource (sign up here!) and offer some encouragement about the benefits of participating. 

This week’s post is a promotion of the SCS Daily Digital Meditation, which is a virtual sit offered on Zoom every day of the workweek at 12 pm ET (sign up here). Established at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the mindfulness meditations feature a Zac Theo piano track. 

As a reminder, the SCS Daily Digital Meditation takes place each day of the workweek at 12 pm ET. The sessions all occur on Zoom (registrants receive the link and instructions for joining via email) and last around 15 minutes. From Monday through Thursday, the session is organized as a mindfulness meditation that consists of a short body scan, intentional breathing, and then a period of silent, centering meditation with a melodic piano track playing in the background. The Friday meditation is reserved for an inclusively presented Examen meditation, modeled on the reflective practice arising from the Ignatian tradition of spirituality. The Examen consists of five reflective prompts that invite participants to notice with sacred awareness the significant events of their past week, exploring in more reflective detail times of gratitude, consolation, desolation, and hope for the week ahead. I lead these daily sessions and am typically joined by a handful of SCS students, staff, and faculty members. Some participants are regular, daily attendees while others come more sporadically. How often you come is entirely up to you! 

Over the last few years, Mission in Motion has reflected on the importance of such a mindfulness habit by making connections with the Spirit of Georgetown value Contemplation in Action. Here are some helpful posts that might give you more insight about the considerable benefits of joining this meditative practice: 

Just this week, a member of the SCS meditation community reached out and expressed gratitude for the offering, saying this ongoing experience “has made a big difference in my life.” I have heard similar input over the years from a range of participants and the Georgetown Faculty & Staff Assistance Program has recommended the SCS meditations to their clients. Others have noted how the meditations provide “deeper inner strength,” “help center and relieve frustrations,” and give the sense that “none of us are alone.” There are many other spiritual, physical, and emotional supports I could name about developing a regular habit of mindfulness meditation and reflection. But I hope you will come check it out for yourself! 

If you have any questions about the SCS Digital Daily Meditation, please reach out to me, Jamie Kralovec, SCS Associate Director for Mission Integration, at pjk34@georgetown.edu.