This week’s Mission in Motion responds to Rabbi Rachel Gartner’s invitation to reflect in the summer by suggesting three spiritual practices that put reflection into action.
A few weeks ago, Rabbi Rachel Gartner, SCS Senior Advisor for Pastoral Care, invited us into the summer months with a spiritual challenge for how we can spend this season of the year. Rabbi invited all of us to ponder the deeper significance of the summer by cooperating with the season’s unique rhythms and opportunities for rest. She wrote: “Now, as the summer arrives, and time opens and slows, perhaps you too might slow down and open up. We wonder whether returning to some of these ideas might help you do so. We humbly and prayerfully hope they might.” Rabbi Rachel’s post ended with some reflective questions that might help us take advantage of the summer’s opportunities for uniquely long, loving, looks at the real.
In this week’s post, I would like to revisit some older posts on the Mission in Motion blog that might help you put Rabbi’s invitation into spiritual practices that meet your desires. I would like to focus on three past posts and their three distinctive practices as a set of suggestions for how to make your own long, loving, look at the real come to life in the next few months. I draw your attention to these three suggestions: “This Summer: Learning to Pray,” “This Summer: Read Slowly, Spiritually,” and “Exploring Nature: A Healthy (and Holy) Response to Zoom Fatigue.”
Learning to Pray: Inspired by the recent book of the Jesuit Fr. James Martin, S.J.,Learning to Pray: A Guide for Everyone, I encourage you to commit to some set of interior prayer practices. Fr. Martin’s book recognizes and affirms a diversity of spirituality and religious understandings of prayer that can all offer insights into this interior practice. One particular suggestion is to try out the Ignatian Examen, a method of daily self-examination and reflection that can help a person live out their deeper calling. If you’re interested in the Examen, consider signing up for the SCS Daily Digital Meditations which take place Monday-Friday at 12 p.m. ET. The final weekly meditation every Friday is reserved for an Examen.
Reading Spiritually: We often assume that spiritually significant texts are limited to the holiest books of religious traditions. And while texts like the New Testament, the Torah, the Quran, etc. carry special meaning, it is possible to read other texts in spiritually meaningful ways. I suggest that you find something to read this summer that enables you to read more with your heart than with your head. Read in ways that allow you to be moved and stirred by the words, facilitating potential transformation of your mind and heart.
Exploring Nature: One way to read the world is to read the natural environment that surrounds you. I invite you to take some time this summer to simply sit in awe and wonder of the natural world. Grow your awareness and attentiveness to the majesty of the world around us. This habit of attentiveness can both grow our gratitude for the gifts of nature and motivate us to protect it from the threats it faces.
I hope this manageable list of spiritual practices, inclusively presented in a way that can register across our diverse community, adds some depth to the rest and relaxation that summer often affords.
This week’s Mission in Motion highlights the 2023 SCS Student retreat, “Stepping Outside of the Ordinary.”
With the 2023 Commencement in the books, Mission in Motion turns this week to another celebrated annual SCS milestone, the overnight student retreat. In early May, over 20 SCS students from more than 13 different degree and non-degree programs ventured out to Georgetown’s Calcagnini Contemplative Center for an overnight experience entitled “Stepping Outside of the Ordinary.” Rabbi Rachel Gartner, SCS Senior Advisor for Pastoral Care, and I led the retreat and journeyed alongside the students as they nourished themselves spiritually and developed strong community bonds.
The SCS student retreat featured talks, small and large group conversation, meditation, and relaxation in the outdoors.
Two talks framed the 24-hour experience. I gave the first one, which encouraged participants to take a Long, Loving Look at the Real in their lives by using the Ignatian contemplative practice of the Examen. Invited to slow down and notice more closely the nitty gritty details of daily life, retreatants had the opportunity for both personal reflection and larger group conversation. Modeled on the dynamics of Ignatian spirituality, the ideas and practices of the talk anchored the experience in the University’s Jesuit heritage. Small groups met in the cozy spaces of the picturesque natural setting at Calcagnini. Unlike last year’s spring retreat that took place in the snow of early March, this year’s retreat fell on a sunny and breezy early May weekend. The weather conditions encouraged more outdoor enjoyment and relaxation.
SCS students made the most of their time on retreat by exploring the natural surroundings of the Calcagnini Contemplative Center.
The retreat’s second talk explored in depth the Jewish tradition of Shabbat. Rabbi Rachel presented rest from work as a spiritually significant commitment arising from religious tradition. Retreatants engaged contemplatively with Rabbi’s reflections and also interacted with Jewish texts as part of their exploration. Presenting from Judaism’s teaching tradition as a launching point for deeper personal and communal reflection is a hallmark strength of Georgetown’s Mission and Ministry approach. Students interiorized the lessons of the talk as they were being invited in the second day of the retreat to consider how they wanted to take their weekend experience back with them as they returned to campus. In addition to actively listening to these short talks, retreatants had the opportunity to take individual and group reflective walks in nature, eat delicious meals in community, and enjoy unstructured time for play and rest.
Like past SCS student retreats, I marvel at the ways that students so quickly adjust themselves to this unique experience. Most students begin the adventure as strangers and end up as friends. I hear the delightful chatter of the newly formed network of Georgetown friends as the bus makes the journey back to the SCS campus after a remarkably short 24 hours. I also observe students making new commitments to more regular habits of reflection, prayer, and meditation that can remind themselves of what they learned on retreat.
More than any other indicator, retreatant reflections on the experience provide the best evidence that formal retreats are effective. Georgetown’s Campus Ministry is committed to helping students “lead lives of deeper meaning, belonging, and purpose.” The following sample of student testimonies about the 2023 SCS student retreat affirm that this objective is being realized through this yearly event:
“I feel that I have resources now to help take a step back in my day-to-day routine to ground myself in my life.”
“I am returning home more connected to the Spirit of Georgetown and thankful I could strengthen my own path through the diversity of others.”
“I feel called to continue my spiritual journey at Georgetown.”
“I am returning more grounded and I take away with me healing, conversation, and diversity.”
“I feel peace and happiness as I return and I desire to share this experience with others.”
The SCS student retreat, “Stepping Outside of the Ordinary,” is taking place May 6-7, 2023. This week’s Mission in Motion makes the case for why students should sign up for one of the limited spots on retreat. (Photo: SCS students at the 2022 spring retreat.)
The annual SCS overnight student retreat has been announced: from Saturday, May 6 to Sunday, May 7, current SCS students are invited to get away, relax, recharge, and reflect at Georgetown’s Calcagnini Contemplative Center in Bluemont, Va.
Framed this year as “Stepping Outside of the Ordinary,” this annual milestone has become a celebrated and anticipated event in the life of the School community. Current students are encouraged to sign up early as space is limited and the RSVP deadline is April 28, 2023. The cost is $50 and includes food, lodging (comfortable individual cabins at the retreat center), and transportation (via University-provided bus to the retreat center from the SCS campus at 640 Massachusetts Avenue, NW). Current students can RSVP here.
This year’s retreat takes up the theme of contemplation in action, a Spirit of Georgetown value that invites all of us in this community to reflect deeply on our relationship with time and productivity. Inspired by Georgetown’s multi-faith commitment, this experience will be a welcoming space to people of any faith tradition or none at all; everyone is welcome. The retreat will be led by Jamie Kralovec, SCS Associate Director for Mission Integration, and Rabbi Rachel Gartner, SCS Senior Advisor for Pastoral Care. To gain a better appreciation of what the weekend will entail, check out reflection posts in the SCS Mission and Motion blog like Rabbi Rachel’s on “Seeing and Tasting Life’s Goodness,” Jamie’s on “Becoming a Contemplative in Action,” and a summary of the 2022 student retreat.
If you’re on the fence about signing up and taking the risk of spending an overnight like this, I offer three reasons for you to say Yes.
Retreats are a gift! I often begin a retreat experience by inviting participants to give themselves permission to treat themselves to the experience. Sure, retreats are not vacation or a time for total leisure. But the experience of time away from work, home, and other daily obligations, for even 24 hours, is a welcome chance to renew your body, mind, and spirit. Calcagnini is a beautiful slice of earth with excellent accommodations and a setting conducive to fun and lightness of being. So often, participants leave the retreat weekend with a sense of self-renewal. In the course of a year, one might look back at a retreat weekend and continually savor the memories, the self-development, the community-building, etc. Retreats are gifts that keep on giving.
Connect with community! SCS students are busy with coursework, professional commitments, and obligations at home and in the world. Many of our students finish their programs in a relatively short amount of time. One common refrain I’ve heard from our graduates is this: I wish I had taken even more advantage of my time at Georgetown. Going on retreat with a mix of students from across programs is a rare opportunity to get to know the fullness of the Georgetown community. And venturing out to Calcagnini, the University’s reflective home away from home, is a great way to feel even more connected to the larger enterprise of Georgetown. One of my great joys from co-facilitating this retreat over the years: watching SCS community members make meaningful friendships outside of their program areas.
Take a chance on your inner life! Georgetown is not shy about proclaiming its mission and values. We are understandably proud to share the Spirit of Georgetown with every generation of Hoyas. Across our traditions and within those traditions is a call to the inner life. All of us need to nurture this dimension of our full selves. Too often, however, the tendency towards activity, productivity, and time-taking works in the opposite direction of prayer, meditation, and quiet pause. All students – regardless of their age and existing religious or spiritual experience – can benefit from the welcome opportunity for contemplative presence that a one-day retreat invites. There is also well-established evidence that interior practices like mindfulness meditation, prayer, and other forms of spiritual activity can benefit your health by reducing stress and anxiety.
I could go on with more reasons to join the retreat but I will leave it at three. If you are a current SCS student and want to learn more, do not hesitate to reach out with questions about this invaluable experience.
This week’s post shines a light on the importance of processing grief and loss as a community. A reflection circle in the SCS interfaith chapel took place this week in response to a loss of life.
The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare so many social realities that had remained below the surface for so many observers. The fragility of our society, already experienced by so many people marginalized and excluded by oppressive social and economic structures, was exposed in profound ways for all to see. Communities across the country and throughout the world suffered immeasurable loss of life and livelihood as a result of a public health event that felt at some point like it would continue indefinitely. Georgetown was no stranger to this suffering, as many in our community of students, faculty, staff, community partners, and alumni endured significant losses during this period and continue to recover the broken pieces.
The Mission in Motion blog has attempted over time to tell the story for readers about how Georgetown SCS lives out the University’s Jesuit mission and values. What is it about the Spirit of Georgetown, the 10 values taken from our Jesuit heritage and lived out in our multi-faith and interreligious way of proceeding, that brings this diverse, multi-campus community together? So often telling this story brings to the surface instances of great joy and celebration, whether they be student achievements, faculty innovations, university-wide ceremonies like Commencement and Tropaia, or promising examples of being People for Others through community engagement, service, and social justice. But sometimes, the most poignant expressions of mission and values are actualized during times of adversity and loss within the community.
This week featured such an expression when SCS students, faculty, and staff from Mission and Ministry came together to process as a group the profound feelings, memories, and hopes following the passing of a student. In moments like this, words alone are not sufficient to help a community move through its feelings of grief. It is critically important to create nurturing and supportive shared spaces in which community members can be together in their grief. The bonds that tie a group together depend on mutual trust, reciprocity, and kinship.
This week’s circle event demonstrated that there is something deeper and bigger, even transcendent, that animates this community of learners. The community circle that gathered did not erase the grief or cease the difficult feelings of loss. But the effort did help the healing process, one that so often takes a very long time. Theological traditions offer insights and resources for how to understand death, but, ultimately, this human experience is such a confounding mystery. In the face of this truth, we might feel consolation in the invitation to confront this reality of loss as a community.
In this season of Ramadan, Mission in Motion shines a light on the Muslim community at Georgetown. This past week, Georgetown dedicated a new Masjid on the Hilltop campus.
Georgetown more than welcomes different faith traditions to practice at the University; it invites these communities to flourish with the support of a chaplaincy director and staff from Campus Ministry. This longstanding commitment to interreligious dialogue and multifaith chaplaincy is a characteristic feature of how Georgetown lives out its mission. As Rabbi Rachel Gartner, SCS Senior Advisor for Pastoral Care, laid out in a previous post: “In the context of diversity, community that invites authenticity doesn’t just happen. It has to be carefully constructed.” At Georgetown, Muslim Life is a carefully constructed community under the care of Imam Yahya Hendi, who has been leading Georgetown Muslims for over two decades of service.
A few weeks ago, the English Language Center (ELC) at SCS hosted a special “Pizza with the Imam” lunch. Primarily intended as a space for Muslim students, this casual lunch provided a welcome opportunity to connect with Imam Hendi over food in a comfortable communal setting between classes. Students asked questions and the Imam was generous in providing his perspective to the students, most who are new to education in the United States and navigating cultural and religious differences as they go about their study. Imam’s partnership with SCS and ELC has been invaluable over the years and has included leading dedicated Muslim prayer for SCS students. Muslim Life at Georgetown offers an array of spiritual programming for students, faculty, and staff and all are encouraged to participate.
For more information about spiritual programming for Muslim students, faculty, and staff at Georgetown, check out the Muslim Life homepage.
In this season of Ramadan, a time of profound dedication for Muslims around the world, it is fitting that Muslim Life at Georgetown celebrated a major milestone this week that affirms the contribution that this community makes to the university. With President DeGioia and a host of other university officials on hand, Georgetown dedicated a new Masjid on the Hilltop that honors Yarrow Mamout, a devout West African Muslim, tradesman, and homeowner in the neighborhood of Georgetown, who achieved his freedom in 1796 at the age of 60, after 44 years of enslavement in Maryland. The beautiful new worship space speaks to the vibrancy of this religious community and the continuing need to attend to the needs of Muslims across Georgetown campuses.
I wish “Ramadan Kareem” to all Muslims at SCS and across the university.
This week, members of the SCS staff and faculty community made their way out to Georgetown’s Calcagnini Contemplative Center for a day retreat. Nestled between the gratitude themes of Thanksgiving and the joyful anticipation themes of the coming holidays, the day-long retreat offered a welcome bit of pause from the demands of daily work.
I co-led the retreat with Rabbi Rachel Gartner, SCS Senior Advisor for Pastoral Care, and we began the day by inviting the group to open themselves up to the experience. While the day retreat might feel like a limited window for meaningful reflection, we encouraged everyone to allow themselves to fully experience the transformative potential of a few short hours away from campus.
This week’s Mission in Motion is about the SCS Faculty and Staff Retreat, “Reconnection, Relaxation, and Reflection,” that took place at Georgetown’s Calcagnini Contemplative Center this week.
In a circle, retreatants reflected on the meaning of work in their lives and how that meaning has potentially shifted over the years of pandemic, transition, and return. Offering wisdom from the Jewish tradition, Rabbi Rachel invited the group to consider the joys, the challenges, and the so-so of work life.
Rabbi Rachel’s series of questions invited deeper reflection on each person’s “why” at work. This open-ended question led to a final question about the possibility of making a change, either internally or in an external action of some kind, that puts one in closer touch with the why of their day-to-day life. The group grew in its understanding, empathy, and kinship by listening to what individuals anonymously named as their own thoughts and feelings. Within an hour of arriving, the group had already begun to develop some significant communal bonds.
In the afternoon, I offered a short presentation on the examen of consciousness and then led the group in the practice. By taking stock of each component of the “long, loving, look at the real,” we can appreciate that taking time for pause and quiet in our day, reflecting on the meaning of our daily experience, is possible even without a trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains. A daily examen can happen anywhere and its practicality reflects the Spirit of Georgetown value of Contemplation in Action.
Like the retreat offered for SCS students last spring, this was the first in-person retreat of its kind for SCS faculty and staff in over three years. The desire to be reconnected to one another in person, in a community-building setting, was evident throughout the experience. I noticed the joys that are possible when colleagues, some who did not know each other, come together in a relaxed and reverential setting with the explicit purpose of slowing down and savoring the particular details of our daily lives. I noticed myself feeling deep joy overhearing laughter and energized conversation at lunch. I also noticed the formation of deeper relationships between co-workers and a deeper appreciation of the possibilities of living out the Spirit of Georgetown.
The retreat focused on practices intended to spur deeper individual and communal reflections about the meaning of work.
We left Calcagnini with a renewed sense of how we can serve Georgetown’s mission as individuals and as a community. And we left the retreat with an energy about the need to pause every day to notice and savor the world around us and the world within us.
Rabbi Rachel ended the morning session with Rumi’s poem, “The Guest House,” which is a fitting affirmation of the need for retreats like this one.
The Guest House
This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
In recent years, SCS has deepened and expanded the presence and integration of Mission and Ministry in the life of the community. Mission in Motion has highlighted these efforts, including dedicated retreats, pedagogical and faculty support, communications, and course offerings. Bringing the Spirit of Georgetown to life has included opportunities for service-learning, community and global engagement in Washington, D.C., and beyond, and advocacy for justice and the common good. All of this work is presented in an inclusive and invitational way, presenting Jesuit values in a holistic and context-tailored manner that sparks inspiration and reflection for our diverse community.
SCS is growing this commitment to the Spirit of Georgetown with the appointment of Rabbi Rachel Gartner as Senior Advisor of Spiritual Care. Rabbi Rachel arrives at SCS having served for more than a decade as Rabbi and Director of Jewish Life at Georgetown. Rabbi Rachel brings many professional gifts with her to the work of animating the SCS community with mission and values. I am so excited to work alongside Rabbi Rachel because I have witnessed firsthand her skillfulness in interfaith engagement, her resourcefulness for spiritual accompaniment, and her creativity in meeting the pastoral care needs of a diverse constituency. I could go on!
I encourage you to watch this introductory video by Rabbi Rachel that now lives on the SCS YouTube page. As you watch, I encourage you to pay attention to three important points articulated by Rabbi Rachel:
The work of spiritual care is to deepen, develop, and diversity SCS Mission and Ministry offerings so as to enhance the lives, learning, and leadership of ever-growing circles of the SCS community;
Interfaith engagement is so powerful because different traditions can provide new angles, food for further thought, and sometimes deeper illumination about the places where traditions connect without having to connect in every place; and
The Ignatian, Jesuit tradition of education, spirituality, and mission presents resonances and entry points for other religious, non-religious, and spiritual traditions.
This is such an important message for a diverse community like SCS. Mission lacks meaning unless it comes alive, and it only does so when deeper connections are made within the context of one’s lived experience. Rabbi Rachel offers a fresh perspective on how to do this work by bringing her considerable experience in pastoral care and interfaith engagement to bear on the opportunities and challenges facing our community. In a turn toward the practical, Rabbi Rachel’s introductory video ends with a “how” of this work: an invitation to Journey together on the path of mutual discovery through inclusive retreats and informative and inspiring communications.
I am delighted to be writing for this wonderful blog, and even more so that Jamie’s last post, along with the occasion of this last weekend’s graduate student “Rest, Recharge, Renew” retreat give me such a powerful entry point.
During my last 11 years on the hilltop, it has been a consistent joy to discover aspects of Ignatian spirituality that resonate with aspects of Jewish tradition and the other traditions represented on campus. My hope in interfaith engagement is always that different traditions can provide new angles, food for further thought, and sometimes even deeper illumination into the places where they connect. All this, without needing to connect in every place!
This week’s post is offered by Rabbi Rachel Gartner, SCS Senior Advisor for Spiritual Care, who reflects on the contemplative themes and interfaith possibilities of last weekend’s “Rest, Recharge, Renew” retreat for graduate and professional students. Rabbi Gartner also shares about the way that sacred events, like Shabbat, help us step outside of ordinary life in order to move toward it more contemplatively.
Jamie’s last blog post explored one such area of connection and resonance. One of my favorites, quite frankly.
In the last blog post Jamie sagely reminded us of the potential spiritual and emotional pitfalls of an overcommitted lifestyle, warning: “[E]ven busy adults who have important tasks to accomplish everyday can develop an unhealthy relationship to time.” One of the dangers of a utilitarian relationship with time so prevalent for so many of us these days is that it can make time into a possession that we need to use productively, and using time to contemplate doesn’t fit into our notion of productivity and therefore is a waste of our possession.
Indeed. In a context in which we don’t see contemplation as productive, it can be really hard to make the case for it. My experience in multifaith settings over the last two decades tells me that making the case for contemplation has become one of the central roles for contemporary clergy of any background, precisely because it has become so profoundly challenging and precisely because we believe so profoundly in it.
Thankfully, for me, it’s easy to make the case. Enter the Torah.
Jews like to joke that, through Torah, we brought the world the concept of the weekend; in the form of Shabbat. During Shabbat, Jews construct what Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel called a cathedral in time:
“Judaism teaches us to be attached to holiness in time, to be attached to sacred events, to learn how to consecrate sanctuaries that emerge from the magnificent stream of a year. The Sabbaths are our great cathedrals.”
As the sun sets on the eve of Shabbat, we light our plain white candles – one for everyone in the household – raise a glass of wine or juice, break simple bread, and step into that sanctuary in time. There, we leave behind the regular flow of time and the productivity we imbed in it. We do this not in order to escape life, but in order to enter into it more deeply. We step outside of ordinary life so we can then turn toward it contemplatively and “see and taste” (Psalm 34) the goodness of all of life.
If Shabbat were a person, she would high-five, fist-bump, or elbow-bump the Jesuit Walter Burghardt for naming and affirming contemplation as a “long loving look at the real” which inspires as “experiential awareness of reality” and a “way of entering into communion with reality.”
Judaism, in particular the mystical strain of Judaism, teaches that all of reality is a manifestation of the Divine. That God not merely permeates reality, but reality is an expression or embodiment of the essence of God. Seeking metaphors to describe this hard-to-grasp concept, Jewish mystics often refer to reality as a garment of God. This garment is woven of aspects of God’s very being – so it is itself ultimately Divine in both origin and nature. Jewish mystics teach that our spiritual goal is to attain the awareness that this is the true nature of all of life. We do this through what they call devekut (lit. cleaving). Devekut is essentially a communion with the Divine (through, in part, our experiential awareness of reality) that allows us to see and sense the godliness hidden within every single aspect of the material world. Through devekut we come to know intellectually, as well as to sense in our very being, the ultimate truth that all of reality is sacred, all of reality is One.
Through rest, reflection, song, prayer, communal conversation, and Torah study, Shabbat becomes a weekly, extended, and communal contemplative pursuit of – and ideally the attainment of – devekut.
We conclude Shabbat the way we begin it. In a ritual called havdallah (lit. distinction) we light candles, we drink wine or juice, and in place of eating sweet challah, we smell aromatic spices – a symbolic last whiff of the extra-soulfulness we are granted on Shabbat. Unlike the singular and white Shabbat candle, the havdallah candle contains many wicks and strands of wax composed of a rainbow of colors. The multifaceted candle invites us to weave our singular Shabbat consciousness into the glorious multifaceted activities of the week ahead. This idea is affirmed in some communities by actually placing a drop of havdallah wine or juice on our eyelids, as an invitation to see the rest of the week through Shabbat eyes. Or, as Burghardt, S.J., might express it, to turn to all of reality with a long and loving look that invites communion with it.
In Judaism, devekut is a highly valued end in and of itself. Its reward is deep joy. Through it, we find greater meaning and satisfaction in all that we do in life. And at the same time, there is a desired (even commanded) outcome of equal importance – namely, to live with greater intention, righteousness, kindness, and integrity as a result of our loving encounter with the real.
Contemplation, Shabbat, devekut are meant to lead to living in a way that honors what we come to know through them – that everything and everyone is ultimately divine in origin and nature. It’s our joyful and sacred obligation to live according to that awareness and to become maximally productive in the things that matter most: what we bring to this world and how we treat one another in it.
May it be so.
Please consider joining me and Jamie for upcoming retreats as they are announced. We’d love to see you at them.
This week, Mission in Motion considers contemplation as a response to an overly utilitarian approach to time. The upcoming graduate and professional retreat offers an opportunity for living out the Spirit of Georgetown value of “contemplation in action.”
The upcoming graduate and professional student retreat, “Rest, Recharge, Renew,” is being offered as an opportunity for busy students to take some time away from the pressures of work and school and enjoy each other’s company in a beautiful, natural setting. The motivation for organizing the retreat is as simple as the tagline: rest, recharge, and renew. Graduate and professional students are accustomed to daily and weekly routines that require rigorous time management in order to fulfill their obligations as students balancing lives outside of the classroom. Making the time and space for this kind of structured experience of relaxation in the company of other students is well worth the effort. Making space for retreat, a temporary interruption and dislocation from daily routines, is a healthy and fulfilling use of time.
The retreat has me reflecting on the nature of time and how graduate and professional students relate to time. If we take seriously the Spirit of Georgetown value of “contemplation in action,” which is the value that motivates retreat programs across the University, how do we make sense of the tension between these ideas? How does the seeming paradox of “contemplation” and “action” relate to the life of a graduate student at Georgetown? What from the many spiritual traditions represented at Georgetown can help us answer these fundamental questions?
Despite the disciplinary diversity of graduate and professional programs, I think a common trait of these students is the limited amount of time for activities that might be considered non-essential. The weekly calendar quickly fills up when school, work, home, and social activities are added. Economists tend to make a distinction between “leisure” and “work,” but this simple distinction does not seem to capture well the in-between range of activities. Perhaps unlike traditional residential undergraduate students taking four years to earn a degree, graduate students have a more utilitarian relationship to time. The stakes seem to be higher for older adult students with more responsibilities and the discernments about how to use their non-essential time for activity require lots of negotiation and planning. As someone with a full family and work schedule, I can appreciate these tensions.
But even busy adults who have important tasks to accomplish everyday can develop an unhealthy relationship to time. The theater critic Walter Kerr in the book The Decline of Pleasure captures the tendency to equate virtue with constant activity: “Only useful time is valuable, meaningful, moral. Activity that is not clearly, concretely useful to oneself or others is worthless, meaningless, immoral.” This utilitarian interpretation of the meaning of how we use our time has some negative consequences. For the purpose of this reflection, I think a concerning outcome of this mentality is that if time becomes a possession that we acquire, then it becomes more difficult to pause and make meaning of our lives in the midst of our activity. The questions that should be orienting our work and activity can be pushed aside if we don’t intentionally make time to ask our core questions: Who am I as a person? What matters to me? What is the “why” of my life? And what path do I need to travel in order to realize my deeper purpose?
This is where the value of contemplation comes in and can relate harmoniously with the life of action. It is important to note that there is not a single, universal way of naming and understanding a vast concept like “contemplation.” Various philosophical, religious, spiritual, and humanistic traditions have different understandings of this term and its implication for practices. I’ll be relying on an invitational and inclusive understanding of contemplation taken from the Jesuit tradition of education and spirituality. The Jesuit Walter Burghardt describes contemplation as a “long loving look at the real.” This is a way of considering contemplation and the practices it inspires as “experiential awareness of reality” and a “way of entering into communion with reality.” But what do the pieces of this definition mean for graduate and professional students? Let’s take each of these components.
Real: This is the stuff of your life that cannot be reduced to abstract concepts. The real is people, things, nature, objects, etc. Reality is living and pulsing, concrete and singular. Look: This is not analysis or interpretation, but communion with the stuff of our reality by noticing and engaging reality with all of our senses. For Burghardt, to look is to feel and to experience in our senses the fact of our whole person gazing at reality. To contemplate is to be aware that we are physical bodies in a world of other bodies. Long: This is not a recipe for length of time in contemplation, but an invitation to be unhurried about it. Burghardt describes the long nature of contemplation as rest: “[T]o rest in the real, not lifelessly or languidly, not sluggishly or inertly.” These long looks can happen on a walk, on a train ride to work, in the office or classroom, picking up our kids from school, etc. The point is that our contemplative gazing is “whole person enraptured” with full senses. And finally, loving: Contemplation is not always delightful or comforting and sometimes it surfaces the wounds and hurts of our lives. By lovingly entering into contemplation, we make it more likely that our response will be more generous and more compassionate toward others. Contemplation is not actually individualistic or indulgent navel gazing.
There is no monolithic way to translate this understanding of contemplation into meaningful practices. The “how” of contemplation depends on the individual person and their full context of life. Burghardt’s suggestions for how to do this are reflected in the upcoming graduate and professional retreat. He recommends that we can develop the capacity for long, loving looks at the real by 1) interrupting our ordinary patterns of life (by going on retreat!); 2) developing a feeling for festivity; 3) building habits of play and wonder; 4) learning not to expect profit from our contemplation or possession of our objects of delight; and 5) finding guides and mentors to accompany us along the way.
My hope is that the invitation to bring together “contemplation” and “action” sparks something for you. Find a retreat, spiritual companion, leadership coach, affirming community of peers, etc. And next time you feel yourself judging yourself for any empty pockets on your schedule, I invite you to reconsider your relationship with time. We can slow life down even in a few free moments with a long, loving look at the real.
This post relies on Walter Burghardt’s article, “Contemplation: A Long Loving Look at the Real,” as reproduced in An Ignatian Spirituality Reader, edited by George Traub (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2008).
This week’s post is about the upcoming Graduate and Professional Student Retreat, “Rest, Recharge, Renew,” taking place October 15-16. SCS students should sign up here
Some might assume that graduate and professional students, unlike traditional full-time undergraduates, do not desire dedicated time and space for spiritual growth and community-building outside of their class time. This thinking assumes that adult learners in graduate and professional programs are already “formed” in their spiritual lives and are too busy for anything outside of classroom tasks. The theory might be that these adults carry so many other obligations of family, work, and social life that crowd out any interest in activities considered non-essential. To some degree, these assumptions have validity. It is true that most adult students have to be particularly discerning about how they choose to spend their school time in the midst of so much else. And it is also true in terms of human development that many graduate and professional students have already cultivated a well-developed sense of their personal, spiritual, and career identities by the time they arrive at Georgetown.
While it is true adult learners have different needs than other students in the life cycle, it is not the case that graduate and professional students do not need dedicated mission and ministry programs. In fact, the style of reflection, prayer, meditation, and community-building inspired by Jesuit spirituality (in particular, the Examen approach to consciousness awareness) offers particular benefits to adult learners. Adults learn best from their experience and desire to be in spaces with other adults who want to learn from their experiences, which we might call the “texts” of their own lives. Jesuit spirituality begins in this place by starting with a person’s lived experience and then entering into reflection and ultimately action on how to become an even more generous and giving person in the world. Respecting the context of these adult learners is the best way to design programs intended to build spiritual community.
SCS has made such reflective activities a key part of student experience. An annual student retreat in the spring semester has provided students with an opportunity to build relationships with other SCS students and grow in awareness of the need for quiet, reflective time and space in the middle of a demanding academic program. SCS will offer this dedicated retreat just for its students again in Spring 2023.
This fall presents a new cross-campus opportunity for cultivating reflective habits among SCS and all of the other graduate and professional students at Georgetown. From October 15 to 16, an overnight retreat “Rest, Recharge, Renew,” is being made available for all graduate and professional students at the University. Georgetown Law Center’s Campus Ministry is taking the lead on the retreat but other partners at the University, including SCS, are supporting delivery of the retreat. The intention of the retreat is simple – to give graduate and professional students an opportunity to take a break from school and reflect, relax, and build relationships with other students across Georgetown. Taking place at Georgetown’s Calcagnini Contemplative Center, nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the retreat setting offers some welcomed time away from the business of daily life.
Inter-campus encounters can be rare at a big university but these opportunities are precious for developing a shared sense of community at Georgetown. I encourage SCS students to consider signing up for the retreat as spaces are limited!
