 Keeping the Jesuit Mission Alive
It’s the only campus meeting where USF vice presidents learn about grace. It’s an enterprise in which faculty and staff may watch images of birds, poor children, sunsets, and war. It is a Jesuit event where priests and lay people share their spiritual reflections.
At USF and Jesuit universities throughout the western United States, faculty and staff are participating in preparatory courses meant to help them see, hear, and understand Jesuit spirituality. Called “The Heart of the Matter,” the sessions are part of a three-year preparation for “Convocation 2003: The Future of Partnership in Ministry,” a retreat for Jesuits and lay members of Jesuit schools. Fourteen delegates from each university within California, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah will attend the August convocation, the first such event in which Jesuits and lay people from Jesuit schools will plan how to build a future ministry together.
“What we want to see come out of these sessions are new ways to approach the partnering relationship,” said Kathy Kane, business professor and a member of the convocation’s planning committee. “There’s a lot of work to be done in educating new faculty and non-religious in the Jesuit mission.”
The convocation is the culmination of a movement begun in the 1980s to educate lay members of Jesuit schools in the principles and spiritual experiences of the Jesuit tradition. The California Jesuit Province organized Convocation 2003 as a starting point in refreshing the Jesuit tradition with lay members’ help. “Heart of the Matter” sessions are a way of creating a spiritual foundation faculty and staff can then incorporate into their jobs.
The sessions incorporate the Jesuit-style of reflection based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Faculty presenters discuss some aspect of spirituality and invite participants to reflect on the topic. At a recent USF reflection session, Associate Education Professor Gini Shimabukuro discussed “Listening to the Spirit” or recognizing the movement of God in the participants’ personal lives. As part of her presentation, Shimabukuro showed pictures of nature, violence, and poverty as starting points for reflection.
Margaret Higgins, vice president of university life, was a participant in the session and plans on being a delegate to the convocation. She said she has already incorporated some of the religious inspiration from the sessions in her division activities, like starting a University Life meeting with a prayer.
“For me, in a very busy day, to stop and breathe, break bread with my colleagues, to stop and think, is an unbelievable opportunity,” she said.
In the past, USF has offered opportunities for faculty and staff to educate themselves in the Jesuit mission. Former “Soup and Substance” noontime discussion groups were held to engender understanding of Jesuit spirituality. Although that group is currently inactive, University Ministry has introduced a weekly “Retreat in Daily Life” on Thursdays in Xavier Chapel with reflection based on the Spiritual Exercises. Two weekend spiritual retreats were also held this year for faculty and staff.
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