Jesuit Convocation Helps Solidify USF Community
After four days at the California Jesuit Province convocation last month, USF participants said they experienced a powerful and inspiring sense of community that they hope to maintain and spread on campus.
“It was a time to look inside and reflect on what it means to be part of a Jesuit institution,” said Miguel Lopez, assistant professor of education. “Being together as part of the Jesuit community was very moving.”
USF sent 35 Jesuit and non-Jesuit attendees to the convocation, which drew approximately 450 people. Held once under each provincial’s tenure, this year’s retreat, at Loyola-Marymount University in Los Angeles, was the first to include laity from Jesuit schools and parishes throughout the western United States. In the past, only Jesuits attended the convocation.
A sense of community was palpable, attendees said, through prayer services, thoughtful discussions, and plenary speakers describing their spiritual paths. “That’s where I felt the strongest sense of comradeship—and it wasn’t that everyone was a Catholic or understood what was happening in the liturgy,” said Jack McLean, USF service learning coordinator and an attendee. “But we could come together and celebrate community.”
Participants prepared by attending four spiritual and reflective exercises at USF called “The Heart of the Matter” held last year. About 30-40 people attended each of those meetings and the USF convocation representatives were selected from that pool.
Titled “Partnership in Ministry,” the convocation was the first of its kind to bring “lay persons and Jesuits...together to examine the meaning, scope, and future of partnership among them through prayer, conversation, and other exercises,” according to a description on the California province Web site. The convocation came out of a Jesuit decree in 1995 that stated lay cooperation was necessary to offset the order’s declining numbers.
“If there was any kind of goal, it was to bring together Jesuits and laity to talk about how to further the Ignatian mission,” said Larry Brewster, dean of the College of Professional Studies, acting dean of the School of Education, and a plenary speaker at the convocation. Brewster spoke about his participation in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, a process he began last year at USF. Jean Molesky-Poz, assistant professor in theology and religious studies, gave a homily at a convocation prayer service on reconciliation and atonement.
On the last day of the retreat, USF attendees discussed ideas for bringing their experience back to campus, including reviving mission-based dialogues such as “Soup and Substance,” establishing mission and identity teas, and encouraging staff and faculty to attend spiritual retreats.
“The (Jesuit) tradition is one we’re all responsible for—both those with a faith and creed and those without,” McLean said. “This was a chance to celebrate that tradition.”
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