Updates, resources, and events highlighting the integration of DePaul’s Vincentian mission into the daily life and work of the university community.
Now that it is spring and we are amid graduation season, much advice will be given to those who are matriculating, particularly…
Written By: Miranda Lukatch, Editor, Vincentian Studies Institute
Now that it is spring and we are amid graduation season, much advice will be given to those who are matriculating, particularly younger students. At this time of year, especially for graduating college students who are starting their careers, there’s an emphasis on forging ahead. For graduating high school students planning to attend college, picking a major is a looming decision, something that they may have already started working on when choosing a school. Graduation speakers talk a lot about having confidence and being adventurous, and they usually frame it in positive terms about how exciting it is to have all these choices ahead. What they often don’t talk about is how to handle the restlessness and discomfort that comes with uncertainty. It’s an issue that affects more than just the graduates—it can also apply to those sitting in the audience: the graduates’ parents and their parents’ peers who may also be at a fork in the road as they face empty nests and the challenges of middle age. These audience members might be looking back at this time in their own lives when it seemed like they had everything before them. They might desire to recapture that feeling and sense of possibility. Although at least the outward paths of their lives may appear to be set in terms of things like careers and family life, they might be facing different kinds of uncertainty, feeling that they have conflicting priorities and that whichever one they are attending to at the moment is not the one they would choose if they had a choice. They may feel dissatisfaction with those aspects of their lives that seem set and wonder how to do things differently.
The fact is that no single age group has a monopoly on the discomfort of uncertainty. The possibilities before us in youth may seem exhilarating, but it’s also disorienting not to have a structure to life. And for folks who are more established, the philosopher Kieran Setiya has noted that when we look back, we are not missing “a time when we could have everything” so much as “a time before we had to commit ourselves and thus confront our losses.”[i] The question is, what can we do about this?
We might try taking advice from Vincent de Paul. He once offered Louise de Marillac wise counsel when she was wrestling with uncertainty over the direction her life would take. From the perspective of his faith, he encouraged her to bear ambiguity and dissatisfaction patiently with grace, saying, “Try to live content among your reasons for discontent and always honor the inactivity and unknown condition of the Son of God. That is your center and what He asks of you for the present and for the future, forever.”[ii] Vincent was urging patience and an embrace of uncertainty almost as a holy time or a holy obligation because it was a time to listen for God’s voice and will. Viewed this way, uncertainty can be approached with hope and even gratitude. As Mission & Ministry’s own Mark Laboe has written, the chaos of uncertainty also contains “a creative energy … that can ultimately become transformative and life-giving.”[iii] The poet Rainer Maria Rilke offers what sounds like a more secular version of Vincent’s advice when he writes:
“Be patient towards all that is unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms, like books written in a foreign tongue. Do not now strive to uncover answers: they cannot be given you because you have not been able to live them. And what matters is to live everything. Live the questions for now. Perhaps then you will gradually, without noticing it, live your way into the answer.”[iv]
No matter where we are in life’s journey and what we are questioning, let us accept our uncertainty as a chance to develop more fully into the people we are called to be.
Reflection Questions
Reflection by: Miranda Lukatch, Editor, Vincentian Studies Institute
[i] Kieran Setiya, Midlife: A Philosophical Guide (Princeton University Press, 2018), 73.
[ii] Letter 29, “To Saint Louise,” [between 1626 and May 1629], CCD, 1:54. Available online at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/vincentian_ebooks/25/.
[iii] Mark Laboe, “What Anchors You … and Us?” The Way of Wisdom, January 6, 2025, https://blogs.depaul.edu/dmm/2025/01/05/what-anchors-you-and-us/.
[iv] Rainier Maria Rilke to Franz Xaver Kappus, July 16, 1903, in Letters to a Young Poet, trans. Charlie Louth (New York: Penguin Books, 2013), 24.
With sadness, we have learned of the death of Margaret “Peggy” Schultz (Kelly), (LAS ’87), Senior Administrative Assistant in Academic Affairs at DePaul for more than ten years. She was also known to many as the Academic Integrity Coordinator. Peggy was the sister of Kathy Kelly Hillegonds of the Office of the Dean in the Driehaus College of Business. Peggy passed away at the age of 62 on June 6, 2025, after a battle with cancer.
Peggy earned her undergraduate degree in psychology from DePaul in 1987 and was working on her master’s degree in public services. Peggy is survived by her three children Bradley, Alex and Abby, three sisters (Maggie, Kathy and Sheila), and extended family and friends. With her wisdom, quiet strength and generous spirit, Peggy left a mark on all of us. She will be sorely missed.
A memorial visitation for friends and family will be held at Tews-Ryan Funeral Home in Homewood (18230 Dixie Hwy.) on Friday, June 13 from 3 – 7:30 p.m., with a memorial service beginning at 7:30 p.m. A burial service will follow on Saturday, June 14 at 11 a.m. at Assumption Catholic Cemetery & Mausoleum in Glenwood (19500 S. Cottage Grove Ave.).
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to The Cancer Support Center in Homewood, the South Suburban Humane Society in Matteson or NAWS Humane Society in Mokena.
Peggy’s obituary and online condolences can be found here.
Updates, resources, and events highlighting the integration of DePaul’s Vincentian mission into the daily life and work of the university community.
It is in the in-between where we are formed to live our lives with meaning and purpose.
Please RSVP HERE.
Written by: Rev. Diane Dardón, ELCA, D. Min., Director, Pastoral Care and Religious Diversity
A few weeks ago, I found myself in the Student Center elevator with several students who were talking about the number of guests joining them for their graduation ceremonies. The animated conversation moved into a communal reflection on how quickly their time at DePaul had flown. They agreed that it seemed like only yesterday when they came to campus for freshman orientation—and now they are preparing to leave behind their college adventure. Now they are preparing for new beginnings.
T. S. Eliot once wrote, “What we call the beginning is often the end … The end is where we start from.” [1] This quote and the elevator conversation I was privy to beautifully illustrate the cyclical nature of beginnings and endings. At DePaul, students begin their journeys by stepping into a community committed to helping them find their purpose as they prepare for careers, engage in service, and learn to reflect and act. And at the end of their DePaul journey graduates step out into the world hopefully with a heart transformed and committed to continuing the Vincentian mission of service, kindness, and goodness as new adventures unfold.
Our tapestries of beginnings and endings are woven over and over again: graduations, new jobs, farewells, and first hellos mark the turning points of our journeys. But as we pause to celebrate or grieve these milestones, we often overlook the most transformative part of the journey—the in-between. It is in this space—in the middle of the journey at DePaul—that we create a beloved community, where we find opportunities to grow and serve, where we stand in solidarity with one another, where we are formed and transformed to live our lives with meaning and purpose. Our Vincentian values—service, community, human dignity, and commitment to the marginalized—form a foundation that every member of the DePaul community is invited and encouraged to embrace. At DePaul, it is in the sacred in-between that students, faculty, and staff are invited to allow themselves to be transformed by our Vincentian legacy.
Transformation may not be quick, and it rarely takes root at the beginning or end of the journey. Instead, it happens over time, and is the result of intentionally making changes, seeking knowledge, relying upon the wisdom of others, building relationships, and allowing for reflection. Living in the middle and allowing for transformation of heart and mind is life-giving, and it is complicated. Brené Brown, a Texan professor, researcher, and storyteller describes the in-between as “messy, but it’s also where the magic happens.” [2] At DePaul the messy middle is where we find ourselves changed, it is where we meet grace, and it becomes a space for learning about and deeply engaging with our Vincentian values. The middle is where we are often challenged by the messiness but also transformed to be our very best. Each act of kindness, each honest conversation, each difficult decision taken with integrity, is part of the sacred in-between that shapes who we are becoming.
As graduates have been shaped over the years and now end this chapter of their lives, our hope is that they boldly carry their Vincentian values forward as they embark upon new beginnings and enter new communities, careers, and vocations. Our hope is that they have been formed and transformed into people of purpose who are committed to changing the world.
Poet Mary Oliver asks, “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” [3] Our hope is that DePaul grads carry with them the very things they’ve encountered in the sacred in-between: a Vincentian heart shaped by service, community, reflection, and action—and live their one wild and precious life with intention, compassion, and purpose.
Congratulations to the Class of 2025! May you be deeply enriched as you embark upon beginnings, endings, and all the in-betweens to come!
Reflection Questions
1. As you’ve lived in the in-between at DePaul, how have you been transformed by our Vincentian legacy?
2. As you’ve served in the in-between at DePaul, how have you shared our Vincentian legacy and encouraged the transformation of others?
Reflection by: Rev. Diane Dardón, ELCA, D. Min., Director, Pastoral Care and Religious Diversity
[1] T. S. Eliot, “Little Gidding,” Four Quartets (Harcourt, Brace, 1943), 21.
[2] See Brené Brown, Rising Strong (Spiegel & Grau, 2015).
[3] Mary Oliver, “The Summer Day,” House of Light (Beacon Press, 1990). Available online at: https://www.loc.gov/programs/poetry-and-literature/poet-laureate/poet-laureate-projects/poetry-180/all-poems/item/poetry-180-133/the-summer-day/.
Updates, resources, and events highlighting the integration of DePaul’s Vincentian mission into the daily life and work of the university community.
Successful dialogue with “the other side” requires questioning our own thinking.
Make an appointment to give blood at the Ray Meyer Fitness and Recreation Center (Room 135):
All are welcome! Your participation helps strengthen our community of care.
Please RSVP HERE.
Written By: Miranda Lukatch, Editor, Vincentian Studies Institute
As political and social turmoil continues to beset the U.S., I keep asking questions. How did we get here? Where will we end up? And perhaps the most pressing question of all is a variation of the Vincentian question, What must be done? What can I do? How can I respond? At a virtual town hall a few months ago, my congressperson said that the most important thing to do now is to stay engaged—and he specifically recommended trying to talk to people who hold different views.
When he said that, I immediately recalled the last time I tried to engage a friend whose opinion seriously diverged from mine. It was in December 2021, when the first Covid boosters became available. My friend said he didn’t intend to get one. This friend and I had already had many conversations in 2020 that had not gone well. We differed on many issues, and it seemed to me that he was more and more inclined to believe in conspiracy theories. His positions on climate change and the origin of Covid particularly seemed to be anti-science, but he had gotten the first Covid vaccine. When he made this declaration, I was immediately prepared to try to convince him otherwise for his own good, especially since he had several health conditions that made him high risk. We started to debate vaccine safety. I began by talking about how vaccines are developed and what diseases they had already helped eradicate. And then I said, “These vaccines are safe—”
“They’re not!” he said.
Oh, no, here we go, I thought. “Yes, they are—”
“No, they aren’t! [His brother] ended up with a heart problem from the one he got. [His other brother] got the first shot and passed out. His girlfriend thought he was dead.”
The conversation ended shortly after that, with me offering sympathy for what his family had gone through but still saying he should talk with his doctor about getting a booster, and with him still refusing. Given what had been said in our conversations before, it perhaps wasn’t surprising that I thought my friend was anti-science. But the attitude that I approached him with was that I knew better than he did and that I was going to try to save him from himself and his woefully misguided viewpoint, which also endangered others. I assumed things about myself, and I assumed things about him, and my assumptions were that I had good reasons for thinking the way I did—and that he didn’t. I offered him sympathy, but I did not offer him empathy.
I thought about this again when I read Ilana Redstone’s The Certainty Trap: Why We Need to Question Ourselves More—and How We Can Judge Others Less. She writes, “The assumption that the other person is simply ignorant is easy. And it’s a way to avoid a disagreement. What’s more, dismissing someone’s opinion as being the result of not having enough or the right information gives me permission to move on, not really engaging with what they’re saying…. If I think my position is the one anyone would come to with the right information, I am free from having to interrogate or challenge my own thinking.” [1] In other words, we would do well to follow Vincent de Paul’s injunction to “practice humility and patience.” [2] Vincent based his entire community on this principle. He and his followers were well familiar with the idea of needing to fully listen to the people they encountered, both the people they were serving and the people who were their colleagues in service. It was the key to their success—but that doesn’t mean it was easy.
As heirs to Vincent here at DePaul, this principle calls us to approach disagreement with honesty and in good faith, in the sense that we must fully acknowledge both the content and feeling behind an opposing viewpoint. It is both arrogance and an error to dismiss a view we do not hold by attributing it to reasons that serve our own preconceived sense of what is true. We need to engage in dialogue with the assumption that the other person has actual reasons behind what they are saying, reasons that go beyond ignorance or hate. That is what I should have done with my friend. I thought he was ignorant, but he was actually speaking from real life experience. I worried that he was endangering himself and others, yet his motives were quite the opposite.
As I wrote before the 2024 presidential election, studies show that it’s not so much the American people who are polarized as it is their leaders. We hold similar values, but we disagree on how to put them into practice. Or we may choose officials we agree with on some issues without espousing all of their actions and rhetoric. It’s hard to believe that, given what we see in headlines and on television. It is so tempting, especially in these times, to demonize the other side, whoever the “other side” may be. But doing so is destructive. We have to keep talking to each other. Redstone says the way to do this is to articulate a value behind your position. For example, you could say, “I believe all people deserve to live in a safe environment, so I believe migration is a human right.” If you articulate the value (“all people deserve to live in a safe environment”), you avoid using some of the shorthand that gets charged, and you can help people to avoid misunderstanding the value behind your position. The same value in this example could lead to someone holding the opposite position, but if you both articulate the value, you can see where you have some common ground and work from there.
Committing to dialogue doesn’t mean abandoning our own core values. As Redstone writes, it means “learning to recognize when we think some aspect of a heated issue is simple or obvious, and that anyone who sees it differently is ignorant or evil…. Leaving certainty behind doesn’t require anyone to admit to being wrong (maybe you’re not wrong after all). It just means being a little less sure you’re right.” [3]
Reflection Questions
Reflection by: Miranda Lukatch, Editor, Vincentian Studies Institute
[1] Ilana Redstone, The Certainty Trap: Why We Need to Question Ourselves More—and How We Can Judge Others Less (Pitchstone Publishing, 2024), 79. I highly recommend this book, which has exercises in it to help you challenge your thinking.
[2] Letter 1537, “To A Coadjutor Brother, in the Genoa House,” August 16, 1652, CCD, 4:442. Available online at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/vincentian_ebooks/29/.
[3] Redstone, Certainty Trap, 225.
Updates, resources, and events highlighting the integration of DePaul’s Vincentian mission into the daily life and work of the university community.
126 Years of RespondingLaudato Si’ calls on us to concretely respond to the cries of the Earth and the poor.
Join the NMDP Registry – May 28
Join us on May 28 for an on-campus NMDP registry recruitment event in support of blood cancer patients like DePaul faculty member Doug Long. Stop by the Student Center Atrium between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. to learn how you might be the cure for patients with blood cancers and disorders. The NMDP (formerly Be The Match) registry connects donors with those in need of blood stem cell or marrow transplants—including members of the DePaul community. Anyone between 18–40 is eligible to join.
Donate Blood – June 5 or 6
Make an appointment to give blood at the Ray Meyer Fitness and Recreation Center (Room 135):
All are welcome! Your participation helps strengthen our community of care.
Please RSVP HERE.
Written By: Rubén Álvarez Silva, Director, Just DePaul, Division of Mission and Ministry
May 24th marked the 10 year anniversary of Pope Francis signing Laudato Si’, his seminal encyclical on climate change and our common home. This document served as a call-to-action to urgently and concretely respond to the cries of the Earth and the poor by addressing climate change and the social and environmental challenges which threaten all life on the planet. In Laudato Si’, Pope Francis emphasized the interconnectedness of all living things and the environment through the concept of a “sacramental universe,” suggesting that all parts of creation are linked and dependent on one another. Moreover, Pope Francis highlighted the importance of an “integral ecology,” inviting us to shift our perspective from seeing humanity as owners of nature, separate and above it, to being responsible stewards “…called to care for all that exists.”
Since DePaul’s founding in 1898, “[t]hrough education and research, the university addresses the great questions of our day, promoting peaceful, just, and equitable solutions to social and environmental challenges.” [1] Just last week, I had the privilege of attending the 17th Annual Service Speaks Conference where I heard how a DePaul education impacted Madeline “Maddy” Robertson, Director of Sustainability at Greystar, on her personal and professional journey. In her remarks, Maddy invited us to put on our “sustainability sunglasses” to see the infinite challenges and opportunities before us, as individuals and a community, to address climate change both on and off our campus. [2]
And indeed, every day across campus our community is addressing these challenges in exciting and creative ways. We’re developing our first institution-wide Climate Action Plan (CAP); to learn more and share your feedback you should visit sustainability.depaul.edu. There is also a burgeoning DePaul Food Recovery and Food Justice network combining efforts to reduce food waste and insecurity in our community. The Theatre School just celebrated its first Climate Action Festival. Chemistry faculty, staff, and students are diligently working to innovate “green chemistry” into teaching, research, and scholarship. Study abroad launched a Sustainability Advisory Committee this year to explore and expand sustainability into program design and host country experiences. The President’s Sustainability Committee (PSC) is gearing up to address zero-waste. This list goes on and, with your response to the cry of the Earth and the poor, we can create more possibilities towards realizing integral ecology in this sacramental universe.
As you respond to the Vincentian question “What must be done?”, put on your sustainability sunglasses and ask yourself:
The challenges of sustainability can feel overwhelming at times, so take heart in the words of St. Louise de Marillac and “[e]ncourage one another and may your mutual good example speak louder than any words can.” [3]
Reflection by: Rubén Álvarez Silva, Director, Just DePaul, Division of Mission and Ministry
[1] University Mission Statement, March 4, 2021, at: https://offices.depaul.edu/mission-ministry/about/Pages/mission.aspx.
[2] For an off campus example, see: Laudato Si’ Movement, 2025: A year of adventure, November 8, 2024, at: https://laudatosimovement.org/news/2025-a-year-of-adventure/.
[3] L.402, (To the Sisters of Angers), (September 1654), Spiritual Writings of Louise de Marillac, 450.
Updates, resources, and events highlighting the integration of DePaul’s Vincentian mission into the daily life and work of the university community.
Our Unwavering CommitmentThe more things change, the more they remain the same
Join us on May 28 for an on-campus NMDP registry recruitment event in support of blood cancer patients like DePaul faculty member Doug Long. Stop by the Student Center Atrium between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. to learn how you might be someone’s cure!
Join us for a special lunch prior to DePaul’s Baccalaureate Mass (which we hope you will also join us in attending).
Friday, June 13th, 2025
1:00-3:00pm
Lincoln Park Student Center 325
This gathering offers a meaningful opportunity for faculty and staff to come together in community before the university-wide celebration of Baccalaureate Mass.
Enjoy light refreshments, connect with colleagues, and reflect on the end of the academic year as we honor our graduates and the shared work that brought them to this moment.
Please RSVP HERE to let us know if you will be attending the lunch.
Faculty and staff are then invited to attend Baccalaureate Mass wearing academic regalia. Separate seating will be reserved at the front of the church and we ask that you be seated in the designated pews by 3:45 p.m. To RSVP to attend Mass, please go here.
If you have questions about the Baccalaureate Lunch, please contact Siobhan O’Donoghue, Faculty and Staff Engagement.