Lawful Assembly Podcast Episode 23: What the heck is a proposed rule? (and other questions)

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This is an interview with Rev. Craig B. Mousin, an Adjunct Faculty member of the DePaul University’s College of Law, Refugee and Forced Migrations Studies Program and the Grace School of Applied Diplomacy. The podcast responds to questions raised by our listeners about the importance of responding to proposed federal regulations.  In five of our previous podcasts we invited you to file responses to proposed regulations or federal rules impacting how our nation treats asylum seekers and refugees.  We have been asked why engage in submitting comments and what else can one do to expand hospitality within our nation?

If you are seeking additional immigration on asylum issues such as limiting asylum applications or restricting admissions based on public health considerations, visit the National Immigrant Justice Center’s resource page at:  https://immigrantjustice.org/issues/asylum-seekers-refugees

If you would like more information on the work of the DePaul College of Law Asylum and Immigration Law Clinic, visit:  https://law.depaul.edu/academics/experiential-learning/legal-clinics/asylum-immigration/Pages/default.aspx

If you would like more information on refugee resettlement programs, re-visit Podcast 10, “Rebuild Refugee Resettlement,” where you will also find information about Chicago-area refugee resettlement programs:

The Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago Refugee Resettlement Program

Ethiopian Community Association of Chicago

RefugeeOne

World Relief Chicagoland Refugee Resettlement

Heartland Human Care Services

We welcome your inquiries or suggestions for future podcasts.  If you would like to ask more questions about our podcasts or comment, email us at: mission.depaul@gmail.com

Busy Person’s Retreat Day 1: Take Time and Make Space

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To view or download a PDF copy, click here.

So, you signed up for a Busy Person’s Retreat this week. Something drew you to do so. What was it?

What did you assess was needed or desired in your life to sign up to receive these daily reflections for a week?

Congratulations on taking this step… whether toward self-care, toward reflection and mindfulness, toward deeper meaning and purpose, or toward whatever good and authentic yearning inspired you to do so.

As we begin this week of reflection, let me ask you one more question:  When you consider yourself a “busy person”…why is that so, and what does that describe or mean to you?

When I catch myself thinking or talking about how horribly busy I am, I find it helpful and informative to catch myself, to pause and to do a moment of self-assessment. Why am I feeling so busy? And, what does “busy” describe or mean to me in this moment? How much of this “busy-ness” is, at some level, by habit or choice and how much of it is necessity or imposed upon me?

By taking just a moment to pause and reflect in this way over the years, I have come to see that in our U.S. American culture at large, we tend to put a high value on being busy – or, at least, being seen as one who is busy. Being busy, or feeling rushed while moving from one thing to the next, or having so much to do that we can’t possibly slow down, are at times projected or proclaimed as evidence of our productivity in front of others, or as unspoken justifications of our own importance.

While this tendency certainly has been and remains part of my own erroneous way of thinking, a habit present to me from my early years, I can say fairly confidently that it is also clearly a tendency that we absorb from the broader cultural milieu in which we live. In other words, when I stop to pause and reflect for just a moment about why I am feeling so busy and what the word is describing or means to me in any given moment, I realize that I am at times simply wrapped up in a cultural norm that is assessing my worth in a way that is, quite frankly, just not healthy, meaningful, fair, nor accurate. Assessing our worth based on how busy we are is absurd – yet it is so commonplace.

In speaking of the Jewish/Christian practice of Sabbath as a day of rest each week, author Walter Brueggemann points out the way in which such rest can actually be seen and practiced as a fruitful form of resistance to the dominant culture: “Sabbath is a practical divestment so that neighborly engagement, rather than production and consumption, defines our lives.” [i](18)

At times, being or feeling busy may indeed allow us to see that we have put unrealistic expectations on ourselves, or that impossible expectations have indeed been put on us by others – whether in a job or in our home life – and we are  entangled in them. This insight has the potential to be liberating, if we are able to accept and name it for what it is, to ask for the help of others to alleviate some of the pressure, or to make other changes within our control to bring us back into a more healthy and realistic balance.

Very often, we may find that the fullness of our life and who we are may in fact be harmed or lessened to some degree by our being overly or constantly “busy.” Our “busy-ness” does not allow the time and space for new growth, for the flowering of seeds planted, for the fire within us to breath in the fresh air needed to fuel our authentic creativity and passion. It also doesn’t allow us room to reflect, an essential behavior or practice necessary to look objectively at our life experiences and to learn from them. Being overly busy doesn’t allow time and space for rest and relaxation, for friendships to be nurtured, or for us to be fully and truly present to the people in our lives and to the realities before us. When we are busy, we are rarely “mindful” and certainly not “soul-full.”

What is hurt by your taking a few minutes now and regularly in your life to pause, to breathe deeply, and to slow down just a bit? Answer:  Probably nothing and no one at all.

What is gained by doing so?  Answer:  The fullness of who you are. And, that is a very good thing for you, for others around you and for the world. Your wholeness is not only healthy for you, but is also a gift to others. Taking a few minutes each day – maybe several times a day – simply to pause, breathe and reflect will help you to be happier, more at peace, more creative and effective… and in the end, if you and others around you need to know… it will probably help you to be more productive as well!

One little life hack that I have found helpful is to catch myself when I use the word “busy” and – if it makes sense to do so – to describe my life situation instead as “full.” My life is very full has a different ring to it, a different meaning.  I like the idea of my cup overflowing with the life that I am receiving – not something I am doing or accomplishing, but something that I am choosing to fully embrace and engage in the best way I can.

May this week’s reflections allow you the space and nourishment you need to grow into a new and more fruitful fullness!

[i] Walter Brueggemann. Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now (2014). Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press. P. 18

Pausing and Acting

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I recall someone coming to me years ago and sharing the laments of their heart. They had spent long, excruciating months dealing with one tragedy after another. They were broken, devastated, and exhausted. And then, in the midst of their pain, I had the audacity to say, “I’ll pray for you … It’s the least I can do.” I heard myself say those words and was shocked! After all of that pain sharing, I wanted to offer my least? And what does it say about caring for others if prayer is the least we can offer?

That was one of the epiphanies I had as a young pastor that changed my entire attitude toward prayer. It is a great gift that moves one toward action.

The work of Saints Vincent and Louise, and Vincentians through the ages, has been grounded in prayer. Consider that, like Vincent, time and again Louise urged her own community to “pray to the divine … for one another that His mercy may pour out on us His blessings of grace and light.”[1]

This tradition of prayer continues at DePaul University today. The Division of Mission and Ministry constantly encourages prayer as well as reflection and meditation. These are all tools that encourage us to dig more deeply into our souls as we seek clarity, grounding, peace, and wholeness, especially in difficult times.

After months of our own difficulties and brokenness caused by a pandemic and life in general, we are reminded by our Vincentian community to pause and find moments of prayer or meditation. Today we are encouraged to offer our best to ourselves and others by entering into contemplative moments with the self or the divine, hopefully finding inspiration to move such holy conversations into a call for action. Perhaps the best we can offer is a moment of quiet and reflection in our own lives followed by a moment of service and caring for others who, like us, are devastated by many long and difficult months. As this year continues, with so many uncertainties unfolding, may we all be inspired to pause for prayer, reflection, or meditation and then move forward in acts of love and kindness toward one another.

Reflection by: Rev. Dr. Diane Dardón, Director, Office of Religious Diversity and Pastoral Care, Division of Mission and Ministry

[1] L. 217, “To My Very Dear Sister Anne Hardemont,” August 29 [1648], Spiritual Writings of Louise de Marillac, 261. Available at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/ldm/16/.

 

Interested in more faith-sharing and reflection? During Lent this year, the Division of Mission and Ministry will be facilitating weekly online faith-sharing groups for faculty and staff. Every week, we will provide a Vincentian reflection that focuses on a theme from that week’s Christian liturgical readings. We will then gather in community over Zoom to share, reflect, and discern together where our Lenten paths may be leading us with Vincent as our guide. Learn more and register here.

Happy Valentine’s Day, DePaul!

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Every February 14th, no matter where I am, my mind travels back to my childhood and the Saint Valentine’s Day celebrations we had in grade school. The ritual was always the same. At the end of the school day, on cue, my classmates and I would excitedly remove our workbooks from our desktops and replace them with simple homemade cardboard “mailboxes,” typically decorated with red paper hearts, little white lace doilies, or maybe an image of Cupid and his arrow. Then, we would all walk around the classroom, delivering a personalized valentine to each of our classmates, slipping them through the openings cut in the boxes. When this job was finished, we would return to our desks to munch on cookies and cupcakes, read the valentines, and chatter about their goofy phrases and innocent declarations.

Even though my mailbox was never quite as impressive as others were, and one year I suffered profound embarrassment when I forgot my entire batch of Valentines at home, I still have sweet memories of those days. The gestures of friendship … the intentional kindnesses … the sense of camaraderie. They helped nurture relationships and good cheer that served our little school community well.

Many years later, these childhood memories stir in me a surprisingly palpable connection to our Vincentian heritage, specifically to Vincent and Louise’s great love for the virtue of charity. Vincent said charity should animate the heart and be “the cement which binds Communities to God and persons to one another.”[1]

Vincent and Louise knew that communities with lofty aspirations like their own would only succeed if their members demonstrated the same feelings of respect and compassion to each other as they demonstrated to those they served. For Vincent and Louise, this was charity. As Vincent said, charity “demands that we strive to sow peace where it does not exist”[2] and “do to each individual the good that we would reasonably want [them] to do to us.”[3] Not unlike those long-ago Valentine’s Day celebrations, Vincentian charity calls on us to make simple “expressions of our affection” toward our community members, “offering cordially to be of service” or to do “something pleasing for one another.”[4]

If, as a modern Vincentian community, we can tap into this heritage of charity and its wellspring of compassion and respect toward one another, our mission will be well served. What might this look like during these times of COVID fatigue, leadership change, financial stress, and the other trials that confront our students, staff, and faculty every day? We are all invited to answer that question to the best of our abilities. I would begin by encouraging deep listening to each other with open hearts and minds. We should make demonstrations of sincere appreciation for the good being done during trying times. We should show willingness to challenge and be challenged, but with civility and in a spirt of friendship. Finally, we should be mindful of the dignity of all and the commitment we share to providing our students and the university community with the best, most heartfelt experience possible. This is what Vincentian charity might look like at DePaul today.

To be sure, life is more complicated on this Valentine’s Day than it was all those years ago when I celebrated with my classmates over cards and cookies. However, the call to charity—whatever this may look like—remains as clear and as vital as ever. With this in mind, Happy Valentine’s Day, DePaul! May we all give and receive charity on this and every other day.

Invitation for Reflection:

How do you define or understand charity, particularly in the spirit of Saints Vincent and Louise? What might be ways that you feel called to demonstrate this virtue here at DePaul or elsewhere?

Reflection by: Tom Judge, Assistant Director and Chaplain, Faculty and Staff Engagement, Division of Mission and Ministry

[1] Letter 651, “To Jean Guerin, Superior, in Annecy,” March 10, 1643, CCD 2:413. Available at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/vincentian_ebooks/27/.

[2] Letter 2054, “To Pierre de Beaumont, Superior, in Richelieu,” April 23, 1656, CCD 5:602. Available at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/vincentian_ebooks/30/.

[3] Conference 207, “Charity (Common Rules, Chap. II, Art. 12),” May 30, 1659, CCD 12:216. Available at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/vincentian_ebooks/36/.

[4] Ibid., 12:223. Available at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/vincentian_ebooks/36/.

 

 

We, The Fortunate Ones

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As we move from celebrating the Feast of Sr. Rosalie Rendu, D.C. (February 7th), we turn our attention to the life and example of Saint Josephine Bakhita, F.D.C.C. (February 8th), a Sudanese woman, freed slave, Canossian Daughter of Charity, patron saint of human trafficking survivors, and someone we might consider a member of our extended Vincentian Family.[1]

Born in 1869 to the Dagiu ́people of Darfur in western Sudan, she was raised among a family of cattle and sheep herders until she was kidnapped (several years after her older sister suffered the same fate) by trans-Saharan slave-traders who mockingly named her Bakhita (meaning “fortunate or lucky one”). Over the course of her adolescence and early adulthood, Bakhita was sold to several enslavers, who treated her with varying degrees of cruelty and kindness, until she finally found a community of support among the religious of Italy. They assisted her in securing emancipation and supported her journey of religious formation. Bakhita spent the remainder of her life living in community among the people of Schio, Italy, serving as a cook and a doorkeeper at the convent.

Few of us in the United States know firsthand the horrors and degradation of slavery; however, we know its terrible legacies of structural, systemic racism, dehumanizing poverty, and environmental degradation. Much like Bakhita, we can at times feel powerless in the face of such forces, which seem immense and beyond our individual control. Although Bakhita had limited control over the what of her life, we can look to her as an example of courage, fortitude, and hope in shaping the how of our lives; that is, the infinitely creative ways in which we can respond to the Vincentian question, “What must be done?”

As you move through today, consider how you can respond to the personal, institutional, and societal injustices that we encounter in our daily life, work, and study. How can you, like Saint Josephine Bakhita, respond to the call for social and environmental justice in your life?

We invite you to contribute your brief response by sharing a thought, a quote, an image, or a combination of these to our communal reflection at our Bakhita Mission Monday Jamboard as a sign and symbol of hope and solidarity within our community.

Reflection by: Rubén Álvarez Silva, M.Ed. (He, Him, His), Associate Director for Just DePaul, Division of Mission and Ministry

Photo credit: Marcin Mazur at https://www.flickr.com/photos/catholicism/46346193904. Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/.

[1] The following sources were used in writing this post: M. Shawn Copeland, “A Woman of Courage, Fortitude and Hope” in Holiness and the Feminine Spirit: The Art of Janet McKenzie, ed. Susan Perry (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2009) available at https://www.ncronline.org/books/2021/06/woman-courage-fortitude-and-hope; and “St. Josephine Bakhita,” Catholic Online (website), accessed February 3, 2022, https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=5601.

Increasing Your Impact

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There is great joy to be found in working as a community of people who are dedicated to serving others; it is both humbling and inspiring to see the depth of genuine care and commitment. With so much good being done, how do we ensure it is being done well? One answer is self-care.

When we are at our best, we maximize our impact. Selflessness—putting the needs of others ahead of our own needs—seems like a virtue. But isn’t it more laudable to increase our impact by taking care of ourselves so that we are able to serve others to the best of our ability?

Self-care is not selfish, it is essential; it is not a luxury, it is a necessity. As Vincent de Paul said, “We must be full reservoirs in order to let our water spill out without becoming empty, and we must possess the spirit with which we want them to be animated, for no one can give what he does not have [emphasis added].”[1]

We are served best by a balanced and individual approach to wellness, as self-care will vary for every person. Start with eating well and getting enough hydration, sleep, and movement in your day. Layer in fresh air, human connection, creative expression, communication, learning, and reflection.

Spend some time considering what you need to be your best self, and then commit to it. If it is difficult, post reminders that taking care of yourself means you can better serve others.

What will help you be better? Read a book. Write a letter. Walk among the trees. Meditate. Sing a song. Play a game. Get enough sleep. Eat more plants. Tell a joke. Share a personal goal with a friend. Dance to a favorite song. Drink enough water. Take a yoga class. Compliment others. Compliment yourself. Go for a swim. Donate your time or money. Hike a trail. Express gratitude. Listen deeply. Watch the clouds. Ask for help. Write a poem. Learn something. Call a friend. And, maybe, exercise at The Ray!

Reflection by: Maureen McGonagle, Director of Campus Recreation and the Ray Meyer Fitness Center, and a serving DePaul Mission Ambassador

[1] Letter 1623, “To a Seminary Director,” n.d., CCD, 4:570. Available at https://‌via.‌library.‌depaul.‌edu/‌vincentian‌‌_ebooks/29/.

 

Care for Yourself: DePaul Busy Person’s Online Retreat. Week of February 21st.

Life can be exceptionally busy and overwhelming, moving at an ever-accelerating pace, leaving you wondering if you can keep up or how you can remain grounded and at peace in the midst of the constant shifts and challenges coming at you. During the week of February 21st, the DePaul Busy Person’s Retreat will offer daily 15-minute reflections, inspired by our Vincentian tradition, exploring the richness of intentional time for pause, for meditation, and silence in the midst of the noise and busy-ness. We hope that you’ll find new meaning, tools, and inspiration to anchor your life and work, to deepen your understanding of yourself and your community, and to re-connect to what brings you peace.  REGISTER NOW.

 

What’s your DePaul origin story?

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Tomorrow, January 25, is Foundation Day! So … what is that? It’s a day Vincentians around the world celebrate one of the community’s key origin stories. Everyone has an origin story—not just comic book superheroes, or even saints. They are moments where the line between before and after becomes very clear. Foundational stories help frame and contextualize our lives and give us resources to understand and overcome whatever current challenges we face.

Take our own hero, Saint Vincent de Paul. Several well-known experiences formed who Vincent became—and the legacy that we still live out today. One was in a small village named Folleville in France. At the time, Vincent was a priest accompanying his incredibly wealthy benefactor Madame de Gondi on a tour of her lands (we are talking, “I have a family castle up the road” wealthy). Vincent, though of course concerned with the welfare of the poor, was not yet the driven saint that we know today. He saw joining the priesthood as the surest way of enjoying the finer things in life. His experiences at Folleville were about to change all that.

In January 1617, while staying at said family castle, Vincent received a message that a sick peasant desperately wanted to see him. When Vincent arrived, he discovered that the man was dying, and he proceeded to take his last confession. After a lengthy conversation—that seemed to be grounded in what we might call mutuality today—both men found joy in unburdening themselves to each other. This cathartic experience shook Vincent to his core, so much so that he brought “I have a castle” Madame de Gondi to the peasant’s small hut to talk with him. This transformed her as well, and a mission began that was centered on the question, “what must be done?” In retrospect, Vincent looked back on the sermon he gave about this experience on January 25, 1617, as the formation of the Congregation of the Mission—an institution through which we find our own origin and mission as a university.

Foundation Day is the story of when Saint Vincent really understood what his mission was and what questions he should be asking and answering. His formative experience with the peasant not only inspired internal reflections but drove him to action—and it has inspired the actions of many others over the past four centuries.

What is your DePaul origin story? When was the moment you really understood how you needed to live and what you needed to do … or what DePaul’s mission was all about? Which person or people helped you to really see how your work contributes to DePaul’s (or the Vincentian) mission? What experiences opened your eyes to “what must be done?” Whatever your answers, these are now a part of your foundational story.

Reflection by: Alex Perry, Program Manager for Faculty and Staff Engagement, Division of Mission and Ministry

 

Foundation Day Celebration

Tuesday, January 25, 11:00 – 1:30pm

LPC Student Center Atrium & Loop DePaul Center, 11th Floor

Join Mission & Ministry to celebrate the 405th anniversary of the founding of the Congregation of the Mission. Stop by for a snack and take a moment to reflect on how you carry out the Vincentian legacy at DePaul.

DePaul SOCK DRIVE

Monday, January 24th – Friday January 28th

Further celebrate Vincentian Foundation Day through action!  Join us as we partner with the Wool Gathering Project to collect socks for those who need them this winter to stay warm.  Just get a brand new pair of socks of any kind and drop them off at the bins at any of the following locations sometime this week:

11th Floor DePaul Center, Loop Campus, Near #11010

1st Floor Student Center, Near the CCM Office on the West End.

The Theatre School, Near 1st floor Elevators

Lawful Assembly Podcast Episode 22: Suffer the Little Children

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This is an interview with Rev. Craig B. Mousin, an Adjunct Faculty member of the DePaul University’s College of Law, Refugee and Forced Migrations Studies Program and the Grace School of Applied Diplomacy. The podcast requests that you send comments to the federal government before midnight eastern standard time on Tuesday, January 25 providing ideas to end the policies that have led to family separation and lengthy detention of asylum seekers.  The Biden administration has recognized the human tragedy caused by these policies and has requested your ideas to ensure the United States never engages in such policies and practices again.

ACTION STEP

You can use either of these links to send your ideas to the Task Force.

The National Immigrant Justice Center has provided the direct link to the request for comments:

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/12/10/2021-26691/identifying-recommendations-to-support-the-work-of-the-interagency-task-force-on-the-reunification

A coalition of groups has put together this link for Immigrant Justice at:

https://immigrationjustice.us/advocacy/take-action/ensure-family-separation-never-reimplemented/?utm_source=fbt&utm_medium=ptnr&utm_campaign=famsep#/112/

You can use any resources or background material you find persuasive, but please make sure your comments uniquely represent your views.  Do not simply copy and paste someone else’s comments unless you add why you find them persuasive.  You can add your personal experience or why you believe the United States should end family separation and detention of asylum seekers.

The quotes from the Biden administration regarding the human tragedy of family separation and the goals of the Task Force can be found in the Background information produced by the Department of Homeland Security at:  https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/12/10/2021-26691/identifying-recommendations-to-support-the-work-of-the-interagency-task-force-on-the-reunification

Paragraphs 181 and 182 of the U.N Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees (Geneva, January 1992) can be found at: https://www.unhcr.org/4d93528a9.pdf

The Supreme Court found that the Handbook provides “significant guidance” in INS v. Cardozo-Fonseca, 480 U.S. 420, 439, fn. 22 (1987).

The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights can be found at: https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/.  (Adopted December 10, 1948)

The Convention on the Rights of the Child can be found at:  https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx (Adopted November 20, 1989).

For a discussion of how United States asylum policies have fallen short of the protections of the CRC, see Craig B. Mousin, “Rights Disappear When US Policy Engages Children as Weapons of Deterrence,” (January 1, 2019), AMA Journal of Ethics, Vol. 21, Number 1: E58-66, Available on SSRN at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3317913

The National Immigrant Justice Center has several resources providing ideas that would end or minimize family separation.  You can find the letter it submitted to DHS at:  https://immigrantjustice.org/sites/default/files/uploaded-files/no-content-type/2022-01/Family-separation-policies-NIJC-comment-2022-01-19.pdf

This NIJC blog provides short summaries of issues of concern:  https://immigrantjustice.org/staff/blog/biden-administration-routinely-separates-immigrant-families.

NIJC also prepared this short video on family separation:  https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:ugcPost:6889620108780584960/

The Detention Watch Network provides several resources to more fully understand the extent of immigration detention as the United States has established over 200 locations throughout the nation.  See, for example, “Immigration Detention 101,” at: https://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/issues/detention-101

or “Communities Not Cages,  A Just Transition from Immigration Detention Economies, (2021) at: https://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/sites/default/files/reports/Communities%20Not%20Cages-A%20Just%20Transition%20from%20Immigration%20Detention%20Economies_DWN%202021.pdf

Need more information?  Church World Service’s Immigration and Refugee Advocacy Program invites you to a Families Belong Together program on Monday, January 24 at 7 p.m. (EST).  You may register for more information at:  RSVP here.  Speakers will share their expertise about the latest updates in immigration policy and the ongoing horrors of family separation.

Thank you for joining this effort to meet the Task Force’s goal “to ensure that the Federal Government will not repeat the policies and practices leading to the separation of families at the border.”   Please share this podcast’s request with others to lend their voice to ending these tragic policies and practices.

Lawful Assembly Podcast – Episode 21: Pondering Anew

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This is an interview with Rev. Craig B. Mousin, an Adjunct Faculty member of the DePaul University’s College of Law, Refugee and Forced Migrations Studies Program and the Grace School of Applied Diplomacy.  The podcast opens the new year with a request to consider how our biblical and national founding narratives offer us an opportunity to reconsider how we as individuals and a nation should respond to asylum seekers fleeing danger in their homelands.

The biblical narrative stories can be found in Matthew 1-2 and Luke 2:1-19.

The TRAC data base from Syracuse University provided the information on the 22,068 individuals in detention.  See: https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/detentionstats/pop_agen_table.html

The American Immigration Council’s report on individuals in detention and the number of unaccompanied minors in detention can be found at: “Rising Border Encounters in 2021: An Overview and Analysis” See: https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/rising-border-encounters-in-2021

The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights provided the number of over 70,000 individuals trapped in Mexico under the MPP, the stories of the children cited in the podcast, as well as additional stories of children trapped in dangerous situations under these policies.  See:  https://www.theyoungcenter.org/mpp-harms-children

The National Immigrant Justice Center documents that thousands more have been denied the opportunity to apply for asylum by the continued implementation of the Title 42 program and expansion of the MPP program. “NIJC Condemns The Biden Administration for Reinstating The Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP).  See: https://immigrantjustice.org/press-releases/nijc-condemns-biden-administration-reinstating-migrant-protection-protocols-mpp (October 15, 2021).

Marilynne Robinson, in her essay in “Old Souls, New World,” discusses the democratic principles fostered by many of the Puritans coming to New England in What Are We Doing Here? Essays, (NY, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2018), 274, 291-92.

The Walter Brueggemann quote can be found in his book, The Land: Place as Gift, Promise and Challenge in Biblical Faith (Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 2002), 10, as cited in Craig B. Mousin, “Constantine’s Legacy: Preserving Empire While Undermining International Law,” 389: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3960335

Rev. Ted Conklin’s full poem, “Displaced Person” was cited in an Advent meditation by the Rev. Thomas N. Mousin, “Keeping Advent, Saturday, December 11, 2021” at:  https://thomasmousin.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Keeping-Advent-December-11-2021.pdf

The full poem of Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman’s, “The Work of Christmas Begins” can be found at:  https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/now-the-work-of-christmas-begins/

ACTION STEP

Ponder anew how we can offer hospitality to those seeking safety in this new year and then follow Rev. Drs. King and Thurman: go forth to “find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner.”  We will be providing additional information on other action steps in subsequent podcasts.

An Invitation to Prayer

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As the Division of Mission and Ministry (DMM) seeks to support all members of the DePaul community in their spiritual well-being, the division is preparing to offer monthly prayers for the community. The DMM Pastoral Care Team recognizes that as we continue to live in times of uncertainty and constant transition in the face of the pandemic, the prayer and spiritual needs of our community might look different now than they have in the past and they certainly are different for each person.

Living into DePaul’s commitment to personalism, DMM has developed a brief survey that we encourage students, faculty, and staff to complete. With your input, the DMM Pastoral Care Team will strive to develop regular and meaningful prayer moments for our community.

Please take a few moments to take the 2-minute survey so that DMM might better understand what types of prayer experiences would be life-giving and accessible during these times. If you would like to be entered for a drawing to receive a gift card upon completing the survey, please include your name and email address. We deeply appreciate your time and look forward to sharing prayerful moments with the entire community.