Crossing Spiritual Borders

bcicirel Seeds of Mission, Spirituality

by Elodie Shami

Rarely do we think of moving through space as moving through faith. When I came to the U.S. five years ago, I knew for sure that I was going to be moving across borders and across cultures. One thing that did not occur to me was that I was going to be moving across spiritual borders too.

I grew up in Kigali, Rwanda, the capital city, and I was raised Roman Catholic. I never imagined Catholicism as being something that significantly changed depending on where you were. Moving to a new country can be a bit of an adjustment to make, and we always go back to those things that we are familiar with in order to find solace. In my case, I looked forward to finding a church and a community where I could belong. I was 18 years old and living in the Chicago suburbs. When I finally found a church, I quickly realized that Catholicism, as practiced by the St. Peter community in Wheaton, IL, was not the same as it was in Rwanda. I was discouraged and a bit saddened by this new reality. Sunday mass in my new home seemed to be mostly comprised of older people, couples and young children. I did not quite find my place in that parish.

In Rwanda, at St. Andrew’s, church was not only a place of spiritual growth, but it was also a place of “hanging out” and socializing, especially for the youth. Most Catholic youths were involved in smaller groups where they shared their faith in deeper ways and lived it out through acts of social engagement. I was also part of one of those groups, the Focolare movement, and I was an active member. That is where I understood my faith, learned concrete ways of living out the gospel, and found a community to rely on and to live with. Apart from the demographics and the feel of the community, the experience of mass itself at St. Peter was vastly different from mass in Rwanda.

Today, I enjoy mass here in the U.S. and especially at St. Vincent’s with other DePaul students and the Vincentian community, but I also sometimes wish I were home, at St. Andrew’s. I deeply miss praying in my native tongue, I miss the rhythmic worship songs, I miss the sounds of drums and the tambourine, I miss seeing the old and the young, the rich and the poor dancing during the song of praise, and I miss the last song that was always dedicated to The Virgin.

My Catholic experience here in the U.S. has deeply enriched my spirituality. It was great to grow up in a community that instilled faith values in me from a young age, but I was also greatly blessed to leave my safe nest at the age of eighteen and experience my faith in another light. I truly feel that it was here, in the U.S., and in particular at DePaul University that I was really able to take my faith into my own two hands and consciously choose this as pillar of my life.

Elodie is a senior at DePaul majoring in Peace, Justice, and Conflict Studies and is a peer minister for Catholic Campus Ministry. Originally from Kigali, Rwanda, she has lived in the United States for over 5 years and speaks several languages, including French and Spanish.

Book of the Week: “Le XIXe, Grand Siecle des religieuses francaises,” by Gerard Cholvy

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Le XIXe, Grand siècle des religieuses françaises Gérard Cholvy

Présentation de l’éditeur: Dans la mémoire collective, le «l’invasion mystique». Pourtant, en 1790, le royaume ne compte que 55 500 religieuses. Il y en aura 135000 en 1900.

Cet essai cherche à decrier cet essor, une fois résumé le legs de l’Acien Régime. Si la Revolution a entendu supprimer »la religieuse«, le XIXe siècle, lui, va promouvoir «la sœur».

L’espace est libre pour un pléiade de fondatrices avec des Sophie Barat (Sacré-cœur de Jésus). Anne-Marie Javouhey (Saint-Joseph de Cluny), Thérèse Couderc et le Cénacle, Jeanne Jugan et les Petites Sœurs des Pauvres.

Sur le terreau des Pieuses filles, Béates et »sœurs des campagnes« prendront naissance quelque 400 fondations nouvelles. L’index énumère ici plus de 200 congrégations anciennes et nouvelles. Il était temps de mettre à la portée de tous ou ouvrage qui repertoire les differents visages de ces sœurs aux fonctions multiples et au service de tous, jusque dans les missions lointaines.

L’auteur: Gérard Cholvy est Professeur émérite d’histoire contemporaine Paul-Valéry (Montpellier-III) où il a enseigné de 1962 à 2002. Auteur de nombreux ouvrages distingués par des prix littéraires, il est un eminent specialist de l’histoire religieuse et culturelle en France.

Année: 2012

Editeur: Artège

EAN13: 9782360400799

Nombre de pages: 136

A Time to Die

bcicirel Seeds of Mission, Spirituality

A Time to Die by Rev. Diane Dardon, who is the Protestant Chaplain for DePaul University’s Office of Religious Diversity.

To everything there is a season…a time to be born and a time to die.   Ecclesiastes 3:1a & 2

Diane's Blog Photo

The ancient wisdom of Holy Scripture reminds us that life is a constant circle with beginnings and endings. For several weeks we have encountered the reality of endings—a time for dying—whenever we step outdoors and see the leaves turning color, dying on the vine and dropping beneath our feet. The bright blossoms of summer have curled in on themselves and have withered on their stalks, taking on drooping and lifeless form. The air is filled with a chill that reminds us that the seasons of warmth and growth are ending and as time ticks by, even our calendar year is closing in on us, coming soon to an end.

The season of dying also comes to us in the festivities of these days. Many around the world celebrate Halloween, a holiday with a name steeped in death. The early Christian community referred to October 31 as All Hallows’ Eve. Hallow is a word that describes the holy or sacred and All Hallows’ Eve became the day to remember the saints, martyrs and all those hallowed persons who died in the faith. While many forget—or never knew—the ritualistic and sacred roots of Halloween, today we see this holiday as a time to use humor and fun to ridicule and laugh in the face of death.

The season that is upon us calls us into the realities of death. And just saying that might make some squirm.

I often find people of all ages wary of speaking of and acknowledging death. It’s just not a topic with which we feel comfortable. I’ve had discussions over the past few years with DePaul’s nursing students about confronting the discomfort of death so that they can better walk with their patients and families as they face end-of-life situations. In our discussions one thing always comes up: “Death is scary because it’s so ambiguous.” Of course we get unnerved by the unknown and yet, what we do know about death is that we must all embrace it.

Brittany Maynard, a young woman who lives in Oregon learned several months ago that a brain tumor would cause her great suffering before she died. After surgery doctors told her that because of the growth of her tumor she had only months to live so Brittany, while not wanting her life to end, set November 1, 2014 as the day she would die.

She has been given medication and she is equipped to end her suffering on her set date. However, Brittany just released a video describing why the time is not yet right for her to die. She knows the time is coming soon but for now she still has quality life to live. She knows that when the time is right she wants to die in the love and care of her husband and mother. She knows that when the season of death comes fully to her she will die with dignity.

People all over the world seem to have an opinion about Brittany’s decision to die when she wants and how she wants. Activists who support Brittany in her decision are speaking out and offering words of encouragement while others are making a case for why Brittany should embrace her life, her pain, her future and not try to control it. Some argue on theological grounds–others argue on grounds of ethics–still others argue on the grounds of human rights. Regardless of what people are saying and regardless of the argument they claim, Brittany has drawn us into a conversation about death and dying.

Brittany began the conversation by talking to us about the precious gift of life and the inevitability of death. Brittany has been brutally honest with her family and friends and with the world. Her story and her insistence upon speaking up about her decisions to live and die are invitations to each of us to speak up about our own thoughts, concerns and attitudes about death. Too often we choose to ignore the things of life that are difficult to face, but Brittany is showing us that when we allow others to enter into our places of uncertainty and pain, the journey is easier.

In this season of the year when we experience death in the falling of the leaves, when we remember those whom we’ve loved who are no longer with us, when we laugh in the face of death’s ambiguity, we are being invited into an open conversation about death and dying. Brittany’s discourse with the world is encouraging us to openness and honesty as we become conversant with death. She is encouraging us to see death as part of life that we must all live into and she is welcoming us into her dialogue and date with death.

To everything there is a season—the season of death is upon us…and that’s a very helpful and healing conversation to be had.

Join DePaul’s Interfaith Scholars and the Office of Religious Diversity for the Quarterly Inter-Religious Celebration that will engage participants in conversation and activities around the practices and beliefs of death within various world religions.QIRC

 Join DePaul University Ministry and the Office of Mission and Values for the Interfaith Gathering of Remembrance: a time for students, faculty and staff to gather together to remember family and friends who are no longer with us. Remembrance

To RSVP and provide names of loved ones to be read during the gathering follow this link: https://depaul.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_cuUvU3sANFz2wLz&Preview=Survey&BrandID=depaul

And finally, here’s the link to Brittany Maynard’s video explaining her decision to post-pone her date with death: http://mashable.com/2014/10/30/brittany-maynard-cancer/

Newsnote: “Vincentiana Purchase of the week: 10/31/2014

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This week’s featured purchase for the Vincentiana Collection at Archives and Special Collections of DePaul University is another mid-19th century transferware plate commemorating the Daughters of Charity. This plate features the sisters’ battlefield nursing during the Crimean War in the famous Siege of Sebastapol in 1854-1855. The edges of the plate commemorate the national coats-of-arms for the combatant nations.

Rare Book Purchase “La Puissance de la Charite.”

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The Vincentian Research Library of the Archives and Special Collections Department at DePaul University has recently purchased the following rare title: “La Puissance de la Charite.” 1855. Rouen: Megard. The binding is beautifully done and there are many wonderful black and white engravings within the book as well. This work concentrates on the work of the Daughters of Charity in mid-19th century France.

Evoking Autumn

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tree in nj

October is my favorite month. You still have the joyful expectations of the new school year (and at DePaul the knowledge that your fall quarter is bookended by a 5 week break), yet you feel the changing of the season.  You look forward to slowing down, to burrowing in, to some time to lie fallow and just be.

I am no longer surrounded by the beautiful maple forest of my childhood home as the leaves change, so I need to look elsewhere to celebrate the season.  I’d love to hear what evokes an autumnal mood in you.  For me, Mary Oliver’s poetry helps usher in new seasons.  Feel free to share your favorite poems – or songs or paintings or books or photos – that distill the season for you .

Song for Autumn

In the deep fall
don’t you imagine the leaves think how
comfortable it will be to touch
the earth instead of the
nothingness of air and the endless
freshets of wind? And don’t you think
the trees themselves, especially those with mossy,
warm caves, begin to think

of the birds that will come — six, a dozen — to sleep
inside their bodies? And don’t you hear
the goldenrod whispering goodbye,
the everlasting being crowned with the first
tuffets of snow? The pond
vanishes, and the white field over which
the fox runs so quickly brings out
its blue shadows. And the wind pumps its
bellows. And at evening especially,
the piled firewood shifts a little,
longing to be on its way

by:  Mary Oliver, New and Selected Poems: Volume 2

Katie Brick is the Director of the Office of Religious Diversity at DePaul University

Newsnote: “Volume 14 (The Index Volume) of the English translation of Coste

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Members of the Vincentian Family and Vincentian scholars have welcomed the recent publication of the last volume (the index volume) of the English translation of Coste.  This volume brings an almost 40 year project to a close.  The index is exhaustive and will be a great help to quick and easy access to this resource.  The V.S.I. had received several inquiries about the availability of Vol. 14 on our digital repository “Via Sapientiae.”  Our agreement with the Vincentian Translation Project stipulates a two-year embargo on the digitization of volumes.  Therefore the digitized version of Volume 14 will not be available until September 2016.  In the meantime, purchase a hard copy.  It is well worth the price!  Congratulations again to Sr. Marie Poole and her collaborators on this new volume.