Department is a mid-to-late 19th century bronze reliquary with an inset containing a painted portrait of Saint Vincent de Paul.
the good, the bad and the ugly
We asked some seniors to reflect upon their time at DePaul University. Here is a glimpse of wisdom from Marco that will guide him into the future and that we hope will speak to you too. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section at the bottom of this post.
Like most, if not all, seniors I have been asked countless times what my future looks like and how I’m getting there. A few times, however, I’ve been asked what I am taking with me no matter what the future holds.
Lately I have been able to look back at a lot of memories both on and off campus that have made me who I am today, and the biggest piece of wisdom I have gathered is to live one day at a time, taking in the responsibilities and blessings of the day.
No two days have been the same. What made those days special and will continue to make them special are the people that I encountered. The people that surround you will make you who you are. They are the good, the bad and the ugly that will challenge you and will also support you.
I would say take time out of your day to just be human with others.
I came to DePaul University believing that I would learn to be a busy bee ready to go to work with a focused mindset on the tasks at hand. As I am leaving DePaul, I have learned to take time for people. Work will get done, but people will come and go. Enjoy them while you have them.
The biggest piece of wisdom I’ve gotten from someone else is a Salvadorian saying, “Whoever truly listens to advice will live to old age.” That is the best advice because it makes me listen to more advice! People give good advice so that others may live their lives a little bit easier.
Listen to the world around you because it will teach you what you need to know.
I hope to live the rest of my life by that.
Marco Garcia graduated from DePaul’s Driehaus College of Business this past Saturday.
Newsnote: DePaul University “Voices of Charity Oral History Project.”
DePaul University’s VOICES OF CHARITY ORAL HISTORY PROJECT is now live online.
The Voices of Charity Oral History Project was initiated in honor of the Centennials of Marillac Social Center (in 2014) and the St. Vincent de Paul Center (in 2015) both located in Chicago. In order to document the histories of the two Centers, narrators were selected based on their having worked at one of the Centers for at least ten years or more. In all, twenty-one narrators were interviewed between October 2012 and October 2013. Interviews addressed workers’ experiences dating as far back as the 1960s. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and checked against the audio for omissions/errors; minor edits were made to ensure clarity.
The oral history project was generously funded by the Irene and Bill Beck Faculty Fellowship, sponsored by the Beck Research Initiative for Women, Gender, and Community and the Irwin W. Steans Center for Community-based Service Learning and Community Service Studies. The website design was generously funded by the Vincentian Endowment Fund of DePaul University.
The project could not have been completed without the diligent work of students from HST 396: ORAL HISTORY PROJECT in Autumn 2012, and most notably it could not have been completed without Eleanor Bossu, who served as the Lead Interviewer for the project. All are recognized on the credits section of the website. The faculty lead on this project was Amy Tyson, an associate professor in DePaul University’s History Department.
It’s NOT about what you do – it’s who you’re with!
Dear DePaul Graduates,
As we bid you farewell and you make decisions about where you will go next in terms of your life and career, I want to encourage you to choose wisely your response to one very important question: Who are your travelling with on your journey?
As you think about what kind of job you will take, where you will live, what graduate school you will attend, or whatever other decisions await you as you look forward, this question may be among the most important in determining the person you grow to become. It should not be overlooked nor taken lightly.
We all Need a Little Help.
If you are to live an authentic human journey into freedom and into the realization of who you are over the long haul, you need others who will help you. You need friendships. You need mentors and guides. You need those older and wiser and more experienced, and you need those younger and full of energy, hope and idealism. You need to know and learn from those who are different from you and who help you to move beyond the limitations of your personal knowledge and experience. You need others to hold you accountable to your values and ideals when the going gets rough, whether by their mere presence, by their examples, by their encouragement, or occasionally even by their loving confrontation. With all humility and honesty, we simply cannot live full lives of commitment nor find true happiness entirely on our own. We need good traveling companions.
“NSA” Only Goes so Far.
Our society has changed significantly over the last decade or more in relation to how people associate – or increasingly don’t associate – with family, neighbors, employers, voluntary civic organizations, and churches. Generally speaking, in the United States we have become a human community that is much less likely to commit and grow roots in social institutions of any kind. When we do, we often seek to do so “no strings attached.” However, the proud notion of an individual “self” unrestrained by the influence of others and unaffected by webs of social commitments is an illusion. Seeking to be “free” from social bonds and commitments, we risk sacrificing what is most essential to who we are: our relationships and our own true happiness. We are undeniably social beings and our lives are shaped and enhanced in profound ways by the people around us.
Grow Your Own Communities—and Belong to Them.
Graduates, in today’s world of rapid change, choosing and actively building your community are more important and more challenging than ever before. Living in community with others requires intentionality and conscious action; it will not happen on its own. However, your efforts to grow and sustain your community of friends, family, co-workers, mentors, and associates will pay rich rewards for your overall well-being and quality of life. Those who surround and walk with you will be the ones to support you, challenge you, laugh and cry with you, teach you to love, help you to sustain your growth as a person, and lead you to persist with courage and integrity on your journey. Ultimately, it is with these people that you will find joy and fulfillment.
A Real Life Example.
Let me share an example of this ideal becoming a reality. When people are buying a first home, they often scatter from their friends. People have different budgets, thoughts around schools, and checklists for communities. But 16 years ago, our best friends and my wife and I intentionally bought houses near each other. Within a few years, we were able to encourage two other couples to find houses in our neighborhood. Now, our kids have been growing up together all of these years, we share childcare duties and a lawnmower, and support each others’ parenting ups and downs, while enjoying great summer BBQs, evening beverages, and conversation with our best friends in the world. Our family and another even chose to become foster parents in large part because we knew we would be supported by our community, which now has extended beyond four families, though those remain a nucleus for us. I cannot tell you the difference this has made in my life.
In conclusion…
So if you work hard at anything in the days and years ahead, wherever you are, let it be to choose and establish a human community of trusted companions that will walk with you on your journey, with whom you can joyfully belong and thrive, and that will foster the best of who you are and want to become.
Mark Laboe
June 10, 2014
Photo from http://thirdculturedkid.blogspot.com/
Watch Your Bacc!
Need a little more pomp and circumstance in your life? Want a chance to march around campus in your cap and gown taking all the family photos you want without worrying about dire post-commencement rental-return warnings?
Join us at Baccalaureate Mass!
I’m writing to let you know that ALL graduating students regardless of religious affiliation are invited – welcomed, encouraged, urged – to participate in DePaul’s Baccalaureate Mass!
Don’t be afraid – I’ll walk you through it now and hope to see you this Friday afternoon, June 13th, as DePaul’s Baccalaureate is held at St. Vincent de Paul Church the Friday of Commencement Weekend.
First of all, “Baccalaureate:” Five syllables. Sounds like some sort of award, or a card game played in a Monte Carlo casino. One meaning, derived from Latin is “undergraduate degree.” Another definition is “a religious service held at an educational institution before commencement.” Bingo. As a faith-based institution DePaul wants to celebrate and pray with/for graduating students.
Secondly, Baccalaureate Mass is indeed a mass, but not an ordinary Sunday one. It begins with an academic procession led by the DePaul banner and banners representing each of the colleges that make up the university. Faculty and students in their academic regalia file into St. Vincent’s as guests of honor (your parents will love it). Following this academic procession is the liturgical procession – there’s incense, cross, candles, and those assisting in celebrating the Mass all process to celebratory music led by a 22-member orchestra and 24-voice choir.
If you’ve never been to a Catholic mass and are graduating from “The largest Catholic university in North America,” it’s a good time to check one out before you depart. If you are a regular Sunday attendee you’ll find a lot to like. Fr. Holtschneider, our president, will be the presider. Muslim, Jewish, and Protestant staff of University Ministry will be up front as well, along with Vincentian priests in addition to Fr. Holtschneider.
Thirdly, all graduates are encouraged to wear your cap and gown (and any other academic regalia you have been given or awarded). Somehow people often fail to get this message – so feel free to share it. Students line up in the Student Center Atrium between 3:00 and 3:30pm for the academic procession to the church at 3:45pm. Families and guests are encouraged to arrive at St. Vincent’s as early as 3:00pm, as seating is limited.
You can give me a shout to answer any questions you may have about the Baccalaureate Mass. Hope to see you there!
Matt Merkt is Chaplain for Liturgy with DePaul’s Catholic Campus Ministry
Photo courtesy of Jeff Carrion/DePaul University
Newsnote: “Vincentiana purchase of the week: 6/5/2014”
This week’s featured purchase for the Vincentiana collection at the Special Collections and Archives Department of DePaul University’s Richardson Library features a mid-10th century French holy card featuring a Daughter of Charity serving the poor as an icon of charity. This is from a series of these holy cards that reflect the public and ecclesial perception of the Daughters of Charity as the personification of Christian and human charity. This holy card features a Daughter making a home visit to a garret apartment where the mother of the family is ill in bed. The sister prepares her medicine as she also cares for the woman’s children. The legend of the card reads: “The sister of St. Vincent de Paul: a missionary of charity.”
Faith and Deconstructing the Exclusivity of Truth
Enass Zayed gives her take on the concept of faith and truth in a world of varied ideologies and experiences.
Over the course of this last year I have been asked to reflect on my religious ideologies quite a bit. There have been questions that I have had welling up from my own traditions that I have had to find answers to and there have been aspects of other traditions that I have felt were so profound that I have tried to incorporate them into my own belief structure. One of the biggest things that I have had to work my mind around is the concept of faith and how it exists within the concept of exclusive truth. There are many people who hold the belief that their traditions are the only proper way to behave. This phenomenon is prevalent in all aspects of life; religious or secular. My biggest challenge has been trying to remove myself from the ranks of the exclusive.
On our very first meeting, Mat Charnay asked me to define faith. While the clear and obvious answer is full trust in something outside of your self, I felt as though that was not enough to encapsulate the idea. Faith is taking the leap and hoping something catches you. In my mind, the strongest faith comes from knowing that there is a possibility that things are not quite as you imagine them, but committing to your ideas anyway. Faith is built by making informed decisions and seeking knowledge in all its forms so that any ideas that are created are likely to stand the barrage of obstacles that life throws at us. I am a firm believer in the idea of individual truth as opposed to a general and exclusive truth. Not everyone’s idea of religion are going to be able to satisfy the needs of the rest of the world and that is okay. In fact, that is the most beautiful things about faith in general. When properly executed, faith allows many people to have beautiful, complicated, and extensive ideas about every part of their lives: ideas that are relevant to their relationship with their world and their religion.
While most of this idea is pretty elementary to most, the part that I believe is left out is the idea that we might be wrong. I know that there is slight possibility that everything I hold true could be proven wrong tomorrow, but this understanding is what keeps my concept of faith growing. My personal approach to religious belief is that (most) everything is fluid. Ever since I was a child, I have done my own research into the religious systems that have surrounded me. I was never content to let someone give me traditions without understanding why there were valid or relevant. I was never content in settling on one answer because that would have meant that my research into faith would have stopped. Once I reach a comfortable conclusion, there is no point in continuing my search for a self relevant truth. My faith is built on the idea that I have to build knowledge to minimize the possibility that I am wrong about everything.
So, is the exclusivity of truth even relevant in the discussion of faith? In my opinion it is. From personal experience I have found that many people are unwilling to question their concept of truth as it would apply to another person. There is also little thought put into the idea that we do not always have the answers to everything. The idea of an exclusive truth lends itself to the idea that one religion is more valid than any others. This concept is problematic because so many religions teach that religion is a shared experience even if we do not all carry out our beliefs in the same manner and traditions. While my understanding of truth may be valid today, it is valid only in my experiences and only until something to the contrary comes into my world view. Until then, I feel as though I owe it to my faith and my religious belief to continuously research and build a stronger foundation from which I can take my leap of faith.
Newsnote: “Purchase of the Week: The Vincentiana Collection at DePaul University 5/30/2014”
This week’s featured purchase for the Vincentiana Collections at the Archives and Special Collections Department of DePaul University’s Richardson Library features an early 20th century Dutch Painting of St. Vincent and a poor man.
5 Spiritual Songs for Summer
So – no snow accumulation this week. I am officially allowed to wear white shoes (though I rarely choose to do so). And I took my kids to the beach over the weekend and they got tan instead of chapped. I think summer is actually coming and that makes me think of music.
Here’s my play list for spiritual summer songs. Let me know what some of your recs are.
1) “Saturday In The Park” by Chicago (Chicago V) – A cheesy song, but I LOVE the city of Chicago’s parks and street fairs. Spirits can shine during a Chicago summer, especially when it has seemed so far out of reach. “I’ve been waiting such a long time…”
2) “Upside Down” by Jack Johnson (Curious George Soundtrack) – Curious George’s joy of exploring everything. Johsons’s beachy-surfy-sitting-round-a-campfire-with-friends mellow vibe. Simple joy. “Who’s to say what’s impossible….I’ll share this love I find with everyone.”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqUdI4AIDF0&w=420&h=315]
3) “I Don’t Care” by Icona Pop (This Is… Icona Pop) – Summer just makes me want to just chuck things, and so does this song. Pretend the dysfunctional relationship sung about is something from which you need to be spiritually liberated – could be people pleasing, a bad habit, denying yourself sleep or fun with others. You choose. (Listener discretion advised for some salty lyrics) “I got this feeling on a summer day…”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxxajLWwzqY&w=560&h=315]
4) “Happy” by Pharrell Williams (Despicable Me 2 Soundtrack) – OK OK. Overdone? But PERFECT for summer and I dare you not to have your spirits lifted with this one! Suitable for car, home, beach and dance floor. “Clap along if you feel like that’s what you wanna do”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM&w=560&h=315]
5) “Summer’s Evening” by Gillian Welsh (Going Driftless: An Artist’s Tribute to Greg Brown) – Midwestern songwriter Brown reminds us of life’s simple, earthy pleasures like lightning bugs, family, and the magic of a summer night when your cares drift away and anything is possible. Includes some yodelingesque stylings by Welch! “And you get the feeling things’ll be alright, on a summer evening before the dark of night.”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWsh-SLfbts&w=420&h=315]
Katie Brick is Director of the Office of f Religious Diversity with DePaul University Ministry. Leave your ideas for summer songs in the Reply box below.
Faith, Falling Down, and Vampires
Interfaith Scholar Thano Prokos gives his insight on music, faith, and spirit.
We recently opened our Scholar meeting by answering the question “What fills your spirit?” Being the indecisive and long-winded person that I am, I decided to present my fellow scholars with my own litany of spirit fillers which in includes (but is not limited to) church, writing, English Renaissance literature, going on walks, singing in large groups, drawing pictures of pink fluffy unicorns, and listening to music.
Given that June will soon spring upon us, like a Greek grandmother on a cup of communion, I’m about to fill my mouth, ears, and spirit with song because it’s…. wait for it… THE SUMMER CONCERT SEASON! And this year, I’ll be starting off my annual concert binge with Vampire Weekend in early June, followed by Jack White in July, and concluding with Chicago’s Riot Fest (with some other names in between).
But Thano, how can you—a practicing Orthodox Christian—submit yourself to the Devil’s melodies on one day and go to church in good conscience the next day? Well old crotchety 1950’s man, let me tell you a little somethin’-somethin.’
It’s definitely challenging to be Orthodox and a lover of modern music. I’ll be blunt: there’s a lot of stuff out there that I consider garbage—garbage I sometimes listen to—but garbage nonetheless. There’s art that’s uncreative, there’s art that doesn’t challenge you, there’s, there’s art that’s totally shallow, there’s art that purely seeks to antagonize certain audiences, and I really feel that a lot of that stuff doesn’t really do anything good for listeners.
But at the same time, there are songs that are critical of certain religious beliefs that I really appreciate. Take, for example, a couple of my favorite tracks from the latest Vampire Weekend album: “Unbelievers and “Ya Hey.” Both of these songs depict their speaker’s inability to connect to the divine and the Judeo-Christian concept of God.
The chorus in “Unbelievers” goes like this:
“I’m not excited [about God], but should I be?
Is this the fate that half of the world has planned for me?
I know I love you,
and you love the sea,
but what holy water contains a little drop, little drop for me?”
It refers to the lack of nourishment that the speaker receives from the religious culture that surrounds him.
“Ya Hey” uses a few biblical allusions to describe an inability to connect with God, while background vocals continuously repeat the song’s title (a pun on Yeweh):
“Through the fire and through the flames
You won’t even say your name,
only “I am that I am.
But who could ever live that way?”
So, both of these songs depict a struggle with spirituality, and though I’m probably on the other side of this struggle than the band’s songwriter Ezra Koenig, I can definitely relate to the difficulties of experiencing faith that Ezra Koenig sings about. Do I ever feel like religion isn’t doing anything for me? Do I ever feel like God is distant? Of course I do! Going to shows like these is one of my favorite examples of inter-faith in action: People who believe different things, but still use music to confront similar struggles of belief.
So let’s get back to spirit-filling. How does acknowledging my struggles—and thereby confronting my own moments of spiritual emptiness—fill my spirit? Is it filled from watching some of my favorite musicians dancing and enjoying themselves on stage? Is it filled from the sound of a stadium full of people singing along to my favorite song? Is it filled by the misty sensation of a cup of Miller Light raining down over my head as it flies further up towards the stage? Not quite to any of these, but I actually do enjoy getting the occasional beer shower.
When I confront really challenging songs or poetry, the filling of my spirit comes from knowing that if I do “fall down” from maintaining my relationship with God, I have the opportunity to “get back up” and continue dealing with my struggles. Here’s a better articulation of that comforting thought from the Orthodox theologian Jim Forrest’s book Confession: Doorway to Forgiveness:
The story is called “A Fallen Monk Seeks Advice From St. Sisoes the Great”
A young monk said to Abba Sisoes: “Abba, what should I do? I fell.” The elder answered: “Get up!” The monk said: “I got up and I fell again!” The elder replied: “Get up again!” But the young monk asked: “For how long should I get up when I fall?” “Until your death,” answered Abba Sisoes. “For a man heads to his judgment either fallen or getting back up again.”
And who knows, maybe one day there will be a Vampire Weekend song about that.