Welcome
to our Department of Campus Ministry blog!
Each week, one of our campus ministry team will offer up a reflection
for you to ponder. All are welcome to
reflect in your own way, to join us in response, and to experience the fruits
of your reflection with the Divine.
Over
the past month, my own life has been a tumble and jumble, maybe some of what
you are experiencing as you are returning to Saint Louis University, returning
to teach or work, gearing up for the busyness of the first semester. Having resigned from my previous position in
Milwaukee in June, I found myself packing, cleaning, saying goodbye to friends
and family, and finding myself within the midst of a great deal of stress. On July 7,
I packed up the car and the cats (Charlie and Bernard) and drove to St.
Louis with my brother David as my companion for that leg of the journey. Once the movers arrived on the 8th,
I tried to put some semblance of order into my life, knowing that I was
beginning work at SLU on the 10th.
As I
reflect on that time and on my last month in Campus Ministry at SLU, I find
that what has sustained me and helped give me some order is going back to a
quiet place of prayer. With all of the
stress in our lives sometimes we forget to pray; we forget to open our ears to
listen to God’s presence. But God is
always listening for us and God is always there to love us.
One of
my favorite places to spend time is the Jesuit Retreat House in Oshkosh,
Wisconsin. There, in the silence, I can
find time to just listen to what God is calling me to do and to be. Let me share one of my favorite pictures of
that retreat house.
What I
love about this picture is that it reminds me of the experiences I have had of
prayer there and it helps to ground me.
I’ve gone back to this picture many times over the last month. It helps me to remind myself to take that
time to listen and to embrace God’s love for me.
Do you
have a memory or an experience which can help ground you in your prayer? How do you listen to God? How do you remind yourself of God’s love for
you?
I
encourage you to take some time in the busyness of these first weeks of the
semester to sit in humility and silence so that you can hear God’s voice and
not yourself. Perhaps this prayer can
help guide you. Blessings on your
semester!
Sue
Chawszczewski
Director
of Campus Ministry
Teach me to listen, O God, to those
nearest me, my family, my friends, my co-workers.
Help me to be aware that no matter
what words I hear, the message is, “Accept the person I am. Listen to me.”
Teach me to listen, my caring God,
to those far from me– the whisper of the hopeless, the plea of the forgotten,
the cry of the anguished.
Teach me to listen, O God my
Mother, to myself. Help me to be less afraid to trust the voice inside — in the
deepest part of me.
Teach me to listen, Holy Spirit,
for your voice — in busyness and in boredom, in certainty and doubt, in noise
and in silence.
Teach me, Lord, to listen.
Amen.
John Veltri, S.J.
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