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Michael Bland promoted to Adjunct Associate Professor

Long-time Adjunct Faculty member Michel Bland has recently been promoted to Adjunct Associate Professor.

Dr. Bland is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and works as an educator, therapist, a consultant, and a psychometrician. Dr. Bland has a wide-range of experience in providing direct clinical services to adolescents and adults with post-traumatic stress, depression, anxiety, as well as individuals dealing with identity issues, life changes, including vocational, employment, relational issues, grief/loss, and geriatric issues in various clinical settings. Dr. Bland also has provided outreach to victims of sexual abuse including providing individual counseling and group therapy for victims and their families.

We recently asked Professor Bland to share with the IPS community.

How long have you been affiliated with IPS? In what capacity? I am completing the end of my tenth year.

Are you currently involved in other formal pursuits, other than IPS? I have a private practice on the north side of Chicago.

What classes are you currently teaching this semester? This semester I am teaching: IPS 512: Ethics for Pastoral Counseling and Spiritual Direction, IPS 520: Testing, Measurement & Assessment, and in the fall, I will be teaching IPS 509: Psychopathology.

What continues to draw you to IPS? After being invited as a guest speaker a few times, I quickly found the spirit and mission of IPS to be very attractive, and in the Spring of 2009, I was asked to teach Psychopathology. I remain because of that same spirit, ministry, and passion. I enjoy the community and the diversity of the student population.

Can you share a personal spiritual practice that continues to restore and re-energize your mind, body, heart and spirit? I find it important for me to take quiet time for myself to be able to find my foundation and center. I also enjoy having Labrador Retrievers as they remind me to relax, enjoy and walk! Walking them a few miles a day forces me to enjoy the outdoors as well as my time with them!

We congratulate Professor Bland on his recent promotion and hope that he continues to be part of the formation of IPS students.

You can reach Professor Michael Bland at mbland1@luc.edu.

To learn more about IPS, go to https://www.luc.edu/ips/.
For those interested in applying to IPS, go to https://gpem.luc.edu/apply/.

4-11-2019 | Comments Off

IPS Enrollment Advisor Mariclare Kanaley settles in

Mariclare Kanaley began her new role as IPS Enrollment Advisor this past January.

Earlier this semester, IPS Associate Dean Peter Jones introduced Mariclare, writing “Mariclare comes to IPS with a range of experiences that will no doubt enable her to succeed in this role. A graduate of Marquette with a degree in education and an appreciation for the Jesuit mission, she is also bilingual, having lived and studied in Spain for two years. Mariclare was most recently a teacher at St Matthias School here in Chicago (teaching Spanish and also religion courses).”

We recently sat down with Mariclare to learn more about our new enrollment advisor.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? (Grew up where, family, etc.) I grew up in Glenview, IL, a bit north of Chicago, with my parents, older brother, two younger sisters, and our dog. We all attended elementary school, high school, and college together (yes, all four of us, by choice!) and afterward went our separate ways. My parents still live in Glenview and after a few years of all working and living in different states and countries, we are all back in Chicago within a few miles of one another. My family is the most important part of my life!

What is your current role at IPS? I am the Enrollment Advisor for IPS. I work with prospective students and applicants of our programs as they determine which areas match their interests, how they are going to finance their education, and I try my best to be as supportive as possible as these candidates take a very important step in their personal and educational journey. I offer personalized conversation by e-mail, and encourage students to sign up for a one-on-one appointment with me to take the time to walk through all of their questions. That’s my favorite part of my role! I love getting to know the people interested in IPS programming and helping find solutions to questions, problems, or worries with the help of the IPS and GPEM staff. A one-on-one meeting can take place over the phone, over an online face-to-face program called Zoom, or in my office here at Chicago’s Water Tower Campus. Interested students can sign up for a meeting on the Enrollment Advisor Appointment Page!

What were you involved in prior to working at IPS? Before joining IPS in January, I had been a classroom teacher for 8 years. I taught middle school in Milwaukee, Spain, and Chicago – they continue to be some of the best years and most inspiring moments of my life. I have a passion for educating, caring, and understanding, and am a big supporter of teachers, adolescents, and parents everywhere. Outside of the classroom I taught yoga – I specialized in hot power yoga and yin restorative yoga; while I don’t currently teach, I still practice as often as I can!

How did you discern IPS to be a next step? I mentioned earlier that my siblings and I all attended the same schools, and both our high school and our university were Jesuit. I saw what an impact Jesuit education had on our character formation, and wanted to stay connected. Loyola University had always been a dream for me, and I felt that my background and skill set as a teacher would be helpful in the role as the Enrollment Advisor at IPS. I feel truly blessed to be here and continue to learn and grow surrounded by the teams and communities in which I work.

Are you currently involved in other formal pursuits, other than IPS? I am pursuing my MA in Community Counseling, another goal of mine.

What are some of your favorite Chicago-related pursuits? I love to walk around the city and enjoy the life and architecture, but not during winter! Chicago has a wealth of wonderful restaurants that I like to try, and discovering new places with culture and history is one of my favorite parts of this city.

Finally, can you share a personal spiritual practice that continues to restore and re-energize your mind, body, heart and spirit? Yoga and meditation are part of my self-care practice. Clearing my mind and ensuring I am available to meet others’ needs was a necessity as a teacher, and it has become a part of my standard restoration practice. There are plenty of apps and tutorials if anyone is interested in trying something new!

We want to thank Mariclare for sharing with us, and we wish her all the best in this new life chapter.

Finally, to view a video of Mariclare prepared by Loyola Chicago’s Graduate and Professional Enrollment Management team, click here.

You can reach Mariclare Kanaley at mkanaley@luc.edu.
To learn more about IPS, go to https://www.luc.edu/ips/.
For those interested in applying to IPS, go to https://gpem.luc.edu/apply/.

4-04-2019 | Comments Off

Being a ‘steward of creation’ this Lent

By Michael Canaris, PhD (Assistant Professor at Loyola IPS, mcanaris@luc.edu). This piece was originally published in the Catholic Star Herald.

Lent has traditionally been an annual opportunity to recalibrate one’s relationship with his or her neighbor and the gifts of creation, in addition to with God. In preparation to celebrate the Paschal Mystery more fully, the church has historically provided prayerful and ascetical tools and “space” to rid ourselves of disordered attachments, so as to re-commit ourselves to the Risen Lord more emphatically. It has been clear for almost the entire history of the Christian faith that if believers do not consciously emulate the death of the Son of God in a very tangible sense in their own spiritual journeys, then the exultation of the empty tomb will ring exceedingly hollow in the subsequent Easter season.

This year, I have decided to focus my own Lenten disciplines on attuning myself more intentionally to Pope Francis’s call to integral ecology. Distancing ourselves from an addictive culture of disposability should not be a partisan issue, whether in the church or in wider society. Catholic Social Teaching has consistently made clear, at least since Pope Leo XIII’s groundbreaking document Rerum Novarum, that orienting our discipleship of Jesus around principles like the common good, solidarity, and the universal destination of created things demands that we interrogate our attitudes and lifestyles through the lens of the Gospel. This includes “practical” as well as “spiritual” matters.

Being stewards of creation mandates that Christians and all people of good will refuse to treat things as trash, and other people as things. Such a reductionism is antithetical to a holistic approach to “our common home,” this earth across which the entire human race shares our origins, experiences and telos (“goal”) in the divine plenitude, as Nostra Aetate points out.

Residents of the United States in particular are guilty of viewing the world as a spigot of limitless resources, and of generating immense quantities of refuse to sustain our relatively comfortable lifestyles. Questioning our (im)prudent use of the wonderful realities that technology and American ingenuity have brought forth in our era ought not to be a controversial initiative, if we claim to care about our children “to the seventh generation.” Limiting one’s extemporaneous use of items that cannot be recycled, his or her carbon footprint, and our collective egotistic practices that ignore their impact on wide swaths of the global population are legitimate Lenten theological aspirations. My own complicity in such patterns is acute and disgraceful, and so I feel called to examine such realities in my personal and professional life in the coming weeks.

Human beings, social creatures who exist in networks of love, responsibility, and blame, cannot experience the divine other than through our interactions in the natural world. Our liturgical prayers emphasize that a matrix exists — between God’s abounding generosity and the work of human hands, in which we collaborate with the divine to live out a sacramental reality, whereby the natural is the conduit through which we access the transcendent.

Put crudely, if there is no clean oxygen, pure water or soils protected from ultraviolet rays, there is no Blessed Sacrament, whether understood eucharistically or anthropologically, as the human being is the ultimate mysterious (saramentum is the Latin version of the Greek mysterion) recipient of God’s most gracious gift of Self.

The coming season of reflective and consequential purification provides an excellent opportunity to examine how we can better take responsibility and agency in devoting ourselves to that vivifying encounter with that world which God and unfathomable amounts of time have provided us, and which we all too frequently disregard and degrade for immediate gratification.

Originally from Collingswood, Michael M. Canaris teaches at Loyola University, Chicago.

To learn more about IPS, go to https://www.luc.edu/ips/.
For those interested in applying to IPS, go to https://gpem.luc.edu/apply/.

3-27-2019 | Comments Off

IPS and Pontifical Gregorian University partner on Christian Spirituality degree

Dean Brian Schmisek recently traveled to Rome for the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Loyola University Chicago Institute of Pastoral Studies (IPS) and fellow Jesuit institution, the Pontifical Gregorian University (PGU).

This agreement between IPS and PGU essentially means that IPS will accept the “Diploma in Ignatian Spirituality” offered at PGU as twelve (12) credits towards the “Master of Arts in Christian Spirituality,” a 36-hour degree program offered here at IPS.

This agreement will be in effect for six years, after which time it may be renewed.

Of this recent development, IPS Dean Schmisek says, “This past August when Fr. Sosa [Father General of the Society of Jesus] encouraged Jesuit universities to work together, share resources, and collaborate, we immediately though of our MA in Christian Spirituality and the Diploma in Ignatian Spirituality offered at the Greg. Then last month, the Society named “Discernment and the Spiritual Exercises” as one of its four priorities [universal apostolic preferences] in the coming years. So this agreement comes at an opportune time, especially when so many are looking to the resources of Ignatian Spirituality for the modern world.”

Fr. James Grummer, SJ, the superior of the Pontifical Gregorian University Jesuit Community in Rome and director of the Ignatian Spirituality Center at PGU, adds, “The diploma program we offer at the Gregorian allows students to learn a great deal about Ignatian spirituality in an exceptional atmosphere. Since our teachers and students come from all over the world, they have a unique opportunity to learn with one another. The different experiences and perspectives they bring to class illuminate the breadth and depth of the Ignatian tradition in ways that transform the participants academically, professionally, and personally.”

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To learn more about IPS, go to https://www.luc.edu/ips/. For those interested in applying to IPS, go to https://gpem.luc.edu/apply/.

3-21-2019 | Comments Off

IPS Coordinator of Formation on Spiritual Direction and Pastoral Counseling

Submitted by Carol Taliaferro, IPS Coordinator of Formation

Which is right for me? Spiritual Direction and/or Pastoral Counseling?

This is a really good question and one that comes up often. So let’s start by defining terms. First, spiritual direction, as the name implies, is primarily about the spiritual life: our relationship with God and the movement of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is also involved in fostering personal growth in and deeper intimacy with God (as experienced in prayer and lived out in discipleship).

Counseling and psychotherapy are different. These terms are often used interchangeably so I’d like to make a distinction here as well. Counseling helps us to work through and resolve problems in our lives and relationships. Psychotherapy, on the other hand, goes deeper and is primarily focused on the emotional life and helps us to heal past hurts and to look at and resolve unhealthy patterns in our lives.

When should you pursue counseling/therapy vs. spiritual direction?

If you are struggling with emotional pain and negative patterns of behavior in your life, dealing with depression or mood disorders, anxiety, addictions or other diagnosable conditions, psychotherapy is your best option. Do you need guidance and support sorting out your life and your relationships? Counseling would be the way to go.

Are you trying to grow in your relationship with God and discern the movement of the Holy Spirit in your life? Then, spiritual direction is what you should pursue.

Keep in mind that each discipline is not mutually exclusive and you can participate in spiritual direction along with therapy and counseling.

(Adapted excerpt from: Spiritualdirection.com – Catholic Spiritual Direction – What is the Difference between Counseling and Spiritual Direction?)

“Pastoral counselors hold a unique position in the field of counseling. With their combination of theological training and advanced education in the behavioral sciences, they are poised to provide effective mental health counseling that is capable of respectfully integrating religious and spiritual components.”

(The Misunderstood Pastoral Counselor: Knowledge and Religiosity as Factors Affecting a Client’s Choice, Walker, et. al., Paper based on a program presented at the 2012 American Counseling Association Annual Conference and Exposition, San Francisco, CA, March 23-25,)

Reflection Corner

As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards to God’s varied grace. 1 Peter 4:10

Spiritual formation requires taking not only the inward journey to the heart, but also the outward journey from the heart to the community and ministry. Christian spirituality is essentially communal. Spiritual formation is formation in community. In community, we learn what it means to confess our weakness and to forgive each other. In community, we discover our own woundedness but also a place of healing. In community, we learn true humility. Without community, we become individualistic and egocentric. Therefore, spiritual formation always includes formation to life in community.

(Henri Nouwen, Following the Movements of the Spirit, Spiritual Formation with Christensen, M. J. & Laird, R. J.)

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You can reach Carol Taliaferro at ctaliaferro1@luc.edu.

To learn more about IPS, go to https://www.luc.edu/ips/. For those interested in applying to IPS, go to https://gpem.luc.edu/apply/.

3-14-2019 | Comments Off

New Fall 2019 class: “Introduction to New Pastoral Theology”

IPS is excited to announce that Adjunct Instructor Bill Huebsch will be teaching a new class in the Fall of 2019 entitled “Introduction to the New Pastoral Theology Emerging in the Era of Pope Francis”.

We recently reached out to Bill to find out more on this new IPS course offering.

Can you provide details of your class? How did it come about? What are your hopes/objectives with this class? This class will trace pastoral theology directly from the life and ministry of Jesus into the early church, and from there we’ll consider how it has come down through the ages to the present time. The core of the class will be to study the principles that guide pastoral theology and ministry, especially the set of questions (or hermeneutic) we bring (1) to our way of scrutinizing the signs of the times and (2) to how we articulate for others and ourselves the call to holiness. We will also examine the conciliar and post-conciliar development of pastoral theology and focus especially on two recent apostolic exhortations of Pope Francis, The Joy of the Gospel and the Joy of Love.

This is a practical, hands-on course which will ground each student’s self-understanding of his or her ministry with a solid and continual theological reflection. It’s a “personal course” inasmuch as students will be expected to connect the theology to their real, concrete situations in life and ministry. And it will also be a lot of fun! I think this kind of study is essential for those who plan to work in parish ministry.

What work are you currently involved in? Over the past five or six years I have been working to present the teaching of the church in plain English so that people can apprehend it and live according to it. Toward this end, I’ve published several booklets that provide recent papal documents in a plain English study guide format. These have included, among others: Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love), Gaudete et Exsultate (Rejoice and Be Glad), and The Art of Accompaniment. (All from: New London, CT: 23rd Publications.) Besides teaching here at IPS, I also maintain a busy international lecture schedule and this winter, am spending ten weeks in Guatemala, learning Spanish and helping the “least among his sisters and brothers” gain a foothold in today’s culture and economy.

How long have you been affiliated with IPS? In what capacity? I have been on the adjunct faculty here at IPS for several years. Last year I taught the course on The Story and Promise of Vatican II. I’ve also been deeply involved in the expansion of IPS’s presence in the North of England where a new pastoral ministry certificate is now being offered. I also teach in that program for IPS.

What draws you to IPS? I see IPS as a training center for the leaders of the church. It offers students excellent academics set amid the Ignatian genius for discernment and prayer. It’s a practical school, one that knows the culture in which its graduates will work. The leadership of IPS is solid and well-planned, looking to the future without fear and responding to the changing ministry needs we see before us. I like that.

Can you share a personal spiritual practice that continues to restore and re-energize your mind, body, heart and spirit? My daily prayer has led me to be something of a busy, urban contemplative. I find a surprising amount of quiet, reflective prayer in my daily life. And even when a day here or there doesn’t allow for it, I soon find myself turning my heart once again to speak with and listen to the Lord, whose voice echoes in my depths, as the CCC says in article 1776.

IPS students can begin to enroll via LOCUS for Fall 2019 classes starting on April 11th.

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You can reach Bill Huebsch at whuebsch@luc.edu.
To learn more about IPS, go to https://www.luc.edu/ips/.
For those interested in applying to IPS, go to https://gpem.luc.edu/apply/.

2-21-2019 | Comments Off

IPS Saddened by Deacon Jimmie Flewellen Passing

The IPS community is saddened to learn of the recent passing of one of our Advisory Council members, Deacon Jimmie Flewellen.

Rev. Jimmie Flewellen passed away on January 31, 2019. He was 92 years old.

Rev. Jimmie received a Master of Arts in Pastoral Studies degree from IPS in 1983 and was honored with a Damen Award from IPS at Loyola University Chicago in 2013.

A video tribute honoring Rev. Jimmie Flewellen was presented at the Founders’ Dinner on Saturday, June 8, 2013.

Rev. Jimmie was the first African-American Catholic chaplain for the United States Justice Department, along with being one of the first deacons in the Archdiocese of Chicago. He remained an active member of the IPS community for years, serving as a member of the IPS Advisory Council.

To view the 2013 video tribute to Rev. Jimmie, click here.

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To learn more about IPS, go to https://www.luc.edu/ips/. For those interested in applying to IPS, go to https://gpem.luc.edu/apply/.

2-13-2019 | Comments Off

Henry Luce Foundation Supports Ignatian Legacy Fellows Retirement Initiative

Supporting leadership conversations and theological engagement with the Jesuit mission

The Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University Chicago is proud to announce the second installment of a $250,000 planning grant from the Henry Luce Foundation. This grant will launch in September 2019 the Ignatian Legacy Fellows Program, a unique national program for retiring and retired, executives, professionals, and organizational leaders.

Retirement is a new vocational moment; it is an invitation to a wisdom transition to engage proactively the leadership challenges of aging, meaningfully. This program has a trident strategy of attending to the personal journey, examining the past to turn experience into wisdom for legacy planning. The program integrates the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius as a tool for discerning vocational choices and decision making. The second prong of the trident strategy embraces a twenty-five-person cohort that will accompany each other on this year-long journey and engage in leadership dialogues about their new or evolving roles while becoming an encore learning community for the long term. The last prong of this trident process is engagement with significant mission driven institutions and ministries of the Society of Jesus.

Through the year, these fellows will involve the institutional leaders in real leadership conversations, listening to the challenges of running mission-driven, nonprofit, values-based organizations within the largest global educational network of universities and high schools. Thus one discovers that this is not a residential university program, but a spirited, Jesuit collaborative program on the move.

This Ignatian Fellows’ three continent journey will begin with a four-day residency hosted by the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola in September, 2019, then continue in November, 2019 with a four day residency hosted by the Jesuit School of Theology and Ministry at Santa Clara University. In January, 2020, the cohort will experience a four day social immersion in Lima, Peru, followed by a March, 2020 four day residency hosted by the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. The cohort will then meet for a four-day residency hosted by the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University and finally a ten day excursion to Spain and concluding in Rome with a leadership conversation with the Jesuit Global Higher Education leadership team and the sharing of insights and observations from their year together. Between sessions there will be assigned reading and opportunities to dialogue using the Ignatian Colleagues Program and platform. Ultimately, this inaugural group of Ignatian Legacy Fellows will become Founders of the Ignatian Society of Fellows, an alumni community that will continue to convene around leadership conversations to foster the work of the Society of Jesus.

Contacts: John Fontana, Co-Director, 847-703-5836, jfontana@luc.edu or Mariann M. Salisbury, Co-Director, 301-807-5369, Msalisbury1@luc.edu

For more information: https://luc.edu/ilf

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To learn more about IPS, go to https://www.luc.edu/ips/.

For those interested in applying to IPS, go to https://gpem.luc.edu/apply/.

1-29-2019 | Comments Off

Joy and Merriment at the 2018 IPS Holiday Party

The Loyola IPS community gathered recently to celebrate this holiday season of hope, joy, and love.

Click on this link to view photos of community, cheer, and merriment from the 2018 IPS Holiday Party and Advisory Committee.

At the beginning of the gathering, IPS student Kascha Sanor shared the below prayer to mark the close of the IPS Wall of Prayer initiative:

God, we thank you for this community. The opportunity to grow and learn – with you of you and for you – freely. We recognize that spaces like this are rare these days.

In this season of darkness, we call to mind some of those obstacles that hold us back from our true expression of your image.

We reflect on the barriers of our global society: fear, otherness, materialism, hatred.

We reflect on the pain of divisions within our communities: greed, ignorance, distance.

We reflect on the destructive effects of racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, poverty, isolation.

All of these walls keep us from you.

We know that overcoming what separates us is an act of trust, and we know it will be messy but we know that you are there.

Holy Spirit, we know you are here in this season of advent, darkness, loneliness and waiting. We know that you are here in the chaos of our growing pains and that you transcend our human-made barriers that create this isolation and loneliness.

We have this hope because we are here, together in community. And so together in this community, we pray to welcome the chaos. To not only know and love one another but also “the other”. Because we know that is where we find you.

Amen.

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To learn more about IPS, go to https://www.luc.edu/ips/.

For those interested in applying to IPS, go to https://gpem.luc.edu/apply/.

12-12-2018 | Comments Off

IPS students and Sr. Ann Credidio, recipient of the 2018 Martyrs Award

By Emily Kane

On November 16, 1989, members of the Salvadoran military brutally murdered six Jesuit priests and two of their friends at the University of Central America in El Salvador. They were targeted because they spoke out against government crime and corruption and were vigorous advocates for the poor. To honor the eight Salvadoran martyrs, Loyola built a memorial on campus in 2010. The structure includes the “Wounded Angel” statue and a wall curving along the sidewalk on the west side of Madonna della Strada Chapel, displaying the names of each of the victims.

November is Ignatian Heritage Month and Loyola University Chicago celebrates its Jesuit heritage with a range of events, including the presentation of the Martyrs Award. The award is presented annually to a faith-based individual or organization that embodies the values of the Salvadoran martyrs, being champions of social justice and serving marginalized communities.

The 2018 Martyrs Award was presented on Nov. 15, 2018 to Sr. Ann Credidio, BVM (the religious order of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the very same community of Loyola’s own Sister Jean!).

Sr. Ann is from Brooklyn, NY and attended Mundelein College (a women’s university founded by the BVMs in 1929 and integrated in Loyola University Chicago in 1991). She took a few courses at IPS to complete her degree; a connection we treasure. In the late 1980s she was teaching preschool in Guayaquil, Ecuador when she began to develop relationships with people suffering from Hansen’s disease and living in terrible conditions at a nearby run-down hospital. She eventually focused all her energy there and founded Damien House. She took over the Hansen’s wing of the infectious disease center, raised funds, and over time built it into a safe place where those suffering with Hansen’s disease can receive the care that they need and the love that all God’s creatures deserve: Damien House. That wing of the hospital is now deeded to the Damien House Foundation and flourishes under the care of Sr. Annie.

On the day of the award presentation, four IPS students joined Sr. Annie for lunch and a conversation about her work. Not originally planned as a part of her stay in Chicago, she asked specifically to meet students so that she might learn about the work that they are doing and also to discuss challenges, share joys and frustrations, and foster new personal connections. IPS students, Toni Daniels, Julie Lipford, Lee Colombino, and I shared in this meal and conversation with Sr Annie, finding inspiration in her experience, joy, and wisdom.

I provided the introduction for Sr. Annie at the Martyrs Award Presentation, which took place at the Mundelein Center on the Lake Shore Campus at 4pm. I lived in Ecuador for 13 months as a volunteer at Damien House and have come to know Sr. Annie very well. I am happy to share with you the text of my introduction.

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“Hello everyone- My name is Emily Kane and I am a graduate student pursuing my master’s in social justice through the Institute of Pastoral Studies. I am also the graduate assistant for retreats in Campus Ministry right here on the Lake Shore Campus.

I’m here speaking to you today because in July of 2014, a brand new graduate from Loyola University Maryland, I traveled to Guayaquil, Ecuador to begin my year of service with a program called Rostro de Cristo, having absolutely no idea what to expect. One of our first tasks as newly arrived volunteers was to visit potential work sites, and one of our first stops was to Damien House, a long-standing partner of Rostro de Cristo volunteers.

If you don’t know already, Damien House is a care facility for people suffering from Hansen’s disease (formerly known as leprosy). While feeling a bit jarred at first when I encountered people who had lost fingers, limbs, or the cartilage in their ears and nose from the disease, I couldn’t help but be completely overwhelmed by the contagious love and joy exuding from all the patients I met. We were introduced to Sister Ann Credidio, BVM, a wild and crazy nun from New York who spoke Spanish with a Brooklyn accent (which I didn’t know was possible until I met her), and I was hooked- I knew I had to spend my year of service at Damien.

At that point, Annie as we affectionately call Sr Ann, had been in Ecuador for over 20 years. She first went down to Ecuador to be a teacher, but she began spending time at the infectious disease hospital, in the ward for patients with Hansen’s. At that time, the ward was in serious disrepair. The roof leaked, food was awful, rats bit patients on their toes during the middle of the night- it was a disaster. Annie realized that her presence was needed there, and she switched her ministry to be full-time at the hospital. Eventually, Damien House became its own entity, and Annie has been with them ever since.

While it may not have seemed like much at the time, Sister Annie and the patients of Damien House taught me the true meaning of a ministry of presence. They helped me understand the power of just sitting and being with someone- just offering your presence to them, sharing a cup of coffee with them, and asking about how they are doing. As a cradle Catholic, I spent my entire life hearing readings on Sundays about Jesus and “the lepers.” My time at Damien House gave this an entirely new meaning for me. Now “the lepers” were not this abstract concept- they were people I had come to know and love. They had names and feelings and flaws and stories that were just as real to me as my own. I carry them with me in everything I do: Esther, Blanca, Sonia, Manuel, Leon, Alceides….these are just a few of the people who will benefit from this gift Loyola is giving Damien House today.

All of this I have shared with you is possible because of the unbelievable force that is Sister Annie. Her determination and her tenacity to fight for the patients of Damien is unparalleled. She is the ultimate witness to selfless love. I feel honored to have been just a tiny part of Damien’s history, and I am honored to be standing up here welcoming Sister Annie to Loyola today.”

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Emily Kane is pursuing the MA Social Justice. You can reach her at ekane5@luc.edu.

To learn more about IPS, go to https://www.luc.edu/ips/.

For those interested in applying to IPS, go to https://gpem.luc.edu/apply/.

11-29-2018 | Comments Off

Author Archives: Gosia Czelusniak

Michael Bland promoted to Adjunct Associate Professor

IPS Enrollment Advisor Mariclare Kanaley settles in

IPS and Pontifical Gregorian University partner on Christian Spirituality degree

To learn more about IPS, go to https://www.luc.edu/ips/. For those interested in applying to IPS, go to https://gpem.luc.edu/apply/.

IPS Coordinator of Formation on Spiritual Direction and Pastoral Counseling

Submitted by Carol Taliaferro, IPS Coordinator of Formation

Which is right for me? Spiritual Direction and/or Pastoral Counseling?

When should you pursue counseling/therapy vs. spiritual direction?

(Adapted excerpt from: Spiritualdirection.com – Catholic Spiritual Direction – What is the Difference between Counseling and Spiritual Direction?)

(The Misunderstood Pastoral Counselor: Knowledge and Religiosity as Factors Affecting a Client’s Choice, Walker, et. al., Paper based on a program presented at the 2012 American Counseling Association Annual Conference and Exposition, San Francisco, CA, March 23-25,)

Reflection Corner

As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards to God’s varied grace. 1 Peter 4:10

(Henri Nouwen, Following the Movements of the Spirit, Spiritual Formation with Christensen, M. J. & Laird, R. J.)

You can reach Carol Taliaferro at ctaliaferro1@luc.edu.

To learn more about IPS, go to https://www.luc.edu/ips/. For those interested in applying to IPS, go to https://gpem.luc.edu/apply/.

Joy and Merriment at the 2018 IPS Holiday Party

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