On April 5th, IPS and Loyola Alumni Relations co-sponsored a networking event that featured the following speakers who presented on the topic “Ministry in a Dynamic World: Finding Focus, Activating Energy, & Nurturing Gifts”.
Fr. Jason Malave, Cardinal’s Liaison for Renew My Church, Archdiocese of Chicago
Ann Ridge, IPS Alumna 2002, IPS Adjunct Instructor, and PhD candidate at The Chicago Theological Seminary
Keyalo Gray, MS Ed., Career Advisor, Loyola University Chicago
Close to 40 people participated in the event, including several who viewed our livestream via the IPS Facebook page. Many thanks to Associate Dean and Assistant Clinical Professor Peter Jones for managing the livestream, undertaken to enhance the overall IPS experience of our online/distance students. Finally, over 20 people supported the IPS Student Scholarship Fund.
We’d like to thank Deirdre, Fr. Jason, Ann, and Keyalo for sharing their time, talent and treasure with us that evening.
A Lenten reflection from IPS Assistant Professor, Michael Canaris:
Theologian Daniel Groody, CSC has reflected on strengthening our spiritual disciplines in various demonstrations of solidarity and renewal, some of which are particularly appropriate for Lent: focusing on prayer, simplicity and recollection in regular moments like the Sabbath. One of the most eye-opening of these practices he suggests is considering a “fast from technology.”
The average American checks their phone every 12 minutes or over 80 times per day. More than two-thirds of us get at least substantial portions of our news from social media sources, which are intentionally designed to offer stories based on previous inclinations and interests. Self-sorting “traditional” media outlets on television and radio provide much of the same. All of this results in an increase in tribalism and the silos of echo-chambers that characterize so much of our public discourse. Dialogue with one another becomes strained. And if we claim to love God who we cannot see while refusing to hear the cries of our neighbor who we do, then we are liars according to the Word of God.
We often have recourse to fall back somewhat easily on the (admirable) directives of the church when it comes to questions of what our fasts should look like during Lent. These regular calls to penitence help us raise our hearts and minds to God, to focus on our radical dependence and constant need for God’s presence, forgiveness and revitalization in our lives.
But it’s also important to remember that God does not somehow intrinsically prefer one half of our surf and turf predilections over the other on certain days of the week. Choosing lobster over filet on Friday merely out of a rigorist interpretation of the law offers negligible impact on one’s spiritual life, and even less on the nature of God’s unbegotten and eternal beatitude and beneficence. (That said, I have eaten meatballs after midnight on early Saturday morning raids to the refrigerator more times in my life than I would like to confess in public.)
But to recalibrate the grounding of our self-mortifications consistently, it is essential to return often to the words of the prophet Isaiah, among my favorite in all of Scripture:
“Why do we fast, but You do not see?
Why humble ourselves, but You do not notice?”
“Look,” says the Lord, “you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers.
You fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist.
Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high.
Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself?
Is it to bow down your head like a reed, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?
And you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?
Is not this rather the fast that I desire: to loosen the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and to bring the foreigner into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wounds shall be healed quickly.”
Our use of technology, which has given us countless blessings, is also increasingly enabling us to practice all too habitually the last of these divine condemnations. When our phones and computers hinder real connections and instead allow us sufficient cover “to hide our humanity from our own kin,” we know that we have not only a cultural but a theological problem.
Fasting from food is not the same thing as forced starvation. So too, a willingness to examine our practices regarding technological communication is not a compulsory abandonment of those realities that are necessary for the betterment of our professional and personal lives. But an honest scrutiny will likely reveal addictive or detestable practices for which a day of fasting may now be appropriate or necessary.
This may be the year when assessing and addressing these tendencies could help us grow closer both to our human neighbor and to God.
This reflection first appeared in Catholic Star Herald. Michael Canaris, PhD is an Assistant Professor at IPS. You can reach him at mcanaris@luc.edu.
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IPS is now home to the Chicago Catholic Scripture School, a program that provides in-depth knowledge of the Bible within a Roman Catholic framework to parish leaders, deacons, catechists, staff members, and anyone wishing to deepen their understanding of scripture. The IPS Chicago Catholic Scripture School (IPS CCSS) falls under the Continuing Education (CE) umbrella within IPS and is overseen by IPS alumnus, Mark Bersano.
With the help of CE administrative assistant Mirta Garcia, Mark also supervises the following CE programs:
Parish Leadership and Management Programs
IPS Continuing Education Courses
Parish Health and Pastoral Care Ministry Certificate
Restorative Justice Ministry Certificate
Certificate in Pastoral Ministry for North England and Wales
English Pronunciation and Parish Enculturation Course
Legacy Leaders Fellowship Program (Check out our recent blog “Loyola-IPS Receives Grant from Henry Luce Foundation for Legacy Leaders Fellows Program”.)
IPS Retreats for Catholic School Teachers
We recently sat down with Mark to learn more about him and his growing contribution to the life of IPS.
Mark Bersano
Let’s begin with CONGRATULATIONS on your recent promotion to Assistant Dean for Continuing Education, Mark! Any thoughts on this recognition?
It’s a great honor and I’m proud and very grateful to have the new title. It affirms the work Mirta and I are doing with Continuing Education and the importance of this work to the community. I’m both grateful and humbled. The title change should open more doors as I negotiate new Continuing Education programs and course offerings.
I understand you’re an IPS alumnus. Can you tell us a little bit about what you were doing prior to enrolling at IPS?
Before coming to Loyola in 2005, I was the Chief Deputy Recorder and Director of Technology for the Will County Recorder of Deeds Office in Joliet. I was a one-person computer department, overseeing and maintaining six servers, 75 user workstations, and a 20-million record database. I oversaw RFP’s for hardware and software; configured and maintained servers, databases, and networking equipment; trained users; improved process efficiency; and basically administered every piece of equipment in the office. When I came to IPS I often joked that I no longer wanted to deal with anything that had an electrical plug.
Why did you choose IPS? What did you study?
A colleague in the Management Information Systems Department in Will County was doing her MA in Pastoral Studies with IPS. She told me about a new MA in Social Justice degree that IPS was starting. I came in and spoke with Mary Elsbernd (who oversaw the Social Justice MA at that time), and was enrolled in the very first social justice course in the summer of 2005. I was impressed with the Jesuit ideals around social justice and the way IPS offered a transformational education experience. After the first course, I was hooked and ended up working with a major university grant project while I pursued my studies for the MASJ.
What was life like as an IPS student? Any particular memories of classes, characters, etc. that remain with you to this day?
Classes were wonderful—with so many interesting people as both instructors and classmates. Discussions were always rich and courses were challenging and thought provoking. The semester that stands out the most for me was Spring 2008—my final semester. I took Hearts on Fire to learn about Ignatian Spirituality at the same time as a Nonviolence class based in Franciscan teaching. The courses complemented each other and I felt quite steeped in the two traditions. When the Hearts on Fire course ended, no one wanted to leave the classroom. We stayed after the last session for a couple of hours just chatting. I’m still in touch with some of those classmates, nearly 10 years later.
How did you become the Coordinator of Continuing Education (CE) here at IPS?
While I was working on my MASJ degree, I worked for a Lilly Grant called INSPIRE. It was a partnership between LUC and the Archdiocese of Chicago that supported teambuilding on the staffs of Catholic parishes. When I graduated, I went to work for the grant full time. When the grant ended, my current role was created to extend the learning of INSPIRE into the future, and now I am in charge of all Continuing Education programs that IPS provides.
What is your mission as Assistant Dean for Continuing Education?
My mission is to provide engaging non-degree educational opportunities to people in parishes and congregations who wish to supplement their knowledge in service of the Church. This role developed out of the INSPIRE project, which ended in 2013. I have been working at IPS in this capacity since 2014.
How is your IPS degree allowing you to fulfill your goals as Assistant Dean for Continuing Education at IPS?
My social justice degree coupled with my work with INSPIRE provided me with a wonderfully supportive network of people in diocesan and congregational roles. I also got a great understanding of the educational needs of people in parishes. Armed with these tools, I’m able to effectively interface with a wide variety of people, assess needs, and create educational opportunities to address those needs. My office aspires to be flexible in order to address continuing education needs in real time as they surface.
You and Mirta continue to service an increasing number of constituencies. What are the highlights/challenges associated with such growth?
The highlight is certainly that we have the opportunity to do a lot of different things with a very diverse group of people. For example, we’re working on a new restorative justice ministry. New ideas and opportunities are always arising, and we’re able to act on them relatively quickly. The challenge is that with so many projects, it can be difficult for two of us to keep up! We’re creating projects based on innovative ideas at a much faster rate than we can make them reality.
Mark Bersano and Mirta Garcia
Can you share a personal spiritual practice that a fellow IPS community member may find helpful?
At night before bed, I try to assess what’s going on with me—an examen of sorts. I try to move into an “observer” mode. I look at my emotions, knowing that they are not me. I look at my thoughts, knowing that they are not me. I look at my body and any pains or physical sensations—knowing that they are not me. I look at all of the things stimulating my emotions and thoughts, knowing that they are not me. I recall that I am consciousness—the observer of all these things. That’s me. It’s a very emotionally grounding and calming exercise.
Any words of wisdom for IPS students unsure about how their current studies will manifest concretely down the line?
Stay present. Learn. Absorb. Build relationships. You never know how what you learn or who you meet will manifest in your life later. It’s part of the great mystery.
Did you know that in the last three years, several IPS Faculty have published over fifty-plus scholarly works?
Congratulations to Michael Canaris, Jean-Pierre Fortin, Peter Jones, Therese Lysaught, Daniel Rhodes, Heidi Russell, William Schmidt, Brian Schmisek, and Deborah Watson for continuing to uphold IPS’s tradition of dynamic scholarship as an integral component to the formation of diverse and dynamic leaders for creative, compassionate, and courageous service to church and society.
These published works are broken down as follows:
Books: 10
Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals: 18
Chapters in Books: 9
Encyclopedia articles and other academic publications: 3
Pastoral Resources: 7
Book Reviews: 7
For a full list of these published works, read on below.
Books (10)
Rhodes, Daniel. Can I Get a Witness? The Forgotten Tradition of Radical Christianity in America, edited by Charles Marsh, Shea Tuttle, and Daniel Rhodes. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2018. (In press)
Canaris, Michael M. Living Christian Joy Daily: Everyone’s Call – Essays from Rome. Co-edited with Donna Orsuto, STD. Foreword by Gianfranco Cardinal Ravasi. Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2017.
Rhodes, Daniel, and Tim Condor. Organizing Church: Grassroots Practices for Changing Your Congregation, Your Community, and Our World (Chalice Press, 2017).
Russell, Heidi. The Source of All Love: Catholicity and the Trinity. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2017.
Schmisek, Brian. The Rome of Peter and Paul: A Pilgrim’s Guide to New Testament Sites in the Eternal City. Pickwick Publications, 2017.
Canaris, Michael M. Francis A. Sullivan, S.J., and Ecclesiological Hermeneutics: An Exercise in Faithful Creativity. Leiden: Brill, 2016.
Fortin, Jean-Pierre. Grace in Auschwitz: A Holocaust Christology. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2016.
Schmisek, Brian. Ancient faith for the modern world: a brief guide to the Apostles Creed. Chicago, IL: ACTA Publications, 2016.
Schmisek, Brian. A Greek reader for Chase and Phillips selections from antiquity. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2016.
Russell, Heidi. Quantum Shift: Theological and Pastoral Implications of Contemporary Developments in Science. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2015.
Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals (18)
Canaris, Michael M. “The Church as Migrant: A New Model of the Church for a ‘Cross-ing’ People,” The Ecumenist (in press).
Fortin, Jean-Pierre. “Prayerful Spirituality as Experiential Theology: Teresa of Avila’s Mystical Transposition of Augustine’s Confessions.” Studies in Spirituality (in press).
Fortin, Jean-Pierre. “Christ Risen, Wonder Arising: A Christian Theology of Miracles.” Toronto Journal of Theology 33, supplement 1 (2017): 25-38.
Fortin, Jean-Pierre. “Divine Kenosis: Building the Human Community Out of Mercy.” The Ecumenist: A Journal of Theology, Culture and Society 54, no. 2 (2017): 8-17.
Fortin, Jean-Pierre. “Symbolism in Weakness: Jesus Christ for the Postmodern Age.” Heythrop Journal 58, no. 1 (2017): 64-77.
Lysaught, M. Therese. “Four Perspectives – Beyond the Abortion Wars: A Way Forward for a New Generation. By Charles C. Camosy.” Horizons 44, no. 1 (2017): 160-64. doi:10.1017/hor.2017.5.
Fortin, Jean-Pierre. “Confession as Spiritual Communion: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Theology of Forgiveness and Reconciliation.” Touchstone 34, no. 3 (2016): 14-24.
Fortin, Jean-Pierre. “Spirituality as Lived Interpretation: A Transformative Encounter between Two Traditions.” Religious Studies and Theology 35, no. 1 (2016): 37-51.
Lysaught, M. Therese. “Geographies and Accompaniment: Toward an Ecclesial Re-ordering of the Art of Dying.” Studies in Christian Ethics 29, no. 3 (2016): 286-293. doi:10.1177/0953946816642977.
Lysaught, M. Therese. Issue editor, Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 41, no. 6 (December 2016). Special issue on The Anticipatory Corpse, by Jeffrey P. Bishop.
Lysaught, M. Therese. “From The Anticipatory Corpse to the Participatory Body.” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 41, no. 6 (December 2016).
Rhodes, Daniel. “Time Emptied And Time Renewed – The Dominion Of Capital And A Theo-Politics Of Contretemps.” Journal of Religious Theory (December 12, 2016).
Fortin, Jean-Pierre. “Spiritual Empowerment for Love: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Ethics of Resistance.” The Bonhoeffer Legacy: Australasian Journal of Bonhoeffer Studies 3, no. 2 (2015): 19-40.
Fortin, Jean-Pierre. “Critical Theology, Committed Philosophy: Discovering Anew the Faith-Reason Dynamics with Origen of Alexandria and Augustine of Hippo.” Philosophy and Theology 27, no. 1 (2015): 25-54.
Lysaught, M. Therese. “Clinically Integrated Networks: A Cooperation Analysis,” Health Care Ethics: USA 23, no. 4 (Fall 2015): 6-10.
Lysaught, M. Therese. “Roman Catholic Teaching on International Debt: Toward a New Methodology for Catholic Social Ethics and Moral Theology,” Journal of Moral Theology. 4, no. 2 (June 2015): 1-17.
Schmidt, William. “Integral Theory: A Broadened Epistemology,” American International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 3, no. 1 (2017).
Schmisek, Brian. “The “Spiritual Body” as Oxymoron in 1 Corinthians 15:44.” Biblical Theology Bulletin: Journal of Bible and Culture 45, no. 4 (November 16, 2015): 230-38. doi:10.1177/0146107915608597.
Chapters in Books (9)
Canaris, Michael M. “Immigration and Ecclesial Receptivity: Congar and Rahner as Resources for An Ecumenical and Philoxenical Ecclesiology of Reception,” in The Meaning of My Neighbor’s Faith: Interreligious Reflections on Immigration. Edited by Alexander Hwang and Laura Alexander. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, (in press).
Lysaught, M. Therese. “A Midwife of Grace: Sr. Mary Stella Simpson,” in Can I Get a Witness: The Forgotten Tradition of Radical Christianity in America, edited by Charles Marsh, Shea Tuttle, and Daniel Rhodes. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2018. (In press).
Rhodes, Daniel. “A Sickness Unto Life: Cesar Chavez and the Quest for Farmworker Justice.” In Can I Get a Witness? The Forgotten Tradition of Radical Christianity in America, edited by Charles Marsh, Shea Tuttle, and Daniel Rhodes. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2018. (In press).
Lysaught, M. Therese. “Catholicism in the Neonatal Context: Belief, Practice, Challenge, Hope.” In Religion and the Newborn, edited by Ron Green and George Little. Oxford University Press (in press).
Canaris, Michael M. “Alma Mater, Mater Exulum: Jesuit Education and Immigration. A Moral Framework and its Historical Roots.” In Undocumented and in College: Students and Institutions in a Climate of National Hostility, edited by Terry-Ann Jones and Laura Nichols. New York: Fordham University Press, 2017.
Lysaught, M. Therese. “Incarnating Caritas.” In Incarnate Grace: Perspectives on the Ministry of Catholic HealthCare, edited by Charles Bouchard. 11-26. (Catholic Health Association, 2017).
Canaris, Michael M. “A Rahnerian Reading of Sensus Fidei in the Life of the Church,” in Learning from All the Faithful: A Contemporary Theology of the Sensus Fidei, edited by Bradford E. Hinze and Peter C. Phan, 196-212. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2016.
Lysaught, M. Therese. “Ritual – A Framework for Ritual at the Deathbed.” In Dying in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Lydia Dugdale. 67-86. MIT Press, 2015.
Watson, D. Sculpting narratives: Experiencing positive narratives in therapy. In The therapist’s notebook for children and adolescents: Homework, handouts, and activities for use in psychotherapy (2nd ed., pp.), Sori, C. F., Hecker, L. L., & Bachenberg, M. E. (Eds.). New York: Routledge, 2016.
Encyclopedia Articles and Other Academic Publications (3)
Rhodes, Daniel. “Brownson, Orestes Augustus”; “Christian Community Development Association”; “Garvey, Marcus”; “Morehouse, Henry Lymon”; “Open Doors”; “Stringfellow, Frank William”; “Word Gospel Mission”. Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States. Edited by George Thomas Kurian and Mark A. Lamport. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.
Watson, D. Genograms. In J. Carlson & S. Dermer (Eds.) The SAGE Encyclopedia of Marriage, Family, and Couples Counseling. 733-737. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2016.
Rhodes, Daniel. “The Contradiction of Hope in an Estranged World: David Harvey’s Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism,” in Syndicate Theology (April 6, 2015).
Pastoral Resources (7)
Schmidt, William. Editor, Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health. Philadelphia, PA: Taylor & Francis.
Schmisek, Brian, Diana Macalintal, and Jay Cormier. Living Liturgy for Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion: Year B (2018). Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2017.
Schmisek, Brian, Diana Macalintal, and Jay Cormier. Living Liturgy for Music Ministers: Year B (2018). Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2017.
Schmisek, Brian, Diana Macalintal, and Jay Cormier. Living Liturgy: Spirituality, Celebration, and Catechesis for Sundays and Solemnities: Year B (2018). Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2017.
Schmisek, Brian, Diana Macalintal, and Jay Cormier. Living Liturgy Sunday Missal 2018. Liturgical Press. 2017.
Schmisek, Brian. Fundamentos del Nuevo Testamento: Jesús y sus discípulos. Paulist Press. 2017. (Translated from English Edition: Catholic Bible Study Program: New Testament Foundations Student Workbook Paulist Press. 2008).
Schmisek, Brian. El Programa de la Escuela Bíblica Católica: Fundamentos Del Antiguo Testamento: De Génesis a 2 Reyes. Paulist Press. 2016. (Translated from English edition: Old Testament Foundations Student Workbook. Paulist Press).
Book Reviews (7)
Jones, Peter L. “Review of Theology in the Flesh: How Embodiment and Culture Shape the Way We Think about Truth, Morality, and God,”International Journal of Public Theology [in press].
Canaris, Michael M. “Review of Will Pope Francis Pull It Off? by Rocco D’Ambrosio.” The Way, Oxford, October 2017.
Lysaught, M. Therese. “Review of Joseph Selling, Reframing Catholic Theological Ethics.” Studies in Christian Ethics 30, no. 4 (2017): 509-513. doi:10.1177/0953946817720910j. https://doi.org/10.1177/0953946817720910j.
Jones, Peter L. “Review of Bulls, Bears, and Golden Calves: Applying Christian Ethics in Economics, by John E. Stapleford.” International Journal of Public Theology 10, no. 1 (2016), 125-127. doi:10.1163/15697320-12341431.
Lysaught, M. Therese. “Review of Beyond the Abortion Wars: A Way Forward for a New Generation, by Charles Camosy,” Health Progress 97, no. 3 (May–June 2016): 67–68.
Lysaught, M. Therese. “Book Review: Michael Banner, the Ethics of Everyday Life: Moral Theology, Social Anthropology, and the Imagination of the Human.” Studies in Christian Ethics 29, no. 3 (2016): 339-342. doi:10.1177/0953946816642960. https://doi.org/10.1177/0953946816642960.
Jones, Peter L. “Review of Ethics that Matters: African, Caribbean, and African-American Sources,” International Journal of Public Theology 9, no.1 (2015): 113-114.
