For many of us in Holy Cross, mission expresses itself in the education of youth in schools, colleges and universities. For others, our mission as educators takes place in parishes and other ministries. Wherever we work we assist others not only to recognize and develop their own gifts but also to discover the deepest longing in their lives. …
We wished to abandon all to follow Christ. We learned in time that we still had it within ourselves to hold back. We wish to be wholehearted yet we are hesitant. Still, like the first disciples we know that He will draw us along and reinforce our loyalties if we yield to Him. - Holy Cross Constitutions…
"Our mission sends us across borders of every sort. Often we must make ourselves at home among more than one people or culture, reminding us again that the farther we go in giving the more we stand to receive.” - Blessed Basil Moreau
In the last 12 years, I have lived in four states and proudly called each of them home. When I reflect on my journey, I have found two things to be constant and true: my home is wherever I am and the people I have met have made the biggest impact on any place I live. Whether I was living in the beautiful Bluegrass State of Kentucky or near the Space Needle in Seattle, Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, and even the Golden Dome in South Bend, good people have always made my life better and helped me to call a city home.…
"Our hope and our need are to live blessed by faithful and loving relationships with friends and companions in mission, relationships reflective of the intimacy and openness of God's love for us." - Blessed Basil Moreau
One of the most talented Student Affairs professionals I’ll ever know once told me he sees himself as being in a truly authentic relationship with the University. As he describes it, when you think about the relationships with those closest to you – parents, friends, partners, siblings, children – these are the relationships that bring you the most joy, laughter, and fulfillment, but also deliver the most pain, disappointment, and heartache. This depiction of life as a Student Affairs professional here at Our Lady’s University has stuck with me over the years. I find myself both yearning to have that type of relationship with this institution and striving to share this approach with potential Notre Dame staff.…
“Let us stand in closely united ranks and, far from separating and scattering, let us live in such a manner that, as it sees the members of our family, the world may say of us as it was said of the first Christians: 'See how they love one another!'” - Blessed Basil Moreau
I’ve learned to dread the 4th of July, and no, it’s not what you think. I love the splendor of fireworks in the nighttime air, lighting bugs floating as if attached to some kind of invisible string, the smell of spent sparklers, and the chance to be with loved ones. For me, it’s what comes after the 4th that always gives me pause.…
“We shall always place education side by side with instruction; the mind will not be cultivated at the expense of the heart. While we prepare useful citizens for society, we shall likewise do our utmost to prepare citizens for heaven." – Blessed Basil Moreau
Until recently, I served our students in the Title IX Student Services Office. When the University learns of a possible situation of sexual harm, the Student Title IX Office reaches out to the potentially affected students and offers to meet to discuss available options and resources. In some situations, restorative justice can be helpful in guiding our conversations, with the five pillars of a Holy Cross Education aligning nicely with the restorative justice paradigm.…
"What a monstrous inconsistency it would be if, all of us being children of the same Father, we were to live together as if we were strangers; if, all of us being sisters and brothers of the same Son of God, we were not united by such a strong and delightful bond; if, all of us wanting to be animated by the same Holy Spirit, we were to surface contrary desires and affections."…
“We shall always place education side by side with instruction; the mind will not be cultivated at the expense of the heart.” – Blessed Basil Moreau
As I prepare to retire at the end of June, I have been thinking a great deal about my time at Notre Dame. While Father Moreau’s words, “the mind will not be cultivated at the expense of the heart,” are certainly meant to speak to our mission and the education our students receive, I have found them to be equally true of the education I…
"Far from complaining of these trials, we must learn to love them, for if we bear them as we should, they are worth their weight in gold. These nails and thorns will be changed later into the many precious stones which will make up the crown of glory reserved for those who have been faithful to the duties of their vocation and have worn lovingly, even to the end, their Savior’s crown of thorns.…
"In every active community, there are necessarily disintegrating elements, due to the diverse works and interests of its members. Yet, the same spirit that guided the wheels of the mysterious chariot seen by Ezekiel (2 Kgs 2:11-12), the same spirit that moved the symbolic animals of such varied forms, one before the other, so that without ever pausing in their onward course, without ever retracing their steps, they tended to the same end, though by ways apparently most opposed to one another – that same spirit can so relate and bind all the activities of the members of [our] religious communities that no friction need arise. Regardless of the difference of employments, zeal for the glory of God will, by means of a pooling of efforts, bring about a union of hearts of which it is the bond and the strength." …