Fall 2018

FROM THE CHAPLAIN'S DESK 

Dear Friends:
I am pleased to share with you the Fall 2018 issue of STM Magazine. I know that you will find in these pages a snapshot of the dynamic Catholic life that is lived daily at STM. 
The fall semester was marked with joy and sadness. On Labor Day weekend, we welcomed our first-year and returning students at the Mass of the Holy Spirit as well as at various activities throughout the weekend.
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LOOKING FOR COLOR:
REFLECTIONS OF A WATERCOLORIST

I'm interested in light and its relation to color - how it makes the towers and brick walls on campus glow golden at sunset and turns the clouds above Old Campus pastel pink if you walk across the Green at sunrise; how it falls through windows, illuminating the walls of the Chapel. 
Because a camera can produce far more detailed observational images, I try to draw moments that strike me: the curve of the back on one of the Stations of the Cross sculptures, the brow furrowed in pain, the light from the other side of the Chapel bouncing off the shoulders.
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AN INSPIRATION FOR CATHOLICISM AT YALE:
A TRIBUTE TO FR. BOB

When I first visited Yale after being accepted to the college, I heard about Father Robert Beloin — or, as everybody here knows him, Fr. Bob — long before anyone had even thought to mention something about academics or extracurriculars to me. A Yale student who I knew from my high school, a Jesuit school in New York City, had met me on Old Campus after I first stumbled onto Yale for “Bulldog Days,” the University’s orientation program for accepted students. 
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“VIOLENT UNCERTAINTY: FINDING FAITH IN WAR AND CHAOS” AN EXCERPT FROM THE HUNT PRIZE LECTURE

On a Thursday in September, Philip Klay, delivered his lecture at STM entitled “Violent Uncertainty: Finding Faith in War and Chaos.” Klay—author of Redeployment, winner of the 2014 National Book Award in fiction—is the 2018 recipient of the George W. Hunt, S.J., Prize for Journalism, Arts & Letters. The Hunt Prize, a joint venture between STM and America Media, seeks to recognize the finest literary work of Roman Catholic intelligence and imagination; and this year, was awarded to an outstanding work in the category of Cultural & Historical Criticism.
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FAITH IN THE REAL WORLD:
PRACTICING CHRISTIAN LOVE IN NEW HAVEN

My spiritual home since beginning Yale College in the fall of 1970 has been STM, then known as “St. Thomas More Chapel” or “More House.” There, chaplains, community, worship and sacrament have guided, nourished and supported me as I completed medical school, began clinical practice and teaching, raised a family—and now, work with, and for, the underserved in Connecticut’s Medicaid program.
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PROFESSOR TERESA BERGER, PH. D.

ZL: Where do you most like to travel to?

TB: It is difficult to pick just one place, as I regularly migrate between the U.S. and Europe. I am lucky enough to feel at home in these two places; leaving here and coming back both have a sense of going home! I always miss the ancient, Roman-esque churches in Europe. The church itself feels integrated into daily life; it feels more natural, as though it is part of the fabric of life itself. It allows me to be present in the moment.
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POPE FRANCIS'S PRE-SYNODAL MEETING:
CREATING SPACE FOR THE DREAMS OF YOUNG PEOPLE

Pope Francis convened the 15th Synod of Bishops in October 2018. A synod of bishops brings together bishops from around the world, to discuss important topics in a fraternal way with the Pope, their brother bishop and leader. The 15th Synod has as its focus “young people, the faith and vocational discernment.”
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FOUR THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT FR. GERRY

This August, Archbishop Leonard P. Blair appointed Monsignor Gerard Schmitz as Interim Chaplain of STM. Father Bob and the STM Pastoral Team welcomed Fr. Gerry to the Chapel and Golden Center this August; and since then, Fr. Gerry has been fully engaged in the life of STM. We hope you will enjoy getting to know a bit more about him and his ministry, in both the Archdiocese of Hartford and at STM.
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TALKING PSALMS:
THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

The Book of Psalms, or The Psalter, a collection of Old Testament song poems, expresses every emotion of which the human heart is capable. Among them: awe and wonder, guilt and repentance, joy  and ecstasy, mercy and compassion, trust and confidence.
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FINDING HOPE IN WOE:
READING THE THEOLOGY OF WOMEN RELIGIOUS IN THE MIDST OF CHURCH SCANDAL

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites” (Matthew 23: 13). I vividly remember Father Bob preaching on Jesus’s cry of woe to the religious leaders of his day: “These are harsh words from Jesus.” Woe in the Hebrew Bible expresses intense anger in the face of wrongdoing. In the strongest terms possible, Jesus denounces the Pharisees for failing to practice what they preach: God’s law of “judgement, mercy and fidelity” (Matthew 23: 23).
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SHARING GOD'S LOVE AT DOWN HOME:
A STM SUMMER AMBASSADOR EXPERIENCE

This past summer I had the privilege of being a 2018 STM Summer Ambassador, an intensive program in which students work with non-profit agencies to assist under-served residents of their communities. My interest in non-profit work brought me home to Fargo, ND, to partner with Down Home, a fledgling organization, developed through the inspiration of one of my elementary school teachers.
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OPEN BOOK: GOD'S QUAD: SMALL FAITH COMMUNITIES ON CAMPUS AND BEYOND

Fr. Riggs, the first Catholic chaplain at Yale, was writing about the pastoral needs of his community from the particular context of late 1930s Yale University, and yet, the astuteness of his words touches on one of the most important ideas of God’s Quad: look for and identify the particular needs of your community, especially with the input of young people on campus, and respond to them accordingly through outreach, ministry, programming and service to others. With contributors from five continents, God’s Quad offers the reader a myriad of ways to approach and establish structures of ministry within a campus community through small, faith-sharing groups. In the Yale University context, they are best known as Small Church Communities, or SCCs.
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