Spring 2020

FROM THE EDITORS

Dear Readers, Our focus as editors of STM Magazine is to bring you a slice of life from STM’s campus ministry twice a year. Spring 2020 is no exception. What started out as a typical second semester of lectures, Masses and programming quickly became a-typical when our March Alternative Spring Break trips were cancelled, due to the threat of a global health crisis. Days later, as one of our colleagues fell ill with COVID-19, the STM staff and Chaplains were all sent home for a period of quarantine from which we have yet to return.
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THE REVEREND RICHARD R. RUSSELL LECTURE: THE UNIQUE POSSIBILITIES OF ASIAN AND ASIAN AMERICAN THEOLOGY

In the midst of a packed dining room this past January, many gathered to hear the lecture of Dr. Peter Phan, “Asian Americans: A Blessing to American Christianity?” Dr. Phan, Professor and Ignacio Ellacuria Chair of Catholic Social Thought at Georgetown University, emigrated to the United States as a Vietnamese refugee in 1975.
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THREE QUESTIONS: DR. LEO M. COONEY JR.

JC: As a medical student trying to decide on a specialty area, I am always curious about physicians’ career paths. How did you end up working in Geriatrics?

LC: During my Internal Medicine residency at Boston City Hospital, I cared for many elderly patients and participated in a unique program in which nurses followed patients of the hospital’s outpatient clinic, all who lived in nursing homes.
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BLACK HISTORY MONTH LECTURE: THE COURAGE TO BE TRANSFORMED

This past February, Sister Patricia Chappell, S.N.D.deN., spoke at STM as our Black History Month lecturer. Sr. Patricia, former Executive Director of Pax Christi USA and currently serving in leadership for the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, grew up in New Haven. Weaving together story-telling, social justice and her experience of being Black and Catholic, Sr. Patricia was powerful and challenging in her call to build the Beloved Community in the here and now. Her prophetic wisdom came months before the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, making her words all the more important today, as we examine the work we still need to do to work toward reconciliation.
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AMIDST A PANDEMIC, LOVE SURVIVES AT STM

On Wednesday, March 4, just over a year since my arrival to STM, our campus ministry drastically changed, due to COVID-19. We canceled our Alternative Spring Break trips. We began implementing the evolving precautionary measures taken by Yale and the city of New Haven in an effort to flatten the curve. We canceled all public liturgies, switching instead to livestreamed Masses.
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FEEDING THE HUNGRY DURING A PANDEMIC: THE ANSWER TO A LAW STUDENT'S PRAYERS

Law school comes with a lot of pressure to prioritize big things at the expense of small kindnesses, so I organized my Wednesdays as a weekly reminder of why I’m here. I spend the morning in the STM Soup Kitchen, rush off to class for the next seven hours, and then end the day back at Mass, where we remember the day’s guests during the prayers of the faithful.
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THE LOVE THAT BROUGHT YOU HERE: A PHOTO ESSAY

Easter Vigil 2020 was unlike any other. Usually involving many students, Chaplains and community members, the pandemic kept this year’s participants to a stark minimum and the service was rehearsed and celebrated while social distancing. Vestments and Easter-best outfits mingled with masks and clip-on microphones while two lone cameramen in purple gloves monitored the Vigil’s livestream from empty pews. The host was blessed for only a few instead of for many.
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ROM-COMS AND ORDINARY LOVE: EXPERIENCING GOD IN THE MUNDANE

Romantic comedies are my favorite movie genre and it feels like a personal attack when people immediately write them off. After all, the same characteristics argued to be common to the genre – they’re predictable and idealistic – can be said of other movie genres.
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REFLECTION: MONDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF EASTER

On Easter, world-renowned opera singer Andrea Bocelli stood near the altar of the Duomo in Milan, Italy, and sang to the world his prayer of hope. Maybe you watched it. Maybe you, like me, sat breathless as he walked out onto the front steps of the great cathedral and sang “Amazing Grace” while deserted cityscapes of Paris, London and New York filled the screen.
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REFLECTION: SATURDAY OF THE FOURTH WEEK OF EASTER

Taken together, today’s readings share a message of hope. This message is at once profound, touching on the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity – and accessible – resonating with our daily experience as members of any community. By word and example, we are taught that people can perform miracles when they believe in God and we believe in them.
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REFLECTION: FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

“Do not let your hearts be troubled,” Jesus says, “You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places…And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going you know the way” (John 14: 1-4).
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REFLECTION: TUESDAY OF THE SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTER

I am struck by the thread of life and death that is woven through each of the readings today.

In Acts, Paul claims that despite the severe hardships he faced and will face, he isn’t afraid of losing his life, because he sees a different kind of life worth striving for. In the responsorial psalm, we declare that God “controls the passageways of death.” In the gospel, Jesus takes this belief about God and gives us the good news that he is this passageway, and that eternal life is right here and now, even when it may not look like it
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CONGRATULATIONS STM 2020 GRADUATES

Go forth and set the world on fire.
Please join us on congratulating our 2020 graduates!
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OPEN BOOK: A DREAM TOO BIG

Growing up, in Compton, CA, Caylin faced insurmountable obstacles, due to his environment and what was expected of young men in his community. Caylin described how already in elementary school, his friends didn’t speak about what college they would attend.
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