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< Previous y 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. While I remain ever grateful for the past and ongoing gifts of many remarkable people at STM, I and countless others feel especially blessed for having known Father Bob Beloin, Chaplain for the past twenty-five years, who passed away on September 23, 2018. In the commotion of the struggle for greatness, power, wealth and fame that continually tries to lure the members of any large university community, I remember Fr. Bob’s life and ministry as being centered simply on I Corinthians, Chapter 13: If I speak in human and angelic tongues…if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge… if I give away everything I own… but do not have love, I am nothing. FAITH IN THE REAL WORLD M In this feature, a STM alumna/us reflects on joys and changes in their faith life after graduation. If you are interested in being one of our feature writers for “Faith in the Real World,” we would like to hear from you. Contact robin.mcshane@yale.edu. 6. Practicing Christian Love in New Haven Attilio V. Granata '74 '77 M.D. Attilio Granata '74 '77 M.D. enjoys the 2017 Yale-Harvard tailgate with Fr. Bob. What is love? At Sunday Mass on the morning after Fr. Bob’s death, Father Karl Davis wonderfully reflected on his life, and mentioned a simple plaque of Fr. Bob’s that stated: When someone else’s happiness is your happiness, that is love. And from this, I lovingly remember how often Fr. Bob reminded us, at times of grief after the loss of a loved one, to think of a few special gifts that the deceased imparted unto us, and then to choose one of them to emulate in that person’s memory. For me, it is Fr. Bob’s example of deep, other-centered love. Rest in eternal peace, Fr. Bob.THREE QUESTIONS ? ?? Professor Teresa Berger, Ph. D. Zach Ludwig GRD '20 ? ? ? 7. 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. ZL: Has teaching ever presented any challenges to your faith? TB: The events of 9/11 presented a serious pedagogical challenge. I was teaching a class called “Prayer and Providence” at the time. How do you discuss providence in light of such tragedy? How do you give thanks for a God that enabled many people to escape, when so many of them did not escape? It ended up creating a laboratory in how to think about God’s presence in the midst of disaster. ZL: I’ve always enjoyed your work with gender and liturgy. What is something you feel Catholicism could improve on in this vein? TB: My background is in liturgical studies and Catholic theology. I have always drawn on other disciplines in my research, which does include feminist historiography and theology, and then increasingly gender theory and history. So, I can only speak as a scholar of liturgy and a theologian. There are a few things on this subject I wished everyone would appreciate more deeply. The first is that the questions of gender difference are much richer and more diverse than people generally know. Looking back into the tradition produces a quite complex image. There have always been struggles about gender, it’s not something new, or a temporary cultural moment. Second, I think that our broader cultural context has hyper-marked gender in particular ways. Naming this hyper-marking is important, but we also should not naturalize it. It’s not a lasting phenomenon, but rather a moment in time. Gender as hyper-marked and as a lifelong project rather than a stable, fixed identity, also becomes a problem for the witness of the Catholic Church. Teresa Berger is Professor of Liturgical Studies and Thomas E. Golden Jr. Professor of Catholic Theology at Yale Divinity School. She teaches in the field of liturgical studies and in Catholic theology, holding doctorates in both fields. To learn more about Dr. Berger, visit: bit.ly/TeresaBerger. "The events of 9/11 presented a serious pedagogical challenge. It ended up creating a laboratory in how to think about God’s presence in the midst of disaster." Pope Francis’s Pre-Synodal Meeting: Creating Space for the Dreams of Young People Nicole Perone '16 M.Div. The experience of the Pre-Synodal Meeting which most struck me was how BIG the Church is. To spend time with young people from all corners of the world, living experiences I can only imagine, was breathtaking. It presented a challenge when writing the document, because of the breadth of lived experience that needed to be summarized. It also heartened me to see the threads of unity which bound us all, the same concerns which arose and the same spots of joy we sought. The global context of the Pre-Synodal Meeting was also impactful because it provided much-needed perspective: the issues which we think are of paramount importance can be far from the needs of our brothers and sisters. The fact remains that many Catholics have no idea what a Synod is or that one was taking place, let alone the Pre-Synodal Meeting. I am grateful that STM invited me to share my story at a fall Sunday dinner and made space for conversation around the experience of young people in the Church. STM and other avenues like it present an opportunity for evangelization of sorts: to share the magnificence of 300 young people, many of whom know and love Jesus, and speak on behalf of their generation to an ancient institution. Those who were there have the responsibility of sharing with others the hope that was palpable and entering into conversation – not only about what is written in the document, but about the experiences of young people in the Church moving forward. That hope is why the Pre-Synodal Meeting matters: it called together the topics of the conversation to be protagonists of the conversation, to create space which became the conduit for the views, needs, struggles and dreams of young people. It is authentic to actually bring the people that you are talking about to the table and invite them to help shape the conversation in a way that is faithful to their lived experience. This is what Pope Francis did by asking us young people to be present: have a hand in the ways the Church will hear, understand and engage with us. 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.” Pope Francis invited 300 young people from around the world to come together in Rome for one week as a Pre-Synodal meeting – a gathering that issued a document to inform the Synod’s work. This document became part of the instrumentum laboris, or working document, prepared for final use at the Synod in October. Nicole Perone '16 M.Div. was a delegate to the meeting and on the writing committee. "It is authentic to actually bring the people that you are talking about to the table and invite them to help shape the conversation in a way that is faithful to their lived experience." Nicole Perone '16 M.Div. 8. For more about the 15th Synod of Bishops: bit.ly/YoungPeopleSynod2018.Above: Nicole Perone meets Pope Francis. Photo courtesy of Nicole Perone.#MyCatholicYale Catherine Amaya GRD '22 hangs a photo of a loved one on an offrenda – an alter decorated with a collection of objects, notes and photos – during a traditional Mexican celebration of Día de Muertos at STM.FROM THE ARCHIVES 10. Treasure Buried in the Inbox: Riggs Chalice Comes Home Margaret Luckaszyk ost every public facing entity has one today. The cloyingly solicitous “contact us” or “info” email address which serves as an entry point for questions never meant to be answered, opinions too bizarre to audibly voice, propositions too good to be true and grievances so pronounced that no amount of apology could ever assuage. Given the unorthodox and frequently salty content of these messages, the majority predictably languish and go unanswered. Alas, that’s NEVER the case in a nonprofit setting, where such emails are forwarded with urgency to the Development Office for special attention. STM's Chapel crucifix is reflected in Fr. Riggs's chalice.11. Twenty years into my profession, but still relatively new in my role as Development Director at STM, my guard was up and my skepticism ran high when I was asked to look at an email forwarded to the Chapel’s general inbox this summer. Its author intentionally mysterious and his offer quite incredible. Most certainly, a prank, I thought! And while the story bucked credulity, I went along for the ride. Our protagonist, a young seminarian “learning the ropes” of parish ministry along his journey to the priesthood was writing from Boston. A transitional deacon, he was studying to serve in Southern Arabia, a region covering Yemen, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, with 1.5 million Catholics, the majority low-income migrants. Born in India, and raised in the Arab Gulf, he attended Catholic high school in Dubai, and held degrees in Mathematics and Islamic Studies from Harvard. We exchanged a few emails which eventually led to a phone call, but getting in touch did not prove to be such a simple affair. A transposed Google voice number, followed by some more mysterious emails, finally brought us together. The first hurdle crossed, perhaps there was some legitimacy to his offer after all. Our seminarian went on to reveal that he is in his final months of study in the U.S. with plans to return to Southern Arabia. His vocation inspired by the extreme dedication of the missionary sisters and priests in the Middle East, and the great need for the support of Catholics in the region in the face of external pressures. While wrapping up his studies and preparing for his impending departure, he received an urgent request from his mission and decided to part with his ecclesiastical objects in an effort to offer financial assistance. He promptly took the train to New York, intent on selling his valuables and donating the proceeds in support of his mission. Quite by chance, he left behind the most valuable item in his collection, a chalice purchased by friends from an online estate liquidator a year earlier on the occasion of his ordination to the diaconate. It was shipped to him from Meriden, CT, historically referred to as the Silver City. Drawn to its unusual Celtic design and squat dimensions (5.5-6"), it was small enough to travel easily within a Mass kit, an important consideration for his future missionary work. Since making a second trip to New York was not possible, he took pen to paper and began drafting a short description of the chalice with the intention of selling it himself. For the first time, he took special note of the engraving on the chalice’s base in an effort to establish its provenance. The name on the base read “T. Lawrason Riggs” with the roman numerals “MCMXXII.” A few keystrokes led to a detailed article on Father Riggs in the Catholic Historical Review connecting the chalice to STM and prompting the fantastical email that made its way to my inbox this August. The chalice arrived at STM a few weeks later in packaging as unusual as the email announcing its existence: a recycled cardboard box secured with yellow electrical tape sent USPS Priority Mail for $10.40. I am confident that the chalice has led a full and amazing life outside of STM all these years. And while we may never know the exact details surrounding its separation and eventual travels, we are grateful for its return. Not only in time for it to be used for the Chapel’s recent 80th Anniversary Mass, but in time for Father Bob to hold it and marvel at the curiously strange circumstances that led to its homecoming.12. Four Things to Know About Fr. Gerry The Editors & Fr. Gerry As Interim Chaplain at STM, Fr. Gerry hopes to be deeply involved in the life of the Chapel & Center. He hopes to learn the names of as many community members as possible. It is one of his main goals to sustain and build upon the work of Fr. Bob with the help of the pastoral team. He also looks forward to working with—and helping with the transitioning of—the future Chaplain once he is appointed. 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. Fr. Gerry was a long-time friend of Father Bob. They became friends when he was assigned to Fr. Bob’s home parish, Saint Margaret, in Madison, CT, and was present at Fr. Bob’s ordination and First Mass. In August, after Fr. Gerry began his assignment as Interim Assistant to the Chaplain, Fr. Bob welcomed him and encouraged him to embrace STM with his entire being. Fr. Gerry is familiar with the New Haven Area having been born and raised in the city. He is the oldest of three brothers followed by John, a CPA, who passed away in 2008 and George, a Brother of Holy Cross. George served as Principal of Notre Dame High School, West Haven, and as Provincial for the former Eastern Province of the Holy Cross Brothers. Fr. Gerry and his brothers have many fond memories of growing up in New Haven, attending football games at the Yale Bowl with their Dad and learning from their parents the importance of volunteer work—and, of using their gifts and blessings for those in need. Fr. Gerry has been a priest of the Archdiocese of Hartford for fifty years. He served as a parochial vicar and as a pastor in five parishes. He has also served as a Trustee for both Notre Dame High School, West Haven, and the Hospital of St. Raphael in New Haven. Throughout his ministry, he has had a number of archdiocesan assignments, including President/Rector of Saint Thomas Seminary in Bloomfield, CT; Director of Continuing Education for Priests; Vocation Director; and Vicar for Priests for the past three Archbishops for the Diocese of Hartford. In 2016, he received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree from Albertus Magnus College in New Haven. 1 . 2 . 4 . 3 .13. Talking Psalms: The Twenty-Third Psalm for the Twenty-First Century Jan Fournier '06 M.A.R. The Lord is my shepard; I shall not want. 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. Perhaps the most familiar and beloved Psalm is the Twenty-Third: “The Lord is my Shepherd, There is nothing I shall want,” an expression of confidence and trust in the Lord’s generosity and compassion. Often sung at Sunday liturgies and at Masses of Christian Burial, the psalm evokes the image of the Good Shepherd found in the Gospel parables of Jesus (Matthew 18:12-14 and Luke 15:3-7) and in one of the first depictions of Christ in Christian art in the catacombs of ancient Rome. This image of Jesus carrying a sheep on his shoulders is a gesture of caring and tenderness.We at STM are fortunate to have a contemporary representation of the Twenty-Third Psalm in the Boisi Lecture Hall, the work of graphic artist Jane Davis Doggett '56 M.F.A. Doggett received her B.F.A degree from Newcomb College (the women’s division of Tulane University) in 1951 with a special commendation from the School of Art; in 1956 she was awarded the M.F.A. degree with top honors from the Yale School of Art and Architecture, where she pioneered the field of architectural and environmental graphic design. Among the innovative concepts introduced by Doggett is “wayfinding,” defined by the SEGD (Society for Environmental Graphic Design) as referring “to information systems that guide people through a physical environment and enhance their understanding and experience of the space.” Many U.S. and international airports display her graphic signage as an aid to travelers. Another of Doggett’s unique design systems is IconoChrome™ images, “geometric designs in colors expressing philosophically profound messages.” In the words of the artist, “I interpret and project the essence of a written message using graphic symbols, or icons, which are structured from basic geometrics—circle, square, triangle—in interaction with color or chrome.” It is to this genre that her “Twenty-Third Psalm” belongs and it is included in her book Talking Graphics. At STM twelve brightly colored boxes, or cubes, interpret the six verses of the psalm, positioned along the top of the wall opposite the windows in the Boisi Lecture Hall. “Her hand-drawn images are computer scanned in ‘layers’ for each color segment and digitally printed in a process she calls ‘electronic silk screening.’” Doggett’s work shows the influence of her teacher, Josef Albers, a noted German-American artist and Yale faculty member, whose paintings of colored geometric shapes are part of the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery. Three images of Doggett’s sculpture illustrate the fifth verse of the Twenty-Third Psalm: “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” (In an accompanying box, the words of the psalm are The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; 14. He leadeth me beside the still waters. For thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; Thou anointest my head with oil;rendered in an earlier English translation from the King James Version). In the first square the psalmist, represented by a thin white rectangle, emerges from a purple rectangle into a brightly colored pink square symbolizing the table, surrounded by five black triangles on a grey background illustrating the enemies of the one who prays. For the contemporary viewer, the table recalls the feeding of the Israelites with manna in the desert, the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, the institution of the Eucharist and the heavenly banquet to come. The beginning of the second half of the verse represents the Lord as a tall yellow rectangle with an orange circle halo next to the white rectangular psalmist with orange and brown triangles of oil anointing his head. Perhaps the most easily recognized symbol in the third graphic is the cup, imaging the concluding phrase, “my cup overflows.” This IconoChrome™ shows the psalmist, (white rectangle) coming from a lower pink rectangle into the brilliant yellow of the upper and larger rectangle. The blue cup, a half circle, clearly has a chalice shape. Four blue circles descending from the cup indicate the overflow of God’s grace and mercy. Acquired by the Yale University Art Gallery in 2012, Doggett’s sculpture is on permanent loan to STM. As generations of Christians before them, Yale students and STM members and guests can today encounter the soothing verses of the beloved twenty-third psalm in a new way, through the contemporary and abstract art of Jane Davis Doggett, a pioneer in graphic design. Works referenced: Doggett, Jane Davis. Talking Graphics. [Hobe Sound, FL]: ExArtis Publishers, 2007. “23rd Psalm Sculpture Created by Jane Davis Doggett.” Jane Davis Doggett Webpage. http://www.jddinc.com/2011/3d-yale.html. Retrieved November 19, 2018. 15. He restoreth my soul;He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; My cup runneth over;Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.Next >