Modeling God's Mercy in the Classroom

Posted by Eric Buell on Jan 30, 2020 7:01:00 AM

My students often find Christ in unexpected ways. One was invited to wash the feet of a homeless woman. During this interaction, she was asked to cut the woman’s toenails. In the process of doing so, the toenail flung away from the foot and ricocheted off of my student’s head. They both laughed in a moment of communal humility and joy. In relating this incident, she wrote, “I bet this never happened to Jesus.”

Such #neverhappenedtoJesus moments help us think creatively about Pope Francis’ challenge to create homes in our institutions. “A home, as we all know, demands that everyone work together. No one can be indifferent or stand apart, since each is a stone needed to build the home. This also involves asking the Lord to grant us the grace to learn how to be patient, to forgive one another, to start over each day” (Christus Vivit, §217).

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Topics: Catholic education, formation, mercy, Catholic Schools Week

Learning to Accompany through Other-Centered Ministry

Posted by Stephanie Sonnick on Nov 12, 2019 7:00:00 AM

Editorial Note: This fall, we'll be featuring profiles of people who are or have been part of the Echo program in the McGrath Institute for Church Life. Echo provides students the opportunity to earn a Master's degree from Notre Dame while gaining real-world experience in parish ministry or teaching high school theology, all while receiving robust spiritual and human formation.

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Topics: Echo, formation, campus ministry

The Liturgy Teaches Us How to Be Human

Posted by Timothy O'Malley on Nov 6, 2019 11:54:38 AM

In The Spirit of the Liturgy, Romano Guardini describes the link between culture and the liturgy. Without the liturgy, culture turns in upon itself, becoming the religion of the aesthete. Without culture, liturgy desiccates, unable to lift the human spirit to adore the living God.

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Topics: Catholic education, liturgy, formation, Liturgy Week

Opening Doors & Crossing Thresholds

Posted by Colleen Moore on Sep 19, 2019 10:21:18 AM

The thing the Church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity. I see the Church as a field hospital after battle . . . with the mission to heal the wounds of the heart, to open doors, to free [people], to say that God is good, God forgives all, that God is our Father, God is tender, that God always waits for us . . .
—Pope Francis, Homily, Casa Santa Marta

It takes a great deal of courage and pastoral creativity to approach deep wounds, to open closed doors, to receive and speak rightly of God’s forgiveness and affection. As the Echo staff and I work to form Catholic leaders for service in today’s field hospital Church, I am particularly compelled by Pope Francis’ call to “open doors.”

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Topics: Echo, service, formation

Learning to Teach, Learning to Serve

Posted by Colleen Halpin on Sep 10, 2019 7:13:00 AM

Editorial Note: Throughout September, we'll be featuring profiles of people who are or have been part of the Echo program in the McGrath Institute for Church Life. Echo provides students the opportunity to earn a Master's degree from Notre Dame while gaining real-world experience in parish ministry or teaching high school theology, all while receiving robust spiritual and human formation.

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Topics: Echo, teaching, formation

Living and Handing on the Faith

The McGrath Institute Blog helps Catholics live and hand on their faith in Jesus Christ, especially in the family, home and parish, and cultivates and inspires everyday leaders to live out the fullness and richness of their faith in the simple, little ways that make up Church life.

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