Exodus 365

Exodus 365

This summer Fr. Nick and Carly launched the Exodus 365 program. We asked them to share a bit about why they started this program and what it looks like for our students. Here is what they said:

Fr. Nick meeting with an Exodus 365 group over Zoom.

Exodus 90 is a three month marathon of prayer, fellowship, and sacrifice. In terms of spiritual growth, it is also one of the most successful ministries that the Saint Benedict Institute runs. The end of the Exodus 90 program each year presents us with several questions. How do we help maintain the relationships that have been formed amongst the students?  What can be done to help them continue in the life of prayer? Is there a way to assist them in maintaining helpful spiritual disciplines?

It is easy to think that after completing such a rigorous program one’s work in the spiritual life could go on autopilot without any danger of regression. Of course, this is not the case. It is an old maxim in the spiritual life that those who are not going forward are going backward. In the previous two years of running the Exodus 90 program we found that even students who made great progress drawing closer to the Lord could fall back into old habits or simply lose the new spiritual discipline they had acquired. Moreover, many students wanted to continue with certain disciplines and tried to on their own with little lasting success.  

Carly meeting with an Exodus 365 participant over Zoom.

Our answer to this problem is Exodus 365. It’s not as crazy as it sounds, we promise!  Simply doing the full exodus program for a year would not mirror the Church’s practice of alternating between fasting and feasting. The idea of Exodus 365 is to help students engage in the spiritual life everyday knowing that some seasons will be more intense than others. The students will take on 90 days of the full Exodus program spread throughout Lent, Advent, and in week long intervals during the traditional Ember days. This will include various types of dietary and electronic fasting as well as cold showers. In between these seasons is a low intensity program that includes small group meetings, prayer, exercise, a healthy sleep schedule, and a discipline of the students choosing.  

The response so far has been heartening. About 25 students, split almost evenly between men and women, have signed up. Exodus 365 also continues the ecumenical spirit of Exodus 90 since about half of the participants are not Catholic. The hope is that this time of continual fellowship and sacrifice together will strengthen those friendships and also help prepare leaders for the Exodus 90 program in the coming year. We hope you will join in our ministry by supporting these young men and women in this endeavor through your prayers.

Ignis: Fire, Friendship, Faith

Ignis: Fire, Friendship, Faith

Ignis is a prayer group on Hope's campus that is rooted in an openness to the Holy Spirit and the Catholic tradition. Ignis means fire in Latin. This captures the purpose of Ignis which is to allow people to be filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit and for that fire to spread to more of his Church. The group was originally started as a charismatic Catholic prayer group but has since adapted to fit the particular needs of the community at Hope. Since then, the group has become more like a family. They regularly gather, outside of weekly meetings, for meals and even small parties involving delicious homemade soup. Weekly meetings usually included a topic for discussion and the chance for people to receive prayer from one another. The beauty of Ignis is that it continued to grow as the year went on and it never really lost the familial quality, even into Covid-19, as the group continues to meet online. Here are a few reflections from some of the students:

Some of the Ignis students gathered for dinner before leaving Hope for the semester.

One word to describe my experience with Ignis is blessing.  Ignis has been such a blessing for me this past semester because it has helped heal the wounds of broken relationships by providing me with new friendships rooted in the Catholic faith. It has been inspirational to be involved in a supportive Catholic community full of people who desire the Holy Spirit to work through them for the good of Christ’s Kingdom. Ignis has allowed me to grow immensely in my Catholic faith alongside others who are also pursuing Christ. I am so grateful that God blessed me with this community.

Sally is a senior studying Biology with a minor in Religion. She plans to attend veterinary school next year.

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Ignis provided me with something that I have never really had: a Catholic community of my peers. I didn’t realize how strongly I was hungering for a community like this until I had one. In the Ignis community, I was blessed by being surrounded by people who were actively seeking after Jesus and helping others to do the same, and this allowed deep and meaningful friendships to develop. I was continually built up by the prayers and support of these brothers and sisters in Christ of mine who became a family to me in a very real way.

Jacob is a senior majoring in Christian History and Theology with minors in Math, Physics, and Statistics.

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Ignis is a family through which, in very real ways, God’s love has been poured into me this year. Through this group, I have learned more about the Holy Spirit, how He works, and I have seen Him working in astonishing ways, both in the lives of others and in my own life. This group has made my heart more humble and open to God’s grace, which I have received through the prayer and the powerful example of my Ignis friends. I say this in a very real, down-to-earth manner – this group has forever changed my life.

Alicia graduated from Hope in May. She majored in Biology with a minor in Biochemistry and will attend graduate school at Dartmouth in the fall.

Student Reflections from Quarantine: June

Student Reflections from Quarantine: June

We asked some of our students to reflect on their experience of quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each month this summer we will share one of those reflections with you.

In his Rule, Saint Benedict assigns certain roles to his monks. First, the abbot, the father figure who stands in the place of Christ. Then the cellarer, who cares for the goods and tools of the monastery, treating them with as much reverence as he would the vessels of the altar. Finally, the kitchen workers, who prostrate themselves in front of the community before (and after) their week-long shifts in preparing meals for their brothers.

Benedictine spirituality firmly associates Christ with all the everyday and embodied reality of ordinary life. This means that the Rule is not just for monks: each of the roles Saint Benedict describes are present in our own families. A time of quarantine, when we are all enclosed, is then the perfect time to reflect with Benedict on the holiness possible in our homes.

Saint Benedict teaches that all life is liturgical. When the Rule discusses punishments for those late to the Divine Office, it deals with those late to dinner in the same chapter! Work, family, and prayer are inseparable because a life is a whole, not a sum of its parts. Benedict challenges us, therefore, to live family life with all the purpose and dignity of contemplation, even if we can only pray for a small part of our day.

Thomas Merton calls the monastery a tabernacle in the desert. Quarantine is, perhaps, a call for the family to remember that it should be one as well.

Andrew is a junior majoring in Religion with minors in Computer Science and French. He currently lives with his family in Libertyville, IL.

Quarantine in Lent: Meditations on the Pandemic

On Monday, April 6 at 7:00PM, Saint Benedict Institute co-founders Jack Mulder, chair of the philosophy department, and Jared Ortiz, associate professor of religion at Hope College presented a the talk “Quarantine in Lent: Meditations on the Pandemic” on Zoom.

These are strange times.  Strange times for young people and old, rich and poor, students and professors.  How should we think about what is happening now? What light can theology and philosophy shed on our current situation? Why would God allow this disease to spread and much of the world to be quarantined? How should we respond? What might God want to teach us in this time?  Please join Saint Benedict Institute co-founders, Jack Mulder and Jared Ortiz, for a live Zoom meeting where they will share thoughts and answer questions.

Jack Mulder, Chair of Philosophy Department at Hope College

Jared Ortiz, Associate Professor of Theology at Hope College

How to Join the Lecture:

• Info for Attending: Please sign up for our mailing list to receive the Zoom meeting information (if you’re not already a subscriber).

• Zoom: Please download Zoom to your favorite device (for free) before the meeting starts. We will email you a link to join the meeting.

Technical Problems?

 Click below to visit the Frequently Asked Questions page provided by Zoom:

The Transgender Question: Theological and Legal Considerations [PHOTOS & VIDEO]

On Monday, March 9, 2020 the Saint Benedict Institute hosted theologian, Theresa Farnan, and lawyer, John Bursch, to speak on "The Transgender Question: Theological and Legal Considerations." The event was an effort to shed light, rather than heat, on one of the most controversial issues of our time.

In the past two years, the transgender movement has accelerated at a dramatic speed. What once seemed like a marginal movement has claimed the mantle of civil rights and moved to the center of local and national debates.  At stake in these debates are deep and perplexing questions: What does it mean to be human? Are male and female true human categories or cultural constructs? What is sex and gender? Are these fixed or fluid? Is our biology something we can change? What are the legal consequences for granting or not granting rights based on gender identity?  Many people are understandably confused about what to think or do in light of these complicated questions.

In this event, theologian Theresa Farnan offered a Catholic theological and pastoral perspective on the transgender question.  Lawyer John Bursch shared thoughts on what legal ramifications we have already seen and can expect to see.  Each speaker offered a brief reflection followed by an extensive Question and Answer period.

John Bursch is Vice President of Appellate Advocacy for Alliance Defending Freedom, America’s largest public-interest law firm defending every individual’s right to freely live and speak out about their faith. He also owns Bursch Law PLLC, a Michigan appellate boutique. Over the past dozen years, John has argued 12 cases in the U.S. Supreme Court and 30 in the Michigan Supreme Court. These cases include many of the most important legal issues of our time, including Michigan’s right to define marriage (Obergefell v. Hodges) and whether federal courts should redefine the meaning of “sex” in federal law (Harris Funeral Homes v. EEOC). Michigan Super Lawyers has recognized John as one of Michigan’s Top 10 lawyers, and a recent survey concluded that among frequent U.S. Supreme Court advocates who do not work for the federal government, John was the 3rd-most successful lawyer in the nation at winning Justices’ votes for his position. John is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers.

Dr. Theresa Farnan is an author and moral philosopher who specializes in virtue ethics, moral education, philosophy of the person, sexual difference and identity, and ethical issues facing the family.  She is a founding member of the Person and Identity Project, which provides theological and pastoral resources about the Church’s teaching on gender ideology to Catholic educators and diocesan personnel.  She has taught at St. Paul Seminary in Pittsburgh, Franciscan University and Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, and has worked with the diaconate formation programs in Pittsburgh and Harrisburg.  She served as a consultant to the USCCB Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth and is a member of the Catholic Women’s Forum Advisory Council.  She co-authored the books Get out Now:  Why You Should Pull Your Child from Public School Before It’s Too Late and Where Did I Come From? Where Am I Going?  How Do I Get There? as well as articles in Our Sunday Visitor and First Things.  She and her husband Michael have ten children ranging in age from 27 to 8.