Student Reflections from Quarantine: August

Student Reflections from Quarantine: August

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.

My house is a place that I typically dread; I tend to feel separated from faith when I am removed  from my campus community. Naturally, I became nervous as the time of my departure from school drew nearer. The executive order that lasted until April 13 only contributed to this feeling. However, one fact of my faith was abundantly clear to me: Jesus is my eternal peace and comfort, and so I prayed for a sense of His presence in a place where I have historically hardly felt it. Amidst the chaos of the world, the Lord provided what I needed. By His grace, I experienced solitude instead of isolation. It was here in this place full of so many bad memories of pain and sin that He spoke. In this time of quarantine, the Holy Spirit led me through difficult but necessary conversations with my parents which led to internal suffering, but that suffering has become redemptive, allowing me to grow closer to Jesus. 

Continuing spiritual direction with Fr. Nick has helped me to take my first steps in praying to the saints, and praying lectio divina daily has fed me with the Word of God. Abundant fruits have been borne in the house that I associated more with anxiety regarding pain and haunting remembrance of past sins than I did with faith. I cannot attribute these graces to anything other than God’s providence.

Kamaron Wilcox is a junior at Hope College. He is majoring in Physics and Math with a minor in Religion and is a member of the diving team.

Welcome Students! Fall 2020

Welcome to all Hope College students, faculty, and staff! We are excited that you are here and look forward to seeing you all on campus as we kick off another school year.

Who We Are

The work of the Saint Benedict Institute is centered around the intellectual and spiritual growth of Hope’s Catholic students. We are a ministry of St. Francis de Sales Parish.

The two people you are most likely to run into at Hope College are our Catholic chaplain, Fr. Nick Monco, and Carly McShane, our campus missionary. Learn more about the Saint Benedict Institute staff here.

There are also a large number of Catholic faculty and staff. Dr. Jared Ortiz and Dr. Jack Mulder are two of the professors who founded the Saint Benedict Institute. We all work closely with the student group Hope Catholics.

Carly McShane, Campus Missionary

Fr. Nick Monco, Chaplain

Schedule of Services

Due to COVID restrictions, we are not able to gather for Mass on campus as we usually do. Still, Fr. Nick will offer Mass on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 12:05pm and Tuesday and Thursday at 11:05am.  The schedule and location for daily Mass is still being discussed and may change as the semester goes on.

Also, in Schoon Chapel in the basement of Graves Hall, you can visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament any time. It is a Catholic chapel that is always open for private prayer (and in normal times, the place where we hold daily Mass).

We will still hold regular confession times, prayer groups, and Bible Studies. The schedule here will be updated in the coming days; watch your email for updates.

You are also welcome to attend services at the local Catholic parish; see more information here.

Schoon Chapel Update

Chapel Restoration Delayed

The architectural plans for the transformation of Schoon Chapel into the Saint Anne’s Oratory are complete. The final “look” is impressive. Unfortunately, work stoppages imposed by the COVID quarantine have forced us to postpone the construction phase one year.  The new schedule has construction beginning and ending during the summer of 2021.

During the finalization of plans, we confirmed that the seating capacity of the chapel could be expanded as much as 50% by moving the back wall several feet.  It is a load-bearing wall, and this change along with other details that were not part of the original estimate have given us a more complete picture of final expenses. Thankfully, the special gift which we received last Fall still covers nearly 2/3 of all expenses.  This next year we will be raising funds to cover the last $100,000. 

Amanda working on St. Anne.

COVID disruptions also meant that the iconographer we asked to create 8 original icons for the chapel couldn’t get the materials she needed to start her work.  However, new baseboards have arrived from the Ukraine, and this part of the project is moving forward again.  It is hoped that most, if not all of the icons will be ready by next summer.

Patience Obtains All Things

Patience Obtains All Things

Two recent Hope graduates were received into full communion with the Catholic Church this past May. Each of them shared their thoughts regarding their reception into the Church several weeks before it took place.

It has been several weeks since the coronavirus interrupted normalcy, and I am surely not alone in confessing that I would prefer an abrupt end to the current stay-at-home lifestyle. I’m also probably not alone in admitting that if I were God, there would not be a pandemic. I would have snapped my glorious fingers by now and the world would be healed. At a time like this, however, I must remind myself that it is a good thing that God is God and I am me. I must also remind myself that the Lord works everything together for the good of those who love Him. 

This Easter season was set to bring unprecedented paschal celebration. I was scheduled to receive my First Communion on April 19th. I had been contemplating the mystery of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist in anticipation of this occasion. My hopes were high. What made it even sweeter was that I was entering the Church with one of my closest friends, and another dear friend was to be my sponsor. Because of the virus, this magnificent supper was postponed until Pentecost.

It is easy to look back and pout; the Lord did not give me what I wanted! I wanted a celebration, and I am instead receiving an invitation to grow in patience—probably the least exciting virtue to grow in. I have to trust that the situation I am in now is the very situation in which Christ is working all things together for my good.

During this time I have been developing a deeper passion for the crucifixion through an incipient love for the Mother of God. As a former non-Catholic believer, I have never opened myself to the gift of spiritual relationship with Mary. By diving into this gift, I have been preparing for the day when I get to consume the body and blood of my savior. I also have had the opportunity to read an incredible book called The Lamb’s Supper by Scott Hahn. This book completely altered my perspective of the Mass, and it is wild to think that I almost received the sacrament of Confirmation without this new perspective.

Brenner Wallace graduated from Hope College this May with a degree in Secondary Education. He recently moved to Memphis, TN to pursue a Masters of Urban Education with the Memphis Teacher Residency program.

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This season has been a season of waiting for many of us. I quickly realized, once everything shut down and graduation was upon me, that my life was always forward looking. I was so quick to embark on the next school year, the next job, the next day, whatever it was, that I often neglected, even loathed, the present. Ever since I turned in my last exam, I’ve been feeling like I’m staring at the world for the first time. I knew it was coming, but now it’s here, and the Lord has been teaching me a lot through it all, especially patience.

I decided during this past semester, through much prayer, discernment, and spiritual direction, to join the Catholic Church. Confirmation was supposed to be on April 19th, and here I am, still in a state of waiting; we’re all waiting and fasting. Many of you long to return to the Mass and I share your sentiments. (I miss Mass and I’m not even Catholic yet!) Having my first confession heard but being without the Eucharist is not the most encouraging Sacramental scenario to be in, but there is certainly good fruit to be had from these times for all of us.

Between joining the Church, graduating, saying goodbye to lifelong friends, starting new jobs, and living with new friends, my life is full of the temptation to be impatient. I’ve been praying for the grace to be patient, to be present, and to maintain inner peace at all times, no matter how mundane my season of waiting might be, or how excited I am for the next stage of my journey to unfold.

“Patience obtains all things.” -St. Teresa of Avila

Micah Stilwell is a Holland native who graduated from Hope this May with a degree in Business. He recently took a position with Hudsonville Ice Cream.

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.

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