A Frame for Freedom: Submitting to Truth as Creatures of the Creator

A Frame for Freedom: Submitting to Truth as Creatures of the Creator

Monday, October 12, 2020
7:00PM - 8:30PM EDT
Registration required

On Monday, October 12th at 7:00 p.m. EDT, the Saint Benedict Institute will co-sponsor "A Frame for Freedom: Submitting to Truth as Creatures of the Creator," a live streamed conversation with Dr. David P. Deavel. Hope College's Markets & Morality student organization will host this webinar.

This event is free and open to the public. Please register to receive log-in information at: https://forms.gle/9DCvFFmeqJmhsUVv6.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1970) famously fought for the freedom of the Russian people trapped under the steel boot of the Soviet regime, which ruled by a combination of lies and brutality. Dr. David Deavel will argue that the biggest lie the Soviet rulers told themselves and the people was that the old limits of the natural law did not apply. The “good” and the “true” were what was good for the state. Needless to say, no “beautiful” can thrive in such a situation.

This lecture will probe Solzhenitsyn’s understanding of the importance of recognizing our creatureliness. We are not God; we stand under justice and we are bound by truth. Only when we recognize our limits as people and as nations and “live not by lies” will we find the good society that communist utopias can never even approach.

Dr. David P. Deavel is editor of “Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture” and a visiting professor at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.  The 2013 winner of the Novak Prize, he is co-editor, with Jessica Hooten Wilson, of the book “Solzhenitsyn and American Culture: The Russian Soul in the West,” forthcoming later this fall.

This event is hosted by Markets & Morality, cosponsored by the Department of Political Science and the Saint Benedict Institute, and generously supported by the Acton Institute.

Saint Benedict Seminar: Courtship, Marriage, and Sex

Saint Benedict Seminar: Courtship, Marriage, and Sex

In today's society, there is very little instruction about how to navigate the world of love and romance. Saint Benedict Institute co-founders Jack Mulder and Jared Ortiz invited current Hope College students to join them October 22 and 29, 2020 for a two-week Saint Benedict Seminar on Zoom, “Courtship, Marriage, and Sex.” Jared Ortiz (Religion) and his wife Rhonda Ortiz (author) will lead the first seminar on courtship.  Jack Mulder (Philosophy) and his wife Melissa Mulder (Spanish) will lead the second seminar on marriage and sex.

This seminar is open to current Hope College students. Registration is required. Please use the links below to sign up for each lecture.

Week 1 (Oct. 22): “What is Courtship?” with Jared and Rhonda Ortiz

Week 2 (Oct. 29): “Sex and Theology of the Body” with Jack and Melissa Mulder

Expanding the Archive: Syriac Literature and the Study of Early Christianity Today

Expanding the Archive: Syriac Literature and the Study of Early Christianity Today

Thursday, October 1, 2020
8:00 p.m. EDT

Join us at 7 p.m. CDT/8 p.m. EDT on Thursday, October 1st as we cosponsor a Zoom webinar with the Lumen Christi Institute. Dr. Erin Walsh will present “Expanding the Archive: Syriac Literature and the Study of Early Christianity Today,” a lecture in the fall webinar series Eastern Catholic Theology in Action. The Saint Benedict Institute is a cosponsor of this event series.

This webinar is free and open to the public and no preparation is necessary. The event will be presented on Zoom (registration required), as well as through live-stream on YouTube. For more information and to register for this webinar, click here.

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Erin Walsh is Assistant Professor of New Testament and Early Christian Literature in the University of Chicago Divinity School. She studies ancient and late antique Christianity with a focus on Syriac language and literature, and received her Ph.D. from Duke University. Her current research focuses on the reception of biblical literature and the growth of asceticism within the eastern Roman and Persian Empires. Dr. Walsh is working on a book project examining the Nachleben of unnamed New Testament women in Syriac and Greek poetry, highlighting the work of Narsai of Nisibis, Jacob of Serugh, and Romanos Melodos. She teaches and writes upon a variety of topics in New Testament literature, the history of Biblical interpretation, Syriac language and literature, embodied practices, religious poetry, and multilingualism in the late antique and early Byzantine east. She is an affiliated faculty member with the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality and the Joyce Z. and Jacob Greenberg Center Jewish Studies at the University of Chicago. During the 2018-2019 academic year, she was a Junior Fellow in Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection of Harvard University. Professor Walsh also serves as the Executive Editor for Christianity at Ancient Jew Review, a non-profit web journal devoted to the interdisciplinary study of ancient Judaism.

Eastern Churches, Latin Territories: Ecclesial Catholicity and the Notion of Diaspora

Eastern Churches, Latin Territories: Ecclesial Catholicity and the Notion of Diaspora

Thursday, September 24, 2020
8:00 p.m. EDT

Join us at 7 p.m. CDT/8 p.m. EDT on Thursday, September 24th as we cosponsor a Zoom webinar with the Lumen Christi Institute in collaboration with the Godbearer Institute. Father Alexander M. Laschuk will present “Eastern Churches, Latin Territories: Ecclesial Catholicity and the Notion of Diaspora,” a lecture in the fall webinar series Eastern Catholic Theology in Action. The Saint Benedict Institute is a cosponsor of this event series.

This webinar is free and open to the public and no preparation is necessary. The event will be presented on Zoom (registration required), as well as through live-stream on YouTube. For more information and to register for this webinar, click here.

According to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, all Eastern Catholic Churches have same rights and obligations as the Latin Church and are equal in dignity. They also share the obligation to preach the Gospel to the whole world. At the same time, the jurisdiction of the Eastern Churches is circumscribed to the notion of canonical territory. Inside this territory, the hierarchy has certain rights, while outside this territory there are numerous limitations. The talk will first discuss the notion of the Church sui iuris and the understanding of the Catholic Church as a communion of Churches. Second, it will then examine the idea of canonical territory in the Catholic Church. Historical roots of the juridical concept will be examined before looking at the current theological and canonical expression. Finally, the notion of canonical territory as currently existing will be critically examined, with special attention to the conciliar teachings as well as ecumenical implications.

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Father Alexander M. Laschuk (J.C.D./Ph.D. University of St. Paul Ottawa) is interim director of Sheptysky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies at the University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto. He is also the Judicial Vicar of the Toronto Regional Tribunal moderated by His Eminence Thomas Cardinal Collins and parochial vicar at St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church (Toronto). A member of the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation, his research interests are ecclesiology, history of canon law, penal law, and sacramental law.

Christ the Lover of Mankind: Philanthropia, Mystery, and Martyria in Eastern Christianity

Christ the Lover of Mankind: Philanthropia, Mystery, and Martyria in Eastern Christianity

Thursday, September 17, 2020
8:00 p.m. EDT

Join us at 7 p.m. CDT/8 p.m. EDT on Thursday, September 17th as we cosponsor a Zoom webinar with the Lumen Christi Institute in collaboration with the Godbearer Institute. Professor Robin Darling Young will present “Christ the Lover of Mankind: Philanthropia, Mystery, and Martyria in Eastern Christianity,” the third lecture in the fall webinar series Eastern Catholic Theology in Action. The Saint Benedict Institute is a cosponsor of this event series.

This webinar is free and open to the public and no preparation is necessary. The event will be presented on Zoom (registration required), as well as through live-stream on YouTube. For more information and to register for this webinar, click here.

Three features are common to all Eastern Christian traditions—philanthropia, mystery, and martyria. They appear repeatedly in Eastern Christian writing, ritual, and personal practice from the preaching of Jesus to the present. Philanthropia, God’s love for humanity, prompts the mission of the Logos to provide for humanity’s return to the divine. Mystery, which paradoxically reveals and conceals, both in ceremony and in “ordinary” time, the Logos’ saving events. Martyria is the sign and demonstration of God’s beckoning love and the replication of the “priesthood of all believers.” Dr. Young will explore these themes through examples, not only from the Greek and Slavic traditions, but also from those of the Christian traditions of the East, the Caucasus and Ethiopian Christianity.

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Robin Darling Young (B.A., Mary Washington College; M.A., Ph.D., University of Chicago) is Associate Professor of Spirituality at the Catholic University of America. She has published and lectured widely on topics in the history of early Christianity and its thought, including the areas of scriptural interpretation, the history of asceticism and monastic thought, and the Christian cultures of ancient Syria and Armenia. Professor Darling Young is currently preparing an annotated translation of the Letters of Evagrius of Pontus from the surviving Syriac translation for the Fathers of the Church series (CUA Press), and directing a translation team that will produce English translations from the Greek texts and Syriac translations of the same author’s Gnostic Trilogy (Praktikos, Gnostikos, Kephalaia Gnostika) for Oxford University Press. She is the current president of the North American Patristics Society.

A Theology of Wonder: An Introduction to the Poetry of Ephrem the Syrian

A Theology of Wonder: An Introduction to the Poetry of Ephrem the Syrian

Thursday, September 10, 2020
8:00 p.m. EDT

Join us at 7 p.m. CDT/8 p.m. EDT on Thursday, September 10th as we cosponsor a Zoom webinar with Dr. Andrew Hayes. Dr. Hayes will present “A Theology of Wonder: An Introduction to the Poetry of Ephrem the Syrian,” the second installment of the fall webinar series Eastern Catholic Theology in Action. The Saint Benedict Institute is a cosponsor of this event series.

This webinar is free and open to the public and no preparation is necessary. The event will be presented on Zoom (registration required), as well as through live-stream on YouTube. For more information and to register for this webinar, click here.

St. Ephrem is the common teacher of the Syriac theological tradition whose preferred medium is poetry. Named a doctor of the Church by Benedict XV, Ephrem emphasizes that the ascetical and mystical experience of wonder is the criterion for authentic theologizing. Dr. Hayes will discuss how Ephrem’s notion of wonder purifies our freedom and rendering the whole person a clear and luminous receptacle for the experience of God.

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Andrew Hayes (Ph.D. Catholic University of America) is Division Dean of Liberal Studies and Associate Professor of Theology at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. Dr. Hayes conducts research on Syriac patristics and on related theological and literary traditions. Syriac, a dialect of the Aramaic language, serves as the vehicle for a major tradition of Christian literature and culture in the Near East, from the early period until today. He specializes particularly in asceticism, spirituality, and theological poetics in the thought of St. Ephrem the Syrian (4th century). He has published and presented research in the areas of the early Syriac authors, Jacob of Serugh and Philoxenus of Mabbugh (both 5th–6th century).

The Vesting of Jacob Mazur-Batistoni

The Vesting of Jacob Mazur-Batistoni

Jacob Mazur-Batistoni (front center) among the six novices who were vested in the habit of St. Dominic on Sunday, August 16, 2020 with the Dominican Friars Central Province. Photo Source: Dominican Friars Central Province—Vocations Page

On Sunday August 16, 2020, Hope College alumnus Jacob Mazur-Batistoni (‘20) was vested in the habit of St. Dominic and began his Novitiate with the Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Albert the Great. During his career at Hope College, he was an active member of our campus ministry, served as a leader for the student group Hope Catholics, and worked with high school students in the ALPHA program at St. Francis de Sales Parish. Brother Jacob has been featured previously in one of the Student Stories on our website. Read the reflection here that he wrote during the fall semester of his junior year. Considering this past school year and what our campus ministry meant to him during his senior year, Jacob told us this summer:

“The time spent with Fr. Nick in 'virtual spiritual direction' during this lockdown has been helpful! As my time at Hope came to a close, Fr. Nick made time to talk to me about future plans and encouraged me to keep praying in the midst of the stress.”

We celebrate this joyful occasion with Brother Jacob and will pray for him as he continues to discern his vocation. Visit the Dominican Friars Central Province—Vocations Facebook page to see more pictures.

Introduction to Liturgical Mystagogy

Introduction to Liturgical Mystagogy

Thursday, September 3, 2020
8:00 p.m. EDT

Join us at 7 p.m. CDT/8 p.m. EDT on Thursday, September 3rd as we cosponsor a Zoom webinar with Dr. David Galadza. Dr. Galadza will present an “Introduction to Liturgical Mystagogy,” the first installment of the fall webinar series Eastern Catholic Theology in Action. The Saint Benedict Institute is a cosponsor of this event series.

This webinar is free and open to the public and no preparation is necessary. The event will be presented on Zoom (registration required), as well as through live-stream on YouTube. For more information and to register for this webinar, click here.

From the fourth to eighth centuries, liturgical commentaries flourished to explain the meaning of the sacramental life of the Church. Notably after the fourth century, the tradition of Jerusalem developed another genre for mystagogy, namely hymnography. As part of the structure of the liturgical services, they explain to the faithful what is happening during the services, rather than before or after the celebration. In this way, hymnography has an exegetical function, commenting on scripture and the mystery of salvation in Christ. Dr. Galadza will explore this hymnographic tradition and its relation to the formation of liturgical theology.

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Deacon Daniel Galadza (S.E.O.D Pontifical Oriental Institute, Rome) is currently a fellow at the Centre for Advanced Studies at the University of Regensburg and a member of the Patriarchal Liturgical Commission in Kyiv. Dr. Galadza’s research focuses on the historical development of liturgy, particularly the Byzantine Rite, as well as modern and contemporary Orthodox and Eastern Catholic worship and church singing. His book, Liturgy and Byzantinization in Jerusalem, was published by Oxford University Press in 2018.

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.