The Aquinas Way - The Prayer Issue

the prayer issue AquinasW ay the

5

6

8

12

Publishers:

Fr. Mark Wedig, OP President

Fr. Michael Mascari, OP Vice President/Academic Dean

Fr. Patrick Baikauskas, OP Vice President for Institutional Advancement

Donna Thro Executive Director, Business Affairs

Editor-In-Chief: Bridget Kostello

Coordinator, Marketing and Communications

Editor/Writer: Joe Kenny

Designer: Gayle Bordlemay

Advisor/Contributor:

Steve Givens (Spiritual Direction, ’14), Member, Board of Trustees

Editorial Board:

Ezra Doyle

Coordinator, Center for Community Engagement and Evangelization

Erin Hammond Director of Development

Ali Meehan

Registrar and Coordinator, Academic Affairs

Samantha Messier Coordinator, Enrollment Management

Theresa Orozco

Coordinator, New Frontiers in Preaching

Diane Parker

Assistant Coordinator, Admissions and Financial Aid

Photographer:

Sid Hastings

To submit story ideas or to be considered to write reflections, book reviews or essays for future issues of The Aquinas Way, please email: kostello@ai.edu.

To submit alumni news and updates, please share at: ai.edu/alumni/update-your-info. Please email alumni photos to kostello@ai.edu.

The editorial staff of The Aquinas Way has made a sincere effort to ensure information contained here is accurate and correct. If your name has been misspelled or listed incorrectly, please contact Bridget Kostello at kostello@ai.edu. Thank you.

from the president

Dear Friends of Aquinas,

For us Dominicans, prayer encompasses a major part of our life. Prayer for members of the Order of Preachers is liturgical, devotional, private and personal, and integral to our study and preaching. In other words, prayer punctuates the everyday spirituality of Dominican life. In community we are wedded to the prayer of the Church through the Liturgy of the Hours, daily Eucharist, and the celebration of the sacraments as they pertain to our participation in ecclesial life. Devotional prayer whether it be the Rosary, Eucharistic devotions, pieties associated with our many saints, and other forms of popular religion always mirrors our intrinsic engagement of the People of God. And private prayer, which is found in the personal encounter of Christ, often mediated less through the words and images of public prayer and more in the immediacy of God’s presence in the silence of time apart, is an extremely important aspect of our life. To hand down to others the fruits of our contemplation, “Contemplata allis tradere,” as expressed by St. Thomas Aquinas, reflects the meeting place of the interior and exterior spiritual life in our call to constantly study and to bring our reflection to preaching.

This issue of The Aquinas Way provides a window into the multiple ways that prayer punctuates the life and ethos of Aquinas Institute of Theology. Our feature articles discuss how prayer comprises the practices, devotions, and interior life of faculty, staff, students, and alumni. Throughout the magazine we highlight how prayer is inherent and fundamental to our academic curricula and ministerial formation. We invite you to especially reflect with us on how your study of theology deepens your encounter with Christ and how we are all called to hand down to others the fruits of our contemplation.

As we continue to offer to our friends through this quarterly magazine reflection on the pillars of Dominican life, we invite you to send back to us your unique reflections, thoughts, and experiences of these pillars in your ministry and daily lives. We want to see The Aquinas Way become an important platform for building community among all our friends. We welcome your ideas and participation in this community project of spreading the good news of Aquinas Institute to others.

On behalf of Aquinas Institute of Theology, I want to express our great gratitude for your wonderful participation in and loyal dedication to our mission to preach, teach, minister, and lead. We especially hope that by way of this magazine, the many accomplishments and milestones of our alumni. Without all of you, our community of friends and benefactors, our good work for the flourishing of the Church could not be accomplished.

In St. Dominic,

Fr. Mark Wedig, OP President, Aquinas Institute of Theology

join us for a special series

ARE THE WINDOWS STILL OPEN?

Revisiting the Second Vatican Council 60 Years Later

April 8 / 6:30 p.m.

April 22 / 6:30 p.m.

Fr. Tom Esselman, CM: Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation: “Alive and Well” in Scripture and Tradition and the Sensus Fidei

Fr. Mark Wedig, OP: Liturgy and Vatican II: What We Have Learned in the Last 60 Years

Aquinas Institute of Theology

23 South Spring Avenue, St. Louis

To join us in person or on Zoom, please visit: ai.edu/ccee/events

Aquinas Institute of Theology

CENTER FOR COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND EVANGELIZATION

Aquinas Institute of Theology

NEW FRONTIERS IN PREACHING ACADEMY

Live and Proclaim the Word ~ Vive y Proclama la Palabra

Inquiry Sessions for 2025 Cohort

[all sessions held 7:00 – 7:45 p.m. cst]

Thursday, August 29

Thursday, September 12

Thursday, October 24

Black Catholic Hispanic Catholic

IN mIssed It case YOU 4

trivia night

January 19, 2024

Sponsored by the Student Services Committee, more than 70 people from Aquinas, Saint Louis University, Washington University, and St. Margaret of Scotland Parish attended the 2nd Annual Aquinas Trivia Night. Aquinas’s own Monica Cronin facilitated. Sixteen teams battled it out for bragging rights (and great glasses, as evidenced in the photo!) The winning team was Tri-State Area. Congrats to them!

the 40th annual aquinas lecture

January 25, 2024

The featured speaker for the 40th anniversary lecture was Fr. Nicholas Lombardo, OP, PhD, who presented “He Spoke to Them in Parables (Mark 3:23): Metaphor, Analogy, and Speaking a Word About God.” Fr. Lombardo is an Ordinary Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at The Catholic University of America. About 60 people attended the lecture, held, ironically, on the 25th anniversary of Fr. Lombardo’s only other trip to St. Louis, when he came to see Pope John Paul II on his whirlwind trip to the United States.

the new 2024 maps-cgs cohort

February 21-24, 2024

Welcome to the 2024 Master of Arts in Pastoral Studies–Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (MAPS-CGS) cohort! The newest cohort was on campus for their first intensive and took part in a theological reflection experience at the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (MOCRA), on the campus of Saint Louis University. Special thanks to MOCRA Director David Brinker for hosting and leading them!

PRAYER THROUGH PREACHING:

Students Celebrate The Aquinas

Jubilee

Last year, Fr. Gerard Timoner III, OP, Master of the Order of Preachers, announced a double jubilee in honor of our school’s patron, St. Thomas Aquinas, to commemorate the 700th anniversary of his canonization and the 750th anniversary of his death. This inspired the members of Aquinas Institute’s Student Services Committee to host an event that would showcase this great Doctor of the Church and the ways his works and insights are still applicable to the Church’s mission of evangelization.

Members of the broader St. Louis community were invited to enter into the Dominican life of prayer, study, preaching, and community, giving them a glimpse of the way Thomas Aquinas lived and the environment that formed him into such a great saint. In hosting the event, the Student Services Committee hoped to provide an opportunity for a profound encounter, not only with St. Thomas, but also with the God who so inspired him.

On the evening of March 1, nearly 80 people gathered at Aquinas Institute to celebrate the Aquinas Jubilee. Many were young adults from Saint Louis University, Washington University, and parishes throughout the archdiocese. The Jubilee opened with Solemn Vespers, introduced by Br. Juan Gabriel Seiglie, OP (MA-MDiv ’29), who explained its place in the Liturgy of the Hours. This form of communal prayer, practiced by Dominicans and other religious orders, uses

scripture, hymnody, and intercessory prayer to consecrate the day to God. During the liturgy, Aquinas Scholar Madison Williams (MAPS ’24) preached on a passage from the letter of St. James. She emphasized Aquinas’s humility, which was rooted in a recognition of his own brokenness, his need for others, and his receptivity to God’s grace; she concluded by encouraging participants to “ask God (for) a humble heart, a heart like St. Thomas, a heart united to the humblest heart of all, Christ on the cross.”

Two lectures from notable Thomistic scholars followed, highlighting the saint’s work on evangelization. First, Dr. Jennifer Sanders (pictured below), Mooney Professor of Catholic Studies at Saint Louis University, explained St. Thomas’s underlying theology. Starting with his image of the Trinity as Speaking, Word, and Listening, she built an understanding of preaching as conversation and deification. Fr. Raphael Christianson, OP, (pictured at right) incoming Master of Students for the Dominican friars in St. Louis, followed Dr. Sanders, using Thomas Aquinas’s Pentecost sermon as a model for the role of a preacher in today’s context. He noted that the Holy Spirit’s primary effect in a soul is to bring about

“ There is so much grace in praying with this community, I’m thankful to have been a part of it.”

— jubilee attendee

friendship with God; evangelization must also, therefore, be rooted in friendship.

“The lectures really connected well,” one attendee commented. “Dr. Sanders spiraled up, and Fr. Raphael brought it back down to earth a real exitus, reditus,” he continued, referencing the language St. Thomas himself used to understand the world’s relation to God.

To highlight the communal nature of Dominican life, the Jubilee featured a Lenten fish fry, catered by the nearby parish of St. Pius V. Attendees gathered in Ascension Commons for food and fellowship, heeding the call of St. Thomas to share the fruits of their contemplation. Br. Bernard Wierdak, OP (MA-MDiv ’28), commented, “Having the fish fry during the event gave us an opportunity to reflect together on how we encountered the Lord through the time of prayer and the lectures.”

The event closed as it began: in prayer. Attendees gathered in the chapel once more to pray Compline, which is the final gathered prayer opportunity of the day for Dominicans. Br. Juan Gabriel gave a brief introduction, where he emphasized the significance of the hour for Dominicans and its special place in the Order’s history. According to the Order’s tradition, Compline ended with chanted antiphons to the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Dominic, the Salve Regina and O Lumen

Although the Jubilee is over, its impact has only begun to be felt. “I continue to reflect with gratitude on the event,” Br. Bernard noted. Another attendee remarked, “there is so much grace in praying with this community, I’m thankful to have been a part of it.” This event was an ideal example of the Dominican heritage that makes Aquinas Institute so special. We pray that, through the intercession of St. Thomas Aquinas, the seeds of contemplation that were planted here will bear fruit for many in the time to come.

Meet Our Aquinas Scholars

master of arts in pastoral studies (maps) students

. , In Their Own Words

Madison Williams (MAPS ’24)

Why Aquinas? The Dominican aspect. My undergraduate university had a priory basically on campus where the Dominicans of the Southern Province are for their novitiate. Through that, I grew in a relationship with some of the friars. Also, being given the Aquinas Scholar Award aided me greatly.

Post-Graduation Plans: Religious Education

More about Madison: Madison currently works with Aquinas Institute’s close neighbors, the Congregation of the Mission (the Vincentians). In her first year at Aquinas, she was one of two students selected to give a response to Dr. Hosffman Ospino’s presentation, “The Church We Are: How Hispanics are Building and Rebuilding U.S. Catholicism.”

Sarah Kate Heyman (MAPS ’25)

Why Aquinas? Friendship with the Dominican student brothers drew me here and a desire to deepen in my faith and do ministry better.

Favorite Thing About Aquinas: Community, both with the laity and the brothers. Study is best when doing it with people who genuinely care about study and about studying with you.

More about Sarah Kate: She grew up on a tree farm, where they harvested trees. One harvest takes 15 years, so she has only seen one harvest in her life. She earned her BA in Catholic Studies from the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota.

The Atrium as a Place of Prayer

by clare heinrich (maps-cgs ’25)

What is the atrium?

The atrium is the term Maria Montessori used in reference to that intermediate space in the ancient Christian basilica where the catechumens gathered. She envisioned an environment for the religious formation of children and called the environment an ‘atrium.’ Montessori developed some of those first materials for the child, and then in 1954, Sofia Cavalletti and Gianna Gobbi began working with children and developed the method we know today as the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS). In CGS, the atrium is a prepared environment with beautiful materials for the child to use and enjoy.

The atrium is like a retreat house for the child. a

It is Monday afternoon in the atrium, and three children between the ages of six and seven approach the prayer table. Each brings with them a Bible from the Scripture shelf. They sit quietly on the floor and contemplate what they see before them: the low table covered with green cloth, the Holy Bible on a stand, a candle, and the statue of the Good Shepherd. Slowly, they open their Bibles to each find verses they love and begin to read them aloud.

Across the hall, in the atrium of the younger child, a fouryear-old proceeds to the prayer table. The child comes here to talk to God. She kneels on a pillow in front of the prayer table, folding her hands in front of her and squeezing her eyes closed. After a moment, she lovingly takes the Holy Bible from the prayer table. Even though she cannot yet read, she quietly opens and ponders this most precious book.

Prayer is one of the ways in which God communicates with us. Prayer can take shape in a variety of ways, whether it be formal texts of the Church, acts of service to our communities, or simply sitting in silence with our God. In the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd atrium, the child enters into “a place of prayer, in which work and study spontaneously become meditation, contemplation, and prayer” (The 32 Points of Reflection, number 3). With Christ as their sole teacher, the children are invited to work with their hands and use their work as an opportunity to listen to the Word.

In the atrium, the child listens to the kerygma, the proclamation of the Good News. The child can meditate upon that announcement and work with beautiful materials. The design of the atrium corresponds to the child’s developmental needs and allows for freedom of movement. The atrium is a specially prepared environment for the child. The furnishings are child-sized, and the materials are accessible and easily handled by the child. The materials themselves are attractive to the child, beautiful in their simplicity. They are “poor,” providing the opportunity “to allow the richness of the themes’ content to shine through” (The 32 Points of Reflection, number 18).

Prayer is the aim of the atrium. Everything we do in this space is aimed toward helping the child enter more deeply into their relationship with God.

Special care is given to the environment for the prayer table, which includes an honored place for the Holy Bible. There is also an area dedicated to the model altar, with small sacred vessels and areas for Baptism, biblical geography, the Kingdom of God, the Last Supper, and gestures of the Mass. The child can see and touch the real, tangible components like the model altar, the liturgical calendar, and the mustard seed while also contemplating intangible mysteries like the blank page and Parousia. The child’s work with this material easily becomes meditation and prayer. Prayer is the aim of the atrium. Everything we do in this space is aimed toward helping the child enter more deeply into their relationship with God.

What makes this prepared environment a place of prayer?

It is in this space where the child hears the Word of God proclaimed and has the time and space to respond to that announcement. It is a place of listening to and responding to God. An element aiding prayer in the atrium is silence. There is not prayer without silence.

In CGS, the exercises of silence are important in nurturing the child’s capacity for prayer. These exercises are not imposed on the children by the adult, as if the room is too noisy and we need to be quiet, but rather an opportunity for the child to be aware of their own body and their own breathing. Following the silence exercise, the children will share (because of their stillness) they were able to hear the clock ticking or sounds in nature outside the window or footsteps walking down the hallway. The experiences of silence allow the child to become aware of their own self, of others in the atrium, and of their environment. It nurtures a sense of inner peace and leads to a greater capacity for listening to God. Sofia Cavalletti said every time we open the Bible, we come face to face with Someone who wants to speak to us.

There are additional elements that aid to the prayer life in the atrium we will not be able to unpack in this article. Avail yourself to visiting an atrium near you so you may see how the child is drawn to the beauty and simplicity of this space.

Read more about Clare (and her mother) on page 31.

a life lived in prayer:

Exploring the Journey of Growing in Communion with

by fr. charlie bouchard, op

rayer is an element of virtually every religious tradition.

It is based on the assumption that there is me, and then there is another, namely God. Prayer is an attempt to bridge the gap between me and God. The Catechism, quoting St. John Damascene, says prayer is the “raising of one’s mind and heart to God or requesting of good things.” St. Augustine said prayer is “nothing but love,” and also that it is the way God prepares our hearts for the things he gives us.

So fundamentally, prayer is trying to recognize and connect with God and others. But there are many definitions and many different kinds of prayer. My first memories of prayer are connected with going to Mass at the little rural church where I grew up. When I would get impatient and move around too much, my Dad would say to me, “Sit still and pray.” I had no idea what that meant. We were in church and I thought we were praying. But at least I quieted down and waited for it to be over!

Later I began to understand petitionary prayer, “requesting good things,” and that prayer might be useful for getting something you wanted. My first focused prayer of petition was for a bicycle. I recall exactly where I made that fervent prayer, on a wooded hill above a creek in northern Wisconsin. I probably tried to bargain too, by offering God something in return. I did get the bike, but I am not sure it was because of the power of prayer!

Still later I remember begging God for a good result on a medical test when I thought I might have a serious illness. At that point I had at least learned to give thanks when I got favorable test results. I had also begun to see that prayer was not just about getting something, but about exchanging my own selfish, narrow will for God’s will. That is a very hard lesson to learn, and I am still learning it.

Since then, I have learned that there are many different reasons we pray. Sometimes I have prayed for understanding, especially when I was faced with what seemed to me to be a pointless and painful loss. That was true the year my father and two close friends died within a few months of each other. At times like that my prayer took the form of tears rather than words.

Other times, I have prayed for guidance and clarity to help me make a decision. During one sabbatical, I spent several months researching the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. I had read that they were an important element in Dominican spirituality, but I didn’t know much about them. I learned that they were subtle promptings or whispers that work alongside our more rational deliberations. The challenge of the Gifts is to pray by listening very closely, especially to our emotions, to discern where the Spirit is leading us.

Prayer can also arise from sorrow or regret. I went through periods in my life where I got more or less obsessed with past sins, and I wallowed in sorrow, or maybe better, self-pity, as I asked God to take those sins and memories of them from me. Unfortunately, that never happened, but I have been able to put those regrettable deeds in the perspective of my whole life. Prayer helped me see that I

can’t undo things I wish I had never done, but I can forgive myself and open the door to God’s forgiveness. Prayers of solidarity have become very important to me. This kind of prayer is what happens when I say to someone, “I will pray for you.” Sometimes I am promising to pray for something very specific, such as a safe birth or a job offer or a happy death, but above all I am promising to be with someone, especially when there is nothing else I can do. These prayers of solidarity draw other people into my relationship with God so that I create a kind of trinity of love. I lived in Chicago for several years and took public transportation to work. I would sit on the train and look around me. I would see lots of different people: prosperous business

people headed for downtown jobs in finance, banking, or real estate; nurses on their way to the large medical center that was on my way; painters and brick masons on their way to construction jobs; a parent taking a child to school. I got into the habit of wondering which one of those people needed my prayer most that day. I would pick out one, sometimes a homeless person, sometimes one of the business people, sometimes a harried mother, and I would close my eyes and pray for them. They never knew about my prayer, of course, and I usually never saw them again, but at least for a few minutes I tried to be in solidarity with them, to pray for their happiness and for courage as they faced the trials of the coming day.

The Body at Prayer

As a Dominican I have spent countless hours in chapel, standing, sitting, bowing, kneeling, and singing as part of my prayer. This liturgical, or common prayer, is a big part of our lives, and it is one of the reasons I joined the Dominicans. I like to pray with others, and I like the movement, the uniform habits we wear, and the ritual and music that sustain that kind of prayer.

Our community lived with the Jesuits for many years. We had our own chapel, but we often encountered Jesuits on our way to prayer. One day when we were all hurrying into chapel for morning prayer, one of the Jesuits asked me, “What do you guys do down there?” I laughed and said, “We pray.” Jesuit spirituality is famous of course, but it does not include as much liturgical prayer as Dominican life does. They have other practices like the examen and the Spiritual Exercises that are profound but do not require the kind of community exercise found in our frequent trips to the Chapel. The puzzlement of my Jesuit friend still reminds me of the variety of ways in which we can build our relationship with God. Our personalities often lead us to favor one way over another.

St. Dominic prescribed what are called the Nine Ways of Prayer. Each of these involves a different bodily posture, up to and including lying prostrate on the floor with one’s arms extended. Of course, such movements are not necessary for authentic prayer, but they are one way of demonstrating that we seek God heart and soul, body and spirit. I am always reminded of this when I see a Hasidic Jew at prayer, wearing the typical black suit and hat with prayer shawl and swaying back and forth rhythmically to include the body in prayer.

“ I have spent countless hours in chapel, standing, sitting, bowing, kneeling, and singing as part of my prayer. This liturgical, or common prayer, is a big part of our lives, and it is one of the reasons I joined the Dominicans.”

In the nearly 50 years I have been a Dominican, my prayer has evolved. I know more forms of prayers, everything from high church liturgy to silent meditation during a plane ride. But the most important thing I have learned is that prayer must be rooted in gratitude. We have to pay attention to what God is doing and give thanks for it. A friend who is a spiritual director and a therapist has helped me learn to take explicit notice of moments of grace in my life. When I experience the satisfaction of a friendship, or a moment of generosity, or a feeling of accomplishment, he says, I should “stop, drop, and savor.” I try to do that at the end of the day, but also at random moments when I know I have been touched by grace. This is one thing we can teach children as they learn to pray. First, take stock of the good things in life, and then, savor them and give thanks.

Whatever kind of prayer is most appealing to us, we should make it a habit. Not a nervous habit, the things we do almost unconsciously (which often annoy others), but a carefully cultivated “habitus,” doing it over and over again till it becomes second nature, part of who we are. I’m still working at that.

Fr. Charlie Bouchard, OP, is an Aquinas graduate, a former president of Aquinas, and is currently a Senior Fellow and adjunct professor. He is an expert in Catholic moral theology and served for many years as Senior Director of Theology and Sponsorship for the Catholic Health Association of the United States.

Climbing the Mountain:

Different Experiences Along the Journey of Prayer

by bridget kostello

Aquinas Institute community members share various stages of their prayer journeys — from student to grandmother, from newly ordained to emeritus.

Monica Cronin (ma ’24)

Prayer is something you live.

A current student at Aquinas Institute preparing for her graduation in May, Monica Cronin has truly had a long and winding road to Aquinas, one directly influenced by prayer. Growing up as a practicing Catholic whose faith was primarily intellectual, she found the popular ministerial saying, “the journey from the head to the heart is the longest you will ever make,” to be true to life.

During her undergraduate studies, she experienced a radically transformative experience while in prayer. Even while still very intellectual about her relationship with Christ, she attended a training program run by The Evangelical Catholic that was part conference, part retreat. It was there, through prayer and Scripture, that she first truly entered into that conversation with someone she knew deeply loved her and wanted to be in her life Jesus Christ.

Continuing to discern what she wanted in her life, she studied for her first master’s degree in Wales in the field of international politics. With a small, scattered Catholic community where going to Mass meant a 45-minute walk, she turned more and more to prayer to help her faith survive the hypersecular environment in which she was living. She did find God in the beautiful Welsh countryside, where the majesty of nature encouraged her faith as well.

Monica’s journey has seen stops and starts, radical spiritual transformation coupled with the longing to know more about why we as Catholics believe what we believe, a marriage of head and heart and soul.

She has found that prayer life goes through seasons just as life does, but prayer is simply having a conversation with the Beloved who loves you. The greatest school of prayer is just to pray and to allow that prayer to transform you.

Prayer, she says, is not simply an obligation that is a box that gets checked off it is showing up for Christ as He continually shows up for us. It is putting in the time and effort even when not “feeling it.” It is making the commitment to listen as well as pray. It is attending to the most important relationship anyone can have, and all relationships require time and effort to survive. The heart of obligation is love for the other person, as married people, friends, children, or parents.

She summarized it perfectly, saying that prayer, at its heart, is to share your life with God.

Fr. Jordan DeGuire, OP (ma-mdiv ’23, ordained 2023)

Prayer is reaching toward that heart-to-heart between us and God. Resting in the love of the Lord is love itself.

Put on the habit, become the “expert.” When asked if things have changed for him since being ordained and becoming Chaplain and adjunct professor of theology at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Fr. Jordan DeGuire laughed and recalled a story from early in his time as a novice.

After two months as a novice, while at the Catholic grade school he visited for one day each week, he was asked to do some counseling with students. Panicking at the thought of having to impart wisdom, he negotiated his way through advising some students regarding bullying.

It was an early lesson of how putting on a habit meant being approached as a kind of wise expert on moral and theological issues. That life, for him, began with the rosary.

A habitual prayer life was not part of his world until later in his teens, he recalled, when he was drawn to the structured prayer of the rosary. For Fr. DeGuire, it was the rosary that drew him into a rich prayer life and the Order of Preachers. Wherever he has been in his life and journey, the rosary is a constant for him.

Not only the prayers of the rosary have affected him, but the mysteries as well. He related the example of the last Joyful Mystery, when Joseph and Mary find Jesus in the temple. He said being invited into their experience of anxiety, stress, uncertainty, and then overwhelming joy has helped him to find God in his own experiences with those same feelings.

Silent, contemplative prayer was also something he experienced first as a brother, not something with which he had previously had a great deal of experience. He has learned he can listen, that he doesn’t have to figure it out on his own despite the myriad of everyday distractions. Now he knows he can merely pray, “God, here I am. This is where I’m at. Be with me.”

He said that learning to recognize that Jesus loves us, and being able to fall in love with Him, is something prayer helps to accomplish.

He explained that, even in distraction, even when prayer and God are not the foremost things on his mind, the great promise is that, in the midst of merely being who he is, Jesus shows up and wants to be with him and his brothers. In all the prayers—liturgical, contemplative, devotional, etc.--Jesus is present.

When asked if he now has more of a conversation with God rather than just the structured prayer of the rosary, he asserted that it is one that opens him to another. Structured prayer such as the rosary is what helps invite that conversation with God.

Much like Monica Cronin, Fr. DeGuire discussed the relationship between people and God by stating that prayer is how we live out friendship with God. It can’t be a great friendship when we don’t show up until we are really “feeling it.” It’s about showing up for God as God shows up for us. To accomplish this, he recommended making a commitment to spending time with God, whether a daily rosary, daily readings, mass, etc., and then showing up, trusting that God is already at work there.

Angie Doerr (maps ’06)

Prayer at this point in life is conversation and listening in silence.

Angie Doerr is currently a Board of Trustees member of Aquinas Institute and a tireless worker for advancing the mission of Aquinas. especially through her work with the annual Great Preacher Award. Most importantly, though, she is a grandmother.

As a grandmother, she sees her role as helping her grandchildren to find a life of prayer. She loves to be at Mass with them, to pray before bedtime with them, and to be excited for them as they receive their First Reconciliation and First Communion, etc. As she relates, faith is more caught than taught, and she considers modeling that faith to be a gift.

She says she couldn’t have done that without her time at Aquinas. She feels that she blossomed spiritually here, a gift that happened after she had raised her children. It is why she considers her role to help her grandchildren find prayer as so important.

But her life in faith and prayer wasn’t always so strong. She grew up, as many did, in an age that taught an authoritative, judgmental God, and she went through all the stages of prayer: the rote recitations, the penitential prayers, the petitionary prayers, etc., until she began to understand that prayer is about a relationship with God.

She explains that prayer becomes this trust in hope that God is not just present but with us, and everything will be okay in any given situation because of His presence and love for us. Prayer becomes telling God what we are struggling with; it is only with that trust and hope and belief that we can hear the answers.

We have to go beyond understanding that God loves us. Living in hope and trust, she explains, means having to accept that He is with us, regardless of whether we feel it.

She once received a priceless piece of advice from a spiritual director to imagine, during prayer, that Christ is sitting right next to you. He loves you and wants to be with you. That knowledge makes prayer life richer and more calming.

Doerr says prayer changes her; it changes her heart and makes her more of who she wants to be. Prayer softens her heart when she is challenged to pray for those she doesn’t like or who don’t like her. It may not always possible to change a relationship, and rarely to change people, but prayer helps to soften the heart and mind and to give grace.

With her enthusiasm and love for God, it is highly unlikely that she will not pass these things down to her grandchildren.

Fr. Harry Byrne, OP (professor emeritus; great preacher award honoree, 2020)

Prayer happens at morning coffee with God.

After almost 50 years as a priest and having retired several years ago after 40 years at Aquinas Institute, including establishing and directing the Spiritual Direction program at Aquinas, Fr. Harry Byrne, OP, is fighting a foe quite familiar to people—cancer, specifically mesothelioma.

But he is doing so with the strength that most who know him would expect of him, the quiet strength of faith.

He even describes the three weeks he was in the hospital late last year as a kind of retreat. Although not quiet— hospitals never are—he found time to think, pray, and reflect. He wasn’t thinking about or trying to explore death and dying, he says. The biggest thing he focused on was how he wants to live the rest of his life. He looked at his life and how he has lived, what values he held, and what values he hasn’t always lived up to.

Fr. Byrne continues to ask God for guidance in how to do that, how to be engaged with things he really values and wants to share with others.

He relies less on devotional or formulaic prayer now, and instead experiences more of a conversation with God. He explains that about 10 years ago, when he was having his morning coffee on the patio, he felt someone else in the chair across from him; he knew it was God. Now, he has his daily morning coffee with God. In that setting, he says it feels more like two old friends sharing that time together and talking about life. Fr. Byrne doesn’t dismiss more traditional types of prayer, but for him, just having that conversation with God is what matters most now.

He says he can say anything to God. He can question God. Fr. Byrne may not hear audible responses, but finds answers to those questions that he knows are from God.

When asked if he would want more people to move into conversation with God instead of having a more structured prayer life, he explains that he wouldn’t push people to give up what works for them. In fact, he says it has taken many years to get as fully to where he is now, although he relates it also didn’t hurt for him to have a rosary in his pocket when he was traveling to Europe and the plane had engine trouble. He said the rosary over and over until they landed safely.

One of the riches of the Catholic tradition is the number of and kinds of prayer it offers to deepen a relationship with God, where one learns to listen rather than think he has all the answers. Fr. Byrne refers to it a “prayer smorgasbord.” The more types of prayer, the better, he continues.

He talks about how one can find prayer in art, music, and nature; nature takes him into reflection on beauty and memories. He continues that it is easier for beauty to draw us into prayerful reflection, wherever we find it. When he has walked through a museum and found a piece of art, religious or not, that speaks to him, it takes him to a prayerful state. Fr. Byrne thinks God uses everything to communicate His presence and gift to us, and we should value what puts us into reflection on and conversation with Him.

The conversation and relationship offer him solace and encouragement as he fights this difficult foe.

The four prayers from The hearT To God

Class of 2024

Commencement

Friday, May 10, 2024

Baccalaureate at 11 a.m.

Commencement at 7 p.m.

Commencement Speaker: Rafael Luciani, PhD, STD

Associate Professor of the Practice Professor Extraordinarius

Clough School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College

alumni perspectives

On Music & Art as Prayer

by bridget kostello

Music As Prayer with Orin Johnson (MA ’08)

Orin Johnson is a rock star. Instead of being one that trashes hotel rooms and destroys guitars onstage, he spreads the Word of God through the music he plays, directs, and composes. And he doesn’t really have groupies, unless you count the people in the St. Margaret of Scotland parish, who embraced him more than a year ago when he replaced a well-respected predecessor.

You see, Johnson is a liturgical rock star--far from being self-indulgent, self-aggrandizing, and eager for fame and fortune, he is thoughtful, erudite, and eloquent. With an MA in Choral Conducting, he is not only an organist and pianist, but a chorister, choral conductor and published composer.

From his early grade school days in tiny Tyler, Minnesota, when he first recognized that the music during Mass changed during different seasons, and that the music

was connected to the readings, to his time at Harvard University, where he learned the finer points of picking the music and understanding why certain songs were chosen at certain times, the pursuit of music was (almost) always the goal. It just took him a little longer to discern if sacred music was his calling, or if he wanted to pursue a career in high school or college music education.

However, it wasn’t until he got to St. Louis and was working at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows that the Assistant Director recommended that it was time for him to consider furthering his theological education. A friend of his recommended Aquinas, and he graduated with a Master of Arts in Theology in 2008. Johnson says that the study of theology enriched his experience of music. While studying music opened a different way for him to understand music, studying theology did that with the lyrics of hymns. It unlocked a universe of understanding and interpretation; in the creative process, he says it has unlocked different avenues of creativity.

It is this knowledge that makes Johnson fascinating to listen to when he discusses how music can enrich prayer life. He says that if the poetry that is sung is paired well with music, which is its own language, spending time in communication with God happens in a way that is unlike any other type of prayer. Sometimes the music is the language that speaks more than the words.

He continues, adding that it is a different experience listening to music as opposed to being part of the creation of it. He uses the example of a pipe organ, which offers a real and tangible aspect to worship that an electronic organ doesn’t and can’t. The sound of the wind rushing through the pipes echoes the wind sweeping over the Red Sea or the fanning of the flames of Pentecost. The music is the sound of resonance in the air and is a language in and of itself. Expounding, he offered that any computer can play static and the same every time, but it’s people that give music soul. If humans are created in the image and likeness of God, or, as St. Paul puts it, temples of the Holy Spirit, if we are the Church building in which the Divine comes to

dwell, the creativity and expressiveness that God showed from the first moments of creation is one of the things that any artist can bring forth in that creative process. Choices that affect what the art is affects what the communication is, and that all affects how you are spending time with God in prayer.

How you spend time with God is like choosing how you spend time with a friend. You could be out playing tennis (active) or enjoy watching a movie (more passive); even watching movies on the couch at home is different than attending a showing in a theatre. All experiences are different, but it’s all about spending time together, growing in relationship. Spending time with God is to grow in relationship with Him, no matter how you choose to spend the time.

Johnson, more often that not, chooses music as that time with God—music as prayer.

Johnson’s book, Incarnate in Word and Song: Exploring Music in Liturgy and Life, was published late last year. Please see our Reading List on page 30 learn more about it.

Art as Prayer with David Brinker (MAPS, ’10)

Why do we picture God as an old man? Why do we picture St. Paul with a horse?

Art.

Besides oral tradition, visual representation is one of the primary ways humans have attempted to understand questions of God and faith.

The Museum of Contemporary Religious Art’s (MOCRA) Director David Brinker (MAPS ’10), who describes himself as having an “accidental” museum career, is a pastoral musician who served for more than a decade as the Associate Director of Music at St. Anselm Parish.

As an English and music major at Saint Louis University, Brinker first came to know about Aquinas through his involvement with the St. Francis Xavier College Church choir and Fr. Frank Quinn, OP. He helped out with music for the summer Preaching Institutes. Then, several years later, when Brinker was considering graduate school, Mike Garrido encouraged him to consider Aquinas. The Master of Arts in Pastoral Studies (MAPS) program proved a good fit, balancing academic studies with lay spiritual formation

and practical experience through the supervised practice of ministry.

He has fond memories of Aquinas, mentioning former Aquinas professor Catherine Vincie as a primary mentor whose classes emphasized the connection between worship and the arts; the late Fr. Dan Harris, CM, the homiletics professor who taught him to speak plainly and get to the point without obfuscation; and Sr. Carla Mae Streeter, OP, who introduced Brinker to the work of Bernard Lonergan, SJ, and is an outstanding modeler of interfaith dialogue.

While he wasn’t planning on a museum career, Brinker had been interested in the visual arts since childhood. While still an undergraduate at Saint Louis University, he volunteered to help out with a conference at the newly opened MOCRA. In 1995, he began working part-time at the museum, which led to a full-time role as Assistant Director. When MOCRA’s founding Director, Terrence Dempsey, SJ, retired in 2019, Brinker became MOCRA’s second Director.

MOCRA is the first museum to focus on the spiritual and religious dimensions in contemporary art, understood expansively and inclusively. Some people might be

surprised to think of contemporary art in this way, but MOCRA’s Founding Director, Terrence Dempsey, SJ, saw things differently. A central principle of Ignatian spirituality is finding God in all things. For Fr. Dempsey, a Jesuit priest, visual art is a key point of encounter with the divine, and MOCRA became a way of inviting others into that experience. For Brinker, this idea of encounter is key to MOCRA. It’s not only a place for visitors to encounter art, but also a place of encounter with other understandings of spirituality and religious practice.

Brinker noted that people often ask him how he decides what art to display at MOCRA and what makes it “religious.” He explained that, at least when it comes to the Western European art tradition most familiar in American churches, some art is made for liturgical use. Since this work serves the public worship of the Church, artists have a responsibility to reflect the teachings and traditions of the faith (even if they occasionally push some boundaries). This type of artwork follows certain conventions so that it can be “read” by the faithful.

Related to liturgical art is what Brinker calls devotional art. This would be art intended to inspire personal prayer and spirituality. It might be found in books or as prints or paintings meant to hang in the home. This type of art tends to follow the same models as liturgical art and so might be described as fairly “traditional.”

Visual imagery has long been connected with contemplative prayer. In recent years there has been a renewed interest in a practice called visio divina, which follows the rhythm of the familiar practice of lectio divina. In visio divina, an image (most typically depicting a narrative episode from scripture), serves as the focus of reflection and an opportunity to listen for God’s voice speaking through the art.

Brinker notes that visitors to MOCRA might experience the art in many different ways. For some it might be primarily an aesthetic experience, like one they might have in any art museum. But MOCRA welcomes visitors to open themselves to a deeper experience of contemplation and even prayer with the work on display. Brinker recently modeled one way of approaching art in this way with the Master of Arts in Pastoral Studies—Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (MAPS-CGS) new 2024 cohort.

The reflection begins with the selection of an artwork— Brinker suggests that works that either strongly draw our interest or that we strongly dislike often produce fruitful reflection. If possible, there’s no substitute for being in the presence of the actual artwork, but a printed reproduction or an image on a screen might be more accessible. As with any form of contemplative prayer, find a setting and posture that allow you to settle and focus. Breathe. Perhaps begin with a brief prayer or invocation of the Spirit for insight.

Next, begin by asking, what do you see? This could be narrative elements, or colors, or textures, or materials used to make the work. Don’t try to explain what they mean at this point. Just look, then look again. If it’s helpful, you can jot down notes in a journal, or make a sketch.

As you look, also pay attention to how you are responding to the work. Do you have any sort of emotional response, or maybe just a gut reaction to it? Does it cause you to relax or tense up? Are there any random associations coming to mind? Again, don’t judge or analyze, just note.

After spending a good amount of time looking and looking again, begin to speculate about possible meanings. Don’t worry about whether you are getting it “right.” If there’s a narrative image, do you recognize the story? If you do, what is similar to or different from the way you’ve seen the story visualized before? Are there associations for the colors used? How do the materials used affect what you see?

If there’s background information available (perhaps a brief biography of the artist, or commentary about the work), you could take this into account and combine it with your own reflections. Again, this process is not about arriving at a “right” answer.

Now, after all of this looking and reflecting, is there one particular aspect of the artwork that you keep returning to? Some particular detail, some unusual way of representing a character in the story, some personal experience you are connecting with the work? Spend some time with this one point of focus. Is God speaking to you through it? Is the Holy Spirit at work? Allow yourself time for reflection.

To conclude, spend a moment in gratitude for the art, the artist, and for insights received.

It is a prayerful journey, one inspired by art.

Aquinas faculty, specifically Ann Garrido, DMin, and Carolyn Wright, DMin, would like to take this opportunity to thank David Brinker for his time and use of MOCRA for the theological reflection.

Five Steps for Finding the Right Spiritual Director

by steve givens

One of the most common concerns for anyone seeking spiritual direction is how to go about finding one that is a good fit. Most retreat houses and parishes maintain a list of local directors, and there’s even a well-known, online, searchable-by-zip-code guide published by Spiritual Directors International.

But there are so many choices. So where should you begin?

Perhaps the best advice is this:

Don’t start with a list. Start with yourself.

Step One: Know What You Want and Need

As you begin the process of finding a person to accompany you on your spiritual journey, ask yourself a few key questions that will ultimately help inform your decision:

h Why am I seeking spiritual direction right now?

h What am I looking for in a spiritual director?

h Do I care if that person is a man or a woman, a Catholic or a Protestant, a lay person, an ordained person, or a person in religious life?

h Am I looking for any special areas of expertise or interest in my director?

Step twO: Pray About It

Next, pray with your answers to these and other questions that may arise in you. Ask God to help lead you to the right spiritual director for this moment in your life. Linger over your responses. Ponder and imagine what a sacred and prayerful spiritual direction relationship might look and feel like for you. a

Step three: Do Your Research

Begin this step by asking others who you know and trust to make recommendations. Talk to your pastor, your campus minister, your deacon, or perhaps a friend who is already engaged in receiving spiritual direction. What you’re looking for at this point is not a name but an annotated list or directory that will give you some basic information about those available. Where did they receive their training?

How long have they been doing this? Do they have specific interests, life experiences or areas of concentration? Having such a detailed list will help you quickly narrow down your choices.

Step FOur: Narrow Your Search (and Pray)

Once you have narrowed your search, begin reaching out by email or phone to a short list of possible directors who seem like they might be a good fit. Ask if they are accepting new directees, where they hold their sessions, what their fees are, and if they offer a free introductory session. If the answers to those questions meet your own needs and criteria, set up a time to meet with several of them, either in person or via Zoom. During that session, you should be asked many of the questions you considered and prayed about earlier, and you’ll have the opportunity to question them about their experiences and approaches to spiritual direction. After, ask yourself:

h Did I feel comfortable with this person?

h Did I feel listened to and understood?

h Did I feel like this relationship could be a sacred space?

“After the interviews, it’s most important to pray about the experience, asking the Holy Spirit to lead you to the spiritual director that will companion you into spiritual growth,” says Lucia Signorelli, (Spiritual Direction, ’15). “The spiritual director should be faithful to and serious about the spiritual life and the ministry of spiritual direction. He or she should be a person of prayer, extensive formative reading, and deep listening to the Holy Spirit. We usually know ‘real’ when we see it or meet it.”

Step Five: Jump In

When it comes down to it, there may be no such thing as “perfect fit” in a spiritual director, and we can’t know how good that fit is until we fully enter into the relationship.

“Finding a director is a process of exploration,” says Clarence Heller, (MAPS ’04, Spiritual Direction ’05). “We try our best to find a good fit, one who is like us — the same denomination, gender, spirituality, etc. — but that is no assurance to fit. There are benefits of being companioned by someone who is similar to you, but there are also opportunities created by our differences.”

In the end, choosing a spiritual director — like so many matters related to our lives of faith and spirituality — is a leap of faith. It is crucial to enter into the relationship fully and then be as open, courageous, and honest as possible. And remember that the real work of spiritual growth happens not one hour a month with your spiritual director but by drawing closer to God in prayer each and every day.

five steps for finding the right spiritual director

Steve Givens (Spiritual Direction,‘14), is an Aquinas Board of Trustees member and is Executive Director of The Bridges Foundation, which brings Ignatian Spirituality and the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola to everyday life for those who live in the Greater St. Louis area.

alumni

Fr. Michael Nagle (CGS ’10) retired from Good Shepherd Parish on Martha’s Vineyard in August of 2022. He says he “is enjoying retirement – helping out in local parishes in Port Orange and Cape Cod.”

transitions & passages J De Profundis

V: Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord: R: Lord, hear my voice!

in memorium

To learn more about an individual, click their name.

William (Bill) Hoey Sr. (HCM ’12)

July 16, 1957 – February 16, 2024

Chief Mission Integration Officer at St. Vincent’s Medical Center/Hartford Health, and former Catholic Charities leader in the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Hoey passed away at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Bridgeport. He was 66 years old. He had received his Master of Arts in Health Care Mission from Aquinas in 2012. Sister Jeanne (Mary Jeanne) Parrish

September 28, 1924 – February 16, 2024

Sister Jeanne attended Aquinas Institute when it was located in Dubuque, Iowa. She entered the Daughters of Charity in St. Louis in 1943. She served in many different capacities in education and spiritual direction throughout her life. She was 99 years old.

V: Let Your ears be attentive to my voice in supplication:

R: If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, Lord, who can stand?

V: But with you is forgiveness, that you may be revered.

R: I trust in the Lord; my soul trusts in his word.

V: My soul waits for the Lord; more than sentinels wait for the dawn.

R: More than sentinels wait for the dawn, let Israel wait for the Lord,

V: For with the Lord is kindness and with Him is plenteous redemption

R: And he will redeem Israel from all their iniquities.

R: Let us pray: O God, creator and redeemer of all the faithful, grant to the souls of your servants and handmaidens the remission of their sins, that they may obtain by our loving prayers the forgiveness which they have always desired. You who live and reign forever. Amen

Reading List

Click on the book title to read more and/or to purchase. While we provide the link to the publishers’ sites, these books may be available for purchase on other sites as well. Descriptions provided are taken directly from the publishers.

Redeeming Power: Exercising the Gift as God Intended 12 Lesson for Catholics Who Lead (Ave Maria Press, 2024)

By Ann Garrido

Catholic theologian Ann M. Garrido— author of the bestselling and award-winning book Redeeming Administration—continues her work on Christian leadership by examining power not as a manipulative force in short supply but as Jesus understood it: an abundant good meant to be shared and put to use for the sake of harmony and holiness.

In Redeeming Power, Garrido helps you develop a spirituality of power by considering the skills and personal qualities that will enable a healthy and holy use of power in your role as one who leads. Garrido explores key passages from the creation stories of Genesis where we find the roots of how Jesus understood power. She shows how God shares divine power with all humans and calls leaders to specific ways of exercising power that will benefit the people and institutions they serve.

Preaching Racial Justice (Orbis Books, 2023)

By Rev Gregory Heille, OP; Rev Maurice Nutt, CSsR; and Deborah Wilhelm

Preaching Racial Justice conveys the urgency of Christian antiracism preaching from ecumenical, intercultural, and intergenerational perspectives. In addition to being a

handbook for preachers, Preaching Racial Justice can readily serve as a textbook for ecumenical schools of theology and ministry, as well as for discussion groups among congregations looking for insightful theological and practical ways of understanding race, racial justice, white supremacy, white privilege, white fragility, racial oppression, black suffering, #blacklivesmatter, racial and personal reconciliation and healing, or beginning the necessary process of dismantling racism within the Church and society.

Lying and Truthfulness: A Thomistic Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2022)

By Stewart Clem, PhD

Incarnate in Word and Song: Exploring Music in Liturgy and Life (Liturgical Press, 2023)

By Orin E. Johnson

“Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing,” Jesus says at the beginning of his public ministry. The work of the Divine is made present to those listeners in God’s Word Made Flesh. Still today, this sort of encounter with Christ must be paramount in all activities of the Church: liturgy, evangelization, catechesis, and conversion. By bringing music into dialogue with preaching and living the Word in our daily lives, we learn how we can better recognize Christ around us and help make His presence, his truth, and his love more tangible to all those who hear our voice and observe our acts of loving kindness.

In this book, Stewart Clem develops an account of truthfulness that is grounded in the Thomistic virtue of veracitas. Unlike most contemporary Christian ethicists, who narrowly focus on the permissibility of lying, he turns to the virtue of truthfulness and illuminates its close relationship to the virtue of justice. This approach generates a more precise taxonomy of speech acts and shows how they are grounded in specific virtues and vices. Clem’s study also contributes to the contemporary literature on Aquinas, who is often classified alongside Augustine and Kant as holding a rigorist position on lying. Meticulously researched, this volume clarifies what set Aquinas’s view apart in his own day and how it is relevant to our own. Clem demonstrates that Aquinas’s account provides a genuine alternative to rigorist and consequentialist approaches. His analysis also reveals the perennial relevance of Aquinas’s thought by bringing it to bear on contemporary social and ethical issues.

In Honor of Mother’s Day

An Aquinas Mother-Daughter

Alumni-Student

Spotlight

We were proud to feature Clare Heinrich’s article “The Atrium as a Place of Prayer” in this issue, but did you know Clare and her mother Mary both have very similar ties to Aquinas?

When she was nine years old, Clare, her mother Mary, and her father Kurt made their first of three consecutive summer trips to St. Louis. The reason? Mary Heinrich had enrolled in the first Master of Arts in Pastoral Studies–Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (MAPS-CGS) cohort that began in August of 2006. Summers were times of Mary’s week-long intensives.

Mary graduated from Aquinas with her MAPS-CGS degree in May of 2010. Following graduation, she continued to serve in parish ministry as Director of Faith Formation in the Catholic Church, while also serving on the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd USA (CGSUSA) Board of Trustees (2009-2016). After seven years on the board, Mary was hired by CGSUSA as Membership Coordinator.

Clare followed in her mother’s ministerial footsteps and is currently the Coordinator of Elementary Faith Formation at St. Cecilia Catholic Church in Ames, Iowa. There, she coordinates the traditional and Catechesis of the Good Shepherd faith formation programs, as well as Sacramental preparation for First Reconciliation and First Holy Eucharist. As a child of the atrium herself, she is trained and is currently a catechist in Levels I and II and is in formation for Level III.

But Clare’s trips to St. Louis weren’t done yet. More than 15 years after her mother started her degree program at Aquinas, Clare enrolled in the MAPS-CGS 2022 cohort; she will graduate in 2025.

Thank you to Mary and Clare, and all of our other mother-daughter duos, for making Aquinas a family experience! Everyone at Aquinas would like to wish all mothers a Happy Mother’s Day!

COMING JUNE 2024

AquinasW ay the

COMMUNITY ISSUE

Do you have an Alumni Update? Keep us up to date.

With continued gratitude to the members of our Board of Trustees:

Daniel L. O’Brien Chair

Barbara Thibodeau Vice-Chair

George Avila

Jennie Weiss Block, OP

Fr. Wayne Cavalier, OP

Fr. Vincent Dávila, OP

Fr. Augustine DeArmond, OP

Angie Doerr

Mary Etrick

Steve Givens

Mary L. Hill

Lucie F. Huger

Fr. Patrick Hyde, OP

Fr. Roberto Merced, OP

Fr. Louis Morrone, OP

Brian P. Reardon

Harry (John) Sauer

Br. Joseph Trout, OP

Kristin Tucker

Fr. Mark Wedig, OP

Dr. Carolyn Wright

Brian Yanofchick