Today marks the halfway point for the first week of classes, which is also the day of opening convocation, which is also one of my favorite activities of the year. For those of you who do not know about this awesome program, it is the Mass celebrated by most of the students, faculty, and staff on campus. However, it does not stop there. Bishop Kevin Rhoades, Bishop of the Fort Wayne South Bend Diocese, celebrated Mass and the Sisters of Saint Francis of Perpetual Adoration and the Board of Trustees attended Mass with us as well. Basically all the people who make it possible for us to be here, and to be able to learn in this environment,were all here.
I found Bishop Rhoades’ homily to be very profound, as he was talking about the opportunity, and in some ways the responsibility, we have as a Catholic University. Our education is not only about learning facts and figures about our majors, but to learn about the truth. He wants us to keep that truth with us when we go into the world of work.
Sister Elise got up on stage after Mass and talked about how we can fulfill the value of the year which is “Encourage a trustful, prayerful community of learners.” She recommended things like having daily prayer in the classroom, before meetings and group activities all the way to our daily personal prayers. I find that to be an awesome idea and something we, as student body, ought to demand happen. For that to be the case though, for that to happen, it needs to happen first with ourselves. Then it can spread to the rest of the University. As our Patron Saint said, “Preach the Gospel at all times, use words when necessary.”
One more thought for today: I was reading somewhere that St. Francis went to one of his followers and said, “We are going to go out to the streets to preach today.” The follower was so excited because he would get to see St. Francis preaching. When they went out, they just spent all day out in the streets. They did not say one word. That night they returned to the monastery and St. Francis said, “Whew, that was a full day of preaching.” The follower asked when they had done any preaching. Saint Francis said, “All day we preached through our example.”
I found this to be extremely humbling because, even as children, we learn actions speak louder than words.
