Salena Ibrahim– Detroit, Michigan
As a Jesuit Volunteer, I learned a lot about living in community—how to navigate hard conversations, decide which movie to watch, and DIY house maintenance—all in the midst of pre-COVID-19 vaccines and partially working from home. While community living (and learning quick-fixes for random house issues) taught me a lot about myself, it was also the first place I re-discovered the meaning of accompaniment. The university ministry office where I volunteered was the second place God further surprised me with new understandings of accompaniment, social justice, ministry, and faith. Ultimately, this led me to discern and respond to the invitation of studying theology at the CSTM.
Just as I was committed to social justice advocacy during JVC, I’m also engaging it in my studies at the CSTM and future ministry (something I’m still discovering). While I miss engaging in more traditional “hands-on” ministry, I need to first grapple with my own questions of life and faith before accompanying others. Most importantly, studying at the CSTM gives me the opportunity to ask these questions alongside others. Here, I’m learning how to allow others to accompany me, too, as we embark on a mysterious journey towards deeper and more authentic living. Answering the call to study theology at the CSTM has been both enriching and challenging, and I trust that it will prepare me for whatever comes next.
Kerry Shortell – San Jose, California
“They’re just so special, so… so chosen,” my supervisor and now wonderful friend Kelly reflected two summers ago, delighting in the group of students with whom I would soon be working through my JVC placement as a campus minister at Cristo Rey San Jose Jesuit High School. I soon found that chosen was a most apt description for my students; one could not help but bask in their goodness, admire their hunger for justice, and cherish their tenderness and vulnerability during a school year that upset so many of their hopes and expectations for high school. Equally compelling, I found in my new school community a very special kinship arising from the universal dedication of its staff to forming each student and loving them in the fullness of who they are. This inexplicable sort of resonance between mission, commitment, and praxis animated the life of the community and convinced me in no uncertain terms that yes, there was a glorious chosen-ness to CRSJ.
I hope many of my other fellow FJVs would recognize this resonance I describe, the cohesion and soulfulness of loving and mission-oriented communities, in their respective placements and casas. It was certainly something that, once experienced, I knew I could not be without. I could not imagine life without my individual housemates or coworkers, of course, but more than that I could not fathom being without the challenges and joys that come from sharing time and space with others who dream of and work to incarnate a more just world, or who could expose me to perspectives I have not yet encountered, or who believe wholeheartedly in the goodness of one another. Intangible as it is as a qualifier, I knew that this rare element of chosen-ness in a community—of profound kinship, of some kind of grace—would need to be present in order for me to feel fulfilled going forward. Fortunately, I made my way to the CSTM, whose academic life has, in much the same way as my JV year did, invited me to re-examine my own life experiences through all new prisms. Likewise, its community life has energized me and allowed me to feel at home.
Now a year out from my JV experience, I sometimes sit in class wondering at my fellow classmates, with their unique passions and gifts. I stumble through my vocabulary, trying to force into existence a word that will sufficiently capture their gloriousness and the gratitude I have for them and for this community. “Chosen” is the closest I can come.
Luis Melgar – Andahuaylillas, Peru
While the prompt was to reflect on how my time with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC) influenced my call to study at the CSTM, strangely enough, I believe that the reverse is also true. My brief exposure of the CSTM prior to serving helped solidify my deep desire to pursue theology. At the time, I was a senior at the University of Scranton dead set on becoming a Jesuit Volunteer internationally. Through the invitation of a friend who was thinking about attending the Clough School of Theology and Ministry (CSTM), I was encouraged to visit and sit in on a theology class to consider my time after the experience.
It was excellent advice because my experience of welcome, intellectual engagement, and community at the CSTM that day gave rise to a strange sense of familiarity and joy within me—feelings that I would later associate with Saint Ignatius of Loyola’s understanding of consolation. I was very cautious with these feelings, however. I noticed how many students spoke about their experiences in service and ministry at some distance from their time in those spaces. I felt that my visit served as a teaser trailer for things to come beyond JVC.
Ultimately, I would apply, accept, and defer my acceptance to the CSTM. This decision helped me remain attentive to Spirit’s movements throughout my time in Andahuaylillas, Peru, savoring all that came with the life of a volunteer. To this day, much of what I write and reflect on draws on my time in Peru and the priming from my initial visit.
I try—to the best of my ability as a procrastinator—to begin assignments by writing, pausing, and later revisiting my work so that it is able ferment, breathe and eventually be savored.