Hard to believe we are two weeks into Lent and have already begun the fourth quarter of the school year! What’s more, Daylight Saving Time just stole another hour. While I can’t complain too much about driving home now and getting to see the sunset, the message this season is abundantly clear: time is fleeting.
In high schools, it is especially evident. Seniors who, just 3 and ¾ years ago were wide-eyed freshmen, are seasoned veterans planning for prom and making decisions about which college to attend. The transformation is nothing short of miraculous. Science tells us that the high school years are second only to the first 18 months of life for human brain development, and second also in physical development. Students grow corporeally and intellectually before your very eyes.
As faculty and educators, what an honor and a privilege (and extremely humbling) it is to walk beside these talented and determined young people who are defying the odds to find upward economic mobility for themselves and their families. It is inspiring and grace-filled to accompany them during these few, transformative years of their life-long journeys.
For the beginning of Lent, Ash Wednesday, CRSM has established a tradition of starting the day with a completely student-led prayer service. We use the Taize prayer format that began in France during the dark days of WWII. It is a meditative worship practice intended to foster a contemplative atmosphere of prayer and reflection. Taize incorporates repetitive music, scripture readings, intentions, and a long period of silence. Everything about it is intended to help slow things down.
So, it is a bit ironic that at this point in the year when time is accelerating almost beyond control, we are called to slow down, take stock, and reflect on our soul purpose, isn’t it? Yet, that is exactly what we should and need to do; and, yes, “soul purpose” is precisely the right term.
It is difficult to describe the incredibly profound experience of sitting in CRSM’s cafeteria with nearly four hundred students, faculty, staff, and visitors (remember 100 students are out at their worksites in the Corporate Work Study Program) when the period of silence comes. When I say a period, I do not mean a minute or two minutes; I mean seven minutes or more! I encourage you to set a timer for seven minutes and then sit in complete silence and prayer. It’s not easy! But, come to CRSM on Ash Wednesday and experience it together in a giant room with hundreds of people, most of whom are normally squirrely, restless, impatient teenagers.
Imagine sitting there with all those young people in a 100,000 square foot building and hearing the soft hiss of the ventilation system, the low hum of traffic on Belvidere Road outside over 100 yards away, and the softened buzz of a commercial jet flying 30,000 feet over head. To say you could hear a pin drop borders on understatement. A cough, or occasional sniffle occurs but is rare. You are immersed… enveloped… swaddled in an overwhelming silence. The sense of peace and shared harmony with one another and the world is deep and moving and memorable.
When the silence is over and the prayer service ends, there is a palpable regret that we all can’t just keep flowing through this plenum of belonging and togetherness.
Some of the announcements after prayer included reminders from our Campus Ministers about our regular community service opportunities at Feed My Starving Children, St. Anastasia’s Soup Kitchen, Big Brothers Big Sisters at Glen Flora Elementary, and the Broadview Prayer Vigil for families of immigrants facing deportation.
As students walked back to classes, you couldn’t help but be reminded of the duality of our existence. We all are still floating in that powerful spiritual plenum we just experienced while simultaneously back to engaging in the noisy busyness of this life. Hopefully, a little more certain of our spiritual essence despite the human uncertainties life throws at us; a little more composed in the chaos because we were brought closer to our soul purpose… not just as individuals but as a community. Our prayer was not a singular experience but a communal one. We are in this world together and called to bring God’s Kingdom to fruition in the here and now.
AP exams are around the corner. Finals and end-of-term projects are coming due. Busyness is with us; it’s part of being human. The Jesuit mystic, Teilhard de Chardin is purported to have said, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings immersed in a human experience.”
This earthly experience is a short one – even for high schoolers who have their whole life ahead of them. Lent reminds us that we are called to be contemplatives in action. Making the most of this immersive and imperfect earthly experience by loving one another and lifting one another up – including strangers, immigrants, the homeless, marginalized, and destitute – by sharing our gifts to make this world a better place for everyone. That really is our “soul purpose.” ¡Viva Cristo Rey!