Immersion Trip 2015: Franciscans of the Eucharist

By Daniel Karlovich, Hope College '15, Engineering Major

During Spring Break this year I was blessed to go on the Hope College Immersion trip sponsored by the Saint Benedict Forum to Chicago. With 10 other Hope students and two adult mentors from St. Francis de Sales Parish in Holland, Michigan I lived and worked at the Mission of Our Lady of the Angels alongside members of the religious order Franciscans of the Eucharist of Chicago. It was a powerful and blessed experience for us all.

A View of the Hope Students from Chicago's Famous "Bean"

During the course of the week we learned to live simply like the Franciscans. A significant part of the trip was spent doing simple tasks such as cooking and cleaning. We quickly learned from the sisters that even such “boring” chores take on great meaning when done with joy and love for Christ.

We also ventured into the community in which we were living. Inside one of the poorest and most violent neighborhoods in Chicago, we spent a few hours every day at the local YMCA with the children in their after school programs. Helping teach a junior class at the local high school, a school with a 67% dropout rate, was particularly powerful for many of us. We also visited a Catholic school, Cristo Rey, and learned about all the wonderful work they are doing to help underprivileged children get a good high school and college education.

All these great things were secondary to what the trip was mainly about. The trip was about self-reflection, learning what it means to live as a Christian in a broken world. It was here that the trip made a lasting impression on me.

I don’t think this trip was easy for anyone. We all were blessed by our experiences, but it wasn’t comfortable. It was a week of both great joy and great sorrow. Joy seemed to just flow from the sisters and it influenced our whole week in our work and in our relationships with each other and the people we met. What a contrast to the pervasive sorrow caused by the poverty and violence that was so prevalent and normal in the neighborhood and in the lives of those we met. Living for a week in an area of so much violence and poverty made all of us ask questions of ourselves and of God that we perhaps had never asked before.

What were these questions? We questioned what purpose was there to come into these people’s lives for a week and then leave. How could we change anything in so short a time against such overwhelming odds? We also questioned ourselves, where are we in our own spiritual journeys? Where is God in our lives?

Some of these questions are easy to answer. Immersion trips are aptly named because we really do not go to help others. We cannot change anything in a week. We go to learn about ourselves and to deepen our own understanding and love of God. In this aspect, this trip succeeded. Some of us left hopeful despite all the struggles. Others left frustrated. It wasn’t the frustration that comes from failure, but the frustration of struggling with a hard question that taxes us spiritually and mentally, but which always leaves us better for the struggle.

For me, being in the midst of so much violence and poverty left me feeling more hopeful than I have in a while. Despite the conditions of the neighborhood, I found so much good there. All the residents we met were loving and welcoming. The kids were a constant joy to be around. The YMCA employees worked tirelessly to get the kids off the streets, to do their homework and have a hot meal. And, of course, there are the sisters who are respected and loved within the community, doing everything with so much abundant joy and love for God. I realized that despite the evil in the world there are so many people who go about their lives humbly and lovingly in the midst of suffering, helping those in poverty both spiritually and physically.

It is always good when facing hard questions to draw on the wisdom of other godly people. In the car ride home one of the girls, like the rest of us still struggling to come to terms with all we had experienced, read a reflection on St. Veronica. The message was clear, “sometimes all we can do is wipe the sweat from someone’s brow as they suffer” (Kerry Weber, Mercy in the City).

Before the trip we may have said we went to help the poor, but we are wiser now. Like St. Veronica, the best we could do was to wipe the sweat from those in pain as an act of love. The real change came in our own hearts.

Interview with Catholic World Report

Co-founders Jared Ortiz and Jack Mulder were recently interviewed by Carl Olson of Catholic World Report.  They spoke about the founding of the Saint Benedict Forum, their vision, and their plans for the future.  You can read the full interview here.

Advent Retreat: Preparing for Christ

Nativity Icon

Advent is a time to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ. On Saturday, December 6, the Saint Benedict Forum hosted a retreat to help all of us get ready for Christmas. Students and parishioners enjoyed an abundant breakfast spread before listening to a beautiful talk by Dr. Jack Mulder on the meaning of waiting, suffering, and adoption.  Dr. Jared Ortiz also offered a reflection on what Advent and Christmas might look like through the eyes of Mary.  After each talk, students and parishioners shared personal thoughts and experiences on the themes of the talks.

There was a holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament during which two priests were available for confession.  The retreat ended with Mass.

Two Talks on Prayer

Three times a week, one thousand Hope College students gather to praise God and listen to a meditation on Scripture. Recently, co-founders, Dr. Jared Ortiz and Dr. Jack Mulder, were invited to speak on prayer.

Dr. Ortiz spoke on "The Meaning of Prayer," October 24, 2014.

Dr. Mulder spoke on "The Name of Jesus," October 29, 2014.

Director Jared Ortiz Featured in FAITH Magazine

FAITH Magazine recently ran an article on Jared Ortiz, Director and Co-founder of the Saint Benedict Forum.  The article discusses the gory details of Ortiz's conversion story as well as how the Saint Benedict Forum came into being.  Well worth a read, though not for the faint of heart. Read the whole story here.