2018 SENIOR SERVICE PROJECT JOURNAL Regis Jesuit High School Boys Division January 8 19, 2018

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1 2018 SENIOR SERVICE PROJECT JOURNAL Regis Jesuit High School Boys Division January 8 19, 2018 Today our prime educational objective must be to form men and women for others; men and women who live not for themselves but for God and his Christ men and women who cannot even conceive of love of God which does not include love of the least of their neighbors men and women completely convinced that love of God which does not issue in justice for people is a farce. -from Men (and Women) For Others by Pedro Arrupe, S.J. This Journal Belongs To: Service Project Site: Service Site Supervisor: Phone: Regis Jesuit Site Supervisor: Phone: This journal is due to my Regis Jesuit site supervisor by Friday, January 26, I will write in it every day during Service Projects. I will write legibly and will spend time reflecting and writing every day, including weekends Senior Service Project Journal 1

2 2018 Senior Service Project Journal 2

3 Sunday, January 7 Tomorrow you will begin your first day at, your service project site. What are you thinking and how are you feeling about the week ahead? What are you looking forward to during the two weeks of Service Projects? About what are you most anxious, nervous or fearful? What are some of your assumptions about the staff, your supervisor, and the population you will be serving? At this point, what do you hope to learn about others and about yourself during Service Projects? 2018 Senior Service Project Journal 3

4 Monday, January 8 After your first day of service at your service site How was your first day? What did you do? What kinds of activities/tasks did you take part in throughout the day? What is your supervisor like? How are you feeling? Please explain. Overall, does this seem like it will be a good fit for you? 2018 Senior Service Project Journal 4

5 Autographs from or names of the people I have met and cherished at my service site Throughout the next 2 weeks, take the opportunity to have the adults and children (if applicable) sign your journal. Invite them to write you a personal note. If you aren t comfortable asking for autographs, be sure to document the names and important stories of the people you have met who have impacted you at your site Senior Service Project Journal 5

6 Tuesday, January 9 Reflect on your day. What stood out today? What set today apart? What are your specific job requirements? In what ways will this give you direct contact with the people you are serving? Write about someone that you met that has made an impression on you during these first two days at your site. Share about how you met, your first impressions, what this person is like, why they made an impression, etc Senior Service Project Journal 6

7 Quotes quotes quotes Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat. Mother Theresa Love casts out fear, but we have to get over the fear in order to get close enough to love them. Dorothy Day The feeling remains that God is on the journey, too. St. Teresa of Avila Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to his beloved is that of overcoming self. St. Francis of Assisi It is not the magnitude of our actions but the amount of love that is put into them that matters. ~Mother Theresa Charity is no substitute for justice withheld. -St. Augustine 2018 Senior Service Project Journal 7

8 Wednesday, January 10 FREE WRITE Please choose one or two of the quotes on the previous page on which to reflect in light of your life, your service project site, and those you ve encountered thus far. Highlight or circle the quote you are choosing so your RJ site supervisor knows your selected topic Senior Service Project Journal 8

9 Make an appointment to meet with your site supervisor while you are on Service Projects. Interview him/her to find out more about your particular placement... Consider asking the following questions and write the responses on this page: What is the history of your agency or program? In other words, how did it get started? What are your agency s or program s primary goals? How is your agency funded (private donations, fundraisers, government help)? How difficult is it to get enough money for all of their programs? How have they been impacted by the current state of the economy? Does your agency feel that the federal or local government is doing enough to meet the needs of the people that your agency is serving? Why? 2018 Senior Service Project Journal 9

10 Thursday, January 11 Reflection on Human Dignity...Whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where humans are treated as mere tools for profit, rather than as free and responsible persons; all these things and others of their like are infamies indeed. They poison human society, but they do more harm to those who practice them than those who suffer from the injury. The Church and the Modern World, #27 The human person is the clearest reflection of God s presence in the world; all of the Church s work in pursuit of both justice and peace is designed to protect and promote the dignity of every person. For each person not only reflects God, but is the expression of God s creative work and the meaning of Christ s redemptive ministry. The Challenge of Peace, #15 At the center of all Catholic Social Teaching are the transcendence of God and the dignity of the human person. The human person is the clearest reflection of God s presence in the world; all of the Church s work in pursuit of both justice and peace is designed to protect and promote the dignity of every person. For each person not only reflects God, but is the expression of God s creative work and the meaning of Christ s redemptive ministry. The Challenge of Peace, #15 When we deal with each other, we should do so with the sense of awe that arises in the presence of something holy and sacred. For that is what human beings are: we are created in the image of God (Gn 1:27). Economic Justice for All, #28 On the next page please reflect on the following questions in light of the above quotes and your time at your Service Project site. What challenges and realities present in the world today pose the most serious threat to human dignity? Have you witnessed any of these challenges at your service site? Why is human dignity such a central principle upon which all the other social principles depend? Catholic social teaching tells us that our dignity does not come from the work we do, from our social positions, or from what we have, but from the fact that we are all children of God, beloved by our Creator. What structures or values present in the culture prevent us from recognizing the dignity and worth of others in our society? Have you witnessed any of this at your Service Project site? What actions, attitudes or practices can you commit yourself to that will promote respect and reverence for the dignity of those you deal with on a daily basis at your site and in your everyday life? 2018 Senior Service Project Journal 10

11 Please use this page to reflect on your responses to the above questions relating to the Church s understanding of human dignity Senior Service Project Journal 11

12 Friday, January 12 After your first week How do you feel? Is the work you are doing rewarding, challenging, inspiring, frustrating? What are you noticing about yourself while you are at your site? While you are at home? While you are with friends? Do you think Jesus would be doing the same volunteer work you are doing if he were alive today? Why or why not? 2018 Senior Service Project Journal 12

13 Saturday, January 13 Reflection on Solidarity Solidarity is not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far. On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say to the good of all and of each individual, because we are all really responsible for all. -Solicitudo Rei Socialis, #38, 1987 How have you engaged the people you have encountered at your site? What does it mean to you to walk in solidarity with the people at your site? 2018 Senior Service Project Journal 13

14 Sunday, January 14 As you think about going back to your service site rather than back to Regis Jesuit for classes, how are you feeling? What are you learning about yourself and about our community? Is there someone where you work who challenges you or with whom you do not get along? If so, how have or will you work with this person? What can you do to make the situation better? Is there one staff member or volunteer whom you admire? Why does this person deserve your admiration? What have you learned from this person? 2018 Senior Service Project Journal 14

15 Monday, January 15 After having a weekend to rest, how does it feel to be back at your service site? Do you feel at home around the people with whom you are working (as peers, supervisors, guides, and those you are serving)? As you begin your second week at your site, please reflect on the bigger picture. From your personal observations: Why do people need your agency? What injustices do the people you work with experience? How are they marginalized in society? 2018 Senior Service Project Journal 15

16 Tuesday, January 16 Steps Toward Justice Steps Toward Justice: What is the purpose of charitable works? By Vincent J. Genovesi As Superior General of the Jesuits, Pedro Arrupe said he hoped graduates of Jesuit schools would become men [and women] for others. But most students and graduates of Jesuit schools have never heard the full context in which he used this phrase. Here is what Father Arrupe said in his speech to the International Congress of Jesuit Alumni of Europe in Valencia, Spain, on July 1973: Today our prime educational objective must be to form men [and women] for others; men [and women] who will live not for themselves but for God and his Christ for the God-man who lived and died for all the world; men [and women] who cannot even conceive of love of God which does not include love for the least of their neighbors; men [and women] completely convinced that the love of God which does not issue in justice for men [and women] is a farce. Arrupe s hopes were that graduates would have grander ambitions than simply their own material advancement, that they would use their knowledge to recognize and meet the needs of others and that their labor on behalf of others would be born of a relationship with God and his Christ. By putting on the mind and heart of Christ, graduates, like all Christians, are to live as embodiments of Christ, the pre-eminent man for others. If Christians want to live and love in a Christ-like way, they must be committed to helping others realize their potential. That is what love does: it helps others to thrive as true human beings. The Bare Minimum Unless Christians first walk the path of justice, however, any talk of love is idle chatter. If love helps people to thrive, justice allows them first to survive. Justice is the bare minimum of love. It guarantees that people have what they deserve like nourishing food, suitable clothing, decent housing, access to standard medical care and employment that offers fair wages and safe working conditions simply because they are human beings. These things help to put flesh on the prized rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Christians must be careful about how they think and talk. There is much said about doing works of charity, but Pope Benedict XVI s words in his first encyclical, God is Love (No. 26), warrant consideration: Works of charity are in effect a way for the rich to shirk their obligation to work for justice and [are] a means of soothing their consciences while preserving their own status and robbing the poor of their rights. Instead of contributing through individual works of charity to maintaining the status quo, we need to build a just social order in which all receive their share of the world s goods and no longer have to depend on charity. These ideas echo earlier church teachings, such as: Charity will never be true unless it takes justice into account Let no one attempt with small gifts of charity to exempt himself from the great duties imposed by justice (Pius XI, 1937, Divini Redemptoris, No. 49). And a document from the Second Vatican Council teaches: The demands of justice must be satisfied first of all; that which is already due in justice is not to be offered as a gift of charity ( Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, No. 8). These teachings challenge Christians to recognize that there is no way to meet the responsibilities of love so long as they fail to satisfy the demands of justice. Christians are masters of self-deception if they see themselves as practicing love while making no attempt to correct the injustices that oppress their neighbors. Without justice, love is just a word Senior Service Project Journal 16

17 Charity, or a Step Toward Justice? In light of such teachings, the activities we call works of charity like food and clothing drives, maintaining soup kitchens and shelters, involvement in Habitat for Humanity might better be regarded as steps toward justice. These are ways we try to provide people with the bare minimum they deserve as human beings, but they are only emergency responses to their immediate needs. Since these are largely short-term interventions, they remain shortsighted, treating only the symptoms, not the causes of the pain and deprivation many suffer. While good and necessary, such activities are not enough. They may leave people trapped in oppressive social structures. Ultimately, the structures themselves must be challenged and improved. Admittedly, challenging a country s prevailing social, political and economic structures is an unappreciated endeavor. As Dom Helder Camara, the late Brazilian archbishop, noted: When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a Communist. Still, if we are honest with ourselves, it is hard to deny that we allow the structures of society to do to others what we ourselves would never think of doing to another person face to face. We live amid social sin, which is not just the doing of evil, but also a failure to do the good required. Love s long journey lasts a lifetime, but the works of justice mark its first steps. Reprinted from America, September 15, 2008, with permission of America Press, Inc., All rights reserved. For subscription information, call or visit Please answer the following questions below and continue onto the next page in light of the reading and time spent at your service site: If we understand charity as addressing the immediate needs of those around us, what does a charity-only approach to the world lack? Why might someone embrace the charity-only approach? Who controls a relationship based in charity? Where is the power? Why is justice so controversial? In what ways is a justice approach to the world (which of course includes addressing the immediate needs of those around us) frightening for some people? Who controls a relationship based in justice? Where is the power? 2018 Senior Service Project Journal 17

18 Please continue your reflection for Tuesday, January 16 Steps Toward Justice 2018 Senior Service Project Journal 18

19 Wednesday, January 17 In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love. Mother Theresa James 2: What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well, but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Indeed someone might say, You have faith and I have works. Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works For just as a body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. Matthew 5:1-12 When he saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you because of me Senior Service Project Journal 19

20 Wednesday, January 17 cont. As you reflect on the Matthew reading in tandem with the Letter from James: In what ways does your faith affect the service work that you do? In what ways has your service work affected your faith? How does faith inspire and direct [your] thinking, activity, decisions, and responsibilities towards [others]? Does service help you to think about deeper issues, such as the causes for situations of injustice? In what ways? Jesus gives us his Beatitudes in the Gospel of Matthew. How do the values presented in the Beatitudes contrast with the values of our culture? Who would society considered Blessed in the United States? How do we live in a society so filled with injustice without losing the values and commitment of our faith? 2018 Senior Service Project Journal 20

21 Thursday, January 18 As you prepare to finish up your Service Project experience, look over the autograph page from the beginning of your journal and remember the people who have impacted you while on Service Projects. What stands out from your experience? What do you want to make sure you remember from these two weeks? What do you need to do in order to prepare yourself and those with whom you ve been working for your last day tomorrow? How have you seen yourself in the people with whom you are serving? How have you seen God in them? If you would like to continue volunteering at your site, talk to your site supervisor and reflect on that experience. Don t forget to write a thank you note to your service site supervisor (this can be as a group or individually) Senior Service Project Journal 21

22 Friday, January 19 As you conclude your service project experience: What new gifts or talents have you discovered or developed during your service work (e.g. humility, patience, sense of humor, etc.)? Why have they been important? How have you grown in relation to the profile of the Jesuit Graduate at Graduation (e.g. open to growth, intellectually competent, religious, loving, commitment to doing justice)? Please give examples of how you have changed or grown. Who are the people and what are the specific experiences that have helped shape you on this journey? 2018 Senior Service Project Journal 22

23 Please continue reflecting on the Grad at Grad in light of your Service Project experience (Where might you need/want more growth? Where have you grown the most?). As a senior, please reflect on your readiness to graduate at the end of this semester and how you exemplify the Grad at Grad Hallmarks Senior Service Project Journal 23

24 Saturday, January 20 OR Sunday, January 21 Remember, tons of women have gone to meet them, take their photos, eat their food, make promises to them and then forget about them when they returned to their homes. We will not do that because we did more than eat their food or steal their souls on film we drank of their hearts, tasted their pain, flew with their spirits and in return they took a huge part of us forever. -Brenda Hubbard Prophets of a Future not our Own It helps now and then to step back and take a long view. The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us. No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection, no pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the Church s mission. No set of goals and objectives include everything. This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water the seeds already planted knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing this. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord s grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own. AMEN (Attributed to Archbishop Oscar Romero) The cry of the poor is not always just, but if you don t listen to it, you will never know what justice is. -From A People s History of the United States by Howard Zinn 2018 Senior Service Project Journal 24

25 Saturday, January 20 OR Sunday, January 21 cont. Take some time to read the prayer and the quotes on the previous page. As you think about them, reflect on how you are called to bring service and commitment to justice into your future everyday life. Share some concrete examples of how you will continue to serve and be committed to justice at Regis Jesuit and in the greater community Senior Service Project Journal 25

26 Monday, January 22 Your first day back at school after 2 weeks: How do you feel? How was your day? What do you feel called to share with the Regis Jesuit community? DUE TO YOUR RJ SUPERVISOR ON FRIDAY, JANUARY Senior Service Project Journal 26