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Twelve staff and faculty members from Immaculata University, including 6 sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, completed their year-long Catholic Hero's Journey with a co-missioning retreat May 21-22 at the Malvern Retreat House. While, the cohort is the university’s second to complete the process, the Catholic Hero’s Journey for this group was tailored to the teachings of St. Alphonsus and St. Teresa of Avila in order to emphasize the rich Alphonsian charism of the institution.
The participation of the IHM sisters was fundamental to the success of the experience. A committee of five sisters and one lay man met prior to the beginning of the experience to integrate the teachings of St. Teresa and St. Alphonsus into the curriculum. According to the campus minister at Immaculata University and one of the participants, Sr. Cathy Nally IHM, the program has helped strengthen the idea of what it means to attend a Catholic university. “Sense of community, holistic development of the individual, raising moral consciousness…these are all reasons that students choose Catholic colleges. The Catholic Hero’s Journey reinforces these values and challenged us to incorporate them into our daily lives as staff and faculty. We think the program will have the same impact for our students next year.”
Nally adds that the experience not only served the university community well, but the integration of the IHM charism into the program has been particularly life-giving for her as a religious sister. “The IHM charism, like any charism, is a living one. It lives inside us. As the number of priests and religious sisters decline, we need a way to pass on these rich, vibrant histories and lifestyles to the next generation and the Catholic Hero’s Journey is allowing us to do just that. We have been rejuvenated in our vocation and in our passion to pass it on to our students and hopefully encouraging future vocations.” Immaculata will have a third group of close to 30 students beginning the program in September of 2007.
As part of the experience, participants are asked to identify an opportunity to make an difference in the community and to create an action plan to achieve that difference. For the Immaculata group, their opportunity was clear. The Immaculata cohort wants to infuse the campus with the lessons learned on the Catholic Hero's Journey and to ensure that the program doesn't become just “another activity."
In order to accomplish their goal, the group plans to map the current program more closely to the university's core values: Faith, Caring, Service, Integrity, Learning, Teamwork so that the 25-30 students that will experience the Catholic Hero's Journey in 2008 and 2009 will have not only learn about the institution's founding charism but become immersed in the university's strategic vision for the future. Furthermore, the group plans to promote those core values in a way that brings them to the forefront of daily campus life.
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