Leavening Our World and Each Other

Dear Saint Mary’s Friends,

August is here, and soon our wonderful students will bring their energy back to campus! Over the last few months, I hope that all of you—students, alums, faculty, staff, parents, and friends—savored some of the special flavors of summer. I enjoyed sharing time in Rhode Island with my husband and all three of our daughters, and last week I returned to campus feeling refreshed and fully invigorated for the year ahead. We will welcome another large group of incoming students (407 first-year students and 30 transfers!), and we are confident that they will feel the power of Saint Mary’s as they begin their time at the College.

Yesterday morning, as I listened to the readings and the homily at the Church of Our Lady of Loretto, I recalled that last month, I wrote to you about my recent experience in Rome with the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities. I elaborated in particular about our visit to the Dicastery for Culture and Education, where Archbishop Giovanni Cesare Pagazzi talked about cooking—that is, about finding the right ingredients, measuring, mixing, and following the recipe (or experimenting!)—as a metaphor for what happens in higher education.  

That metaphor came back to me as I reflected on the fact that John’s Gospel has—for the last four Sundays—focused on the idea of feeding people, both literally and spiritually. Two Sundays ago we heard the story of Jesus using small provisions to feed five thousand people; last week Jesus declared: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” And yesterday, we listened to the grumblings of those who watched Jesus grow up, who knew his parents and his roots in Nazareth, and who scoffed at the idea that he had “come down from heaven.” But Jesus insists: “This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

Our celebrant, Rev. William M. Lies, CSC—Provincial Superior of the Congregation of Holy Cross, United States Province of Priests and Brothers—challenged us to think about whether this idea might be even more complicated than it seems at first. Of course, Jesus is the Bread of Life. But might he also have wanted us to participate in being sustenance for others and to receive sustenance in return? Father Bill asked us to reflect on who in our lives nourishes us—and on whom we nourish through our own words and actions. He mused on whether Jesus might be like the sourdough starter in us, expecting us to partake in the work of leavening our world and each other.

As students prepare to return to our close-knit community, I hope this idea might be an invitation for all of us to think about our daily bread. Father Bill asked: “Is our bread feeding the best in us, or has it become dry, hard, and stale?” I would take that a step further to inquire: how can we come together in community with the intention to care and provide for each other, to cultivate and strengthen our shared experience? What is our responsibility for each other? Can we multiply our capacity for love and respect, just as Jesus multiplied the loaves and the fishes? Can we feed each other’s minds, hearts, and spirits?

Last week my executive team and I had a day-long retreat. After deep diving into many important topics over the course of the day, we drove to southwest Michigan for a wonderful farm-to-table dinner. Earlier in the day, I gave each team member two gifts: a pitcher of Italian extra virgin olive oil and a cookbook written by the farm’s chef. The EVOO, I told them, was about a clean start in a new academic year. The cookbook was about trying some new recipes and mixing some new ingredients—about adding to our already rich smorgasbord of living and learning in the Saint Mary’s College community.

We will continue to fine-tune the great recipe for a Saint Mary’s education, but it should always result in our being the enlivening bread for others by which each of us is enlivened—leavened, uplifted—in return. 

Warm regards,

Katie Conboy, Ph.D.
President

August 12, 2024