Curiosity Unleashed

PLAIN AND SIMPLE

Meets Grand and Glorious

By Carla Morris

For decades, GU students and faculty have enjoyed retreats at St. Meinrad’s Archabbey in southern Indiana. Tyler Boyer ’96 remembers the trip well, right down to the extra “baggage” he carried into the abbey—his certainty that Catholics weren’t Christian.

The idea flowed from his “plain and simple” upbringing in the Mennonite church. “I was raised to greet Catholicism with a great deal of skepticism,” he recalls.

Against the elegant backdrop of the archabbey’s vaulted ceilings, marble pillars, and polished floors, Boyer encountered exquisite serenity that helped him move from talking to God to listening for God in prayer.

“Entering a place that was so grand and ornate that it made you want to be quiet, was stunning,” he says. Hearing the monks pray, praise, and chant left no doubt about their love for God and the scriptures.

Photo courtesy Saint Meinrad Archabbey. Used with permission.

One of many regular prayer processionals at St. Meinrad’s.

“I had trouble praying once a day, and the monks I encountered at Meinrad allowed prayer to interrupt their day at least four times,” he recalls. “It was an amazing experience that I will always cherish.”

The monks also extended warm hospitality to Tyler and his classmates. “[They] treated me, their guest, as though I was Jesus.” The discovery turned his world upside down.

Today, Boyer pastors the Knox Knolls Free Methodist Church in Springfield, Illinois, and serves as adjunct instructor in GU’s Bastian School of Theology, Philosophy, and Ministry. He recently authored Thou My Best Thought: A Free Methodist Prayer Book (Ignite Press, 2019), a daily guide inspired in part by his experiences at St. Meinrad.

Out-of-classroom encounters like the St. Meinrad trip help students develop empathy for others and understand new perspectives. Echoes of the exquisite serenity Boyer experienced at St. Meinrad reverberate today in his gentle encouragement for others who struggle with prayer. With warmth and welcome, he invites them to just begin.

If you miss a prayer time, even for several days, begin again. If you find yourself “prayerless” and feel embarrassed by your prayerlessness,

begin again.

If you tend to pray only for yourself and your needs, begin to

pray for one other person.

If you feel like you don’t spend enough time in prayer, begin to

pay attention to God’s presence even in the shortest prayers.

Thou My Best Thought weaves the repetitions and rhythms of monastic prayer life into the habits of daily living, no matter the reader’s background or circumstances. GU alumni who have also “prayed the hours” at St. Meinrad may find the book contains an added bonus: the resurrection of memories that inspire anew.

Grateful - Boyer still harbors deep gratitude for his academic guides and professors: Frank Thompson for teaching him it is right and good to ask the next question; Brian Hartley for the insight that preaching involves art and science; for Ruth Huston, who patiently helped him learn Greek and understand the Wesleyan perspective.

GU Core Value: Integrated Learning

Photo courtesy Saint Meinrad Archabbey. Used with permission.

Demystifyer-In-Chief and Career Tour Guide On the college-to-career path with Michael Laughlin

Setting: Outside the Madison County Juvenile Delinquency Center Time: After a class tour Student 1: “This was so awesome! I can see myself working with kids like these.” Student 2: “No way . . . I could never spend my days in a place like that.”

Both responses signal success for Michael Laughlin ’99, who chairs GU’s criminal justice department. Each semester, he orchestrates a broad range of experiences that take students out of the classroom and into the field. He hopes to tap their curiosity and provide some clarity about “good fit” with careers in criminal justice. His students:

Converse with judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and court reporters at county courthouses. Watch trials. Tour a federal correctional facility and converse with inmates and staff. View hearings at a county drug court. Talk with graduates of a program that integrates court supervision and counseling with treatment for drug use. Tour local and state police facilities and talk with officers. Engage in day-to-day operations of various facilities through internships.

To learn more about criminal justice studies at GU, including its online bachelor of science program, email michael.laughlin@greenville.edu.