Core Chronicles Volume 2

CHRONICLES

VOL. 2 (2022)

CORE

Emily Ransom, PhD | General Editor Kate Cobler | Managing Editor Holy Cross Communications Department | Layout & Design Editor Miguel Gabriel Camacho | Disciple Supporting Editor Shelby Clennon | Disciple Supporting Editor Caroline Darrow | Citizen Supporting Editor Ella Darrow | Citizen Supporting Editor Christopher Giamo | Scholar Supporting Editor Jackson Lang | Leader Supporting Editor Finn McClintock | Leader Supporting Editor Amanda Muhr | Scholar Supporting Editor Liam Pearle | Citizen Supporting Editor Nicholas Shannon | Disciple Supporting Editor Ella Sundstrom | Citizen Supporting Editor Thomas Toole | Scholar Supporting Editor Carlos Unanue | Leader Supporting Editor Andrew Vitale | Leader Supporting Editor Special thanks to: Anthony Monta, PhD | Dean of the College Ángel Cortez, PhD | Chair of Department of Humanities Lisa Kochanowski | Assistant Director of Communications JudeAnne Hastings | Associate Vice President for Communications and Development Jodie Badman | Associate Director of Development for Special Events and Cultivation Walter “Jimmy” Ward

Table of Contents Editorial Introduction iv Scholar Dane Litchfield: “Scientia Theologiaque: On the Relationship 2 between Science and Religion” (essay) Carmen “Stephanie” Nuñez: Clothed in Flesh (art) 8 Katherine Barrett, PhD, et al: “Thanks, Mosses” (poem) 10 Elizabeth “Ellie” Keppel: The Bite of Life (art) 14 Lydia Fell: A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two in the Bush (art) 16 Madeline Murphy: “The Power of Prayer on the Psyche” (essay) 18 Gabriel Zarazua: Dawn of the Final Day (art) 28 Citizen Catherine Oliva: St. Joseph Lighthouse (art) 32 Gabriel Ibarra: “South Side Shorty” (poem) 34 Peyton Marrone: “Rousseauian Freedom in the Technological 36 Age” (essay) Katherine Barrett, PhD: “Mountains Haunt” (poem) 46 Gabriela Betanzos: Wadi Rum Cameleer (photography) 50 Rich Meyer: “Understanding Equity’s Role in Judicial Philosophy 52 in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure” (essay) Gabriela Betanzos: Desert Prayer (photography) 60 Leader Dane Litchfield: 2016 (art) 64 Grace Martin: “Screenslaver” (essay) 66 Emily A. Ransom, PhD: “David’s Surrender” (poem) 70 Angelo Ray Martínez, MFA: Anointment (art) 72 Madeline Murphy: “Do I Own My Smartphone, or Does It 74 Own Me?” (essay) Gerardo Negrete-Gonzalez: In the Cloud of Smoke (art) 78 Alexandra Buchlmayer: “Social and Behavioral Development 80 in Correlation to Educational Approach” (essay) Robert McFadden, CSC, PhD: “The Road of Eowyn and Faramir” (poem) 86 Maria Gorecki: Self Cross Analysis (photography) 90 Disciple Carmen “Stephanie” Nuñez: Madonna of the Streets (art) 94 John Baglow: “Who am I?” (essay) 96 Lydia Fell: Matthew 8:23 – 27 (art) 100 Emily A. Ransom, PhD: “Manna” (poem) 102 Melonie Mulkey, MFA: Divine Mercy (photography) 104 Andrew L. Ouellette, MA: “The Christ-Haunted World of 106 Ignacio Silone’s Abruzzo Trilogy and the Question of Scandal as a Force for Religious Change” (essay) Angelo Ray Martínez, MFA: Transfiguration (art) 120 Philomena Kampe: “Rosa Sanguinis” (poem) 122 Catherine Oliva: Duomo di Firenze (art) 124

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Editorial Introduction Dear Reader, We are thrilled to present to you the second volume of Core Chronicles. We are deeply grateful for your enthusiasm of the first volume, especially with eagerly submitting your work and attending the release party. We hope that this volume will be just as successful, and we have worked diligently to make it more coherent within each section of Scholar, Citizen, Leader, Disciple.

The core four do not simply give the publication a coherent format. They also lay the foundation for how each of us should view ourselves, our local communities, and our world.

This volume of Core Chronicles emphasizes holistically a common theme of learning from an unforgettable encounter or period in the contributors’ lives. Each experience is unique, and as you read about these experiences, we hope you gain a nuanced perspective of what it means to be a scholar, citizen, leader, and disciple.

The Scholar section is about learning how to live a good life. As Socrates famously said, the study of philosophy prepares us well for death, which is a common theme among the artists in the section. Dealing with biology, psychology, and the queen of sciences (theology), the scholars in this section discuss how important it is to take education seriously with a sense of humility and intentionality. “Thanks, Mosses” stresses that “humans should be more aware of all the little things that comprise the world in which they live,” editor Amanda Muhr says. As scholars, students at Holy Cross College demonstrate the desire to learn both inside and outside the classroom to live a good life and share it with others.

The Citizen section continues this idea of individual learning and expands it to community living. This section, editor Ella Darrow says, “perfectly encompasses what it feels to be a citizen in different cultures.” Contributors in the section discuss unique cultures of family, nature, and ethnicity. Others open up wider discussion of technology and equity’s effects in the framework

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of community. In this section, we can see how experience transforms identity and human potential in the context of culture. The writers in this section challenge us all as citizens of the world to put our experience in dialogue with the human community.

While the Citizen section sets the groundwork for evaluating the world, the Leader section presents actions that change our surroundings. The section uses art and writing to demonstrate different activity in communities. Editor Finn McClintock highlights how the pieces in the section challenge us to evaluate and act on relationship to ourselves, faith, and education. Authors share their strengthened resolve to cling to religion, to re-evaluate how they view themselves and their choices, and to analyze common assumptions of using technology. Their pieces challenge us to shape our communities in forward-thinking ways that benefit the common good.

Often, this desire to shape the world for the better stems from a dynamic faith. The authors in the Disciple section display with vulnerability the struggles and devotions they have or have had in their journeys of faith. For example, John Baglow’s personal reflection “is using his religious pilgrimage to ultimately understand how he got to this point in life and how that formed him into who he is,” editor Shelby Clennon writes. Disciple means “follower” and by learning from the experience of others, we can enrich our own journeys of faith.

After all, the vision of the journal is to strengthen us as individuals through the experience of the college community.

Furthermore, it is the mission of Holy Cross College to give all students “the competence to see and the courage to act.” Our education is built on the foundation of human beings thriving in the world, and we hope that Core Chronicles reflects this and more. As Basil Moreau said, education is the work of resurrection, and in that way, we hope that Core Chronicles is able to share life with the community.

Happy reading!

Kate Cobler for the editors

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Scholar Thomas Toole and Amanda Muhr

This section is designed to highlight the intellectual capacity of the members of the Holy Cross College community. Since this is an educational institution, scholarship is a crucial foundation for our community. Beyond ordinary academic pursuits, being a scholar at Holy Cross entails learning how to live one’s life well.

As such, this section delves heavily into philosophy, especially regarding how death lends meaning to life. The pieces within this section guide the reader on a scholarly journey, weaving through various phases of life and death.

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Scientia Theologiaque: On the Relationship between Science and Religion Dane Litchfield Moments of sheer scientific wonder have been used either to prove or disprove religious claims, and this dynamic has only been emphasized and stressed throughout the modern era.

In philosophers such as Descartes, Kant, and Nietzsche, one sees a departure from antique and medieval thought in the relationship between science and religion. In an increasingly secularized and scientific world, this dynamic must be properly explored to reclaim the truth which the antique and medieval eras held. Unlike what the contemporary world wishes to claim, the mystical view of the world in the humanities is not removed from the empirical view of science. But how do these seemingly polar opposites enemies relate, if they are not removed from one another and not in opposition to each other? The nature of knowledge and religious experience suggests an integrative and complementary approach. As Thomas Stapleford of the University of Notre Dame points out, the Latin root for the word “science” shows this, as scientia (knowledge) denotes development akin to theological imagination; it is not techne (craft), or the power-obsessed mastery one sees within contemporary science and the modern education system.1 Evidence for integration and rebuttals against other dynamics are found in Darwinian evolution, physics, the arguments for the existence of God, and bioethics. Through exploring these topics, one can not only reclaim the proper relationship between religion and science, but also understand the telos (final end) to which human knowledge and experience point.

The age-old debate of Darwinian evolution provides an excellent springboard into the discussion of the relationship between religion and science. Since its conception, there has been a perceived clash between it and the theistic religions, specifically centered on the contrast between a personal God creating the universe and the origin of species from natural selection. To begin with, the very nature of this debate refutes independence as an option for the relationship between religion and science, as they come into very direct contact with each other. But is this contact necessarily conflicting? Must a follower of religion, especially one Thomas Stapleford, “Sorin Fellows Faculty Seminar Series: Cultivating Faith in a Scientific Age with Dr. Tom Stapleford,” Sorin Fellows Faculty Seminar Series: Cultivating Faith in a Scientific Age with Dr. Tom Stapleford (March 24, 2021).

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which professes divine creation, be a Creationist and deny Darwinian evolution?

To answer this, we must first establish what Abrahamic religions’ creation theology has to say on the interpretation of Genesis. The theology and philosophy of the Roman Catholic Church provides an illuminating path forward in this murk. As Joseph Ratzinger, who would later become Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, puts it, “Scripture would not wish to inform us about how the different species of plant life gradually appeared or how the sun and the moon and the stars were established. Its purpose ultimately would be to say one thing: God created the world.”2 Ratzinger means that a Catholic must distinguish between the literary style of Genesis and the content which it describes. On a literary level, the beginning of Genesis is reflected in the beginning of the Gospel of St. John, marked with the words “In the beginning.”3 Thus, the creation narrative’s message is precisely what Ratzinger asserts—that it is God who created the universe. In this way, it not concerned with the scientific development of species and the universal order. Pope Pius XII’s document on the topic of evolution, Humani Generis, especially highlights this point.

[T]he Teaching Authority of the Church does not forbid that, in conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions, on the part of men experienced in both fields, take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter - for the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God.”4 This shows that a faithful Catholic can believe in the scientific theory of Darwinian evolution and be in accord with the Church’s teaching on creation, insofar that one does not rely entirely upon the theory to explain the all of human existence. The presence of the rational soul within the human person points towards this dynamic, since such a rational soul cannot be explained through Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, In the Beginning--: a Catholic Understanding of the Story of Creation and the Fall (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2005), 5.

3 Ibid., 15.

4 Pope Pius XII, “Encyclical Humani Generis of the Holy Father Pius XII to our Venerable Brethren, Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, and Other Local Ordinaries Enjoying Peace and Communion with the Holy See Concerning some False Opinions Threatening to Undermine the Foundations of Catholic Doctrine,” Humani Generis (August 12, 1950) | Pius XII (Vatican ), accessed March 31, 2021, http://www.vatican. va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_12081950_humani-generis.html, para. 36.

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mere Darwinian evolution. In this integrative relationship, one can deny the premise that Darwinian evolution is inherently contradictory to the Abrahamic creation narrative.

The use and implementation of physics within Thomistic and intelligent design arguments for the existence of God provide an excellent argument for integration between religion and science.5 Particularly within the Thomistic arguments, physics provides certain proofs of God’s existence that leave no room for chance. The arguments from motion and causality within Thomistic proofs show this. Furthermore, the importance of physics impacts the intelligent design arguments through the Big Bang theory and the fine tuning arguments.6 Beyond an allegorical or symbolic relationship, physics and religion are concretely intertwined, as the very nature and laws of physics support these proofs of God. As Pope St. John Paul II puts it, “There is thus no reason for competition of any kind between reason and faith: each contains the other, and each its own scope for action.”7 This illustrates the interwoven nature of religion and science that one sees in physics.8 The study of bioethics incarnates the relationship between science and religion. The dynamic is not one of mere theory or pure reason, but one which finds itself in the lives of each person on this planet. Rather than suggesting a perceived gap between the two or a weak link that only threatens the structure of the relationship, the bond between bioethics and religion suggests a relationship that is complementary and integrative. If religion is to be a worldview with an eschatological and soteriological purpose, then science must be integrated into the worldview by necessity.

The study of bioethics, like that of ethics more broadly, owes quite a debt to religious ideas and sentiment. Religious principles surrounding bioethical issues are often the most clearly guided and Intelligent Design is the theory that the universe exhibits such complexity that a logical conclusion can be drawn that there must be some sort of designer behind the rich complexity. Fine-Tuning is the theory that the universe is structured in such a way that it appears “fine-tuned” for the vitality of life on Earth, which philosophers have claimed as evidence for the existence of a Creator. If the criteria needed for life to exist were not met, life would not form. Earth fulfills these.

6 Chad V. Meister, Introducing Philosophy of Religion (London, UK: Routledge, 2010), 66–67. 92–106; 7 Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Letter, Fides Et Ratio, of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II: to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Relationship between Faith and Reason (Boston, MA: Pauline Books and media, 1998), para. 17.

8 As an aside, the study of contemporary biology heavily supports Aquinas’ teleological argument and the intelligent design arguments as well, as biological phenomena not only inspire his proof, but deepen its examples through the advancement of biology.

Chad V. Meister, Introducing Philosophy of Religion (London, UK: Routledge, 2010), 92–106.

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fulfilling courses of action. For example, the Catholic Church’s teaching of human sexuality can be regarded as ethically correct, as it prevents the dehumanization that comes from sex addiction and the health dangers of contracting STDs. Within the Abrahamic traditions, the understanding of the human person created in the imago Dei enforces the principle of human dignity. This guides professionals such as doctors, psychologists, counselors, and more.

Science and religion are not in conflict, but rather multiple perspectives on life that claim religious truths are in conflict with one another. The proper question is not concerned with science, but rather the primacy of truth within one religious viewpoint.

Through examining Darwinian evolution, physics, and bioethics, one can see this integrative and complementary relationship between science and religion. As Stapleford argues, it is important to note that scientia denotes a teleological orientation of the academic discipline of science. It is concerned with the ends of things, much more than with the means by which one does these things.9 Thus, it does not aim towards an explanation of why things are ordered the way they are; it only asks how. By reclaiming true scientia, one can see the integrative relationship between science and religion. As ex-atheist and psychologist Kevin Vost remarks, “What modern atheists seem to forget is that we are men and not gods, let alone God. Our powers, though great, are not limitless and infallible, and this includes our powers of reason, and even of the scientific method.”10 Ironically then, Enlightenment overconfidence in human reason only darkened the intellectual senses to the depths of theology and science; by conquering this pride that Vost describes and reclaiming the humility of the interpretation of the world, we can experience true fulfillment in the wonder and awe of Creation.

Stapleford, “Sorin Fellows Faculty Seminar Series: Cultivating Faith in a Scientific Age with Dr. Tom Stapleford.”

10 Kevin Vost, From Atheism to Catholicism: How Scientists and Philosophers Led Me to Truth (Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 2010), 146.

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Bibliography Benedict XVI [Pope Emeritus], In the Beginning...: A Catholic Understanding of the Story of Creation and the Fall. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2005. Meister, Chad V. Introducing Philosophy of Religion. London, UK: Routledge, 2010.

John Paul II [Pope], Encyclical Letter, Fides Et Ratio, of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II: to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Relationship between Faith and Reason. Boston, MA: Pauline Books and media, 1998.

Meister, Chad V. Introducing Philosophy of Religion. London, UK: Routledge, 2010.

Pius XII [Pope], “Encyclical Humani Generis Of The Holy Father Pius Xii To Our Venerable Brethren, Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishiops, And Other Local Ordinaries Enjoying Peace And Communion With The Holy See Concerning Some False Opinions Threatening To Undermine The Foundations Of Catholic Doctrine.” Humani Generis (August 12, 1950) | PIUS XII. Vatican . Accessed March 31, 2021. http:// www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/ hf_p-xii_enc_12081950_humani-generis.html.

Stapleford, Thomas. “Cultivating Faith in a Scientific Age.” Sorin Fellows Faculty Seminar Series. Lecture presented at the Sorin Fellows Faculty Seminar Series: Cultivating Faith in a Scientific Age with Dr. Tom Stapleford, March 24, 2021.

Vost, Kevin. From Atheism to Catholicism: How Scientists and Philosophers Led Me to Truth. Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 2010.

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Clothed in Flesh Stephanie Nuñez Charcoal. 16 by 20 inches.

A memento mori (reminder of death) still-life drawing composed of a plastic skull, apple and grapes.

September, 2021

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Thanks, Mosses David Bautista-Amick, Miranda Brewer, Sarah Davis, Redmond Gallagher, Guadalupe Gonzalez, Abigail Gross, Leilani Ingham, Oscar Jarmon, Diane Maillotte, Dorian Perez Bacilio, Edgar Ramos Estrada, Melissa Ramos-Nevarez, David Ross, Jordyn Smith, Julie Wappel, and Hunter Zezovski This is a found poem composed of quotes from the primary literature and the book Gathering Moss by Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer that were read in Dr. Katherine Barrett’s Human Ecology class.

Students from the class worked in small groups to imitate poems they enjoyed, and this poem is a compilation of selected verses that they wrote. The poem is constructed in a way meant to convey the meaning of Human Ecology and what it means to care for our common home.

I think I am following a Bear.1 It was the earth: still there; still strong; still under your feet.2 And the paths were still there, the road was still there…3 There is much we can’t see…4 There is a home for everything, the puzzle pieces slip into place, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss (Oregon State University Press, 2003), 4.

Helen Cox, “Loss, healing, and the power of place,” Human Studies, no. 23 (2003): 76.

3 Ibid.

4 Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss (Oregon State University Press, 2003), 6.

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each part essential to the whole.5 The time to be a bystander has passed6: The task of humans is to live in wisdom, in right relations, in harmony and balance, with all else in the cosmos…7 We have so many things in common.8 At every turn of a leaf, there are mysteries.9 Species find ways of co-existing and evolving…10 Collaboration and coordination of contributions is necessary...11 Our responsibility is to care for the plants and all the land in a way that honors life.12 All it requires of us is attentiveness.13 Look in a certain way and a whole new world can be revealed.14 The boundaries between my world

Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss (Oregon State University Press, 2003), 90.

Ibid., 155.

7 Ibid., 74.

8 Ibid., 91.

9 Ibid., 61.

10 Sean Burkholder, “The new ecology of vacancy: rethinking land use in shrinking cities,” Sustainability, no. 4 (2012): 1167.

11 Roderick Lawrence, “Human ecology and its applications,” Landscape and Urban Planning, no. 65 (2003): 39.

12 Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss (Oregon State University Press, 2003), 110.

13 Ibid., 10.

14 Ibid.

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and the world of another being get pushed back with sudden clarity, an experience both humbling and joyful.15 I know I am following a Bear.16 Being small doesn’t mean being unsuccessful.17 There are life forms here that occur nowhere else on the planet, and intricate relationships evolved over eons.18

A photo of a statue of St. Francis of Assisi by the Ponds at Holy Cross Village. Photo credit: Edgar Ramos Estrada.

You might take care not to step on them.19 The tunnel seems easier on the way out.20

Ibid., 9.

Ibid., 6.

Ibid., 15.

18 Ibid., 61 19 Ibid.

20 Ibid., 5.

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Wildness cannot be collected and still remain wild.21 Treat it with love and care and it becomes a loving and caring place.22 ...plants come to us when they are needed…

They will stay with us as long as they are respected.23 But if we forget about them, they will leave.24 I hold tight to the vision that someday soon we will find the courage of self-restraint, the humility to live like mosses.25 It is the wordless voice of longing that resonates with us, the longing to continue, to participate in the sacred life of the world.26 One day, when we rise to give thanks to nature, we may hear an echo in return, the forest giving thanks to the people.27

21 Ibid., 139.

22 Helen Cox, “Loss, healing, and the power of place,” Human Studies, no. 23 (2003): 73.

23 Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss (Oregon State University Press, 2003), 161.

24 Ibid.

25 Ibid., 150.

26 Ibid., 28.

27 Ibid., 150.

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The Bite of Life Elizabeth “Ellie” Keppel Acrylic on canvas.

The theme of the painting is “life and death.” I chose objects that portrayed both the energy of living and the decay of death, as both are inherent stages of life. The significance of the piece rests within the contrast between life and death, and yet, the beauty of such a union. The piece illustrates the delicacy of life, for while life is sweet and full of an abundance of good things, life rests within the jaws of death, which will inevitably close. However, delving further, the rose signifies love and the grapes (especially in the form of wine, as hinted through the use of the wineglass) signify eternal salvation. To achieve salvation, one must die first; therefore, hope is communicated through the use of the jaw bone as the means of achieving eternal life. Hence, “The Bite of Life” is a fitting title.

October 11, 2021

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A Bird in the Hand Is Worth Two in the Bush Lydia Fell Acrylic on canvas. 14 by 16 inches.

In this piece, I focused on the anatomy of the hand and the detail of the pomegranate. While creating this work, I also delved into some symbolism behind pomegranates and discovered they can represent both death and fertility. The title comes from an old saying which roughly translates to having less now can mean having more in the future. From this saying, I like to think of this piece as a modern take on memento mori (reminder of death).

2021

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The Power of Prayer on the Psyche Madeline K. Murphy Abstract In a world plagued with psychological distress, most are looking for an escape. Thousands of new coping mechanisms emerge for people to try, and recently, a question was posed: does prayer cultivate mental wellbeing? Hundreds of studies evaluate this claim, and most support the idea that prayer has healing capabilities. Closely examining the implications of these results allows a feasible course of action to become clear; prayer’s healing capabilities should be recognized in scientific circles, and more patients should be made aware of their options to attend prayer therapy or implement regular prayer into their lives.

Keywords: Prayer, therapy, anxiety, mental health The Mental Health Crisis The mental health of people across the globe is catastrophically decaying. As of 2017, fifteen percent of people worldwide suffered from a mental disorder or substance abuse.1 This number has been rising for decades, and it continues to rise; just in the last decade, there was a thirteen-percent increase in mental health conditions.2 Trends like this are frightening for the well-being of society. Luckily, scientists continue to invent, study, and prescribe countless coping mechanisms. The National Alliance on Mental Illness advises those who struggle with mental issues to try techniques such as “deep breathing” and “mental reframing,” which are both commonly prescribed by other organizations as well.3 In more extreme cases, therapy and medication are utilized. However, as the mental health crisis grows, so must the variety and efficacy of coping mechanisms.

Saloni Dattani, Hannah Ritchie, and Max Roser, “Mental Health,” Our World in Data, August 20, 2021, https://ourworldindata.org/mental-health.

2 “Mental Health,” World Health Organization, accessed November 1, 2021, https:// www.who.int/health-topics/mental-health#tab=tab_2.

3 “Self-Help Techniques for Coping with Mental Illness,” NAMI, February 1, 2019, https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/january-2019/self-help-techniques-for-copingwith-mental-illness.

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Though it may be expedient and profitable, it is not auspicious in the long run solely to treat the symptoms of an ailment; one must treat the origin of the problem. For most mental disorders, this origin is disordered or unmanaged anxiety.4 Even anxiety that is considered “normal” is not conducive for optimal health.

Decreasing anxiety levels often leads to lessened symptoms and a higher quality of life. Thousands of studies report anxiety levels steadily rising throughout the years, a trend with no end in sight.

If anxiety levels continue to skyrocket, the mental health of the world is largely jeopardized. This must be remedied.

A Solution One potential solution to this vast problem has existed for thousands of years: prayer. Prayer existed even before the first religion, Hinduism, and it has endured the test of time; many people today still partake in it.5 Perhaps one of the most ubiquitous things in all of history, prayer is affirmed by people of all religions and backgrounds, and it is a significant part of many cultures. Approximately four thousand religions exist in the world today, and about eighty-five percent of people claim one of those as their faith.6 Prayer’s extraordinary ability to withstand time and spread across cultures makes it an intrinsic part of the human experience. Since the majority of people partake in prayer, there are frequent disputes regarding its limits. To provide clarity in this discourse, psychologists have recently studied prayer’s healing capabilities on the mind.

Over two hundred closely monitored scientific studies with shocking results have emerged. Almost all the studies revealed a correlation between prayer/spirituality and an increase in psychological wellbeing. These results are pertinent information for psychological discourse, and psychologists and doctors should implement and promote the practice of personal prayer for healing in their offices.

The Studies In 2012, researchers conducted a clinically stable study of twenty adult chemotherapy patients in Brazil who were all willing to receive prayer. Each participant took several pretests: the Duke University Religion Index, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, salivary cortisol analysis, heart rate measurement, respiratory “Anxiety Disorders,” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, May 4, 2018, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/anxiety/symptoms-causes/syc-20350961#:~:text=Having%20an%20anxiety%20disorder%20does,Substance%20misuse.

5 “Hinduism.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, October 6, 2017, https://www. history.com/topics/religion/hinduism.

6 “Religion by Country 2021,” World Population Review, 2021, https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/religion-by-country.

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rate measurement, and blood pressure measurement. The Duke University Religion Index measures three components of religiosity, and all the participants scored highly on each component; however, the test did not determine which faith each participant identified with. After all the baseline tests, each participant closed his or her eyes, sat or laid in a relaxed position, and individually listened to an eleven-minute recording of a sung version of Psalm 138 with earphones.Thirty minutes after the recording was completed, all of the pretests (with the exception of the Duke University Religion Index) were administered to the patient again.

Blood pressure levels and anxiety levels both decreased significantly, even though there were no other known contributing factors. Additionally, the probability of respiratory rates decreasing the amount they did was merely 0.04. The only component that did not present a significant correlative change was the salivary cortisol levels. However, the effectiveness of salivary cortisol levels indicating anxiety levels is highly debated—in some cases, increased anxiety causes them to rise, and in others, it causes them to decline—so the results are dismissible. This process was completed several times, and each time it reaped the same results: prayer decreases anxiety.7 A similar study was conducted on sixty mothers of children with cancer. This experiment took place in Iran, and it followed the Muslim faith. Each participant took the Spielberger’s State Anxiety Inventory prior to beginning the experiment; a high score on this test indicates high anxiety levels. Half of the group attended regular group prayer and prayed individually three times a day for ten minutes each time, while the other half abstained from the group prayer. At the end of the twenty-one days, the mothers took the Spielberger’s State Anxiety Inventory again. The probability of their anxiety levels having a significant change was 0.01, but each mother in the praying group presented an extremely deescalated level of anxiety. When the results were collected, the praying group presented two-thirds of the anxiety that the control group had. This experiment verifies that prayer immensely decreases anxiety in mothers of cancer patients.8 Camila Csizmar Carvalho et al, “Effectiveness of Prayer in Reducing Anxiety in Cancer Patients,” Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da USP, Universidade de São Paulo, Escola de Enfermagem, August 1, 2014, https://www.scielo.br/j/reeusp/a/ yS4S3ZDZRvGQvkgMtbZTxZg/?lang=en&format=html.

8 Dehghani, K., Zare Rahimabadi, A., Pourmovahed, Z., Dehghani, H., Zarezadeh, A., & Namjou, B. (2012, April 10). The effect of prayer on level of anxiety in mothers of children with cancer. Iranian Journal of Pediatric Hematology Oncology Vol2. No2.

Retrieved November 1, 2021, http://ijpho.ssu.ac.ir/article-1-129-en.pdf.

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A study of eighty-four women with breast cancer in Texas evaluated the effect of prayer and spirituality on psychological wellbeing. The test group contained a wide variety of women; they were aged thirty-four to eighty and had varying lengths of time since their diagnoses. They were each evaluated on their psychological wellbeing, and then took a test to determine their level of spirituality. Those who were more spiritual and prayed more frequently often demonstrated psychological wellness, while those who were not very spiritual or prayerful were more likely to have psychological disarray. This study revealed further positive correlation between mental health and wellness and spirituality.9 Implications These studies highlight a definite correlation between prayer and decreased negative psychological symptoms, which in turn lead to lessened physical symptoms. This conclusion presents an interesting claim: prayer is medicinal. Should theology and science intersect, or should science be kept secular? This question is common in many theological and scientific groups. Some believe that science and theology do not agree, but in actuality, science and theology expand upon each other and work together to fill in the gaps that they each cannot explain alone. In this instance, a theological tool, prayer, can be used as medicine and therapy to advance psychology and improve health. There is no reason that this tool should be discarded; it should be embraced, implemented, and studied further. The discovery of its healing capabilities is a breakthrough for science and theology alike.

Many dispute the findings of these studies and argue that prayer therapy has no true scientific bearings, or its correlation with decreased symptoms does not imply its causation of improved health. Any of these disputes could be valid; however, even if they are valid, they do not undermine the efficacy of prayer therapy. The phenomenon that participating in prayer decreases anxiety and promotes mental wellbeing is reason enough to partake in prayer. If there is something other than prayer itself causing this result, science will uncover it. It is disadvantageous to wait for this potential revelation, as one could miss out on the benefits from participation. It does not matter that there could be other forces at work; the results are favorable, and there are no recorded detriments to praying.

Martha Meraviglia, “Effects of Spirituality in Breast Cancer Survivors,” U.S. National Library of Medicine, Accessed November 3, 2021, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih. gov/16470229/.

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Additionally, skeptics may believe this theory is not “proven.” To that point, it bears pointing out that nothing in this world is “proven.” Scientists acknowledge that science cannot technically prove anything; rather it can only disprove claims. Every scientific theory is just that: a theory. It is a likely explanation based on facts observed through many trials. Oftentimes, scientific theories hold true for a while, but they are eventually disproven or expanded upon. According to Alina Bradford and Ashley Hamer, “Theories may change, or the way that they are interpreted may change, but the facts themselves don’t change.”10 Even though most theories will be proven wrong or partially wrong, they are assumed to be correct for the time being. When a theory is deemed accurate, it is implemented. In the meantime, other scientists work diligently to disprove or expand upon theories. Because of the many studies that support prayer’s power to improve psychological health, it should be regarded as true—just like all other tried and tested theories. Additionally, it should be continued to be tested, so that the most effective treatments are discovered, and specific results are able to be attributed to different methods of prayer. This continual studying will broaden the scope, strengthen the argument for prayer therapy, and determine how to best help patients.

A Plea for More Numinous Medicine It is fallacious to say that a neurosurgeon is as reliable as a gynecologist to deliver a baby safely just because he or she is also a doctor. No one would expect the neurosurgeon to have expertise in that area. Similarly, it is naïve to assume that all doctors are equipped to instruct a patient’s prayer. If a doctor is uncomfortable with or incapable of serving a patient who is wishing to use prayer as medicine, he or she should refer the patient to a prayer therapist. These individuals are hard to come by, but a good one can be extremely fruitful for the course of someone’s life. According to Dr. Minnie Claiborne, a prayer therapist, “Prayer Therapy is the practice of using prayer therapeutically in a clinical, intensive treatment and learning session for the purpose of emotional and mental healing and wholeness.”11 Prayer therapy practices largely vary, as its existence has been disregarded by other branches of psychology, so there are few standards in place to regulate it.

Alina Bradford, “What Is a Scientific Theory?” LiveScience, Purch, July 27, 2017, https://www.livescience.com/21491-what-is-a-scientific-theory-definition-of-theory. html.

11 “What Is Prayer Therapy?: Dr. Minnie Claiborne: Sherman Oaks, CA.” Dr. Minnie Claiborne | Sherman Oaks, CA. Accessed November 1, 2022.

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However, this may be best, as it allows the prayer therapist to let divine forces guide him or her in his or her work, and it provides a truly unique experience for the patient.

Though practices can vary, a general prayer therapy session usually starts in the same manner that common therapy sessions begin: the patient reveals what he or she has been struggling with recently.12 The therapist then reflects, prays, and meditates upon the issues at hand, allowing him or her to best grasp the problems.

Then, the two pray together, often with the patient repeating the words of the therapist.13 Not only is this type of therapy relaxing and effective, but it also teaches the patient important lessons. It conditions the patient to associate prayer with peace and releasing of anxiety, and it teaches him or her how to use prayer as a coping mechanism. By mimicking the therapist, the patient can destress and reframe his or her mind.

Not only can the patients use this knowledge to benefit themselves, but they can also help others. A prime example of this is between a parent and child. Many children and teenagers today are overly anxious, stressed, and worried. Parents are left wondering where they went wrong and how to best aid their child(ren). It is daunting to begin medicating their children at such a young age, but it seems they have no other options. However, if they have a strong faith or attend prayer therapy, they likely understand how to use prayer as a tool for reducing stress and anxiety. They can show their children how to apply this tool, and they may also set aside time for family group prayer. Children especially struggle in regulating their emotions, and they need to be taught how to manage feelings in healthy ways. Prayer can aid them in the management of strong emotions. Children will psychologically benefit from prayer and will likely live a less stressful life.

Conclusion In patients who struggle with stress and anxiety, prayer or prayer therapy should be encouraged in the same way doctors encourage daily exercise. From decreasing anxiety and improving overall wellbeing to lowering heart rate and blood pressure, the astonishing effects of prayer on health should not be disregarded.

A doctor’s suggestion that a patient attend prayer therapy or pray daily may be the catalyst for healing the patient’s mind. Thou“Prayer,” Theravive Counseling, Accessed November 1, 2021, https://www.theravive. com/therapedia/prayer.

13 “Why Repetition Is Essential in Reducing Anxiety,” Worfock Anxiety, Accessed November 1, 2021, https://www.worfolkanxiety.com/blog/why-repetition-is-essentialin-reducing-anxiety.

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sands of people can benefit from this knowledge, and its implementation in medical practices will transform the mental health discussion and improve the lives of many.

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Bibliography “Anxiety Disorders.” Mayo Clinic. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, May 4, 2018. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/anxiety/symptoms-causes/ syc-20350961#:~:text=Having%20an%20anxiety%20disorder%20does,Substance%20misuse.

Bradford, Alina. “What Is a Scientific Theory?” LiveScience. Purch, July 27, 2017. https://www.livescience. com/21491-what-is-a-scientific-theory-definition-of-theory. html.

Carvalho, Camila Csizmar et al. “Effectiveness of Prayer in Reducing Anxiety in Cancer Patients.” Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da USP. Universidade de São Paulo, Escola de Enfermagem, August 1, 2014. https://www.scielo.br/j/reeusp/a/ yS4S3ZDZRvGQvkgMtbZTxZg/?lang=en&format=html.

Dattani, Saloni, Hannah Ritchie, and Max Roser. “Mental Health.”

Our World in Data, August 20, 2021. https://ourworldindata. org/mental-health.

Dehghani, K.et al. The effect of prayer on level of anxiety in mothers of children with cancer. Iranian Journal of Pediatric Hematology Oncology Vol2. No2. Retrieved November 1, 2021, http://ijpho.ssu.ac.ir/article-1-129-en.pdf.

“Hinduism.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, October 6, 2017. https://www.history.com/topics/religion/hinduism.

“Mental Health.” World Health Organization. Accessed February 10, 2022. https://www.who.int/health-topics/mental-health#tab=tab_2.

Meraviglia, Martha. “Effects of Spirituality in Breast Cancer Survivors.” U.S. National Library of Medicine. Accessed November 3, 2021. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16470229/.

“Prayer.” Theravive Counseling. Accessed November 1, 2021. https://www.theravive.com/therapedia/prayer.

“Religion by Country 2021.” World Population Review, 2021. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/religion-by-country.

“Self-Help Techniques for Coping with Mental Illness.” NAMI, February 1, 2019. https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/ 25

january-2019/self-help-techniques-for-coping-with-mentalillness.

“What Is Prayer Therapy?: Dr. Minnie Claiborne: Sherman Oaks, CA.” Dr. Minnie Claiborne | Sherman Oaks, CA. Accessed November 1, 2022. https://www.drminniecounseling.com/ what-is-prayer-therapy.

“Why Repetition Is Essential in Reducing Anxiety.” Worfock Anxiety. Accessed November 1, 2021. https://www.worfolkanxiety.com/blog/why-repetition-is-essential-in-reducing-anxiety.

Zed, R. Faith forum: prayer vs. meditation. Reno Gazette Journal.

Retrieved November 1, 2021. https://www.rgj.com/story/ life/2016/03/10/faith-forum-rajan- zed-prayer-vs-meditation/81615986/.

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Dawn of The Final Day Gabriel Zarazua Acrylic on Canvas. 24 inches by 18 inches.

I was inspired by the theme of vanitas (vanity), connecting to themes of life and death as well. I wanted to put my own twist on the theme by including both traditional items of vanitas while adding my own. I included a skull, hand, rose, and book. The book is a manga of the video game The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. I included this book since the story deals with how people react to death. I opened it up to a page of a woman waiting for her fiancé to return, as death is coming for them both. With that page showing and the hand lifelessly laying down with the flower, the relationship between death and love is the theme of this piece.

October 11, 2021

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Citizen Caroline Darrow, Liam Pearl, Ella Darrow, Ella Sundstrom

The Citizen section showcases our community’s interactions with culture on a global scale, and specifically, how culture is perceived around the world. Through the pieces in this section, you are taken from American mountain trails in Dr. Katherine L. Barrett’s “Mountains Haunt” to Arabian desert sunsets in Gabriela Betanzo’s photography. These works provide varying views of cultures around the world and explore different definitions of “citizen” via various mediums. These perspectives allow readers to understand the ways in which cultures have an immense impact on the Holy Cross community. The world consists of cultures that are distinct with important lines of continuity, uniquely allowing us all to be citizens of the world.

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St. Joseph Lighthouse Catherine Oliva 16 by 20 inches. Watercolor, rough cold press.

This watercolor painting depicts the St. Joseph Lighthouse on Lake Michigan. I chose to paint this lighthouse because of the sentimental value it has for me. I have many memories from my childhood of viewing this lighthouse and taking walks along the pier with my family. When I was young, our family would drive up to Lake Michigan as many as three times a week during the summer. By the end of the day, I always had a large sandcastle and fort built using whatever interesting things I found along the shoreline.

Website: catherineolivaportfolio.com 2021

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South Side Shorty Gabriel Ibarra A reflection of what South Side Chicago life meant for the poet.

South Side Shorty, don’t forget your rice and beans.

Little Village memories don’t fade away.

Garfield Ridge scars can leave traces.

Where you are is not where you will be Or where the color of your skin will allow you to be, To be free enough to pass a visual glance— A glance at your last name can be the last Thing an employer sees before giving you the boot.

But before that, what happened When you rooted for each other, Rode for each other, Harked for one another before becoming separate of each other?

South Side Shawty, with that North Side swag, Mexican roots with American branches, Do we read in Spanish at home and shun each other’s use of native tongues at the store?

Have you learned not to forget your rice and beans, Not to forget your crappy knees, And to keep holding your keen sensibilities?

South Side love story that crossed state lines every weekend To keep the family legacy or start a new prophecy, Mantener un orgullo mexicano and be proud of your queerness, You’re forgetting that these can work if you put in the work.

Westside melodies call back to South Side lyrics, Feelings of home for the destitute To look down upon, I bring my smiles, yell to my friends “c’mon!”

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Gay-bree-ehl or Gaah-bri-el, Truth or integrity, Success or cultural disparities.

Do you say the right things if they ring in their ears?

Do you stay in your lane or make a household for fame?

“Can you speak Spanish?”

“How good is your Spanish?”

“Are you Mexican?”

“Where are you from?”

“Did you go to school here?”

“Will you graduate and matriculate?”

Or they let the world circumspect with their doubtful gait.

You, the so-called Chicago King, You, the pauper amongst princes, South Side Shorty, Don't you forget a single thing, Because a single thing Will be the thing You'll want to -holdOnto Alongside that plate Of rice And Beans.

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Rousseauian Freedom in the Technological Age Peyton Marrone Technology is a modern instrument that hinders the civil discourse necessary to realize the general will, ultimately fueling political polarization and placing the sovereign in a condition of vulnerability and dependence. The internet and social platforms redefine procedures for civic engagement, which directly destroy the virtuous means both agree upon to practice the common good. Though the internet provides a range of knowledge, it lacks depth of knowledge. Citizenship requires a community that is not disconnected, where all participate in the general will. In the modern online sphere, the internet prevents productive discussion when outsiders around the globe involve themselves in affairs that do not pertain to themselves. Not only is external influence harmful, but a nation’s internal vices of self-interest, greed, and infotainment fuel toxic bipartisanship. Reflecting on the words of the enlightened political thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who similarly wrote during periods of political turmoil, hatred, and confusion, can help to diminish polarization and amplify collaboration to strive for goodness.

Rousseau was a Swiss philosopher in the eighteenth century who introduced the concept of the general will. This is a shared will that aims at the common interest of a well-informed, reasonable, and unbiased body. A society driven by the common good is one where each person is conscious about his or her impact on the community. The sovereign, a collective representation of the people, can exercise its freedom as the author of the law.1 In other words, Rousseau articulates how “[n]o one is unjust to himself”; thus, the general will is legitimate because it was realized by the people.2 The general will is not the will of the majority or minority, but alternatively, it is ultimate goodness and wisdom that unifies society. Rousseau acknowledges that the general will is always right and renders private wills illegitimate.

Social platforms advertise celebrities and their personal lives, generating a culture where social inequality is celebrated and diverts the public from the general will. Celebrities and mainstream media portray inequality, which is harmful when acquiring Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “On the Social Contract,” in The Basic Political Writings: Second Edition, ed. Donald A. Cress (Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company Inc., 2011), 180.

2 Ibid., 179.

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Rousseauian freedom. Rousseau emphasizes how a “high degree of equality in ranks and fortunes” is necessary for a community to participate in the general will.3 Roughly four-and-a-half billion people use social media worldwide, according to an internationally recognized SEO specialist, Brian Dean,4 which means social media is focused on materialistic goods and unscholarly topics, so the online sphere is ineligible to have a beneficial civil discussion.

The general will tends towards equality, but the modern world is full of individuals who desire luxury and money. American culture is especially concerned with comparisons of luxury and fame, but as Rousseau asserts, it “corrupts both the rich and the poor, one by possession, the other by covetousness.”5 Generally, individuals with social media become infatuated with the elite lifestyle, and they attempt to mimic the influencers. They quickly lose sight of what is important to the common good.

People on social apps are more worried about their appearance, status, and riches rather than using a platform for academic or socially progressive purposes. The opinions of the rich commonly do not serve the general will. Instead, they serve private will and agendas. To preserve good morals, respect for laws, patriotism, and the general will, citizens in civil society must have rough equality.6 Technology inflates inequalities in wealth. Due to the capitalistic society today and its traditional views about the distribution of wealth, the general will cannot be found because rough equality is unattainable.

Individuals do not care about the common interest of the people in civil society because of prevailing egotism in the present. Social media poisons a person’s virtues and creates a global culture that is driven by self-interest. A social media user is more concerned with likes, comments, and shares than meaningful conversations. The general will cannot be found by conversing politics on social apps, as users are not enlightened. Rousseau firmly asserts that “the private will tends towards giving advantages to some and not to others,” which makes technology an invalid source when the purpose of the general will is to serve all people in a community.7 The notion that a person could or should have the authority to declare the common good is false.

Ibid., 199.

Brian Dean, “Social Network Usage & Growth Statistics: How Many People Use Social Media in 2021,” October 10, 2021, https://backlinko.com/social-media-users.

5 Rousseau, “On the Social Contract,” 199.

6 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “Discourse on Political Economy,” in The Basic Political Writings: Second Edition, ed. Donald A. Cress (Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company Inc., 2011), 137.

7 Rousseau, “On the Social Contract,” 170.

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Rather, it is unfair for a citizen to act on his or her private will because the results would not serve others. There are distinctions between wealthy and poor, but they do not give one group permission to implement its own desires; all people are equally in need of guidance. German philosopher Jürgen Habermas supports the idea that the union of private individuals in public leads to political change and contributes to the common good.8 When people gather publicly, they can use reason to converse critically and expel biases. The potential for participatory democracy within social media does not occur due to stubbornness to abide by laws and resistance to live by a shared good.

The lack of obedience and participation in government makes Rousseauian liberty today unattainable because of hypocrisy and individuals acting against the common good for personal reasons. For the general will to be implemented, all persons must conform to the common interest by virtue. Rousseau proclaims that virtue should reign in order for the private will to support the general will. Total obedience in society—especially with the millions of citizens today—is rare because popular culture praises nonconformity. The motivation behind this behavior is usually the satisfaction of asserting a position separate from the commonwealth, not justice itself. Hypocrisy also masks obedience to laws of the common good. “The worst of all abuses is to obey the laws in appearance only to transgress them in reality,” as Rousseau indicates eloquently.9 In simple terms, pretending to follow laws is a greater evil than being honest and disagreeing publicly. Reaching an agreement can happen when an individual has integrity and is humble while debating with a peer. Social media inadvertently encourages a person to hide behind a screen, numbing a person’s natural human emotions of pity and sympathy for others.

Instead of technology creating friendships and uniting people, it has proven to be corrosive to empathy, goodness, and peacefulness. Refusal to cooperate with another person because he or she has different political views is an issue stemming from media in the modern world. Rousseau argued that vices cause sincere friendships to be traded for hatred and betrayal.10 Social platforms and websites encourage bullying, hate speech, gambling, and inappropriate content. None of these uses in the onLisa M. Kruse, Dawn R. Norris & Jonathan R. Flinchum, “Social Media as a Public Sphere? Politics on Social Media,” The Sociological Quarterly, (October 27, 2017): 3, http://pdf.xuebalib.com:1262/13q3bVXD3dqW.pdf.

9 Rousseau, “Discourse on Political Economy,” 132.

10 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts,” in The Basic Political Writings: Second Edition, ed. Donald A. Cress (Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company Inc., 2011), 7.

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line public sphere are beneficial to civil society because they harm human virtues. New technology also facilitates addictive behaviors that focus a person’s attention away from what matters and fixate his or her mind on the superficial.11 Investing attention and time into something superficial is wasteful. The community also suffers when a person succumbs to vices, as the general will is only carried out properly when participation is unanimous and the public is enlightened. As a person leans further into negativity on the internet, the initial purpose of gaining wisdom becomes challenging to obtain. In theory, the online realm provides an abundance of knowledge and wisdom to the public, although the internet is not as resourceful as one may expect.

The World Wide Web runs the risk of impeding comprehension and placing the sovereign in a state of dangerous vulnerability. The distinction between what one thinks he or she wills versus what he or she truly wills is muddled in the modern era. A study conducted at Cornell University revealed that students who used their laptops during lectures performed significantly worse on exams than those who kept their laptops closed.

Surfing the web during time dedicated to learning directly correlated to a decrease in cognitive skills and weakened overall understanding of content.12 As of 2010, the average American spends over eight hours per day on screens. According to Nicholas Carr, people are unknowingly continuing to “train[] their brains to be quick but superficial,” instead of expanding knowledge and eliminating partiality.13 True enlightenment becomes improbable because of society’s dependence on the internet, which consequently lessens intellect. Trading ignorance for wisdom requires disconnecting from technology and joining direct civil conversation. Granted, since citizens rely on devices that serve a multitude of purposes, getting rid of all technology is not possible. However, some measures are required to guard against information warfare.

A community that is too large poses challenges to the general will and encourages political polarization. Though Rousseau referred to the size of the sovereign in a broad sense, it is Gabrielle Reina, “Social Media and its Effects on Society,” Digital Commons at Sacred Heart University, (May 5, 2021): 4, https://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/ acadfest/2021/all/150/.

12 Helene Hembrooke and Geri Gay, “The Laptop and the Lecture: The Effects of Multitasking in Learning Environments,” Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory Cornell University (2003): 11-13, https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.9.9018&rep=rep1&type=pdf.

13 Nicholas Carr, “Is the internet making us quick but shallow?” CNN, June 7, 2010, 1 http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/06/07/carr.internet.overload/index.html.

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clear when a community is being negatively influenced. A community is in danger when political tension is higher than average.

As Rousseau indicates, “a body that’s too big for its constitution collapses and perishes, crushed by its own weight.”14 In other words, social platforms put the general will in jeopardy of being altered or corrupted. Technology allows people living in foreign countries to interfere with affairs in another nation not pertaining to them. The World Wide Web facilitates “manipulation of the perception of key issues by making it more difficult to distinguish between authentic and false information,” according to a recent study on the Social Science Research Network.15 In addition to the spread of false information threatening Rousseauian liberty in civil society, individuals in other countries’ views are often not valued. Though it may seem harsh, people’s intentions do not serve the general will of another nation. Rousseau goes as far as to assert that the general will and government should be confined to a small state where people can know each other and gather for discussion.16 The small scale of the public is not feasible in the modern era, due to increased population size, so one might imagine that Rousseau’s ideology would interpret technology as a good instrument because it brings people together. On the contrary, technology is not as productive as one may expect, because social platforms are not restricted to one nation. Furthermore, the general will is compromised by the difficulty of filtering those outside the community. Those outside the community can threaten Rousseauian freedom as much those within.

To identify the general will, a public body must rely on the participation of all individuals, though the media and self-righteous people on social platforms often censor ideology. Cancel culture is a danger that makes persons fearful to speak the truth, like Jean le Rond d’Alembert, a contemporary of Rousseau, expressed.17 The rising diversity of people and ideologies in a nation results in disagreements that quickly transform into quarrels. Since communication online conceals human emotion with shortened words and emoticons, individuals become easily offended and closed to productive debate. Rousseau believed that the suppression of ideas and works does not help to reach Rousseau, “On the Social Contract,” 186.

Joshua A. Tucker, Andrew Guess, Pablo Barberá, Cristian Vaccari, Alexandra Siegel, Sergey Sanovich, Denis Stukal, and Brendan Nyhan, “Social Media, Political Polarization, and Political Disinformation: A Review of the Scientific Literature,” (March 2018): 28, https://deliverypdf.ssrn.com/delivery.

16 Rousseau, “On the Social Contract,” 199.

17 Christopher Kelly, “Rousseau and the Case for (and against) Censorship,” The Journal of Politics 59, no. 4 (1997): 1235, https://doi.org/10.2307/2998599.

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the general will. For the general will to be well articulated, each citizen must discern his or her own opinion without partiality in the community.18 An individual’s contribution to discussions about laws and the common interest is valuable. Hence, silencing persons is an injustice to political progression. As Habermas suggests, “The public sphere requires unlimited access to information [and] equal and protected participation.”19 In essence, censorship in the technological age makes civil discourse an unlikely occurrence. Consequently, Rousseauian freedom is less attainable in the modern era due to cancel culture spreading and deepening polarization. The primary political parties are severely divided, and individuals are feeling forced to conform to beliefs instead of honoring intrinsic values.20 To overcome this challenge and agree upon a common good, society must discard strong biases and instead emulate Rousseau’s openness and transparency for civil conversation.21 The twenty-first century’s appeal to online entertainment poses challenges to deliberative democracy and the possibility of actively partaking in the general will. News outlets and individuals often bait audiences with content that is diluted with entertainment to retain declining engagement.22 Maintaining a large audience of citizens is important, though not at the expense of the integrity of timely topics and political issues. Kristina Riegert of Stockholm University asserts that “distinctions between news and entertainment, and between factual and fictional genres [are] increasingly untenable to maintain.”23 Differentiating between reality and fantasy is essential to protect civil society from tyranny and peril. Otherwise, trust in American democracy will be lost, and the public will become further divided. The online sphere does not promote the common interest due to infotainment overpowering the internet’s original communicative purpose. Both serious issues and critical news stories are instead taken lightly by the public, and truth is obscured. Rousseau affirms that “The populace is never corrupted, but it is often tricked.”24 Citizens Rousseau, “On the Social Contract,” 173.

Lisa M. Kruse, Dawn R. Norris & Jonathan R. Flinchum, “Social Media as a Public Sphere? Politics on Social Media,” The Sociological Quarterly, (October 27, 2017): 2, http://pdf.xuebalib.com:1262/13q3bVXD3dqW.pdf.

20 Pippa Norris, “Closed Minds? Is a ‘Cancel Culture’ Stifling Academic Freedom and Intellectual Debate in Political Science?” JFK School of Government, (August 5, 2020): 4, https://deliverypdf.ssrn.com.

21 Kelley, “Rousseau and the Case for (and against) Censorship,” 1235.

22 Daya Kishan Thussu, “Infotainment,” Wiley Online Library, November 6, 2015, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/9781118541555.wbiepc152.

23 Kristina Riegert and Sue Collins, “Politainment,” The International Encyclopedia of 23 Political Communication, (January 2016): 1, 10.1002/9781118541555.wbiepc157.

24 Rousseau, “On the Social Contract,” 172.

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ought to stay alert to identify bias in the media and enlightened to seek reliable sources to agree on the common good collectively.

The World Wide Web offers free access to a wide range of diverse people and perspectives, though organizations often curate users’ feeds. An individual’s feed is manufactured by an algorithm for monetary and political purposes. This is especially prevalent during elections and when the political climate is unstable.

Information is filtered and personalized so the viewer does not have convenient access to alternative opinions. The political separation of the modern era is a byproduct of corporations desiring to monetize users. Private corporations control media and what an individual views on their news feeds and social feeds. Rousseau would disapprove of current media and argue that “Nothing is more dangerous than the influence of private interests on public affairs.25 Rousseau offers moral and ethical texts from the eighteenth century that critique the ramifications of technology on political debate and the common good of the people today. Negative consequences from media and the internet corrode civil discourse and human decency to establish a general will in society. This is not to deny the advantages of the online sphere. Smart devices are practical for receiving current news and updates on politics. Notifications from apps are quick and efficient compared to newspapers or gatherings in town halls. Nevertheless, a responsible citizen must also be attentive to whether a source is biased, one-sided, or untrue. Seeking guidance from philosophers like Rousseau on fostering goodness on a small scale can benefit the larger community. Moreover, relationships torn by political polarization can be mended, reshaping the public to turn towards virtue.

25

Ibid., 198.

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Bibliography Carr, Nicholas. “Is the internet making us quick but shallow?”

CNN, June 7, 2010. http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/ web/06/07/carr.internet.overload/index.html.

Dean, Brian. “Social Network Usage & Growth Statistics: How Many People Use Social Media in 2021.” October 10, 2021. https://backlinko.com/social-media-users Hembrooke, Helene and Geri Gay. “The Laptop and the Lec ture: The Effects of Multitasking in Learning Environments.” Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory Cornell University. 2003. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/ download?doi=10.1.1.9.9018&rep=rep1&type=pdf Kelly, Christopher. “Rousseau and the Case for (and against) Censorship.” The Journal of Politics 59, no. 4 (1997): 1232–51. https://doi.org/10.2307/2998599.

Kruse, Lisa M. Dawn R. Norris & Jonathan R. Flinchum (2017).

“Social Media as a Public Sphere? Politics on Social Media.” The Sociological Quarterly. October 27, 2017. http://pdf.xuebalib.com:1262/13q3bVXD3dqW.pdf Norris, Pippa. “Closed Minds? Is a ‘Cancel Culture’ Stifling Academic Freedom and Intellectual Debate in Political Science?” JFK School of Government. August 5, 2020. https://deliverypdf.ssrn.com Reina, Gabrielle. “Social Media and its Effects on Society.” Digital Commons at Sacred Heart University. May 5, 2021. https://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/acadfest/2021/ all/150/ Riegert, Kristina and Sue Collins. “Politainment.” The In ternational Encyclopedia of Political Communication. January 2016.10.1002/9781118541555.wbiepc157 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, ed. Donald A. Cress. Discourse on Political Economy in The Basic Political Writings. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2011.

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Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, ed. Donald A. Cress. On the Social Contract in The Basic Political Writings. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2011.

Shane, Scott. “The fake Americans Russia created to influence the election.” The New York Times, September 7, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/07/us/politics/rus sia-facebook-twitter-election.html Thussu, Daya Kishan.

“Infotainment.” Wiley Online Li brary. November 6, 2015. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/ doi/full/10.1002/9781118541555.wbiepc152 Tucker, Joshua A. Andrew Guess, Pablo Barberá, Cristian Vaccari, Alexandra Siegel, Sergey Sanovich, Denis Stukal, and Brendan Nyhan. “Social Media, Political Polarization, and Political Disinformation: A Review of the Scientific Literature.” March 2018.https://deliverypdf.ssrn.com/de livery

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Mountains Haunt Katherine L. Barrett, PhD For four consecutive summers during my graduate career in biology at the University of Notre Dame, I had the amazing opportunity to mentor undergraduate ecology students at the University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (UNDERC) on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana. During my time in Montana, I witnessed innumerable natural wonders each day. Perhaps the most enduring memory I have from this experience is the image of Mount Calowahcan, a prominent peak along the Mission Mountain Range.

While the work was arduous and pushed me in ways I never thought possible, the experiences in Montana are forever etched in my soul.

Seeing that mountain peak each day, along with the melodious songs of the western meadowlark and the roaming herds of bison, gave me a sense of place in that arid, wonderful landscape and inspired me to compose this poem.

I am captivated, enchanted, by your hovering.

“We must finish this transect,” he says.

But I gaze across the field of three-awn, and the mountain speaks to me.

Tacit, but it is there: Then the fog sets in, But I still see, feel, hear, the transect tape.

“Do not let it jam again,” I hear myself say.

We put artificial frames over a site, as if to say, “This is the manner of things here.”

Between bison and sunrises and other wonders, See the billowing clouds emerge over the Missions, As if to smooth their jagged faces.

Watch the pronghorn as they meet your naïve eyes with their deliberate glare.

Listen for the dried flower heads bearing seeds, rattling in the wind.

Watch as the Pacific winds comb through the fields of bromes and rye.

Listen to the western meadowlark; she sings only for you.

Hold the transect tape steady as your friend walks away.

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Never think for a second that you can leave a place so quickly.

Remember the feeling when you stand up to move to the next plot, So much yet to do, but look around you: You touch the earth here, and through the sweat and sun burn, You may wonder, “What is the sum of my life?”

Pulling cheat grass out of my ankles?

Watching tiny sulfur butterflies alight onto the delicate cinque foil petals?

Your emotions, sometimes blurred, sometimes clear, Sometimes grasping for something from the past: You are the Mission River, Running high and muddy now, But equilibrium must be reached.

Between the valley and the mountains, You see ancient figures walking.

Not speaking, as they speak the language of the earth: Emotion is enough.

A rainbow emerges out of the Ninepipe Reservoir Only here does earth meet the sun.

And meadowlarks sing you a sonnet with each new dawn.

A field with a tree and a mountain in the background

Mount Calowahcan, Mission Mountains. Photo credit: K. Barrett

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Between mountain and waterfalls, The sights often beckon pause, As the wild horses gallop across the prairie And kick up ancient arrow heads in their wake.

You witness, unbeknownst to everyone around you, Roaming herds of bison, unconfined, Charging, the winds teasing their manes.

You may walk through wetlands, Hearing ancient proverbs…

“Panicum, panicum, panicum…”

Between the bulrush and duckweed, You see a former version of yourself, One who ran through streams, who dug into the dirt, Who stood face-to-face with the bison, and understood: Between bison and sunsets and other wonders, You settle in, Eyes fixed on the full moon rising in the east, Ears pricking at the coyotes’ howls, As it must be.

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Wadi Rum Cameleer Gabriela Betanzos Photograph.

While walking around Jebel Khazali in Wadi Rum Desert, Jordan, during golden hour, I came across the pinkish desert dunes leading an Arab man and his caravan towards a source of fresh drinking water. I flashed my camera to capture the magnificent essence of such beautiful creatures. The cameleer then invited me to ride along on his short journey. We conversed in Arabic about how these camels are truly like family to him.

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Understanding Equity’s Role in Judicial Philosophy in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure Rich Meyer Perhaps Shakespeare’s most provocative problem play, Measure for Measure explores the radical complexities that the law faces in the service of a human state. This state, in which the principal beings are of a fallen nature, inevitably sends waves of nuanced crime crashing against the walls of juridical philosophy.

The play evokes questions pertaining to the purpose of law and the intricate relationship between justice and mercy. Claudio’s crime of fornication, Angelo’s seemingly stoic devotion to severe justice, Isabella’s merciful character and iron will, and the Duke’s providential role-playing in this Viennese moral experiment all serve to draw out the tensions between these two concepts inherently rooted within the realm of human and eternal law. These tensions can be reconciled when implementing Thomistic, and by extension Aristotelian, thought on the virtue of equity, which is “the principle that allows the magistrate to make exceptions to general laws where enforcing the general law would lead to an injustice under specific local circumstances.”1 Equity is thus especially pertinent and necessary when judging Claudio’s crime and the exoneration of Angelo, for the extremes of strictly just (Angelo) and naively merciful (the Duke) ideologies fail to navigate successfully these convoluted waters of human law. This paper intends to lay bare the structural faults in both of the princes’ radical philosophies. Afterward, it demonstrates that equity presents a reasonable and effective method of governance, and reveals how Shakespeare embeds medieval Christian theology and classical philosophy to resolve the mess of the drama.

The play starts in Vienna, an Italian city-state ruled by the Duke. For fourteen years, the Duke’s misplaced compassion and unwillingness to enforce the law allowed lawlessness to fester within the city. In a move to restore order among his constituents, the Duke deputizes Angelo, a man known for his moral rigidity.

Once in power, Angelo immediately sentences the young aristocrat Claudio to death for impregnating his girlfriend Juliet before they were married, hoping to make an example out of him to the other citizens of Vienna. Lucio, Claudio’s friend, goes to the local 1.Stacy Magendaz, Stacy Mag”endaz, “Public Private Mercy infor Measure for Mea“Public Justic andJustice Privateand Mercy in Measure Measure,” (San sure,” (San Bernandino, Bernandino, 2004), 327.2004), 327.

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convent and convinces Isabella, Claudio’s sister, to go to Angelo and beg for mercy on behalf of her brother. She does, but receives an undesirable compromise: Claudio’s freedom for her virginity.

Isabella is faced with an impossible moral dilemma and does not know what to do.

At this point in the play, the Duke reenters, disguised as a friar. He informs Isabella that Mariana, Angelo’s former betrothed, was abandoned by Angelo when her dowry went missing in a shipwreck. The Duke then formulates a plan that involves Isabella agreeing to Angelo’s offer, but with Mariana going in her stead.

This happens; yet Angelo, out of fear of revenge, refuses to pardon Claudio of his crime. The Duke secretly saves Claudio, unbeknownst to the other characters. Feeling the pangs of injustice, Isabella makes her complaint to the Duke as he returns to retrieve his authority. In the climax, the Duke acts as a final mediator and judge for all grievances. As the play follows comedic tradition, all the problems are resolved through a series of surprising marriages, some more promising than others, and order is restored.

Common though they are, the administrative styles of the Duke and Angelo contain tragic flaws that doom the society to disparate and unjust consequences. Throughout the plot, they are exposed as being woefully blind to the metaphysical realities of human nature, natural law, and the intricate concept of equity.

The effects of the Duke’s rule and its impact on society are blatantly obvious within the first act. His reign of mercy and spinelessness when enforcing the law that punishes fornication with death has allowed for a cesspool of prostitution to fester and flourish in the city of Vienna, as we see through the promiscuous Lucio and Miss Overdone. Lax enforcement of the law leads to general looseness of morals and undercuts the law. The Duke’s refusal to administer the law for fourteen years under the genuine pretext of mercy has destroyed any authority of the law. He likens this situation to that of “an o’ergrown lion in a cave, that goes not out to prey,” or to “fond fathers [that have] bound up the threat’ning twigs of birch, only to stick it in their children’s sight for terror, not to use” (1.3.22–26).2 As Georg Gottfried Gervinus notes, even though good intentions preceded every merciful act, “it turned to the detriment of the common weal, and scattered the seeds of crime.”3 What emerges is the law “becom[ing] more mocked to Measure for Measure are fromfor William Shakespeare, Measure Shakefor Measure 1.All references 2 All references to Measure Measure are from William (New New for York: Signet (New Classic, 1988), cited parenthetically by act, scene, andparenline speare,York, Measure Measure York, New York: Signet Classic, 1988), cited number. thetically by act, scene, and line number.

3 Gervinus, “A play expressing notexpressing justice,” in equity, Measurenot forjustice,” Measure: 1.Georg Gottfried 3 Georg Gottfried Gervinus,equit, “A play Shakespeare: The Critical Shakespeare: Tradition. Volume (London: The Atholone 2001), The 159 in Measure for Measure: The 6Critical Tradition.

VolumePress, 6 (London: Atholone Press, 2001), 159.

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than feared” (1.3.27), an unescapable development and ultimately the damning fruit of a strictly forgiving bureaucracy.

Angelo becoming the prince of Vienna swings the governmental pendulum from one of mild compassion to one of draconian due process that follows the law to the letter. This strict implementation of the law serves as a rude awakening to his constituents, most immediately to Claudio, who bears the brunt of this sudden prosecution. From the onset, one might not see anything wrong with Angelo’s affirmation of the integrity of the law.

Vienna requires such a persona, an embodiment of rigid morality, in its leader if it hopes to be transformed into a town free from promiscuity. Isabella hints at the virtue that lies in such a mode of discipline when she admits, “O, it is excellent to have a giant’s strength” (2.2.109). Why then, is Angelo’s rule problematic?

Should not extremes be countered by extremes if a shift in disposition is desired? To start, it is impractical, even inhuman, for a man to maintain the level of propriety Angelo maintains. George Wilkes concurs when describing him as the “picture of Puritan hypocrisy.” 4 Angelo’s personality is emotionless, almost robotic, such that he “scarce confesses that his blood flows or that his appetite is more to bread than stone” (1.3.55–57) and “never feels the wanton stings and motions of the sense” (1.4.62-63). In embodying this, he holds himself to a spotless, indifferent morality, similar to that of the law, yet denies his fallen nature. This is his most grievous fault, for in suppressing his passions and emotions he never learns how to deal with them. Even though, as Gervinus asserts, “there was good in Angelo’s serious political intentions, the suppression of the feelings which accompanied them avenged itself by bursting asunder the unnatural restraints.” 5 Thus when he expresses his attraction for Isabella, it is a novelty that bubbles over into a monologue of interior contradiction of strict morality versus raging lust.

Just as Angelo’s nature is clearly at fault, so also is the philosophy which guides him. What Angelo’s fixed justice primarily lacks is the more foundational understanding that, as Aquinas asserts, “every law is ordained to the common good.”6 Additionally, he must realize that the truer purpose of the law lies in the motive of the lawmaker rather than the specific lettering which frames the law. This is because the lawmaker faces an impossible task 1.George Wilkes, 4 George Wilkes, “Measure for Measure and Roman Catholicism,” “Measure for Measure and Roman Catholicism,” in Measure for in Measure for Measure:The Shakespeare: The Critical Tradition.

Volume 6 (London: Measure: Shakespeare: Critical Tradition.

Volume 6 (London” The Atholone The Press, Atholone Press, 2001), 190.

2001), 190.

5 1.Georg Gottfried 5 Georg Gottfried play expressing Gervinus, “A play Gervinus, expressing“A equity, not justice,”equity, 159. not justice,” 6 159.

Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II-I,Q.90,A.2 1.

6 Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II-I, Q. 90, A.2.

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when creating a law for every nuanced case imaginable. Such a law would require some sense of complete and total knowledge and is subsequently unattainable. By isolating each case to the bare action and disregarding the individual circumstances, he becomes insensitive to the fact that, as Anton-Hermann Chroust explains, “if the ‘strict Common Law’ be applied to certain cases, it would frustrate the equality of Justice and be injurious to the common good which the law has in view.”7 To obtain this more wholesome theory of justice and properly judge Claudio, Angelo must undergo a transformation of juridical philosophy ordered towards the motive of those certain lawmakers. This transformation can be characterized as leaving the realm of the “strict Common Law” and entering that realm of equitable justice which philosophers like Aquinas and Aristotle upheld. However, Angelo does not do this, and in adhering to strict interpretation, he finds himself in a precariously ironic situation: in the terms of Aquinas, it is “without doubt [that] he transgresses the law who by adhering to the letter of the strict Common Law strives to defeat the intention of the lawgiver.”8 By unrelentingly pursuing the law and its morality, he violates that which he upholds.

The text demonstrates how this reasoning is remarkably applicable. Isabella’s pleas for mercy and pity are pitted against Angelo’s “strict Common Law.” Prior to any moral fall on Angelo’s part, Isabella’s venture seems doomed from the start, as the dilemma is framed in the context of justice versus mercy. In Angelo’s administration, there is no room for discriminating mercy. As a result, the emotional appeals predictably bounce off Angelo’s conscience of steel to no avail. Instead, Isabella could have focused on equity. This process would have accentuated two things. First, that while Claudio’s crime may have offended the letter of the law, it certainly did not offend its spirit. This law against fornication was created to prevent what persisted under the Duke’s reign: a general lewdness that fosters no commitment to marriage, ruins the family, and ushers in children to a wildly irresponsible environment. In contrast, Claudio and Juliette were married in all ways except the formal. In spirit, “she is fast my wife” (1.2.150), Claudio says. The sole reason that this act was performed outside of marriage was because of some financial complications with the dowery. It becomes obvious then that what Claudio and Juliette did in no way contributed to the detriment of the common good and merited no proportional judgment, for their child was conChroust, “Common Good and the Problem Equity in the Philos1.Anton-Hermann 7 Anton-Hermann Chroust, “Common Goodofand the Problem of ophy St. Thomas Dame Law Review no. 2Law (December 1, EquityofinLaw theof Philosophy ofAquinas,” Law of St.Notre Thomas Aquinas,” Notre18, Dame Review 18, 1942):pp.117. no. 2 (December 1, 1942): pp. 117.

8 II-II, Q.Theologica, 120, A. 1. II-II, Q. 120, A.1.

1.Aquinas,8Summa Theologica, Aquinas, Summa 7

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ceived to loving and devoted parents. The second aspect would be the appeal to Angelo’s one-track mind of justice, for both Aquinas and Aristotle viewed equity as a subset of justice. One can have justice without equity but not equity without justice. If equity is, in Aristotle’s terms, “a correction of legal justice…, is just, and is better than one kind of justice,”9 it is in no way greater than the higher concept of justice itself. Furthermore, as Chroust claims, it “does not intend to set aside what is right and just, nor does it try to pass judgment on a ‘strict Common Law rule’ by claiming that the latter was not well made.”10 Since this logic quite clearly remains inside the concept of justice and at the same time pardons Claudio, it might have had a better chance of swaying Angelo from his course than a plea for mercy.

The final act of Measure for Measure exhibits a barrage of merciful acquittals, just accusations and pardons, and equitable triumphs that resolve the comedic play in dramatic fashion.

While some are dealt with rather simply—like Escalus, Claudio, and Barnardine—the twisted fallout of Angelo, Isabella, and Marianna’s actions requires a bit more attention and analysis. Angelo’s duplicitous double-crime complicates things greatly. Not only is he guilty of a broken promise and sending for Claudio’s death “at an unusual hour” (5.1.461), but also of committing the same crime he imprisons Claudio for. Justice screams out to all parties. Isabella and Marianna both seek their ends—retribution for the (supposed) death of Claudio and a mercy to Angelo, respectively. The Duke, recognizing the atrocious nature of these deeds, calls for “an Angelo for Claudio, death for death…Measure still for Measure” (5.1.412–414). Even Angelo himself, realizing his own fate, summons his last shreds of honor, saying, “let my trial be mine own confession. Immediate sentence then, and sequent death, is all the grace I beg…I crave death more willingly than mercy” (5.1.375–377,479). So, in the end, why is justice apparently overtaken by mercy? Is this mercy shown to Angelo itself an injustice? Wilkes certainly thinks so, for that at the end “the great principle of retributive justice is sadly sacrificed to a weak fancy for forgiveness.” 11 He thinks that Angelo’s heinous actions merit the forfeiture of his life, and only in this way can justice be achieved. In a similar yet starkly different manner, George Daniel posits that punishment is indeed necessary, yet is already satisfied 1.Aristotle,9 Nicomanchean Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, trans. (Upper Martin Saddle OstwaldRiver, (Upper Saddle Ethics, trans. Martin Ostwald New River, New Jersey: Prentice Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1999),Hall, 121.1999), 121.

10 1. Anton-Hermann 10 Anton-Hermann Chroust, Good of andEquity,” the Problem Chroust, “Common Good “Common and the Problem 117. of 11 Equity,” George117.

Wilkes, “Measure for Measure and Roman Catholicism,” 186.

1.

11 George Wilkes, “Measure for Measure and Roman Catholicism,” 186.

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through “the deep shame and humiliation that overwhelm him in the severe reproofs of Escalus and the Duke,” the “horrors of guilt,” and the tasting of “the bitterness of death by hourly anticipation.”12 However, Gervinus is not convinced. Because the ends to which Angelo acted never came to fruition (most importantly Claudio’s death), his “doom would not be in law altogether in conformity with justice.”13 Additionally, how could the Duke, the one who placed Angelo in this situation in the first place, the one who knows what everyone else does not—that Claudio still lives—justly punish Angelo with a clear conscience?

A thorough application of equity to this unique situation reveals that the nature of the pardoning of Angelo’s crime, at least on the Duke’s part, is not of mercy but rather of equity. “The marriage to which the Duke ‘sentences’ [Angelo] embodies this principle of equity,” 14 as Stacy Magendaz asserts, because it weighs Angelo’s errors and adequately solves them with a positive outcome that has no wrongful effect on the common good. Additionally, it restores justice to Marianna, whom Angelo faulted when he broke their legal contract years prior. Therefore, Wilkes’s belief that justice has sadly been sacrificed on account of forgiveness is doubly wrong: first, because in the public sphere it is equity that acquits Angelo, not forgiveness; and second, because justice is not sacrificed because equity is a form of justice. Ultimately, it is through the incorporation of equity into the Duke’s judicial philosophy that he can effectively accommodate his good, merciful intentions and resolve the play in such comedic triumph.

Daniel, “AGeorge play about mercy,” in Measure for Measure: Shakespeare: The Crit1. George 12 Daniel, “A play about mercy,” in Measure for Measure: ical Tradition.The Volume 6. Shakespeare, The Critical Tradition.

Atholone Shakespeare: Critical Tradition. Volume 6. Shakespeare, theLondon: CriticalThe Tradition.

LonPress, 2001, 70. don: The Atholone Press, 2001, 70.

13 Gervinus, “A playGervinus, expressing not justice,” 158.not justice,” 1. Georg Gottfried 13 Georg Gottfried “Aequity, play expressing equity, 14 Stacy Magendaz, “Public Justice and Private Mercy in Measure for Measure,” (San 158.

Bernandino, 327. Magendaz, “Public Justice and Private Mercy in Measure for 1.

14 2004),Stacy Measure,” (San Bernandino, 2004), 327.

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Bibliography Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Translated by Martin Ostwald. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1999.

Aquinas, Thomas. “Question 90. The Essence of Law.” SUMMA THEOLOGIAE: The essence of law (Prima Secundae Partis, Q. 90). Accessed April 24, 2021. https://www.newadvent. org/summa/2090.htm#article2.

Aquinas, Thomas. “Question 120. ‘Epikea’ or Equity.” SUMMA THEOLOGIAE: Epikea’ or equity (Secundae Secundae Partis, Q. 120). Accessed April 24, 2021. https://www.newadvent.org/summa/2090.htm#article2.

Bald, R.C. Introduction. In Measure for Measure, 15–23. Baltimore, Maryland: Penguin Books Inc., 1956.

Chroust, Anton-Hermann. “Common Good and the Problem of Equity in the Philosophy of Law of St. Thomas Aquinas.”

Notre Dame Law Review 18, no. 2 (December 1, 1942): 114– 18.

Daniel, George. “A play about mercy.” in Measure for Measure: Shakespeare: The Critical Tradition. Volume 6. Shakespeare, the Critical Tradition. London: The Atholone Press, 2001. http://search.ebscohost.com.library.hcc-nd.edu:3209/login. aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=22671&site=ehost-live, 70–73.

Gervinus, Georg Gottfried. “A play expressing equity, not justice.” in Measure for Measure: Shakespeare: The Critical Tradition.

Volume 6. Shakespeare, the Critical Tradition. London: The Atholone Press, 2001. http://search.ebscohost.com. library.hcc-nd.edu:3209/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=22671&site=ehost-live, 152–160.

Magendaz, Stacy. “Public Justice and Private Mercy in Measure for Measure.” San Bernandino, 2004. https://scholarworks.lib. csusb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=library-publications.

Shakespeare, William. Measure for Measure. New York, New York: Signet Classic, 1988.

Wilkes, George. “Measure for Measure and Roman Catholicism.”

In Measure for Measure: Shakespeare: The Critical Tradi58

tion. Volume 6. Shakespeare, the Critical Tradition. London: The Atholone Press, 2001. http://search.ebscohost.com. library.hcc-nd.edu:3209/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=22671&site=ehost-live, 186–191.

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Desert Prayer Gabriela Betanzos Photograph.

I came across this Jordanian man whose truck broke down in Wadi Rum Desert, Jordan, while taking landscape photos. Leaning on the rear tire, he fondled with a mas'baha, or Arabic prayer beads while mumbling traditional prayer. I sat across from him and observed the incredible focus he had for his faith in the blistering heat and glaring sun. Though no words were shared between us, I felt an incredible connection and remained with him until help arrived.

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Leader Finn McClintock, Jackson Lang, Carlos Unanue, Andrew Vitale

The Leader section is a collection of works ranging from essays about the dangers of technology to intimate religious reflections.

Madeline Murphy’s “Do I Own My Smartphone, or Does It Own Me?” and Grace Martin’s “Screenslaver” lead the discussion about the drawbacks of technology in our lives. Other entries such as “The Road of Eowyn and Faramir” and 2016 delve into Christ’s power as a leader and how that power inspired each contributor.

This section also touches on secular leadership with Alexandra Buchlmayer’s evaluation of different social and behavioral development approaches before concluding with Self Cross Analysis, a unique interpretation of Jesus’s crucifixion and its lasting effect on Christian lives. Each of these works models leadership and guides readers toward discovery of truth.

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2016 Dane Litchfield 24 by 18 inches. Watercolor and Ink on Watercolor Paper.

I made this piece to depict how an encounter with the incarnation (Jesus) radically changes lives. Drawing from my own faith story, I painted a triptych with each panel representing either a phase of my life or an event that radically changed it. Reading it as one would a book, the first panel is dark, downtrodden, and depressed. This was reality for me at one point in life; I felt like I was gazing into the darkness, and it was inescapable. The second panel represents July 20, 2016, from which the piece draws its title. It was on this day that I encountered Christ and realized my call to study theology as a vocation. This moment left me in tears of joy and forgotten pain—of knowing everything was going to be good.

This moment spurred about the phase of the third panel, which has been my life since that day, truly an Evangelii Gaudium, joy of the gospel. In the third panel, I am jumping for literal joy, with the colors reflecting the sense of renewed hope and protection that I had found in Christ. The whole piece refers to a sense of “Holy Saturday” because it begins with not knowing what joy was to an encounter with Christ. When you read the piece like a book, the dynamic of the Paschal Mystery is shown, with suffering and death, an encounter with Christ’s saving power, and concluding with the joy of Christian life. The piece shows how I felt from March–July, 2016, knowing something was to happen, but unsure of what it was. The longing my heart and soul endured as I repeated the phrase “The Sun will Rise!”

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Screenslaver Grace Martin Tired and unmotivated, I sat in the corner of my room as I repeatedly entered Zoom codes onto my screen until the hands on the clock informed me that three o’clock had arrived. Such were my COVID-19 days, similar to every other student across the country. For three months, I reluctantly opened my computer every day, only to mute my microphone and turn my camera off before reaching for my phone to scroll through TikTok. Early mornings became an increasingly challenging time for me to spark any type of motivation. As a result, I would sleep through my 8:00 a.m. calculus class and would wake up startled to my teacher yelling over the mic that class had ended. Before the pandemic, I maintained the discipline to show up on time to school daily; however, the idea of staying in bed throughout the day became far more tempting, and I often failed to wake up at a reasonable hour because of this. I could not help it. The new shows added to Netflix, addictive ten-second TikTok videos, enticing YouTube vlogs, and never-ending facetime calls with friends made sleep impossible.

A typical morning would go something like this: After difficult contemplation, I would remove the heavy blankets from over my tired body and slip my feet into my fuzzy slippers; this prevented the frigid floor from further refrigerating my already-frozen body. As I stood up, I recalled one of the delicious breakfast recipes I had watched on TikTok the night before. Totally disregarding my next class, I typed into the search bar, “Yummy breakfast ideas.” Then, I proceeded to the kitchen to create a fullcourse meal as my instructor was beginning to review for our final history exam.

One hour of screen time into my day. I finished my breakfast and switched off the TV just as my friend texted me as a reminder that we had a statistics test that day. I remember thinking, “Oh shoot! We have a test?!?” It had completely slipped my mind; I knew this test was important, but I was more focused on editing my new Instagram picture and hypnotized by the aesthetic of other VSCO feeds. Although I did not study, I felt relatively confident about the test considering I could use the internet to my advantage. I logged into Zoom, jumped into bed under the warmth of 66

my covers, and I began the exam. I could not help but notice one of the multiple group chats completely blowing up my phone. I quickly glanced at my phone, and then responded and proceeded to get dragged into conversation. Before I knew it, the timer had five minutes left and I had only just begun. In an attempt to finish, I aggressively scrolled through a multitude of online resources, yet was unable to find the answers I needed. Maybe if I had studied and put in the effort like I used to, I would have been able to finish; yet the idea of copying and pasting the questions into the search engine seemed extremely tempting and effortless.

Two-and-a-half hours of screen time into my day. Later in the day I had AP physics—my most crucial and demanding class at the time. I would move to my desk to narrow my focus. I opened my laptop and naturally switched off my mic and camera.

The note-taking began and I strove to be attentive; I was determined to grasp the content from class that day. Yet, to my chagrin, I soon found myself picking up my phone and checking for notifications, scrolling through my emails, and clicking on bikini ads for the upcoming summer; it was a never-ending cycle of distraction. I could not think clearly, my eyes began to sting, and my head began to pound like a thousand vibrations occurring simultaneously inside my brain. I looked down at my phone to check how much class time there was left and realized it was only 1:15 p.m.: it was only mid-afternoon.

Six hours of screen time into my day. The last class of the day was either physical education or a free period; it all depended on what letter day it was at my high school. Most days I forgot what letter day it was because my highly distracted self was more interested in the latest YouTube vlogs; hence, I would miss Physed class. This resulted in my grade dropping to a sixty-seven. I had missed four classes, was barely passing, and could have received detention. When I eventually realized I skipped class, I would shrug it off and continue to watch YouTube. I mean, it was only gym class, right?

Seven hours and forty-five minutes of screen time into my day. The lengthy screen time and consistent distractions were not only beginning to negatively impact my physical and mental health, but my GPA as well, the GPA that would soon be consulted among college admission counselors. Deep within, I knew my former organized self was slowly collapsing. If I hid my phone from myself, it felt as though I was being punished. I did not know how to stop this never-ending, downward spiral that was 67

destroying my hard work and the priorities by which I had once lived.

Nine hours of screen time into my day. Whenever I stepped outside of the four walls of my room, my phone always had a place in my pocket. This included leaving my room for family dinners where we would discuss our mundane, extensive days with each other. My ringer would go off in the middle of a conversation like a fire alarm disrupting all surrounding conversation.

My legs would begin to shake, and my foot would aggressively tap the hard-wood floor beneath the table. I would grow antsy, and my instincts would tell me to pull out my phone to check the notification. This not only happened to me, but also to everyone in my family. My mother would have to ask my father to turn off the football game or ask us to put our phones down, but that would not stop our inevitable addiction to the technology surrounding us. We were addicts. Addicts to a programmed platform that reels us in with our interests and hobbies, while destroying our thought processing system and long-term focus.

Ten hours and forty-five minutes of screen time into my day. This was the total amount of time I spent glaring into not only one screen, but three screens in one day. As if we were not bad enough before the COVID-19 pandemic had begun, online learning continued to deepen our dependency on technology.

My addiction grew stronger every day, constantly consuming my thoughts with endless distractions. I became a screenslaver, hypnotized by the enticing clothing advertisements, message notifications, or new TikTok recipes. I knew what I had become, yet I continued to grow stronger within my obsession.

Society as a whole has become a network of screenslaves to a six-by-five-inch device. I do not know whether fully to blame this destructive obsession on the COVID-19 pandemic, because society was already encaptivated by the intriguing technological appliances beforehand. It was inevitable for society’s obsession to grow stronger. It is finally time to ask ourselves whether the dependency we have on technology is improving our lives or slowly demolishing them.

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David’s Surrender Emily A. Ransom, PhD I wrote this Italian sonnet as I transitioned from the urban ministry of my young adult years, where I was beginning to experience severe burnout, to graduate school. The humility to surrender my own particular dreams of vocation, to let others be the ones to do my prior important work, and to follow the path I was being given instead was an immensely formative challenge.

Life is too long to be so short, a road Whose length outstrips our wooden soles, and leaves The consummation that our hope achieves Beyond death’s great annulment. Hope will goad Herself to dreams differed and leave the load To Solomon to birth what she conceives,1 The temple where he doesn’t worship,2 sheaves That bow to reapers who had never sowed.3 The grace to finite feet is that they are, The whisper Moses weeps to meet: “Rest here.

Give Joshua your staff, for Canaan’s far More costly than a prophet’s tear.”4 The kingdom’s like a planted seed,5 and we Find grace in dust of our mortality.

March 18, 2007

2 Samuel 7.

1 Kings 11:7–8.

3 John 4:37–38.

4 Deuteronomy 34:1–6.

5 Matthew 13:31–32.

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Anointment Angelo Ray Martínez, MFA Charcoal and ink on watercolor paper, 18 by 24 inches.

This work is a reflection on the permanent impression that Jesus leaves on his disciples. The fish, a symbol used by early Christians to depict their faith, is metaphorically tattooed with a thorned rose, a symbol of Christ's passion and sacrifice.

2021

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Do I Own My Smartphone, or Does It Own Me? Madeline Murphy As I sit writing this reflection, my phone buzzes in what seems like an attempt to win my attention. Its bright screen is practically irresistible, and I struggle to avoid picking it up. I tell myself, I’ll just respond to this text message. However, responding to a text turns into checking my email, checking my email turns into scrolling through a Target advertisement, and before I know it, I am hopelessly lost in the never-ending world that is the internet. After regaining control, I become frustrated with myself.

How can this seemingly harmless device have such a stranglehold on my life? This frustration is soon followed by an overwhelming sense of self-doubt; I ask myself why I can’t be as disciplined as a strive to be. When I was a child, I was significantly more focused and diligent, rarely struggling to finish my schoolwork.

At the time, the two most prominent distractions in my life were playing outside and reading the latest young-adult novel, both of which I would consider somewhat enriching. My phone, on the other hand, brings me far less joy and adrenaline than these childhood pastimes, but is considerably more addictive. I think part of the reason for this is because my books never sent notifications reminding me to read them, and because the playground was not present on my bedside table. Upon this realization, part of me wishes I did not own a smartphone. Without its engrossing screen, I might be more like my younger self.

However, that conclusion is far too simple for this multifaceted problem. As technology continues to develop, it becomes increasingly difficult for anyone, much less a college-aged student like myself, to live a wireless life. Without a phone, it would be nearly impossible to stay in touch with family and friends; I would surely lose touch with people I care about. Additionally, much of my schoolwork is completed online, and professors frequently send email updates regarding their classes. Choosing to rid all technology from my life would make academic success decidedly more challenging. Perhaps worst of all, I would lose opportunities for work and my future career since so much of the business world has become virtual. When applying to be a volunteer assistant counselor at a Christian summer camp my sophomore year of high school, the camp required counselors to keep a working cell phone on them at all times. My friends’ bosses frequently text or call them at any hour of the day and expect a prompt reply.

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Since almost everyone has a cell phone, everyone is expected to be reached easily.

Another issue with technology, and specifically smartphones, is their capabilities for immediate communication. Since replying to a text message is nearly instantaneous, people can and often do become offended when it takes someone more than a few minutes to respond. I know that, at least in my case, this fear of upsetting others is difficult to ignore; it causes me to repeatedly check my phone when communicating with someone over text.

When I do work up the discipline to turn on “Do Not Disturb,” silencing the near-constant stream of notifications that hold such power over me, I still feel somewhat trapped in this never-ending world of technology. This is because, although my phone no longer calls out to me in a tangible manner, I am still slave to its inescapable presence, almost as if it has become a part of me altogether. I constantly worry that my silenced phone is receiving urgent messages that I am unaware of, and so I allow myself to glance at it quickly. Since I check it so frequently, there are no missed messages on the lock screen. Yet, this is somehow not enough reassurance. I soon after find myself perusing each app that I deem important—iMessage, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, email, YikYak, and TikTok—to see if there are any missed notifications that strangely did not pop up on my lock screen. As most would guess, I cannot recall a time that there actually was a notification that did not appear on my lock screen, yet I cannot stop checking my phone. It is hard to pinpoint why I am so addicted to such frivolous apps. If I truly reflect on my usage of them, it is obvious that anything I could miss for a few hours is inconsequential, but I cannot seem to resist them.

I believe that it is important to analyze not only the control that smartphones have over people in younger age brackets, but also the implications of living in an increasingly digital world. Why should it matter that we are addicted to our phones? After all, we are living in a time of incredible technological advancement. Video-chatting apps such as Zoom and Google Meet virtually eliminate the need for in-person meetings, while self-driving cars offer the opportunity for safer and more efficient roads. Moreover, the development of new devices and applications greatly reduces the time to complete everyday tasks. In theory, the ease and proficiency with which technology allows us to live should leave us with more free time. However, this does not seem to be the case. Because of my addiction to and dependence upon my smartphone, I dedicate my “increased free time” to my phone. The time that I 75

should spend relaxing is instead dedicated to scrolling mindlessly through Instagram and watching short TikToks for far too long. I have tried to revert back to my old forms of relaxation—reading books, enjoying the outdoors, or watching movies—but I have come to realize that, due to the expeditious nature of technology, my attention span is no longer what it used to be. My brain has been unconsciously rewired to find gratification only in ten-second videos and carefully edited sunset pictures. Sitting through a two-hour-long movie is now an accomplishment for me, since my brain works completely differently than it did ten years ago. Although I use my relaxation time to indulge in the countless pleasures offered by my phone, it seldom brings me actual relaxation.

I often feel more anxious, irritable, and tired after using it. It feels like a chore I must complete. After getting home late at night, I should go straight to bed, but I feel obligated to check each social media platform. My eyes struggle to stay open, and I fight my body’s cry for sleep just to finish watching my friends’ Snapchat stories. When I finish, I set an alarm on my phone, plug it into its charger, and lay it right next to my pillow.

These tendencies seem absurd. However, I am not alone.

Many of my peers identify with the problems I’ve touched on in this reflection: a lack of self-control, loss of attention span, and, perhaps most paramount, the feeling that my phone dictates my life. You would think that all of these negative effects would prompt an uprising; however, we remain silent. It leads me to wonder: do I own my phone, or does it own me? Anyway, I have to go check my phone.

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In the Cloud of Smoke Gerardo Negrete-Gonzalez Watercolor.

War is undoubtedly one of the most stressful times in a person’s life, not only for the soldiers fighting on the front lines but also for their loved ones back at home. During times of war, a soldier has a limited time to reflect because of his or her active duties in war. In this painting, the artist is able to capture a split-second still-frame as a soldier reflects on his loved one. As the soldier takes a moment to take a smoke break, he blows a smoke cloud, and in this smoke an image of his beautiful daughter is revealed. It is in that moment that he wishes humanity could be more like the bird.

The bird is free. The bird is free from conflict, stress, and war. The bird stands and flies wherever it wants to go. The bird represents true freedom, a freedom soldiers aim to achieve but cannot because of violence.

In this painting, the artist uses watercolors and paint brushes to protest war. War represents an interesting paradox, in that hundreds of thousands of lives are typically lost to achieve the perception of peace. The bird is a symbol of what humanity truly aims to achieve: freedom.

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Social and Behavioral Development in Correlation with Educational Approach Alexandra Buchlmayer Introduction For my Child and Adolescent Development class, we had to write an observation paper based on our choice of observation on children. I chose to do the four- to six-year-old age range, which meant I was to go to either a daycare center or school. Instead of focusing on children at one school, I wanted to compare the social skills and behaviors of students in two different learning environments. As an ardent Catholic, I decided to choose Catholic schools as my observation ground. I compared students from a child-centered learning program, meaning the students have more authority over what they learn and interact with during each class period, and students from a typical academic program where the teacher has primary instruction on what is learned. My goal was to determine whether children develop better socially and behaviorally under one educational approach versus another.

Participants I observed students from The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (COGS) at St. Matthew Cathedral Parish and School and students from Our Lady of Hungary Catholic School (OLH), both in South Bend, Indiana. The children in both schools were between the ages of five and six. There were four males and five females at COGS, most of which were Caucasian, while a few were Hispanic.

There were four males and six females at OLH, all of which were Hispanic except one African American female. The students observed at OLH all seemed to be of a lower socio-economic status than those of COGS. Overview of the Day The teacher at COGS reviewed practical-life lessons for a majority of the day. These included teaching all the students how to pour with big creamer cups and beads, instructing them on how to scoop rocks into bowls using a large spoon, and having them practice grabbing liquid-filled balls with large tongs. She then split the class into two sections: those who had learned the upcoming theology lesson and those who had not. Once the class 80

was split, the second-years were allowed to rehearse the previously taught practical life lessons, while the first-years received a lesson on how to set up a prayer table. The first-years were then dismissed to practice lessons while the second-years received a new theology lesson on the tabernacle. Finally, the students cleaned up and left.

The students at OLH arrived and received breakfast at a much less structured pace than those at COGS. After prolonged breakfast and bathroom break, learning commenced; the students gathered around their teacher and began to discuss the calendar and weather. Next, the teacher taught the students phonics and then had them grab whiteboards to practice writing with her. Afterwards, the teacher taught them what “equals” meant in math and had them practice in their workbooks. The students were then shown educational videos to review what they had just learned in English and mathematics. After a long period of learning, they were given free time to play, followed by a read-aloud lesson on the Bible. Finally, I left, and they went to lunch.

The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd There was one situation involving a boy, Reginald, who displayed private speech. Private speech is the behavior of talking quietly to oneself, typically seen in young children, because at such an age, processing is difficult to do just through thinking.

As I was sitting on the stool in between the door and a shelving unit, I observed Reginald, who was laying on the carpeted floor, coloring his green folder with red and black colored pencils. He used the five stickers that he was allotted for his folder, as faces for his characters. At first, I thought Reginald was talking to me, but I quickly realized that he was talking aloud to himself as he drew. He said aloud that he was drawing eyes on all his monsters, but that he was not going to give one of the black ones legs, and that the red one was an evil one. He used private speech to categorize which stickers, representing heads, were to be evil and good. The upside-down stickers were the evil monsters, and he said those ones get red bodies, while the good ones, with upright sticker-heads, were deemed the good ones. It was then that he looked up and explained all of that to me rather than to himself.

Reginald’s actions connect directly to two topics from our book. First and most predominantly is that of private speech. Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget coined the term “egocentric speech” to reflect “his belief that young children have difficulty taking the perspectives of others. Their talk, he said, is often ‘talk for self’ 81

in which they can express thoughts in whatever form they occur, regardless of whether a listener can understand.”1 Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, however, did not agree with Piaget’s analysis of children’s talking-aloud behavior. He believed that it was difficult for young children to think without using speech and that language serves as “the foundation for all higher cognitive processes, including controlled attention, deliberate memorization and recall, categorization, planning, problem solving, and self-reflection.”2 Vygotsky also believed that children become more adept at processing their thoughts without using speech as they grow older and activities become easier, but until then, they use what he calls private speech. Private speech, according to Vygotsky, aids children in categorization; this can be seen in the above narrative about Reginald, as he reflected aloud and to himself about which stickers and drawings he would categorize as good or evil. Children who freely use private speech tend to be more attentive, involved, and perform better than their more reserved peers when it comes to tackling challenging activities. In Reginald’s case, at the very least, it kept him very attentive to the task at hand and allowed him to be detailed in his work.

Along with private speech, Reginald also displayed some fine-motor development while he was drawing. As professor of psychology Laura Berk explains, by the ages of three or four, children start drawing their “first representational forms” with “the universal ‘tadpole’ image, a circular shape with lines attached,” while by ages five to six they typically shift to “more realistic drawings” that involve a “more conventional human…with the head and body differentiated.”3 Reginald did not follow with this predicted timeline, as his drawings were still much more like the tadpole images of a four-year-old, even though he was six. A possible explanation for Reginald’s somewhat slow motor development is that males tend to fall behind their female counterparts when it comes to that area of development. According to Berk, “girls have an edge in fine-motor skills” and therefore, Reginald is just not up to speed, but he may be more advanced in some of his gross-motor skills, like running or maintaining stability, than his female counterparts.4 Our Lady of Hungary Catholic School Near the end of my observation, the children were given a Laura Berk, Exploring Child & Adolescent Development (Pearson, 2018), 222.

Ibid., 222.

3 Ibid., 211-212.

4 Ibid., 214.

1 2

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fifteen-minute recess inside, as it was raining outdoors. As soon as they were released to play, Matilda stood on a chair and asked if anyone wanted to play teachers with her. To her dismay, no one responded; she stepped down and colored instead. Had she received a response, this would have initiated cooperative play, through make-believe play; however, she ended up in parallel play along with others drawing. Cooperative play is a form of play where all children are working toward a common goal. Parallel play, on the other hand, is where children work alongside each other, but without interaction. There were five children using coloring books while lying on their stomachs on the carpet circle. Two of them, Diego and Dora, took part in associative play while coloring because Dora noticed that both of their books contained dinosaur stickers. Diego became excited about this, and they spent time talking about each other’s stickers. They then went back to quietly drawing side-by-side. The other five kids were working together to build train tracks and Legos. Their play was collaborative as they handed each other pieces and discussed how to move forward toward their common goal. The two kids playing with Legos lost interest quickly and joined the three playing with the train tracks. Enrique started teasing Shakira by taking a toy car from her and running around the classroom with it as she chased him.

Shortly after, the teacher told the students that she was looking for those who clean up upon first being asked and most students started to clean right away; however, a few continued to play with stickers until prompted again to clean.

Mildred Parten produced four levels of activity to describe young children’s social development, after conducting research in 1932. It progresses from nonsocial activity to parallel play to associative play, before eventually reaching cooperative play. Parallel play can be defined as a situation, “in which a child plays near other children with similar materials but does not try to influence their behavior.”5 I observed parallel play and the progression to more advanced types of behavioral interactions between a group of five students practicing their drawing skills. They were in close proximity to each other working on similar activities but did not seem interested in social interaction. However, Diego and Dora moved up to associate play, which is when “children engage in separate activities but exchange toys and comment on one another’s behavior.”6 They did this when they discussed the commonality of stickers in their coloring books and continued to talk as they drew next to each other. The five kids working on the train 5 6

Ibid., 251.

Ibid., 251.

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track and Legos together exemplified cooperative play, “a more advanced type of interaction, [where] children orient a common goal, such as acting out a make-believe scene,” as they had a common goal in mind.7 Also, had Matilda gotten her way of playing teacher with the others, her make-believe play would also have been an advanced form of cooperative play.

Comparisons After spending significant time at both OLH and SOGS, I observed that children from OLH were more able to develop socially because their teacher allowed them to share and play together, while the teacher at COGS was much stricter when it came to working separately on their own mats and not sharing materials. Her strictness was partially due to COVID-19 restrictions, but COGS still typically requires its students to work on their own mats. While the teachers’ levels of strictness affect the children socially, providing a more sociable environment at OLH, it also affects the kids behaviorally. The use of operant conditioning, primarily positive punishment, “presenting an unpleasant [stimulus] to decrease the occurrence of a response,” by way of reprimanding the children affects whether the children will continue to behave negatively.8 Operant conditioning is a way of learning through reinforcements or punishments. For example, the teacher at the COGS continually reminded the children to keep their masks up, not to talk while the teacher was talking, to sit where they were supposed to, not to touch what they were not supposed to, and not to run. Also, as a specific example, one student, Quintin, purposely stepped on another, Reese’s, finger and would not express remorse or apologize. The teacher, in turn, made him go to the back of the line and had a long talk reprimanding him. This exemplifies operant conditioning to get a child to curb adverse behaviors. However, the opposite happened at OLH. The teacher did not give out any consequences for the children talking out of turn, fidgeting, or playing with masks. A specific example of this apathy comes when Enrique was teasing Shakira by running around the classroom with the toy that he took from her. The teacher did not reprimand him for taking her toy or for running. She simply reminded him to be careful. The lack of punishment to combat negative behaviors will consequently lead the children to build unhealthy habits.

7 8

Ibid., 251.

Ibid., 121.

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Conclusions My goal while observing a child-centered program and an academic program was to determine where children better develop socially and behaviorally. Through my observations, socially, children develop in an academic setting where they get free time to play together and structured class discussions to work together.

This I found evident at Our Lady of Hungary School. However, children seem to behave better when they receive consistent positive punishment for unfavorable behaviors, which was demonstrated at the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. There are some limitations to my conclusions. This includes the realization I had upon observing COGS that the hour the students are with that specific teacher is only one hour of their typical academic program at St. Matthew Cathedral School, therefore leaving observations of enhanced behavior questionable as to whether they really came from COGS or their regular classes. Also, as I try to draw conclusions on COGS enhancing behavioral development and OLH improving social development, it is important to recognize that these teachers are individuals and therefore, findings may not be applicable to the generalized child-centered and academic programs, as not all teachers reprimand with the same intensity. In determining whether children develop better socially and behaviorally under one educational approach versus another, I found that children develop better socially in a typical academic setting, whereas children develop better behaviorally in a child-centered learning environment.

Bibliography Berk, Laura E. (2018). Exploring Child & Adolescent Development.

London: Pearson, 2018.

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The Road of Eowyn and Faramir Robert McFadden, CSC, Ph.D I wrote this poem during my novitiate in Colorado at the start of the pandemic. My inspiration came in meditating on how, by seeing the love Christ in others, we can in turn see the face of God. I drew upon J.R.R. Tolkien’s characters Eowyn and Faramir as well as 1 John 3:1–3. I pray that this poem inspires others to see the face of God. A shieldmaiden of Rohan A prince like Numenor of old Pass under the wings of the shadow, Where evil does not sleep, Where the great eye is ever watchful, Where there is no hope to be called children of God. The prince ever lives nobly in the White Tower, Full of mercy and compassion, Bereft of brother, Unpitied by his father, Doomed to die, When darkness falls and all hope seems lost.

The shieldmaiden, only lovely on a cold and frosty night, Looks for love from a noble man.

He cannot give her what she seeks.

Ready to die by the sword, Her king vainly hopes to see her days renewed.

What burdens this lack of hope brings to this daughter of God! Into the road, the shieldmaiden and prince take their steps.

They do not keep their feet.

They find a friend and lover Least looked for In the House of Healing, Where they are to be freed.

Wounded by the dark, Without memory of the light, The shieldmaiden and prince take their rest under the warden’s eyes.

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Bright in her white face, With clenched fists, Our Lady Chafes.

She does not know the divine face-to-face.

Restless hearts seem to be their fate.

Moved by pity, Faramir sees with clear sight, Not the shieldmaiden, But Eowyn: The White Lady of Rohan.

Her eyes bespeak of a cold frost, Which is yet ready to yield to a lovely spring.

Her loveliness and grief pierce his heart.

The doom of a seemingly inescapable darkness snares her heart.

There is no window with which to look eastward, No window to discover true hope.

“Stay with me, Lady Eowyn,” says Faramir.

“Let us stay at the east window And look for the face of hope together.”

Day by day, they walk together.

With clasped hands, they grow daily in strength.

The cold winds of the north their hearts: Their fragile hope.

Eowyn dawns a white cloak, The cloak of Findula, A memory of loveliness in far days and Faramir’s first grief, Eowyn now that pain and joy for our noble prince.

Does the White Lady of Rohan understand her own heart?

Shivering from the frost in her heart, Embracing Faramir, her noble love, Eowyn dares to ask that dreadful question, “Is the darkness inescapable?”

Clasping her face, His eyes pierce hers: “Reason tells me that this is our doom.

But my heart says nay!

There is a joy and hope no reason can deny.

You are a daughter of God, Whose heart of spring reveals that we shall be like him, 87

For we shall see him as he is.

You have taught me what it means to live in hope!”

Stooping to kiss her brow, he whispers: “Eowyn, WHITE LADY OF ROHAN, I do not believe that any darkness will endure!”

Not the shieldmaiden, But the White Lady understands her heart.

No more joy in death, Now a lover of things that grow and are not barren.

Winter turns to Spring.

The sun rises in the east.

The prince and White Lady kiss under the sunlit sky in the sight of many.

How does a moment last forever?

Two hearts wander Until at last they turn to home afar: The City of God.

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Self Cross Analysis Maria Gorecki I sometimes have to remind myself to look at my whole self instead of scrutinizing parts of my body in the mirror. It feels easier to zoom in on insecurities instead of stepping back and looking at the whole picture. This project was the result of putting together all the zoomed-in pieces of myself that I stress over. The result: I created my own crucifix.

The image of my mouth in the upper square sets the mood for the entire piece. I had a selection of poses that ranged from happy, through neutral, to mournful. In comparison to all the crucifixes I’ve seen in my life, my pose that represented exploding agony was the best picture to use as it reflects how Jesus was experiencing extreme pain before death.

November, 2021

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Disciple Nicholas Shannon, Shelby Clennon, Miguel Gabriel Camancho

We often associate the word “disciple” with someone who follows Christ and passes down his teachings. Many obstacles impose on our religious journeys, no matter our background. The primary emphasis of the Disciple section as a whole is the personalized journey through faith we must all take to overcome these obstacles. This coincides with the word “disciple,” which literally means “follower,” because once we have an individual religious epiphany and have learned to follow Christ, we become equipped to lead others and thus to “go and make disciples.” This section as a whole ought to inspire readers to explore their own personal epiphanies and to see how such experiences can lead ourselves closer to the light of truth.

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Madonna of the Streets Stephanie Nuñez Charcoal. 18 by 24 inches.

This drawing replicates Roberto Ferruzzi’s painting Madonnina 1897. This is a portrait of Mary and Jesus (as it is commonly interpreted). I selected this image because it has followed me in life, originally from influence of my mother who had a large painting of this in her room in my grandmother’s house. In this image of Mary and Jesus, the child is asleep comfortably and trustingly in Mary’s arms. By choosing to replicate this image, I want to show the possibility of finding comfort and love by trusting in Mary.

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Who am I? John Baglow My eyes opened. It was morning time, in the little town of Medjugorje, and my body was covered in sweat. The air conditioning in the inn where I stayed was selective about where it was sending cool, precious bursts of air, which was irksome. Usually, my eyes weep ever so slightly when I rise, mostly from sleepiness. This time, they were suffocated by the suctioning feeling of my brand-new contacts. Amateur. I peeled them off, the tears in my eyes running like a waterfall. I did not expect that. Nor did I expect my roommate on the pilgrimage to body me brutally into the wall once I got up, causing me to drop the pair of contacts. I brought two pairs, and I only had them for a week. What a waste.

My roommate, a twenty-two-year-old from Florida, apologized, saying, “Well man, I’ll venmo you.” He never did. And so, the day began.

Medjugorje is a town no outsiders would know existed.

It sits in a large valley, surrounded by green mountains that are sprinkled with rocks, and is located in modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a place where supposedly the Virgin Mother of Christ, Mary, has appeared to several visionaries over the past forty years, bringing news of urgency to convert, as well as general reminders of God’s love for the world, and her intercession for the faithful. It’s the typical, devout-Catholic grandma type of place, where a large gathering of around one million devoted pilgrims come annually to hear the voice of Our Lady and her messages through the visionaries. My own grandmother still recounts memories of when she was an avid attendee on these pilgrimages, having gone with a group from New Orleans several times. My mom told me I should go one day, having been forever changed by the experience she had there when she was seventeen. Now I was also seventeen, and I was in the place where my mother’s life had been transformed. Oh, the irony…

It was time for me to move, and my eyes were killing me.

However, I didn’t let that stop me from bringing the backup contacts as I ran to the front of the building and met up with my crew.

The man leading the trip was the son of two veteran pilgrims who worked in Medjugorje and who knew my grandmother back in the day. I just so happened to go to the same high school in South Bend that his daughters attended, so I ended up meeting 96

them by chance. I was new to the area, so I was glad to spend my pilgrimage with them and their friends. But I digress. We made our way to the location of the place we would start our march up to the cross—up what is called by the locals “Cross Mountain.”

What a coincidence. The tale goes that the locals erected the cross to celebrate the one-thousand-nine-hundred-year anniversary of Christ’s death, which is why I was especially excited to see it. Not only that, but the view from the top was described as breathtakingly beautiful.

After we convened at the base of the mountain, our leader began the rosary. The mountain had large metal depictions of the passion of Christ along the rocky path, so we had things to look at and reflect on to build up to the much grander sight. The tricky part was this: trying not to lose my breath while saying all of the prayers. I tried to focus on pushing my way off of each rock on the mountain, step by step. Awesome stuff. I didn’t know if I was going to pass out, but it sure felt like it. Approaching each station, bringing myself to say the words, and fighting against a mountain made me feel both invigorated and exhausted all at once.

As we drew close, I noticed a stray dog, moving its way closer to the top of the mountain along with us. It perked its head up at me, almost in a sort of nonchalant, inviting manner. For some reason or another, I had the idea to carry the canid along with us, so as to offer the act up as a sort of penance. So, compelled by the thought, I reached down, picked it up, and brought my new friend along with me on the path of passion.

“We’re getting close, guys,” yelled Mike, our fearless leader in cargo shorts. He didn’t have to yell; we were all within ten feet of each other. That thought changed when I got to his level.

The wind rushed like a water wave through the air and barred my hearing. My heart was anticipating getting to the top, so I was overjoyed. But the dog was not. He wriggled his way out of my hands and went back down the mountain, happy as can be. I was sad. Oh well, I thought. His loss, I guess. Recollecting myself, I jogged my way to the very top of the mountain, feeling both relief and exhaustion immediately. I had done it, all with my own strength. Looking up from my moment of breath catching, I saw the cross, taller than a man and twice as wide, towering over me and all the other pilgrims who were there. In that moment, I sat and reflected, thinking, contemplating...

It wasn’t I who got myself here, I thought. It was my parents.

My mom, my dad... I didn’t do this.

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I reflected on the times that I felt small, inconvenient, and ashamed. Times when I considered myself to be an outcast, with no one to call “friend” or “best friend.” Nothing that I had experienced in life could have been as good as this view. Let alone, the cross. The cross on which God took all of mankind upon himself, and felt the very weight of sin, ripping down on nails that were hammered through his hands and feet. God did it all. After all, he is perfect.

Having been aware of my autism diagnoses for four years at that point in time, all my heart was feeling was grave, unending sorrow. I can’t connect with these people, and I’m scared to even try. I remembered my sister telling me that she defended me all throughout childhood when we were with friends, telling them about how different I was and that I didn’t mean to freak anyone out. Again, the thought came: Even my sister knew. She also brought me here, not I. Anyone I tried to approach, anything I tried to do, and anything that I desired for myself would have been unachievable if it were not for my sister and my parents. What was I good for?

Immediately after that thought came to me, I was struck with paralyzing awe by the next: the dog. The dog was the attitude that I was embracing. At first pleased to have a helping hand from my parents and older sister, I soon came to pull away from the people who cared for me the most. I had been getting myself into things that were contrary to my beliefs, acting out of anger towards others, and being inconsiderate of just how much was accomplished to get me here. It’s all on me to choose, I suddenly realized. I had been acting like an animal. Like the clumsy mutt, I had chosen comfort in times where I needed to think critically.

The choices to go to Medjugorje, to make my way to the Nolans’s house for rosary every Monday leading up to the pilgrimage, and to foster friendships with these people were all on me. Not only that, but for four years I had been dealing with a handful of my own personal and mental struggles outside of being on the spectrum that inhibit healthy living. Yet, I had also acted in high school plays, went to dances, and forged friendships with people whom I never would have thought I would have as my friends.

The purpose of these things in my life, be they trials or gifts, was to strengthen myself as a person and give all that I had endured to Jesus. That, I thought, is what I’m good for, and that is who I am.

After thanking God for the many gifts he had given me in my life, and for the ways he had sustained it, I made my way down the mountain and back to town for lunch with my friends.

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Matthew 8:23–27 Lydia Fell

Acrylic on canvas. 14 by 16 inches.

As the title implies, this work was inspired by the Bible verses of Matthew 8:23–27 which reads: “Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!’ He replied, ‘You of little faith, why are you so afraid?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, ‘What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!’”

I chose these verses because they perfectly encapsulate the concept of faith and how we try to have complete control over our lives, but they are as unpredictable as the sea.

2020

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Manna Emily A. Ransom, PhD 1

This poem was written during the final obstacle in my seven-year journey into the Catholic Church, after I was finally ready to affirm its teachings to be true, but the local priest insisted I was not ready. Without any Catholic community to support me, believing in sacraments while being unable to receive them, I broke down one afternoon and wept for an hour onto my hardwood floor, pleading with Christ for concrete help for whatever time I would continue to be separated from the Eucharist. After I gathered composure, I wrote this poem to express that need. Immediately after I finished writing, my phone rang with an offer to the PhD program at Notre Dame. The concrete help I had begged for had come.

And you were always near as air2 When I was battered in the war; But I am broken flesh,3 and your Ephemeral love won’t mend this tear.

You may have spoken in the wind and tongues,4 But I would have you feed more than my lungs.

And I have loved you in a way— The way a cripple loves his staff Or as a slave his master’s laugh5— At least I limpingly obey.

But lest I feed your sheep6 here with a cane I’ll have to ask you firstly for the grain.

And you had hinted there’d be rest, Though I have only found your yoke7; But souls that never slept awoke8 To find the thief9 become a guest.

Exodus 16.

A reference to the Evangelical song “Breathe” written by Marie Barnett, popular in my teenage years, which opens, “This is the air I breathe: your holy presence living in me.”

3 A reference to the eucharistic liturgy.

4 1 Kings 19:12–13; Acts 2:2–4.

5 Psalm 123:2.

6 John 21:15–17.

7 Matthew 11:28–30.

8 Ephesians 5:14.

9 Ephesians 5:2.

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And you would dine with me10 despite my fear That I have only loaves and fishes here.11 February 3, 2010

10 11

Revelation 3:20.

Matthew 14:17; Mark 6:38; Luke 9:13; John 6:9.

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Divine Mercy

Melonie Mulkey, MFA Digital photograph.

This photograph is inspired by the revelations and experiences recorded in a diary by Saint Faustina, a young polish nun from the Congregation of The Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. In 1931, Jesus appeared to Saint Faustina in a vision wearing a white garment with his right hand raised in blessing and his left hand touching his heart where a red and pale ray of light shine forth—which Jesus said are “to signify water and blood.” In 1934 the painter Eugene Kazimierowski created the original Divine Mercy painting under St. Faustina’s direction. Thanks to Father Sopocko, her spiritual director, who instructed her to keep a diary and believe her visions to be real, the image has become an icon in spreading Divine Mercy throughout the world.

In the center of this photograph, Sister Faustina is represented as a bouquet of roses. Roses have been connected to symbolism throughout the history of Christian art; however I was most drawn to the symbol of the roses to represent Sr Faustina from another one of her revelations written in her diary. One day after her work in the convent kitchen draining the potatoes for the sisters’ dinner, she expressed her frustration to God. “Then,” she writes, “I heard the following words in my soul, From today on you will do this easily; I shallstrengthen you” (Diary, 65). That evening, St. Faustina “hurried to be the first to [drain the potatoes], trusting in the Lord’s words” (Diary, 65). She did the job perfectly, and when she looked in the pot, she saw that the potatoes had been transformed into “whole bunches of red roses, beautiful beyond description” (Diary, 65).

Then she heard the words, “I change such hard work of yours into bouquets of beautiful flowers, and their perfume rises up to my throne” (Diary, 65).1 In the image, the bouquet of roses sits in Holy Dirt from El Santuario de Chimayo, located in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northern New Mexico. Like the trust Sr. Faustina had, thousands of people make a pilgrimage to Chimayo, trusting that God will grant them the miracles of the dirt’s healing abilities. Both flowers and holy dirt sit on a mirror receiving and reflecting the trinity of light from above.

2021

Marian Tascio, “Roses from Potatoes: A Recipe for Redemption,” The Divine Mercy (Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the B.V.M., September 5, 2019), https://www.thedivinemercy.org/articles/roses-potatoes-recipe-redemption.

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The Christ-Haunted World of Ignazio Silone’s Abruzzo Trilogy & The Question of Scandal as a Force for Religious Change Andrew L. Ouellette, MA

Can scandal be a force of religious change? If Saint Thomas Aquinas’ definition of scandal is correct—as “something less rightly done or said, that occasions another’s spiritual downfall”1 —then scandal can absolutely bring about religious change; but a change that would cause a deformation rather than a transformation. Can we however separate the sin of scandal from a type of scandal that causes men, women, or institutions to change for the good? If the crucified Christ is “a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles” according to the apostle Paul in his first letter to the church in Corinth (1 Cor 1:23), could not ideas from outside the boundaries of religious orthodoxy give benefit to both the individual believer and the worshipping community?

Introduction The purpose of this paper will be to discuss the writings and thought of the Italian novelist and political thinker Ignazio Silone and to assess whether or not the ideas of a writer who referred to himself as “a Socialist without a Party, a Christian without a Church” can serve as a benefit in the Christian understanding of the nature of man and his destiny as best defined in Gaudium et Spes, the Second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World, “The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light.”2 This will be done in three parts. First, because Silone is not as well known in English-speaking world today, I will provide a brief biographical sketch that will be necessary in better understanding Silone’s thought as it is expressed in his writings. Second, this paper will particularly examine the characters and themes of his celebrated Abruzzo Trilogy to posit that Silone’s understanding of human nature and the person’s activity in the world as something “Christ-haunted” in which he cannot seem to ever fully remove religion from his being. Lastly, Silone’s thought will be assessed Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (ST), II-II, q. 43, a. 1, (New York: Benzinger Brothers, Inc).

2 Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, 22 (cited from Austin Flannery (ed), Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Postconciliar Documents, (Collegville: Liturgical Press, 1996).

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from perspective of the Catholic intellectual tradition—particularly with the help of Augustine, Aquinas, and Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker Movement—in an effort to show clearly that his writings, while scandalous at first glance, can enrich the Christian understanding of the human person’s necessity for community, the religious nature of man, and the possibility of suffering being redemptive.

A Brief Biography Secondino Tranquilli was born in 1900 into a rural family in Pescina, a small town situated within the heart of the mountainous and rugged terrain of the Abruzzo region of southern Italy. Twenty-three years later in prison, Tranquilii would shed the name of his birth and metamorphosize into Ignazio Silone. Taking his cognomen from Quintus Poppaedius Silo—a revolutionary who successfully fought against Rome in 90 B.C. —Silone placed himself on the side of those in history who stood in opposition to tyranny and oppression. Being imprisoned in Spain, Silone chose for his first name the saint of Loyola widely known for his importance in the history of the Spanish Counter-Reformation: Ignazio. One however might also wonder whether or not Ignazio Silone had in mind the early Christian martyr Ignatius of Antioch who—a prisoner himself and on his way to be mauled by wild beasts—wrote in his Letter to the Romans, “I am going through the pangs of being born.”3 In 1915, the inhabitants of Pescina were struck with tragedy when the 6.7-magnitude Avezzano earthquake affected the small town and its poor infrastructure. Out of the thirty-five hundred people who died (in a town whose population numbered around five thousand) were many of Silone’s family including his mother—his father having died four years prior. In the aftermath of the earthquake, Silone (only fifteen at the time) encountered horrors of human depravity such as spouses letting trapped partners die to receive financial gain, relatives stealing from relatives, and acts of cowardice including the local bishop fleeing the scene of wreckage. Robert Coles commented on this last act writing, “He [Silone] had, of course, been reared in the Catholic Church, but now began to see its not rare intimacy with corrupt, if not evil, ‘principalities and powers’ (cf. Eph 6:12).”4 Ignatius of Antioch, Epistola ad Romanos, 5. cited from Cyril Richardson, (ed), Early Christian Fathers (Library of Christian Classics, New York: Touchstone).

4 Robert Coles, “Silone’s Religious Humanism,” Harvard Diary: Reflections on the Sacred and the Secular, Vol 1. New York: Crossroads (Obtained from: New Oxford Review, https://www.newoxfordreview.org/documents/silones-religious-humanism/, July 27, 2020).

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Two years later, Silone became a member of the Italian Socialist Party eventually becoming leader of the party. His political ideologies shifted when at the age of twenty-one—he helped found the Communist Part of Italy and worked with comrades such as Antonio Gramsci and Palmiro Togliatti. It was during this time that his only surviving sibling and fellow communist—Romolo—was arrested and died in prison in 1931; an event that would haunt Silone with guilt for the rest of his life.5 Silone’s prominence in Italian communism in the 1920s saw a turning point following his role as a delegate at the Fifteenth Congress of the All-Union Communist Party in Moscow. This congress, during which both Stalin’s movement to consolidate power against Trotsky and rule over the Soviet state, and the widespread cruelty “all justified by an ideology that claimed historical and moral immunity for itself,”6 left Silone embittered with communism. It was in Switzerland, to avoid Mussolini’s fascist Italy, that Silone shifted from political activist to novelist; first publishing Fontamara in German (1933), followed by Bread & Wine (1937) and The Seed Beneath the Snow (1941), forming what eventually would eventually be called The Abruzzo Trilogy. Fontamara and Bread & Wine were, in particular, widely popular around the world (Fontamara specifically was translated into twenty-seven languages and sold around two million copies by the year 2000) —especially in the 1930s that witnessed the horrors of the Spanish Civil War and the beginning of World War II.7 After the liberation of Italy in 1943, the Allied forces printed and distributed tens of thousands of copies of both Fontamara and Bread & Wine. At the time of his death in 1978, Silone had penned nine novels, at least six political essays, and works of poetry and theatre. He received numerous awards over the course of his literary career, including the Premio Campiello (1968), the Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society (1969), and the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca (1971), and was nominated ten times for the Nobel Prize.8 One can argue that Berado Viola—the protagonist in Fontamara who dies in prison under the Fascist regime—is a literary Romolo Tranquilli. “And here surely Silone was trying to expiate what he felt was his own complicity in his brother’s martyrdom.”

(Stanislao Pugliese, Bitter Spring: A Life of Ignazio Silone, (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, p. 114).

6 Coles, “Silone’s Religious Humanism,” Harvard Diary.

7 “Since the publication of Fontamara coincided with the Nazi seizure of power, many German refugees found it in their hands as they passed through Switzerland, fleeing Hitler’s regime. By the winter of 1933–34, the book had already made its way onto the Nazi blacklist: ‘to be confiscated even in bookstores and household searches’” (Pugliese. Bitter Spring. p. 118).

8 For the sake of time in presenting this paper, I have omitted the controversies surrounding Silone’s political work (particularly his role as a Fascist informant from 1919-1930) due to the enormous complexities surrounding Silone’s own personal life during that time along with his political connections.

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Silone & His Works as Being “Christ-haunted” It is not an exaggeration that even a cursory reading of the Abruzzo Trilogy presents one with a landscape of human existence deeply saturated with religion and—in particular—Roman Catholic Christianity. An understanding of the twentieth-century Catholicism of Silone’s time is fundamental in fully grasping the plight of the cafoni (poor agrarian class) in his novels. The faith of the cafoni is one that is intimately united to their agrarian lifestyle.

Ember Days that mark the four seasons of the year by prayer, fasting and penance, Corpus Christi processions, and novenas to a town’s patron are just a few examples of a life richly layered with religious sentiment and expression. While the faith of the simple-minded and poorly educated9 cafoni can surely be criticized for its dependence on superstition, hagiographical tales, and a view of divine providence that depicts God’s actions as malicious and arbitrary, it is wrong to suggest that this is the totality of their religious ethos. If one were to read Silone’s works and only focus on the words and actions of the poor peasant class, one might conclude that Silone’s view of religion follows the popular Marxist statement that “religion is the opiate of the masses.” This however would be an unfair criticism for it neglects the religious plight of protagonists in his trilogy such as Berardo Viola of Fontamara or Pietro Spina disguised as the priest Don Paolo Spada in Bread & Wine. Silone’s heroes are constantly haunted by Christ to such an extent that it might be better to conclude that Silone’s religious view complements the Catechism of the Catholic Church statement that “man is by nature and vocation a religious being.”10 Stanislao Pugliese, Silone’s posthumous biographer in English, comments on this inescapability of religion when he writes: Silone and his main protagonists are not so much searching for a hidden God as being hounded by the Lord. A doggedly persistent deity haunts Silone and his characters, seeking them out in desolate landscapes and humble farmhouses, donkey stalls, and empty churches.11 Truly one could argue that Silone and his protagonists – particularly Pietro Spina (of whom Silone is most evidently present) – are These characterizations are frequently made by Silone himself in his criticism of an Italian rural class whose complacency in suffering debilitates any attempt of political uprising.

10 Libereria Editrice Vaticana, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 44 (Washington DC: USCCB. 11 Pugliese. Bitter Spring, p 7).

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like the man in Francis Thompson’s famous poem who attempts to flee from the Hound of Heaven, but ends up turning to Him to hear these words: “Rise, clasp My hand, and come!”

Halts by me that footfall: Is my gloom, after all, Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?

“Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest, I am He Whom thou seekest!

Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me.”12 As Silone was exiled from the political parties in which he played a prominent role as leader and influencer, so too did he consider himself to be exiled from the institutional Church that was seen (by him) as flawed and corrupted by wealth, power, and political influence. His fascination with the life of Christ, however, was something that stayed with him throughout his life and his writings. Jesus was, for Silone, the ultimate man of “utter goodness as it shone upon a world saturated by evil…a confident light shed upon a tenacious darkness.”13 Silone’s understanding of Christ shone through Pietro Spina in Bread & Wine and The Seed Beneath the Snow in ways that draw comparison to Dostoevsky’s Prince Myshkin in The Idiot who embodies “the Christian ideal of love that humanity can reach in its present form”14 but nonetheless faces his own interior battles and contradictions. This image of the altruistic Christ, along with his socialist political ideals, shaped his ecclesiology into an egalitarian community devoid of any play for power, status, or wealth. These ideals framed Silone’s understanding of himself as “a Socialist without a Party, a Christian without a Church.”15 The somewhat utopian ideals of Silone’s Christianity, however, are almost nowhere found in The Abruzzo Trilogy. The realities of sin (as something personal yet always social) and oppression shape the image of Christ, not so much as the resurrected Lord in his glorified body, but as he stood bloody and bruised before Pontius Pilate for the redemption of the world.

Francis, Thompson, “The Hound of Heaven”, ln. 176–182. This notion of being “haunted by God” is also made evident in The Seed Beneath the Snow in which a character whose family dies in an earthquake says, ‘I turned my back on Him once and for all after the earthquake. But sometimes I have the feeling that He’s running after me.’”

Ignazio Silone, The Seed Beneath the Snow, (Providence: Cluny Media, p. 260).

13 Coles, “Silone’s Religious Humanism.”

14 Joseph Frank, Dostoevsky: The Miraculous Years (1865-1871) (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995), 317.

15 Interview in L’Express, Paris, January 23, 1961 (source found in Pugliese. Bitter Spring. p. 7).

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Pugliese is correct when he asserts the permanency of Good Friday in the hearts of poor believers: “For Silone, the promise of Christianity as embodied in the Easter Resurrection has not come to pass. Instead, for the peasants of southern Italy—indeed, for peasants and workers around the world—it is, he insisted, still— and always—Good Friday.”16 One might consider Silone’s use of strong religious imagery to bring out the depravity of evil deeds and to remind the reader of both the reality of sin and the need for a “savior.” Reading Fontamara, one is taken aback with horror upon reading how Fascist forces come to the small village—while most of the men of the town are away—and rape the women. Silone writes of these women as martyrs who are being viciously abused out of hatred for their social status rather than hatred for their faith. When one woman in particular—Maria Grazia—is raped by five militiamen, Silone writes how she is forced down in a cruciform position and that, “When the first man had finished, his place was taken by another, and her martyrdom began all over again.”17 The militiamen end up fleeing Fontamara in panic after hearing the church bells ring and see a beautiful women standing at the top of the bell tower (who they assume that is the Virgin Mary). While not necessarily the Mother of God, Elvia is quite evidently Silone’s Marian figure in the story. The townspeople thought of her as such for her “modest and reserved nature,”18 and she is bound by love to Berardo Viola, the protagonist whose ultimately sacrifices himself for the cause of freedom—leading to his own “redemption” and the possibility of “redemption” for the cafoni. Just as the Mary (the New Eve) is united to Jesus (the New Adam) in the work of redemption, uniting her own maternal sorrows and sufferings with the sufferings of the Savior of the World (com-passion), so too does Elvira offer and unite her own sufferings for Berardo. In fact, it is through her sole prayer on a pilgrimage that Berardo is able to finally live (and die) for others and for something greater than himself. She says, “Holy Mother of God, I only ask of you one thing: that you intercede for the salvation of Berardo. In return I offer you the only poor thing that I possess, that is, my life. I offer it to you without hesitation, without qualification, and without regret.”19 Her prayer was granted as she returned home from her pilgrimage and died around the time of Berardo’s own acceptance of martyrdom in a Roman prison.

Silone’s religious humanism is most strong in the two Ibid.

Ignazio Silone, Fontamara, Providence: Cluny Media, p. 111–112 18 Ibid. p. 77.

19 Ibid. p. 184.

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works that follow Fontamara: Bread & Wine and The Seed Beneath the Snow. The encounters that Pietro Spina has with the cafoni in Bread & Wine while disguised as the priest Don Paolo Spada reminds the reader of Christ walking among the people of Israel.

Robert Coles writes: The novel is, really, a series of scenes—Pietro’s encounters with the poor, the well-to-do, the pure of heart, the embittered, the disappointed: the full range of humanity.

Even as Jesus walked among us, addressing our hopes and fears, our darker side and the brighter possibilities within us, Silone has his story’s central figure abandon political and economic abstractions (their attendant risk, so often, is ideological self-righteousness and arrogance) in favor of those small, concrete, pastoral moments which are so utterly redemptive. 20 No other character in Silone’s works best represents his or her creator than Pietro Spina. Like Silone, Spina is constantly haunted by questions of faith and the presence of God. In a meeting that can be likened to spiritual direction with his former grade school teacher, Don Benedetto (a priest whose somewhat less-than-traditional musings have left him on the blacklist of ecclesial authorities), Pietro Spina is reminded that “There is no salvation except putting one’s life in jeopardy.”21 This stress on laying down one’s life for others (cf. John 15:13) leads to the important theme of communion through sacrifice and self-offering that runs through the Trilogy. As Pietro Spina visits the parental home of one of his comrades who died in Fascist prison, one is struck by the evident eucharistic imagery in post-funeral reception. Being reminded that the Eucharist is traditionally understood to be memorial of Paschal Mystery in which Christ is truly and substantially present under the elements of bread and wine, we are moved at the scene of bread and wine being shared with all those in attendance and with the beggars who came to the door. It will be important to quote this passage at length to fully understand the depth of Silone’s thought: Old Murica [the father of the deceased] stood at the head of the table, offering food and drink to the men around him.

20 21

Coles, “Silone’s Religious Humanism.”

Ignazio Silone, Bread & Wine (Providence: Cluny Media), 223.

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“He helped me to sow, how, reap, thresh, and grind the corn of which this bread is made. Take it and eat, this is his bread.”

Others arrived. The father poured out wine and said, “He helped me to prune, spray, hoe, and gather the grapes of the vineyard from which this wine came. Drink, for this is his wine.”

The men ate and drank, and some dipped their bread in their wine.

Some beggars arrived. “Let them in,” the mother said.

“They may have been sent to spy,” someone murmured.

“Let them in We must take the risk. Many, giving food and drink to beggars, have fed Jesus without knowing it.”

“Eat and drink,” the father said. …

The men around the table ate and drank.

“Bread is made of many grains of corn,” said Pietro, “so it means unity. Wine is made of many grapes, it means unity too. Unity of similar, equal, useful things. Hence truth and fraternity, things that go well together.”

“The bread and wine of Holy Communion,” an older man said.

“The what and the grapes that are trampled on.

The body and the blood.”22 One could assert that just as Christ himself was taken, blessed, broken and given for the world, and how this four-fold action is re-presented—made present to us—at every Mass, so too for Silone is the life well-lived that is taken, blessed, broken, and given. This strong sense of the need for community in Silone’s thought found a home in both the socialistic principles he held and the religious sentiments that were always with him. Commenting on this interplay of socialism and religion in Silone’s insistence of the necessity of authentic community, Vanessa Cook writes: Silone still found in socialism the grounds for redemption.

Socialism, he deduced, presupposes democracy; democracy depends upon community; and community grows from the simplest human actions—caring for the sick, breaking bread, sharing wine. These gestures of love and compassion, Silone contended, also formed the fabric of 22 Ibid. 259–260.

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Christianity—not supernatural, institutional, or doctrinal Christianity, but a kind of sacred experience inherent in the practice of social solidarity. 23 Silone’s Christian Socialism as a Benefit to the Catholic Tradition Is it possible for one to bring Silone’s thoughts into a greater harmony with the Catholic theological tradition? While clearly at odds with Catholic doctrine in several respects, is it not possible sift the wheat from the chaff (cf. Matthew 3:12) so as to serve as an aide in the Church’s own understanding of the human person?

One most certainly cannot help sense an Augustinian strand in Silone’s thought of the God that can never leave man alone. It was Augustine himself who wrote, “You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”24 This movement of both God coming to man and man being drawn to God to fulfill his deepest longings and desires has love as its beginning and end; a love that should be carried over into a love for others.

Love then, becomes the vehicle that moves one along the path of salvation. In Augustine’s famous work entitled Nature & Grace, he writes, “The beginning of love is the beginning of righteousness; progress in love is progress in righteousness. But it is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith (1 Timothy 1:5).”25 With this notion of sincere faith being a perquisite for authentic love, how should the Catholic Church, with its doctrines and dogmas, receive the writings and thought of someone like Ignazio Silone whose socialist beliefs were in some respects26 Vanessa Cook, “Eighty Years Since Bread and Wine: Ignazio Silone’s Christian Socialism,” Dissent Magazine, May 6, 2016, dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/eightyyears-since-bread-wine-ignazio-silone-moral-christian-socialism.

24 Cor nostrum inquietum est donec requiescat in Te. Augustine, Confessions I.i.1, trans.

Henry Chadwick (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009).

25 Augustine, “Nature and Grace,” Selected Writings on Grace and Pelagianism, trans.

Roland Teske, SJ (New York: New City Press) 84.

26 “In some respects,” because the claim can be made that Silone’s understanding socialism, always evolving throughout his life, ended in a form of democratic socialism or, more precisely, distributism that can be likened to many of the Christian Democratic political parties of Europe. “Democratic socialism managed to fit within the two existing models as a welcome counterweight to the radical liberal positions, which it developed and corrected. It also managed to appeal to various denominations.

In England it became the political party of the Catholics, who had never felt at home among either the Protestant conservatives or the liberals. In Wilhelmine Germany, too, Catholic groups felt closer to democratic socialism than to the rigidly Prussian and Protestant conservative forces. In many respects, democratic socialism was and is close to Catholic social doctrine and has in any case made a remarkable contribution to the formation of a social consciousness.” Pope Benedict XVI, “Europe and its Discontents,” First Things, January 2006, https://www.firstthings.com/article/2006/01/ europe-and-its-discontents.

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fundamentally at odds with the Church’s social doctrine?27 Can such a dialogue even be possible? This is not a new question.

The Church throughout its two-thousand-year history has asked this question as she has moved from the patristic period into our post-modern world. When Christianity was still in its infancy, the Church utilized the philosophy of Greco-Roman paganism to better articulate the Christological and trinitarian mysteries of the faith. Over eight centuries prior to ours, the scholastic thinkers of the high medieval period argued over how or whether the Church can or should use the writings of Aristotle. Through the understanding of thinkers such as Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, who held that because all truth is one—in the sense that “although the essences or forms of things are many, yet the truth of the divine intellect is one”28 —there is a fundamental relationship between reason and faith that cannot be severed, and because of this, the Church can and should utilize the writings of those outside the visible boundaries of the Church provided that they are not against reason or faith.

To return to the question of Ignazio Silone, it will be helpful for us to answer the initial question of “scandal” in Silone’s writings through the insight of Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement. Day, a journalist and a writer herself, was deeply impressed by Silone’s writings and would frequently distributed copies of Bread & Wine to those who volunteered at the various houses of hospitality and farms. Day, who actually met Ignazio Silone and his wife for dinner in Rome in 1967, understood that Silone, after his rejection of Communism, saw “The emphasis…now on the individual, who conveys the message, one man to another, of man’s dignity and capacity for greatness. And greatness means the overcoming of temptation and laying down of one’s life for one’s fellows, in other words, the victory of love over hatred and mistrust.”29 Day understood Silone’s ideas of the human person as being deeply rooted in Christian anthropology, and that his experiences of poverty, political oppression, and suffering could provide Christians with a renewed understanding of the power of grace to transform the individual, suffering as something have real redemptive value, and the need of a community that lives the Catholic principle of solidarity. Day writes, “I do know that his writings bring to us the Christian message and my Pope Pius IX, Nostis et Nobiscum. Leo XIII, Diuturnum; Humanum Genus; Quoad Apostolici Muneris; Libertas Praetantissimum. Pius X, Notre Charge Apostolique. Benedict XV, Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum. Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno. John XIII, Mater et Magistra. Paul VI, Octogesima Adveniens. John Paul II, Centesimus Annus.

28 Aquinas, ST I. q. 16 a. 6 29 Dorothy Day, “A Meeting with Ignazio Silone,” The Catholic Worker (January 1968), Print.

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heart is warm with gratitude. Let us all pray for each other, that we may learn this profound truth, the way of the Cross which leads to joy and fulfillment and eventually to victory.”30 Rather than a reactionary reading of Silone that labels his writings as scandalous to pious ears, Day would desire that one should be grateful for his writings and allow them to benefit and enrich the faith.

While Aquinas will argue that scandal, as “something less rightly said or done” is always a sin, he makes sure to distinguish between passive scandal and active scandal. Active scandal “is always a sin in the person who gives scandal, since either what he does is a sin, or if it only have the appearance of sin, it should always be left undone out of that love for our neighbor which binds each one to be solicitous for his neighbor’s spiritual welfare; so that if he persist in doing it he acts against charity.” Passive scandal, however, can be “without sin on the part of the person whose action has occasioned the scandal, as for instance, when a person is scandalized at another’s good deed.”31 Perhaps this type of passive scandal is the scandal of the Cross that Paul writes as “a stumbling block to Jews and follow to Gentiles” (1 Cor. 1:23). If this is the case, one might argue that Silone’s Abruzzo Trilogy can be done in a way of passive scandal that is an attempt to move the hearts of believers to a greater desire for peace and justice in the world.

30 31

Ibid.

Aquinas, ST, II.II q. 43 a. 2.

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Ratzinger, Joseph (Pope Benedict XVI). “Europe and its Discon tents.” First Things, January 2006, https://www.firstth ings.com/article/2006/01/europe-and-its-discontents.

Silone, Ignazio. Bread & Wine. Providence: Cluny Media, 2019.

———Fontamara. Providence: Cluny Media, 2019.

———The Seed Beneath the Snow. Providence: Cluny Media, 2019.

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Transfiguration (2021) Angelo Ray Martínez, M.F.A.

Acrylic on canvas, 36.25 by 36.26 by 2 inches. Permanent Collection of the South Bend Museum of Art. This painting re-imagines the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ. Utilizing images of the fish, a symbol used by early Christians to depict their faith, this aquatic scene depicts the moment when Jesus’ divinity is revealed to the disciples, Peter, James, and John, in a flash of light, while the prophets Moses and Elijah appear at his sides (Matthew 17:1-8). The pixelated representations signify the mystical presence of these past prophets, in contrast with the more naturalistic depiction of the living disciples and Christ incarnate.

2021

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Rosa Sanguinis Philomena Kampe

I composed this poem during the end of my senior year of high school as a meditation and devotion to the Christ Child and His Most Precious Blood. The piece portrays the soul and its relationship to the Incarnate Son of God in a combination of the traditions of various saints: St. Therese, Sts. Dominic Savio and John Bosco, and St. Philip Neri. This poem was written in honor of the Holy Innocents and in memory of my infant sister Angela.

O Rosa delicata!

Per annum multum Scio eam in animam crescere.

Est similis lacrimosae Imo sanguinis stillae.

Autem magis est Multae stillae, piscina.

Nam rosa est rubra In spinae peccatae effusa E corde Pueri Qui est admirabilis.

Et lacrimae Suae defluxit Cum effusus est rosam.

In coronam Suam Gemma sane floruit.

April 15, 2020

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Colloquialized English translation: A delicate rose For many a year In my garden grows.

It is like a small tear Or a drop of blood. ’Twould be better said Many drops, a flood.

For the rose is red On the thorns of sin spilt From the heart of a child Untainted with guilt.

His tears fell as rain As the rose was bled.

A jewel of blood bloomed On the crown of His head

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“Duomo Di Firenze” Catherine Oliva

16 by 20 inches. India ink, watercolor, 400 lb. hot press.

This piece is an architectural perspective rendering of the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral in Florence, Italy. Construction on the Cathedral started in 1293 by Arnoldo Di Cambio. In 1412 it was dedicated to Santa Maria del Fiore, the Virgin of the Flower.

The lily is a symbol of Florence and means a lot to the locals.

The building was not completed until 1436, when the dome was finally built by Filipino Brunelleschi. This painting particularly highlights the Duomo’s facade which for years was originally a brick facade. The marble facade was redone in the nineteenth century and includes rich symbolism. This cathedral dominates the skyline of Florence and is the fourth largest cathedral in Europe.

Website: catherineolivaportfolio.com 2020

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