Vocation

learning me.

December 3, 2018 at 11:44 am

moving into my last semester here at BU, I’m trying to find a balance between being nostalgic, living in the present and thinking about the future. looking back to a similar moment in time, my senior year of high school, I can only appreciate the environments I’ve been placed in that have allowed me to grow. I was recently asked, “what do you want your legacy at BU to be?” I think there’s an obvious legacy that many can understand and connect with. However, thinking about what I want people to think about when they think of me on this campus is hard to pinpoint. I just want people to know that I never had it all together, that it was actually the opposite. I struggled, wanted to quit, and leave so many times. I truly believe that life should be a series of attempts to accomplish great things, but that doesn’t mean you don’t fail. As I’ve gotten closer to God over my four years, I’ve gotten closer to myself. It’s been a process of learning me.

On a different note, I’ve become to comfortable in the church. Everything seems routine, maybe that isn’t a bad thing but I need to challenge myself to diving deeper. I’m just hoping for a deeper dive into the word, especially before I graduate, I feel like I’m missing something.

By Devin Harvin | Posted in Devin | Comments (1)

God is on the Side of the Oppressed

November 27, 2018 at 8:46 pm

﷽

Everyday scholars and journalists are being arrested and murdered for doing their jobs, Shia clergy and laypeople are being societally repressed as they have been since the creation of the state, and innocent men, women, and children die in Yemen from war and famine; through all this God is on the side of the oppressed and we will see better days soon. Inshahallah. These are just some of the known crimes committed by Mohammad bin Salman and the Saudi family, who have held power before him and still continue to hold this power with support from the America . I believe that it is important to address this because this is a form of organized terrorism and must be addressed by religious leaders throughout the world. As Salman travels to Tunis and other parts of the globe, we must keep in mind that oppressors will one day pay. There are currently prosecutors in Argentina, the nation with the largest number of Latin American Muslim converts, who are considering charging Salman with his war crimes. Ultimately, these charges may have no effect as some world leaders believe they are above the law, like Netanyahu and his gang of terrorists who have always had American Support. Hopefully we will one day live in a world with no oppression, but for now all we can say is La ilaha ila Allah, There is no God but God.

We, decent Muslims and humans of the world are with all those oppressed in the world: the Palestinians, the Syrians, the Yemenis, the Kurds, the Shia, the Uyghurs, the Rohingya Muslims, the Haitians, black people in America and throughout the world, Women, children, humanity; as many of us are oppressed by our own greed that makes us succumb to money and power, which makes us forget about the love we should have for our neighbors.

By Oelmis Fermin | Posted in Emi, Oelmis | Comments (1)

What will Come Tomorrow?

November 18, 2018 at 1:02 am

"Tomorrow is close if you have patience." This Arabic proverb always provides insight for my future, especially because I do not know what the future holds. It means that as long as you are patient, you will receive what you have worked for or what it is that you want. I believe that most of us want more than one thing from tomorrow and these things change as each tomorrow goes by and becomes yesterday. At the moment I want to be a teacher, but I also hope to say "Yesterday I was a teacher". At the moment I want to be a lawyer, but I also hope to say "Yesterday I was. lawyer". At the moment I want to be a professor, but I also hope to say "Yesterday I was a professor". Like most people I would like to obtain many things, but what am I doing to get there? Am I actually working hard? or am I just waiting for tomorrow to come to me? I honestly do not know, but I hope that tomorrow I can say that I tried my best to obtain and receive what I have, that I can truly be happy for myself and those around me. I hope to keep my optimism as I move forward, but I want to move forward with realism so that I can adapt to what tomorrow brings and mix it with what I learned yesterday.

By Oelmis Fermin | Posted in Emi, Oelmis | Comments (3)

Streaming Consciousness

November 14, 2018 at 4:41 pm

I can say with complete certainty that I am fortunate. I have a strong support group of family and friends, a safe home to rest my head, and ample food to keep me going.

It has recently become more apparent to me that I must remind myself of this constantly. One "bad" day does not mean that all is lost or horrid. Too often, I find myself feeling if not for a moment that I am the center. The center of my life, and the center of my world. Whether or not this is the natural way of human thinking, it blurs the truth. It causes me to forget how fortunate I am and how in one instant, in one night, I could lose everything.

I refuse to think that privilege is given solely to the good. Maybe one has privilege to create change, or maybe it is just a game of chance and fortune. However, one with privilege has no right to see themselves as the center.

I may be digressing now as this post is an attempt to write only what immediately comes to mind. But what I am trying to say and what I need to do is to constantly understand how unbelievably fortunate I am. How everything I am and everything I have is a gift. And that too often it is taken away before it can properly be used.

By Timothy Bergeron | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (2)

at this point and more.

November 7, 2018 at 10:22 am

My roommate Lindsey is one of my closest friends and I love her dearly, but when she came back from being home all weekend, she was singing songs and not just any song, Christmas carols. I for one am someone who starts listening to Christmas music on November 1, so while I had been listening to Christmas carols on and off I was not prepared for "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" to be sung as high as possible. After Lindsey had finished her impromptu concert in our dorm room, she boldly claimed that it is "Christmas season friends!" My first thought was "Lindsey, it's not even thanksgiving. Save the concert for after thanksgiving!" I let her be though for two reasons: (1) Who was I to ruin her fun, and (2) It did seem relaxing, and I had been stressing a little bit because I had not gotten my midterm back from one of my professors. She asked me to join her, and I did. We sang Christmas carols in our shoebox of a dorm room for probably close to an hour. I'm surprised we did not receive a noise complaint to be honest because Lindsey is especially loud.

At this point in the semester, I am feeling a lot of different emotions. I am not stressed by coursework, but I know that the end of the semester can be a stressful time for any college student. Between work, school, and extracurricular activities and social life it can seem like the world is spinning. Not to mention the pressure that can come with trying to get good grades and finish the semester on the right note. Sometimes, it is the littlest things that can help (such as an impromptu Christmas sig along session in your dorm room after a Patriots game), or helping someone find their way around Boston University's sometimes intimidating campus.

I've gotten a lot of things out of my time at Boston University,and I'm grateful for the amazing opportunities that have been given to me. My internship at Marsh is a gift from God and I have gotten more out of it than I ever thought possible. It has even helped me find my chosen career path. I have made so many friends at Marsh and it has given me what I needed, especially as a student someone from a smaller school where there was no real sense of community. I feel blessed to be able to to go to Marsh and serve not just the school but also the Lord. The internship at Marsh Chapel has made the transition so much easier for me. Additionally, my work with Alpha phi Omega has also given me a purpose as well. Serving others is my passion and I am grateful to have the opportunity to serve others.

We have a bible verse that is essentially the Johnson Family's verse. My parents even had it included in their wedding vows, and we say it all the time at home:

"Jesus answered, 'The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength''

- Mark 12:29-30

This verse has gotten our family through so much, and is such an important passage in my life. I follow this passage every day. I have found that it means that we live by faith every day, and we love God with all of our being and live our lives the way God would want us to, loving all children of God, regardless of sexual orientation, ethnicity, race, socioeconomic background, etc. God calls us to love everyone, and that is especially important in today's society. If we love all others, then we have done what God wants us to do, and that is more than enough.

By Cornelia Johnson | Posted in Celie | Comments (1)

What Do I Receive?

November 5, 2018 at 5:07 pm

I write this post today after a week of pause to recollect and remind myself of the things that I am thankful for having in my life. I am issuing this practice as a meditative guide and prayer list after recalling the following quote by Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

"In normal life we hardly realize how much more we receive than we give, and life cannot be rich without such gratitude. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others."

Here is my list of gratitudes (in no particular order):

Life, Emotion, Knowledge, Love, Friendship, Forgiveness, Sanctity, Music, Faith, Compassion, Grace, and Joy

Though these concepts are quite broad, they remind me of moments, even seconds, from the past week where I felt a sense of bewilderment about how truly amazing my life is. I seek to keep these concepts and moments in prayer throughout the weeks ahead to remind myself of the many blessings bestowed upon me.

"How lovely is thy dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!

For my soul, it longeth, yea fainteth, for the courts of the Lord;

my soul and body crieth out, yea for the living God.

Blest are they, that dwell within Thy house: they praise Thy name evermore."

-Psalm 84:1,2,4

By Thomas Batson | Posted in Tom | Comments (1)

an institution

November 4, 2018 at 8:55 pm

"Well, the Church is an institution, Mike. Made of men. It's passing. My faith is in the eternal. I try to separate the two."

-Spotlight

This quote pretty much sums up my view of the church and my faith since coming to college. I needed to separate the two so I could keep my faith. Coming from the perspective of the preachers kid, I got to see the tremendous highs of the church and some frightening lows. I realized that politics are everywhere, and people can say one thing and do the other. I saw people hurt my family, people I thought were people of God. As I got older I saw Christians preaching hate, discriminating against their neighbor, supporting racist rhetoric and calling it holy. For me there has to be a separation, institutions change and disappoint you, my faith has yet to do that. Tying those two together set yourself up for disappointment. I think I've completely separated the two. Faith is no longer found within the bounds of the church, from the mouth of a preacher. I find faith everywhere now, I think that's for the better. I can see myself being open to more ideas and individuals because I'm not rooted in the institution any longer.

By Devin Harvin | Posted in Devin | Comments (1)

My Struggle

November 1, 2018 at 9:09 pm

"Well, the Church is an institution, Mike. Made of men. It's passing. My faith is in the eternal. I try to separate the two."

-Spotlight

This is the quote that I used as my "spiritual writing" which influenced my spiritual life. I understand that this is not written to be spiritual nor by someone who may consider themselves to be qualified as a spiritual writer; however, no written words have affected my faith more than these. As someone who grew up Catholic in the northeast, the abuse and rape accounts of Boston priests over a period of decades but was only publicized in the early 2000's was not unknown to me. From a young age I was made aware of the sick and disgusting acts that continue to stain what I believe in. As I grew older, I grew more confused and one day asked my dad "how he holds onto his faith?" and he explained to me that "if evil could infiltrate the people who are supposed to be closest to Christ and yet the Church still remains, then the Lord must have some goodness left in it for us."

While this response satisfied my concerns for some time, I began to realize that it was not good enough for me. It was giving those men an excuse and a way out of the crimes they committed. As this confusion and anger built I still attended mass, church school, and the whole time I grew frustrated with what I was a part of. It seemed as though every day the crimes and positions of the church were striking me and making me second guess what I believed in. I had a few priests who were close friends to my family and in hindsight, the conversations and interactions that I had with those few good men were the reason why I did not lose complete faith in the church.

Then, I watched the movie Spotlight. Let me say that there truly is a reason why this movie won best picture. As I watched the truth unravel, I could feel my anger bubbling up and my embarrassment rising. But then I heard this line. These 24 words that changed my life. At last I realized in words and in writing what I had been thinking for years prior. The reason why I still felt faith in church was not because of the stained glass windows or the holy water, it was because that was where I could focus and get closest to the eternal. I was not believing in the men on the alter. They, like all thing, are dying. I was believing in something bigger than all of that, bigger than all of us.

Since realizing this, I still find myself struggling with my Catholic faith, but growing all the same. The key for me is to try and separate the man from the faith that I love. It is as if I am pulling the weeds that constantly move to strangle a flower.

By Timothy Bergeron | Posted in TJ | Comments (1)

Connection with the Divine: What drives my spirituality?

October 30, 2018 at 11:44 pm

Poetry Reflection on "Listen to the Flute" by Rumi:

My heart aches as I've been separated.

Torn from my beloved, the One that makes me elated.

The wine calms me for a moment, but this is not enough.

A need to return to the exalted One is surely a must.

Enslaved by gold and silver, we must break these shackles free.

remove the chains that hide us, in order to see you and me.

Like Moses on Mt. Sinai, a revelation was received.

We communicate like this in life, until my end is perceived.

But the end was known, it was a must.

My soul is now happy, it has You to trust.

By Oelmis Fermin | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (2)

Transitions

October 29, 2018 at 2:05 pm

When I made the decision a few years ago to go to school in Boston instead of somewhere close to home, I knew that it would be a transition, and I knew there would be challenges. Growing up my mom would tell me to be prepared as life has more transitions than I might think. I chose to attend Wheelock College, a small liberal arts school specializing in careers in education, human development, and child life. This is when the first transition would happen.

I got accepted into a special program called "Bridge". It was for students who needed a little extra time to adjust to college. I decided during bridge to "change" majors from Child Life to Early Childhood Education. Things went well over the next year, and I was thriving as an admissions ambassador at Wheelock. That May, I went home for the summer just like everyone else.

Two weeks before I was to fly back with my mom, I received an email that would change everything for me. Wheelock College as I knew it was going to close effective June 1, 2018, and that Wheelock would be merging with Boston University. As expected, I had a minor meltdown and LOTS of questions spinning in my head. I told my mom essentially " I did not sign up for this, I am not going to Boston University!" I really considered transferring to Emmanuel College, which I had gotten into along with Wheelock. My mom eventually talked me out of it, even though I was hesitant still.

Sophomore year flew by, and it got to the point where there was a lot of tension at Wheelock because people wanted answers. This was another transition because I had to transition into getting ready to essentially start my college career all over again. I finished Sophomore year and went home determined to spend the summer preparing myself for the transition and the new school year.

I returned to Boston ready for the challenge of a bigger school, more people, and tougher classes. I was also determined to get involved in some way at BU. However, the most important thing for me was to find a church and a church family. Soon, I found my church and church family at Marsh Chapel, got the internship of my dreams, and rushed Alpha Phi Omega, a co-ed fraternity focused on community service. Even though I knew that the transition would not be easy, I knew that the transition would be part of life, just as my mom told me growing up.

"Transitions themselves are not the issue, but how well you respond to their challenges!"

This quote has been one of out family sayings for years. Our lives prepare us for the transitions the future brings. Sometimes when we're going through the hardest transitions in our lives, such as when I had to let go of Wheelock and become part of a new community and part of something bigger than myself. I've always been told that how well you respond to change and transition says a lot, and I truly believe that's the truth. However, I believe that my faith has really played a role just as much in how I handle transitions and change. I have my God to thank for how well this experience has gone so far for me, and I would be where I am without my faith. I believe that before the semester, and I believe that now.