Give Marquette Day Reflection

Give Marquette Day: A reminder and invitation to care for our neighbors as ourselves

By Kathy Coffey-Guenther, Ph.D., Arts '85, Grad '88, Grad '98, Senior Advancement Officer for Alumni Spirituality

Hi Marquette friends and family! Just wondering how you find yourself these days- emotionally, physically, spiritually? Who are the people in your close circle who make up your support system and help to keep you up on those days you feel discouraged or afraid? Who is the person who checks in just when you most need these days? Who is inspiring you to keep going with courage and generosity during these long Covid days with their economic and social upheaval?

Change is always hard, and most of us prefer to stay safe, feeling in control of our lives and the lives of our loved ones. These past months, however, most every person across the globe has experienced an unrequested experience of dramatic change, anxiety, loss, and isolation.

Due to the changes in how we live, work, worship, socialize, spend, and love, we can tend to be more self-focused these days. This makes sense as there is plenty of change in our personal lives to concern us and lead to protective feelings, conserving and maintaining what we have now.

However, for most of us, the values that guide us and remind us of who we are called to be in the world as Marquette alumni and family, and as members of the human family, do not just change or diminish based on these momentary distractions of life.

As St. Ignatius reminds us in his Spiritual Exercises and in the preparatory prayer, the Principle and Foundation, our Christian journey to follow Christ and love and serve Him and others is not rooted in our preference to be healthy rather than sick, or have wealth rather than poverty, or enjoy success rather than failure, or to enjoy a long life rather than a short one. For St. Ignatius, our sole/soul invitation in life is to use every gift and experience that God gives to us to deepen our faith and life in God, and to deepen our love and service for God and God’s people.

St. Ignatius helped to teach his early Jesuits, and now us, the Examen prayer as a way of helping us to anchor to gratitude in God’s love and goodness and gift to us each day no matter the ups and downs of each day.

St. Ignatius knew that we will always have days of precious consolation where it is easy to feel and see and know God is with us. And he knew that we will always have days of desolation and anxiety and restlessness where it feels harder to see God and feel God amid our daily life. St. Ignatius experienced those pulls towards and away from God in his human life as well… but when we give ourselves time to focus on the grace and blessing of our lives each day, St. Ignatius knew that we would always be able to see and feel and trust the goodness and bounty of God’s love for us, as we are invited to lean into God’s deep care for us every minute of every day.

In the Psalms, we are told that God has counted every hair on our heads and knows us as we are knitted in the womb. This intimate God of love will be with us in all our trials and in all of our glories.

St. Ignatius reminds us to respond to this goodness of God towards us by loving and serving God and others. While it may be hard for us these days to serve in some of the traditional ways of volunteering that we may have done in the past, and while it may even be difficult to worship regularly in person at Mass as we have in the past, let this reminder serve to inspire us to give back to God and God’s people in response and gratitude for the many gifts that we have received, even during these difficult months.

On Give Marquette Day, consider giving a donation to Marquette, or some other charity of your choice, that will support people who need extra care and assistance these days. On our campus, that would include students who are struggling with paying tuition now given their parents’ financial troubles after Covid. This includes students who do not have enough food or resources to take care of their physical health needs daily. This includes students who need safe places to live due to family or other stressors while they are in school.

On Give Marquette Day, consider bringing an extra prayer to your day for all those in the Marquette family who are hurting, lonely and troubled these days, and who need to be lifted up in hope and love.

On Give Marquette Day, consider ways in which you could support a student on campus or community on campus by investigating ways to volunteer as a mentor, volunteer in one of the colleges, help with one of our alumni groups or reunion committees, or donate food or supplies or scholarship and housing assistance.

This year, on Give Marquette Day, let us, this Marquette community of friends and family, come together in gratitude for God’s blessings of love and care and let us be moved to share generously of our gifts and grace and prayer in service of God and God’s people.

And, as St. Ignatius would remind us, AMDG: To the Greater Glory of God!