Capstone Pilgrimage to Chicago - January, 2013

The slide show below contains images from the Capstone Seminar Pilgrimage to Chicago (Jan., 2013).  Captions describing each image can be viewed by clicking on the text icon in the lower left corner of every image.

The purpose of this annual Pilgrimage to Chicago is to engage in an integrated, Catholic experience in the big city – an amalgamation of culture, faith, politics, art, food, architecture, history etc.!

The students’ experiences include:

• riding the Amtrak train to Chicago
• walking around Windy City during rush-hour
• eating deep-dish pizza at the restaurant where it was invented
• chanting Vespers with Benedictine monks downtown
• viewing the city from atop the John Hancock skyscraper
• meeting with His Excellency, Bishop Joseph N. Perry
• attending a lecture by renowned Jesuit, Fr. Paul Mankowski
• visiting the Chicago Institute of Art
• enjoying Greek food in Chicago's Greektown

The images below are a window into the life of the group's four day pilgrimage to the Windy City.

Why we need Great Books and the Liberal Arts...

From a recent post by Stratford Caldecott, G.K. Chesterton Fellow at St Benet’s Hall, Oxford, on education:

Evangelizing an anti-intellectual culture

The recent Census revealed that in England and Wales the number of professed Christians in 2011 fell to 33.2 million, or 59% of the overall population, from 37.3 million (72%) in 2001. People who said they had “no religion” rose by more than six million to 14.1 million, almost double what it was ten years earlier. We have of course been aware of the decline for some time, and it has provoked much discussion both of the root causes and of
possible responses. The call to a New Evangelization has focused our thoughts on what it is in our culture that is turning people away from faith and towards materialism. The obvious culprit is something often called “secularism”, and many of us have come to the conclusion that faith cut adrift from reason tends to perish – it turns into fundamentalism and appeals only to a minority of pathetic extremists. A faithless reason, a secular rationality that takes no account of the supernatural, is therefore regarded as our number one enemy.

Some go further, and say that we are now living not just in a post-Christian society, but in a post-secular one. We inhabit a political and technological order that does not require us to believe, or even to think, anything at all. It makes no assumptions except pragmatic ones. It cares not about what is true or false, but what will work. Not what is good or bad, but what a majority will accept. Not what is beautiful or ugly, but what price someone will pay for it. This is the kingdom of will and of desire, the “dictatorship of relativism”. Words like “true” and “good” may still be used when convenient, but they have been evacuated of content.

If this is true, the real problem in our culture is not just the rise of reason and the decline of faith; it is the decline of reason. The Enlightenment, the cult of universal reason, with all its high hopes, has failed. This has become a stupid culture, a culture without intelligence, a culture that does not respect reason. It is a culture that is based not on thought but on feeling and instinct, on gut reactions and base desires. It isn’t interested in ideas, or consistency, let alone truth. (And without an interest in truth, it won’t be interested in goodness or beauty either. The three live or die together.) 

Read the rest here.

Happy Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God!

Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis!

Student sayings...

Here are just a couple examples of the great books and lofty ideas that students have considered this past semester...

Mary, on St. Anselm's "Proslogium" (or "The Ontological Argument of God's Existence"):

One of the main points of Anselm's ontological argument is that Being sustains existence and that human thought is ordered to understanding what Being has created.  In Chapter V, he writes "God is whatever is better to be than not to be; and he, as the only self-existent being, creates all things from nothing" (70).  This is an important concept because, without this, Anselm's argument falls apart.  Existence comes before thought; one cannot think if he does not exist.  Anselm goes on to say, "Therefore, if that, than which nothing greater can be conceived, exists in the understanding alone, the very being, than which nothing greater can be conveived, is one, than which a greater can be conceived.  But obviously this is impossible."  From there, we can conclude that the fact that humans cannot conceive of a greater being than God proves that God must be the Supreme Being or Existence itself.  God sustains all things and has given man the ability to rationalize His universe.  It make sense that we could not think of anything greater than God because our existence is contingent on His.  Anselm's focus on God as Existence itself intrigued me.  The idea that we are sustained by God yet He is not sustained by anything because He is Existence itself fascinates me.

Ignacio, on Boethius' "The Consolation of Philosophy":

Throughout the second chapter of "The Consolation of Philosophy," the theme of fortune is studied, discussed and presented in expert detail.  As Boethius is conversing with Lady Philosophy, she attempts and ultimately succeeds in transforming his current perspective on life.  Lady Philosophy does so through a series of insightful and deeply revealing ideas about fortune, chance and the true Good - and how they plan an important role in our lives.
[...]
Lady Philosophy begins with an attack, a harsh criticism of Fortune and her nature by saying: "I know the many disguises of that monster and her endearing friendliness to those she tries to deceive - a kindness - until she leaves them without warning and overwhelms them with unbearable pain" (Boethius, 31).  With this clear and bold statement, Lady Philosophy strips the deceitful and false facade of Fortune - revealing the true nature of her fraud and treachery.  Already this sets the tone, and as one reflects on her smooth and noble language, Boethius begins to reconsider his perspective on life.  If Fortune includes a false and negative connotation, then she stops looking like something attractive and desirable. 
[...]
Lady Philosophy continues to educate and soothe Boethius with her wise remarks.  From the topic of Fortune she advances to discuss the role of material or worldly possessions, and links this with Fortune in a brilliant and logical manner.  Lady Philosophy basically comes to state that worldly possessions are temporal, therefore they can never truly be owned in the true and complete sense.  In fact, the owner of these things (wealth, honor and recognition), is Fortune herself, so, as she is in charge, she can choose to stop sending us or granting us gifts at anytime, leaving us with feelings of depletion and hopelessness as we desire those riches.  Boethius writes: "Now it pleases me to pull back my hand," perfectly describing the domination Fortune has upon human victims who grow attached to worldly possessions.

Discussing Boethius' "Consolation of Philosophy"

We had a great first conversation today about Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy.

Boethius lived in the 6th century and was falsely imprisoned and executed for treason.  While in prison and without any books, he wrote this brilliant work.  The Consolation is an imaginary dialogue between Boethius and Lady Philosophy - a work which intertwines clever prose with beautiful poetry.

Today's discussion of the Book I focused on a number of interesting aspects, but one in particular caught everyone's attention:

• The reader meets Boethius writing melancholy poetry in jail, wallowing in his misery and pitying himself.  Immediately upon arriving at his side, Lady Philosophy chases away the Muses of poetry who have inspired Boethius sulk in his misery - albeit with beautiful poetry.  We then had an interesting conversation about our culture today and how much of pop culture art wallows in depression, misery and destruction.  This is starkly contrasted with how Lady Philosophy calls the Muses of poetry out and chases them away, for they are not leading Boethius to what is true, good and beautiful. 
• Pictured here is an image of Lady Philosophy who leads men toward virtue, truth and goodness.

Celebrating the 'Top 50' award

Living out the "Regula" of St. Benedict...

http://youtu.be/ZSZQceNbZLA