HUMAN AFTER ALL – SERVICE FROM A DISTANCE

On March 30, the school’s Ignatian Service Office sent out a signup for 290 “Stay-at-Home Volunteer Opportunities.” Within three days, every opportunity was filled! Our office has continued to send out bi-weekly signups with a list of ways to meet our partners’ needs. After only six weeks, RJ students and their families have signed up for more than 600 volunteer opportunities! These efforts have included writing letters and cards to residents of assisted living facilities, collecting donations for emergency shelters and organizations, sending uplifting photos and messages to Tennyson Center students and staff, starting vegetable and flower seeds for the residents at Highline Place to plant on Mother’s Day, online tutoring and much more!

In addition, the Ignatian Service Office celebrated the fifth anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Síi (Care for our Common Home) as well as the 50th anniversary of Earth Day for the entire month of April by encouraging students and their families to participate in various environmental stewardship projects and challenges. Students found all sorts of ways to care for Creation—building compost bins, rain collectors, starting gardens, picking up trash and calculating their household carbon footprint. Some even tried making their own cleaning and beauty supplies!

In a time when we are forced to distance ourselves from the most vulnerable members of our human family, we will be sure to find ways to love and support them from afar. As Pope Francis so clearly stated in his encyclical, there is an "intimate relationship between the poor and the fragility of the planet." We hope our community can take this time at home to reflect meaningfully on our routines and to reject the habits of our "throwaway culture.”

I find it fascinating that something as small and invisible as a virus can so quickly dismantle the social boundaries we’ve spent centuries building. The rich want to separate themselves from the poor; we want better schools, bigger and safer homes, more cars, nicer amenities. All of these things make us believe that we are somehow superhuman; that we don’t have to experience the pain of being human, limited or even powerless. But this virus has reminded us that these barriers and labels are all just a facade. We are no different than our poor neighbors. We are vulnerable, finite and we don’t always get to call the shots in our lives. It is insanely difficult to be human. But it is also a blessing. As Christians, we are called to embrace the paradox of the human experience—to remember that where there is pain and despair, there is also hope and joy. With this pandemic comes insurmountable suffering. With it also comes the opportunity for new life after we have been reminded of our most basic human need for connection, creativity and purpose.

I close with one of the many messages of thanks from one of our community partners:

“We are so grateful for all the donations provided to us by Regis families. These have and continue to be tough times and the donations have certainly made a difference in helping out our families!” -Jennifer Pietzmeier, VP of Operations at Ability Connection Colorado

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