January 2009
In This Issue
A Fire that Kindles Other Fires
Student Affairs at a Jesuit Institution
Office of the Vice President of Mission and Ministry
Mission and Ministry Website Home
Really, What Are Jesuits All About?
Colleagues Weigh In
Most readers of this newsletter will know that Jesuits from around the world gathered in Rome this past January to elect a new superior general. These gatherings are rare—this one was only the 35th in almost 500 years—and not usually newsworthy. Aside from electing new superiors, these general congregations—as Jesuits call them—have normally been focused on internal administrative matters. In the last four decades, though, they have also become occasions for the elected representatives from around the world to reflect on important issues facing Jesuits today and to write documents about these issues.
These “decrees” are meant primarily to help Jesuits themselves better understand their calling and their ministries but inevitably they also become of interest to the men and women with whom Jesuits work. We thought that it might be interesting to readers if we invited two BC figures—a Jesuit and a lay faculty member or an administrator—to talk about what they see as interesting or significant in the decrees. We begin with the one that describes Jesuit identity today. In future issues we will report on conversations about some of the other decrees.
In This Issue:
A Fire that Kindles Other Fires
Decree 
2 of the general congregation of the Society of Jesus,entitled “A Fire that Kindles other Fires,” focuses on Jesuit identity today. More...
If you have been talking with students this year, they have probably mentioned Patrick Rombalski, maybe in not-so-glowing terms. More...
Patrick Rombalski on Student Affairs
Intermission 
took the opportunity to speak with Rombalski on his idea of Mission at Jesuit Catholic Institutions and how specifically Jesuit Catholic universities differ from theirsecular counterparts.
Manresa House: A Career Center for Vocations
Manresa House is a former 
private home, located at 24 Mayflower Road, just west of Boston College’s main campus. More...
After seeing evidence in the results of the 2004 and 2006 Boston College Questionnaire about the Undergraduate Experience that the majority of undergraduates a
t Boston College (67%) reported praying more than once a week on campus and that five out of ten were regularly praying “outdoors on campus”, a team of researchers and practitioners in the Office of University Mission and Ministry led by James Fleming, SJ decided to find-out more about what began to be thought of as the “hidden prayer life of Boston College undergraduates”. More...
Events, Conferences, and Retreats
A New Year's Retreat
A four-day silent directed retreat in Cohasset for Boston College faculty, administrators and staff. Spaces limited. Contact Center for Ignatian Spirituality for information and an application. January 2-5, 2009.
A Retreat In Everyday Life
An eight-week Lenten experience of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, with daily prayer and a weekly meeting with a spiritual guide. For Boston College faculty, administrators and staff. Spaces limited. Contact Center for Ignatian Spirituality for information and an application. Week of February 15 - Easter (April 12th) 2009.
More events, conferences, and retreats.
Donna Freitas
Sex and the Soul: Juggling Sexuality, Spirituality, Romance, and Religion on America's College Campuses
Oxford University Press, 2008
Naomi Schaefer Riley
God on the Quad: How Religious Colleges and the Missionary Generation Are Changing America
St. Martin's Press, 2005
James M. O’Toole
The Faithful: A History of Catholics in America
Harvard University Press, 2008
Boston College Office of the Vice President for University Mission and Ministry, 90 College Road, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
www.bc.edu/offices/mission/ | 617.552.1603