Welcome! How to get connected

If you are new, please take this first step and get connected to us!

Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Spirituality-for-the-Vineyard-at-SMU-Winona/118752084843199

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/spirit4vineyard

And PLEASE send your email to Dr Windley-Daoust to get on the weekly email list of "things going on"--on campus, nearby, job openings, internship openings, retreat possibilities, etc. swindley@smumn.edu

Feel free to stay on this page and explore a while.  We don't have a candy dish like the Theology Suite, but we have lots of information.

Take the tour!

...of the website, that is.

At the top of the website, just above the posts, you can see tabs indicating different stand alone pages on each of the elements of the program.  We just summarized all those, but if you want to remind yourself what this is about, check those pages.

On the right, you see the various ways to get updates from the website: Email, Twitter, a facebook page.  Email is the most certain way you will see the posts.

You also see the link to how to do a concept map, as illustrated in the last post.  We're working on a new program for it, but the instructions still work, as well as the video link.  If you have questions, ask Dr WD or someone else in the department.

Keep scrolling down the right sidebar.  There are tags, to find the posts you'd like to read, long term volunteer opportunities, Catholic news websites, even the lectionary readings for the day (we're one stop shopping!).

Now, looking at the left sidebar, there is a link to the official department website, pictures of you all (and us) in action, job listings, and a link to an eight week online retreat you can start anytime (if interested).

If there is anything else you would find helpful, please contact us and let us know!




Next post: Great!  I understand it, mostly.  Now what?

The National Standards Concept Map

(Click to enlarge)

Do you ever feel busy? It's likely because you are! Our majors tend to be extremely involved in service and church related activities. This concept map gives you the opportunity to place that formative involvement within one of the four formation branches established by the National Standards for Lay Ecclesial Ministry. Not only is this a useful visual aid to show another person (such as, ahem, an employer) what you have done to discern and prepare for lay ministry work, it is also useful to see what you still need to attend to in some matter.

We have a template of this concept map (thank you, Laurie Ziliak!) available through a Blackboard group. If you want access, let us know. The template requires a free computer program called Xmind...but we are looking into making the template available in simpler formats (although admittedly, if you like these things, Xmind has many bells and whistles). The image above is a sample PYM major concept map, created from our National Standards template. It was created through an easy to use website called Text2MindMap. (And this "filled in Joe Student sample" is found here: http://www.text2mindmap.com/JaiZoA .)

If you want see a video created on the why and how of creating a concept map such as this as part of your preparation for lay ministry, click here.  It's not the best quality and the first half minute is boring, but I said, I'm a theologian, not an I.T. person....But this concept map could be a great addition to your senior portfolio.  We ask you to consider it.

Next post: Take the tour!

The last two foundational elements: small groups and spiritual direction, and retreat

The last two elements--once again, activities you are likely engaged in--makes up the co-curricular suggestions that move you toward compliance with the national standards.

Clarifying: Small Groups and Spiritual Direction

(Meeting in the plaza not recommended in January.)

Part of the Christian life, and your reality as a college student, involves discernment: discernment of a state in life (called to marriage, called to a celibate life for God), and discernment in vocation.  No one can discern for you.  But there are helps available to help you listen for God's voice.  We suggest engaging in one of these practices for one academic year.

1. Spiritual direction: "We define Christian spiritual direction as help given by one Christian to another which enables that person to pay attention to God’s personal communication to him or her, to respond to this personally communicating God, to grow in intimacy with this God, and to live out the consequences of the relationship." (William A. Barry, SJ and William J. Connolly, SJ).  Usually directors and directees meet once a month for conversation and prayer.  There are a number of people trained and available for spiritual direction in the Winona area.  Please contact Campus Ministry for names and suggestions on initiating this relationship.

2. Small groups.  Discernment to the vocation of lay ministry is made easier--and more enjoyable--through community support.  To that end, we're encouraging students to consider participating in a small group for one academic year.  This is your chance to ask the questions with others about how the process is going (classes, paper, internships, volunteering, praying, discerning) in a confidential environment shared by friends.  If there is enough interest, we could help you start a small group.  Please contact Dr WD for more information.

Discerning: Retreat

The last element of the program is to participate in one discernment retreat for majors and interested minors, usually offered in January. Students may attend their junior or senior year (or both years). A time away can help a person recognize and name their vocation, and return to classes with new questions and fresh vigor.

This website is also a good source of online prayer resources and retreats.  One of the ongoing we hear from students in the graduate program in Pastoral Ministries is that even working in a parish, maintaining a consistent prayer life is hard.  They also say it is utterly necessary.  Anything you can do to establish that habit now is time well-spent (prayer is always time well-spent!).

Available discernment retreats are often mentioned through posts here.



Next up: the national standards concept map!  (More fun than it sounds like.)

The first three formational elements: Encounter your world, the Vineyard colloquia, Praxis for ministry

We have the practice of  this program broken down into five categories, all of which you likely engage in--at least to some degree--already.  If you engage in these five elements, you will be reasonably prepared to meet the National Standards and the wings of formation on the National Standards concept map template.  This post addresses the first three categories of co-curricular engagement.

Seeing: Encounter Your World

One element of the Spirituality for the Vineyard program involves attending to and learning from the vulnerable in our human family, as well as reaching out and recognizing we are part of a universal church with many cultures, concerns, and manifestations.  The Church tells us that our engagement with the world--and our attention to most in need--is our mission.

The Church's social doctrine “is itself a valid instrument of evangelization” and is born of the always new meeting of the Gospel message and social life. Understood in this way, this social doctrine is a distinctive way for the Church to carry out her ministry of the Word and her prophetic role. ...This is not a marginal interest or activity, or one that is tacked on to the Church's mission, rather it is at the very heart of the Church's ministry of service: with her social doctrine the Church “proclaims God and his mystery of salvation in Christ to every human being, and for that very reason reveals man to himself”[90]. This is a ministry that stems not only from proclamation but also from witness.  (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church #67)

We ask students to participate in one extended cross-cultural service experience.  That could mean a variety of things:

• Go on a Spring Break or May SOUL (Serving Others United in Love) trip through campus ministry.  If you're new to SMU, SOUL trips are week long (or longer) trips of small groups from SMU, including staff, who immerse themselves in a community service project.  Some sites are international (Guatemala, the Phillipines, Jamaica), but most are in country (for example, the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, New Orleans hurricane relief, working with L'Arche in Iowa, and the Kansas City Catholic Worker, among others).

• 

  HECUA study abroad student in Ecuador

• Do a developing world study abroad.  There are many options, including quite a few connected with the Lasallian consortium for study abroad.  HECUA is another program SMU is affiliated with that has impressive programs in the developing world, and a "Metro Urban Studies term" in the Twin Cities.  There are also summer programs available.
• Do an extended volunteering year in Winona, but in an area that puts you a different space than what is typical for you: weekly volunteering at the local Catholic Worker (Winona or LaCrosse), Big Brothers/Big Sisters, tutoring at the Red Wing Correctional Facility, etc.

Learning: The Vineyard Colloquia

Rich Curran, Mar 2010: "All the questions you have about youth ministry, answered"

A colloquium is an informal, yet academic, conversation between scholars (that's you) on a given topic.  The Vineyard Colloquia give students a chance to hear from local and national scholars and practitioners in lay ecclesial ministry.  What is it really like out there?  How did you get to where you are?  How do I discern this?  Are there spiritual practices I should be cultivating now?  Come, listen, ask questions, and learn.

The Spring 2013 speaker?  We promise...as soon as details are nailed down, we will announce it!  Coming soon....

Exploring: Praxis for Ministry

Lisa and Jake leading a confirmation class.

Yet another element of the program is the expectation that students will be exploring a variety of Christian ministries.  You may have your heart set on one particular ministry, but college is a great opportunity to explore options...and you could always go back to that "one particular ministry" confirmed that this is indeed your passion!

The simplest way to complete this element if you are a Pastoral and Youth Ministry major or a Religious Education major is to complete the requirement one semester internship at a local parish or church affiliated organization.  There are also other volunteer ministries--through SMU and in the local churches and dioceses--that students may count toward this element.

What are the National Standards?

Alliance for the Certification of Lay Ecclesial Ministers logo

As lay ministry has become a much more common phenomenon in the United States (although present throughout Church History in some degree!), there have recently evolved the National Certification Standards for Lay Ecclesial Ministers. You can see the standards book in our suite (Saint Mary's 223), but there is a short overview here as well, which includes this:

Core Certification Standards for Lay Ecclesial Ministers
These standards are for all lay ecclesial ministers, including coordinators of youth ministry/youth ministry leaders.

1.Personal and Spiritual Maturity: A lay ecclesial minister demonstrates personal and spiritual maturity in ministry with the people of God.
2.Lay Ecclesial Ministry Identity: A lay ecclesial minister identifies the call to formal and public ministry as a vocation rooted in baptism.
3.Roman Catholic Theology: A lay ecclesial minister integrates knowledge of Roman Catholic faith within ministry.
4.Pastoral Praxis: A lay ecclesial minister engages in pastoral activity that promotes evangelization, faith formation, community, and pastoral care with sensitivity to diverse situations.
5.Professional Practice: A lay ecclesial minister provides effective leadership, administration, and service, in the spirit of collaboration.

This "Spirituality for the Vineyard" program is aimed at helping you self-evaluate your place in the first set of standards (personal and spiritual maturity), and inform the second the fourth group as well.  Much of the third and fifth sections are covered in class study and field work. 

Although not all parishes or dioceses attend closely to the national standards, some do.  And all of them would look favorably on a prospective worker who has taken their formation seriously, and is able to express their formation in the terms set by the National Standards.  Although we think a self-evaluation in light of the National Standards is valuable to do in itself, there is no question: in an increasingly tight job market, being able to show employers that you are called and ready to do this work is an asset.  The point of this program is to make a simplified presentation of the National Standards, making it easy to do and easy to show. 

The next two days, we'll cover what you do to measure up to the National Standards--and you probably already do a lot of it already.

Some of the History of "Spirituality for the Vineyard"

It was a dark and stormy night....

OK, "Peanuts" references may not work nowadays.  But in truth, the theology professors--which at the time was me (Susan Windley-Daoust), Eileen Daily, Sr. Judy Schaefer, Greg Sobolewki, Ken Stenstrup, Laurie Ziliak, and Fr. Andrew Beerman--were just sitting around talking, noting that the majors seemed to be craving for more spiritual formation.  Intelletcual formation occurs in the classroom.  But if you are working for the Church, and trying to discern a vocation to the priesthood, religious life, or lay ministry, you also need spiritual formation.  We had (and have) an active Campus Ministry, but these students wanted more.  Students were asking for spiritual direction.  Students would talk about discernment in the offices or with each other.  Students would enjoy service work but wonder aloud how it all fits together.  And always students wanted to explore more possibilities for ministry than they necessarily had when they entered college.  It occurred to us: if our seminarians on campus had a strong formational component, shouldn't laypeople who work for the Church have similar opportunities to discern, grow, and learn to express what it means to have a vocation?  Don't we all need this?

At the same time, two documents became more and more important: the USCCB's document on lay ministry, "Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord," and The National Standards on Lay and Ecclesial Ministry.  Both documents focus on lay ministry as a calling in itself, and one that requires its own attention to intellectual, pastoral, spiritual, and human formation.  It doesn't look like the priesthood or religious life per se, but it looks like discipleship.  Lay people are called to be leaven in the world, to sanctify the secular order with their lives.  How could we help students be aware of that, and take on the responsibilities embedded in their calling to discipleship?

And yet again, at the same time, the idea of concept mapping as a way to organize thoughts, experiences, and consequences around a common issue was presented to us, and Prof. Laurie Ziliak realized in a "eureka moment": this is how we put the formational elements together on a visual chart.  Anyone could fill this in and assess how they are doing in terms of attention to formation--and anyone could show it to someone else and demonstrate his or her work in this area. 

After two grants and proposals, surveys, discussion, debate over a preposition, and a pizza party, we introduced: Spirituality for the Vineyard!

What we have created is meant to be a help to students (both help in encouraging discernment and formation now, and, after graduation, help in looking for ministry work), a co-curricular set of activities that supplements your intellectual formation, and an opportunity for dwelling more deeply on what is God's plan for your life. 

So what is it, exactly?  Probably a lot of things you already do...but perhaps some things you do not.  Let's start unfolding the program tomorrow.

Spirituality for the Vineyard, rebooted!

Hello everyone!  We have a lot of new majors and minors and it is time to re-introduce the Spirituality for the Vineyard program.  Let's call it a "reboot."  Expect one post per day for this week as we walk through what Spirituality for the Vineyard--as an optional co-curricular program for Theology affiliated majors and minors--is all about, and how it can help you discern and get placed in your ministry. 

1. Some Of The History
2. The National Standards
3. The First Three Formative Elements
4. The Last Two Formative Elements
5. The National Standards Concept Map
6. Take The Tour
7. Great!  Now What?

Thanks for being here, and tell your friends!  You certainly don't need to be a major or minor to follow this blog by email, facebook, or twitter.