We Must Because We Can (and Should!)

Last night I found myself in the kitchen at the seminary, grabbing a late night snack and chatting with some of the other guys. For whatever odd reason, guys end up meeting in the kitchen, munching on junk food and start talking about deep topics such as religion and philosophy. Why a can of Pepsi and a half-eaten bag of Doritos puts us in the introspective mood, I'll never know. Anyways, myself, Tyler Tenbarge, and a few other guys were talking about retreats and conferences we'd given or been to, and Tyler brought up one he gave for FFA called "We Must Because We Can." Being the nerds we are, myself and a few others pointed out that just because can do something doesn't mean we must do it (Think "We can massacre an entire demographic --> Genocide). Thus, one of us added the qualifier "We Should," making Tyler's conference title "We Must Because We Can and We Should." Granted, that idea doesn't roll off the tongue quite so easily, but it does bring up a moral imperative worth discussing...

Our Problems

As I went to my closet this morning, I couldn't choose which shirt: a green-striped or a blue-striped with a white collar. I know... real life problems, right? Now, while my moment of indecision was just a moment, it was enough time to for me to notice what I was doing. Sorting through my closet, I wondered that if I was wasting time trying to decide on a shirt for the day, what was I not spending time on that was more important than dressing myself?

A Tale of Two Stories

This morning, after a refreshing Norton lecture in Humanities, I ventured up to the Knight and Day Cafe (purveyor of fine coffee and other miscellaneous college essentials) to fill my mug of black caffeinated goodness. Looking out at our fine educational institution, I had a spark of philosophy in which I suddenly ventured to ask "What is everyone here thinking about?" While it would be nice, if not overwhelming, to know what everyone is thinking, I was left to speculate.

Spreading Into the City

Last Friday's STARR was the largest one in which I participated. Glory to God! More than 40 students offered a few hours of their time to serve children, people with disabilities, the poor and those displaced by war. As we departed to our four sites, several students volunteered to drive others... something we definitely needed after so many people joined us for STARR.

At the Sophia Club / STARR cookout following our service, one person commented about how he thought it was awesome to know that not only was he serving with ten others at his site, but that MU students, people he knew, were at three other locations doing the same thing - putting the Gospel into action. After such a successful STARR this past week and neat insight from our fellow student, I pray we may all not only continue serving, but also continue to reflect on what we are doing by going to STARR.

A shout-out to all of those who attended this past week! Thank you for choosing to serve, to love and to be with us.

Image Source - "hands"
Image Source - "city"

Gospel, Historical and Personal Reflection

From a Deacon's blog 

Why Serve?

In case you haven't noticed recently, we have a culture that tends to remain apathetic or ignorant towards the plight of others. Yes, we do show some sympathy towards the countless tragedies of the third world, and some of us, if we have some disposable income, may feel compelled to put some money in an envelope and send it off to one of many charities to feed the hungry mouths of these places (and its a good thing to do so), but at the end of the day, things don't really change for us. We go to bed each night well fed and complacent, we wake each morning and spend more on our morning coffee than the people who harvest that coffee get for a daily wage. In many ways, we unconsciously feed the system of poverty with our own indifference and apathy.

Welcome to STARR!

Welcome, on the behalf of the Marian University STARR Core Team, to the Marian University STARR (Students Taking Active Reflective Roles) blog. With this blog we hope to harness the medium of the Internet to share the message of STARR with a larger audience, as well as allowing others to share their STARR stories and posting reflections on service, Catholic Social Teaching, and other themes. Please feel free to look around, read about what we do, and hopefully you'll join us in serving our community!

If you have participated in STARR and would like to share your experience on the blog, please email your story to the blog master, Joe Gehret at jgehret204@marian.edu or to the STARR coordinator Tyler Tenbarge at ttenbarge417@marian.edu. If you have any questions regarding STARR or its service opportunities, contact Tyler of Jeanne Hidalgo at jhidalgo@marian.edu. Thanks for stopping by!