Introducing Additional Restless Hearts

by Dan Masterton

Here they are, everyone, our three new writers: Laura Flanagan, Erin Conway, and Tim Kirchoff. These three will join our writing rotation and author original posts about once a month. I invite you to Like our blog's Page on Facebook, follow our Twitter pages (featured on the blog sidebar and linked here: Dan | Rob | Jenny), or sign up for email alerts on the blog homepage sidebar that will loop you in with new posts.

The work shared on the blog will continue to be broad and varying, reflecting the thoughts at the fore of each writer's mind. Even as the topics and emphases ebb and flow, the core of our work will continue to be our shared faith and our common emphasis on strong theological roots, sustained ministerial practice, and pastoral sensibility. This recipe has slow-cooked some good work from the team of four, and now the symbolic perfection in our new squad of seven will surely continue that. As always, please comment and share with your thoughts. Pageviews can be good for our egos, but engagement and dialogue are best for the soul!

Each of us will write about once a month, with new work appearing each Monday and Thursday here on the blog and with alerts posted on Facebook and Twitter. I'll fill in the gaps with Thursday posts and occasional bonus content as well.

So for each new writer, here's a brief introduction from me followed by each of their answers to some first interview questions (my words in italics) to get the ball rolling for their restless hearts:

Laura Flanagan

Laura and I met as undergraduates while serving as mentors-in-faith through the summer program, Notre Dame Vision. Laura had a spunky self-confidence and incisive wit that drew me in right away. During the conference weeks, Laura delivered a potent witness talk that further showed the depths of her spirit, and in a number of great chats over the course of that summer and senior year, Laura was one of my first people who palpably drew me into a deeper faith through conversation. It does not surprise me at all to see Laura doing so well as a pastoral minister, wife, and mother, living out the gifts of humor, love, and faith that were already so solid in her all those years ago.

Laura's work will appear every fourth Monday, beginning on December 4.

Tell the people a little about yourself.

I grew up in Indianapolis as the eldest child of a family for whom I am extremely grateful; in addition to being generally loving, delightful, hilarious people, they rooted me in the faith very well.

After my undergraduate stint in theology and a secondary major in pre-med, I apprenticed in the same Echo program as Rob and Jenny (although slightly before their time). Those two years gave me an appreciation for the East Coast -- my placement was in the Diocese of Camden, NJ -- and a still greater appreciation for the Midwest. Now I live in St. Louis, just celebrated my third anniversary with my greatest takeaway from the University of Notre Dame, and am in the midst of my fifth year as director of religious education for a parish.

Hospitality is an unexpected joy for me -- unexpected in that I wouldn’t have predicted it for myself. I love that now that we own a larger house, so we can essentially have anyone come into town on little notice and have a bed in our house. I also keep wanting to invite people dealing with homelessness back to my house for a bed and a shower, but I have yet to figure out a way to do that which is acceptably safe to my husband. Let me know if you have tips.

Beyond that: I’m learning how to use a compound bow. It’s primarily for target shooting right now, but who knows, maybe I’ll make the leap into deer hunting at some point. Pray for all involved.

Why did you choose to study theology?

Theology is the discussion of Pilate’s famous question, “What is truth?” I can’t think of a more weighty question and one which I was more eager to investigate and discuss. This realization came thanks to a fabulous history professor, who was given license by the honors program at Notre Dame to teach whatever he thought important to a seminar of 16 students for a year. Included in our reading of classics were literature, philosophy, and theology, and at the end of the year I decided to major in theology before having taken any actual theology classes. The theology department did not disappoint, but I have to give credit to Dr. Gregory for the initial impetus.

How do you live out your ministry?

By emphasizing in my work whatever God places in front of the minister. Seriously, everything tends to become relevant. Over the course of a short period of time, I will find materials and gain insights which turn out to be almost implausibly connected, and I go with it -- the Spirit must know I and the parishioners need this point spotlighted right now.  

My time in Echo confirmed for me that what I love about the parish setting is its intergenerational diversity. Here young and old find the conduit of grace that is the sacramental life and must form a community comprised of more than just one life stage. This nature of the parish adds variety to my work and keeps me from getting bored.

However, most initiatives or growth do happen slowly in my ministry. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s quote, “Trust in the slow work of God,” has to be applicable here. Luckily, as I enter my fifth year, stability is beginning to come about, and I can build on relationships and flesh out plans for which prior initiatives laid the foundation. I feel grateful that we have an institutional memory (something difficult to build in a purely student ministry situation) even when that slows us down. It’s closer to a microcosm of the Church, even if this particular incarnation is mostly suburban and white.

What kinds of things will you write about in your posts?

Everything? There will definitely be some reflections on our nuclear family life (I’m currently incubating our second child and also have a two-year-old), but I also spin tales from my family of origin (a gold mine of loving service) and from my ministry. I’ll let myself reflect on wherever the Spirit has blown me lately. Said reflections may often be filtered through the lens of the Psalms, 20th century British writers, liturgical theology, or other favorites.

Really, I’m using you, readers. I mean, I hope my posting will be mutually beneficial, but the main reason for contributing here is less to “help” you and more for myself. I imagine that the necessity of evaluating how best to communicate to you anything worthwhile I stumble across will force me to comb out my thoughts, articulate better, and engage with the Lord in a deeper way.

Erin Conway

Erin's path and mine crossed in small ways at Notre Dame, but we didn't totally sync up until we moved 2,000 miles west. At the incubator for vocation that is Xavier College Prep in Palm Desert, CA, Erin and I lived in the same apartment complex and worked together on retreats, social justice ministry with students, and even coached junior varsity baseball together. Erin's grace and patience with vocation helped her answer calls to teaching and mentorship in ways that more selfish, antsy people would miss. Some people are groupies to bands or fangirls to celebrities; Erin would trade it all to team up with Fr. Greg Boyle, SJ, and the homies and would probably get a literal tattoo on her heart to boot.

Erin's work will appear every fourth Thursday, beginning on December 7.

Tell the people a little about yourself.

Although I joke to my students all the time that I only became a teacher to have a captive audience with which to talk about myself, deciding what’s important enough to share with audience you don’t know is pretty intimidating. As a result of this struggle, what follows is a random assortment of facts about me, Erin Marie Conway, some more serious than others:

• I was born and raised in the greatest city on Earth, Cleveland, Ohio, home of the 2016 NBA Champion Cleveland Cavaliers. (If you’re unfamiliar with our great city, feel free to check out this tourism video or 30 Rock’s Tribute to the Cleve.) I am, without a doubt, a midwest girl at heart.

• I am the oldest child of two incredible parents, humans whose patience and love is something I can only hope to capture a fraction of when I have my own children. The older I get the more I realize how much of me is because of them.

• I have a younger brother who has been and always will be cooler than me.

• I have a life size, posable, stuffed yellow lab named Dan. He is named after my father and was purchased for me by four girls in my freshman theology class who didn’t want me to be lonely since I was living so far from my family at the time.

• Corny jokes are my first language. You can ask my students if you don’t believe me. There is nothing I love more than a good pun or dad joke.

• There are few things in my life that make me happier than climbing a mountain or sitting beside a lake. This summer my cousin and I went on a national park adventure, visiting four parks in Utah and hiking over fifty miles in seven days. I almost didn’t come home.

• I started my teaching career at a Jesuit middle school, and the more I learned about the Jesuits, the more I realized how Jesuit my entire life had been up until that point; I just hadn’t know to call it that. I’ve never looked back. I often wonder how different my life would be if I had the option to enter Jesuit formation.

• In the 9 years since I’ve graduated from Notre Dame, I’ve worked in three different schools in three different cities: Baltimore, Maryland; Palm Desert, California; and Cleveland, Ohio. People ask me all the time why I moved all the way across the country for a school I’d never visited or why I left the sunshine of California for the gray skies of Cleveland, and my answer is always a simple one: God. I’ve been unbelievably blessed to be called to do God’s work in some incredible places and with some really wonderful people. They’ve broken my heart open in more ways than I can count and they’ve loved me into the person I am today.

Why did you choose to study theology?

Most of my theological “studies” have taken place as a theology teacher and minister and not as a student. I picked up Theology as my second major while at Notre Dame because as a public school kid I wanted to learn more intentionally about my faith. Because my primary major was PLS (the Program of Liberal Studies, our version of a Great Books Program), however, my Theology classes fell to the the background. Although I took classes in Theology, it didn’t truly take hold of my heart until much later. 

My true conversion to a student of Theology came after three years of teaching 7th grade English as an Americorps volunteer. Unemployed and living with my parents for the summer, I stumbled upon a posting for a Theology teacher at a school I had never heard of before: Xavier College Prep. Although I had never really considered teaching Theology before (I loved talking about books too much), I had hit the point in the summer where I felt desperate. So knowing I had at least enough knowledge on paper to talk to kids about God, I sent my resume and cover letter to the head of Xavier’s Theology Department. 

Thankfully, Xavier took a chance on me. During my three years in the desert, I learned more about a lived faith and the power of Theology to transform lives than I ever thought possible. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the teacher, friend, and human being I am today is a direct result of Xavier. I learned the ins and outs of Catholic Social Teaching alongside my students, I accompanied young people on immersion trips that transformed my understanding of our world and of God, and I was blessed to work with colleagues (Dan and Dave included) who challenged me and taught me more about my faith than I thought was possible. I learned to recognize God’s fingerprints all over my life, and I found that nothing gave me more life than that. To paraphrase the great Pedro Arrupe, SJ, I fell in love and it changed everything.

How do you live out your ministry?

The short, but not so simple answer, is that I live out my ministry by accompanying young people on their journey. This takes many forms.

Primarily, this happens as a teacher in a classroom. I currently teach senior Theology at Saint Martin de Porres, Cleveland’s Cristo Rey High School. My course is a combination of social justice and vocational discernment. Each day, I get to talk to young people about the ways in which God is calling them to transform the world around them. I get to share pieces of my own story and relationship with God, but more often, I find myself sitting back and listening to their stories, marveling at their resilience, and admiring their faith. The world throws so much at them, and they have yet to be toppled by it. We spend time together in prayer, reflection, and conversation, attempting to build community in a world that sorely lacks it. In short, my job is to love them. 

I’ve also had the opportunity to accompany students in a variety of other ways, as a volleyball coach, a Kairos director, a summer camp counselor, an immersion trip leader, and most recently, as a youth minister at my parish. I am grateful for each and every opportunity I get to put my love into action.

What kinds of things will you write about in your posts?

Much to my friends and family’s delight (dismay?), I find myself unable to have conversations about anything other than the students that I have the honor to accompany each day in the classroom. I honestly don’t know what “normal” people talk about in their daily conversations. Everything in my life seems to circle back to my kids. 

That being said, you should expect to read lots of posts about these beautiful human beings, from the ways they challenge my understanding of the world (I am constantly humbled by the burdens our world asks them to carry) to the way they show me God’s love, from the ways they challenge me to be the best version of myself to the often less than helpful dating advice they like to provide (it was recently suggested that I sign up Farmer’s Only because dating a farmer would allow me to acquire unlimited corn). Loving them takes up most of my life, and I love to tell people about them. 

In addition to my students, I really enjoy writing and thinking about Jesuit Spirituality, liberation theology, and Father Greg Boyle. I love thinking about and talking about what our faith looks like lived out in the world.

Tim Kirchoff

Tim wrote to me in response to our posting, and it was intriguing to read Tim's work. We have a mutual friend in Jenny and a mutual background in Notre Dame, but we have never met. Tim has a very mature and smart writing style that brings a sharp intellect alongside an earnest faith. I was also impressed to read one of Tim's finest articles, which appeared on the website of America Magazine, a well-renowned Catholic publication and one of my favorites. I'm delighted to get to know Tim better through bringing him on to our team.

Tim's work will appear every fourth Monday, beginning on November 27.

Tell the people a little about yourself.

I grew up and still live in Berwyn, IL, twenty minutes from downtown Chicago, and still attend Sunday Mass at the same parish where my four brothers and I went to grade school. I read several books by C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton my freshman year of high school, and from then until I graduated high school, I spent entirely too much (or perhaps not nearly enough) of my free time on the Internet either reading Catholic bloggers or trying to convince strangers that the Catholic Church is right about everything.

By the time I graduated high school and started attending Notre Dame, I had my fill of arguing just for the sake of winning the argument and wanted to explore ideas just for the sake of improving my own understanding. I picked up a major in Political Science after a remarkable freshman seminar on just war theory, and I ended up adding both a major in theology and a minor in the Catholic Social Tradition. My post-graduation life has mostly consisted of living off of the patience and charity of others (not least my parents) while I write and do volunteer work.

I enjoy puns, baking, and laughing maniacally.

Why did you choose to study theology?

The Theology professor I had for my first Theology course at Notre Dame was unafraid of the truth, no matter where he found it. He was willing to struggle with whatever truths secular knowledge could uncover about, say, the historicity of the Bible, without falling back on easy answers. At the risk of overstating his influence, he convinced me that studying theology wouldn’t just be about answering objections. Instead, it would be characterized by an honest search for truth. Other theology professors proved to me that his attitude was indeed representative of the department, which in turn drew me deeper into the study of theology.

Theology is the discipline that allows me to listen to and understand people with whom I have deep disagreements, to see the truth in what they say even if I don’t know how to integrate it with the Truth of the faith.

How do you live out your ministry?

In general, by striving to live out my vocation in the here and now rather than by looking for my vocation in another state of life. My time and my talents are gifts to be put at the service of others. As for specific ministries, whether it be volunteering at the Newman Center at a nearby college, leading my parish’s pro-life committee, or moderating a Facebook group about Catholicism and politics, I still haven’t worked out all the details.

What kinds of things will you write about in your posts?

I’m most interested in looking for common ground between the Church and secular society or between different groups within the Church. I might also reflect on current (political) events or personal experiences... in addition to whatever else Dan will let me get away with.

Postscript

While we're excited about our three new crew members, the four of us will continue writing as well:

• Jenny will write every fourth Monday, resuming on November 20.
• Rob will write every fourth Thursday, resuming on November 23.
• Dave will write every fourth Monday, resuming on December 11.
• I will write about every second Thursday as well as on other occasions.