Mission Week 2022 - Open to Possibility
Mission Week 2021 - Open to Hope
Dear Lord,
When current events and circumstances lead us to worry, help open our minds to hope.
When pain and suffering lead us to despair, help open our hearts to hope.
For even though the world may overwhelm us, our hope in you inspires.
Hope moves us from fear to courage.
From grief to comfort.
From blame to acceptance.
From resentment to understanding.
Lord, allow hope to work through us.
Let us share hope with those who feel alone.
Let us give hope to those who are oppressed.
Let us find hope for those who are lost.
And when we seek common ground, let hope unify us all.
Lord, we ask you to stay with us always You, the everlasting God, our ever-present hope.
Amen
Mission Week 2020 - Open to Gratitude
As you move through your day, today and every day, take note of what you are grateful for.
Because when we are grateful, we experience more joy.
We feel more connection.
We find contentment in every moment.
Everything becomes a blessing.
Notice the simple things — a laugh with a friend, the warmth of good meal, the rising of the sun at dawn — and let each inspire gratitude.
When we focus on the goodness all around us, we see what God has truly given us.
And we are inspired to give to others.
Open to gratitude. And feel the presence of God
Feb. 3 to 9, 2019
As. St. Ignatius sat quietly by the river, he experienced an opening of his heart, his mind and his soul. He saw everything in a new way. With this new perspective, he understood his life’s purpose: to live God’s will. We invite you to celebrate Mission Week 2019 with us. Open to your life’s purpose.
During this week, February 4–10, open space in your day for one of the many Mission Week offerings. There are amazing opportunities to listen to inspirational speakers, participate in service, pray, worship, reflect and to take time for silence each day. There will be challenges each day to open yourself up in a new way.
In the quiet clarity of being open, we come to understand the Divine in all things. And we begin to understand our place among them.
Mission Week 2018 - Truth to Reconciliation: Pathways to Peace
Feb. 5 to 13, 2018
We warmly welcome you to Mission Week 2018, a week in which the Marquette University and Milwaukee communities are invited to come together to listen, learn, reflect and explore issues around truth, reconciliation and peacemaking.
In the midst of broken trust, inequity of resources, historical injustice and trauma, racism, and complex contemporary uncertainties, we are reminded daily about the struggle we face in our world to treat one another with kindness, compassion, equity, respect and human dignity. Each day we are invited to consider how these world tensions, hurts and deep harms have been perpetrated upon vulnerable and/or marginalized persons, communities and institutions by those supported and protected by personal and systemic power. A lack of intellectual honesty and commitment to the study of truth and historical accuracy has contributed to this social condition, as has a lack of responding to the personal and corporate call to living the Gospel through faith, reason and will to love our neighbor as ourselves — a most difficult way of proceeding, especially as we are called to love others very different from ourselves.
Feb. 5 to 10, 2017
We warmly invite Marquette students, faculty, staff and members of the Milwaukee community to join us for a week of study, listening, dialogue and prayer as we seek to become better informed and transformed human beings related to the complicated history and reality of racial justice in contemporary times. Our theme for Mission Week 2017 is necessary and timely as we see pain, confusion, anger and peace-seeking in our own neighborhoods and across the country. We will engage with speakers and conversation, film and study impacting our consciousness around our theme, Racial Justice: Black, White and the Call of the Church. Each day we confront news about uprisings, shootings, deteriorating communities, poverty and segregation in our own city and communities across this country. Pope Francis states, “Racism today is the ultimate evil in our world.” Mission Week 2017 calls each of us to enter more deeply into courageous presence, compassionate listening and honest seeking for the power to bring love and redemption individually and corporately to these great injustices in our communities. Please join us for this important week as we explore racial disparity and injustice through the lens of the Catholic Church, which challenges us to live the Gospel through love, atonement and redemption as we seek to treat each human being with dignity, respect and deep care.
Jan. 31 to Feb. 5, 2016
Mission Week 2016 invited the Marquette and greater Milwaukee community to explore the invitations provided through Pope Francis’Encylical, Laudato Si, to connect more deeply in relationship with God’s people and God’s many gifts of creation. Throughout the week, the campus community was challenged to connect to the critical ecological issues of our time, while also exploring the innovative research studies, projects, policies and spiritual practices that are working to sustain the resources needed to protect the sacred life and beauty on our planet.
The Mission Week 2015 theme, Who Cares? Charity, Justice and the Quest for the Common Good, will guide us as we reflect on how we can be compassionate in responding to the needs of our sisters and brothers locally and internationally.
Mission Week 2014 will examine the theme of forgiveness in many forms, from the interpersonal to the international. What does it mean to be a forgiving person, family, university or nation?
During this one-of-a kind Mission Week celebration, each of the undergraduate colleges will host one or more Opus Prize winners as “visiting chairs,” so that students, faculty, staff, and alumni/ae will have the opportunity to engage in face-to-face conversations with leaders who are exemplars of ingenuity, tenacity, and commitment to the alleviation of human suffering.
Mission Week 2012 - Who is my Neighbor?
Who are our neighbors — locally, nationally and internationally? Throughout the week, we will reflect on this and examine how we can create international networks to address issues of faith, justice and ecology.
Mission Week 2011 - Imagine God
Learning is an act of imagination, and it is in stretching our imaginations that we extend ourselves toward God. Therefore, we invite you to explore your religious imagination and experience how music, art, poetry, scholarship and reflection contribute to the ways you imagine God and the world around you.
Mission Week 2010 - Centennial Celebration of Women at Marquette
The 2010 Mission Week was dedicated to the Centennial Celebration of Women at Marquette.
Mission Week 2009 - iAct:Consequences of Faith
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Shirin Ebadi speaking on, "Human Rights and the Consequences of Faith."
Mission Week 2008 - Faith Doing Justice
Keynote Speaker: Soledad O'Brien of CNN moderates the conversation of four distinguished panelists as they discuss how faith affects our decisions about dealing with conflict and injustice.
Mission Week 2007 - Challenged to Choose: The Courage to Act
Keynote Speaker: Lynn Brewer speaking on, "Challenged to Choose: the Courage to Act, Confessions of the Enron Executive."
Mission Week 2006 - Human Dignity, Human Rights: A Call to Service
Keynote Speaker: Paul Rusesabagina, subject of the film Hotel Rwanda
Mission Week 2005 - Constructing Peace
Keynote Speaker: Arun Gandhi, grandson or Muhatma Gandhi
Mission Week 2004 - Hope and Freedom: A Faith Journey of Struggle and Solidarity
Keynote Speaker: Lech Walesa, founder of the Solidarity labor movement, campaigner for human rights, former president of Poland and Nobel laureate
Mission Week 2003 - Emerging Leaders
Keynote Speaker: The Most Rev. Desmond Mpilo Tutu, Anglican archbishop emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa and a 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner
Mission Week 2002 - Loaves and Fishes
Keynote Speaker: Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Correta Scott King
