Feb. 3, 2021

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MILWAUKEE — As part of Marquette University’s annual Mission Week, Feb. 7-14, students, faculty, staff and community members are invited to join in a week of mostly virtual events that include inspirational speakers, unique opportunities to reflect and more.

The theme of this year’s Mission Week is being “Open to Hope.”

A full schedule of Mission Week events and registration is available online. Registration is free for all events, which include:

Sunday, Feb. 7

11 a.m.: Mission Week celebrations will open with an all-university Mass, which will be broadcasted on Mission and Ministry’s Facebook page.

Monday, Feb. 8

11 a.m. to 1 p.m.: Marquette alumna Dr. Shital Vora will speak during a Marquette Women’s Luncheon and Reflection. Vora is the co-founder and CEO of Global Brigades, overseeing the organization’s talent programs in addition to administrative policies and university and donor relationships. Global Brigades is the world’s largest global health and sustainable development organization that works with student volunteers to fund and execute programming. Sister Anne Arabome, associate director of the Faber Center for Ignatian Spirituality, will also join.

6:30 p.m.: T. Dávila, associate professor of practice at Merrimack College, will deliver the Ignatian Peacemaking Lecture: “Bearers of Hope: Encounters of Love and Justice in a Broken World.” Dávila will explore Pope Francis' latest encyclical Fratelli Tutti which presents the Good Samaritan as the story that most clearly demonstrates what it means to encounter others as full human beings. The call to be bearers of hope to one another must be embodied in everyday practices of building communities across difference, attending to the suffering of others, and justice making. 

Tuesday, Feb. 9

9 a.m. to 2 p.m.: Rev. Jim Voiss, S.J., vice president of mission and ministry, will lead an interactive all-university Mission Week virtual retreat, during which he will share personal stories drawn from his life and how passions shape actions.

4 p.m.: The Office of Engagement and Inclusion leadership team will virtually present “Visualizing Your Values,” during which participants will explore values of leadership through past and present role models. The presentation will touch on a variety of historical and current leaders and what values they represent the most and even make a word cloud to visually represent their values.

7 p.m.: Rev. Bryan Massingale will present Mission Week’s forum event. Father Massingale — the recipient of Marquette’s Teaching Excellence Award in 2009 — is a leader in the field of theological ethics, a past convener of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium and a former president of the Catholic Theological Society of America. He is a member of the board of directors of the Society of Christian Ethics and serves on the editorial board of Theological Studies, one of the premier Catholic journals of theology. He is a current member and past coordinator of the North American Regional Committee of the Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church project. He also is the recipient of four honorary doctorates and has held the Bernard J. Hanley Chair at Santa Clara University.

Wednesday, Feb. 10

Noon: Sister Kathy, composer and activist, will share her original music and reflections on the challenge of being present to grief while at the same time holding on to hope within “the beloved community.” Sister Kathy is passionate about writing music that fosters hope and healing. Her inspiration lies in the conviction that all of life is permeated with the sacred. She is deeply committed to working for nonviolence, racial justice and advocating for the protection and healing of our planet.

7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.: Fitting with this Mission Week’s theme of hope, Ignite Marquette will host Rev. Gregory Boyle, S.J., for an Honorary Degree Commissioning and a night of reflection, kinship and stories from Homeboy Industries — which provides hope, training and support to formerly gang-involved and previously incarcerated men and women allowing them to redirect their lives and become contributing members of their community.

Students can register to attend the in-person event at the Chapel of the Holy Family in the Alumni Memorial Union, 1442 W. Wisconsin Ave. 

Thursday, Feb. 11

11 a.m.: After viewing the film Hungry to Learn, faculty and staff are invited to join a conversation to examine how to best assist students who may be food insecure or showing other signs of distress. 

Guests will include Courtney Vosmaer, CARE team case manager, and Dr. Walter Bialkowski, visiting assistant professor of computer science in the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences and a winner of the 2020 President’s Challenge for COVID-19 Response Award for his project “Empowering Those Who Seek to End Hunger through Collaboration and Innovation.”

A link to view the Hungry to Learn film will be available to registered participants from Feb. 5-11.

A student version of the event will take place at 7 p.m. The event will contain information the resources available to students on campus to obtain food and move to action.

Friday, Feb. 12

10 a.m.: Muralist Mauricio Ramirez leads a conversation along with some of the women who inspired his mural "Our Roots Say that We're Sisters." The mural was recently installed on the north-facing façade of the Varsity Theatre/Holthusen Hall building to celebrate diversity and racial equity.

Noon to 1:30 p.m.: Faculty are invited to attend the session “Helping Students Make Sense of this Moment” to discuss and learn practical tips about how to engage with students amid the ongoing pandemic. Various elements of the Ignatian pedagogy will be discussed.

Saturday, Feb. 13

All day: The Center for Peacemaking’s Peace Works program is encouraging all to take part in the “Self-Care Challenge.” St. Ignatius of Loyola understood the importance of exercise when he developed the Spiritual Exercises as a way of strengthening his prayer in order to grow his relationship with God. Another type of exercising is to practice self-care. The objective of the day is to assess self-care levels and develop strategies to improve self-care.

Sunday, Feb. 14

6 p.m.: Mission Week celebrations will close out with an all-university Mass, which will be broadcasted on the Mission and Ministry’s Facebook page.

Media interested in covering any Mission Week events should contact Shelby Williamson in the Office of Marketing and Communication at shelby.williamson@marquette.edu or at (414) 288-6712.