[Message from our Executive Director, Daniel Wasserman-Soler]
Dear friends,
Happy feast of St. Jerome! This week, students, faculty, and staff at the University of Chicago begin a new academic year. As a prayer for them, I invite you to read a passage from a homily of St. Jerome. He reflects on Psalm 42, which describes the soul’s desire for God: “As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God.” St. Jerome says the following:
The soul does not just feel like seeing God. It longs for him fervently. It is on fire with thirst for him. Before they received baptism, the catechumens spoke to each other and said, When shall I come and stand before the face of God? What they asked for has now been given them: they have come and stood before the face of God. They have come before the altar and been confronted by the mystery of the Savior. Welcomed into the body of Christ and reborn in the springs of life, they confidently say: I will go up to your glorious dwelling-place and into the house of God. The house of God is the Church, the ‘dwelling-place’ where dwells the sound of joy and thanksgiving.
As our friends on campus begin a new year, I pray that their studies will set them “on fire with thirst” for God. During the intellectual and spiritual journey ahead, may they be “reborn in the springs of life” and experience the “sound of joy and thanksgiving” that comes from being in the house of God.
Yours in Christ,
Danny