By Rose Johnson
Dear friends of the Lumen Christi Institute,
As I end this Lent, I would like to share with you how the Lumen Christi Institute has shaped my adult relationship with Christ.
I encountered the Lumen Christi Institute as a graduate student at the University of Chicago, during a time when I was struggling in my Catholic faith. Their student-led reading groups helped me develop the Christ-centered friendships that I needed, meeting me in my questions and drawing me closer to Him. Two years later, I now work full-time at the Institute.
As a cradle Catholic, I grew up surrounded by friends who saw their relationships with the Church not as a piece of their lives, but as the universal thread that drew everything together. I pursued the same kind of community in my undergraduate years, receiving my B.A. in English and a minor in philosophy from a Catholic institution. There I was accompanied by people who pushed me to encounter my faith authentically, and took classes that integrated the Catholic intellectual tradition into every area of study.
When I arrived at the University of Chicago for graduate school in 2023, I fell in love with the academic environment. It was a gift to think with others about literature and philosophy just as I had during my undergraduate years. However, something was missing in my course work: The orientation toward Christ, which I was accustomed to sharing with others.
As my studies began in full swing, the worlds of academia and faith started to diverge. I no longer had a group of friends who accompanied me from class to Mass or who contextualized their lives through the constant presence of Christ. This absence of faith among my peers intersected with growing personal doubts as I faced a more diverse intellectual world. It was a time primed for my relationship with Christ to take a backburner. My faith could have easily become ancillary to how I lived in the world.
Amidst this floundering, I was invited to participate in a Lumen Christi reading group on the writings of Franz Kafka. I remember that during the first meeting, I listened to my fellow students reflect on Kafka’s writings on freedom, obligation, and meaning through the lens of their faith. Suddenly, I felt at home again.
This reading group was my entrance into life at Lumen Christi’s Gavin House. As it continued, I became friends with the participants, often staying afterward for informal fellowship with the students or to pray the Rosary with the staff. As my faith became rooted again in my vocation as a student, I was inspired to share this gift with others, eventually leading my own reading group on James Joyce’s Dubliners.
The phrase “We are the Body of Christ” became truly present to me as it had never been before.
To this day, one of my closest friends from graduate school is someone whom I grew to know at Lumen Christi. That friendship, and others like it, was crucial to making Christ the center of my adult life. These friends held me accountable, deepening my relationship with Christ. My doubts were challenged by the rich intellectual programs at Gavin House and met with the genuine love of my friends.
I am wishing you and your family a blessed Holy Week and a joyous Easter season! Thank you for being part of the Lumen Christi community, which has formed the adult faith of students like me.
Rose Johnson serves as the Development Associate at the Lumen Christi Institute. She received her BA in English from Benedictine College and her MA in the Humanities from the University of Chicago.