Opening of the Academic Year Mass in Celebration of Notre Dame's 175th Anniversary
On November 26, 1842, Fr. Sorin and a few companions arrived in South Bend after an over-250 mile trek from Vincennes. He had good reason to rest after the long trip, but he insisted on making…
Read More about Mass for Mary, Seat of Wisdom Homily offered by Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. »
The number of times I’ve been asleep on an airplane and woken up to find a fetching stream of drool down the left side of my shirt is greater than I care to admit. The more tired I am, the greater…
This isn’t over. We have not officially arrived at campus yet, even though we’re staying at the Morris Inn and went to Mass at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart and watched Rudy on the giant screen in the stadium and I have another couple dozen pictures of all the landmarks I already have a couple…
I’m struggling tonight. So many thoughts are pushing to make their way into words, they’ve crowded themselves at the door and no one can get in.
My heart is heavy tonight. I’m challenged in a way different from any day on this Trail thus far.
I’ve been struck all day by the question,…
Do you remember being a kid in school – a young kid, fifth or sixth grade – and those times when the teacher would momentarily leave the room for whatever reason, and would warn you that your…
I have ankles like a 70-year-old Hungarian grandmother. It’s a bit disconcerting.
…
My brother thinks I’m an idiot. He’s never said as much to me, but I know it to be true.
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It can be a challenge to be introspective when you’re on something of a forced march.
…
I believe I mentioned that the days on the Trail are all themed. So far, we’ve had Faith, Compassion, and Gratitude. Today is Stewardship, a topic which is important to me and which I’m going…
When my wife confirmed that our suspicions were correct and that we were, in fact, expecting our second child, I knew that my first reaction was supposed to be one of joy.
…
I spent the day walking, wondering what I should write. Wondering what I could write.
…
I’ll tell you right now I’m not going to tell you everything I want to tell you. No way. No can do.
…
St. Francis Xavier Cathedral
Vincennes, Indiana
We begin today our pilgrimage, following the steps of Fr. Sorin and his companions from Vincennes—in 1842 the largest city in the state—to a plot of land some 250 miles north, near the south bend of the St. Joseph River. I…
As we’re all grown-ups here, can we begin by acknowledging that faith – by definition – is unprovable? Faith is not science. Faith is, in fact, quite the opposite of science. That’s not to diminish faith – not at all – but only to embrace faith’s inherent uncertainty. Science is what one…
My former roommate is proof that you should always think of your physician as the responsible, professional medic they are now – and not the college kid they were when, for example, Terry Wilkin (’92) showed up to Moriarty’s Pub dressed as an exceptionally well-endowed Lady Di. It was the London Program Hallowe’en party, sure, but honestly, the photographs I have in my possession should guarantee me free healthcare for life.
Read More about Unauthorized Pilgrim Profile: Terry Wilkin ('92) »
Packages include a five-day (Aug. 22-26), 70-mile option; a three-day (Aug. 24-26), 40-mile choice; and a one-day (Aug. 26), eight-mile route.
Read More about Retrace Father Sorin’s steps on the Notre Dame Trail: Registration now open »
In addition to the free final day, five-day and three-day pilgrimages are offered.
Read More about Notre Dame Trail to culminate in Mass and picnic on free final day of pilgrimage »
I’ve been hearing about Brother Larry Stewart, C.S.C., (’60/’61) from the very start of my involvement with the Notre Dame Trail. He’s the sort of man who leaves an impression. In 1997, he celebrated his 40th jubilee as a Holy Cross brother by cycling across the country, sea to shining sea. In 2007, he celebrated his 50th jubilee by doing it again. This year, when considering how to mark the occasion of his 60th jubilee, he jumped at the chance to walk the 300-plus miles across Indiana in the footsteps of Notre Dame’s founder, Father Edward Sorin. Brother Larry is 80 years old. “But I don’t look my age,” he is quick to reassure me. “People tell me that all the time.” Why am I not surprised?
Read More about Pilgrim Profile: Brother Larry Stewart, C.S.C., (’60/’61) »
It’s thirty-one days until the core pilgrims set out from Vincennes to start the long walk to Notre Dame, and I wanted to mark the t-minus-one-month mark somehow. But, frankly, I’m just not in a philosophical mood today. The week gone by has me kind of thinked-out.
So instead I’ve decided to…
If it’s easy for me to feel proud of myself, walking and biking as much as I am in preparation for the 317 miles I and the other core pilgrims will cover in August, the bubble of my pride deflates quickly when I talk with someone like Pat Hellman (’63). We speak on a day he has completed a 27-mile bike ride as part of his training. The preparation seems to be going well – it reminds the 75-year-old of the last Iron Man race he was in. “Your last Iron Man?” “Oh, yeah,” he says. “I’ve done a few.”
In his 2016 Laetare Address, Vice-President Biden explained how his “grandpop” had played for Santa Clara in the early part of the last century and how he always resented the team being referred to as “the Notre Dame of the west.” The Irish, the proud Bronco had insisted, were in fact “the Santa Clara of the midwest.” Well. That being said...
Read More about Pilgrim Profiles: Patrick J. O’Malley III (’84) and Christine Ann Silva O’Malley »
Brace yourselves. By the time Mark Alexander (’80) and I get back from our two weeks walking the Notre Dame Trail, we will have the world set to rights. We will have it all sorted out. We got this. There’s a lot to say about Mark. He’s one of those people who make things happen. I didn’t ask about his sleep schedule, but it’s got to be pretty thin.
My wife and I describe ourselves as tumbleweeds. We celebrated our 23rd anniversary last year by her kissing me at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut as I boarded a plane for Seattle where I would spend the next week hoping to secure a new place for us to live out here.
We had no…
Stu Fortener (MBA, ’97) strikes me as the good guy in the group. The Clark Kent, saying things like “gosh” and “heck” and apologizing repeatedly – often in back-to-back sentences – for giving me answers to my questions which very sweetly he worries I’ll find boring. Nothing could be farther from the truth. He speaks rapid fire in those sentences before those apologies – I’m hard pressed to think of anyone I’ve ever met who talks faster than Stu. Perhaps he’s trying to get through what he worries I won’t be interested in as quickly as possible. Perhaps that’s just how fast his mind works. Perhaps both.
The Boy Scouts of America LaSalle Council created a special ND Trail and 175 anniversary patch. Scouts and their families can learn more and register at https://www.lasallecouncilbsa.org/nd175trail
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Last week I was fortunate enough to participate in the Holy Cross Heritage Pilgrimage in France with eighteen Notre Dame colleagues from the Division of Student Affairs. The three main requisites for making a pilgrimage are the belief that God responds to prayer, the conviction that grace is present in a special way at holy sites, and the desire to make a sacred journey. I was hopeful on all three fronts! I believed that God would respond to my personal prayers and that of those I was carrying with me to France; I believed that there was grace to be found in the places where Blessed Basil Moreau and Father Edward Sorin lived and prayed; and I was making a sacred journey to help create a sacred journey – the Notre Dame Trail.
Speaking with the pilgrims on the Core Team, the thirty or so of us walking the entire length of the Notre Dame Trail from Vincennes to South Bend, I often feel as though I am about to enter freshman year all over again. There are these people I’ve never met with whom I am about to have an amazingly intense experience and the only thing we all know about each other is Notre Dame - that somehow we are all connected by and to that place and all that it means for all of us. Some of them have lives which are 180 degrees from my own. Businessmen and women. Athletes. Bankers. Some feel as though they are other versions of myself.
Read More about Pilgrim Profile: Jim (’81/’83) & Karen Jenista »