sponsor: Beyond Careers to Calling     

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Jeanne Buckeye, Ph.D. Understanding Fragmentation

"God’s promise and Jesus Christ’s resurrection raise in Christians the well-founded hope that a new and eternal dwelling place is prepared fro every human person, a new earth where justice abides. . . . This hope, rather than weaken, must instead strengthen concern for the work that is needed in the present reality." Compendium n. 56.

My paper-in-progress critiques and discusses the American cultural forces – ism’s and philosophies – that serve to fragment lives. It argues that the fragmentation in our lives is real and problematic. It also examines how these forces interact dynamically to create significant, if unnecessary problems for women in professional life. Furthermore, women academics are not the only ones in this fragmentation, that it has dilatory effects on our work, emotional and familial effects, and spiritual effects. The solution requires acknowledging the sacred nature of our vocations as women and being guided by the Church to a life of prayer and continual discernment of God’s will for us. The Church offers us essential tools to help us integrate more effectively our lives at work, at home and in the faith.

Deborah Savage, Ph.D.  Sertillanges and Becoming a Scholar.

Sertillanges’s The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods

"Work is a good thing for man - a good thing for his humanity - because through work man not only transforms nature, adapting it to his own needs, but he also achieves fulfillment as a human being and indeed, in a sense, becomes "more a human being." Laborem Exercens, 9.3 was written as a commentary on a letter attributed to St. Thomas, written to a certain Brother John; the letter was entitled: Precepts for Acquiring the Treasure of Knowledge.¹ The letter itself can be found in the library under the title De Modo Studendi (How to Study). The book is devoted to an investigation of what St. Thomas says concerning the "management of the mind." Both Sertillanges and Aquinas have much to say on how anyone wishing to pursue the life of the mind might do so in the midst of the complexities of the active life. My paper will consider the meaning of this work for the professional woman seeking to integrate the life of the intellect with her vocation as woman and mother. Especially important are Sertlillanges’s arguments that the spiritual life plays an indispensable role in the pursuit of the true and the good, that it is important to avoid being a dilettante and falling prey to an unbridled curiosity, and that the "most valuable thing of all is will, a deeply rooted will." In this session, we consider several questions: can we admit that the fragmentation we experience is, at least in part, attributable to a lack of will? If we grant that women are vital for reclaiming the culture of life, what are the virtues that women pursuing an intellectual vocation need to acquire to fulfill their destinies as women? How shall we live our lives so that we can fully occupy the place to which God has called us?

Heidi Giebel, Ph.D. Von Hildebrand and the Contemporary Woman

"[T]he Second Vatican Council... declares in its Closing Message: ‘The hour is coming, in fact has come, when the vocation of women is being acknowledged in its fullness, the hour in which women acquire in the world an influence, an effect and a power never hitherto achieved. That is why, at his moment when the human race is undergoing so deep a transformation, women imbued with a spirit of the Gospel can do so much to aid humanity in not falling.’" Mulieris Dignitatem n. 1.

We begin by reflecting on the meaning of "fragmentation" as applied to daily life and some suggestions (borrowed from Dom Hubert von Zeller) on how we might integrate work with prayer and family life. Then we turn to Alice von Hildebrand's provocative new book The Privilege of Being a Woman and discuss her central themes such as the implications (positive and negative) of being the "weaker" sex, women's unique Christian mission, the nature of feelings and their proper role in our spirituality, and Mary as a model of women's vocation.

Marie Pannier, Ph.D.  Spiritual Practice and Intellectual Work (an informal presentation).

"[I]llumined by the light of reason, human beings know how to discover the way, but they can follow it to its end, quickly and unhindered, only if with a rightly tuned spirit they introduce the perspective of faith into their inquiry. Therefore, reason and faith cannot be separated without diminishing the capacity of men and women to understand themselves, the world, and God in a coherent way." (Fides et Ratio, #16, translated by Alfred Freddoso).

In commenting on Blaise Pascal’s Pensées, Thomas Morris emphasizes the importance of (a) addressing ultimate philosophical and theological questions and (b) living an integrated life, a life that integrates the intellectual, the spiritual, and the physical aspects of one’s experience. Alfred Freddoso has also called attention to the importance of leading an integrated life. More specifically, drawing on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, he argues that in order to adequately and fully address philosophical questions, one must draw on theology, lead an upright moral life, and cultivate a rich spiritual life. Drawing on the work of these philosophers, I have reflected upon how one might introduce students to questions about the relationship between philosophical inquiry and spiritual practice. Some of these reflections are contained within a recent paper (that I distributed to the group), a paper in which I discuss ways of giving interested students resources they could use in efforts to integrate their intellectual lives and their spiritual lives. In addition to this paper, I distributed helpful material from the works of Pascal, Morris, and Freddoso.

Mary Lemmons, Ph.D. Contemplation as the Key to Integration

"Love is of God; Everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God." 1 John 4:7.

The fragmentation of woman’s lives can only be overcome by two kinds of contemplation. First and foremost, we need the contemplation of which the philosophers speak, namely, the contemplation of God, who alone makes sense of our lives. But since this type of contemplation requires solitude, it is interrupted by the exigencies of active lives. For this reason, we also need the contemplation of Christ of which Mother Teresa speaks, whereby we contemplate the Christ in the face of those who are suffering. Mother Teresa thus identifies the way in which the contemplative and the active life can be united in love of Christ. Saint Therese of Lisieux also assists us to understand this active form of contemplative love insofar as she argues that any act can be an act of love. This gender contribution to the proper understanding of eudaimonia, however indispensable for integrating the lives of women, does not suffice to end all types of fragmentation. For there are three types of fragmentation due to whether fragmentation is caused by the absence of meaning, the presence of intense personal suffering, or overwhelming tasks. The first two types of fragmentation can be healed through lovingly contemplating God; the last type requires one to integrate daily reflections that enable her to realize that her life has a certain extension in time that puts her into contact with eudaimonic goods—not simultaneously but sequentially. These contemplative reflections enable one to realize that it is possible to organize life so that it has a certain form whereby one comes into contact with eudaimonic goods. This is to contemplate the prudential relationship between one’s actions and eudaimonia; it is to practice—what I call—"prudential contemplation." Prudential contemplation heals the fragmentation caused by overwhelming tasks by enabling one to realize that there is a rhythm to life that allows one’s life to be real and meaningful as long as over time one attains to eudaimonic goods, i.e., those goods which makes life meaningful, namely, loving God and neighbor either through intellectual or practical activities.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Jeanne Buckeye, Ph.D. in Management. She specializes in business ethics and the spirituality of work with special interests in Catholic social thought and principled leadership. She is currently working on a paper , "Work-Life Integration for Professional Women: Dynamic Challenges, Transcendent Solutions."

Heidi Giebel, Ph.D. in Philosophy. She specializes primarily in theoretical and practical ethics, with special interests in the social dimensions of biomedical ethics and in ethical issues surrounding procreation and family life. Her recent papers include "Distributive Justice, Family Size, and Environmental Ethics" on the ethics of childbearing and the forthcoming "The Separate Minds of Church and State" regarding the relationship between personal and communal belief.

Mary Lemmons, Ph.D. in Philosophy. She specializes in ethics, political and legal philosophy with special interests in personalist feminism and the philosophy of John Paul II. She is finishing a book on natural law and continuing her research into incorporating gender insights into traditional philosophical and theological paradigms. Currently, she is working on a paper that evaluates the contemplative and practical forms of eudaimonia as expounded by Aristotle and Aquinas in light of Mother Teresa’s insight that we can contemplate the face of Christ in suffering and Saint Therese of Lisieux’s insight that even small acts can be done with great love.

Marie Pannier, Ph.D. in Philosophy. She specializes in the philosophy of time with special interests in the relationship between philosophy and spiritual practice. Her most recent paper focuses on the role of spiritual practices in the teaching of philosophy.

Deborah Savage, Ph.D. in Religious Studies. She specializes in the relationship between faith, spirituality, and work. She is especially interested in how the work of John Paul II and Bernard Lonergan sheds light of these topics. Her main focus is how to bring the legacy of St. Thomas Aquinas to bear on contemporary issues including human identity, personalism, and Christian feminism. Her most recent papers include the forthcoming: "The Subjective Dimension of Human Work: The Philosophical Assumptions at the Heart of Laborem Exercens," and "The Secret Life of John Paul II: The Philosopher as Christian Witness and Pastor of the Church" and is currently writing a book entitled "The Virtue in Business." In addition, Dr. Savage runs her own consulting firm, The Triad Group, which specializes in spirituality in the workplace as well as leadership education and coaching for ethical business practices and systems.