News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.
Mary Szybist and Jerry Harp, two celebrated Portland writers and scholars who explore Catholic iconography and prayer traditions in their poetry will read from their work, answer questions, and pose a few questions of their own. Join the free Zoom webinar on Wednesday, February 10 at 5 p.m. using this link. This event is hosted by the Garaventa Center.
For more info, please go to Garaventa Center Events site or email garaventa@up.edu.
This week’s 90-second glimpse into The Saint John’s Bible is the illumination of The Raising of Lazarus. All the musical accompaniment for SJB moments this semester are provided by students and faculty in UP’s music programs. Violinist Lauren Guerin ’21, is the artist you will hear in this brief video.
Spend two minutes beholding Donald Jackson’s luminous “Birth of Christ” from The Saint John’s Bible. The music here is provided by singers Nicole Leupp Hanig, performing and fine arts, and music student Cameron Creitz ’23 singing English and German verses of “Lo, How A Rose E’er Blooming,” respectively. Members of UP’s music department—faculty and students—provided the music for several months’ worth of these glimpses of UP’s Heritage Edition of The Saint John’s Bible. Look (and listen) for those in upcoming issues of UPBeat.
In the final drawing this semester for a Starbucks gift card, employee Amy Wruck’s name was chosen randomly from among those who notified the Garaventa Center about making a personal human connection (or two, or three) in this oddest of semesters. Thanks to Amy and many others, well over a hundred Person to Person interactions kept the spirit of community alive and well even when most of our relationships were conducted in 2-D. We’re grateful to you all for helping us meet that goal of 100 personal links in the Fall semester!
The chance to engage contemplatively with a sacred image from UP’s Heritage Edition of The Saint John’s Bible and the Scripture passage it illuminates—Visio Divina—lends itself reasonably well to the remote experiences of this semester. Visio Divina means “sacred seeing,” and is a venerable form of individual prayer that requires only our presence and attention.
This link to Isaiah’s Messianic Predictions leads you into a 15-minute guided meditation that can be undertaken at your desk or wherever you are comfortable. Bookmark it and re-visit this as often as you would like during the Advent season.
University of Portland community members will have a unique opportunity this coming January to participate in the Windrider Forum at the Sundance Film Festival from the comfort of your own home. The Windrider Forum is an immersive experience alongside the viewing of Sundance films that provides an encounter with the filmmakers to honor their craft, listen to their stories, and find thoughtful, spiritual themes in their work.
Participants will be provided access to 7 Sundance Films curated by the Windrider team, along with the Windrider events during Sundance (January 29 – Feb 1) and further Windrider programing that will be available throughout the spring semester (January 7 – May 28, 2021). Through a partnership sponsored by the Garaventa Center and Campus Ministry, UP students, faculty and staff have access to this opportunity at the reduced rate of $150.
If you are interested in this opportunity please contact Fr. Jim Gallagher, C.S.C. (gallaghe@up.edu) or Karen Eifler (eifler@up.edu).
Andrew Weingarten, Director of Residence Life, is the latest winner of a Starbucks gift card. His name was pulled from the basket of those who have let the Garaventa Center know of personal connections they have made with UP colleagues, either in 3-D or online, as we all look for ways to keep a sense of community alive and well here. If you’d like to be included in the next raffle, please email Karen Eifler (eifler@up.edu) with your name and just the number of connections you have made—no other details needed!
Video recordings of all Fall 2020 Garaventa Center lectures are now available for viewing on our website using this link, including such thought-provoking topics as “What We Can Learn about Cancel Culture from the Index of Forbidden Books,” “Mother Teresa: A Case Study in Christian Mental Health Stigma,” and more.
We’d also like to take this opportunity to say we are soooo grateful to everyone in our campus community for sticking with us during this autumn’s tectonic shift to online programming. As much as we missed seeing people in person—and we DID!—we were gratified by the expansion of our audience across many time zones, and noted that all our webinars took on extra life as people shared the links with their friends afterwards.
Visit up.edu/garaventa for a preview of events planned for this spring to help ignite your sacramental imagination!
Spend 90 seconds with this illumination of the names of the Messiah foretold by the prophet Isaiah, rendered by artist Thomas Ingmire. He is the same one who calligraphed “The Ten Commandments,” which was highlighted earlier this year. If your curiosity gets piqued by these weekly glimpses into UP’s Heritage Edition of The Saint John’s Bible, a benefaction from Allen and Kathleen Lund, contact Karen Eifler in the Garaventa Center, eifler@up.edu.
This week’s moment of quiet beauty is the opening of the Book of Psalms. Fun fact: the squiggly lines in various hues are voiceprints of different groups praying; Benedictine monks, Jews, Native Americans, Muslims, Taoists, Buddhists, Hindus, and Greek Orthodox. Each form of prayer—an essential human urge—has a distinct shape, producing this lustrous tapestry of humans reaching out to the Divine in joy, pain, confusion, contrition, and awe. UP’s Heritage Edition of The Saint John’s Bible is a gift from Allen and Kathleen Lund. Questions about these glimpses of the illuminations can be directed to Karen Eifler, Garaventa Center, at eifler@up.edu.