Marquette Mission Week: Act with Care

Brendan McManus SJ was part of a team leading the ‘Marquette University Mission Week’ which took place from 2 February – 7 February 2025 at the Jesuit University in Milwaukee, USA. The annual ‘Mission Week’ is based on Saint Ignatius’ instruction to take God’s ministry out into the world. As part of the event University students are invited to experience and share in the Jesuit mission to “Go, set the world on fire” by attending the many ‘Mission Week’ offerings which included listening to inspirational speakers, participating in service, prayer, reflection and taking time for silence. The theme for this year was ‘Act with Care’. Read Brendan’s account of the week below»

Marquette Mission Week: Act with Care

Brendan McManus SJ

I was involved in about 10 events which began with preaching at the opening mass in the campus Jesu church. My homily introduced the Mission Week theme of ‘Act with Care’: “The key thing is the balance or the sense of harmony between these three different aspects: experiencing God’s care in prayer, practicing self-care, and providing care for others. This means finding a balance between spending time with God in prayer, looking after our ‘neighbour, and looking after ourselves, our bodies, our mental health, and physical health. But balance is something that we often find difficult just because there’s so many extremes around as much easier just to give yourself to the one thing, for example to just be there for others at the expense of yourself, and that doesn’t work. We know this inside ourselves, but we often find ourselves drifting and not having direction. So, let’s make a promise to try to live our faith in a balanced way, to find that harmony in our lives and in our bodies, being able to help friends or people in trouble, but especially let’s help make a better world, let’s be agents of God’s love and radiate care and compassion in the world.”

I also preached at a number of other masses on campus and notably had one with the University Police Department, where the other celebrant Jim Pribek SJ and myself did a blessings of hands and anointing with oil. I also spoke in several classes, in the undergraduate English Class on Empathy (based on my writings on suicide bereavement), and in a Business Studies class on transitions and transferable skills (using my background in IT and transition into the Jesuits). I also led a silent Camino Pilgrimage Walk on the newly opened Sports Centre running track where we had about 60 staff and students. Building on my experience leading pilgrimages walks in Ireland and Spain, I had people walk alone in silence with the instructions: “Remember that you are a Pilgrim, God’s creation and passing through this world, we are all fragile creatures and in need of one to one personal time with our Creator. God is always trying to reach you, to communicate with you and so be open to that, turn off your phone, put aside distractions and just listen.” I also led a number of smaller retreats including a group of Marquette High School students preparing to go on the Ignatian Camino, where I explained the key Ignatian experiences linked to the places they would visit that included Pamplona, Loyola, Montserrat, Manresa and Barcelona.

The highlight was probably meeting Irish writer Colum McCann, the keynote speaker, and spending some time with him. His keynote address was around the importance of storytelling that explores themes of resilience and interconnected lives. He focused on his book American Mother, that tells Diane Foley’s story (last year’s keynote speaker), the loss of her son Jim, a Marquette graduate, reflecting on grief, forgiveness, and hope. McCann champions storytelling’s power to foster empathy, revealing deep truths about suffering and the human experience.

I was very grateful to my old friend Jim Pribek S.J., and the Marquette Mission Team, who invited me and hosted me in Marquette.