电子游戏软件(Boston College)将于4月10日下午3:30在Gasson 100举行庆祝活动，纪念形成性和广受欢迎的凯洛斯静修项目25周年.m. featuring remarks from Sam Sawyer, S.J. ’00, M.Div. ’14, who served as a student leader for BC’s first-ever Kairos retreat, as well as reflections from students and alumni connected to Kairos.
The anniversary event, 恰逢第230和231届凯洛斯学生团体结束周末度假归来, will begin with a Mass at 2 p.m. in Trinity Chapel on Newton Campus, concelebrated by Fr. Sawyer.
Sponsored by Campus Ministry, Kairos(希腊语“上帝的时间”)是一个由学生推动的周末精神静修活动，允许学生有意识地反思与上帝的关系, self, and others. Kairos is open to students of all faith backgrounds and experiences. Since its inception, some 10,000 BC students have participated in a Kairos retreat.
Boston College alumnus Sam Sawyer, S.J., a senior editor and the director of digital strategy at America Media, served as as student leader at the first Kairos retreat in 1997. (Photo courtesy of Fr. Sawyer)
“The fact that I’m a Jesuit today has a fair bit to do with Kairos,” said Fr. Sawyer. “我在不列颠哥伦比亚省的本科生涯中有很大一部分时间是在做事工，帮助其他人通过退修会与上帝相遇，这让我意识到这是我更广泛意义上的职业.”
“For many BC students, Kairos is the first affective engagement they have with the Ignatian tradition of BC,” said Campus Minister Marissa Papula, who oversees Kairos with support from graduate assistant Ally Clapp, a M.Div. student in the School of Theology and Ministry. “For every student, no matter their faith tradition, Kairos offers emotional resonance and spiritual accessibility. We are truly Catholic, but also catholic—universal. There is something for everyone.”
“Boston College is rich with extra-curriculars and programs for students, but one of the key markers of BC is the Kairos retreat,” said Kairos student co-director Diana Hadjiyane ’22, a philosophy and psychology major from Long Island, NY.
“凯洛斯专注于为人们开发空间，让他们带着自己的弱点进来，然后知道自己拥有内在的爱，他们可以以一种美丽而有形的方式把爱带到这个世界上。,” she added. “(在凯洛斯)发现了一种社区意识，它让人们在生活的其他领域拥抱社区，并以新的和令人兴奋的方式看到上帝或爱. It reinvigorates people to see the beauty of the world and the life they were given.”
Another student co-director, Quinn Cunningham ’22, a philosophy and finance major from Arlington Heights, Ill., said Kairos has changed his outlook. “I try to see people the way God sees people. For me, 这意味着认识到人们是善良的，在日常生活中给予人们优雅和耐心. I try to lead with love when I meet someone.”
In addition to Cunningham and Hadjiyane, the other co-directors for 2021-2022 are Connor Cademartori, Joe Ebbert, Lauren Moberley, and Mary Jane Tague.
小克里斯汀·莱纳汉在踏上山庄之前就对凯洛斯很熟悉了. She went on a Kairos retreat offered by her Jesuit high school, Scranton Prep, and later served as a Kairos student leader there. She knew she wanted to stay a part of the Kairos community as a college student. She began leading Kairos retreats at BC during her sophomore year.
“We are all bonded by the fact we’re students, but we come from different backgrounds and experiences, 凯洛斯是一个倾听他人意见的机会，也是一个打破我们在大学里筑起的高墙的机会,” said Lenahan, an English and philosophy major. “You come to understand love in a way you never could have possibly known it.”
Campus Minister Marissa Papula has overseen the Kairos program since the fall of 2018. (Photo courtesy of Marissa Papula)
In her remarks to retreatants at the closing ceremony, Papula说，她经常谈论BC学生认为衡量价值的指标——gpa, social media followers, 或者在健身房的锻炼时间，以及这些获得或渴望的指标与一个人内在的神圣性毫无关系.
“Kairos is an invitation to encounter our worthiness,” said Sarah Hansman ’18, 她回忆说，她带着难以置信的高期望来到不列颠哥伦比亚省，导致精疲力竭, anxiety, and loneliness. “For me, Kairos was a detox from comparison of ‘success’ check lists: our resume, transcript, or instagrammable friend group. 这是混乱中的休息，也是一个温柔的提醒:我的价值并不取决于我的成功.
“Kairos provides an opportunity to encounter the brokenness, hurt, and shame in ourselves and others and see that we are still beloved, not despite our flaws but with them.”
不列颠哥伦比亚省的凯洛斯计划始于1996-1997年，当时是新生的依纳爵会的基层倡议, a group of BC students who were graduates of Jesuit high schools. 他们在高中经历过凯洛斯，希望他们的BC同学也能从凯洛斯中得到丰富. Led by Kelly Muldoon Graham ’99 and Chris Boscia ’98, M.A. ’00, with financial support from University President William P. Leahy, S.J., and other BC Jesuits, a team of seven undergraduates conducted the first Kairos retreat in April, 1997.
“There’s a hunger for college students to have the big conversations,” said Boscia. “在一所耶稣会学校举行这是完美的，因为这就是他们的全部——反思.
“我喜欢凯洛斯的形式是因为它是一种宗教体验，一种基于天主教传统的精神成长体验, 但它是开放的，使用的语言可以帮助任何信仰或没有信仰的人在他们的信仰中成长.”
Added Boscia: “At its core, BC wants to foster spiritual growth and religious commitment amongst its students, Catholic or not. Kairos is a wonderful vehicle for that.”
凯洛斯的核心是:上帝对你的爱可以通过对他人的爱和你对他人的爱来体现,” said Fr. Sawyer, who continued his involvement with Kairos after graduation, serving as a retreat director and then later, during studies at STM, as a Jesuit companion.
While Kairos is not unique to BC, organizers and students agree that Kairos at BC is decidedly something very special.
“Kairos at BC has social capital,” said Papula. “First-year students hear about it from R.A.s and Orientation Leaders. 他们马上就报名了，因为他们知道有很多人在等待，他们可能要到大四才会接到通知.”
“凯洛斯是一个精神和宗教静修地，人们将在这里投资于友谊和小组对话, listen deeply and honestly to each other, and pray together,” said Fr. Sawyer. “事实上，校园里有一种文化，认为这是有价值和重要的, says quite a lot about what kind of place BC is and what BC and BC students value.”
电子游戏软件提供的凯洛人静修会比其他任何耶稣会机构都要多得多, according to organizers. Typically, there are 12 Kairos retreats during the academic year, each with 45 retreatants, seven student leaders, two adult directors, one student director, and a Jesuit companion. Despite this robust offering, interest in Kairos among BC students far outpaces available slots, according to Papula, who said the waitlist for Kairos—known as the Kairos lottery—is more than 2,200 students.
“You know that not everyone will be able to experience Kairos, so I think about ‘How can I give people a glimpse of what I experienced?’” said E’Sachi Smalls, a nursing major who is a student leader in the program. “For me, it’s sending a text to check in on someone, hugging someone a little tighter, giving someone my full eye contact. I’m so much more intentional about that now.
“You go on the retreat, experience all this love, and see how you can love others. It feels greedy to allow Kairos to live in a vacuum.”
About a decade ago, Campus Ministry began to offer Senior Week Kairos (SWK), 为没有机会参加传统凯洛斯静修的感兴趣的老年人提供为期一天的凯洛斯体验. Some 150 seniors regularly opt in for SWK.
与所有学生编程一样，Kairos在COVID大流行期间遇到了难题. Organizers realized that Kairos could not take place virtually, so it was modified and offered in-person on Newton Campus. 已经制定了COVID屏蔽和距离协议，并且必须减少每次撤退的参与者人数, but that didn’t dampen the experience or alter the fundamentals of Kairos, according to organizers. In fact, during 2020-21, student leader applications doubled and Kairos offered more retreats (18) than usual.
该计划在大流行期间的创新和承诺得到了学生参与办公室的认可，该办公室颁发了去年的凯洛斯联合主任(玛吉·奇普曼), Marcello Garber, Meghan Healey, Zach Maher, Sam Schelble, and Amanda Williams) with a 2021 Ever to Excel Award.
Reflecting on co-directing Kairos during the pandemic, Marcello Garber ’21 said, “I’ve never been more proud of anything I’ve been involved with in my life, by a landslide. Enough people came together to make what happened last year happen.”
The spirit of Kairos is intended to live on well after the weekend retreat ends. 退修会给退修会的信徒一个耶路撒冷十字架，并敦促他们“活出第四个”——意思是活出退修会最后一天所作的应许. 静修者面临的挑战是将爱的光芒从静修带到校园和世界上需要持久希望的地方, and Papula says she tasks Kairos participants to “lead fuller, freer lives of bold love.”
For Maggie Chipman ’21, 他去年是凯洛斯的联席主任，也是林奇教育与人类发展学院的电子游戏正规平台生, “活出第四个”是理解人是多维的，每个人都需要联系，每个人都在努力理解同样的一般概念，即什么是寻求和给予宽恕，什么是在困难时采取行动和爱. I think Kairos has made me a more compassionate person.
我希望在我的个人生活和职业生涯中，我都能过上第四个生活，以一种向他人提供情感通道和普遍同情的方式前进.”
“Kairos项目真的是一份礼物，我感到非常幸运能成为其中的一员，”Lenahan说. “我不喜欢用‘定义’这个词，因为到目前为止，没有什么能定义我在不列颠哥伦比亚省的大量经历, but Kairos by and large has shaped my Boston College experience in innumerable ways, and for that I am grateful.”
Kathleen Sullivan | University Communications | March 2022