Student Affairs
At a time in my academic career where doubts and uncertainty about the future threaten to eat me alive, the concept of tawakkul keeps me going and brings me a sense of peace like no other concept does. Tawakkul is an important concept in Islam that can be loosely defined as having full trust in …
During the pandemic, my faith life was completely upended, as everyone’s busy lives of work, school, and socializing were forced to come to a pause. As someone who values human connection greatly as part of my spiritual practice, shifting to a period of relative isolation was harrowing to say the least. After recovering from the …
I was sixteen. It was a dull damp winter. The weather felt empty and restless. I was in the middle of my existential crisis. At the time, I was convinced that life was meaningless. A construction worker approached me on the street for a cigarette. *** It started with the loss of my first love. …
On this week of Halloween, it is worth reflecting on the history of the holiday and what it means for religious tradition. Today, Halloween in the United States is a joyful celebration with candy, bonfires, costumes, haunted houses, and scary stories. It can be seen as a way for the young to conquer their fear …
There is a conception within Jewish mysticism of God as infinite; God is referred to as Ein Sof or literally, without end. Incomprehensible to human minds and unbounded by our ideas of physics, morality, and existence, God is everything, everywhere, all the time, forever. I find the ideas of both God and infinity to be …
Tossing and turning, I’m unable to sleep. I’m too hot, then too cold and my mind won’t shut off. I flip from side to side and readjust my pillows. Still, sleep evades me. I check my Apple Watch and lay passively in bed as the hours pass by: first midnight, then 2:10AM, then 3:44AM. Before …
My father is a firefighter paramedic for a city near my hometown. His schedule consists of twenty-four hours working at the fire station followed by forty-eight hours off. This seventy-two hour cycle repeats itself throughout the year. Sometimes, he is called in to work consecutive twenty-four hour shifts, which takes him away from our family …
Being raised in a small community where religion was not overtly discussed, I grew up imagining that I was neither religious nor spiritual in any way. However, I’ve come to find out over the course of my life that I grew up with values and a moral code that form their own kind of faith, …
My Catholic faith has been a part of my life from a young age, as both of my parents were raised in the faith. Although they were never super devout, they made sure that my brother and I were raised in the Church: we attended Catholic school from preschool to eighth grade, we attended Mass …
On February 24, 2022, the Russian Federation, under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, launched a full scale invasion of Ukraine. Overnight, Putin and his warlords shattered nearly a century of peace in Europe, one which sustained itself even through a decades-long threat of nuclear annihilation. Americans might be remiss in assuming that the cause of …