Thirty minutes spent staring at the same unmoving thing might seem more like a snooze-fest than a feast for the eyes, especially for a college student. But that’s exactly what students spent time doing recently at the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Museum of Art.

The occasion was a class session of the First-Year Seminar “Arts and Spirituality.â€� Taught by the college’s multifaith chaplain, the Rev. Brittany Longsdorf, the course guides students in both the creation and consumption of art, helping them see the connection between art and reflection through a range of spiritual practices and traditions from around the world. 

Their trip to the museum was to practice visio divina, or “sacred looking,� a meditative practice closely related to lectio divina, “sacred reading,� which dates back thousands of years to different religious traditions, particularly Western Christianity.

The objective is to look at something — a picture, work of art, a sculpture, anything — with the expectation of seeing sacredness in it. It reflects the belief that the divine can be found in everything, and is a way of looking at something intentionally, and “giving it that kind of presence and attention,� said Longsdorf.

Longsdorf developed the course a few years ago after seeing many young adults finding sacred experiences outside institutional religion. “[They] might not be attending worship in traditional ways, but are going to concerts and art museums and are journaling and painting and dancing,� she says. “They’re saying that those places are where they feel wonder and awe and feel their true size — feel connected to something bigger.�

The students showed mixed feelings as they anticipated the assignment, says Longsdorf. A few were into it. “They were like, ‘Cool! A half-hour with a painting. This is gonna be awesome.’ But some were like, ‘We’re doing what ²Ô´Ç·É?!’â¶Ä�&²Ô²ú²õ±è;

The idea of spending a half-hour looking at the same thing feels strange today, with the constantly in-motion way of life. “I think we’re so used to just taking it all in, and then not questioning it and moving on,â€� said Longsdorf. 

At the museum on a September afternoon, Longsdorf gave the students two minutes to walk through the exhibit and pick something that catches their eye, that “shimmers,â€� as she told them. That would be the piece they would practice visio divina. 

Caroline McCarthy ’26 of Hamden, Conn., chose to , covered with red, blue, silver, and gold paper and strings. 

Like the others, McCarthy was skeptical whether she could focus her attention on the artwork for a length of time. But after a spell, “I almost didn’t want to look away,â€� she laughed. “It definitely changed my perspective a little bit, and alters the way I’m going to look at art going forward. I think I’m going to find a few things and sit with them.â€�

The artwork they viewed is from the recent exhibition Pedagogy, which features myriad themes, from astronomy, to war, to the environment, all chosen for their potential to be integrated into ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ courses across academic disciplines. It was an apt exhibition to practice visio divina, said Longsdorf.

Longdorf asked her students to first focus on a single part of it, then the piece as a whole, and finally reflect on questions or meaning the piece evokes for them. She encouraged students to discern what it meant to them, what questions it made them ask, or what the art is “telling� them about what is sacred in the world.

“You see what it’s inviting you to do, or to think, or to feel in the moment and pay attention to that,” she said.

When Longsdorf first taught the course two years ago, a student told her that he’d never looked at a painting in a museum before. “I think some of us take for granted that we have access to those kinds of things,� says Longsdorf. For that student’s first viewing to last 30 minutes “was a really interesting and beautiful start of a relationship to art.�

Students create art in the course, too, as a “spiritual practice,â€� Longsdorf explains. In one lesson, they created clay sculptures with the classroom lights down way down low — so it was just them and their art. “They made these beautiful creations,â€� she recalls. Before the lights were turned up, she told them to take a deep breath of gratitude — and then to smoosh their creations flat before anyone saw them. 

“That made them so mad,â€� laughs Longsdorf, but there are spiritual lessons to be learned about “process over product. No one in the room needs to know what this symbol or image was that stirred your heart except for you, and why do you feel the need to perfect it and share it? Would you have made something different if you knew you weren’t going to share it?â€�

Our consumer society has taught us to think of art as a perfect, public product, she explains, “in a capital ‘A’ artist perfectionist way. But what does it look like to make art that is actually a spiritual practice, about us knowing ourselves and knowing the divine more closely through the creative process?�

The air was cold and crisp as a group of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students, staff, faculty, and community members gathered at Veterans Plaza to commemorate Veterans Day. 

The Rev. Brittany Longsdorf, the college’s multifaith chaplain, welcomed the gathering. “Our very ability to live in a progressive and loving educational community like ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ is indebted to our family and friends who have served our country and other countries in this and in many ways,â€� she said. 

She spoke of the need to both honor and see veterans. “Our culture acknowledges veterans less and less, and members of our community feel unseen. This is why today is so important.�

During the gathering, Longsdorf read aloud an interfaith prayer that she composed. Chaplaincy program coordinator Samantha McCune read the poem “For Absence” by John O’Donohue, and Frances White ’23 of New York City read the anonymous poem “For Peace.” Associate Multifaith Chaplain Raymond Clothier offered the benediction.

Julie Jeserum ’22 of Weston, Mass., performed taps on the trumpet. The last time she had heard taps played was at the funeral of her grandfather, a World War II veteran. It was an honor, she said, “to be able to play such a symbolic song for a day of remembrance.”

A basket of rocks sat on one of the six basalt blocks that comprise the plaza centerpiece. Longsdorf invited everyone to take a rock, hold it for a moment, and then place it on the blocks. 

Over the course of the day, 52 stones were placed, Longsdorf said later. “That means 52 people observed a moment for Veterans Day,â€� in the spirit of the plaza, a space that, in the words of an inscription on the basalt centerpiece, “honors the service and sacrifice of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ veterans.â€�

“I think the memorial allows us to craft a ritual that people can interact with throughout the day, which has been really lovely.�

The plaza, dedicated in 2020, is located near the Benjamin E. Mays Center and is ringed by seven benches. At the entrance to the patio is a stainless-steel marker with an inscription, “inviting reflection on the impact of war on the lives of everyone it touches.�

Longsdorf wanted the ceremony to make veterans and their families feel welcome, and also seen.

“Many find that they feel deeply forgotten and that’s painful for them. We really want to name that, and really ask people to see them and acknowledge them with gratitude and remembrance — whether they’re living or passed — and to acknowledge the ways veterans have impacted all of us in our daily lives and here at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½.â€�

Longsdorf is an ordained minister of the Community of Christ church, a progressive peace church. She knows people have complex, painful and often differing feelings around Veterans Day and war. But she points to the wider paths service can take.

“I think those who do enlist give up so much, and it isn’t always war that they’re going to. There’s the National Guard, and the Coast Guard, and they’re the ones staffing our vaccine centers across the country right now,â€� Longsdorf said. “So much of service is outside the realm of war.â€�

And those veterans who have served in combat, “so many of their intentions and the reasons they chose that life were to protect their family and loved ones in the way they knew how.�

Longsdorf hopes that the plaza continues to become a place where “every person at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ can feel like they can be their whole selves,” and where each Veterans Day affords “another way to allow people with complex pasts to bring their whole selves to this place.â€�

Students milled around the tables, ink-stained hands searching for the perfect print block. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder, they took turns using the ink rollers and waited patiently for a space to lay their tote bag, T-shirt, or mask.

The atmosphere outside the Benjamin E. Mays Center was happy and friendly, as students traded compliments and encouragement back and forth. Peppy pop music poured from the speakers, and despite the strong breeze threatening to blow paper and shirts everywhere, the event was a huge success.

This is the third year the “Stringfellowsâ€� — students working with Multifaith Chaplaincy in the spirit of William Stringfellow ’49 — have coordinated their Free Press social justice printmaking event, and each time, more students participate. According to Brittany Longsdorf, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½â€™ multifaith chaplain, around 150 people came to the event to make prints this year.

“It’s just gotten bigger and bigger over the years,� Longsdorf says. “I’m just sort of the memory keeper of how it runs, and then [the Stringfellows] choose whether or not they want to run it, and how they want to run it.�

Stringfellows help organize opportunities for activists to connect with each other on campus, and reflect on their work. The events are all about “helping them find practices and spaces to root and remind themselves why they do this important work that can transform the world,� Longsdorf says.

Dianna Georges ’22 of Clifton, N.J., is a Stringfellow, and was helping sign students in to the event. Georges has been attending the event since her first year. “I feel like this is one of the first places that I started meeting different organizers on campus,� Georges said. “I think it’s really cool because the sophomores and the first-years, they haven’t had the chance to do something in-person.�

“I think that symbols are important,� Georges said. “And I think this is an opportunity for people to put the symbols of what they believe up. It’s kind of the same thing as hanging a flag; it shows what you believe in, so I hope people just make a bunch of shit and hang it everywhere, and it just becomes a part of the ethos of campus.�

The print blocks are handmade by ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students and given to the event. The general theme of “social justiceâ€� allows for artistic license, and means different things to different students. From images of trees evoking eco-justice, to phrases of self-empowerment and statements challenging social structures — “F— White Supremacyâ€� — students shared their messages with each other and the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ community.

Stella Santucci ‘22, a psychology major from Falmouth, Maine, has participated in the event every year. “This is my favorite event on campus,� Santucci said. “It’s super fun, and it’s artistic freedom. The topic is ‘social justice’ but it’s up to you to kind of build an idea and execute it. I think it’s a place for students to connect and help each other, and be activists together.�

The Multifaith Chaplaincy provides the rubber blocks and tools to students, who then come up with a design to carve, and give the finished block back to the organizers for students to use.

Santucci makes a block for the event every year, and then always attends. “The fact that I get to just choose what I do and then come here and see everyone else’s, I think is really amazing,â€� Santucci said. “[It’s] what ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ is really all about.â€�

In one-on-one conversations, Multifaith Chaplain Brittany Longsdorf has helped many ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students, as well as faculty and staff, navigate complicated emotions during the coronavirus pandemic. 

“It feels hard to speak to your own personal woe amidst such collective distress,â€� Longsdorf says. “Right after ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ made the call to send students home, there were so many students who were really sad to miss those last few months together, to not feel like they had the time to say goodbye — but they felt really guilty voicing those things amidst universal sickness and death.”

For other students, it’s also hard to speak to their own happiness, says Longsdorf, whether it stems from being home with family or continued, purposeful engagement with their coursework.

“That’s a new complexity of my work, affirming that, yes, there is immense universal anxiety, and we should all care and be concerned about that. But we’re allowed to have our own personal difficulties and to process those — and also have joy.� 

Brittany Longsdorf, second from right, sits with students during a 2017 spring-break gathering. Though students are no longer able to gather as closely as they’re doing here, Longsdorf and the rest of the Multifaith Chaplaincy are committed to maintaining a close, connected community. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ was one of the first among its peers to adopt the multifaith model for its chaplaincy, and today’s Multifaith Chaplaincy supports all religious practices and individual spiritual journeys.

Among its central goals is giving the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ community space to feel, reflect, and connect with each other. As the pandemic has forced most students to go home, employees to work remotely, and religious services to move online, that mission hasn’t changed. 

“I describe my chaplaincy as one of warmth and hospitality, creating inviting spaces and then being a companion for whatever journey the person I’m sharing with is on,� says Longsdorf, an ordained Community of Christ minister who holds a doctorate of ministry. “I don’t think those elements have changed too much.� 

In the past few weeks, some of the chaplaincy’s regular programs have gone online and even expanded. Hearth, a regular guided conversation previously for students only, has moved from Longsdorf’s house to Zoom and is now open to faculty and staff. A Wednesday-evening fixture, the art-based secular service called {Pause}, is also online. 

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“We want to provide something familiar wherever people are,� says Associate Multifaith Chaplain Raymond Clothier, also an ordained minister, in the United Church of Christ. 

Supported in their work by faith-based spiritual advisers, the chaplaincy staff, as well as ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students, have created opportunities to pray, reflect, and connect from afar. The chaplaincy has gathered resources for virtual religious services, particularly as major holidays and observances approach — Passover began on Wednesday, Easter is on Sunday, and Ramadan begins April 23.  

Student religious groups are still active, emailing quotes and videos to each other, as well as questions for reflection. Longsdorf and Clothier say ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ community members have not come to them with pandemic-related theological questions, but they’ve been encouraged by the way many faiths have embraced virtual worship. 

One Sunday, Clothier attended four different Christian services, each led by one of his former students. “The ones that are working the best are using Zoom webinars, a mix between pre-recorded elements and live. The pastor is sitting at a desk, not standing behind a pulpit in an empty church.� 

Associate Multifaith Chaplain Raymond Clothier lights candles during a 2015 Veterans’ Day remembrance in the Peter J. Gomes Chapel. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Virtual worship, Clothier says, could join much older means of connecting with the divine as “a new way of mediating the tradition.� 

For instance, more than 70 people have joined a virtual retreat this month and are completing daily writings, art, and spiritual practices based on the Celtic myth of the Buried Moon. 

“The places you miss, miss you too.�

“We’re in this time and place where everything feels very restrictive, and there’s not a lot we can access in the outside world,� Longsdorf says. “But there are these complex and beautiful worlds within us that we can dive very deeply into during this time, and find sources of wonder and exploration within ourselves.� 

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Through old and new experiences, and through Longsdorf and Clothier’s continued availability for one-on-one conversations, the chaplaincy hopes to “continue a spirit of connection at this time when everything feels so isolated,� Longsdorf says. 

It’s helped her to think of lines from “The Moon� by poet Rainer Maria Rilke: “And the astonished places you inhabited and left / Ache more clearly for you.� 

“The places you miss, miss you too,â€� Longsdorf says. “It’s not just that you might miss ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, but these places feel your absence.

“We want to remind ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ people that they’re still a part of this place.â€�

Each year, the graduating class at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ elects a member of the faculty or staff to speak at Baccalaureate, held the day before graduation.

This year’s speaker was Francisco “Franky” Urueta, a member of the college’s Facility Services staff.

Well-known at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, Urueta is a custodian who works the late-evening shift in one of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ busiest academic buildings, Pettengill Hall, where he always makes time to greet students with a kind word and his signature fist bumps.

Video by Theophil Syslo

As Multifaith Chaplain Brittany Longsdorf said in her introduction at Baccalaureate, Urueta is “living proof that the smallest kind gesture can transform someone’s day, someone’s entire college experience, and someone’s life.”

An Apache Native American, Urueta used his address to talk about his path from California to Maine, and he urged the seniors “to give positive energy to people” so that “they give you positive energy back.”

Baccalaureate Address by Franky Urueta on May 25, 2019

The students who gathered at Multifaith Chaplain Brittany Longsdorf’s home on Sept. 12 found commonality in different experiences: Whether they had studied abroad or somewhere else, worked or interned for a semester, or taken leaves of absences, they had all returned to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ after time away.

To address that often-challenging transition, the Chaplaincy and Multifaith Fellows Keenan Shields ’18 and Haley Crim ’19 organized “Feeling Weird Back at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½,â€� an event held each semester to help students reflect on returning and to express feelings and experiences that they feel others might not understand.

“I see it as really giving a space for students to not only say the things that they’re not able to say, but also to be around other people who are feeling weird coming back to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½,â€� Shields said.

As the event — which is part of programming ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ offers for returning students — began, the students formed a circle in Longsdorf’s backyard.

Shields asked them to introduce themselves and make a “meter� by putting one arm on top of the other. In this way they checked in. A right angle — arm pointed upward — meant they felt good. Arms kept close together meant not-so good. Most were somewhere in the middle.

One word in particular seemed to reverberate: “Alone.�

Shields and Crim then brought out a ball of yarn and asked the returnees to think of a word to describe their feelings of being back. If another person felt the same way, they’d pass the ball while holding onto the end of the yarn, creating a link from student to student.

As the words tumbled out — “uncomfortable,� “grateful,� “awkward� — the yarn went around and across the circle. One word in particular seemed to reverberate: “Alone.�

“Students do feel alone and do feel lonely,â€� said Raymond Clothier, associate multifaith chaplain. “That’s partly because they develop new selves or new parts of themselves and aren’t sure where those connect when they come back.”

“I hope that’s one thing that they are able to do — to connect with other students and feel like there are other people who can understand or share similar experiences.�

Multifaith Fellow Keenan Shields ’18 co-organized “Feeling Weird Back at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½” to help fellow students re-join ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ after spending time away. He’s shown working with schoolchildren in the college’s Wood Street Garden in July, under a program of St. Mary’s Nutrition Center funded by the Harward Center for Community Partnerships. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

At the end of the exercise, the yarn became a web of common emotions. The students were then invited to further reflect in small-group discussions.

“Maybe we just need to take those fleeting moments and take the risk and open up.�

Themes emerged: Many are now seniors, about to start their theses. Some were processing loss, having left behind friends or host families in other countries, or feared losing what they had learned through immersion in another culture. Others felt a sense of shock coming back to a residential campus after working or living on their own.

In addition to organizing the event, Shields was a participant. An anthropology major from Pittsford, N.Y., he had spent part of the spring semester doing research in Puerto Rico. He said while his experience was valuable, he came back feeling unsettled and sometimes unable to talk about his time away.

Shields said he found others who felt similarly.

“I think that what we arrived at in our group was, maybe we just need to take those fleeting moments and take the risk and open up in those spaces,� he said.

By providing a space where they could talk to others who felt the same way, Longsdorf’s home was a place of reassurance, direction to other resources, or simply understanding.

“It’s a gift the students give to one another to open this kind of space, to be honest with each other and be vulnerable,� Clothier said. “I always feel a sense of gratitude that they’re able to be there in the room with each other.�

At Convocation, the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ community looks forward to the new academic year, surrounded by the college’s beech, ash, and pine trees, some of them more than a century old.

Following this year’s ceremony, a service held near the Class of 1929 Gate honored 17 faculty and staff who had died in the past year, in whose memory a young red oak was planted.

A memorial service as part of Convocation — to acknowledge grief and loss while welcoming new people — has been a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ tradition for 20 years.

During the service, Multifaith Chaplain Brittany Longsdorf invited faculty, staff, students, friends, and family to come forward to a bowl filled from Lake Andrews. Those who did collected and poured water cupful by cupful onto the soil around the tree, to keep it healthy and strong.

Members of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ community participate in a memorial service near the Class of 1929 Gate immediately following the Convocation on Tuesday. A red oak was planted in memory of those in the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ community who died during the past year.

“The community that’s gone and the community that’s just arriving — it’s actually a beautiful gesture to say, dead or alive, you’re still a part of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ community,â€� Longsdorf says.

The trees surrounding the memorial red oak sapling are — like the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ community — young and old, short and tall, of many different kinds. Many are themselves memorial trees.

The tradition was started in 1997 by College Chaplain Kerry Maloney, who is now Harvard Divinity School’s chaplain and director of religious and spiritual life.

“I wanted to tie so many holy endings to the great holy beginning of each new academic year,�  Maloney says.

“We embrace this complexity, this sacred tension between grateful remembrance and grief.�

Landscape architect Bill Bergevin, who selected and planted the red oak about three weeks ago, will continue to water the sapling until it’s ready to thrive on its own. In the next 60 years or more, it will grow tall like the older trees surrounding it. Friends and family of those departed can return to it. Students will pass it daily; they might lean against it to read books, or escape underneath it for shade.

During that time, the tree will become part of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ community, while it stands as a sign of the pain of loss and of the joy of remembrance, says Longsdorf.

“We embrace this complexity, this sacred tension between grateful remembrance and grief,� she said during the ceremony. “Thus we water new life in the form of a small tree, embracing that complexity and embracing the hope that we continue to honor our colleagues’ memory and presence that lingers still.�

The faculty and staff whose lives are commemorated by the red oak are: Robert P. Bowen Sr., John W. Creasy, Roger C. Dutil, Kenneth Fitzherbert, James G. Hepburn, Yvette A. LaChapelle, Marcia A. Makris, Bernice I. Michel, Kenneth Moore, Germaine J. Morin, Margaret T. Nichols, Marcy Plavin, Judy Rosen, Paul M. Szott, Kate L. Vale, and Beatrice C. Verville.

Held on Sunday of Reunion, the annual Alumni Memorial Service celebrates, remembers, and gives thanks for the completed lives of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ people who have died during the year. The 2017 service was on June 11.

This year’s program is below, and it includes the names of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ people who have died during 2016-17, through May 1, or whose passing became known to the college during that time.

The Rev. Brittany Longsdorf, the college’s multifaith chaplain, offered words of welcome and the homily.

Alumni and student participants were Stephanie Young Abbott ’67, Gina Ciobanu ’17, Roland Davis ’92, Richard Kilbourne ’67, Susan Daillaire Lagueux ’67, Wyland Leadbetter ’67, Karen Finocchio Lubeck ’92, Don Miller ’67, Rachel Minkovitz ’19, Pam Johnson Reynolds ’67, the Rev. Leslie Stewart Simonson ’67.

The service included a Procession of Flowers, in which participants bring forward a single flower and place it on a memorial wall. The benediction was offered by the Rev. Raymond Clothier, associate multifaith chaplain.

Jackson Whitehouse '17 of Cleveland, Ohio, plays the guitar during Pause on Nov. 30.

Multifaith fellow Denali Nalamalapu '17 of Falmouth, Maine, reads the Jorge Luis Borges poem "Boast of Quietness."

Students gather by candlelight in the Gomes Chapel on Nov. 30 2016 for Pause.

Even as the academic intensity increases heading into the end of the semester, students can rely on one constant. Every Wednesday evening in the Gomes Chapel throughout the semester, students gather by candlelight for {Pause}, a secular service of music, poetry, silence, dance, and art.

The service runs about half an hour, beginning and ending with the playing of a crystal singing bowl, a traditional Eastern meditation aid whose sound reverberates throughout the chapel. In between, students offer readings, songs, or dance. “You get to sit back in the middle of the week in a candlelit chapel and just be,� said Denali Nalamalapu ’17 of Falmouth, Maine.

Nalamalapu first attended {Pause} as a sophomore, and now, as a Multifaith Fellow, produces the programming every week. During the Nov. 30 gathering, she read the Jorge Luis Borges poem “Boast of Quietness,” which opens the novel Inheritance of Loss that she is studying for literature thesis.

“It’s nice to be able to literally just take a pause and be in silence.”

“There are so many demands on ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students and schedules are usually full to the brim,â€� said Multifaith Chaplain Brittany Longsdorf. “We hope {Pause} can create a moment of quiet respite in the week.”

Jackson Whitehouse ’17 of Cleveland, Ohio, played several acoustic guitar pieces on Wednesday, yet he was quick to highlight the restorative absence of sound during {Pause}.

“Silence is a very important thing,� he said, noting the 30 pages of writing soon due for class. “It’s nice to be able to literally just take a pause and be in silence with a bunch of other people who are just decompressing.�