From what I’ve gathered from our assigned readings and class discussions Pastoral Counseling is: Counseling performed by someone affiliated with a particular religious institution Is not a form of Spiritual Direction (counseling is generally not directive) Is more specific to the particular faith tradition in which it is being carried out in contrast to a…
One of my favorite quotes and one that keeps coming back to me was said by Saint Irenaeus, “The glory of God is man fully alive.” Despite the fact that Saint Irenaeus lived around 130 to 203 AD, these words still strike deeply to the heart. As I sit with this quote again I am…
As I wiser person than me once said, “The more you learn, the more you realize how much you don’t know.” Throughout this past year of pursuing greater knowledge and skill of the counseling profession, I have learned a great deal. I came to Franciscan University carrying my dream of being a Catholic Counselor beneath…
When searching for a concrete definition of pastoral counseling, one may come across many definitions that vary in their descriptions of what pastoral counseling is or what it looks like in different settings. The adjective, pastoral, suggests to many that pastoral counseling is counseling that is exclusively done by a pastor, priest, or other religious…
After a full day of working a residential site for internship, in the hopes of growing in the field of clinical counseling, I needed to meet another student briefly before returning come back to my Steubenville apartment, to simply relax or to look at other school related project. However, the course of life sometimes leads…
We listened to U2 and the Dave Matthews Band; they listen to Post Malone and Of Monsters and Men. We wore flannel and overalls; they wear Chacos and Patagonia gear. We escaped to Drover’s for wings and beer; they escape to the Top of the World—a cliff in West Virginia overlooking the Ohio River. We…
On May 29, 2017—Memorial Day—the Most Reverend Timothy Broglio, JCD, archbishop for the Military Services, announced that the United States Armed Forces might soon have a patron saint. After a four-year inquiry, the archdiocese had formally submitted Father Vincent Capodanno’s cause for sainthood to the Vatican. In Queens, New York, Father Mark Bristol ’11 couldn’t…
The genesis story of Trinity Clothing Corporation starts with a restless night, an unused LLC, and a little nudging from God. Before she arrived at Franciscan University in August 2017, Kendal Huntsman was a California teenager working three jobs in order to save up enough money for college. But, after a string of sleepless…
In the final scene of his masterpiece novel, Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh captures the radically different nature of freedom Christians are called to embrace compared to the kind of freedom championed by the secular societies in which they live. Legally divorced from their spouses, protagonists Charles Ryder—at that point an agnostic—and Julia Flyte—a “half-heathen,” in…
There’s a common phrase we hear when discussing our faith. Perhaps you’ve heard it in class. Possibly, you’ve read it in a blog post. Maybe, you heard your favorite Catholic speaker lay claim to it, nodding your head and thinking, “yeah man, that.” The good, the true, and the beautiful. We’re asked to consider what…