There and Back Again: The Adventures of Pilgrims, Heroes, and Saints
Cosponsored by the Archdiocese of Chicago Vocations Office and The University of Saint Mary of the Lake at Mundelein Seminary
In-person summer experience for high school students exploring the Christian Life at Mundelein Seminary.
July 5th-9th, 2023
Registration is $300.
POINTS OF DEPARTURE
“Consider your origin: you were not made to live like brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge.” – Dante, The Divine Comedy
“Discovering Christ, always again and always more fully, is the most wonderful adventure of our life.” – John Paul II, IV World Youth Day
St. Augustine once wrote that we should “so seek as if we should find, and so find as if we were going to go on seeking.” Join us on the beautiful grounds of Mundelein Seminary for a week of exploring the Western and Catholic intellectual tradition as we examine together the rich theme of the journey. Our texts will be drawn from the Bible, Greek Mythology, and Christian literature, theology, and spirituality from the Medieval Era to the modern day. In our expedition together—alongside the likes of Odysseus, Augustine, Dante, Bonaventure, Teresa of Avila, and Don Quixote—we will consider what it means to set out as sojourners and pilgrims longing for a true homeland in which we’ve never lived, to act heroically in the face of a broken world, and finally to return home to God, accepting the call to be saints.
THE EXPERIENCE:
In this 5-Day Summer Institute, high school students are introduced to college-level study through an investigation of the Christian life as portrayed throughout time. Notre Dame professors Jay and Jennifer Newsome Martin will lead students through a discussion of thinkers like Homer, Augustine, Dante, and Teresa of Avila along with relevant biblical texts.
Academic excellence is balanced with spiritual formation. We learn how to pray the Liturgy of the Hours together. We reflect on the vocation to which God is calling us.
We also balance work and play. Mornings are for lectures and discussion; afternoons and evenings for excursions to the city and fun programming (like trips to Six Flags and the city of Chicago).
The Newman Forum 