Cultivating Habits of Discernment:
The Lilly Vocation Discernment Initiative

With support from the Lilly Endowment, Holy Cross has launched a five year program designed to broaden and deepen reflective practice in the community's life and work. Students, faculty and staff are invited to participate in a variety of projects centered on the theme of vocation.

The Lilly Endowment program supports efforts by church-related colleges and universities to make theological and spiritual resources available to students as they discern their life work, including consideration of vocations of ministerial service within religious denominations. Our Holy Cross initiative builds on our heritage of Ignatian spirituality, our Mission Statement's emphasis on fundamental human questions, our First Year Program's thematic question "How then shall we live" and the taken for granted assumption at Holy Cross that service is a distinguishing mark of a Holy Cross education.

The Initiative is composed of four cornerstones:

1 -First-year student orientation and community-wide, mission-oriented convocations;
2 -Curricular projects and courses on reflective practice and vocational discernment;
3 -Faculty and staff development on reflective practice and vocational discernment; and
4 -Spiritual formation and ministerial service, including programs to serve an increasingly diverse community.

The Program is under the direction of the Lilly Endowment Vocation Coordinating Council, composed of the Director of the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, who serves as Project Director, the Vice-President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College, the Vice-President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students, and the Director of the Office of College Chaplains. The grant supports the work of Elizabeth Johns, who serves as the Lilly Vocation Fellow in the Center for Religon, Ethics and Culture. Three committees assist in the implementation of the grant: a Committee on Reflective Practice, chaired by Elizabeth Johns; the Committee on First Year Orientation, chaired by Associate Dean Christine Cyr-Goodwin, and a committee on College-wide Convocations, chaired by Mable Milner, Director of Multicultural Education.