The Amherst area is a nexus for practical and highest-order aspirations, for learning and trying things that can serve the greatest good. I enjoy being part of that process. I tend to be drawn to the work of poets, advocates, humorists, visual artists, and musicians.
Whether people set roots here or fly away, the transformations brought about by their work (accomplished as I see it by the grace of God, the Holy Spirit, and their wholehearted cooperation) truly refreshes and informs me. I find it especially beautiful when, in the context of early setbacks and failures, people make adjustments, move along, and find themselves creating something just right for that place and time, almost as if by surprise. These narratives of surprise offer the same challenge and delight as the stories offered up in the course of a daily walk. They just appear, waiting to be celebrated.
I do find double delight in the four seasons in New England and devotion in the liturgical seasons of the Church. Marking the high, dark quiet time of December in the hills around us with the coming of the Light of Christ in our gathering places is simply wonderful. And, across the academic year it is an honor to be part of students' first experience of the beauty of the Connecticut River, of finals week, or a series of liturgies away from their parents' parish.
People say I'm a reader. That is so. Over the course of any week I offer a good amount of time to reading and considering the ramifications of the written word, Scripture, and the signs of the times around us. Works and conversations specific to campus ministry, inter-religious dialogue, vocational formation, the study of theology, church history, and spirituality are always circulating on my list.
My academic interests include inquiries into the intersection of local and universal faith-claims; narratives of stasis and transformation; mystery and theophany; the sacred ordinary. Routinely I update the courses I offer in church history, theology, scripture, and spirituality in the Diocese's Program for Formation for the Permanent Diaconate and for Religious Studies and the Institute of Theology and Pastoral Studies, Religious Studies at Elms College. The Elms College courses are usually offered over the summer; diaconate courses cycle through fall or spring semesters.
Other activities include serving on the Board of Directors for Nardin Academy in Buffalo New York. Nardin was established by a Daughter of the Heart of Mary, the religious society of which I am a part. And, my previous experience teaching in the high school for the Academy of Notre Dame, Tyngsboro, founded by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, also informs me as a member of the board. I continue to serve on the Pastoral Council for Bishop Timothy McDonnell here in the Diocese of Springfield. Especially with my colleagues in religious life at Amherst College, I am developing professionally alongside other members of the Catholic Campus Ministers Association and the National Association of College and University Chaplains.
If I were to follow Facebook parameters, under 'relationship' I could post 'it's complicated'. But that's only because for Facebook pretty much anything beyond 'in a relationship' and 'looking for a relationship' with a man or a woman is complicated. But, really, my relational way is simplicity itself. I'm a Catholic woman religious. I'm 'claimed by Christ' in a way particular to women religious. And that means that I live simply to love, in Christ. It's a 24/7 life with prayer at the center and work one expression of the love generated by God's grace. At Amherst College that love is expressed in my role as religious advisor, with the intellectual, leadership, and ecclesial skill set pertaining to that role. At UMass Amherst it is expressed in my role as campus minister for Esselen Peer Ministry.
The order in which I'm incorporated is "The Society of the Daughters of the Heart of Mary". It's a pontifical order and is international with a mother house in Paris. The Daughters in our area have a gathering house, a 'reunion', in Holyoke. Like the first Daughters during the French Revolution, we don't wear outside signs of our consecration to Christ, we do practice radical availability to serve especially where the Spirit is unwelcome, and wherever a Daughter serves the whole Society considers that a part of their 'work'. So the life in the Spirit I am living here in the Amherst area is one with that of, say a DHM living in the Middle East, and hers is one with me.
We are incorporated into One Heart in other ways, of course! Central to the religious life is the life of prayer. In addition to daily contemplation and adoration, meditation on Scripture, we offer certain verbal prayers on a regular basis, participate in liturgy and other sacraments, and come together regularly for days of reflection, retreat, and renewal. These prayer disciplines and the gifts of grace God give us are crucial.
So you can see that the life is 24/7 with professional work like that at Amherst an integrated part of the life. DHMs are called to live the Gospel witness in their locale. So it is very "DHM" for me to be both a religious sister and to maintain a professional life with residential and academic expressions appropriate to that life. I work in Amherst and in Chicopee, Massachusetts. I live in an apartment in Turner's Falls, communicate at Our Lady of Peace, and take part of the rhythm of life in Turners. I am active in the Marian Center in Holyoke, where we maintain a medical residence and where other local Daughters gather for fellowship, prayer, and renewal. And, I have a wide extended family among the Clarks. Recently they've been rooted in the US, around New England; roots and shoots extend around the world. As for me, Vermont has always been the US state after my own heart. Still, Maine remains dear. This is in part because my brothers and their families are building dreams there. I visit with them from time to time and I get a kick out of being in touch with my nieces and nephews. Find me on facebook at cclark.mundial@gmail.com
Th.M., Master of Theology. With distinction. Concentration: church history. With M.Div., Master of Divinity equivalent. Concentration: the Gospel of Jesus Christ and homeless families. May 1999 with distinction. Weston Jesuit School of Theology (now Boston College School of Theology of Ministry)
M.T.S., Master of Theological Studies May 1997 with distinction. Concentration: systematic theology. Weston Jesuit School of Theology.
M.A.A.T., Master of Arts in Applied Theology May 1995. Concentration: systematic theology. College of Our Lady of the Elms.
A.S., Associate of Science May 1985 with high honors. Program: medical secretarial science. Holyoke Community College.
B.A., Bachelor of Arts May 1983 with honors. Program: Spanish literature, including study in Salamanca, summer 1980. University of Massachusetts Amherst.
--August 2011--
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