Lay staffers embrace order's charism: associates program blossoms at university sponsored by sisters

When Delany Dean enters her classroom at Avila University, she has more on her mind than the lecture she prepared for her psychology students. Like many who have gone before her at Avila, located in Kansas City, Mo., she is mindful of the mission espoused by the school's founder and sponsor--the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, St. Louis Province.

The order's original charge still applies, to do "all the spiritual and corporal works of mercy of which woman is capable and which will moss benefit the dear neighbor." Dean, assistant professor of psychology, wants that charism to permeate her work and the work of the entire school.

"There's a constant presence in my mind to bring something extra to my students," she said. "When I see an opportunity to bring up the kind of work CSJs do, I try hard to do so."

This is not a top-down directive. In fact, it's just the opposite.

While the number of Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet has dwindled to a mere handful at Avila, the order's presence--its values, its mission and its guidance--is increasing. Last year Dean and 10 other faculty and staff members at Avila became lay associates of the order.

"In many ways people who work here see their work as a form of ministry," said Avila president Ron Slepitza, one those 11 new associates. "To find a way to affirm that, grow in that, is what we are trying to do. So the associates program started as a faith-sharing group that became a more focused way of living the charism of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet."

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Grass roots

This spring, another seven faculty and staff members are expected to join as associates after meeting weekly for the entire school year. The candidates, of which nearly half are non-Catholic, study the order's history and spirituality and discuss their own personal growth. It's not a small commitment and it has surprised even members of the order that so many are eager to join.

"We already considered the staff here partners in ministry," said Sr. Ruth Stuckel, associate professor of humanities and performing arts at Avila. "We didn't think to make them associates. A few did it on their own and got so excited they started spreading the word."

Jeremy Lillig, a 26-year-old graduate of Avila and a media specialist for the university, was one who planted the seed by becoming an associate himself two years ago, under the sponsorship of Stuckel.

"It seemed like a natural step in my spiritual growth to become an associate," Lillig said. "Once I went through the program, I saw how beneficial it could be for others."

Lillig wrote a letter to colleagues he felt shared the order's values and spiritual aspirations. The response went far beyond his expectations.

"It was amazing," he said. "Not only did everyone express interest, there was just such a hunger out there for this kind of community."

It was such an enthusiastic response, it caught the attention of employees at other Carondolet ministries, which include eight other universities, as well as high schools and hospitals.

"I've had other campus ministers ask me about it," said Dave Armstrong, Avila's campus minister and a co-leader of the associates program along with Stuckel. "What I've told them is it's a wonderful and somewhat rare opportunity to minister to faculty and staff--and it's pretty easy to do."

Right relationship

There is no obvious Professional benefit to the associates program. In fact, Slepitza said it remains to be seen what institutional outcomes result from this movement at Avila. Still, he has his hopes.

"I think a university that wants to be successful must really understand what sets it apart," Slepitza said. "The more we say, 'This is what we stand for,' the better off we are. And when you look at the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, the value that is prevalent is right relationship."

Slepitza is referring to the the order's statement on social justice: "We commit ourselves to liberation from violence by the promotion of right relationships within community, with the dear neighbor, and with all creation."

Dean said right relationship begins for her by honoring the spirit of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet.

"We can stand and walk with the sisters in our own versions of their ways of living," Dean wrote in her blog shortly after her commitment ceremony last spring, "for the benefit of our university and, especially, our students. We can do so even if there are no sisters walking beside us in the flesh. They certainly walk beside us in the spirit, and constantly encourage us."

That spirit is what must thrive in this modern age, said Peggy Maguire, the order's director of association and a 30-year lay associate herself. The numbers are clear about the order's future as a body of women religious. At its height, the sisters numbered around 1,600. Now the number is 416. Meanwhile, the associates numbers have grown to 164.