Invocation

by. Marisa Lapish

God Who Dwells on the Margins,

where power does not dare to look,

we call upon you,

the sacred who lives in whispers and shadows -

in the quiet where words are not rushed,

where power has no place to hide.

Let us be grounded in your mystery,

for you are more than nation,

more than law or hierarchy.

You are the hidden strength in the fragile and the small (1).

These words, penned by Kat Armas in her opening “Liturgy for Resisting Empire,” echo the beauty of what I have found to be true, first as an SSU student and, in an ongoing way, as a member of the alumni community. I began my journey, hidden away during the pandemic, in a cohort of what is now the Jim Forest Institute for Religion, Peace, and Justice at St. Stephen’s University, which I discovered was Canada’s smallest university. Very soon, I realized that our small cohort was a lifeline of consolation when it seemed the whole world was deconstructing. The experience of moving into my Theology and Culture cohort felt like a sacred global sabbath for reflection amid the disorientation we shared. It was indeed a safe and brave place to question and to wrestle when the world seemed so fragile. My cohort anchored me with wings during a time of societal unmooring.

I am certain that you, too, have experienced the unique culture of your SSU cohort. There is something about its smallness and togetherness that facilitates the intimacy of encountering the Divine, in the sublime, amid an otherwise ordinary day. Simone Weil says it quite dramatically: “The whole world knows there is only truly intimate conversation between two or three.” (2) She elaborates on the idea of Pythagorean friendship:

The Pythagoreans say friendship is an equality made of harmony. It is a harmony because there is a supernatural unity between the two contraries of necessity and freedom, those two contraries combined by God in creating the world and humanity…A certain reciprocity is essential to friendship (3).

Today, the reciprocity of harmonious friendship is embodied and celebrated through these 28 graduates (4). Tomorrow, this culture can be sustained seamlessly through continued cultivation in our alumni community.

Like your SSU cohort, our alumni groups are small and intimate, yet have a hidden strength fostered by a necessity to “belong” and a “free consent” to respond to invitations into sacred spaces filled with conversations about compassion, beauty, theology, peace, and justice. In the last few years, our alumni community has made convivial contributions. These include:

• Book club discussions of classic and contemporary books, alumni-authored books, and through our Facebook group, with quotes and questions for reflection.

  
  

• The development of a Recruitment Toolkit to reach future SSU students at regional conferences, kitchen tables, or casual conversations.

  
  

• Academic mentoring as volunteer tutors, interacting with current students as they research and write their assignments.

  
  

• Quarterly research presentations of theses and meetings together for ongoing personal and professional research and writing projects.

  
  

• Opportunities to participate through contributions in our monthly alumni email blast in the form of guest blogs, creative resources (including paintings, sculpture, music, poetry, and liturgy), continuing education, financial investment, volunteerism, and the formation of new interest groups.

  
  

• Connection events—such as the Sunday stroll through the beautiful streets and shops in St. Andrews-by-the-Sea that was held during our Convocation weekend to learn the stories of our local alumni who graduated from SSU’s undergraduate program.

  
  

Forever a learning community, we welcome new ideas from our graduates. (As I look at our new graduates, I see the potential for future groups of liturgists, research “sparring” partners, and poets.) This is the heart of our alumni family—to preserve relational intimacy with reciprocity and to cultivate a sense of belonging while humbly learning together, in “the hidden strength in the fragile and the small (5)."

Welcome,

Welcome,

Welcome!

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1) Kat Armas, Liturgies for Resisting Empire: Seeking Community, Belonging, and Peace in a Dehumanizing World (Brazos Press, 2025), 1.

2) Simone Weil, Awaiting God: A New Translation of Attente de Dieu and Lettre a un Religieux, trans. Bradley Jersak (Fresh Wind Press, 2012), 149.

3) Weil, Awaiting God, 96.

4) Armas, Liturgies for Resisting, 1.

5) Armas, Liturgies for Resisting, 1.

Marisa Lapish is SSU’s Alumni Community Coordinator, who always welcomes new ideas and ways to connect. Feel free to email her at - mlapish@ssu.ca