Category Archive for : ‘Giving Thanks’

The Br. David Darst Center is pleased to announce it has recently received three major grants to help support their social justice education programs.

The Center was awarded a $25,000 grant from the Sisters of Mercy Midwest, a $6,000 grant from the Priests of the Sacred Heart and a $5,500 grant from the Christian Brothers of the Midwest’s LaSallian Mission Opportunity Fund. The funding will be used to provide resources for the Center’s Urban Immersion Retreats and Social Justice Workshops, which educate youth and young adults on the real life experience of the many

For the past several weeks, I have had the opportunity to take a more active role as part of a young woman’s “village.” I saw morning hours that I prefer not to see as I woke to deliver her to school on time and then raced to finish things here at the office so that I could be there in the pick-up line. We worked on homework together and I struggled to come up with meals appropriate for a 15-year-old’s pallet. My experience of the past few weeks prompted a

I’m thankful for roads. Yes, they blight the landscape and, if only indirectly, despoil the environment. Yes, they were spawned by the ancient imperial need to move chattel — often in human form — around a kingdom. Yes, they are mostly potholes come Spring. But for better or for worse, they are the veins of a nation, and I’ve come to embrace the connectivity they bring. They permit us to visit areas of the country to which we might not otherwise have access, They are among the first things we

With CTA bus and train tracker apps and displays readily available, the Google Maps app taking into account current traffic and suggesting the best routes to get from point a to point b, and weather which has, up until this week, been pretty easy to navigate, it is often all too easy to take mobility in our city for granted. As retreat groups come in and out of the Darst Center, visiting our nearly two dozen partner agencies, moving about the city is made possible only because of the tireless

The Br. David Darst Center invites individuals and groups to leave their comfort zones and what they are familiar with, to question the stories they have been told, and be open to seeing things differently. This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for all those who have the courage to take risks. I am thankful for those who risk what they previously knew to meet people, share stories, and experience life at our partner organizations. I am thankful for those who risk acceptance by challenging the status quo, sharing what is in

I am thankful for the hospitality that we, as a staff, at the Darst Center strive to embody for all of our immersion and rental groups that come through here. And for the hospitality that our partner agencies provide us while we are discovering the rest of the story with the immersion groups that we host.

The hospitality that we provide is unparalleled to most retreat centers I’m familiar with. We strive to be Lasallian in our hospitality. Being Lasallian means embodying five basic principles: concern for the poor and social

The Br. David Darst Center is thankful for the passion and belief people have in the work they do, and that it really can make a difference. As a recent college graduate, my parents were not happy that I wanted to take a year off after graduation to serve and volunteer. When I told them that I would never get another chance to do something like this, their response was to ask why. “So what?” they said. This chance I was taking wasn’t going to help me in the long

The Darst Center is in the business of bringing people together (among other things). We provide opportunities to learn about other people, about the world around us, and about ourselves as well. None of this would matter, however, if we didn’t have anyone to provide it for. Every year literally hundreds of high school and college students grace us with their presence. These young people have taught me more than I could have ever imagined. I’ve learned that teenagers can be some of the most insightful people I’ve met. I’ve