Voices of Holy Cross: Stories of Hope

Sister of the Holy Cross Eva Hooker unpacks the prayerful logic behind the seeming oxymoron "celebrating profound sorrows" as we launch Season 3 on the Feast of our Lady of Sorrows. Resting in the muscularity of Holy Cross Hope, Sr. Eva also reflects on contemporary sorrows in the world, points to the joys her college students illuminate for her,  and shares a recent poem she published in the online journal Terrain, "A Letter to America."

The Congregation of Holy Cross and Notre Dame have a rare treasure in Dolly Duffy, longtime director of the Notre Dame Alumni Association. In this conversation, she shares stories of how she collaborates with Holy Cross priests to bring the Rosary, prayers and even the "Milkshake Mass" to some 50,000 people all over the world.

Three Holy Cross priests recount the fervor, excitement and spirit of Hope that they experienced as young seminarians during the Second Vatican Council, and how that has helped shape their 60+ years of priesthood.

Beloved scholar and teacher Dr. John Cavadini takes a deep dive into the motto of the Congregation of Holy Cross to help it make sense to our modern ears, and shares his own hopes for the McGrath Institute for Church Life that he directs to be of genuine service to the universal Church.

You'll love the New Orleans lilt in her voice, and be energized by her zeal as Sr. Ann Lacour MSC sheds light on her Marianite Sisters' close ties to Blessed Fr. Moreau, a monumental renovation of The Solitude in LeMans France that she is overseeing, and a bold prediction about when we can expect Fr. Moreau to be canonized.

Fr. Jim Lackenmier is serving in a second unification process in the Congregation of Holy Cross, as the provinces of priests and brothers throughout North America prepare to become one community in Summer 2028. Fr. Jim walks us through the challenges and potential of this historic move, helping crack a few canonical codes along the way.

The Congregation of Holy Cross has been part of Becky Ruvalcaba's life since before she was born. Now she serves as Director of Pastoral Formation in the MDiv program at the University of Notre Dame, helping form Church leaders who have a holy curiosity and hearts and minds that can hold people's stories as the sacred gifts they are. She unpacks all of those things in this episode.

Terry Lee serves the congregation of Holy Cross as Director of School Sponsorship for the Moreau Province. As that group prepares for its historic unification with the US and Midwest Provinces in 2028, Terry describes the efforts he leads to ensure the ongoing vitality of Holy Cross mission in the hands, hearts and minds of lay collaborators. He speaks to what is both enduring and of the moment in a Holy Cross high school education.

Whitney Daly has worn many hats at Holy Cross's Gilmour Academy in her 20 years of service there. She talks about what is unchanging and what is new in her ongoing work of forming people of hope on a journey of faith...and how Fr. Moreau's observation that fine educators must enjoy being interrupted by young people is truer today than it ever was. She also wouldn't mind a good night's sleep.

Brother Philip Smith CSC is the archivist for the Midwest Province of Holy Cross Brothers. In his first few months on that job, with a little push from the Holy Spirit urging him to "look up and to the right," he discovered over 6000 letters between Br. Columba O'Neill and others, documenting thousands of cures, which convinced him to pursue Columba's case for sainthood. Due largely to Br. Philip's zeal and patient effort, Br. Columba O'Neill has recently been named a Servant of God.