Labors from the Heart ― Mission and Ministry in a Catholic University

Labors from the Heart is a collection of personal narratives inspired by the day-to-day work of people who are personally and professionally committed to the special mission of the Catholic university. Various faculty, administrators, and alumni from the University of Notre Dame thoughtfully describe and reflect on their attempts to realize more fully the Catholic identity of the University through their vocations and ministries. Some of the essays are written specifically about the individual Christian ministries - -residence hall ministry, liturgical coordination, marriage preparation and enrichment, and adult Christian formation. Others are about faculty and administrative activities which find a distinctive home in a Catholic university--a law school's legal aid clinic for the poor and marginalized, an alumni association's continuing education program with a special focus on social justice and professional ethics, an innovative program for training a corps of young teachers for underserved Catholic schools. Some are narratives by people who have a professional or personal stake in the vitality of Catholic higher education--an alumna who provides a retrospective of the meaning of her education, a writer who "commits acts of public relations" on behalf of the University.