Experience Making a Difference

Experience Making a Difference

Stories from Chicago

The IVC Journey

This post, by IVC Chicago Spiritual Reflector and alum, Theresa Stanner, appeared first in IVC Chicago's Footprints Blog. I joined the Ignatian Volunteer Corps in the fall of 2002. I was excited when I was accepted as a volunteer at St. Martin de Porres House of Hope,...

The River of Life

I was meeting Fr. “Bo” T. M. Lyons, spiritual director extraordinaire, for dinner at Hogwild, a great barbeque place. I had ordered the barbeque ribs and Fr. Bo was having the one pound plus barbeque pork chop. Father Bo was in a philosophical mood and started one of...

Reflections on Hospice Volunteering

During the last days of my husband’s life, God provided for us the blessing of Midwest Care Hospice Center. I call it a blessing because it was beyond expectations; I say God provided for us because their services and care were generously extended to our family. My...

A Place at the Table

During my two years as an IVC volunteer, I served at Little Brothers-Friends of the Elderly, an organization dedicated to providing friendship and relieving loneliness among seniors. Years later, I am still involved there as a volunteer. There is a beautiful motto to...

The Fruit of Our Lent

This week’s gospel of the fig tree which bears no fruit but is spared another year invites us to take a moment to reflect at the midpoint of our Lenten journey. How is our Lent bearing fruit? Perhaps this Lent isn’t turning out how we hoped it would: we haven’t...

IVC and Cristo Rey Network Schools

IVC and Cristo Rey Network Schools

IVC partners with Cristo Rey Network Schools in 6 regions - New York Metro, Chicago, Cleveland, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and New England, matching Ignatian Volunteers' talents with the schools' tagline, "the school that works". Cristo Rey Network schools provide a high...

Finding God in all Things

Before I joined the Ignatian Volunteer Corps in August, the phrase “finding God in all things” was foreign to me. Even though I was raised Catholic, attended Catholic schools and taught Religious Education in my parish for many, many years, the belief that St....