Heavenly Father, Teach us to be generous.
Teach us to serve you as you deserve.
To give and not to count the cost,
To fight and not to heed the wounds,
To toil and not to seek for rest,
To labor and not to ask for reward
Except that of knowing, that I do your will. Amen.
Saint Ignatius, Pray For Us.
The Prayer for Generosity reminds each of us to give of ourselves selflessly each day.
On September 11, 2015, President Michael Earsing of Jesuit Dallas gave the annual President’s Prayer service. Mr. Earsing talked about expectations and he asked us to think about the Prayer for Generosity.
Earsing praised the student body, saying, “I cannot tell you how often I will get a call about some act of kindness you [all] do out in the community – or a kindness you even do in our building that draws enough attention, that someone will call me about it in thanks.” Earsing also told the assembly of when he was in the scouts; there was a wooden sign with the inscription, “I will do my best even when no one sees me or praises me.” Mr. Earsing said this reminder for the scouts is also a reminder for us as Jesuit students and as faculty.
Mr. Earsing’s message caught the attention of many faculty members and students.
Will Fynes ‘18 thought that the “[the prayer service] was a good reminder that you don’t have to go on huge service trips or do incredible things to show love. We just have to do little things that are thoughtful every day.”
Lachlan Carton ’18 found a moral message in the service, commenting, “The main point that I got from it was that [Mr. Earsing] was trying to tell us that integrity is very important and that we shouldn’t just try to display how good we are in front of people, but if we have integrity and we do good actions when nobody is watching, it shows the true intentions in our hearts, solidifying what other people see you as.”
Will and Lachlan’s enthusiasm over the prayer service was echoed by Timothy Bedard ’17, who told The Roundup that he “thought Mr. Earsing’s prayer service was a great reminder of what it means to be a Jesuit student. It invigorated me with a new sense of confidence as I went about my day on Friday.”
The prayer service was not only wildly popular with the students, but also with the faculty as theology teacher Mr. Matthew DuRoss shared, “I liked that they were giving us a challenge. The reflection that got me was thinking about what Mr. Earsing said: ‘I want you to go to bed every night thinking about something concrete that you did to be loving towards someone else.’ I liked that, and it’s always a challenge to think about how are we loved and what are those concrete examples of love in our lives.”
Brand new faculty member Ms. Madison Mathews “really enjoyed” one of first her prayer services at Jesuit, saying “It was really nice for him to share a story that was personal to him and especially on a day like this that can be so personal for others. In the end, I really enjoyed myself and hearing stories that touch peoples’ lives and sharing it with others is always really nice.”
Veteran social studies chair Mr. Casey Profitt commented that he thought “What Mr. Earsing said captured the thing about Jesuit that I love. He captured the essence of Jesuit, the Prayer for Generosity. It is the reason I want my sons to go here. It is the most important thing about what people should be getting out of their education here. It’s why I feel very honored that I get to be a teacher here at Jesuit. It’s the best of what we are trying to be, and I think [Mr. Earsing’s] talk today reminded us and called us to try and reach up towards being the best that we can be in that context of being Men for Others, the Prayer for Generosity, and the Scouts. And in a lot of ways, it all keeps going back to the golden rule: Treat other people the way you want to be treated.”
As Mr. Earsing concluded his speech, he professed, “St. Ignatius made a powerful statement to us when he said – Love should consist more of deeds than in words…this is a good reminder of an expectation for us all–Just because we say we are Jesuit isn’t enough…we are expected to be different in our actions. To be more loving in our deeds, our actions, and our relationships.”
