Flourishing: a meditation
Vice President for Mission and Ministry Matthew Carnes, S.J. reflects on how a Jesuit education can help students become their fullest selves.
July 21, 2026
By Matthew Carnes, S.J.
|Photo by Miguel Ozuna.
Gloria Dei vivens homo. These words of St. Irenaeus in the second century proclaim that the “glory of God is the human person fully alive.” They point to the way we experience something transcendent and sacred when a person comes into their full selfhood in a way that aligns the mind, heart, body, and spirit for impact and transformation in our world. Jesuit education seeks to ignite this flourishing in each person and in our communities, drawing out each individual’s distinct gifts and capabilities and honing them with the wisdom, skills, and character to have maximum impact.
Our spectacular campus serves as the backdrop for this project of flourishing for our students during their years here. With the historic Mission Church and Mission Gardens as a quiet sanctuary; the Learning Commons and labs and classrooms as places of intentional conversation, study, research, and discovery; and with Benson and our residential learning communities as spaces for nurturing friendships and connections that will last a lifetime, the whole range of human experience is at home here. And our global Bronco family takes this into the world, not just for themselves but for every community of which they are a part. Flourishing, like the great German Jesuit priest and theologian Karl Rahner’s description of the encounter with God, offers a horizon of infinite depth and possibility for us to discover and celebrate each day of our lives.
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