Eldred speaks on faith and prayer
By NOREEN GILLESPIE
News Writer
Speaking about the role faith and prayer play in her life as president of Saint Mary's, Marilou Eldred delivered the keynote address at the 30th annual Michiana Area Community Prayer Breakfast Wednesday.
The breakfast, designed to bring community leaders together to reflect on how prayer can be integrated into their daily lives, is modeled after President Eisenhower's Presidential Prayer Breakfast for Congressional leaders, which began in 1952. The Michiana breakfast, which has been an annual event since 1971, typically chooses local or national leaders to deliver the address.
"We chose [Eldred] because she has made a strong effort to be a part of this community and not just remain on campus," said Mikki Dobski Shidler, chairwoman of the event. "We chose her because she is a tremendous speaker, and because of the role she plays in the community as the president of a Catholic women's college."
Eldred, who was a nun for 10 years, said she actively chooses to involve prayer in her everyday duties as president of Saint Mary's, and this choice assists her in some of the most difficult parts of her job.
"In this all-consuming job as president of Saint Mary's College, I could either think I have time for a very limited prayer life, or that all my work life is a prayer," Eldred said. "I believe that the latter is true, although there are days and events that make me wonder how they could ever, in one's wildest imagination, be perceived as prayer. In those times, especially, I find myself asking God's help to make the right decision."
Eldred's faith journey, however, started long before she assumed the presidency at Saint Mary's. Raised in a Catholic family, Eldred said she "was certain" during high school she had a vocation. Her realization led her to spend 10 years as a member of a religious community.
It was her experience as a religious sister, sometimes falling asleep during meditation, that taught her prayer was more than formal, traditional prayer.
"My most vivid memory of the meditation experience is sleeping through much of it, often waking abruptly and slowly falling out of the pew, then confidently pulling myself up straight as if it were all part of my intense experience with God," Eldred said. "But that time in my life was very important, because I began to understand that there is much more to prayer than the `formal' prayer experience."
Prayer has to be a personal experience rather than simply routine, Eldred explained.
"It may be possible to pray, in some form, with little or no faith — that is the kind of prayer that may be the rote variety, the non-thinking prayer, the one that has to do with `getting through' the prayer," she said. "But for prayer to be real, to me, I need to relate it to my faith that there is a loving God who cares for me, for my family, my friends, my work."
Speakers at the community breakfast are typically lay members of the community, Shidler said. Eldred joins former speakers Ambassador Andrew Young, President and Mrs. Carter, former Notre Dame fullback Anthony Johnson and former Notre Dame All-American and current Minnesota state Supreme Court justice Alan Page.
All News Stories for Thursday, April 12, 2001
