Student chaplaincy in Utrecht
Theology is about God and about believing. It is also about your God, and your belief. That is what makes theology so fascinating.
The university wants to help you in two ways. In the first place with thinking. For that reason there are lectures, professors and the facilitating personnel. This is the most important service of the university. Then secondly, with the experience of your belief. For that reason, there is the student chaplaincy.
Activities
Liturgy
The Tilburg School of Catholic Theology wants to be a place where the faith is not only thought of, but also experienced. Therefore, at certain moments during the year, we celebrate the Eucharist. For example: at the beginning of the academic year, around Christmas and Easter. You will receive an invitation in your mailbox.
Personal belief
The Tilburg School of Catholic Theology also wants to help you to develop your own life of faith. You can ask the student chaplain to listen to you and for advice:
- If you have questions regarding your belief after the lectures which make you feel confused – how do you deal with this?
- If you observe that although your thinking is improving, your prayer life is not. How could you search and find God in the silence?
- If you would like to know more about spirituality, for instance Benedictan, Franciscan or Ignatian spirituality. There are various ways of believing.
- If you are thinking about vocation and would like to ‘discern’ what is going on.
- If you have a difficulty with certain sayings or teachings of the Church or people who belong to the Church.
And of course you could also have a chat when there are no difficulties, but joy!
Prayer suggestions
Pray As You Go is a daily prayer session, designed to go with you wherever you go, to help you pray whenever you find time, but particularly whilst traveling to and from work, study, etc.
A new prayer session is produced every day of the working week and one session for the weekend. It is not a 'Thought for the Day', a sermon or a Bible-study, but rather a framework for your own prayer.
Lasting between ten and thirteen minutes, it combines music, scripture and some questions for reflection.
The aim is to help you to:
- become more aware of God's presence in your life
- listen to and reflect on God's word
- grow in your relationship with God
The style of prayer is based on Ignatian Spirituality. It is produced by Jesuit Media Initiatives, with material written by a number of Jesuits, both in Britain and further afield, and other experts in the spirituality of St Ignatius of Loyola. Although the content is different every day, it keeps to the same basic format.
Pray-as-you-go also offers a number of prayer tools, retreats and resources to help supplement your prayer life.
The app is freely available on Google Play or the App Store.
For more information: www.pray-as-you-go.org
Biography
My name is Ward Biemans, I am a Jesuit, that is why I put SJ behind by name (Society of Jesus). After secondary school, I have studied environmental policy science in Utrecht. During that time, I discovered God and Scripture anew, mainly through conversations with fellow students and after visiting Taizé, the ecumenical community in France. In the mean time I was working in environmental policy, but after some years, I discovered my vocation to the priesthood.
I have entered the Society of Jesus, the first two years I lived as a novice in Birmingham, U.K. After that I have studied theology in Nijmegen and in Rome, at the Gregorian University. As a priest, I have worked for six years in a parish in Nijmegen. There, I have learned a lot about the sacraments, about pastoral ministry, about preaching, about collaboration with a lot of other people.
After those years, I spent one year in the United States to complete my formation as a Jesuit. Since then, I live in Amsterdam.
Spirituality
What attracted me most in the Jesuits is their striving for developing faith and justice. From the beginning of the Order, many Jesuits have worked in the educational sector. Besides that, Jesuits work in the care for various vulnerable groups in society, such as refugees, prisoners, the elderly, etc.
Part of my formation is to receive and to give the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. This is an excellent method which could help people to make choices in their lives, by means of meditation and searching for the will of God in daily life.
Activities
I am student chaplain for the Tilburg School of Catholic Theology and the Fontys Hogeschool voor Theologie en Levensbeschouwing, location Utrecht, for one day a week. I work on various days.
Further, I am a spiritual director for the students at the seminaries of the Archdiocese of Utrecht, the Ariënsinstitute and the diocese Haarlem-Amsterdam, the Willibrord seminary. In 2016, I have published ‘The Heart and the Abyss. Preventing Abortion’, a book which deals with the abortion dilemma. I teach moral theology at the St. Boniface Institute of the Haarlem-Amsterdam diocese. I'm conducting a PhD-research on pastoral accompaniment of migrant and intercultural couples before and after marriage. And finally, I assist in liturgical celebrations and catecheses in Amsterdam, in the St. Francis Xavier church (the Krijtberg).
Contact
You can reach me by
- e-mail: W.J.A.Biemans@tilburguniversity.edu or
- phone: +31 6 - 57215205.