Upcoming Portsmouth Institute Summer 2021 Events
The Current Staff
Conference dates: June 16-18, 2021
“As I have loved you, so you also must love one another.” John 13:34
So is stated the theme for this year’s Portsmouth Institute Summer Conference. The program is approaching soon, taking place next month. The conference is designed to be held online, with each day featuring three live presentations on Zoom. These will consist of speaker remarks and extensive audience discussion. The Institute is able to make these presentations available to conferees this year at no cost.
The conference this year focuses on the center of Christ’s teaching, the commandment to love:
The heart of the Gospel is love. In the words of Pope Benedict XVI, “Since God has first loved us (1 Jn 4:10), love is now no longer a mere 'command'; it is the response to the gift of love with which God draws near to us.” As Christians, how do we manifest the love of God in our lives? What does it mean, for instance, “to love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt 22:39), or to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt 5:44)? How does the sacramental life cultivate within us the desire to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt 22:37)? How do we infuse Christian love into our politics, our work, our technology, our education, our medicine? How does love of the poor bring us closer to Christ? Join us as we seek answers to these questions at the heart of the Christian life, so that together we might “run on the path of God’s commandments, our hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love” (RB Prol. 49). (see the Institute website)
While presenters remain to be finalized, the schedule is being planned as follows:
Portsmouth Institute Summer Conference Schedule (subject to modification): |
Wednesday, June 16 |
Thursday, June 17 |
Friday, June 18 |
---|---|---|
9:45AM: Opening Remarks |
10-11:00 a.m. ET: Session 4 |
10-11:00 a.m. ET: Session 7 |
Seminar Dates: June 27-July 2, 2021
Later in June, the 2021 PIETAS Summer Seminar, “The Stories of Flannery O’Connor”, will begin, offering Catholic teachers an encounter with the work of American novelist and short-story writer Flannery O’Connor. Her work–which draws much of its symbolism from her experiences living in the American south of mid-twentieth century–speaks to us today through its universal grasp of human and divine reality. At heart, her stories reflect the hopeful and frightful reality of the Incarnation. They thus deserve to be read and studied and shared in a community of friends bound together by books and prayer. (Institute website) The PIETAS Summer Seminar runs from Sunday, June 27 - Friday, July 2, 2021. Additional information and registration links are available here.
You can find all current information about the Institute on its website.