FINDING GOD ON PARK STREET

David Rivera '21 M.A.R.: Faith in Action at Work and at Home

• Grace Klise, STM Assistant Chaplain • Season 3 • Episode 4

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 Assistant Chaplain David Rivera shares his faith journey, from growing up immersed in Mexican-American Catholic culture in California, to experiencing the strength of community life during college, and ultimately to New Haven, a city he’s called home for a decade. Together with student co-host Zach Moynihan, we celebrate the vibrant start of the academic year, the joy of new and returning students, and the dynamism of life at Saint Thomas More. 

David shares poignant memories from his childhood, where family traditions and treasured sacraments set a foundation for his spiritual journey. He delves into how his personal experiences, including a transformative postgraduate service program in Honduras, have shaped his approach to faith-driven community engagement and his understanding of vocation as a husband, dad, and chaplain serving college students. Furthermore, we explore the critical role of one-on-one relationships in ministry, reflecting on David's transition from a graduate student's spouse to an experienced member of the pastoral team at STM. 

Listen as he brings to life the concept of "faith in action,” illustrating how personal prayer and reception of the sacraments fuels our justice and charity efforts.

Mentioned in this episode: South Bend Catholic Worker, Finca del Niño/Farm of the Child, Saint Martin de Porres Academy

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Grace Klise:

This is a podcast from Sait Thomas More Yale's Catholic Chapel and Center. My name is Grace KleissK and I'm joined by Zach Moynihan, my student co-host. Thanks for listening to. Finding God on Park Street.

Grace Klise:

Anyone who meets David Rivera instantly senses his warmth and love of life. Never one to take himself too seriously, avid brings a joyful levity to everything he does, but beyond his disarming sense of humor, is a man who takes seriously the responsibility of faith in action and, as an assistant chaplain at STM, he's walking alongside our students who are putting their faith into action too. In this conversation, you'll hear more about the communities that have shaped David his Mexican-American family, south Bend's Catholic Worker House and Peace House, the Finca del Niño in Honduras, st Martin de Porres here in town and, of course, st Thomas More, which has been his family's worshiping community for the last decade An adoring husband, a caffeinated dad and a devoted assistant chaplain. We are lucky to have David on staff at STM, so let's dive in.

Grace Klise:

On one of our previous episodes, avid, we were talking about how every day is a little different at St Thomas More, but especially as an assistant chaplain, every day is different. Do you have a favorite time of year and then a favorite type of day?

David Rivera:

Oh my gosh, I just came from our first YRM Yale Religious Ministries meeting. Right now we were talking about a similar topic with all the university chaplains. So much of our work is seasonal. September is so much just welcoming, getting people through the door Already. I do love fall in the Northeast, so any of those months that capture that that natural beauty, is so special. There is something about the beginning of the year of the energy, the potential, the new students coming in, but then the students that are now becoming upperclassmen and all of the goals and things that they want to accomplish. It's infectious Like you want to help. It's infectious Like you want to help facilitate it.

Grace Klise:

Yeah, it is a special time of year just walking around campus and feeling that energy and especially, I know, ach, you as a FRCO are really involved in that this year, working with a group of first years. Is that a favorite time of year for you too?

Zach Moynihan:

I always get so nervous at the start of the year, but I end up loving it. I think it's something about the little bit of fall in the air, sometimes in late August, early September, that makes me a little bit scared about what's to come. But in reality it's really just excitement for the opportunity of the year and I think one of my favorite things about being a FroCo and one of the main reasons why I wanted to become one, is that it gives me the opportunity to sort of relive my first year vicariously through some of my students, to see how excited they get for the first day of classes, how excited they get to go to the extracurricular bazaar and choose how they want to devote their time. It's really special to have that opportunity. And even when I'm conversing with some of them and they mention their religious background or they mentioned the role that faith has in their life and how they're hoping to carry that forth in their time at Yale, I think those conversations are really special and have been very fulfilling, even just in the couple of weeks that I've served in this role.

Zach Moynihan:

But, David, you were almost my froco. I mean, I had a froco, but you along with Grace. This feels somewhat like a reunion episode. When I was starting here at Yale, you were starting Grace, you were starting as well, and so it's awesome to look back as well, three years ago, to where it all began. And I'm wondering three years out, does it feel any different?

Grace Klise:

We've grown up together. Yeah, exactly.

David Rivera:

No, sure. The class of 2025, really we have a solidarity with them, like you guys started when we started and that's why part of this year is so exciting, because we've been working together. Now this will be our fourth year together and so much is possible, but then at the end of the year, you guys are off to do new things and it's going to be every year. It's always sad, heartbreaking and also amazing to see people go off, but this one, I think, will feel especially more.

David Rivera:

Yeah, there is an anxiety about starting every year. I feel like I was telling some of the new chaplains this our first Sunday back, the first three ass Sunday we're there for over 12 hours, the chaplains on that day. The Saturday before, I was anxious and I don't typically get anxious. I sleep like a baby sometimes when my kids let me.

David Rivera:

And yet that whole day beforehand I was like, oh my gosh, what's the semester going to be like, what's tomorrow going to be like? And then, at like 930 in the morning, before the first 10 am mass, it was just back into the rhythm, just filled with joy, just like all the anxiety out the window, and we're like, hey, we're back. And what a beautiful place, what great people.

Grace Klise:

So it's been mentioned that this is your fourth year, David, but before your time at Sat Thomas Moore, before your time in New Haven, you were a California boy.

David Rivera:

Yeah, pretty far, pretty far from California these days, that's right.

Grace Klise:

Can you tell us a little bit about growing up in California and the role, especially that faith played in your childhood and education?

David Rivera:

Sure, absolutely. I grew up in the California Bay Area. It's always been tech heavy ever since I was a kid. It's definitely changed since then, since leaving even more, so, more tech. So in some ways I don't recognize it now.

David Rivera:

Let's just put it out there, the elephant in the room. I've only ever done Catholic things and Catholic education pretty much. I did a K through eight, atholic school, I went to a Jesuit high school, I went to University of Notre Dame for college and then this is now my third job at a Catholic institution in the past, like 15 years. So I've kept it pretty close to my chest my education, my faith, practice, my work. It's vocation blurs lines.

David Rivera:

You know, growing up in California as well, family was. I'm an only child and yet family was such a major part of everything we did. My dad is one of 13 kids, which means there was cousins everywhere. There still are cousins everywhere, 45 plus first cousins. And that was my childhood, really just getting together with all the aunts and the uncles and cousins. I'm Mexican-American and culturally Catholicism is such a huge part of our background. It's really hard to disentangle like, well, what's cultural, what's religious? It's like, well, we're doing the cultural things at church and at home we're doing the religious. It's all mixed together. So I think it was years later before I started thinking of these things as different spheres, almost family religious practice, faith, religious practice, faith social life. The lines blurred for so long.

Zach Moynihan:

As Catholics we share so much in our practices. We say the same Mass every Sunday, we follow the same liturgical calendar, but everybody also has their own flair and a lot of families have their own approach. I'm wondering if you have any favorite traditions or memories, growing up Catholic with your family.

David Rivera:

I'm trying to think about it. It was okay. This is probably not exactly what you were, the direction you were trying to go with this, but the one that comes to mind is just simply grace before meals. Everybody says grace before meals. I feel like it's a built-in part of like our tradition. So many people, it's just the blessings of the Lord. But growing up it was either my randma or my Aunt Bea who would say grace, and so we'd have like well over a dozen people at the table, multiple tables, so you'd have 30, 40 people at the house.

David Rivera:

The food's getting cold because grace has now gone on over 10 full minutes and dinner's already like 10 minutes late, the food is sitting there getting cold and people are looking around at each other anxiously and yet what a beautiful moment of like, gratitude and just naming, like why that we are here together, uh, and celebrating that I kind of miss that.

Grace Klise:

You could start that in your house. See how your kids do ass revolt?

David Rivera:

It would be a mass revolt, oh my goodness.

Grace Klise:

So you have mentioned that just Catholicism was and is just part of who you are. It's in your blood, it's how you see the world and encounter the world and think about your day-to-day work. Obviously, you, as you said, have only worked for Catholic organizations.

David Rivera:

I'm not counting the six-month stint at Starbucks. I wasn't proselytizing there.

Grace Klise:

Good to know. When did you take ownership of this faith of yours? You know it can be in the waters that we're swimming in, but do you have specific moments or experiences where you can look back and say, okay, this isn't just the faith of my family or the faith of my parents, but this is actually something that I'm making my own and claiming as my own?

David Rivera:

Great question. I think the narrative that comes up a lot when I'm talking with students, especially undergrad college students. I talk about finding that a bit in high school and then especially a bit more in undergrad. But something I don't think I've really shared with anyone here is I don't think we should at all discount the faith of a child. So, yeah, so many people go through times of questioning, times of doubt, but as if the things beforehand didn't matter.

David Rivera:

But they absolutely do matter the faith of my childhood coming to the sacraments the first time, first time sacrament of reconciliation the first time, receiving the Eucharist and then choosing the sacrament of confirmation as an eighth grader. In some ways I've looked at that as like, oh well, I could have decided to choose to be Catholic, receive confirmation later, and there's positives to that. But engaging in those sacraments as a child and the belief and faith and the power and those prayers to God at that time, they set a foundation that are so, so important. So yes, of course I credit my Jesuit background education in high school and then amazing people community at the University of Notre Dame for giving me the basis of my adult faith. But that wouldn't exist without a thriving childhood faith.

Grace Klise:

Yeah, that's so true. Just the foundation that is cultivated as we are children. If we are so blessed to be raised with faith that that is really the start of our spirituality. And as someone who works in children's catechesis outside of Sat Thomas More, I have just been in awe of the faith of children and what they are able to perceive of God that sometimes, as adults, we lose sight of.

David Rivera:

That might be a bit why I'm recognizing it more now, as my oldest is sevent second grade, going to receive the Eucharist for the first time later this year, so I'm seeing that too, yeah.

Zach Moynihan:

Could you say more about your role as a dad and that vocation?

David Rivera:

It's the primary vocation. Sorry, I know assistant chaplain is a very important vocation, dad husband primary vocations. I understand ad husband primary vocations.

Zach Moynihan:

I understand.

David Rivera:

No, I mean it ore and more. I've been looking at a lot of the roles I've done over the years as kind of just building up to be a dad and in some ways the chaplaincy role is kind of like parenting for students that are away from home. It's a lot more than that, but there is a touch of that there really is. I don't know. It's both the most fulfilling, beautiful and difficult experience, call and job of my life is being a dad, because it's it's always these little ones. You just love them so much and they depend on you for everything. But you always know how much, how much more you can give or do, and I just at times it just feels like you always can be doing more and at times it just feels like you always can be doing more.

Grace Klise:

Yeah, yea I was just talking with my husband this morning about the dependency of a child and thinking about that in terms of our spiritual life, looking at our daughter, who is utterly dependent on us, in a way that, yes, I'm dependent on my husband, he's dependent on me, but we're also fully functional adults, but she, maggie, is utterly dependent on us, and how, when I think about that in the context of our relationship with God, sometimes I can think I'm independent and then I can figure it out on my own, but I, in truth, am utterly dependent on our creator, and seeing that through the eyes of my child has helped me to recognize my own dependence. So I think there are a lot of spiritual lessons, as well as the practical lessons, but a lot of spiritual lessons and insights that come from parenting.

David Rivera:

Absolutely. I feel like I've always talked about and believed in this idea of providence, putting your trust in God, that things will be all right if you do that, put your faith in the issues and problems that you can't solve on your own and just offer it up to God. But the fact of the matter is, in most of my other jobs, problems in life, I always have this like trust as like. Well, if I approach the problem in X or Y way, I can solve it, like through my own hard work, dedication, intellect, you name it. I'm like it's going to be me, and there's prayer, gratitude to God involved as well. But there was always part of that until I became a dad, until I became a parent, and then in those moments of just you don't know what to do or you're truly just exhausted from lack of sleep for multiple years straight. It's just like, oh yeah, I have nothing left to give and just offering it up to God and see what happens.

Grace Klise:

And then it really you're just moved by love in action. You know, yeah, realizing how little control we have over the circumstances of our life, which I feel like you don't need to be a parent to realize that. I see it among our students, and our students are really good at controlling what can be controlled, but still, inevitably there are things that cannot be controlled, and I think. Don't tell me that.

David Rivera:

Sorry to break it to you, Zach. Six weeks of midterms will start soon.

Grace Klise:

But I think how we move through that can be very revelatory of where we put our trust and confidence.

Zach Moynihan:

I agree, and I think over the past couple of years as a college student, this question of releasing control has been the predominant issue of my faith and my discernment.

Zach Moynihan:

Discernmen Because, especially when you enter university after 12, 13 years of education, where you had to be there and you were told to be there and your parents or guardians brought you there starting out at college, it's up to you.

Zach Moynihan:

You get to decide what you want to study, how you want to spend your time. There's so much independence and autonomy and that's freeing and liberating and awesome. It's also scary and you want to gain control for every aspect of your life and you want to grab onto the future as well and try to rein it in and bend it to your own will. And I think, as you said, Grace, that's a sort of metaphor for our relationship with God and our relationship with our, our life more broadly, where sometimes you have this idea of how you want things to grow and you want to bend God's will forcefully, but that's a game that you're really never going to win. And but that's a game that you're really never going to wi And that realization is freeing in and of itself and it's something I'm trying to work on as the days go on.

Grace Klise:

Well, we're all trying to work on it right there with you, so you're not alone.

David Rivera:

We're all in it together.

Grace Klise:

So, avid, you and I share an alma mater. Can you bring us to some of the communities at Notre Dame during your undergrad days that were really impactful for you? I know that you were part of the Peace House, which, oh my gosh yes, I did not. I was not a part of that. I probably should have been a part of that as an undergrad, but maybe that's one example. Are there other communities that really impacted your time there and your understanding of faith?

David Rivera:

Sure, I'll talk about the Peace House in a second, but the main two shout outs should be the Catholic Worker Community in South Bend and the Center for Social Concerns on Erdain's campus. They're so influential in connecting me with people who have become lifelong friends, mentors, showing me, and my wife too. We met at the University of Notre Dame so I will, beyond anything, I'll, credit the university for changing the entire trajectory of my life, thanks to introducing me to my wife but showing us what hurch could be, what faith in action could be, and it's, frankly, colored every single decision, the mode of discernment that I do for the rest of my life. I'll bring up the example of the Peace House just because it really does tie in so much to like what we do as assistant chaplains. It's I hope it's still ongoing. Last time I checked it was still ongoing, but it was just a house that seniors lived in. We called it the Peace House.

David Rivera:

I was an international peace studies major, so there was some of that connection. But it wasn't just that it was anybody grounded in like social justice work on campus and we tried to in whatever small ways that we could be like a house of hospitality. The main flagship of that was something we call professor dinner. So once every couple of weeks, at the very least once every month, get somebody from the community, get a professor from the university to come on by and just talk to whoever we could get to come to our house and listen.

David Rivera:

If the weather was nice, we'd all be outside. Sometimes we'd have outdoor mass. If the weather was bad, we'd be inside. We'd vaguely try to clean up beforehand and we would just cook for the dozens of people that showed up. It was kind of a model for a lot of the events that I help put on here now at STM. I know that the student leaders, they have their interests, that they want to put front and forward and we just need to help facilitate that. People will come based on the passions of others. Be excited by that and just coming together in community is so moving.

Grace Klise:

When you talk about the food and the welcoming people as a place of hospitality from a place of hospitality asses, a lot of similar elements to life here Much less fancy.

David Rivera:

This house was not that nice. We mostly just made giant bowls of like lentil stew and stuff.

Grace Klise:

You know so ot quite what Jill is cooking up in the bathroom. No blue orchid.

David Rivera:

No epes, yeah, no pitaziki.

Zach Moynihan:

We are lucky in that sense.

David Rivera:

We're wolf-fed, let's say that.

Zach Moynihan:

Did those experiences at Peace House and those other communities at Notre Dame sort of push you towards your postgraduate life in Honduras? Could you speak more about what drew you there and that experience overall?

David Rivera:

Sure. So, yeah, I did postgraduate service immediately following my time at Notre Dame. I knew I wanted it to be longer than short term and in my brain at the time I was like, well, a year is short term, end of the day. I think anything almost with an end date becomes short term, because if you know the end date, maybe five plus years, and it's that short term. But so I was there for close to two and a half years in Honduras at a Catholic children's home called Farm of the Child Sounds better as Finca donino, so I'll stick with that.

David Rivera:

I knew I wanted to do two things I wanted to give back in some form of volunteering service and I wanted faith to be a part of it, particularly faith community. And at this place the pillars were service, simplicity, spirituality and community. And I was like, oh, this has everything, then e'll be doing good things. It's in a part of the world that I love and have some experience with Latin America, and we'll be grounded in all four things. But the fact of the matter was we were just thrown to the wolves of just all immediate hard work and it just became clear it's like, oh, we're not here to like, pick and choose these things. It's like, okay, now it's time for my spirituality, now it's time to make a simple meal with my community.

David Rivera:

It's like, no, we are here for the children, the people that we are here to serve, and we are clinging to our community to be able to succeed at that and to be able to survive. We are clinging to our faith in God, our prayer lives, to be able to succeed at that and to be able to survive. We are clinging to our faith in God, our prayer lives, to be able to get through this and to better serve them. It was very clear that all of these things were interconnected towards a common goal, and I think so much of what we do here at STM and all Christian intentional communities need to be mission-driven in that regard. You need to be directed towards something greater than yourselves, the other, the marginalized here, the student body of Yale University.

Grace Klise:

Something we've talked about on other podcast episodes is the work of integration episodes is the work of integratio and we see this, I think, in certain organizations and hopefully we within ourselves, interiorly, are working towards greater integration of our mental, emotional, social, spiritual well-being. But it seems like this was an experience that was fully immersive and I don't know if it was always balanced, but there was an integration in that nothing that you were doing could be taken apart from those four cornerstones that you mentioned.

David Rivera:

Yeah, it was honestly life changing. Somehow my wife and I we were just dating at the time did long distance throughout all of it, writing letters back and forth. But we really cherish those letters because they're like one kind of like a testament of how our love grew over time, and then two like a time capsule, of like capturing the feelings and the power of that time, like being moved by just being with the children growing in our faith, growing most particularly. I'm thinking of every Thursday we had oly hours of just time in front of the Blessed Sacrament, and some weeks it was just, it was almost like it was restful. Yes, other weeks it was like, kind of like hitting your head against the wall because it was just there was so much to do, where you were so exhausted. But then on those most meaningful times it's almost the closest I've ever felt to Jesus is in those moments, because you're spread so thin. That's all there's left.

Grace Klise:

There's like there is a porousness, a connection to the divine, and this is probably why you are such a proponent of post-grad service. Can you give us your little pitch for it?

David Rivera:

Oh, I feel like Yale students' parents probably don't want to hear this or don't like this as much. But listen, making money is a good thing. You got to do that to be able to live. But if you are able to right after graduation, it could be part of your discernment for what comes next. Because I think, by the way, we put way too much emphasis on you should know what you want to do for the next, even like two to five years, by the time you're a senior.

David Rivera:

Have you been engaged in everything on campus? Where did you have time to figure that out? What you were going to do next? Give back, get some time to know yourself outside of academia, build that relationship with others in a new place. Just more life experiences. If you were looking at applying to a graduate school, things like that, my goodness, they're going to love that type of thing on your resume as well, and I think it's just important to get out of your comfort zone and experience life how it's lived by other people. I will never stop telling people I think they should do postgraduate service. If anything, I'm probably going to start doing it more as time goes on.

David Rivera:

I think when I first started it was like well, let's check the vibe a little bit. Like have you thought about this first conversation now with like a first year after? Like hey, welcome to Yale.

Grace Klise:

Have you thought about this yet? Hasn't happened yet. One day, well, Zach, that's something that you are considering compelling. Yeah, you make a compelling, we'll talk, we'll talk.

Zach Moynihan:

We'll definitely talk. Well. Service is how I originally got to know you, David, as part of the Undergrad Council at Saint Thomas More. I got my start there as part of the ACT Committee and it's been amazing working with you to try to brainstorm service opportunities, both for myself and how to connect people in our community and beyond to service opportunities in the area. And you know we've even done battle over acronyms and alliteration of our various outposts. Service or Solidarity in the City is one of them. We co-opted.

David Rivera:

Yeah, Fellowship in Action was another.

Zach Moynihan:

Yes, we've gone back and forth over those things, those things. But beyond the names, they've been great opportunities, outside of my role as a student, to connect with others and reflect on the meaning of service in our lives. And I'm wondering there's so much you do at STM on a daily basis as an assistant chaplain, as a parishioner yourself, as a community member. I'm wondering what are some of the things throughout the week that you really look forward to sinking your teeth into and sort of renew you in your busy life?

David Rivera:

Sure. So I was saying earlier, I feel like each month has its own vibe and its own flavor, so there's not ever so much that consists of like, "Oh, I know I'll always get to do this, except for the most important thing of being a chaplain is we aren't campus ministers. We're not just there putting on events. We're there for the one-on-one relationships with the students. So no matter whether it's getting ready for Triduum, getting ready for the welcome events, like getting ready to bring a group of students on an alternative spring break, the one thing that's always going to be happening in any of our ministries, or in between the ministries or on top of like you name, it is going to be these one-on-one meetings with students sharing with their joys when they're there, when in crisis, struggling, just questions about faith.

David Rivera:

That is by far what feeds me the most in this role. Everything else is kind of icing on the cake. I really enjoy it too, but just being there for that student and more than anything, it's like I'm not there to solve their problems. I'm not there to answer all their questions. If they have questions, I'll try my best, but for the most part you're just there to be present and listen. It's a ministry of presence, to just be with a person and then have them know that they are loved.

Grace Klise:

Well, you do that really well around here, David, and you came to STM from a unique perspective because you were the spouse of a graduate student when your wife Rosie was here as a nursing student, and then you yourself were a graduate student at YDS, so you're a part of the community. What was that transition like from being a spouse of a grad student to being a grad student yourself, to then being on staff here at STM?

David Rivera:

So it's interesting that you bring it up, because in about a week will now be our 10th year in New Haven and with Saint Thomas More as our primary worshiping community, like essentially our spiritual home, and 10 years is a long time. It's kind of like we need to mark it in some way, celebrate it in some ways. Especially when my wife was a graduate student and in the times leading up to me becoming a graduate student, when we only had our first child, STM was so hugely important to our lives. It was how we found community. Even in my wife's program she was a dual degree, divinity and Nursing school here. But even some of the nursing students she became closest with so many were also parishioners at STM too. The people that we had come to like our baby shower were so many STM parishioners and grad students.

David Rivera:

Later, when we had kids, we became part of a group with other families with young kids. Until that point we really didn't know anybody else with kids here in this area. I'm from California, my wife's from Texas. We didn't have much family here. We weren't that young, but we weren't that old either, so most of our peers didn't have kids yet, and being welcomed into such a community was. I don't know if we could have envisioned a life here otherwise. Like, truly, we are here for 10 years, regardless of me working at STM, because of STM just showing us what family and what community could look like here. And, to further answer your question, it's been kind of strange being here 10 years and just seeing how things have stayed the same. Things have changed, I feel like even though I'm not the staff member with like the most years working here since now just the start of my fourth year working at STM, I kind of have a vague, at least institutional, memory of things dating back a lot longer, and that's fascinating.

Grace Klise:

Yeah, and I think probably helpful at times. I know it's been helpful when I was working with you as an assistant chaplain, as someone who didn't know the community and didn't know New Haven, and I moved and just kind of threw myself into this but being able to say, okay, how have things been done, what's kind of the precedent here, and learning from you the role that this place has in the lives not only of its students but also of Yale's faculty and staff and families in the area who choose to make this, as you said, their spiritual home.

Zach Moynihan:

Beyond working broadly in Catholic spaces for your life, I've noticed a theme is that you really enjoy working with youth, whether they've been college students or younger students. You know, middle school, high school which brings me to a space here in New Haven that I'm very thankful that you connected me to, which is St Martin de Porres Academy, a local Catholic school pretty close to the med school where I work. So it's really nice and convenient to go there after a long day and work with graduate support and tutoring. So I wonder if you could speak a little bit more about your time at that school and some of the relationships that you've carried forth over the years.

David Rivera:

So how much time you got.

David Rivera:

This is dangerous because I will literally probably talk about St Martin DePorres Academy, if you let me, for the rest of the time here, which that's probably not the point of the episode. I was there for about six and a half years. It is similar to the assistant chaplain job in that there's no easy way to pin down say exactly what you do. We wear so many different hats in this role, and back at the school I did a lot of different things too. I was head of their campus ministry there. I taught everything ranging from high school prep to somehow fifth grade geography, and I was for a time in the graduate support program and the head of their evening study after school program, particularly for high school students.

David Rivera:

St Martin de Porres Academy is something called a Nativity Miguel School and frankly I think it is one of the best kept educational Catholic education secrets in this country and a beautiful model not just for Catholic education but for what education could look like in a way that grounds your faith and working with those on the margin and really putting your money where your mouth is. As far as social justice goes. At St Martin's, tuition is totally paid for. To be able to qualify to get in you have to be under the federal poverty line. And once you're there and commit to the scholarships to sign on the scholarships to go to the afterschool programs, things like that you have a backup, a resource, something that's going to be in your corner for the next 12 years.

David Rivera:

The students that go there receive support during high school, but also financial support, scholarships to go on to whatever high schools that they want to, and then the same goes for college as well. They will gap fund, they will make sure that you can get into whatever college that you want to go to and that that price doesn't become an issue, and then give you support while you're there and I can't think of any other program that is supporting middle schoolers and calling them by their class year, of what year they were. They're slated to graduate from college, for example, for example. I mean I invite everybody here in the New Haven community, or those of you who are coming back to the New Haven community, to learn more about this place. Go visit it. It is a very special place and something I'm so proud of that exists in our archdiocese.

Zach Moynihan:

It was so nice visiting SMPA for the first time a couple of years ago with you and seeing all the reactions of students you've had and colleagues, almost like a celebrity welcome. So it was awesome. But to your point it was shocking to look up on the wall and see a class portrait and then under the portrait it says class of 2032. I was trying to do the calculations in my head to make it. I said so what year are we at now? Is time really moving that fast?

David Rivera:

It makes you feel pretty old, exactly.

Zach Moynihan:

But you know that's the year that those students will graduate college one day, and that's really the mission of the school is to support the teachers and those in graduate support have with the students, and so it's been a great opportunity to work there as somebody who is interested in education myself and is considering something in education for post-grad. We'll see a lot of open questions, but there's postgraduate service opportunities.

David Rivera:

By the way, Zach, that might fit for that. I know who to talk to Exactly.

Grace Klise:

Another theme, David, is just this Faith in Action. And you are a dad of three, you're an assistant chaplain and the school year is off and running, so you are a man always in action, but you also are someone of faith who brings your faith with you into everything you do. What does that mean to you and how do you recharge to continue to be someone who brings a perspective of faith with you into everything that you're doing? The people you're encountering, you know, on the street or biking into work to you know, spending time with your, your family, just I feel like that phrase Faith in Action-- it so perfectly encapsulates who you are. But what does? What does it mean to you?

David Rivera:

If that's, if that, if that's what your takeaway, then, my goodness, that is high praise and I will endeavor to live up to that. Wow, Faith in Action in my life does mean a couple different things. It is both a stance, almost, of how to approach spirituality, but then, beyond that, it's a way of life, and these aren't just things that are specific to me. There's so many role models in the faith and some things that we're all called to as well. In some ways, it's the grounding of our faith, like coming from the Ignatian tradition.

David Rivera:

The daily examine, for example, like you're not praying in a vacuum. You're grounding yourselves in the things that happen during the day, going moment through moment, but inviting God to be a part of it. God was always a part of it, but now you are doing the mental trick in your head of more directly in that moment, inviting God in that moment. Inviting God, these times of silence, these times of contemplation, these times of prayer also recharge our batteries so that we can go back out and do the work. That's important. It could be any work you do. It could be the job you do? It could be community building with friends, but grounding that in these practices of mindfulness, these practices of prayer. It's like that, back and forth, you faith in action and then, after action, then you go back to the prayer, and then the prayer leads to more work in the world, good things in the world, good love of others, and it's an ongoing cycle. Beyond that, though, faith in action is a stance of life. It's very much a verb.

David Rivera:

We need to make times that the daily habits of prayer absolutely, but those shouldn't be the only time that we pray. I feel like, both in my last job at St Martin's and here, some of the times that I pray are these almost like micro prayers, in the moment of this utter awareness of like wow, God is present right now, in this moment and like. Sometimes it's very easy where we work, because we work at Saint Thomas More and we have beautiful spaces, like the Chapel, like the garden, like the meditation room but this could be in a moment of a student just sharing a joy, or a student that's really struggling and then thinking about how best to be there for that student and knowing that God is right there. That's a prayer of immediate gratitude, in that moment of like wow, God is there, whereas otherwise you might respond with confusion or defensiveness. Things like that. Knowing that God is in that moment, is empowering.

Grace Klise:

I think what you're articulating is a really good reminder for all of us of the intersection of those and the interrelatedness and dependence of both our charity and our justice work with the lives of prayer that we are hoping to cultivate, because it can be easy to see those as two separate things and I feel, like you know, more and more in our church we can fall into seeing those as binaries. I just am thinking of Dorothy Day and her love of the Eucharist really was the fire that impelled her to meet every person that she saw with the love of God. So it's so important that that is something that we recognize and that we're trying to inculcate here at STM.

David Rivera:

I was also just thinking about Dorothy Day too, because, yeah, the Eucharist, the daily mass, that's what fed her to go do her work. But then she talks about her prayer life. Some of her best prayers, most prayers, was while doing dishes, and at a place like the Catholic Worker there were a lot of dishes to be done, so that was time to do dishes. And what are the dishes in our lives? For me it's actual dishes at home and after like 9 pm mass on Sundays as well. But there's lots of instances in our work where the in-between tasks, the tedious tasks where, like these, are opportunities to ground ourselves as well in prayer.

Grace Klise:

That's so true. Well, as we wrap up here, David, we have one final question that we ask all of our guests, and this season it's a little bit different. Instead of where have you been finding God recently, it's where do you find God on campus.

David Rivera:

Great. So I kind of already said the answer earlier so I'll give a different answer. I was mentioning the Chapel and Meditation Room at STM. I think I'll keep both of those. I especially love Our Lady Chapel where the tabernacle is, and then Blessed Sacrament isn't in the meditation room, but it's just such a moving, beautiful space.

David Rivera:

I love taking just time out of the day. It's nice that I could just walk there from my office and go in there and know it'll be quiet and alone. It's also sad too, because more people should be taking advantage of it, so I should be interrupted far more often. But other than those two, I'd say just walking around Yale's campus not being static. I kind of have a route that sometimes, when I need to, I'm either having a meeting, like a walking meeting with a student, or I need to think something through or just gather my thoughts. I'll start walking from STM and sometimes I have a route like I'll cut through Pearson, go through Old Campus, walk around, even ending up by like St Mary's, Whitney Avenue, those areas, and other times I might just get lost almost in the city that I know very well and can't really get lost, and yet somehow I will do it because I'm just walking aimlessly. So easy to connect with nature, connect with God in those times. It's a beautiful place.

Grace Klise:

It is. It's a beautiful place. So thank you so much for joining us and for reminding us all what it means to be people of faith in action. We're really grateful, of course, to have you at STM, but to have had time today in the studio with you, and thanks to everyone for listening. We'll see you next time on Finding God on Park Street.

David Rivera:

Shout out to Rosie Skye, Emma and Mateo.

Grace Klise:

If you enjoyed listening today, please share this episode with a friend or relative and leave us a rating and review so more people can find our podcast. The producer of this podcast is Robin McShane, Director of Communications at STM. Sound mixing and editing are by Ryan McEvoy of Yale Broadcast Studio and graphics are by Mary Lou Cadwell of Cadwell Art Direction. We hope this podcast encourages you to seek God today and every day. You are in our prayers. Thank you for listening.

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