Ann Garrido, associate professor of Homiletics at the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Mo., leads a workshop for first-year students at Mount Saint Mary College.
Mount Saint Mary College celebrated the legacy of St. Dominic de Guzman and the college’s founding Dominican Sisters with its Founders Day celebration on Tuesday, October 8.
The college’s annual Founders Day honors the legacy of St. Dominic de Guzman and the Dominican Sisters whose vision guided the creation of the college, with this year’s celebration marking the 141st anniversary of the sisters arriving in Newburgh. The college’s Catholic and Dominican Institute (CDI) has sponsored the Founders Day celebration at the college every year for more than a decade.
To highlight the impact and significance of the college’s Dominican heritage, Charles Zola, CDI director, assistant vice president for Mission, and associate professor of Philosophy, put together an array of presentations, activities, and events for the college community to enjoy.
This included a presentation by Ann Garrido, associate professor of Homiletics at the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Mo., titled “Truth: The Fire in Our Bones.”
In a turbulent election year, conversations around truth “often generate more heat than light,” explained Garrido. “What’s true? How can you tell? Does it even matter?”
When searching for truth, Garrido looks to the teachings of St. Dominic de Guzman, founder of the Dominican order. Dominicans, she noted, have more than 800 years of experience wrestling with such questions.
“Deep within our Judeo-Christian tradition, there’s a sense that truth is what actually makes us human,” she said. “That it’s what animates us, it’s what puts fire into our bones. And it is a conviction that is mightily being challenged at this present moment in history. Not only in the United States, but in countries around the globe, there’s a love and appreciation for truth as the fundamental need for human existence.”
She added, “A passion for truth has been part of Dominican life from the very, very beginning…Truth means that you have a mental picture of the world in your mind that corresponds to the world as it actually exists. You don’t want to be seeing things that aren’t really there. You do want to make sure that you are seeing things that really are there.”
Garrido encouraged her audience to seek truth in their lives. After all, each individual’s perception of the truth affects not only themselves, but those around them as well.
“The beliefs that we hold have an impact on our life,” she said. “If in your mind you have a picture of reality that’s different than the way the world actually is, it’s not really the world that’s in danger, it’s us.”
In addition to her professor duties, Garrido is a regular contributor to the Dominican daily preaching site Word.OP.org. She is the author of multiple books on communicating in tough circumstances, including Let’s Talk About Truth (Ave Maria Press, 2020).
Other Founders Day events included a reception for the Dominican Sisters in the James Finn Cotter Villa Library, a campus dessert reception, and a workshop at the college for first-year students led by Garrido.
The Mount’s CDI promotes the Mount’s heritage of St. Dominic, advances the Dominican charism of study and service, provides a forum for discussion of contemporary ethical issues, and enhances Catholic and Jewish dialogue.