On Monday, September 21, Alpha Sigma Nu hosted the second installment of its 2026-2027 Book Talk Series featuring Leadership Lessons from the Jesuits: Cura Apostolica and the Mission-Driven Organization with Rev. Matthew Carnes, SJ, special guest Rev. Gregory Boyle, SJ, contributor to the volume and founder of Homeboy Industries, and moderated by Dr. Cindy Schmersal, Vice President for Mission and Identity at Creighton University and President of the Alpha Sigma Nu Board of Directors.
View the full recording of the program here.
Below, Clara Dwyer, Executive Director, shares a brief post-webinar reflection for Alpha Sigma Nu members:
While the formal conversation offered Alpha Sigma Nu members an exploration of Jesuit leadership, it was an unscripted moment before the program began that has remained with me most vividly. As early attendees gathered in the virtual space, Fr. Gregory Boyle, SJ, could be seen moving naturally among the members of the Homeboy Industries community. There was nothing performative about the interaction. Surrounded by the “homies” who are the heart of his ministry, Fr. Boyle appeared simply to be accompanying people he knows and loves. In many ways, that brief glimpse embodied the very themes that would later emerge throughout the discussion. Before a word was spoken about leadership, we witnessed leadership rooted in relationship, presence, and genuine belonging. It was both humbling and inspiring, a living illustration of how a Jesuit education is an invitation to stand with others in ways that affirm their dignity and reveal our shared humanity.
Above all else, the conversation provided a vision of leadership rooted not in prestige or control, but in proximity, exquisite mutuality, and love. To start the conversation, Fr. Boyle offered a reflection on Ignatius’s meditation to “see Jesus standing in the lowly place” grounding the way we may proceed in leadership in standing with those who are “demonized and seen as easily despised and readily left out, and disposable.”
As I understood it then, leadership is cultivating a way of being in the world, not principally a matter of strategy. In a world that measures worth by productivity, success, and return on investment, we are reminded that Ignatian leadership begins by choosing where – and with whom – we stand.
Another recurring theme was the Ignatian tradition of discernment as an important aspect of leadership. Fr. Boyle and Fr. Carnes highlighted discernment as a practical, daily discipline for leaders who desire faithfulness to their deepest commitments. Discernment, as Fr. Boyle described it, is aligning our hearts with “what Jesus took seriously… inclusion, nonviolence, unconditional loving kindness, and compassionate acceptance,” and constantly asking, What is it that love is asking of us in this particular moment? And, how are we aligning ourselves with the God of love and the marrow of the Gospel?
My first instinct is to think that such a vision of discernment is easier said than done. Yet upon deeper reflection, I find myself hoping that all people, including Alpha Sigma Nu members, will at least create the space to regularly reflect on what love is asking of them. More importantly, I hope we cultivate lives so grounded in compassion, generosity, and grace that choosing the loving response becomes not the exception, but our natural way of proceeding.
During the conversation, I also envisioned the busyness of professional life for the members of Alpha Sigma Nu. Fr. Carnes stressed that clarity in leadership emerges when we “take some time to be quiet, to notice what’s moving inside,” which can offer the sense of interior freedom to take bold risks, so that we can sense whether a decision “really [is] resonating with this dream of God, or is it striking up against it?”
Finally, the conversation returned to humility, curiosity, and fidelity as markers of Jesuit-formed leadership. I appreciated Fr. Carnes’ encouragement to challenge the impulse to approach the margins as places where leaders demonstrate their effectiveness, and his proposal for authentic encounter that requires openness to personal transformation. Leadership, in this vision, is about being changed through relationships rooted in solidarity and human dignity. Curiosity, which they both described as the willingness to remain attentive to another’s experience, can serve as a mechanism or doorway to this type of kinship and authentic encounter.
For Alpha Sigma Nu members, the invitation is clear. Allow the conviction that “love is always the next thing to do” to become the measure of our decisions, relationships, and commitments. In doing so, we help create homes, workplaces, communities, and institutions where every person can know what it means to be safe, seen, and cherished.
