A Horizons Fellows Gathering
Horizons Fellows are 4th year UVA students who journey together for a year to wrestle with questions around faith and vocation and so far we’ve asked: What does the good life and success look like? What do I pay attention to each day and what habits are formed from that? What are my deepest longings and how has the culture co-opted my desires?
We cover a lot of ground and we always do so over a good meal. Each month, we gather around food and a few provocative essays to dig into these questions. And, each November, Horizons Fellows escape out of town to Christy’s farm home, Buck’s Bend, where they get to hear from her philosopher-husband, Chris Yates. Enjoy the readings and photos from the night below!
Calling, Commitments & Our Deepest Longings
Christopher S. Yates – The Loss of Longing in the Age of Curated Reality
James K.A. Smith – Selection from You are What you Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit
Cole Arthur Riley - Selection from “Calling” in This Here Flesh and a Prayer from Black Liturgies
Questions from our discussion leader, Maggie Ferguson ‘26:
1) Yates’s argument here is that desire can never satisfy, and that it is longing and noticing the “lack” in our lives that can bring us some sort of peace or satisfaction. What has been your relationship with desire and how has it repeatedly let you down? “In desire we cry out mine; in longing we draw a deep quiet breath” (30)
2) How often are you asked what you really want? Do you feel like you know?
3) “Our questions of calling tend to be more aspirational than introspective.” How have you been shaped by questions of calling being more aspirational than introspective? What might it look like to consider your constraints both within your life and your community and then choose your ‘next most faithful step’?
