An intriguing opportunity landed in my inbox on an otherwise unremarkable summer day: an all-expenses paid retreat at BC’s Connors Center in Dover, Massachusetts, one that promised a reprieve from the travails of law school and an introduction to the Jesuit precepts which drive the institution’s educational mission. It sounded interesting, so I took the plunge and signed up.

With an upbringing where religion was largely absent, I came to the event with an open mind and a strong sense of curiosity. Growing up in an environment where many of my peers had relationships with spiritual institutions always left me perplexed at the margins. Whether they complained about the rigidity of their Church’s traditions and scripture or took the Gospel as truth, it always fascinated me how complicated a relationship people can have with God.

Of course, anyone acting with a degree of self awareness is conscious of the arbitrariness of their existence. We are cosmically confined, set in perpetual motion from an unknowable event that long preceded us and placed here by our ancestors, who were caught up in the same predicament. It’s hardly surprising that most of us are left questioning why we are here and how we should conduct our lives.