Artwork: “Breath of Spring” by Arthur Poulin

FROM THE EDITOR

Suzanne Shanahan, Editor

We tried something a bit different in this issue of Virtues & Vocations: Higher Education for Human Flourishing. We decided to feature a range of work by a single artist, California based Fr. Arthur Poulin, a Benedictine monk and painter who focuses on landscapes. Fr. Poulin painstakingly layers color through thousands of tiny brushstrokes. This pointillist style, popularized by George Seurat, gives the pieces a lushly meditative quality. For Fr. Poulin, “The dot signifies the tiny seed that has the potential to grow and blossom into a great tree.”

INTERLUDE:

What We Owe

POEM

An Ode We Owe

Amanda Gorman

INTERVIEW

Democracy, Civic Friendship & Virtue: An Interview with Danielle Allen

ESSAY

The Power to Respond:
Reclaiming Responsibility in Professional Formation

Karen E. Bohlin

PART II:

Vocation Responds

And more . . .

SOUNDBITE

Soundbites from the 2026
Virtues & Vocations conference