St. Edward's University News (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 39, No. 4, Ed. 1 Tuesday, April 1, 1997 Page: 4 of 12
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PAGE 4 ST. EDWARD’S UNIVERSITY NEWS
SPRING 1997
LIVING THE MISSION
1
■
Michael Guerra, ’83, at a recent retreat for VESS volunteers.
Gregory Penn, ’98
,‘2
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Project Wisdom founder Leslie Matula with her advisors from Pershing Middle School.
From left, Mary Garcia, dean of instruction; Matula; Patsy Finch, principal, and
Hortense Murphy, assistant principal.
teachers for Catholic schools in poor
areas of the state that could not afford to
pay lay professionals to replace
departing nuns and brothers.
Later in the 1970s, Austin Bishop
John McCarthy, then executive director
of the Texas Catholic Conference,
added a social service dimension.
Volunteers now work with immigrants
and refugees and other underserved
populations in a variety of ministries.
However, the numbers of volunteers
have been declining in recent years.
Guerra is unfazed, believing the Church
in Texas is one of “abundance.”
“Everywhere I turn, I see endless
possibilities,” he says. “It’s a matter of
hard work and of putting our butts in
our chairs and getting to work. Texas
might not need lots of volunteers from
other states. We can staff these services
from within.
I f motivation is the aim of Project
I Wisdom, a character-building
• program taking root in schools
across the country, then it couldn’t have
had a more appropriate creator than
Leslie Matula, New College ’98.
This Houston mother of two is
nothing if not motivated, which goes a
long way toward explaining how a
series of short inspirational messages
created for her sons’ middle school are
now broadcast daily in more than 1,000
schools in 45 states.
The 60-second messages broadcast
primarily over school intercoms are
designed to inspire, educate and build
character and self-esteem.
“Project Wisdom came out of my
deep desire to try to make a difference
in the lives of young people after
witnessing the LA riots on TV,” Matula
explains. “That was a very disturbing
period of American history for me.”
The startling sight of the post-
Rodney King verdict riots caused
Matula to look around and reflect on
other violence infiltrating America —
gangs, neo-Nazism, racism. “I found
myself feeling hopeless about it, and
that’s strange for me because I’m a born
optimist,” she says.
“I thought if I, as a mature, intelli-
gent woman with a lot of love and
support in my life was struggling with
it, how was this affecting young people.
I literally went to bed praying that I
“The challenge was to find common
ground and make a statement that
everyone could relate to and no one
would be offended by,” she says.
The messages are usually built
around quotes by the likes of authors
Henry David Thoreau and Mark Twain,
philosophers Aristotle and Lao-Tsu or
leaders like the Rev. Martin Luther King
Jr. Most are conversational in tone. They
are intended to offer guidance and moral
absolutes.
Each ends with the tag line: “Make it
morning announcements. In other
schools, they are broadcast on student-
run television and radio programs.
“It’s a very small investment in time
but it makes a big difference,” Matula
says.
Creating them was an awesome
task, and the messages demonstrate
Matula’s expertise in history, philoso-
phy, etymology and multicultural
studies, as well as her well-crafted
writing skills.
All of the messages are written to
appeal to children of all economic,
racial and ethnic backgrounds.
could do something to help these kids.”
The next morning the idea came to
her. Matula thought back to her days in
public school and how they always
began each morning with the Pledge of
Allegiance, a prayer and a patriotic
song. Now, of course, prayer is banned
and many schools have even ceased
reciting the Pledge.
“What occurred to me was that the
time we used to use for prayer was
being wasted as an opportunity to
motivate young people,” she says.
She composed five 60-second
messages, which she called Words of
Wisdom, and took them to Pershing
Middle School, where her two sons
attended, with the aim of having them
broadcast over the public address
system. Principal Patsy Finch was
enthusiastic and, within two weeks, the
messages were on the air.
“My sole intention in this was just to
make a difference in my community
middle school,” she says. “ Eventually
we turned it into a small business
because it started to take over my life.”
Matula went on to write three year-
long series of messages and now uses
direct-mail marketing to sell lifetime
licensing agreements to schools, who
have the option of buying one series or
all three. The cost is $350 for the first
one and $300 each for the other two.
Messages are read by principals,
teachers and students at the time of
V
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three children.
“That center was a real foundation
for our marriage," Guerra says. “I’m not
sure if we would have made it these 15
years without that foundation of shared
spirituality and vision of mission.”
After graduation, Guerra went on to
earn a master’s degree in sociology with
a specialization in pastoral planning and
research from Fordham University in the
Bronx, N.Y. A native of San Antonio,
Guerra is a familiar face in the Diocese
of Austin, having spent nine years as a
pastoral associate at St. Austin’s parish
near the University of Texas. He was a
member of the Commission on Racism
for Austin Metropolitan Ministries and
has been extensively involved in
ministry to the homeless in Austin.
Even though his life has been in the
Church, the VESS experience has been
an eye-opener to how Hispanic the
Church in Texas is, he says.
“As a lay ministry professional, most
of the churches that can afford you are
white,” he explains. “It has kind of
awakened me to my own Hispanic roots
and to the face of the Church in Texas.
You can get pretty isolated in those
white, suburban parishes.”
He says that part of the purpose of
VESS is to remind Texas Catholics what
is meant by a sense of “enoughness,” or
simple living.
“These folks live on a $210 a month
stipend and they serve the poorest of the
poor,” Guerra says of the VESS volun-
teers. “They are really standing pro-
phetically, saying this is the stand of the
Church. If they weren’t there, I’d be
afraid of what the Church would
become.” ■
Houston mom puts values back in public schools
A s the director of a statewide
AM Catholic lay mission organiza-
w w tion, Michael Guerra, ’83, lives
in two worlds. On the one hand, he
oversees a group of volunteers who
work with the poorest of the poor. On
the other, he must hob-knob with big-
money donors and handle day-to-day
administration that’s no different than
running a business.
“The other day, I was leaving my
office and I had my briefcase in one
hand and a breviary in the other,” he
says. “I stopped and asked myself, ‘Is
what’s in this prayer book and this
briefcase compatible?’ My whole life is
a struggle to live between them.”
Guerra became director of Volun-
teers for Educational and Social
Services (VESS) in December. This
unique program of the Texas Catholic
Conference places volunteers from
across the country in low-income
educational, social service and parish
ministry situations for a minimum of
one year.
Heading into its 25th year, VESS has
been in transition since the deaths in the
last two years of its charismatic founder,
Father Walter Dalton, CSP, and top
fund-raiser Shaun O’Brien, ’59, hs ’55.
Last year, VESS moved from its long-
time home at Holy Cross Hall at St.
Edward's University to the Pastoral
Center of the Diocese of Austin.
With all of that change, Guerra
senses now is the perfect time to begin
to re-focus the organization. Histori-
cally, VESS volunteers have been recent
college graduates from other states who
wished to perform a year of service.
Originally it was created to provide
Alumnus seeks to tap ‘missionary zeal’
*
“There is, for everyone I know, no
matter what their age, an unbelievable
missionary zeal in their lives. They find
this damn rat race unfulfilling and want
to serve something real. One of my
visions for this organization is to be the
agency in Texas that can tap that
missionary zeal for every person who is
out there.”
Guerra’s own missionary zeal was
tapped early on — as a student at St.
Edward’s. A religious studies major,
Guerra was a member of the Center for
Creative Ministry, which was a
community of 10 Catholic students
living at Mang House. As a member of
the center, Guerra took on ministries in
the Austin community.
It was at the Center for Creative
Ministry where he met his wife of 15
years, Judy (Smoke) Guerra, ’81. The
couple live in Cedar Park and have
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St. Edward's University News (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 39, No. 4, Ed. 1 Tuesday, April 1, 1997, newspaper, April 1, 1997; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1528723/m1/4/: accessed July 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting St. Edward’s University.