BY PABLO BOTEYO
STAFF WRITER
Damon’s was home to this month’s Theology on Tap, a social gathering for men and women to get together and speak about aspects of their faith.
The speaker this month, theology professor Donald Asci, gave a talk on University Life and Passion for Education.
“It’s not about the intelligence, not about the physical abilities, not about the socio-economic factor, none of that,” Asci said in his talk. “It’s about that grit factor: the passionate perseverance for particular long-term goals.”
Asci commenced his talk with a preface about the grit factor, something he recently read about, and how it applied to him. He then continued to share aspects of his academic career and personal life.
“It’s great how he put his academic success in a perspective of suffering,” student Caitlin Dudenhoefer said. “It’s crazy how everything wasn’t clear for him, and yet he still had the guts to risk it all with such little money and still chase a dream. I can’t imagine taking those risks, especially when you have a child and a family.”
Asci continued to explain the gifts he had received from God in forms from simple generosity, to simply being in the right place at the right time. He talked about how he once got a $3,500 translating job out of the blue when he needed it most to continue studying at Pontificia Università della Santa Croce.
“There was one thing I couldn’t deny, and that was the gifts God was giving me,” Asci said. “I am convinced God gave me the gift, and I had respect for it. The one way to appreciate the gift God gives you is to go out and do something with it. That’s how you appreciate this gift.”
Dr. Asci finalized the talk with personal stories and memories of his grandparents, and some anecdotes that inspired him. His final words resonated of what he said earlier on how to appreciate gifts given to him by God by saying that “It was either say no to God, or do God’s will with his gifts.”
“I think it’s great how he flipped it from ‘I have to go to class’ to ‘I get to study about this in class, and I get to do this homework,’” PJ Pierce, Franciscan junior, said. “It really is a blessing that I am here, and hearing those words were motivational. … Like Dr. Asci said, it’s a gift we have to enjoy that we get to study what we study, and not a bad thing. He put it in the best way possible.”
Emily Stimpson, author of “An Everyday Theology of the Body,” will give the next Theology on Tap talk on Nov. 3.