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Transformation is the core value for this academic year. This event will be an informal forum to discuss ways in which as individuals and as a Villa community, we will seek and apply transformation in our personal and academic and professional lives.

Celebration of the Holy Eucharist during which we pray for the needs of Villa community and that of the world.

Peter Gonciarz plays piano, harpsichord and organ

During this session, Michael Martin will explore universal principles of the Good Mind, an important idea related to wellness for the Haudenosaunee (the people European settlers came to call “the Iroquois”). He will discuss the relationships of our minds to thoughts, behaviors, and wellbeing. He will provide an overview of traditional teachings about the Good Mind, working with the understanding that the opposite of a Good Mind is not a bad or evil mind, but rather a clouded mind. Attendees will be encouraged to reflect upon what clouds our minds and how we may rise above or remove the cloudes to increase awareness. Mr. Martin will talk about how to maintain our own Good Minds, and how we can harness our collective power (known as Orenda) when Good Minds come together to achieve goals that benefit the whole community.

Mr. Martin is Executive Director of Native American Community Services of Erie & Niagara Counties, Inc. (NACS). Mr. Martin is an Onondaga of the Beaver Clan from the Six Nations of the Grand River territory in Southern Ontario, but was born and raised in Buffalo, NY. Mr. Martin is a graduate of SUNY Buffalo State College (BS, Economics, 1995) and Babson College (MS, Accounting & Entrepreneurial Finance, 1998). In 2016, he was named by his Clan Mother as a Faithkeeper for his Onondaga, Beaver Clan. He was formally condoled by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy in June of 2018.

The celebration of Thanksgiving gives us the opportunity to name our blessings, one by one. The blessings of family, relatives, friends and colleagues at work/study as well as events in our lives. Let us come together next Thursday to count our blessings and challenges as well. The wonderful Gospel Choir will sing to accompany our Thanksgiving celebration.