Graduate Profile: Madeline Grace Bugeau-Heartt, MDiv '24
How I've Changed
I started this journey with such trepidation, believing that it would squelch the precious, private, little inkling of spirituality I possessed. Being at HDS not only deepened this sense of spirituality but turned it around from an inward facing phenomenon to outward facing, love-based action. I learned from my time at HDS what it looks like to use one’s faith as a source of power and movement, as a way of being loved. I didn’t know that phrases and words like “the common good,” and “community” would mean something to me, but being at HDS brought this mentality of lifting others up, to the forefront of my life.
It was at HDS that I received my “climate awakening,” and found a purpose in serving something bigger than myself. I also found such a rekindled enthusiasm for and belief in learning! I had my humble mind blown so many times by new stories, understandings, and the nuance of language. Learning expanded my sense of the world, and of what was possible. So often I would stumble upon the thing I didn’t even know I needed to know, but that drew me closer to life’s mystery and to my purpose in it.
It was at HDS that I better learned how to hold space for others, and how you can make a profound life just by showing kindness towards others, if only in small ways.
Memorable Moment
The most memorable moments were the times spent in the classroom when it felt like my brain was being cracked open by a new piece of knowledge! Moments when I learned something and my whole perspective on the world changed: from discovering the severity of the climate crisis, to exploring decolonial theory, to finding radical hope in critical pedagogy….the list goes on and on.
Our cohort was the first to be back in the classroom after the Covid lockdown. We wore masks, feared having to return to remote learning, and began our journey from a shared state of rebuild. Where this was the beginning marker of our time here, it is surreal that the end marker is the extraordinary suffering of the war in Gaza and all of the undoing on campus. I will always remember the small moments of grace I witnessed this community offer to one another within these two very different, but undeniably historical moments that have marked our time here.
What felt memorable to me was all of the art I was able to make during my time here! I am so grateful that I got to present a strange theater piece on apocalyptic grief in the Braun room, was able to concoct a performance art piece titled The Anchorite for my summer field-ed up in Maine, was in an experimental dance show at MIT, and ultimately had the opportunity to make a pilot of a reimagined Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood program for my senior thesis!
In a more quietly memorable way, I will cherish the moments I drew nearer to a mystical, radical, sacredly-Other Catholicism, and how others encouraged me in this new spiritual home.
Favorite Class or Professor
Oh, the gifts that were these classes and these professors! Buddhist Historiographies with Charles Hallisey, Critical Pedagogy with Callid Keefe-Perry (BC), The Book of Baldwin with Tracey Hucks, Thomas Merton with Stephanie Paulsell, Race, Coloniality, and Catastrophe with Mayra Rivera, and time spent with Dan Safer over at MIT….and there were many others! But all of these professors, all of these classes, and all of the TF’s, really cared about shaping us into people who strive and serve for a world “in which it is easier to love."
Message of Thanks
My family, my partner, and dear friends both within and without the HDS community who believed in me, who held me when the going got rough, and who walked with me on this wild and all too brief three-year journey.
To all of my peers, and a few special ones in particular, who were really present with me, and always made me feel cherished. Who exemplified to me what it means to live a life for others and in pursuit of a more just world. Who stayed true to their creativity, and fought for their own spirits amidst broken systems. Who came into HDS and are leaving HDS wanting more than anything to do good in the world: whenever I get down, I’ll think of all of you fighting so hard for the beautiful things in this world.
To the professors and teaching fellows I listed above, and many others including Dudley Rose, Satoru Kimura, and Patti Simpson, who saw me and encouraged me to flourish authentically into the work. To the entire staff of the BTS Center, who came into my life almost by chance and dramatically changed it! To the amazing OMS office, and all of the unparalleled administration, including my wonderful advisor David Holland and our cherished chaplain Kerry Maloney, for being my advocates and cheerleaders! I was always amazed by your generosity and care; how you asked for nothing in return for all of the support, only that I recognize my own worthiness and shine.
To my more-than-human teachers, and my teachers living in books: James Baldwin, Thomas Merton, Paulo Freire, Dorothy Day…
What I Hope to Be Remembered By
I hope to be remembered as a bright and authentic presence. As one who took creative chances and made things my own! Who sought to deliver to others the message that they are special and necessary just the way they are.
Future Plans
I hope to be a climate helper in my own locality, to guide people towards vision, meaning, kindness, and resiliency. In the near future that looks like re-activating a once a month gathering in Maine and helping others with their own earnest work to usher in a more healed world.
I plan to continue making art with my amazing cohort of collaborators! I am excited to see what becomes of Neighborhood (my reimagined Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood program.) I came to HDS with the hopes of “deepening the container” of my art, and it feels more imperative than ever to create spaces that bridge the big existential questions, quest for meaning and belonging, yearning to transcend, and love-based value systems so often talked about in strictly religious spaces to the yearning and deserving secular world.
Someday I’d like to open up a community center, or build an intentional community, wherein people may come together to practice radical, loving, integrated ways of being in efforts to mend this broken world. I hope in the future to be a good daughter, sister, partner, collaborator, and friend. I plan to continue lifting the ordinary, and bringing wonder, enchantment, and the message of love to the world in whatever way I can.