Numen Lumen: A Thursday Inspiration
Every Thursday from 9:50 to 10:20 am in Numen Lumen Pavilion Sacred Space (Numen Lumen Pavilion 110) you are invited to hear members of our Elon community share pieces of their stories, enjoy live music and artistic expression, and share in coffee and refreshments.
We are living in a time unlike any other. One way to be fully present is to reflect on what makes this very moment meaningful.
This year’s Numen Lumen theme, In This Moment, invites us to consider how we are making meaning in our lives right now. What are we learning? What are we holding onto? How are past experiences shaping our present choices? As author Barbara Brown Taylor asks, “What’s saving your life right now?”
The challenges we face expand our perspectives. The moments that leave us speechless have the power to change lives. The stories we tell help us to make sense of these challenges, moments, and everything in between.
Grounding ourselves in this moment is how we show up in an unexpected and ever-changing world.
We invite you to engage with this theme, whether as a speaker or as a member of the community. Come to be inspired. Come to listen. Come to consider your own moment and how and why it matters.
For past Numen Lumen recordings, scroll down to the bottom of the page.
Speakers and Musical Guests Fall 2025
August 28, 2025
Speaker: Anu Räisänen, Director of HealthEU and Assistant Professor
Music: Arielle Henley ’27
September 4, 2025
Speaker: Charles Evans, Counselor
Music: Tal Fish and Jen Westurn from Counseling Services
September 11, 2025
Speaker: Rocco Albano ’26
Music: Shreyas Kumar ’26
September 18, 2025
Speaker: Betsy Polk, Director of Jewish Life
Music: Shabband
September 25, 2025
Speaker: Madison Chandler, Assistant Professor of Exercise Science
Music: CCM Music Interns
October 2, 2025
Yom Kippur, no Numen Lumen
October 9, 2025
Speaker: Hyemin Im ’27
Music: Jaydon Jefferson ’28
October 16, 2025
Fall Break, no Numen Lumen
October 23, 2025
Speaker: Haya Ajjan, Dean of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business
Music: Jocelyn Bogart ’27
October 30, 2025
Speaker: Anya Bratić ’26, Student Body President
Music: Sammy Azúa ’26, Elliot Sullivan ’28, and JT Loveless ’28
November 6, 2025
Speaker: Naeemah Clark, Associate Provost of Academic Inclusive Excellence
Music: Anthony Hotakainen ’26
November 13, 2025
Speaker: Sara Harb, Career Services Advising Fellow
Music: Alli Brandon ’27
November 20, 2025
Speaker: Lynn Huber, Professor of Religious Studies
Poetry: GLC Student Staff
Past Numen Lumen Speakers
For our speakers:
When preparing for your Numen Lumen talk, speakers are encouraged to think about questions like:
- Who are the people who have changed or impacted your life in a particular way? How?
- When have you been in community with peers, colleagues, or friends who hold different identities and how has that impacted your life?
- When traveling, what connections across lines of difference have you made and how did that change you?
Have you engaged in dialogue across difference and how did that feel? What happened? - Have you sat in discomfort with opposing views and how did you overcome that? How do you show up when you disagree with someone?
- How have you changed thanks to engagement with someone different from you?
- What are the stories from your life that are yearning for a community to hear and to hold them?
We hope that these questions will be more of a place to begin brainstorming than a strict prompt to which speakers should adhere. While speakers should feel free to share stories and aspects of their lives authentically and freely, Rev. Julie Tonnesen, Associate University Chaplain, is also available to meet with speakers to brainstorm, answer questions, and support speakers as desired.