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Sunday Recap
Well, here I am again with a daily recap. So much is happening around here and I decided to just roll it all into one post. Hopefully it makes a little bit of sense, but it probably doesn't...
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| This is what I didn't get to see at Sacred Heart! |
Yesterday, as I briefly mentioned I went to Sacred Heart (here in Indianapolis) to take some notes on how their music was for Mass. We (I'm in the class with 3 other seminarians and other non-seminarians) have an assignment in music class that requires us to go to a Sunday Mass over the next few weekends and write a paper on the music that they do. (Does the priest chant anything? does the congregation join in? what songs are chosen? do they play an organ or something else? - you get the picture). Anyway, Sacred Heart, as I was told before I went, is the most beautiful church in the Arch-diocese of Indianapolis, so I was happy to have picked it. Of course what I didn't know was that they are currently redoing their floors and Mass was in the church hall... Yep, that was a bummer.
After I got back from Sacred Heart, I joined a group of guys who were making dinner. On the weekends we don't go to Marian for food, so we have to either eat at Brute or go out someplace. Being the guy that I am, I typically lean towards eating here rather than spending money elsewhere. Thus, I was happy to join these guys making dinner, since it would undoubtedly be better than the microwaveable pizza, ramen noodles, or hamburger that I would have made on my own. It turned out that they were working on a stir-fry with rice, chicken, green peppers, onions, sliced almonds, and a saucy concoction with soy sauce, garlic, and other unidentified spices. Either way, it turned out delicious!
So, yesterday evening (now it's like 7:30PM), I joined a different group of guys to go ice skating. Now, I don't think I have ever been ice skating before (maybe some time when an ice storm covered our back yard???), so I was prepared for the worst. Nevertheless, I quickly got the hand of it, and had a really, really fun evening. By the end of the hour and a half, I was attempting, unsuccessfully, to learn how to slide to a stop (by flipping your ankles/skates sideways), to skate backwards (I definitely wasn't too elegant doing that either), and racing with the other guys (which, though I didn't win, was relatively successful at). I only fell down twice and had tons of fun! (check out my previous post for a video of one of the races).
Now onto today: the first thing on the schedule was Mass at 9:30 AM. I scheduled myself to cantor it, so on Friday I got together with Aaron, the other guy who is in charge of musical stuff, who also happened to be the organist this weekend, and we picked out the hymns for today. Unfortunately, at this time I don't remember all of them (opening, offertory Communion, and recessional) but the opening one was Forty Days and Forty Nights. - Sorry, my brain is pretty tired, and I'm just drawing a blank - I managed to pull off everything, even chanting the responsorial psalm without any disasters (it was my 2nd time doing it), except the hymn for the offertory. Anyway, that was getting on just great; I started on key, with the organ, hitting all the notes correctly, the other guys even joined in singing, and then I got to the 3rd verse, at which point I started singing the fourth... Yeah, I was oblivious for about a line, then, during the second line, I was trying to figure out why everybody was singing something different from me, and then (3rd line now) Aaron started singing the correct verse, and I finally figured out where I went wrong... I actually don't know how noticeable it was to everybody else - at Brute the organ/cantor are in the back, so I was possibly drowned out by the organ and everybody else - that's what I'm hoping anyway. Ah well, it seems as soon as I'm feeling full of myself (just pulled off the responsorial psalm right!), God gives me a dose of humility...
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| dessert looked just like this - except not as elegant |
For lunch one of they guy's family came in to cook us lunch. As always it was fantastic; lasagna salad, garlic bread, and a strawberry-pie-on-a-cookie dessert. Yeah, it was awesome!
Next, for the first time, I went to pray (with a few guys) in front of the abortion clinic. I'll just note that it was a wonderful experience and leave the details for another post. (Gosh, I feel like I keep relegating some tidbit to another post and then never get to it... Sorry, these things take time, and I just don't have much right now...)
When we got back from that around 2:30 we went for a run. This time we had another guy join the normal group of us (bring the total to 5), who happens to generally run a bit faster than our typical 7:40 pace (more on that in a bit). It's really funny; I used to always laugh at those crazy runners that are out pounding the pavement when it's freezing outside. Well, that's been me for the last week; today was actually a bit warmer than our last run, and it was maybe a bit above 30 degrees. After a mile or two you do warm up, but until then it's pretty chilly. Anyway, today was our higher mileage day, so we were doing a four mile loop. Josh, the "new" guy to our group, really floored the pace when we made the last turn about 2/3 of a mile from Brute (which happens to be 2/3 of a mile uphill) and I drifted slowly off the back. Thankfully, the other guys were feeling the burn and also began to drift apart, but I only managed to catch up to one of them in the last sprint... It turned out to be a faster time per mile (under 7:30) then what we typically do for 3 miles, so, yeah, we were cruising. It was good for me I'm sure, but I'm still pretty sore.
After getting back from the run, I took a hot shower, and then studied with some guys for a theology test on Friday. (I had avoided doing any schoolwork on Sundays so far this semester, but I was pressed for time, and it was theology, so I did it.) Then I Skyped with the family until almost 7, when we have a community Holy Hour, and then I ate some dinner, watched a show with the guys, worked on the blog, and now I'm off to bed. Have a great Monday folks; do something fun!
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