Showing posts with label A day in the life. Show all posts

A Day in the Life at the NAC

About a year ago I wrote an entire week of posts, basically just describing what the day-to-day life of seminary involved at Brute.  Well, now I'm in Rome, at the NAC, and I figured that you guys might be interested in the day-to-day happenings here.  I've only been able to write a few posts so far unfortunately, and I found that I really wasn't speaking to much on what the usual life here is like - I either talked just about one little moment or like an entire month, neither of which really tells you what the typical day is all about.  So, without further ado, here's today:

So, this morning the alarm went off at 5 AM.  Unfortunately, I stayed up till midnight last night working on a paper that's due in my theology seminar tomorrow and skyping the family (a seven hour time differential wreaks havoc with communication), so I woke up pretty tired.  Nevertheless, after quickly shutting off the alarm, I creaked down from my bed (I have a loft, which is great, but it does shake a bit when I move around on it), and proceeded to try and wake myself up by doing this "seven minute workout".  It's an app that I found for my phone that times out thirty second intervals during which you do push-ups, jumping-jacks, crunches, lunges, or whatever.  So, seven minutes later I was breathing a bit harder, just about to start sweating, and very much awake.  I turned on a podcast - this one happened to be Fr. Fessio on Catholic Answers Live - and proceeded to get dressed (in clerics! - which is still pretty cool even after wearing them every day for a month or two), brush my teeth, shave, and do those other things that are necessary each morning.  10 minutes later the podcast was paused, I grabbed my breviary, a prayerbook, a notebook, and Scott Hahn's The Lamb's Supper, and rattled down the 6 flights of stairs to the chapel.  It was now about 5:30 and I spent the next 45 minutes doing the Office of Readings, meditating a bit on the readings for the day, reading a chapter on the Mass out of Scott Hahn's book, and just spending some quiet minutes preparing myself for Mass and offering up the entire day to God.  I was certainly tired, but not to such an extent that prayer was impossible, and there was something beautiful about just telling God that - despite everything - I was going to try and give Him my best today.  Nothing spectacular on my end, but a good start to the week nonetheless.

Morning Prayer began (in common) at 6:15, followed by Mass, and - I have to say - I wasn't struggling quite as much as I thought I would based on the amount of sleep I got last night.  I think the time change (which happened last weekend here in Rome) helped because it is now light when we come out of the chapel after Mass (which was a happy surprise this morning, but probably something that unconsciously was helping me stay awake).  One of the deacons (I hate to say it, but I didn't remember his name and I forgot to look it up) gave a very good homily on how Jesus intended to heal the woman on the Sabbath because He is the Logos, the Word made flesh, through Whom the world was first created, and His salvific mission is to bring God's creation back into right relationship with God.  Brokenness, sinfulness, hatefulness, sickness - and every other kind of evil - weren't there when God created the world - He created it good.  But through man's choosing themselves over God - in sin - evil enters the world, and the world becomes twisted, broken away from God.  Jesus enters to bring the world back to God (and radically bring God into the world).  He heals, not to disregard the Sabbath, but to bring mankind to true rest, apart from sin, in union with God.  And, of course, He invites us to that same rest, that same union, every day in Holy Communion!  

After a couple minutes of prayer following Mass I walked down the hall to the refectory for breakfast, which, this morning anyway, involved leftover cornetti (sweet croissants) from yesterday, hard boiled eggs, and some yogurt/cereal/plum concoction.  15 minutes later - after chatting with some guys while eating - I charged up the 6 flights of stairs to my room, spent about 10 minutes getting ready for class, and then grabbed a jacket (it was in the 50s this morning), headed back down the stairs, and out onto the streets of Rome.  Originally, I began my walk listening to another podcast (gotta spend every moment wisely!) and studying the Hebrew alphabet (not terribly easy to do simultaneously), but after about 10 minutes I ran into some other guys on the way to class and so we spent the rest of the 30 minute walk talking about Rome, classes, plans for the rest of the day, and other such things.  It's funny how quickly I got used to walking over to class - it's crazy to think that I get to walk past the Piazza Navona, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, and the Pantheon every day on my way to class!  Fun times!

I arrived at the Greg. (Pontifical Gregorian University - if you want the full name) at about 8:20, with just enough time to head up the 2 flights of stairs, get settled into my desk, and log into the wifi before class began.  Classes are all in Italian - which, today as always, was a struggle.  We had two hours of Pentateuch and then 2 hours of Church History, both divided into two 45 minutes periods with a 15 minute break in between.  I am always very glad when the raucous bell goes off (it really does make a racket) and we get the break because it offers me a chance to clear my mind, stretch a bit, pray a bit (there is a very nice chapel up on the 3rd floor), or otherwise relax a bit - a very necessary thing to do because after 45 minutes of struggling mightily to translate what the professor is saying and type it out, my brain is usually pretty much fried and very ready to get distracted.  Classes have been getting better over the last 3 weeks, I guess I'm picking up new words and getting faster at translating, but I am very glad that guys better at Italian than myself are taking notes (that we then share) because otherwise, I'd be left with only about half of what we talk about in class.  Speaking of which, today we finished talking about the flood and began studying the tower of babel - and how God constantly tries to return man to His loving plan for creation, and away from mankind's tendencies to try to make himself God, and take the easy road to happiness, power, glory, or whatever.  In Church History we talked about the persecution of the early church - the writings of the Church Fathers at that time (St. Justin, St. Ignatius, St. John Chrysostom, etc.), other sources we have of that period (The Acts of the Martyrs, The Letter to Diagnetus, etc.), and the reasons behind the persecution and the phases it went through under different emperors.  That class, in particular, I'm going to have to rely on the notes because while there were PowerPoint slides (which are much easier to translate than simply an oral lecture), they each had about a thousand words on them - so it seemed - so I usually got about half-way through the slide before he flipped onto the next one...  Anyway, piano, piano (slowly, slowly).  In between the first and second period I took like a micro-nap (first time I've ever done that), which actually helped a ton with staying alert for the rest of the time, for the second break I spent some time in the chapel (again, dedicating the work of the day to Our Lord), and I think I just talked with some of the other students for the last break (there are probably about 80-100 students in the class, 20-something of which are from the NAC, and all the others are from other universities or orders around Rome, most of which don't have English as their first language, or Italian, so that can be a struggle at times as well - ah well, we keep trying!)

The walk back was beautiful!  It was just warm enough to not need the jacket, and it was just cool enough to not start sweating on the hike up the hill to the NAC (we're located on the Janiculum hill, one of the 7 hills of Rome).  As always, the streets are busy in places (mainly with people, we actually only have to worry about cars at a couple of intersections), and there are many people stuck in poverty who we always try to give at least a "bongiorno" and a smile.  I'm still getting used to both groups, and trying to constantly remember to be not only polite, but kind and loving - even if only for the moment.  It's one of those things, wearing the collar constantly reminds me of my call - especially as a seminarian - to live, and love, like Christ, which is a constant challenge, especially when you'd really rather just hurry back and get some lunch than stop and give somebody directions, or struggle to communicate your compassion to that homeless lady who always calls out to you as you walk past.  It's a real challenge, one that I didn't expect, and one that I need to constantly take to prayer!

Today, for the first time, I served at pranzo.  That basically means that instead of saying the Rosary like I usually do upon getting back (there's about 20 minutes between us getting back and pranzo), I instead headed into the refectory and started to set out jugs of water and bowls of salad on all the tables (36 tables, 2 jugs each, and the water-machines are pretty slow - it takes a while even with a couple guys working on it).  Then, after about 10 minutes we started carrying back salad plates and carrying out trays of pasta (today was noodles with a creamy red sauce and little flakes of ham - really good but I have no idea what it was called).  20 minutes later, the process repeated, this time carrying back the plate used for pasta and bringing out the secundo (today it was roast beef of some sort with tomato sauce along with peas).  And, a couple minutes after that it was time to carry out bowls of fruit (the dessert for today) and continue to clear plates and stuff.  I would have thought there would be down time, but there wasn't.  I was constantly on the move, going to fetch more food, or cheese, or water, or trying not to drop a stack of plates and silverware (always a balancing act).   Either way, at 2, everybody finishes up, the waiters sit down at their own table, and then we get to eat our own pranzo (same as everybody else's, but we just wolfed it down, and headed off to get things done that afternoon).  It was a fun first time - not hard, not easy, not bad - yeah, actually kind of fun!

I spent the next two hours in the library, working on the process of note-redacting.  Basically, because I'm not one of the chosen note-takers, I have the other job of taking the notes from three different guys for one of our classes (Introduction to Scripture) and combing them all.  The goal is to then have a pretty complete set of notes for the class which everybody can then use to fill in the gaps in their own knowledge.  I thought the process would be easy - boy, was I wrong.  It was such a challenge to look at the 3 or 4 different sets of notes, figure out when they are talking about the same thing, and then combine them in such a way that you lose nothing of any of their meanings but don't repeat anything at the same time.  It was way more of a challenge than I anticipated, and it took all two hours I had open in the afternoon (which I was hoping it wouldn't).  Anyway, such is the way it worked out - I'll have to find more time in the future to do it - but for today, I didn't have any more time!  After struggling to get the computer to save (the network wasn't working quite right) I raced out of the library, down to the St. John Paul II class-room (we don't usually have classes here at the NAC, but they do have some rooms for the occasional lecture or something I suppose), where I attended a meeting of the Legion of Mary.  

I was in the active Legion back at home, before seminary, so the meeting itself wasn't new, but I wanted to check it out as a possible apostolate for next semester because their work sounds really, really cool.  Basically, next semester I'll have an apostolate - which could be helping at a nursing home, working at a soup kitchen, visiting a prison, leading tours of St. Peter's, or - another option - doing evangelization in St. Peter's square for the Legion of Mary.  It sounds really fun actually - standing out there, meeting and greeting tourists who come there and answering any questions they have about the basilica, the Church, Christ, His saints, or any of the other innumerable questions that come up when you visit Rome.  It's an easy opportunity to lead people to grow deeper in their faith (or understand the importance of faith), and I will probably put it as one of the apostolates that I'd like to do.  We'll see, I'll be actually trying out the work in the square on Wednesday, so I guess I'll have to wait till then to be sure.

Anyway - running from one thing to the next - I charged back up the 7 flights of stairs to my room (I was in the basement), grabbed my Breviary, the Bible, Benedict XVI's Jesus of Nazareth, and the Magnificat and headed back down to the chapel for an hour of Eucharistic Adoration.  I got there just in time for it to start at 5:45 and spent the first bit of time just quietly adoring Our Lord, and then meditating on the readings for tomorrow and the psalms for mid-day prayer.  It was tough to strike the balance between quieting my mind and not falling asleep, but I did fairly well today!  I read the chapter on the Kingdom of God today from Ratzinger's book, which was absolutely beautiful.  He explained how the "Kingdom of God" isn't just a individual relationship with Christ, and it isn't just the Church, and it isn't some sort of earthly kingdom which holds Christian principles or something - rather, the "Kingdom of God" is Christ Himself.  Yes, present within us, and His Church, and throughout the world - but fundamentally, when Christ announces that the Kingdom of God is at hand, He is announcing Himself, living, incarnate, actual, moving, loving and desiring that we open ourselves up to Him and allow Him to reign over our hearts, our lives, our families, our decisions, our countries, and our world!  Something that Pope Benedict didn't mention, but I was graced with the thought a couple minutes later during Benediction, was that in the Our Father, Jesus tells us to pray "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" - obviously indicating that we should strive to accept, to unite ourselves with, to do, God's will (that He may reign over our hearts - where He truly wants His Kingdom to come), but the very next line - drum-roll please - is "give us this day our daily bread".  Again, boom, it struck me of the incredibleness and importance of the Eucharist.  It is in this "daily bread", this supernatural bread, that Jesus gives us Himself.  Our "Amen" to receiving "the Body of Christ" is not only our statement of belief that this is "Christ the Son of the Living God", but also that we are willing to unite ourselves with Him so closely that He can enter our very hearts and souls.  With our reception of Holy Communion, we let Christ reign over us, we surrender to His will for our lives, we let His kingdom come!  Yeah, that was a pretty awesome moment! 

After doing Evening Prayer as a community, and saying another quick little prayer of dedication and thanksgiving, everybody headed off to the refectory for dinner.  I chose (it is buffet style) to have a little bit of pasta (shells with a cream sauce), some slices of turkey in gravy, a salad, and a banana with peanut butter (we rarely have bananas here, at least right now, so it was a treat!).  Again, nothing outrageously amazing, but it was all good, and hot, and there were good conversations to be had, and there was a banana!  

Alright, the day's almost complete!  After dinner I ran back up to my room, spent a bit of time on writing this post, worked for a couple minutes on Hebrew (I need to spend so much more time on that), and then went down and caught the last 30 minutes of a praise-and-worship hour that happens here once a week.  I had rarely done that sort of things before this semester, but there is something beautiful about that way of singing and praising God - I guess I didn't expect to like it, but in the right context it is beautiful, powerful, and prayerful!  Then, continuing to run to the next thing, I watched one episode of Agents of Shield, a TV series based off of the Marvel comic strips and films.  It's actually quite a good show - without too much language or other kinds of vices, but showing a decent amount of action and some seriously difficult moral decisions (which they don't always make the right choice).  You know, a couple super-hero's, good guys fighting bad guys, it's fun!

And now, I'm finally finishing this post, getting ready to post it and hit the sack (currently, I'll be getting 5 hours and 56 minutes of sleep tonight... - not enough, but it'll have to do).  It was a long day, I literally didn't have more than a couple minutes anywhere when I wasn't doing something or onto the next thing, but - as always - God provides and "tomorrow will worry about itself".  I recall hearing of a priest saying that he wanted to be tired each evening - spending himself for God and his flock - and I was inspired by it!  Don't we all want to really give our lives for something that's worth it!  But, I was kind of assuming that he woke up every morning having gotten 8 hours of sleep, with the sun shining, and a game-plan of what amazing things he was going to do that day.  Apparently, yeah, God is asking me to give myself - day-in-day-out - to Him, but that means being tired when you go to bed, and when you wake up!  Hmmm...  Something about picking up one's cross comes to mind - I guess I should have expected a bit of tiredness, frustration, business, and the daily grind.  Ah well, again, God will provide - it's an amazing life, if busy, and I'm loving every minute, even if exhausted!
Read More
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comments

Day 7 - A week in the life of a seminarian

Good Evening everyone!  Once again, I find myself at the end of the day, and I am just starting my post about what happened...  I hope that you have enjoyed this week of recap. posts - they were fun to write (though they took a while), and you may notice that they have made it to the top of the page - "A week at Bruté".  

Anyway, today began with schola practice at 8:30.  Both guys in charge of the schola decided on this Sunday because it gave us a few weeks to practice up (after parents and pastors day).  We ended up skipping a few practices though, so we weren't quite ready, and had to practice this morning.  I was very glad that we practiced, but I had just recently rolled out of bed, so it was more difficult than normal to hit those high notes (especially in Ave Verum).  I am currently working on the video, so look forward to a post with that.  

Otherwise, Mass was somewhere in between really awesome and just average.  I mean, obviously the Mass is always awesome, but sometimes my participation or perception of it is less wonderful.  This morning, while it was great to be singing and all, it means that half of Mass (more or less) I was thinking about the next song, getting ready for it, and turning my camera on.  Not necessarily bad, but it still kept me from concentrating fully.  On the other hand, Fr. Joe's homily today was spectacular.  As a certain seminarian noted, "that homily was boss!".  The message was simple: who or what is lying at your gate?  Like the rich man to Lazarus, what or who are we ignoring?  Is there someplace that we need to grow, that we need to work on, that we are avoiding?  Is there someone who we haven't taken the time to know, that we haven't been charitable towards, that we haven't shown mercy?  His homily was quite a bit longer and better than this synopsis, but you know, I can't remember everything...

After Mass I had a donut and part of a massive chocolate chip cookie for breakfast (thank you Fr. Joe!).  Perhaps not the most healthy breakfast (OK, definitely not), but there were nuts on the donut, so it couldn't have been that bad.  

I didn't work on much for the early afternoon.  It was one of those rainy, dreary days where you really don't want to do anything...  At 2 PM we had Eucharistic Adoration and a living Rosary over at Marian for religious freedom.  It was supposed to be a procession with the monstrance from the chapel to the football field, but since it was raining they decided to do it all at the football field (I was puzzled too).  Anyway, I helped bring the requisite stuff over to Marian (monstrance, incense, kneelers, bells, etc.), and then I volunteered to be thurifur for the afternoon.  It began with Exposition on the football field.  They had a tent set up with an altar under it, so the Eucharist stayed dry, but myself, the other servers, father, and everybody else, was outside the tent - in the rain.  After a brief prayer for religious freedom (which was just long enough so that my arm was getting ready to fall off from the thurible), another priest read a Gospel passage - in this case the discourse on the bread of life from St. John's Gospel.  He gave a wonderful homily connecting how the truth will set us free, how the truth is found in Jesus Christ (especially in the Eucharist), and how we are led to Jesus through His mother Mary.  He was so enthusiastic about the faith it was phenomenal!  I hope that someday I can have the same fervor and devotion than he did.  

After his homily, this other priest led the living rosary.  I thought it would be kind of cheesy, but actually having a different kid lead each prayer worked out pretty well.  They read a scripture verse in between each Hail Mary, but most of the time I was still kind of distracted just by how different everything was.  It was misting, I was tired, and every so often whichever kid was next would say the Hail Mary in Spanish, or Polish, or German, or Latin, or another language (at which point, instead of thinking how great it was to be part of the universal church, my mind would jump to trying to figure out what the language was...)  You get the picture, I am a weak human being, and sometimes my mind just doesn't want to concentrate.  Something that I thought was really awesome during the rosary, was how the priest, who was walking the microphone around to all the kids leading the mysteries, would gently turn them around to face the altar and Blessed Sacrament.  They weren't being disrespectful per-se, but the way that the rosary stretched around the football field, they had "lined" up all facing inward, and the exposed Blessed Sacrament was outside this circle (off to one side).  It really reminded me where I needed to keep my attention, and helped me refocus   After the Rosary, we chanted the Divine Mercy chaplet, had Benediction, processed out, and the rally was complete.  In total, it took about 2 hours, but it went by pretty quickly.  I am just glad that it didn't ever start raining hard, and that it was warm enough to be tolerable.  (I guess that Father was preaching on how to be martyrs, so perhaps I shouldn't complain about the weather...)

I ate some leftover pasta, salad, and pumpkin pie for dinner this evening - it was wonderful!  Then I worked on the video from the hymns today, took a short nap and went to the community Holy Hour.  It's really funny, a few years back I would have bitterly lambasted doing two holy hours in one day (especially one in the rain), but seminary has given me a much greater appreciation for these intimate moments with Jesus.  Both were wonderful in their own way, during both I struggled to concentrate, but Jesus was truly present to me both times, and just that is amazing.

After the 2nd Holy Hour, 4 of us went over to Marian and played some racquetball   This sport is an absolute blast, if you haven't played it.  Fast, intense, crazy, loud, etc.  I am not that good at it (I run a lot, but usually that is because I am trying to chase down the ball after not being in the right spot to begin with.)  I'm getting better, and I can hit the ball hard, but I still haven't figured out how to track the ball and be in the right spot to hit it back.  We wanted to avoid dwindling away, so after finishing a few games of racquetball, we went to dairy queen and got some blizzards.  I probably ate like 1000 calories of an extreme-chocolate blizzard, and burnt off about 100 playing, but it was a fun evening either way!


And that ends my last "day in the life" post (for the near future).  I hope that these gave you insight into the day-to-day workings of seminary life.  I know that I didn't go into detail very often - I was trying to keep the length reasonable - but hopefully you enjoyed reading (or at least skimming) them, and they make one of you smile.  Keep the prayers coming (please!) - I'll do the same!  Good night, God bless!
Read More
, , , , , , , , , , 0 Comments

Day 6 - A week in the life of a seminarian

Alright, well I guess I'll start this post the same as the others, at the very beginning of the day. Today, because it is Saturday, we have Morning Prayer and Mass at 9:30.  Thus, I rolled out of bed around 8:30, took a shower, threw my laundry into the washer, and got to the chapel around 9:10.  I prayed the Office of Readings and had a few moments of meditation before Morning Prayer began.  Today the intercessions really jumped out at me:
Let us all praise Christ.  In order to become our faithful and merciful high priest before the Father's throne, he chose to become one of us, a brother in all things.  In prayer we ask of him: Lord, share with us the treasure of you love.  Sun of Justice, you filled us with the light at our baptism, - we dedicated this day to you.  At every hour of the day, we give you glory, - in all our deeds, we offer you praise.  Mary, your mother, was obedient to you word, - direct our lives in accordance with that word.  Our lives are surrounded with passing things; set our hearts on things of heaven, - so that through faith, hope and charity we may come to enjoy the vision of your glory.
Mass was also really, really awesome!  Today the reading was when Jesus tells his disciples that He will have to die, and they don't believe him.  

"While they were all amazed at his every deed, Jesus said to his disciples, “Pay attention to what I am telling you.  The Son of Man is to be handed over to men.”  But they did not understand this saying; its meaning was hidden from them so that they should not understand it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying." - Luke 9:43-45
Looking back at this reading (I managed to forget what struck me during Mass), I think that it's important to see that the disciples didn't go to Jesus with their misunderstandings out of fear.  We should never fear to go to Jesus; He is incarnate truth.  Fr. Bob made a good point in his homily - we should never fear the truth.  Sometimes it is hard to understand, sometimes it forces us to lose something, sometimes it means doing things that other people think are crazy, but truth always brings us closer to God, and that is where we need to be.  I guess I haven't meditated on it much because that is about as far as thought has gone so far, but hopefully it gets one of you thinking.  (If you have a breakthrough, throw it in the comments!)

After Mass I pretty much skipped breakfast, because we were having a community lunch later (and I wanted to save room).  Every Saturday morning we have a work session.  All the guys are in one of four groups, indoor, outdoor, kitchen, and chapel.  This year I am on the outdoor team, and today my job was to organize the shed that holds all our tools.  I thought it would be an easy and fun job - I was right on the second point, but not on the first.  We had way more tools, pots, assorted doo-dads, power-equipment, and junk than I thought.  However, for whatever reason, the organizational side of things was fun.  It's kind of like a puzzle: what tool would best fit on this hook?  Where should that shelf go that would keep everything on it accessible, but allow the maximum amount of storage around it?  I was also reminded just how fast things can get done when you have a bunch of guys working on it.  I threw about half the stuff out of the shed to give myself some room to sweep the dirt out and be able to move things around, but because of my previous underestimation of the scale of the project, most of the stuff didn't have a home yet when we ran out of time.  With 5 or so guys helping though, everything had been returned inside the shed within a matter of minutes.  Good times!

Zach's parents, who came in to cook up lunch (and I suppose visit their son), cooked us spaghetti and meatballs, with salad, cheesy-garlic bread, and apple and pumpkin pie.  It was absolutely delicious.  Gosh, I look forward to those meals so much, the food is always wonderful!  (The leftovers are also fantastic).  Before lunch, we were snacking on m&m's that they had set out on the tables, but these were candy-corn m&m's.  Very interesting (in a good way)!

After lunch I quickly took a shower (to get rid of the crusty feeling from the work session), and Ray and I drove over to St. Paul's Hermitage.  This is a nursing/retirement home run by Benedictine sisters over on the south side of Indianapolis.  Ray and I both got assigned to the same location (kind of unique I think), and we are probably going to head over there every Saturday afternoon.  Anyway, we went over there last week and got an introduction/tour of the place by one of the sisters, but this week was our first "real" week, where we started to visit the residents.  I was a bit trepidatious before starting, just because I didn't know how we would keep a conversation going for an hour or more with the folks here.  I'm not a huge sanguine (and I don't think Ray would put himself in that category either), so it's definitely going to stretch us (in a good way) going over there every week.  However, today the woman that we visited knew it was our first time and was literally trying to show us the ropes of how to visit the elderly/infirm.  I have no idea how old she is, but I can only hope that I am in her condition when I am her age.  She talked to us the entire time, showed us around the hallways, asked questions...  It was fantastic!  I think this ministry will be really good for me, and this fantastic start to it has only reinforced this thought.

We got back after a few hours, and I took it pretty easy for the rest of the afternoon.  I totally wanted to take a nap, but for whatever reason I never got to it.  I did spend some time on the computer, I wandered the halls a bit - I don't know - nothing much happened, and that was actually kind of nice.  I said mid-afternoon prayer around 4 PM, and then watched some guys play pool.  I also watched a bit of the Notre Dame game at 5 or so.  I did doze a little bit while watching it (actually, I have this funny quirk of sleeping with my eyes open, so I left the other guys guessing as to whether I was sleeping or watching.  Yeah, it's pretty cool, or maybe just creepy...)

I finally was starting to feel hungry (after the huge lunch) so I decided to make myself a meatball sandwich with the leftovers.  Of course, Corey was working on making fried pickles when I got to the kitchen, so I had to have some of those.  And then other guys wanted some, so I (coached by Corey) made some more batches of the pickles.  They were really really good!  I played a game or two of pool with the guys that were now hanging out around the kitchen (our game room is now right across from the kitchen), and then went up to the chapel for a Holy Hour.  Usually we don't have an hour of Adoration on Saturday (the only day), but today there was enough interest to have one.  I said Evening Prayer, the Rosary, and then read some more out of The Priest is Not His Own.  This book keeps hitting me right in between the eyes.  Today the chapter was on being poor in spirit, and how the priest absolutely must not be attached to earthly goods.  As Bishop Sheen explained this doesn't mean that he can't own things, or all his possessions must be worn-out, but he must have the right ordering of these things in regard to the eternal goods.  Your fantastic quote of the day: "Poverty of spirit does not begin with an act of the will to do with less;  it begins with the Spirit of Christ in us." - page 126  Awesome!

After the Holy Hour I again wandered down to the kitchen.  I played a few more games of pool (I haven't won too many games, but it is a lot of fun!).  Corey was now working on fried oreos, which are absolutely fantastic, completely delicious, spectacularly phenomenal - in other words really tasty.  I played a game of chess with one of the other guys.  It was a lot of fun, I haven't played chess in forever (more like 3 years or something), and I eventually lost.  I didn't go down too easily though, my king was hopping around quite a bit for the last 10 moves or so...   

Good night everybody!  This post seems shorter than the others and it still took me over an hour to write...  Hope you guys are enjoying them!  Tomorrow the schola will be singing for Mass, so I need to get to bed (we are practicing before Mass)... We'll see what else happens!  
Read More
, , , , , , , , 0 Comments

Day 5 - A week in the life of a seminarian

Today, back to the normal schedule, we had Mass at 6:45 AM.  I wore a tie because I am assigned as extra-ordinary minister of Holy Communion for the next few days.  This isn't something required or anything,  but I like to dress up on occasion and this gave me a good excuse.  We had three priests at Mass, so I didn't have to fill that role after all.  Mass today was really, really awesome.  I don't usually know why a certain Mass, or hour of the office, or rosary hits me really well, but today was one of those days.  Fr. Joe Moriarty (our vice rector) gave the homily, and he reminded me of how important Jesus' question "who do you say that I am?" is.  Think about it!  Do you act in a way that shows your answer to this question?  Of course, as St. Peter, we will often end up falling, not believing, or being overcome by fear, but was must always come back to his answer "Lord; you know that I love you" - John 21:16.  In the office of readings I also just loved the passage (link click "office of readings" and scroll down to the second reading) from St. Vincent de Paul.  Partly quoted for your benefit: 

"It is our duty to prefer the service of the poor to everything else and to offer such service as quickly as possible. If a needy person requires medicine or other help during prayer time, do whatever has to be done with peace of mind. Offer the deed to God as your prayer. Do not become upset or feel guilty because you interrupted your prayer to serve the poor. God is not neglected if you leave him for such service. One of God’s works is merely interrupted so that another can be carried out. So when you leave prayer to serve some poor person, remember that this very service is performed for God. Charity is certainly greater than any rule. Moreover, all rules must lead to charity."

This is something that I have begun to also see in Pope Francis - maybe I need to work on it a little...  Love of Christ absolutely must appear in the rest of our life through love of our fellow man.   The question of Jesus, and are affirming our belief in Him as God, must go beyond just saying that we love Jesus.  We must answer with love to Jesus, and then follow His command to St. Peter: "feed my sheep".  

I had a small breakfast (small bowl of oatmeal) because I am fasting today.  One of the guys had a birthday yesterday, so a bunch of guys are going out tonight.  Knowing that, I decided to fast instead of skipping meat today.  I figure fasting is harder than no-meat, so I'm not really slacking...  

My first class, senior seminar, was cancelled today, so I began the school day at 10:00 AM with moral issues.  We talked some more about capital punishment, and how every seemingly clear-cut issue usually can be incredibly complicated when you are actually working on it in the real world.

In psychology we again continued to look at areas where young children are cognitively developing.  We talked some more about limitations, like irreversibility (when a young kid doesn't know what operations are reversible - opening/closing a box - and not - breaking a toy), and only being able to focus on the static state of an object (they understand that the show was untied, and now it is tied, but can't remember the steps along the way), and a lack of the concept of conservation (the same amount of liquid is taller in a skinnier glass).  Basically, their ability to think logically slowly grows from ages 3 to 7 or so.  They can think about objects, but can't manipulate those concepts.

I actually got out of psychology like 20 minutes early because the professor had finished everything he wanted to, so Andrew and I went over to the library.  I chatted with some others who were hanging out there, we talked about calculus (derivatives can be complicated), literature (Chesterton is cool), and philosophy (I finally get why the motion must be simultaneous to prove God through motion).  Then we went over to the Marian "shrine" (also called the Rosary walk) and prayed the Rosary.  I always find this really peaceful, but I struggle to concentrate on the mysteries because people are walking around, or mowing, or whatever...  Anyway, because I was fasting, I skipped lunch in the cafeteria and went back to the library to work on some calculus before class.

Calculus class was complicated today.  Those problems I was struggling with before class - they were the topic of today's class.  Derivatives had been pretty easy for me (If f(x) = x3 + 2x2 – 11 then f'(x) [the derivative] = 3x2 + 4x).  However, today we looked at much more complicated functions, where instead of just moving the exponent around (notice how it works: if f(x) = xn then f’(x) = nxn-1).  But, what do you do if your function is a bit more complicated?  Like: y = (x3)[(4-x2)1/2]  Here you have to use the product theorem.  This basically states that you take the x3 and the (4-x2)1/2 and call them “f” and “g” respectively, then you can find what the derivative of the entire expression by calculating: y’ = fg’ + f’g.  This means you have to find the derivatives of f and g.  f is easy: f(x) = x3, so f’(x) is 3x2.  But, it isn’t as easy for g.  To find the derivative of (4-x2)1/2, you have to use the chain rule.  This, on its own, isn’t too complicated.  You take the term, move the exponent as we saw before and then multiply the entire thing by the derivative of just the “4 – x2”.  So this looks like g(x) = (4-x2)1/2, so g’(x) = ½(4-x2)-1/2.  Thus, the derivative of the entire function, plugging in the parts that we just figured out, is: y’ = (x3)( ½(4-x2)-1/2) + (3x2)[(4-x2)1/2].  Having fun yet?  Yeah…  Now, set that expression to 0, and solve for x…

So after calculus, my classes were done for the day, so I came back to Bruté and played a few pool games with other guys.  I only managed to win one game, but it was fun either way.  After that I wandered over to my room (there didn't seem to be much else going on), and did a few things on the computer (including working on the computer - plugging in all those equations takes a while...)  At 4:15 PM, I went up the chapel where we had a Holy Hour before evening prayer.  The Holy Hour was, once again really, really fantastic.  (I love it when prayer is like that!)  I said mid-day prayer at the beginning, then the Divine Mercy Chaplet, and then I read a chapter out of the book by Venerable Bishop Fulton Sheen, The Priest is Not His Own.  I was debating on reading this book (on the priesthood) versus Forming Intentional Disciples (Wendell) on evangelization, but I eventually went with Sheen.  As it turns out, the chapter that I moved into was about evangelization - God works in mysterious ways!  Best quote (out of many really good ones): 

Our love of souls must be persistent.  We get used to reading the parable of the Good Shepherd, but do we understand that for us priests it is a spelling out of our obligation to seek the lost sheep?  Leaving a dinner, breaking an evening's entertainment, interrupting a siesta - all such efforts are summed up in being willing to leave "those ninety-nine others on the mountain-side, and go out to look for the one that is straying"  (Mt 18:12)"

After evening prayer, a bunch of us went out and played some two-touch football.   It was a lot of fun, but, as always with football, I feel like I'm not doing something right because I rarely get the ball.  I run around like crazy, wear myself out, and often get away from my defender, but I just don't seem to ever end up in an open spot.  Anyway, the teams were really well matched and we ended in a tie (5-5) after about an hour of playing.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, tonight we celebrated Adam's birthday by going to Macaroni Grill.  I ended up getting the lasagna - It was one of the cheaper options on the menu (always a big deciding factor in my choice), and it just sounded really good.  Let's just say that I was disappointed when it came out because it was half the size of a lot of other meals, but I had changed my mind by the end of the meal.  It turned out a lot bigger than it looked!  The evening was a lot of fun!  Right after the waiters sang "happy birthday", the guys in the kitchen (it was open to the restaurant) dumped ladle fulls of grease on the stoves.  So these "waves" of flame roared out lighting up the restaurant - maybe not the smartest thing to do, but it was pretty cool!

Alright, well I'm tired, so this post will come to an end.  Before heading to bed I caught the tail end of "The Hobbit - an unexpected journey", said night prayer, played some pool (actually almost winning!), and ate some ice cream with home-made chocolate/peanut-butter topping.  Once again, an awesome day!
Read More
, , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Day 4 - A week in the life of a seminarian

Wow, the week is just flying by - I guess that is what happens when your days are absolutely full of thing to do.  Today began with morning prayer at 7:15.  I was somewhat lazy, so I didn't do the Office of Readings beforehand, and said it after Morning Prayer.  Nevertheless, after a quick breakfast of yogurt, a toasted english muffin, and chocolate/caramel milk (we now have caramel syrup, and Adam said it was delicious, so I tried it - pretty good!) , I spent the next hour or so tidying up my room and reading up for different classes.  My room had gotten a bit messy over the past few weeks, and seeing some other guys who have kept their room spotless, I decided some organizing was in order.

In Augustine and Aquinas we talked about Anselm's defense and explanation of free will.  Your synopsis: Free will isn't the ability to choose between two options (alternative possibilities) such as good or bad, or cheerios or corn-flakes, though we do often have that kind of freedom, it is our ability to maintain rectitude of will.  What is rectitude of will?  This is the state our will is in when it is ordered correctly, that is towards the good, which, as Christians, we believe to be God.  Basically, Anselm says that when we choose something that isn't good (or we inordinately desire some temporal/temporary good) we are essentially giving up our humanity.  As humans, we have the option to choose the good, but Anselm explains that when we choose something that is not good we in fact become trapped in sin, and lose freedom.  Obviously, this is a super-summary of the stuff we talked about, but thankfully Anselm ends by explaining that we can get out of this cycle of/slavery to sin through grace that God freely bestows on us.

After class I got an early lunch at the cafeteria.  Today I got salad, meat-on-a-stick (the consensus was that it was chicken, but who knows), and some pumpkin bread.  Everything was actually delicious!  After lunch I headed over to library where I worked on reading for metaphysics, chatted with other people (mostly seminarians, but other folks will join our little zone as well) about all sorts of topics, read a bit for other classes, and then prayed midday prayer.  I was glad that I didn't had too much going on because it allowed me to do some "hanging out" rather than forcing myself to get stuff done.  It's nice every once in a while!

 Alright, I'm already beyond half-way through the day!  Metaphysics was pretty cool today.  We dove straight into proving the existence of God.  Today we were going through the argument from motion.  This argument appears as early as Aristotle, but we were going through the version found in Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae.  The basic propositions: (1) - Some things are in motion.  We can see things around us are changing and moving - in metaphysical speak, they are going from potency to act. (2) - A potency can be reduced to a potency only by an agent in act.  If that didn't confuse you, congrats!  Basically what this second proposition says is that the only way that things (people, animals, rocks, stars...) can be changed, moved, or caused to do something (this is going from potency to act) is through the action of something else that actually exists.  (3) - Whatever is [in] motion must be put in motion by another.  Basically, this says that something that potentially is one way cannot move/change itself to be actually that thing.  Example: a rock that is potentially at the bottom of a hill can't move itself there unless something else pushes it (or gravity pulls it).  This gets more complicated with living things, but it still applies.  Example: your leg doesn't move unless your muscles "fire".  (4) - There cannot be an infinite series of motions put in motion by another.  OK, this is where it gets really complicated, and where I don't understand it fully (yet), but basically, the world wouldn't work if you kept going back one step (to the previous agent) infinitely.  So, taking the earlier example, your leg moves because of muscles, which move because of nerves, which move because of signals going around in your brain, which move because your will decided to move your leg, which moved because??  See how eventually you have to get to some agent that isn't explained or moved by a previous agent.  Eventually, Thomas Aquinas says, you have to get to an unmoved-mover.  A being that isn't caused or moved or changed by something previously.  Actually, I've left out a large part of this 4th part, T.A. says that temporal sequences of causality can regress infinitely, but simultaneous sequences of causality don't.  Either way, he argues that God causing the universe/creation is an example of the second type of causality, so the point stands...

 Skip the next two paragraphs if you don't want any more metaphysics, but if you're adventurous keep reading...  :-)  During the second half of class, we went through properties which must be true of this prime-mover, unmoved-mover - you know - God.  First He must be immaterial (not made of physical, material, stuff).  Why?  If God is made of matter, he would have to cause the universe to exist through material contact/movement.  Why is this a problem?  Well, the only way that a material can move another material (think pool balls or something), is if itself is in motion.  Yet, if we say God "was" (thinking in our temporal mindset) moving when He created the world, that means He was changing, which isn't right.  We call God the prime-mover because He causes motion/change in the world, not because He was actually moving.  This is tough to think about, but physical movement means that God would have been moved by something else (which means that He isn't the original source of movement).  The second point that we made was that God, the unmoved-mover, is that He is not in potency at all.  This is connected with the previous point.  Remember, movement and change, in metaphysics  is talked about in terms of going from potency to act.  (Before moving, a being has the potential to move, or change, or whatever, and after if moves it is actually in the new state, or place).  So saying that God doesn't have any potency, is saying that He can't change.  If by causing the original motion (creation) of the universe, God moved, or changed, or is any way went from potency to act, that movement wouldn't have been unmoved.  (Something must have moved God from the potential state to the actual one).  I guess I won't get more technical, hopefully the argument above isn't full of fallacies and you can follow the train of thought a bit...

 Another point made during this talk of the unmoved-mover (God), the topic came up of how God, if He is in fact immaterial, could move/cause a material universe to move/exist?  I mean, how can something that is spiritual cause something that is material?  We just kind of assume that this is "easy" because God is God.  But in metaphysics we are looking at the issue without having the "back-up" of theology (Revelation and Tradition).  It's not like it is anti-religious discipline, but we are trying to figure out how things could work, or how we can explain what we see, without just saying that God did it.  Obviously, sometimes, God did just do it, and we can't figure out why or how, but sometimes we can answer those questions and that is much of what metaphysics seems to be about.  Alright, back to how God, as immaterial, could cause the world, which is material.  Basically, what the professor said was that this was a tough question, that we really don't understand, how God could do such a thing (using metaphysics).  This argument for God is a demonstration quia, which means it tells us that an unmoved-mover must exist for the universe to exist, but it doesn't tell us how this unmoved-mover works.  Interestingly, and once again we see how philosophy connects with theology, (even though for class today we were trying to prove God without theology as explained above) the professor noted that this paradox of immaterial moving material is very similar to how our (immaterial) will moves our (material) body.  How does it work?  We really don't know.  But it gives insight into just how much we are created in the "image and likeness of God".  It's not like God (pre-Jesus) had a body that looks like ours, but isn't it interesting that somehow God has connected our will to our body - making a hybrid of spiritual and material.  It isn't easily explainable, how this works.  Previously the professor had noted that the human "hybrid" is possibly the hardest thing to explain metaphysically - I am starting to see why.  Man people are cool!

 OK, enough metaphysics (want more? check this out at catholic.com)!  After class, I immediately went over to the Marian chapel where, as usual for Thursdays, we had a Holy Hour with the Marian community.  I went to confession, said the rosary, prayed for different people (including all you folks), and prayed evening prayer with everybody.  Mass immediately followed.  Today I was cantor, so that required me to pick and start the opening hymn and lead the alleluia verse.  Usually, I am a bit nervous cantoring at Marian (more-so than at Bruté) I guess because there are more people and you have to use the microphone and stuff, but today it really wasn't that difficult.  After Mass most guys (including myself) went over to the cafeteria for dinner, for which I had a toasted pb&j (really tasty) and a few other things (that I now forget).  

 After dinner I hung out in the library because I was supposed to attend this talk about an hour later.  It was a talk about ecology/environmentalism from a Catholic perspective, so I was barely interested, but not really.  Senior seminar class was canceled tomorrow, so the professor asked us to attend this lecture...  Anyway, nobody was at the theater in the library, so I had to look up the event on the computer about a minute before it was supposed to start and found out that it was across campus.  I speed-walked over there, arriving late, but before they started (thankfully).  I don't want to spend too much time on the talk, but basically the guys said that the Catholic church teaches that we need to take care of the environment, you know don't destroy the place, because the Bible says so, and that was pretty much it.  He managed to stretch that into about an hour of talking, and there were a few other bits which I think he could/should have left out, but I won't get into it.  Whatever - I'm not one to complain...

 I got to the second half of schola practice after the talk.  We were going though Ave Verum, which we will be singing in 4-part harmony on Sunday.  It is a beautiful song, but I am on the soprano line this time (last song I was on the base line), and there is two places where the song gets really, really high.  I managed to hit the first such "spike" normally, but I have yet to get through the second one without going falsetto.  It actually doesn't sound bad, but I am always just waiting for my voice to crack at just the wrong time.  I guess I'm stretching my vocal range...  

  The last major thing today was night prayer (compline) which I was cantoring today.  We chant night prayer three times a week in common, and we use a cantor-congregation style setup.  Basically, the cantor chants one verse, and then the body of guys, and then the cantor and so on...  I was again, not really nervous about it today (which is awesome), and I think that myself and Aaron (the organist) did a really good job.  The speed seemed good, I didn't stumble on any words, the guys jumped into their parts quickly, it was wonderful (and beautiful).  It's amazing what happens when you do things for the glory of God rather than yourself!

 And with that, I basically made the rounds, finished typing this post up, talked with a few guys in my room, and now I'm off to bed.  It was another great day!
Read More
, , , , , , , , , , 1 Comments

Day 3 - A week in the life of a seminarian (updated)

I was going to try and make this post shorter than the previous two, but I started thinking about everything that has happened - and, I'm sorry to say, but I don't think that's going to happen...  Hope springs eternal I suppose!

Today began with my alarm going off at 6:00 AM.  Why do I mention that?  Because instead of Mass at 6:45 (like a usual Wednesday), we were having Mass this evening, and morning prayer at 7:15.  So, my extra half-hour of sleep was rudely interrupted by my cell phone going off early.  Even worse, it was across the room, so I had to jump out of bed, turn it off, and then go back to bed...  Anyway, morning prayer went as normal - meaning that I had to look back at it to find what had jumped out at me then: mercy.  It seemed like every psalm, the reading, even the canticle verse, all had to do with God's mercy.

Morning Prayer was followed by breakfast.  I decided that today I was going to eat more healthily than I had the last day or two, so I made myself a bacon/egg sandwich, and I was debating what to have with it, when Andrew decided to make pancakes.  Of course, I wasn't going to pass up pancakes, and when he decided to add chocolate chips, I wasn't about to complain, and when I thought about drizzling chocolate syrup on top, I didn't hesitate   Let's just say that it was a very good pancake, but my intention to eat something healthy, had quickly disappeared.

Anyway, classes began with senior seminar at 9:00 AM.  We continued talking about Introduction to Christianity, today covering the (recent) history of how people have perceived Jesus.  Basically, the view swung between seeing just the "Jesus" we can find historically and the "Jesus" of faith.  These positions generally disconnected the two realities - something that Ratzinger advocates must stay connected together.

In moral issues we covered the death penalty.  The class very much followed strait down the line what Catholic teaching is on the matter.  Since Tertullian (3rd century AD), one of the first Christians to write on the matter (that we still have record), the teaching has basically been that capital punishment is within the authority of the state, but should only be used in necessary (and today, probably few) instances.

In human growth and development we moved into cognitive development during early childhood (3-7 years).  It is so cool to see how many major cognitive advances kids overcome during this period.  They can understand more and more advanced concepts, and see the world in much more developed ways.  Pretty cool stuff!

After that class, as usual, I went with a few guys and prayed the rosary at the Marian shrine (across campus).  It is such a beautiful moment to just forget about everything going on in classes and focus on giving the day to God through His mother.  I was a bit worried about the calculus test and meeting with the dean that afternoon, and it was nice to just give it into God's hands.  

For lunch I went to the cafeteria.  My resolve to eat healthily (and minimally) was intact.  At least until I saw the blueberry pie...  A slice of lasagna and some salad joined the pie as my "small" lunch...

I ate quickly, so as to give myself some time to whip through a few more calculus problems for review.  I managed to get myself confused by a certain kind of equation (derivatives of square roots), only to figure out how to get around the difficulty moments before class.  Thankfully, the test wasn't too hard (at least I don't think so), and there was some extra credit, so I am hopeful in getting a good grade.  We'll see, it wasn't as bad as I was thinking it could be.

After calculus, usually I would be done, but not today.  Today I had to meet with the academic dean.  Basically, my problem is this: because of the way that credits transferred into Marian I am at a deficit of 200 level classes.  This means that technically to graduate I need 19 more 200+ level credit hours - no big deal, just one more hour than this semester - but, I also have to take logic (PHL150).  So, that leaves me taking 22 credit hours next semester, 12 of which are hard philosophy classes, and the others all of which will have to be above 200 level (so, pretty hard too).  Let's just say that I don't really want to do that.  Anyway, I met with the dean, and he said he would look into some of the transferred classes to see if they were equivalent of 200 level classes at Marian, but if none of them worked out, I would be stuck finishing those 22 hours.  We'll see...

At this point (2:30ish), I finally headed back to Bruté.  While walking to my room I saw a few guys were watching World War Z, so I stopped to check it out and ended up staying to watch the movie.  It was good I suppose, I guess I'm not the type that usually goes for zombie movies - but it was well done, full of action, and had a good message (you know, save humanity).  After that I worked on a few things, caught up with email, and then raced off to Mass/Evening Prayer at 4:30.  Today was a discernment dinner - which basically means we invite guys who are interested in seminary to spend the evening here and kind of figure out what seminary is like.  The Gospel reading today at Mass jumped out at me at one point where Jesus "gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick." - Luke 9  I thought that it was interesting that Jesus sent them out to "heal the sick" - I haven't thought about this point too much.  I guess I often focus on fixing problems rather than healing them, and there is a difference.  Jesus' touch is one of healing and mercy.  Certainly, there is a balance here, but I think that in some sense I need to see that love isn't "hard" and tough, but mercy... 

After Mass we all drove over to Marian for dinner.  If you have been following the renditions of what I ate the rest of the day, you can probably see where this is going.  Once again, they had blueberry pie, so of course I grabbed a slice of that, and what is better than blueberry pie?  Blueberry pie with vanilla ice cream!  (So, I grabbed that.)  It also must have been fry-everything day, because most of the cafeteria's food was fried.  Chicken nuggets - grab 3, corn dog - grab one, fried pb&j (!) - grab one...  You can see where this is going...  I did grab some carrots/peppers to add some nutritional value, but I don't think it really helped.  Oh well, tomorrow is another day...  (of course, I say that every day.)

After dinner, we came back to Bruté where we played a quick game of two-ball (lots of fun, but the other guys were more cut-throat that I was, so I was knocked out mid-way through).  Then we had a fun time while the freshman/sophomores told their favorite memories of Bruté life.  It was hilarious, and while I can't duplicate the stories here, I hope you can imagine 40 guys laughing hysterically at renditions of different episodes from around the seminary.  There were stories about crazy drivers, late-night games, people who ate just the tops off of muffins (don't ask) - it was incredibly funny!

Alright, well I just hit paragraph number 14, so this post needs to conclude asap.  After the story-telling session I played a bit more two-ball (again losing), talked with guys about more funny stories of days gone by (again funny), went to Adoration for an hour (it switched between splendid, peaceful, distracted, prayerful, and tired), then talked with Declan for an hour about philosophy (how it's cool, sometimes) and Bruté (in general).  Then I spent another half hour working on this post, and now I am going to bed.

Good night everybody!  As Corey would say - sleep with the angels!
Read More
, , , , , , , 1 Comments
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)