Open Wide the Doors for Christ!

I have found that there are usually two possible reasons when I don't post much - either there isn't much going on, or I am really busy.  In this case, it is the latter reason.  The past week has been absolutely packed...  Here what Monday and Tuesday were like:

On Monday, after returning from the soccer tournament on Sunday afternoon, I went to my first 2 classes (Senior Seminar and Moral Issues) and then left directly for the Rockford area, where the funeral of my grandmother took place.  The drive was long, very long.  I mean, on the clock, it was "only" 4 hours, but after the first 30 minutes or so the colorful trees stopped being interesting, and after an hour or two I had ran out of stuff to listen to.  Usually, I'll have a few Lighthouse Catholic CD's to listen to (on various topics), some music, and Catholic Answers on my iPod.  However, in this case I didn't have any new lighthouse cd's, I had listened to all the music already, and my iPod has stopped working correctly, so that wasn't an option either.  I tried to listen to the radio, but I would catch the tail end of a song that I knew and then it would switch to an advertisement or another song that I didn't want to listen to.  Thus, after about 2-3 hours I was utterly bored and getting tired - fun!  I guess the toll booths kept me going - after hitting Gary I hit toll, after toll, after toll, on my way through the Chicago area and then across to Rockford.  I hit one upon entering Illinois - "alright" I thought to myself, "there's that toll dad said would be here".  Then I hit another one going through Chicago - "wow, another $4 gone, great!".  Then I hit another one on the way out of Chicago - "you have got to be kidding, that's not another sign for a toll is it?" - $2 gone...  Needless to say, I wasn't too excited when I saw signs for a fourth one (or was it fifth?).  Oh boy, gotta love it!

Anyway, I did eventually make it there, met up with the family and had a nice mid-Monday lunch at a Mediterranean restaurant.  The prices were reasonable (yes!), and the food was interesting (in a good way).  I quickly changed into my suit/tie and we headed over to the funeral home for the viewing.  It was the moment that I had been dreading - you know, I knew it would be an emotionally tough, sad, moment.  Even when a death is a little bit expected, it's hard...  Thankfully though, God's grace was definitely there.  Yeah, it was tough, but you know what, we got to talk about some wonderful memories, meet some people that we had heard about, but hadn't met, and generally it was a really good evening.  Don't get me wrong, it was hard, it was sad, it was something that I didn't want to happen, but out of that sadness and pain, I could feel that God was giving some peace and strength to all of us.

The next day we had the funeral.  Myself and several of my cousins were "enlisted" to serve, and of course, being the seminarian, I was expected to know what was going on.  Unfortunately, the last time I served a funeral was a few years ago, and that was in the extraordinary form (which is at least a little bit different), so I was feeling a bit overwhelmed right beforehand.  Thankfully, everything turned out fine.  All my cousins are great servers, so they knew pretty much what had to happen (I didn't have to worry about the obvious stuff), and nothing was really up-tight, so when something didn't happen perfectly I didn't worry about it.  We got everything done, stayed reverent, and didn't break anything or light it on fire - success!  Actually, getting a bit more serious, the Mass was beautiful and I was very glad that I was able to serve in it.

Wow, I'm already up to three paragraphs and I haven't gotten very far yet...  Anyway, continuing at warp speed, after the funeral Mass we had the typical reception afterwards - again, rather than being a total downer, God's grace was definitely at work.  I got to spend some quality time talking with my cousins (and the pastor of the parish there, who was phenomenal), and also hung out with my family for an hour or two before hitting the road back.  Let's just say that it was a repeat of the way there though I now had one more lighthouse cd (thanks mom!), so the ride went something like this:

1st hour:

suffer through the radio, find that the exit is closed, go an extra 5 miles to get on correct highway, more radio, "hey look, a toll booth"

2nd hour:

listen to lighthouse cd, another toll, finish cd, yep pretty good, another toll, "you have got to be kidding, this route should have had less tolls, not more", another toll, 

3rd hour:

radio, radio, radio... jam to some song that I have never heard before to try and stay awake...

4th hour:

this is definitely longer than it took to get there, only 50 more miles, only 20 more miles, almost there, roll down windows to stay awake, prop eyes open, "why am I so tired, it's only 10?", pull into Brute parking lot, "finally"

Yeah, well I hope that brought a smile to your face!  It is pretty funny looking back, but those tolls were definitely getting old, and I was feeling pretty tired by the time I got back.  All in all though, the trip was much, much better than I expected.  Yeah, it was emotionally draining, but God's grace was definitely there.  God is good!

Alright, well I wanted to write a post about the entire week, but I have found that I can't possibly write about everything that goes on.  Maybe I'll get something else written up tomorrow, but then again I have a ton that I need to get done over the next few weeks and I may end up reading or something for one of the (several) big projects I need to get done in before thanksgiving.  I can't wait until thanksgiving - all these big papers will be done!  Good night folks!  Enjoy that extra hour of sleep (daylight savings time ends tomorrow, that is Sunday, at 2 AM).

I wanted to do a post of some sort on St. Augustine both because his feast is tomorrow - the 27th - and, since I am in an Augustine and Aquinas class this semester, I figure I could probably find a good quote to go off of.  As it turns out, we just started Augustine's On Free Choice of the Will  in class and not only has it become one of my favorite philosophy books (so far) because of its easy comprehensibility and depth of topic, but it also has a pretty good quote for the occasion.

What can I say, I wish I had remembered this line in metaphysics class.  I love the class, philosophy can be fun when the topic is interesting and the professor is knowledgeable and engaging, but today the room was stiflingly hot, and the topic was tough to wrap my mind around.  We talked about what is real (or actual), proper and extended senses to that terminology, stuff that can't be real (square circles), and what is being,.  Plus, many different views on that subject: phenomenalism - which says that something is real because it does actions, materialism - which says that something is real because it is made of matter, essentialism - which says that something is real because it shares in the quiddity (yeah, I hadn't heard that word before either) of the higher form of itself, existentialism - which says that something is real because it is (or is for) a person, and thomism - which we never quite finished defining. - it was definitely on the deep end of philosophy, and this is definitely an almost uselessly simple overview of the topic.  Anyway, I could have definitely used some Divine inspiration to help my brain out.  Now that I have given you something that is difficult (for me), I should probably give you something on God's help:

Example #1 - Seminary.  Seriously, there is no way that I would have learned this much, had this much fun, and grown in so many other ways if God hadn't put me here and helped me along the way.  I guess that is a pretty simple example, but I really am immensely blessed to be here.  Not that I am thinking of discerning out (by any means), but no matter what I do in the future, these will remain fond memories and phenomenal foundations for the rest of my life.

Example #2 - Augustine's life.  Augustine, if you don't already know, was quite the character (in the bad sense) when growing up.  The son of an (originally) pagan father and a Christian mother, adolescence hit him like a ton of bricks.  He went out with the wrong crowd, did lots of bad things, became a heretic, and on and on...  Thankfully, his mother, Monica (who's feast day is today), continued praying for her son's conversion, and thankfully, if my recollection of the Confessions, is accurate, Augustine continued to constantly search(with varying success) for truth.  These two factors (both, I think, coming from God's grace) meant his eventual (re)conversation to Christianity.  Of course, his impact on the Church has been immense, though, due to limits on time, I can't really go into any details, but I think his life story is a wonderful example of how much of an effect God can have on our life.

Of course, that is a tad off topic to the quote from St. Augustine, which primarily covered philosophical or intellectual achievements made with the help of God, but I think that we all (myself especially) can always use a reminder that God will help us in everything we do (so long as we are willing to surrender it to Him).  OK, that's all I've got for now.  Have a wonderful feast of St. Augustine, remember to pray with perseverance like St. Monica, and don't forget to constantly give your day to God.

A source for this exquisite piece of literary excellence:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo