Open Wide the Doors for Christ!

We began with Mass at 8:30 AM (mercifully not at 6:45, because I didn't get to bed until midnight or so), followed by breakfast (which was delicious - but unfortunately, I had forgotten it was Friday, and inadvertently consumed meat, something I usually refrain from on Fridays - mea culpa), and then introductions.  We did this funny method of introductions - everybody said their name, class, and diocese and then 4 facts about themselves (1 of which was false).  Some people were pretty hilarious, I wasn't all that creative...   Next was introductions of staff and the priests.  We have a new vice-rector this year, Fr. Joe Moriarty, so everybody is in the process of getting to know him.  Then Daniel Elsener, the president of Marian, came over and gave a short talk.  It was one of those things, I was like "oh brother, another speech", but if you actually listened to his talk, about generosity, thankfulness, and working towards the betterment of ourselves and others, there was many good points.  That is something that I need to work on - listening to others even when I think I already know it or whatever... The we had a quick introduction to spiritual direction, which I thought would be mostly for the new guys, and once again I learned a lot.  It is so important to be open to our spiritual directors and follow their directions and challenges.  It is so easy for me to slip into the thought that, "well, I'm doing pretty good, I guess I don't have much to work on" - totally wrong!  Then we had lunch, which, being only 2-3 hours after breakfast, nobody was hungry, but we all ate anyway.  That is another thing I need to work on this semester - eating less.  After lunch the new guys had server training while the older guys had reader training.  Positions are split up (somewhat) to different classes.  Then we had  a break (during which I went over to Marian and spent an absurd amount of money on a parking pass), and then at 4 PM, a run-down of all the policies and rules and what-not (basically, act like seminarians, not heathens, don't destroy the seminary, and clean up after yourself).  Then evening prayer, then dinner (more food...), then schola practice/get-together (lots of new guys, most of which are much better than myself), then a ton of guys went downtown for ice-cream (more food...)

All-in-all it was a great day.  Yes, it was long, and sometimes a bit boring, but I am constantly amazed at how much I can actually learn if I am open too it.  I have a lot of work to do...   

Tomorrow is looking to be a fun day.  A few more conferences, but then we are going out to a lake to do some swimming, bbq-ing, and tons of other (fun) stuff.

Good Night All!  Sorry this was just a boring update - there are so many funny stories, but it is getting close to being tomorrow, so I need to hit the sack.

Well folks, it is now the last day before finals week, and I really don't feel like studying so I decided to do a blog post.  This is another one of those boring "what's going on in my life" posts:

Last week was somewhat busy.  I had some homework due (not too hard) and the infamous Shakespeare paper.  Anyway, I eventually made it through everything with some late nights.  Unfortunately, that left me with a mild cold for the last few days - ah, well, I can sleep in a week.  Yesterday, I ran the mini-marathon (all 13 miles!), and had a tough, but fun, time.  Later that evening I went out to dinner with (mostly) the Springfield guys.  Mark was here from Meinrad, so we wanted to do something before he went back this morning.  Then we briefly came back to Bruté before some of us went downtown, got some ice-cream, and then went over to St. John's where they were having a party thingy.  We listened to the music for a little while (a really wide range of music was played) and then came back here.  It was kind of funny; we had six guys, so I drove and we all squeezed in my car - it was tight, but that added to the excitement...

Anyway, today has been a bit more laid back.  I slept like a log last night (something about running 13+ miles does that to you), and got up around 8:30.  I led Morning Prayer (I've been the prayer leader for the entire week), and I got nearly everything spot on today.  A lot of guys went out to eat for breakfast/lunch, so the ones that were still here (myself included) made a bacon/ground-beef concoction.  It actually turned out pretty delicious!  This afternoon was really slow, I managed to get next to nothing done studying wise - procrastination has struck again...  At 5 we had a Frisbee game, which we had to play in the poor (60, windy, drizzly) weather.  We didn't play as well as we should have and lost.  I should have thrown myself into it more, but my legs were protesting a bit, and I was feeling sort of lazy.  Anyway, I am now going to go to Adoration, get a grace boost and then hit the books.

Tomorrow at 8 AM I have my theology final - unfortunately, my grade is barely above an A, so I need to pretty much ace this test (bummer).  Then I have the Shakespeare final at 3.  I haven't started studying for it yet - the paper burnt out my appetite for Shakespeare.  On Tuesday I have my Sociology final at 8AM and a take home final due in Ethics at 2.  Once again, I'm behind - haven't started either...  Last, but not least, I have my final in Asian Philosophies on Wednesday at 10AM (shouldn't be too hard), and my take home final is due in Catholic Music on Thursday.  So, there you have it.  I have a good final week schedule and still have managed to get behind on everything.  If I had to guess I'll be up late tonight studying Theology, and then it won't be too bad.  Either way, I'll be done in 3ish days!

I'll have to do a post on how the year in seminary has been overall (great!) at some point.  Probably, it will show up later this week...  I also hope to have some more spiritual style articles up at some point.  I have about 5 spots in my breviary marked that were good lines/bits, and other stuff written on scraps of paper just waiting for me to devote some time to them.  Ah, well, that's the end of the semester for you. 

and just because it is a cool picture of the race yesterday: