Showing posts with label Psychology. Show all posts

Pope Francis - the most talked about topic on facebook in 2013!

Pope Francis was the most talked about topic on Facebook (globally) in 2013!  Pretty awesome!  Alright, back to senior seminar (lots of paper writing still to do), psychology (presentation tomorrow), and metaphysics (cumulative final on Thursday).  Almost done! 
 
 
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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!
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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!
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