Open Wide the Doors for Christ!

While I haven't posted on it too much, myself and a few other Brute guys ran in the same mini-marathon as we did last year.  The half-marathon itself was last Saturday (May 3rd), but this post will try to encompass all the training and whatnot we did during the semester.

Training began about 8 weeks before the run (so back right after the end of spring break).  The plan we found online had us doing four runs each week and started out with runs of 3 or 4 miles long.  I had been doing a bit of running (on treadmills) on the weeks leading up to that, so I felt great for the first few weeks.  Then, to my great surprise, I found that even as the runs got longer (after a few weeks), I still wasn't struggling too much.  Actually, I was running faster, further, and more easily than ever before.  Last year, at the end of our training (when we were at our fastest), I ran a 4 mile route in 26:50, which is a bit faster than a 7 minute mile.  This year, at the beginning of our training, I ran it in 28 minutes, but within a few weeks I was running it faster than I did last year and by the second week of April I ran the same route in 25:46 (6:35 minutes per mile).  Another example: last year I ran the eight mile training route in barely under an hour (7:38 pace), but this year, again near the end of our eight weeks, I ran I slightly longer route in 56:44 (7:04 pace).  Now, to say that I was running faster than before isn't to say that I was putting in less effort.  There were certainly times when I felt terrible (like when I ran 6 miles on the treadmill - yeah, not much fun), or my legs were absolutely dead (like after our 12 mile run when we struggled along slowly the entire time), or when I attempted to play ultimate Frisbee after running those 12 miles (and my legs started seizing up and spasm-ing)...  Overall I was certainly in better condition than last year (often running faster than Willie and Dominic, who usually set a brutal pace last year).  

During all those runs - whether hard, or really hard - I found that the absolutely best way to pass the time and the long, leg-pounding miles.  If I was cruising along without too much difficulty, I found that myself meditating really well on the mysteries (it was easy to get the idea/picture of each mystery in my head), and when I was struggling to keep my legs moving, or completely out of energy at the end of a long run, I found that meditating on the mysteries kept me going.  Even if my legs were completely dying, there was no way I was going to stop and walk while in the middle of contemplating Our Lord carrying His cross (or another mystery).  Most of the other guys listened to music, but breaking my iPod turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it made me realize just how good of an opportunity running offers for prayer.  

Another benefit of all that running (25 or so miles a week during our longest weeks) was that it forced me to keep exercising.  If I hadn't been forced to keep training, I certainly wouldn't have exercised anywhere near that often (or that hard), and I probably would have neglected to do much exercise at all, especially during those last few, tough and busy weeks.  Exercise, as I learned in psychology class, is the best "antidote" to stress and I can vouch from experience that I feel much better after exercising (and don't feel as bad about eating a good meal during community dinners and the like).  The negative of that constant training though was that my legs were often tired and sore when I wanted to play a game of Frisbee or football (and so I couldn't play as hard as I would have liked).  

Anyway, after all that training, eventually the big day came of the actual mini-marathon.  The night before we had attended (and I got to serve at) the Mass for vocations, which was a great reminder of what (and Who) we were running for, and we also enjoyed a large pasta dinner afterwards to charge up our muscles for the next day.  On the morning of the race, Luke generously drove us downtown and dropped us off a few blocks from the starting zone.  We worked our way down to Washington street (where the race starts) and joined the crowd that was filling the different corrals.  A few minutes later the first wave was started and the second wave (the one Dominic, Willie, Chris, and myself were in) moved up to the start line.  I was surprised to find that we were pretty close to the front of the crowd with only 10 or so rows of people in front of me (last year we were buried back in the middle of the crowd).  After a few minutes the countdown started and then, with the music absolutely pounding (which was great!), we took off.  I didn't know if we were going to stick together or not - we had been more spread out in training than last year - and I ended up starting at a really fast pace, whereas they weren't as crazy and stuck with a pace they knew they could keep up...  So, I was on my own when the crowd surged past the first mile (and I found that I had just ran it in 7:00 - way fast!).  I knew that I was going fast, but my legs - while a little bit sore - weren't protesting too much and I was breathing easily, so I just kept going.  Mile 2: 14 minutes - uh oh, this is pretty fast.  Mile 3.1 (the 5k mark): 21:49 - you have got to be kidding, I just tied for my fastest (timed) 5k!...  

Still, I was feeling pretty good, so I just kept going at a pace that was comfortable and gradually it started to slow down.  My legs were starting to feel legitimately tired by the time I hit the 5 mile mark, but I was nearing the Indianapolis 500 track, so I kept my mind off the pain by looking for the group of guys that were coming to cheer us on from Brute.  I didn't see them on my way into the track so I figured that they had scoped out a spot near the exit and so, in I went.  There was a pretty good sized ramp up into the track, but my legs survived the challenge pretty well (as they had for the smaller hills on the first few miles), and I crossed the 6 mile and then 10 kilometer marks at a pace a bit slower than a 7 minute/mile (7:05 or 7:10).  I knew that this pace was pretty fast, but it's not quite as crazy as a 7 minute/mile, and I figured that the track - being pretty flat - would offer a chance to just cruise along and knock out the next 2 miles while maintaining that fast pace.  On the one hand, I was worried because I knew that I was dead tired after holding a pace like that for our 8 mile run, but on the other hand I knew that even if I slowed down a ton after the 8 or 9 mile mark I could still hit my goal of 1:40 (sub-100 minutes).  Either way, I did keep the pace somewhat high on my way around the track, but - as last year - it wasn't anywhere near as cool or easy as I thought it would be.  The track is long, really, really boring, and the crowd was squeezed pretty tightly together by this time (both because they wanted to be on the inside of the curve, but also because I had caught up with, and was in the middle of, the first wave of runners).  Basically, the track was miserable - not because I was feeling terrible - but because I knew I was getting tired, and when you are getting tired you don't want to be dodging around people, bored out of your mind, or finding out that there is a bit of wind pushing you around...  Two things kept me going though: first, the rosary, which I had been praying since mile 2 or so, and was now on the luminous or sorrowful mysteries (I don't remember which ones) and second, it was on the track that Fr. Dustin Boehm (who I didn't know was a priest at the time) passed me and congratulated me for pacing him that entire time (I guess he had been trying to catch me since the beginning of the race).  I managed to stay pretty close behind father as the track slowly slid by (this year I saw the yard of bricks - which wasn't nearly as cool as people made it out to be), but I could feel myself hurting as we (finally) exited the track and a bit later hit mile 9.  Unfortunately, I didn't see the Brute guys here either (as it turned out, they were at the entrance of the track and we had missed each other), so I was starting to feel worn out but managed to struggle on towards mile 10.  

I knew that at mile 10 they were handing out gel packs (which basically give you a boost of electrolytes and sugar) which I figured would help my legs to keep going, and also, at the 10 mile mark I was only 3.1 miles from the finish (a 5k)!  I picked up two the gel things and swallowed about a quarter of one (didn't want to over do it) along with some water (which they were handing out) and I promptly got a terrible stomach cramp.  It was one of those things, I was doing a pretty good pace - so that was good - but I was starting to really feel tired and I was hoping that these gel things would give me the boost I needed to finish strong and they did the exact opposite.  Now, on top of legs that were threatening to collapse, and an uphill last few miles (or so it seemed), I had the added discomfort of a stomach cramp - wonderful...  I forced myself to keep running, knowing that all of the pain wasn't just going to go away if I stopped to walk (and it would be immensely harder to get going again), but those last few miles were absolutely brutal.  I star

Yeah, so the mini-marathon was awesome!  I was forced to stay in shape the entire semester.  I got to spend a lot of good time with the other guys I was training with.  I got to experience a wonderful Mass at St. John's and a delicious pasta dinner afterwards.  I ran my second mini-marathon - feeling great for the first few miles, keeping the pace high for the middle miles, avoiding collapsing during the last few miles, and finishing with a fantastic time!  I ran for a great cause, got some praying in, offered up a bit of suffering, and had a blast doing it!  

On Wednesday a few guys, including myself, went over and did some exercising in the gym at Marian.  I am lucky enough to not have classes until 9:30 or 10:00 each day, so I tagged along with them and forced myself to do some exercising.  We got there around 8:00 AM and I started looking for a machine to use (there is a rather large assortment of machines).  I didn't really want to use the treadmill primarily because it is boring, so I took a cue from one of the other guys and went for a stationary bicycle.  Of course, I didn't want take the one right next to him, that's just kind of awkward, and I didn't want to take one of the ones that is super cushy, with a huge seat and straight up and down position, so I went for the third and final kind of bike which turned out to be the elite, racing-style bike, forward swept handle-bars and all.  I didn't really mind the different position, whenever I'm riding my (more typically shaped bike) I tend to lean forward rather than sit straight up anyway, so I figured it would work just fine.  

Well, it did, sort of.  There were only two buttons - mode and reset - which neither seemed to turn it on, but thankfully, after hopping onto it and pedaling, the display fired right up.  Victory!  Now, I usually don't require much in the way of data or metrics, but I do expect the basics, which this machine apparently didn't give.  I flipped through all two pages of the display and it didn't show either time or distance, though it showed cadence, kila-joules, and watts.  Hmm, not very useful to me...  Anyway, I kept pumping away at the machine, twisting this little knob under the handlebars that made things harder or easier (and made the numbers get bigger or grow faster or get smaller and grow slower respectively).  As you can probably tell, I didn't really know what I was doing, but I kept at it either way and after several minutes of hard effort made it to the incredible accomplishment of 100 kila-joules (with a peak power output of over 300 watts)!  I still have no idea what those numbers mean, but I'm sure they are spectacular... (maybe not...)

OK, continuing the story - I promise I'll get to something important eventually - I decided  after biking for a little while that I had had enough of that, so I moved over to the treadmills.  Again there were a lot of options, but I ended up picking one that larger (which usually means that it can go faster) and had a bigger display (no more goofy telemetry).  Anyway, I got onto it and it asked me for my weight, so I hit select, which apparently wasn't the button to hit because it skipped to the next screen, where it asked me to choose an exercise type.  I looked at the buttons and found that I could choose between fat burn, cardio, hill reps, and speed reps.  I thought briefly about my options and went with the hill reps - I figured that I could choose a speed and then it would automatically make the grade go up and down - sort of like the real world.  It then asked for a difficulty level - some number from 1 to 10 - so I chose something on the higher end and hit start.  Off it went - at 1% incline and .5 mph...  Well, that wasn't quite fast enough (to say the least), so I pushed the increase speed button and then pushed it again, and again, and again.  Unfortunately, it beeped every time it went up an increment in speed, so after a lot of beeping I was cruising along at 8 mph and a few percent incline.  Alright, thought I, time for some exercise.  

I glanced up to the TV (which was right in front of me) and saw that they were showing some replays of basketball games.  I don't really watch basketball, but it was better than watching the wall, so I started watching the game.  Wham!  The incline went up to 4% (which was pretty high for me) and 5 mph (which is barely faster than a walk, in other words, slow) - alright, I increased the speed up to where I wanted it and settled back into my run.  Wham!  Again the incline changed, and again the speed dropped.  I pushed it back to where I wanted it - less incline, more speed - and continued my run.  Well, as you probably could guess, it did it again - but this time the incline went up to 12% at which point I nearly fell off the treadmill because I wasn't expecting it, and again, the speed reset to whatever it wanted.  Alright, enough of that, I switched to speed-rep mode, expecting it to go with whatever speed I set and then bump up a bit every so often from there.  I was wrong again, because it just kept resetting the speed to 5 mph, then 5.5 mph, then 7 mph, then 6 mph, etc.  After another minute of wrestling with this I hit stop (I had done 1 mile in 8 minutes) and looked for manual mode.  I did eventually find it and did another 12 minutes of running - this time with myself controlling everything - and finished with a total of 2.6 miles in 20 minutes.  I would have gone further but the constantly changing speed (and loss of momentum) had burnt me out.

So, what was the point of these stories.  Well, first of all, I wanted to share something that happened to me that was pretty funny, but I am also hoping to be able to apply the story to a topic from the faith.  I know I am new at this, so hopefully this example isn't really cheesy, but the real subject of this post is peace.  Often times - like that bike that didn't tell me what was going on, or the treadmill that kept changing the speed or incline - we don't know what life will bring us each day, and when we do know, we sometimes don't enjoy it very much.  Basically, life isn't always fun!  Sometimes we lose friends or family, sometimes work (or school) is stressful, sometimes we have to do things that we really, really don't want to, sometimes prayer doesn't seem to be "working", sometimes life is hard, sometimes that alarm is too early.  Through all of this we try to find some peace and joy and most of the time it just doesn't work.  Our lives are busy, we are tired, and we feel like we are running from one things to the next just putting out fires.  And, you know what, that is part of life.  Hardships are part of the human experience (at least since we started sinning); however, while life will continue to be full of things that we don't like (for lack of a better term), we can still be filled with peace.  How? We have to get our peace from Christ.

In the Gospel, we see countless times where someone (or a group) is full of fear, or anxiety, or troubles, and we hear the words "peace be with you".  Some examples: After the Resurrection, Jesus appears in the upper room to his previously despairing, now startled, disciples, and the first thing that Jesus says is "Peace be with you" - Luke 24:36  Again, right before the Ascension, to his disciples who are distraught at the prospect of Him leaving, Jesus says "Peace I leave with you" - John 14:27.  Now, these examples aren't really helpful, yeah, Jesus gave them His peace, great, where do I get it?  Well, keep reading.  

In the same passage from John, Jesus continues: "my peace I give to you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid."  Here is the important part - this peace is different than the world's peace.  It isn't from the world.  True peace, as Arch-Abbot Lambert explained in our retreat last week, can only be given from, and found in, Christ.  God's perspective isn't ours, and he wants to transform all those problems, difficulties, and times of sadness into opportunities for us to grow closer to Him.  We must accept them, these crosses, as such - as means of reparation for our own sins (and others'), as times where we can learn greater trust of God, as ways to learn detachment, and as opportunities to grow in virtue.  In short, the peace of Christ, which is the only true peace, comes from learning to rely on Him and use every moment, regardless of how much we enjoy it, to become more Christlike.  This is the Little Way of St. Theresa of Lisieux, of offering up everything to God and doing everything for God.  It's not like God plans out our life and every so often sends in a difficulty - like one of those boss-levels in a video game - but whenever we are struggling He gives us the grace to persevere (which we need to accept) and the option of using that moment to grow closer to Him and become more like Him.  

Unfortunately, that's all I've got.  As an addendum I should note that this is by no means complete - there are so many other fantastic spiritual writers that have more experience than I, can write more beautifully and richly than I, know their faith better than I, and basically this means that I am undoubtedly leaving a lot out.  However, I wanted to tell you what is going on around here and simultaneously tell you something that I have been (slowly) learning through the seminary process: rely on God.  Finally, I need to say that there is another direction one could go with the topic of peace, that of becoming peacemakers (from the beatitudes).  I'll have to hit that topic at some point in the future.  Happy Friday!

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit - Romans 15:13

Well, as I have said before this summer has been absolutely flying by.  I guess I will have to have a post here later about the upcoming semester, but for now I'm just going to let you know what has happened today.  As always, there is something to be learned from everyday life.

This morning dad and I went for a run - well, dad went for a run, I went for something more resembling a crawl.  Dad chose this particular route the goes from our house and then hits the hills - and they never stop...  We (as always) blew through the first mile.  Dad has this nifty GPS running watch and at one point it said that we were hitting a 6:15 min/mile.  Anyway, that didn't last long.  I guess I figured that I was in OK shape - sure I hadn't ran that much this summer, but I wasn't out of shape by any means.  If I could run 13 miles on flat terrain back in May, certainly 5 of 6 miles on hilly terrain would be doable, right?  (wrong)  After a few hills I started slowing down and dad slowly pulled away.  On the last mile I was pretty worn out (even with the slow pace) and my feet hurt (because I just got a new pair of shoes), and my pride hurt (because dad was nowhere in sight), and so I stopped to fix my shoes.  That pause was just about to the top of the last big hill, so I was looking at somewhat more flat trek to get home (still a bit uphill, but getting easier), and I, for whatever reason, thought about martyrdom and how (being the humble person I am) I figured that I'd have the courage to be a martyr.  Then, as I should have expected, my next thought was like "could you even run all the way home?" - Of course, I didn't hear a booming voice from Heaven or anything, but I certainly knew that God was challenging me (in a tiny way).  With that in mind, I forced myself to run all the way home; yeah it hurt, but there was no way I was stopping (God has a sense of humor too, the lights all were green).  So I found two things out during the run, I'm not in as good of shape as I thought, and I'm also not as humble as I need to be.  I guess that I'll be working on both those deficiencies during this coming semester.

Moving on:  Mass today was beautiful.  As you may know, I frequently attend the Extraordinary Mass at St. Rose.  Fr. Fromageot, who recently moved in as our assistant priest, was (so I have been told) previously the schola director at the FSSP's seminary in Denton NE.  Either way, he has a wonderful voice and knows how to use it.  Fr. Devillers said Mass at 11:00 AM this morning, so Fr. Fromageot was able to assist the choir.  It was incredible the amount that the choir improved with a little coaching before Mass and Fr. Fromageot's extra voice pulling them all together.  Kudos to all of them!  Father is having a "chant workshop" on Wednesday that I may squeeze in before heading back to Bruté on Thursday.  Should be interesting (and challenging). 

This afternoon the family (and I) went out to Siloam Springs, a state park 30-40 minutes from Quincy.  We had a delicious picnic, threw a Frisbee around for a while, did a short hike, cracked some incredibly bad (but very funny to us) puns, and overall had a wonderful afternoon.  What can I say, I love being home with the family, but at the same time I look forward to being back at seminary.  Really can't beat life right now - I have a blast when I am at home, and I have a blast when I am in seminary.  God has blessed me so much!

I hope all your Sunday's were fantastic - mine was!  If you would though, say a quick prayer for an intention of mine.  Thanks!

Sorry for the lack of blogging over the past week or two, I have found it harder than I expected to find stuff to write about now that I am home.  

On Friday, I attended the home school group monthly get-together.  We've been members of it ever since I can remember (I was home schooled from first to twelfth grade), and I can remember many fun times growing up and going to it.  Anyway, we played some Frisbee, I watched all the kids give their presentation (the activity for this month) - some were pretty cool: valence electrons, organic polymers, piano recitals, and other, various, cool presentations.  We stuck around as the mom talked throughout the afternoon, played some soccer in the parking lot (not quite as fun as "real" soccer), and got home around 6.

On Saturday, we participated in the Bridge the Gap.  It is a running race that we have done before, which is pretty cool because it goes across one of the Quincy bridges and back on the other.  It's a fun little 5K, but I always underestimate ho hard it will be.  The first mile is easy: you start going up this steep hill, but it's only about 2 blocks and the rest of the mile is mostly downhill as you cross over the first bridge.  Thus, I finished the first mile in a blistering 6:30 or so.  The second mile, though, entails crossing back over the second bridge.  And, it is all uphill.  Literally, the entire mile is a pretty good uphill climb.  Anyway, I finally finished the second mile (at which point I was right at a 7:00 min/mile pace) and went down the hill after the 2nd bridge and onto the (relatively) flat last mile.  Unfortunately, I was "recovering" from the 2nd mile and didn't ever bump up the pace like I wanted to.  Either way, I made sure to stay up with this other guy who appeared to be near my age and managed to spring the last tenth of a mile or so and pass him.  I got 2nd in my age group and 8th place overall (surprised myself with that one!).  I finished in 21:52 (something like that), which is a 7:04 min/mile, and which also is about as fast as I've ever run a 5k.  I think I may have gone a bit faster in some of the training runs for the half-marathon, but those were probably a good bit more flat.  Ah well, I think I could have gone a bit faster, but in hind site I always think I could have done better, so there you go...  

On Sunday, we did Mass at St. Rose, where I was recruited to serve - no biggie...  That afternoon we started packing for vacation.  As a family, we try to go on a vacation (almost) every year.  This year, which is "bigger" than normal, we are going to Yosemite.  So, we decided to start the fun a week early and begin to pack what we would be bringing.  Of course, seeing it as a challenge, my goal is to pack everything in a bag that can be carried on the airplane (they have a specific size that you can't go over).  Anyway, this gets a bit more difficult when you try to fit a back-pack, hiking shoes, a laptop, and the clothes in the carry on bag...  Have no fear, I'll get it in there, but I sure hope I don't have to open it until we get there.  I can zip it up right now, but still need to fit in another pair of shoes, the computer, and a shirt.  

On Monday, I started my summer job over at Titan Wheel.  It isn't that there is less going on...  The job begins at 7:30 AM, so I go to Mass at 6:30 AM every morning.  So far the job has been pretty good - just getting back into the swing of things from last summer - we'll see how it develops.  I get done at 4:00PM and then we usually have something going on that takes up the rest of the evening.  If we don't have something going on, I typically manage to waste the evening hours before hitting the sack around 10 PM so that I can get several hours of shut-eye before the alarm goes off.  

So there you have it, the last few days have been non-stop stuff to do.  (did I mention I had to sign up for Spanish on Thursday, or the packet pick-up for the race on Friday, or the after-Mass group we went out for lunch with on Sunday, or the mowing I helped out with on Monday...)  Don't think that I am complaining - but I am busy...

OK, all that writing leads me to what I actually wanted to get to.  Today, mid-day prayer, which I prayed during my lunch break, had this as its concluding prayer:

God of mercy,this midday moment of restis your welcome gift.
Bless the work we have begun,
make good its defects
and let us finish it in a way that pleases you.
Grant this through Christ our Lord.
– Amen.

I thought that the entire prayer was such a beautiful thing to say in the middle of a busy, tiring, sometimes annoying and frustrating day.  Yesterday, I was going around to the lock-boxes around the plant and checking to see if all the locks were present and working.  Anyway, this one box was inside an office of sorts and while I was checking out the locks, a few guys came in off the paint line, where they had been working, and the one guy said to me "you have a pretty tough job there don't you" - briefly the thought of how greasy the locks were, or how many different boxes there were to audit, or how long it would take me to type up the results popped into my head - and they I looked over at him sitting there peeling off the plastic suit that he had been wrapped in (it was probably 80 out) while spraying paint, and it hit me that just maybe his job was more tough than mine.  You know, how I got to take the golf cart around to the different boxes, or how I could sit in an air-conditioned office for most of the day, rather than just my lunch break...  You know, how my job was plush compared to his, and I had no reason at all to complain about it...

I thought this prayer was such a beautiful way to remind ourselves of the gift that every day truly is.  How each and every moment, those of rest, those of work, those of fun, those of sorrow, can be seen as an opportunity to grow closer to God.  To thank Him for the good, to ask His help through the laborious, to see His love in the joyful, and find the path to Him through the sorrowful.  "and let us finish it in a way that please you." - It is incredible when you actually pay attention to the prayers that we say each day.  Seriously, I say the prayers of the Mass every day, I (try to) say the prayers of the rosary every day, I say the Divine Office every day, and yet these beautiful reminders of God's love, mercy, aid, generosity, and everything else are so easy to miss.  You know, it's going to be easy to see that when on vacation - when everything is fun, and there aren't any worries - but what happens when I get back?  When Monday comes around and I have to go back to work.  That is when it is more important than ever to see God's presence, and love around us, and use our everyday lives to grow closer to Him.  I think it was in the Gospel today when Jesus says that whoever isn't against me is for me.  I think that that can also be said of everyday live - it doesn't have to lead us to Christ, but it sure can if we let it...  Just a thought.  My hope is that by trying to find Christ everywhere, I can find more to blog about as the summer goes by - we'll see what happens when Spanish gets started in a few weeks...

"Grant this through Christ Our Lord - Amen"

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:

Good afternoon everybody!  Today was the Indianapolis mini-marathon.  As you probably heard, a few of us guys here at Bruté competed in this race as part of the group running for vocations.  A few priests (and I'm sure others) from the arch-diocese of Indy started this several years back, and it now has at maybe a hundred people that do it each year.  

Yesterday evening, after picking up our packets (shirt, tag, advertisements, etc.) for the 1/2 marathon we headed over to St. John's.  There was probably 20 Bruté guys that vested in cassock/surplice, and another 10-20 guys from St. Meinrad (A upper-seminary in Indiana).  St. John's recently had a fire, which damaged the ceiling, so it was really interesting to see it with all the scaffolding overhead.  Anyway, most of us seminarians were crammed into the first few rows of pews because the sanctuary didn't have room. It was a great Mass.  Arch-Bishop Tobin gave a great homily on how the communion of saints is like the greatest social network ever and they are where we get the inspiration and help to keep on the right track.  (It was a wonderful homily, unfortunately my paraphrase/summary was quite inferior to it).  After Mass, they had a pasta dinner for all; it was really, really good meatless pasta! (besides the bread-sticks  salad, brownies, and fruit).  Got some good carbo-loading in before the race. I also picked up my race for vocations t-shirt (it is really nice - not just your average cotton t-shirt).  

Anyway, I got to bed as soon as I could after that event (around 10pm), and woke up around 6am this morning.  I had been feeling pretty good the entire time we were training, but like yesterday I came down with a cold (staying up late working on a Shakespeare essay does that to you), so this morning I wasn't feeling the best (clogged up nose and a small fever).  Needless to say, I wasn't feeling bad enough to not run, but I was aware that it might impact my performance.  I ate a banana and a brownie (thanks to whoever set them out!), and then we all (5 Bruté runners + Driver) headed down-town.  Everything within a mile of the race area was packed with people and cars trying to maneuver around.   The Indianapolis Mini-Marathon is the country's largest with some 35,000 people running in it.  Anyway, the roads around the start line were packed with people.  We worked our way over to the start road, which was divided into sections based on your expected time.  We were in group H, so we were up near-ish to the front.  I squeezed into the crowd a bit before Willie, Dominic, and Michael (they guys I've been training with), and tried to get back to the H section (going the wrong direction...).  I gave up after several yards of squirming, and just stood there for the 10 minutes or so until the race.  It was around this time that I ate the electrolyte-goop which was supposed to keep my body going the entire time (your liver holds about enough energy for 20 miles, but I didn't feel like depleting myself that much).  

Anyway, the fast runners and wheelchair division started at 7:30, and the rest of the crowd finally started going about 5 minutes later.  I was stuck maybe 15 yards behind the other guys (W, D, & M).  Unfortunately, it seemed that most of the crowd had signed up for a time faster than they would actually run, so (literally) the first 5 miles were composed of a ton of dodging around people, jumping up onto the sidewalk, squeezing around signs, etc.  So, while it meant that I wasn't thinking about the running, it meant that we were going pretty slow (8 min/mile-ish) and wearing ourselves out.  By about mile 5 or 6 the crowd was a little bit more spread out, and we were kind of with people of the same pace.  I mean, we were dodging around people (or people were dodging around us) the entire time, but it got a little bit better.

Around the 6 mile mark, I started feeling tired.  Unfortunately, it wasn't the tired that I was used to - where one joint, or muscle would hurt - I was just overall worn out.  We were going pretty slow still (compared to how fast we usually do the first miles), but I was still just not feeling up to par.  Thankfully, right around this point we ran past some guys from Bruté  who cheered us on.  It was an awesome moment, and I am very grateful that they come out and watched (THANKS GUYS!).  Right after we passed them, we entered the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  I had been looking forward to doing this part of the race the entire time we had been training - I figured I wouldn't be too tired yet (wrong), and that it would be really awesome (wrong again).  I mean, it was alright, but the crowd got a little more squeezed at this point, the track was ridiculously long (2.5 miles), and it was a little bit boring because all you could see was a lot of pavement and the stands.  I managed to miss when we actually crossed the yard-of-bricks.  I don't know how I missed it, but, well, I did... :-(  We took our second packet of electrolyte goop probably at the 7th mile.  This stuff is really nasty; the taste is alright I guess (raspberry), but it is the consistency of jelly or something, and just sticks to the inside of your mouth.  I grabbed some water, but I'm pretty sure I only got about 3/4 of the packet in my mouth and a good bit of it was lost when I tried to drink the water...  Anyway, that got me through the next few miles.

The guys were cheering us on again as we exited the stadium, so that was great.  But the excitement quickly wore off as we got to about 10 miles.  I guess I assumed that adrenaline would kick in about this time - only 3 miles to go right?  But, it didn't.  Dominic and I stuck together (kept ourselves running), but Willie had some energy left so he gradually pulled away.  I was glad he did, because we (ok, at least I) was slowing him down.  Anyway, those 3 miles went by really, really slowly.  All the other miles had passed pretty fast; they had water stops and a clock with the duration so far just about every mile (which was great), but this section of the run felt like it took forever.  I wanted to walk so bad, even with only a mile to go (when I though for sure the adrenaline would show up), I barely could keep jogging.  Anyway, we kept forcing each other forward, and the crowds cheering helped a little bit, and we finally worked our way through the last mile and finished.  (I ran/sprinted the last few yards, but really had nothing left for the finish).  

Right after finishing I grabbed some water, waited to stop feeling light headed, and met up with Michael (who finished a few minutes after us) before walking over to the food tables and getting a banana, cookies, etc.  Generally I feel hungry after running (especially that long), but today I just felt dead.  I did force myself to eat and drink a little, but there was no way I was going for a hot-dog at the Race for vocations tent.  Of course, now when I am typing this I would eagerly go for it, but not right after finishing.

OK, if that didn't seem to optimistic, it's because was really hoping to feel better during the race.  However, there were plenty of positives:  I finished under 1:45, which was my goal with a time of 1:44:54  (more stats here).  That means I finished 2347th overall (top 6% or so) and 88th in my age group.  The weather was perfect (60 and cloudy).  I ran the entire way (unthinkable a few months ago).  I could go on and on... I am so glad that I ran it, but I wish it hadn't hurt so bad.  Goal next year: beat 100 minutes!

Thanks to Luke, Corey, and Andrew for the pictures!

Well, here is another weekly recap for you (actually, it will focus mostly on today since that is what I remember best).  This week has been pretty good; below is a quick rundown of what went on in my life (I hope it's not incredibly boring).:

School: I finished several of the essays due next week done (or at least in a state where I could turn them in if I needed to).  I have a few bits of homework left, two different class presentations left, neither of which should be terribly hard, and the Shakespeare paper (yes, I keep pushing it off).  All that will definitively be done by next Friday (whether I want it to or not), so that is the point when I will start studying for most of my finals.  I have 2 on Monday (Theology and Shakespeare), 1 on Tuesday (Sociology), 1 on Wednesday (Asian Philosophies), and two take-homes (Ethics and Music in Catholic worship).  Most are comprehensive, so they will be long and worth quite a bit.  Ah, well, it won't be that bad...

Music: This week I just about forgot that I was cantor on Tuesday (and I'm the guy in charge of the schedule...).  About 5 till Mass, when I typically make sure that whoever is scheduled is there and getting prepared, it hit me that it was my day.  Thankfully, there are plenty of easy Easter hymns, so I just picked one out quickly and went with it.  Actually, most daily Masses are pretty easy unless there is a feast or something, just an entrance hymn and the psalm before the Gospel.  Since this Thursday was St. Mark's feast day, the schola sang for Mass (which was over at Marian because it was Thursday).  It turned out wonderful, no big mistakes and some great songs (and here is my post with videos of them).

Athletics:  This week I played soccer twice (Tuesday and today), for the first times this year; both times were a blast!  Soccer is so much fun primarily because I am pretty good at it.  I don't mean to brag, but while I am pretty fast, my height isn't anything to write home about.  This means that it's harder to play basketball period and it's harder to get open or block in football or frisbee.  In soccer, on the other hand, height doesn't matter as much.  Most of the time the ball is on the ground, and speed is (for me at least) the biggest part of the game - outrunning or maneuvering other people.  Tuesday was rainy and in the 50s, so it wasn't ideal, but we still had fun.  Today, though, was glorious.  It was at least 60 and sunny, and I was playing great - several long shots that actually went in, several good moves, it was a blast!  Running is petering off for the run coming up next Saturday.  This means the runs are shorter, but unfortunately, this means that we go at a faster pace (so they take less time, but aren't necessarily easier).  I ran 3 miles in a bit under 21 minutes right before playing soccer.  It was a pretty fast pace, and I still had something left for soccer - great, fun afternoon!

Mass at Holy Rosary:  This afternoon, after running, playing soccer, and doing Evening Prayer + Benediction, I went to Holy Rosary Parish (In Indy) to attend their Extraordinary Form Mass.  Unfortunately, I have been rather bad at getting over there - there always seems to be something going on (or I just forget).  Anyway, today I went over there for Mass with two other guys (1 of whom goes almost every week, and the other, who had never been to the Extraordinary Form).  Mass was great (as expected), and I think that Adam will be trying it again (I told him that it takes a few times before you pick up on how everything goes).  Every time I go to this church I am struck by how beautiful it is.  Just gorgeous!  The coolest part of Holy Rosary is the sliding altar.  You may notice that there is no free-standing altar, as would typically be used for an Ordinary-Form Mass in which the priest faces the people.  The Extraordinary-Form is always done with the priest facing the same direction as the congregation (ad orientem), but almost all Ordinary-Form Masses are done with the priest facing the people (ad populorum ? - that's a guess).  Anyway, at Holy Rosary the altar against the wall (in the pictures) slides out, away from the wall, for the Ordinary Form Masses.  Unfortunately, it wasn't transformed while we were there, so I can't show it, but when I saw it last time, it was such a "wow" moment.   Ingenuity at its best!

Well folks, I find myself with a few minutes of free time today, a position that is uprising considering that finals will be in full swing in 2 weeks.  Assignment wise, I have 3 papers left: one for theology (4 pages), one for Asian philosophies (3 pages), and one for Shakespeare (10 pages).  Lets just say that I've been postponing the Shakespeare one for a few weeks, but I'm now down to about 10 days to get it done (so I really need to start it).  Otherwise, there is a small assignment in Sociology, and a group project in Shakespeare and I think that is it before finals.  Unfortunately, (in my opinion) all of my classes have finals.  The one for ethics class will be take home (so, that is nice), but most are also cumulative, which I don't particularly enjoy.  Don't feel too sorry for me, I'll make it through alright, but don't expect a ton of posts appearing (not only am I busy, but there isn't a ton of cool stuff happening around here - pretty much everybody is getting busy).  

Yesterday's barbecue with the Serra club (a group that seeks to "foster and affirm vocations to the priesthood and vowed religious life") was a lot of fun.  They attended Evening Prayer with us (and seemed quite proficient in saying it), and then provided a delicious dinner for us.  We ate outside in the courtyard because it was such a beautiful day, and the addition of pulled pork (smoked and sauced)  pretty much made my day.  We threw a Frisbee around for a little while afterwards; it was just for fun, and helped work off the extra plate I ate.  It was actually quite funny; we began playing monkey-in-the-middle with the Frisbee and I somehow ended up guarding Luke (trying to block his throws and/or intercept ones going to him).  Well, lets just say that I am not the tallest guys at the seminary, and Luke is, so there was (quite literally) more than a foot difference in our height.  Not only that, but his arm-span is tremendous.  Needless to say, it was a bit comical, but we still managed to have a fun time.

Tonight we have a inter mural Frisbee game over at Marian, which should be quite competitive.  So far the team I am on has barely lost both our games (within I believe 2 points each time).  Anyway, we are hoping to win tonight...  

On another note, our running training is starting to wind down.  We ran 9 miles on Sunday, and we will probably run 3 or 4 miles for the 3 times this week.  Next week we have one 8 miler, and then it's very easy with I believe a 2 mile run and some walking.  I guess the theory is that we have peaked at 12 miles (so we can definitely do the 13.1 on the 4th), and now we are resting up for the race.  Actually, we met with Fr. Rick Nagel (the pastor at St. John's downtown who is running the race for vocations that day) when we did the ceremony on Sunday at Brute thanking Arch-bishop Buechlein.  He asked us to serve the Mass of the night before (which goes along with a pasta dinner for all the runners), which we, of course, agreed to do.  It should be a lot of fun!

Well, that's all I have for right now.  Sorry these last few posts have been so boring; I haven't managed to think of anything extraordinary, so I'm just trying to keep you up to date.  Keep me in your prayers.  The last few weeks are always the hardest.  Have a fantastic day!

It's St. George's feast day, so I chose this (pretty cool) picture of him.

Well, the weekend isn't quite over, but I wanted to write about something, and nothing spectacular is coming to mind.  So, without further adieu, here's what I did this weekend:

On Friday I had the typical classes (Theology and Asian Philosophies) after which I stayed at Marian and watched a video for Sociology class, and then headed over to participate in STARR.  Most Friday afternoons a group of students at Marian (including 6-8 seminarians) head out to different places around Indianapolis to do community service.  There is a mix of different things available to do (usually), including hanging out with handicapped individuals, running a day care of sorts for a poorer area in Indy, working at a food pantry, cultivating vegitables for food pantries, etc.  Anyway, on Friday about 20 kids from one of the day cares came to Marian, where we gave them a tour, played some sports, and otherwise just had a good time.  Of course there is a twist to the story: STARR was at 4 PM, rather than the usual 3 PM, and that fact (perhaps along with others) meant that I was the only seminarian available and there were only about 5 other students there besides myself.  Usually STARR has 20+ students each week, so this was quite a small group.  Anyway, I helped out with the tour and all that, got a little bit muddy trying to play soccer with all these kids, and overall had a fun time.  I managed to find a ride back to Bruté, and since a lot of guys were gone to a play or a concert (I managed to miss both), I went to bed early (around 9:30 PM).  

On Saturday morning I woke up from my awesome night's sleep and after Mass helped give a tour to the altar boys from Fr. Hollowell's parish after Mass.  There were a few of us giving the tour, and since I had little experience with giving them (most groups seem to come on school mornings, when I have class), I didn't say a whole lot.  We finished up in the chapel where we gave our vocation stories and took a few questions.  It was cool to be able to hear the other guys' stories because I hadn't heard (or at least remembered) them yet.  Finally, we had Jimmy-John's with them for lunch (a treat around here).  After this point I proceeded to have a lazy afternoon.  I worked on a paper a little bit (about the musical happenings at the Easter Vigil), watched some videos on YouTube (Air Force One is pretty cool), and then wondered around to see what was going on (not much).  I luckily ran into a group of guys cooking up dinner and collaborated with them to make some sloppie joes, mac-n-cheese, and grilled pineapple.  It was pretty terrific!  A few of us said Evening Prayer together (on Saturdays it is on your own), and then about 8-10 guys went down town.  We ended up going to an ice cream place, where I enjoyed a waffle come with two different chocolaty kinds of ice cream (it was phenomenal), and then a soda shop where I got an orange cream soda.  We got back to Bruté around 9:30 PM and I fully intended to go to bed early, but I got sidetracked and ended up watching the movie The Cardinal.  It actually was a terrific movie about a priest living through both world wars and the different struggles he had to contend with (doubts about his vocation, family disasters, the KKK, and WWII).  It was quite well done, and I enjoyed most of it.  After that ended around 12:30, I said night prayer, a rosary, and went to bed - it was a much longer day than I expected...

This morning (Sunday), I slept in till 8:30, and then did Morning Prayer and Mass at 9:30 AM.  It's good shepherd Sunday and Fr. Bob's homily was quite good about how we have an innate desire for God (Our hearts are restless until they rest in God - St. Augustine), and how Jesus, as the Good Shepherd, will continue to call us back to Himself when we wonder off the path.  This, of course, wraps back in a special way onto priests, who in Persona Christi must act as shepherds to Christ's flock and bring them to Him.  After Mass, the 4 of us Springfield guys who are running the mini-marathon in less than 2 weeks went for a 9 mile run.  It turned out to be a wonderful temperature (between 40 and 50) after the first mile or so.  We ran a pretty hard pace (7:40min/mile) for the nine miles considering for the longer ones we are normally around an 8:00min/mile pace.  Three of us stuck together until almost the end when Willie just floored it and finished probably 10 seconds ahead.  Overall, it was a very good run, and it's good to see that our pace is continuing to get faster.  After the run, we had a thank-you reception for Arch-Bishop Buechlein OSB, who was the arch-bishop of Indianapolis until 2011 and was the man who started the seminary here at Bruté.  It was a beautiful ceremony which included mid-afternoon prayer, speeches by all the expected people (Fr. Bob, a senior here at Bruté, Arch-bishop Tobin, and Arch-bishop Buechlein).  There were a few emotional moments as everyone expressed their thanks.  Have a good afternoon!

And now...  I think that I will take a nap, maybe get something to eat, head to Adoration, have a meeting with the Frisbee guys, and otherwise just hang out.  Have a wonderful Sunday everyone!

*sorry no pictures, I'll try to snag some from one of the guys who took some this afternoon...

Well, today we ran 12 miles (OK, actually 11.86, but close enough) and I could say the exact same thing about today's run.  Last weekend we ran 11 miles and I totally died: my legs just didn't have anything left for the last 2 or 3 miles.  It was like 70-80 degrees and sunny and we had no water the entire time.  I was parched for nearly the entire time; it was terrible.  However, today was much, much better. We all got great amounts of sleep last night (I got nearly 9 hours, which was fantastic), we got started earlier (the temperature was pretty much perfect in the mid-forties), there wasn't much wind, and we ate these packets of electrolytes and other stuff ahead of time.  I've never had one of these things before; basically it was like eating jelly (the fruity ones tasted like it too).  I can't imagine what they must put in these things, but either way it really helped my legs keep going.  We pulverized the first few miles, clipping along at nearly a 7 min/mile pace, but then we settled into something a bit slower, and held that relatively consistently for the next 8 miles.  I am astounded at the distance that I was able to run; I must be getting better pretty quickly because there is no way I could have run that even 2 weeks ago (when my furthest distance was 8 miles).  

Some cool numbers in case you're interested:

Well, today I went for a 5 mile run.  To the best of my knowledge I haven't ever run that distance without stopping; I think my longest distance is around 4 miles.  Surprisingly, I really never felt terrible.  I don't know if I'm getting stronger or just better at ignoring the pain, but either way I was never to the point where I couldn't keep going.  Last time I ran, on Saturday, even though it was just 3 miles, my legs felt terrible afterwards, so I was wary that today they would just die on me.  Of course, on Saturday it was 30 degrees and pouring down rain, so it had the addition of being miserable along with being painful.  Today, though it was in the high thirties, I warmed up nicely and was actually sweating at the end.  One thing that was tough was the wind; I ran a course that was out-and-back, so I ran down main street for 2.5 miles and then turned around and came back.  That meant that as soon as I turned around the wind was in my face making it harder to run.  Ah well, I guess the wind can't always be at my back...  I was very pleased with the run; my legs survived, it wasn't pouring down rain (like last time), the temperature was chilly, but I warmed up, and the wind was helpful on the way out there. 

 

Of course, with the good news comes the bad.  My watch band broke a while back, so I decided to use my iPod Touch to time myself. today  Well, about a block into my run (1/60th of the total distance), the iPod flew out of my pocket and skittered (glass down - of course) across the sidewalk.  It still works, but the glass is all shattered and nasty looking, so that's a huge bummer.  Maybe I'll have to look into a replacement, or else just live without.  That's one way to cut back on gadgetry for Lent, I guess...