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A Long Over-Due Update...
Hello again! Sorry for having had such a long hiatus between posts, time just got away from me and I didn't get any posts done. This will be another quickie update because it is quickly closing in on 11 PM and I'd like to get to bed at a reasonable time tonight... So, without further ado, my week:
This past weekend, as I briefly mentioned previously, was an open weekend and I had the opportunity to go down with my family and visit my sister. I've had some previous posts about what we usually do there, so I won't go into innumerable details, just that it was a wonderful, peaceful visit, and she is doing great. I also greatly enjoyed the time spent with the rest of the family (even if most of it was in the car). We listened to a few Catholic talks, lots of music, and joked around a good bit - it was great!
This week in school has gone well. It was actually somewhat easy (at least compared to last week when I had 4 tests), and I am far enough into all my classes to know how much work each one will usually require. Thankfully, it doesn't look like any will be overwhelming and all, as far as I can tell, should be very academically enriching (all my classes are really good). I also had my last class period for the 1-credit-hour Mission & History of Catholic Schools class. I'm not quite done (still have a short paper to do), but it is nice to know that my Monday evenings won't be completely taken anymore.
Spiritually, this week has also been really great. I have found myself being able to concentrate during Mass/prayer better, just finding great little quotes in books, and having those "ah-ha" moments when things just click. I really want to post about a lot of these things, but no such luck just yet... Actually, I just looked back at some of my posts from months gone by and I was disappointed to see how life-less they have gotten lately. Sorry, I really do want to get some quality posts up here, but I'm busy and what time I have I manage to waste usually...
Finally, I'd like to end with a fantastic point that Fr. Tom made in his homily this afternoon. The 1st reading was from Jude where he lambastes the Christians who give partial treatment to the rich and ignore/mistreat the poor. Fr. Tom pointed out that we all are poor. Maybe not monetarily, but in God's eyes (and hopefully in our own) we all are fallible, sometimes broken, weak, sinful human beings. Worse than this though is our apathy in remaining in this condition (sorry Fr. Tom, this isn't exactly the direction you went, but I couldn't remember the way that you connected these passages exactly...). Jesus calls us in the Gospel to see as God sees, not as humans do, and that means seeing ourselves as works in progress and others in the same way. It reminded me of the points that Br. John Mark made about humility needing to become hospitality. Obviously, we can't be content with remaining in sin, but rejecting other people because they are sinners is hypocrisy because we are sinners too. (Remember, reject the sin, not the sinner). What does James conclude with? - "You shall love your neighbor as yourself". What does Jesus conclude with? - "Get behind me satan!" The point in all of this: don't think as the world thinks, think as God thinks - and that means giving yourself to the poor (material, spiritual, educational, whatever) as Jesus did. In one of those talks we listened to while on the road, the speaker (who I don't remember off the top of my head) made the important point that Jesus' death wasn't the most painful ever. Now, don't get me (or him) wrong, Jesus' passion and death were incredibly, unthinkably, immensely, painful, but that wasn't what made Christ's death infinitely efficacious. What made Our Lord's death different was His love. Gosh, it seems like every post boils down to love somehow, but it really is important. (Now I'm really getting off the track of Fr. Tom's homily). Anyway, the important thing to remember is that we must try to think as God thinks and have mercy on the sinner, being willing to give an awful lot to do God's will for them, not our own, and often that means helping out people that we sometimes don't think are worth helping.
Good night!
Your posts are never life-less. It is your humanness that gives quality to everything you share. Do little things with great love.
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God is Love.1 John 4:8. I'm glad Sr. Mary Thomas is doing well and you all had a good visit.
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