Open Wide the Doors for Christ!

Happy First Saturday!...  I don't know if I've ever wished someone that before, but I guess it can be done, right?  Actually, we should be very happy, because on Saturdays (especially 1st Saturdays) we honor Mary, and that should make us happy, because Mary is awesome!  (I'll have to expound on that in some other post, because that one word isn't very descriptive in today's society...)  Anyway, drum roll please: this post will be a little bit more important than my typical "sorry, I don't have much time, here's a cool video" post...  :-)  

And that is because I am finally able to announce to you all that I will be applying to study at the Pontifical North American College - in Rome, Italy - for my upper/theology level seminary!  It is located within Vatican City (i.e. it overlooks St. Peter's Basilica!), and has about 250 seminarians from the United States, Canada, and Australia.  If I get accepted, which is somewhat likely, but not guaranteed (they are at, or almost at, capacity right now), I will be heading over to Italy in mid-July (as in, 7 months from now!), to spend 8 weeks, or so, in Italian immersion.  That is very important because all the classes (which start in October, I believe), are taught in Italian...  

It's a little scary - not so much the language (that is overcome-able by hard work), but mostly just how far away I will be from everything I know (and love) back home.  But, while it's incredibly daunting, it is also incredibly exciting (as you can imagine)!  Please, as always, keep me in your prayers - that God's will may be done. 

Part of the reason that I haven't been good at posting stuff over this Christmas break is that I have been really, really busy trying to fill out all the forms (all 30 pages of them!), getting the requisite check-ups, and writing the required autobiography.  I have so many plans for great posts, but I just haven't had time to write them!  Unfortunately, I'm going to have 19 credit hours next semester, so unless I stay really organized I don't think my rate of posting is going to go up...  (We'll see!)
In other news: I just got back from a wonderful First-Friday, First-Saturday vigil (which started with the Rosary, then Mass, then Exposition, then many, many devotions, then Benediction, and Mass again at 1 in the morning - it was fantastic!)  Also, later today I will be heading down to Effingham where I will meet the other Springfield-diocese Brute guys and we will car-pool over to St. Meinrad where our retreat is happening.  It will last until Wednesday, at which point, I will come back home, finish all the application stuff, and then get some more blogging done before going back to Brute on next Sunday.  Man, this break has gone by way too fast!  

view from St. Peter's dome - overlooking the city of Rome

 

Well, after staying up until (almost) 4AM yesterday, I finally got my metaphysics paper done and turned it in yesterday afternoon (it was a great feeling!).  I think the paper turned out pretty good in the end.  Earlier this week I was spending pretty much all my free time on that paper and it just wasn't coming together how I wanted it to.  I was talking about teleology (that things, particularly humans, have ends, in our case, happiness in God) and this allows morality/ethics to exist.  Basically, without teleology, everybody has to figure out their own end (power, money, pleasure, work, whatever), and for this reason (along with some other logical/metaphysical reasons) teleology must exist and ethics must be based on it.  It was a really cool paper and unfortunately this summary doesn't do the topic justice (my paper didn't either I imagine), but I am really glad that I finally found the sources that I needed to finish the paper off. 

 

I still have to finish up the senior seminar paper, something that I will work on for the next hour or so before meeting with Dr. Denz (the professor for that class).  Hopefully he's happy with my (very) rough draft that I gave him a few weeks back. 

 

Next week I have all the typical finals - Monday: calculus and moral issues (neither will be easy, but shouldn't be impossible either), Tuesday: Augustine and Aquinas (again, it'll take studying, but I'll be ready), Wednesday: senior seminar and psychology (senior sem. is a take-home, but will probably be one of my hardest finals, psychology is a presentation and should be easy), and Thursday: metaphysics (tough, but should go alright).  I am very glad that my finals are spaced out over the week - usually I'd want to get them done as quickly as possible, but all my classes are tough this semester, so I am glad that I should have enough time to study before each one.

 

the holly tree in Brute's courtyard

Of course, the fun doesn't stop just because everybody is getting ready for finals!  This afternoon we are going to play some football (in the snow!), and (recap from the previous post) this evening we have the first-ever Brute talent show.  The Springfield guys will be doing something, and there are a bunch of other guys who will be showing off as well.  It should be awesome!  Tomorrow there are a bunch of us going caroling at a Catholic nursing home (actually the same one that Ray and I have for our ministry) - it was a blast last year, and this year, I'm sure, won't be any different.   On Sunday evening I'm going with some guys to Cincinnati for "lessons and carols", which is some sort of Advent/Christmas concert put on by the seminary up there.

 

Fr. Joe said something quite profound in his homily this morning.  He said that Advent is a time to deepen our faith and, like the blind men in the Gospel this morning, ask Jesus to heal the places within our soul that are broken, hurt, warped, or suffering.  This same faith must then give us the insight to see our life (physically and spiritually) as it really is, a gift from God, and then give our lives back to God.  To cultivate those talents, abilities, and blessings that we have been given, and use them for the greater glory of God and the good of all His creation.  Obviously, my summary is lacking the awesomeness and persuasion that father included in his homily, but my brain is a bit fried from the past few days...

 

I hope you have all had a good (almost) first week of Advent.  I hope to get back to blogging more frequently once I knock out these finals.  May the mercy and love of the Sacred Heart enflame you with His joy, peace, love, and energy on this first Friday, especially in this beautiful season of Advent.

Oh, happy feast of St. Nicholas!

Also, I'm going to post some videos that I've found during this week (they're cool and I won't have time to post something more substantial...)

Well, here's the rundown of what's happening around here, and the first post after the day of recollection.  I'm trying to get into a tradition of writing up a brief outline of what's happening around here each Friday; based on the fact that I'm writing this on Saturday, I'm off to a great start!

The day of recollection is a "day" (actually between evening prayer of Friday and noon or-so on Saturday.   Brute has them about twice a semester and they involve prayer, meditation, and talks given by a speaker.  Basically, it's a mini-retreat that allows you to ignore the computer for a day, and kind of relax.  Ironically, they seem to always come up right before mid-terms or finals, so there is always tests and papers hanging over your head, but, you know, it's sometimes nice to just forget that stuff.  Anyway, this one was given by Bishop Ettiene of the diocese of Cheyenne, WY (who was actually, the previous vice-rector of Brute), and I'll have a separate post on the talks he gave (great stuff!)

Actually, Bishop Ettiene has a blog with the great title Truth in Love.  

Days of recollection are really awesome; not only are they a mini-retreat type thing, they also mean some fun recreation.  A group of guys from the  Gary, IN diocese showed up on Thursday to check out Brute and attend part of our day of recollection, so we had a pretty awesome game of football yesterday.  I'm decent at getting open, mostly due to outrunning the other person, and I can defend somebody as long as they're not too tricky, but in both cases my height works against me in catching/intercepting the ball.  (I'll put it this way, I'm a bit shorter than Pope Emeritus Benedict).  Anyway, it was a ton of fun, but I'm feeling pretty sore today, so we'll see how I feel on the run at 3:30.

This last week has been pretty tough school wise.  I had an essay in Asian Philosophy (on Hinduism) and Sociology (on Social Location).  I also had a quiz in theology and a reading assignment.  It doesn't sound that bad looking back, but it kept me pretty busy.  The upcoming week should be even more fun.  I have 3 (at least) in class mid-terms and 2 take home midterms (neither of which I've started on).  Should be awesome!

I'll post more later - off to run!