Open Wide the Doors for Christ!

During finals week - wow, that was only like 2 weeks ago (it feels like so much longer) - owe had the annual baccalaureate Mass on campus at Marian.  This Mass, though open to anybody, was meant as a final ceremony honoring and celebrating the soon-to-graduate class of 2014.  The chapel was packed with seniors and their families and for the first time that I've seen, I struggled to find a seat at a Mass at Marian (which is really cool).  Mass was pretty typical for Marian - with the music that we all like to complain about, but wasn't actually all that bad - and it included a procession of graduates in at the beginning and (for lack of better words) a flower giving ceremony at the end.  Basically, before the priests and servers processed out they asked all the seniors to come up and receive 3 carnations, which they would then give to 3 people who had had a big impact on their college career, a good friend, or a positive influence - you know, somebody who was important in some way to their lives.  

The first one I gave to Fr. Bob immediately following Mass and the second one I gave to my parents when they arrived the next day.  Both were obvious recipients for my flowers - my parents brought me up in the faith, supported my vocation all along, loved me beyond belief, and in every way are the best of parents (THANKS MOM & DAD), and Fr. Bob has had a tremendous impact on my life these past 2 years, not only as a formator but also as an example of a loving, humble priest and a man who has dedicated his life to serving Christ (THANKS FATHER).  Now, of course, I had one flower left, and it took me a while to decide what to do with it.  There were certainly plenty of candidates - teachers who managed to get all that philosophy into my head, another one of the priests at Brute, my academic adviser, another one of the guys... - in the end though I didn't give it to any of those people (worthy though they were).  Instead, I gave it to all the guys at Brute.

Of course, most of them were gone by the end of finals week (when I got the flower), so I left it on the mantle place and took a picture of it.  And then, predictably, I forgot to write this post until now (leaving anybody who saw the pink carnation at Brute still bewildered and everybody who didn't see it oblivious).  Well, here's the post to rectify that situation!  I want to send a big THANK YOU to all the seminarians at Brute during my time there.  You guys were (and are) fantastic!  I enjoyed every minute of my time with you - from your enthusiastic welcomes as I first wheeled my stuff into the "castle", to the many dinners out at different restaurants (American, Chinese, Italian, Mexican, Indian, Greek - you name it, we tried it), to the fun lake-side parties, campfires, bbq's, and community dinners, to the movies we watched together (and which you opened my eyes to - for better or worse), to the ice-skating, football, basketball, soccer, racquetball, dodgeball, and frisbee, schola practice, limbo in the hallway, all the times that I was sore from laughing so hard - I have never had quite as much fun as I did with you guys!  I also learnt a ton from you - you taught me how to come out of my shell, but not be immature, how to joke around, but when to be serious, how to attend Mass reverently, but not stoically, how to do philosophy, without being too weird, how to live the faith and spread the gospel, all in love, how to discern God's will, and to not give up in the hard times.  Literally, in countless ways, you guys were huge parts of my growth so far in seminary.  You made me a better man in every way: academically (all those times studying for Plato/Aristotle, psychology, ethics, calculus, metaphysics, logic, and everything else), spiritually (praying the divine office in common, all those conversations about meditation, liturgy, prayer, all those times when we ended the day together in a Holy Hour, those times when we would get together in the middle of the day to pray a rosary, or mid-day prayer), and in so many other ways...

I could go on and on, but basically, you guys were fantastic teachers - in pretty much every area that seminary necessitates growth in, the best of examples to me in how to go about discernment, prayer, and advancement in the spiritual life, and really, truly, were incredibly important in my learning about (and hopefully advancing in) every kind of virtue - humility, charity, perseverance, joy, courage, chastity, etc.  And all of those things I leaned while having an absolute blast!  I know a flower is a bit cheesy, but please know it is so much more than a flower.  You guys made seminary not only fun, you made it an incredible learning experience.  God willing, in a few years (wow, that's scary) when I'm ordained, I will have been significantly shaped by my time spent with all of you.  Thanks for everything guys (and everything that I forgot), keep in touch!

Well folks, I just finished college!  I managed to survive Monday (which entailed finishing a paper at 2 AM, and knocking out two tough philosophy tests), and then must of us went to the funeral for Joe's brother on Tuesday (hopefully, I can get together a post entirely on that day), so I then had to make up the New Testament test (not too hard because I studied enough for it) and logic (also easier than expected) on Wednesday.  After that, the only final I had remaining was the take-home essay for modern and contemporary philosophy, which was pretty easy (only a few pages long) and only took an hour or two.  

Of course, the difficulties, successes, and completion of finals week isn't enough of a topic for a post regarding the end of the semester and the end of my college career, so I guess I'll spend the rest of this post talking a bit more about the whole experience so far.

To be honest, I've thoroughly, completely, utterly loved seminary over these past two years.  I was scared out of my wits when I showed up, but within hours I had begun to feel the vibe, the energy, the joy, and the intensity of seminary - and I fell in love.  I can't begin to express how wonderful of an experience it has been.  I have learned more than I thought possible - about philosophy, about life, about friendships, about discernment, about faith, about love - and I've enjoyed every moment - including the hard ones, like tests, and dry periods in prayer, and situations that forced me out of my comfort zone, and the awesome ones, like playing in the soccer tournament, those beautiful moments in Mass where everything clicks and it really feels like heaven, going out to eat with some of your best friends, watching countless great movies, spending hours of supreme peace in front of the Blessed Sacrament, study groups.  Yeah, every moment has been phenomenal!  

And now it's all about to change...  On the one hand, I'm excited.  Not only to graduate and enjoy the feeling of completing college, but also to head home (spend some quality time with the family), and then in July to head over to Italy to begin a new (and awesome) chapter in my seminary "career".  Yeah, I'm looking forward to all of it.  But on the other hand, I'm going to miss Brute.  I love the fact that I have a genuine friend in everybody here - something that is going to be much harder when I'm at the PNAC with 250 other guys.  I love the laughter, and music, and singing, and craziness that echos down the halls - this truly is a fun place!  But, on the third hand (whatever that is...), moving on is a bit scary.  Studying in Rome will be fantastic, but it will also be a struggle.  I'll be a long way away from all the great friends I have (here at Brute as well as at home), and my wonderful family - that's hard, it's a sacrifice I wish I didn't have to make...  Most of the guys here at Brute have been moving out yesterday and today and it finally hit me that I won't be seeing a lot of these guys in the near future - it's a happy moment (the semester is over!), but it's also sad.  In 2 months (almost exactly) I'll be doing the same thing with my family and friends back home, and that will be an even more exciting, and even more difficult, moment.  

Still, I'm putting it all in God's hands.  Lord, lead me where you want me, give me the strength to endure the hardships that your vocation entails for me, and grant me the true joy that comes with following You.

The second half of my New Testament final was an exegesis essay on Luke 2:25-35 (the presentation in the temple and Simeon's canticle).  I talked about how Luke's Gospel, all the way through, is looking at how true joy (from God) only comes through a certain amount of suffering, often in self-sacrifice and trusting Him.  Zechariah and Elizabeth experience the pain of not having a child before God gives them one.  Mary is asked to trust God completely, but receives the incarnate joy of Jesus Christ.  Then, arriving at the temple, they are required to offer Jesus back to God, and not only that, but Simeon prophesies that a sword will pierce Mary's heart.  Following God isn't always easy, it isn't always fun; actually it requires sacrifice - only through sacrificing ourselves to Him can He transform us with His joy.  Only through less reliance on ourselves, and more trust in Him, can he replace our pitiable joys with His own.  It's tough to learn - I for sure want to rely on myself, not Him - but ironically, going to Rome - something that I am super excited for - will also end up helping me grow in the trust of God.  God brings good out of evil, but He also bring supernatural good out of our own natural goods (at least, if we let Him).  

Yeah, so I'm excited, and scared, and happy, and unsure - and life continues to spin along.  The future is bright, but a bit unknown at the same time.  Jesus, I trust in You!

Here are 2 of the songs that the schola sang today for Mass.  We had been working on them for probably a month or so and they turned out really well.  An especially big thanks to Andrew and Aaron, who picked them and trained us to sing them, but also to all the other guys: Andrew, Alex, Corey, Michael, Michael, CJ, Dominic, Jeremy, and Michael (we have a lot of Michaels...)

As with most of my post during the last few weeks of a semester, this will be short.

 

Advent is wonderful.  The readings and psalms are so beautiful in the breviary every day, it is so awesome to read everything in light of the coming of Christ into the world (in Bethlehem, at every Mass, and at the end of time), even the old, familiar things that I say every day take on a new, profound meaning.

 

The metaphysics paper is slowly coming together (meaning I'm a few pages into it, but it isn't by any means in my head yet).  I am really hopeful to get a bunch done tomorrow, but my hopes weren't very accurate today, so we'll see...

 

I'm tired.  Gosh, I thought that the last weekend would push me into the final stretch with tons of energy and enthusiasm, but I am starting to feel the pressure of the end of the semester.  I've got a few things left this week (metaphysics paper being the biggest, but also a psychology test and the senior seminar paper).  Next week should be even more fun, I have 2 finals on Monday (psychology should be easy, calculus will be more challenging), 1 on Tuesday (Augustine and Aquinas, shouldn't be bad if I study enough), 1 on Tuesday/Wednesday (it's the senior seminar take-home, which should be long, tough, and cover plenty of material that I haven't seen yet...), 1 on Wednesday (moral issues, shouldn't be bad.), and 1 on Thursday (metaphysics, should be hard, but I will have time to study, so that's good).  There you have it, the negatives...

 

How about some positives?  I had a fun time this evening going out to celebrate one of the guy's 21st birthday.  I'm not 21, so I didn't participate in any drinking, but it was a fun meal anyway, and a good break from the philosophizing.  On Wednesday we will celebrate the annual Brute Christmas (basically a good meal and a fun time giving each other presents.  On Friday I'll be done with the papers!, and we are also having the first ever Brute talent show - should be quite the evening!  On Saturday I will be going out caroling with a bunch of other guys.  We are going the same place that Ray and I go for our ministry (a Catholic nursing home), so that is cool too!  On Sunday, I'm going over to Cincinnati for a Christmas concert of some sort put on by the seminary over there (Mount St. Mary's of the West).  Basically, the next week will be daunting and awesome!

 

On that note, I'm going to get a decent night's sleep - I feel like I need it right now.  Hopefully the run that I'm going on with a few other guys tomorrow will galvanize me for the rest of the semester.  I'm usually not the guy that wants the semester to be over, I have so much fun and grow so much while here, but this semester has been pretty tough.  Hmmm.  This post isn't overly positive, sorry about that - it's late, I'm tired, and I guess the school work is getting to me...

 

Good Night, I hope that your Advent is a blessed as mine!

Good afternoon!  Well, winter is upon us!  We don't have any snow (yet), but it has gotten cold here in Indy (barely got above freezing today).  I was feeling like I had been lazy the last week or two (exercise wise), so I rode my bike to Marian and back today.  Cue the weird feeling of sweating inside and freezing outside of the coat. 

 

As always (at least for this time of the semester), I am really, really busy.  I think this semester has probably been the most crazy of all my previous ones.  I have 3 big (8, 10, and 15 page) philosophy papers due in the next week or so, and that doesn't count any of the finals (which I haven't even thought about yet).  We have to finish recording the schola Christmas CD tomorrow.  I have to get a letter in the mail to my sister, so she can get it before Advent starts.  Yep, so I'm busy!

However, the semester is going really, really, well!  Being busy is a bit fun, it's a challenge to over come and an opportunity to get better spiritually, intellectually, and every-other-which-way-ally.

 

NCYC was phenomenal.  It was tiring at times, and boring at times, and a bit crazy at times, but I had a wonderful, wonderful time.  I got some posters from the Catholic to the Max booth ($15 for 3 of them).  One is Jesus as Divine Mercy, on is of St. Michael, and one is of Mary with Jesus.  They are beautiful!  I hope to get a post up (with pictures and video) of NCYC asap, but that very well could be at the end of the semester...  (sorry).

 

That's my life for now.  I'll be heading home tomorrow evening to celebrate thanksgiving with the family.  I am sure that will be a great time as well!

Ah well, back to work.

It is that time of the semester when I always start to feel a bit overwhelmed.  This last week, for instance, has been an exercise in frustration during which I have been struggling through an Augustine/Aquinas paper on the relationship between faith and reason.  I naively thought that the 8-12 page paper would be easy enough that I could get by without figuring out an overall organization/structure beforehand.  Of course, that plan has since backfired on me.  Not only has it been difficult to keep some semblance of cohesiveness and conciseness to the paper, but the last week has been absolutely packed with things to do.

 

I thought that I would finish the paper on Wednesday, but then I had all my typical classes, a discernment dinner along with Mass in the evening, and Adoration that night, so I didn't get very far - 6 pages done.  Over Thursday, I thought for sure that I would make some progress, but then I was busy keeping on top of metaphysics and calculus during the day, we had Adoration and Mass at Marian in the afternoon, then I played racquetball, did schola practice, and was left with only the late evening (when I don't seem to get anything done), and predictably didn't get anywhere - 7 pages done.  Surely, I thought, I could finish it off on Friday - not!  My day was again full of classes, and though I tried to get stuff done in the afternoon, I didn't know where exactly I was going, and then Fr. Presta, the vice-rector of Mundelein seminary, visited in the evening, and once again I didn't get anywhere - 8 pages done.  Saturday? - nope.  We had Mass, then a work session,  then ministry, then a community dinner, then a marshmallow roast (which was a blast!), and I didn't get to bed until midnight, having gotten little completed - 8.5 pages done.  Sunday? - no again.  I cantored at Mass, then hung out with some guys who had been here last year and were visiting, then I struggled through another page of the paper, then took a short nap, then had a community dinner, then had Holy Hour, then our last football game, and then I went to bed having gotten little progress made - 10 pages done.

 

Basically, I have concentrated just about every free minute of the week on one paper, and it still isn't done.  I was hoping to knock it out quickly so as to get going on my harder and longer papers due in Senior Seminar and Metaphysics, but the combination of my lack of planning and a packed week just didn't work to my favor.

 

Anyway, that is what I've been up to over the past week.  Unfortunately, the next few weeks look to be just as packed, and I'll have just as much to get done, but I guess it will all get done eventually.  Man, this post wasn't very positive was it?  Ah well, I've been having a lot of fun, reading a lot of good sources, and - you know - it's been good, just busy.  Tonight the Springfield guys have a vocation night at Eastern IL university (I think at the St. John Newman center) organized by Fr. John Titus.  It should be fun, but, again, it will cut into my time for doing schoolwork.  Gosh, I wish I wasn't so busy staying on top of school and had more time to work on the other areas of formation (or maybe just had some free time...)  Anyway, I guess I better get back on it. 

Yesterday, on the 26th Sunday in ordinary time, the schola sang for Mass here at Bruté.  We sang the processional song, Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken, and the recessional song, Rise Up O Men of God, in unison.  But the preparatory hymn, The King of Love My Shepherd Is, and the Communion hymn, Ave Verum, were both sang in 4-part harmony.  I think we pulled all of them off pretty well!  Enjoy!

Wow, the week is just flying by - I guess that is what happens when your days are absolutely full of thing to do.  Today began with morning prayer at 7:15.  I was somewhat lazy, so I didn't do the Office of Readings beforehand, and said it after Morning Prayer.  Nevertheless, after a quick breakfast of yogurt, a toasted english muffin, and chocolate/caramel milk (we now have caramel syrup, and Adam said it was delicious, so I tried it - pretty good!) , I spent the next hour or so tidying up my room and reading up for different classes.  My room had gotten a bit messy over the past few weeks, and seeing some other guys who have kept their room spotless, I decided some organizing was in order.

In Augustine and Aquinas we talked about Anselm's defense and explanation of free will.  Your synopsis: Free will isn't the ability to choose between two options (alternative possibilities) such as good or bad, or cheerios or corn-flakes, though we do often have that kind of freedom, it is our ability to maintain rectitude of will.  What is rectitude of will?  This is the state our will is in when it is ordered correctly, that is towards the good, which, as Christians, we believe to be God.  Basically, Anselm says that when we choose something that isn't good (or we inordinately desire some temporal/temporary good) we are essentially giving up our humanity.  As humans, we have the option to choose the good, but Anselm explains that when we choose something that is not good we in fact become trapped in sin, and lose freedom.  Obviously, this is a super-summary of the stuff we talked about, but thankfully Anselm ends by explaining that we can get out of this cycle of/slavery to sin through grace that God freely bestows on us.

After class I got an early lunch at the cafeteria.  Today I got salad, meat-on-a-stick (the consensus was that it was chicken, but who knows), and some pumpkin bread.  Everything was actually delicious!  After lunch I headed over to library where I worked on reading for metaphysics, chatted with other people (mostly seminarians, but other folks will join our little zone as well) about all sorts of topics, read a bit for other classes, and then prayed midday prayer.  I was glad that I didn't had too much going on because it allowed me to do some "hanging out" rather than forcing myself to get stuff done.  It's nice every once in a while!

Alright, I'm already beyond half-way through the day!  Metaphysics was pretty cool today.  We dove straight into proving the existence of God.  Today we were going through the argument from motion.  This argument appears as early as Aristotle, but we were going through the version found in Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae.  The basic propositions: (1) - Some things are in motion.  We can see things around us are changing and moving - in metaphysical speak, they are going from potency to act. (2) - A potency can be reduced to a potency only by an agent in act.  If that didn't confuse you, congrats!  Basically what this second proposition says is that the only way that things (people, animals, rocks, stars...) can be changed, moved, or caused to do something (this is going from potency to act) is through the action of something else that actually exists.  (3) - Whatever is [in] motion must be put in motion by another.  Basically, this says that something that potentially is one way cannot move/change itself to be actually that thing.  Example: a rock that is potentially at the bottom of a hill can't move itself there unless something else pushes it (or gravity pulls it).  This gets more complicated with living things, but it still applies.  Example: your leg doesn't move unless your muscles "fire".  (4) - There cannot be an infinite series of motions put in motion by another.  OK, this is where it gets really complicated, and where I don't understand it fully (yet), but basically, the world wouldn't work if you kept going back one step (to the previous agent) infinitely.  So, taking the earlier example, your leg moves because of muscles, which move because of nerves, which move because of signals going around in your brain, which move because your will decided to move your leg, which moved because??  See how eventually you have to get to some agent that isn't explained or moved by a previous agent.  Eventually, Thomas Aquinas says, you have to get to an unmoved-mover.  A being that isn't caused or moved or changed by something previously.  Actually, I've left out a large part of this 4th part, T.A. says that temporal sequences of causality can regress infinitely, but simultaneous sequences of causality don't.  Either way, he argues that God causing the universe/creation is an example of the second type of causality, so the point stands...

Skip the next two paragraphs if you don't want any more metaphysics, but if you're adventurous keep reading...  :-)  During the second half of class, we went through properties which must be true of this prime-mover, unmoved-mover - you know - God.  First He must be immaterial (not made of physical, material, stuff).  Why?  If God is made of matter, he would have to cause the universe to exist through material contact/movement.  Why is this a problem?  Well, the only way that a material can move another material (think pool balls or something), is if itself is in motion.  Yet, if we say God "was" (thinking in our temporal mindset) moving when He created the world, that means He was changing, which isn't right.  We call God the prime-mover because He causes motion/change in the world, not because He was actually moving.  This is tough to think about, but physical movement means that God would have been moved by something else (which means that He isn't the original source of movement).  The second point that we made was that God, the unmoved-mover, is that He is not in potency at all.  This is connected with the previous point.  Remember, movement and change, in metaphysics  is talked about in terms of going from potency to act.  (Before moving, a being has the potential to move, or change, or whatever, and after if moves it is actually in the new state, or place).  So saying that God doesn't have any potency, is saying that He can't change.  If by causing the original motion (creation) of the universe, God moved, or changed, or is any way went from potency to act, that movement wouldn't have been unmoved.  (Something must have moved God from the potential state to the actual one).  I guess I won't get more technical, hopefully the argument above isn't full of fallacies and you can follow the train of thought a bit...

Another point made during this talk of the unmoved-mover (God), the topic came up of how God, if He is in fact immaterial, could move/cause a material universe to move/exist?  I mean, how can something that is spiritual cause something that is material?  We just kind of assume that this is "easy" because God is God.  But in metaphysics we are looking at the issue without having the "back-up" of theology (Revelation and Tradition).  It's not like it is anti-religious discipline, but we are trying to figure out how things could work, or how we can explain what we see, without just saying that God did it.  Obviously, sometimes, God did just do it, and we can't figure out why or how, but sometimes we can answer those questions and that is much of what metaphysics seems to be about.  Alright, back to how God, as immaterial, could cause the world, which is material.  Basically, what the professor said was that this was a tough question, that we really don't understand, how God could do such a thing (using metaphysics).  This argument for God is a demonstration quia, which means it tells us that an unmoved-mover must exist for the universe to exist, but it doesn't tell us how this unmoved-mover works.  Interestingly, and once again we see how philosophy connects with theology, (even though for class today we were trying to prove God without theology as explained above) the professor noted that this paradox of immaterial moving material is very similar to how our (immaterial) will moves our (material) body.  How does it work?  We really don't know.  But it gives insight into just how much we are created in the "image and likeness of God".  It's not like God (pre-Jesus) had a body that looks like ours, but isn't it interesting that somehow God has connected our will to our body - making a hybrid of spiritual and material.  It isn't easily explainable, how this works.  Previously the professor had noted that the human "hybrid" is possibly the hardest thing to explain metaphysically - I am starting to see why.  Man people are cool!

OK, enough metaphysics (want more? check this out at catholic.com)!  After class, I immediately went over to the Marian chapel where, as usual for Thursdays, we had a Holy Hour with the Marian community.  I went to confession, said the rosary, prayed for different people (including all you folks), and prayed evening prayer with everybody.  Mass immediately followed.  Today I was cantor, so that required me to pick and start the opening hymn and lead the alleluia verse.  Usually, I am a bit nervous cantoring at Marian (more-so than at Bruté) I guess because there are more people and you have to use the microphone and stuff, but today it really wasn't that difficult.  After Mass most guys (including myself) went over to the cafeteria for dinner, for which I had a toasted pb&j (really tasty) and a few other things (that I now forget).  

After dinner I hung out in the library because I was supposed to attend this talk about an hour later.  It was a talk about ecology/environmentalism from a Catholic perspective, so I was barely interested, but not really.  Senior seminar class was canceled tomorrow, so the professor asked us to attend this lecture...  Anyway, nobody was at the theater in the library, so I had to look up the event on the computer about a minute before it was supposed to start and found out that it was across campus.  I speed-walked over there, arriving late, but before they started (thankfully).  I don't want to spend too much time on the talk, but basically the guys said that the Catholic church teaches that we need to take care of the environment, you know don't destroy the place, because the Bible says so, and that was pretty much it.  He managed to stretch that into about an hour of talking, and there were a few other bits which I think he could/should have left out, but I won't get into it.  Whatever - I'm not one to complain...

I got to the second half of schola practice after the talk.  We were going though Ave Verum, which we will be singing in 4-part harmony on Sunday.  It is a beautiful song, but I am on the soprano line this time (last song I was on the base line), and there is two places where the song gets really, really high.  I managed to hit the first such "spike" normally, but I have yet to get through the second one without going falsetto.  It actually doesn't sound bad, but I am always just waiting for my voice to crack at just the wrong time.  I guess I'm stretching my vocal range...  

 The last major thing today was night prayer (compline) which I was cantoring today.  We chant night prayer three times a week in common, and we use a cantor-congregation style setup.  Basically, the cantor chants one verse, and then the body of guys, and then the cantor and so on...  I was again, not really nervous about it today (which is awesome), and I think that myself and Aaron (the organist) did a really good job.  The speed seemed good, I didn't stumble on any words, the guys jumped into their parts quickly, it was wonderful (and beautiful).  It's amazing what happens when you do things for the glory of God rather than yourself!

And with that, I basically made the rounds, finished typing this post up, talked with a few guys in my room, and now I'm off to bed.  It was another great day!

Last Saturday, for the 9th anniversary of the founding of Bruté, we had our annual parents and pastors day where, as you might suspect, we invite the guys' parents and pastors to come and visit the seminary.  Bishop Tobin graciously allowed us to move the feast of the Birth of Mary to Saturday, so we could fittingly celebrate the patron of the seminary, Our Mother Mary.  I had a wonderful time with my parents (we went to this new Catholic goods store in Indy, where I saw this awesome tie with St. Michael on it - I totally should have gotten it - we also got some ice cream, which was fantastic.)

Anyway, back to the topic of this post, the schola sang "Ave Maria" (sorry, I don't remember which version), for the offertory hymn, and based on people's comments afterwords we sounded pretty good.  Sorry for the goofy angle on the video, I was trying to make the camera less conspicuous.  Also, I was playing with the audio a bit (mixing two sources together) to make it more balanced, so let me know what you think.  Enjoy!

Yesterday was my "easy" day in classes (though the classes themselves are getting tough), but more interestingly (I hope) is a recounting of the musical events of the day.

First, Mass.  Yesterday was the all-school Mass over at Marian.  Usually, on Thursdays, we have Mass over at Marian, and while that was the case yesterday, it was a bit different than normal in that it was an all-school Mass. They have these Masses a few times a semester for big occasions, and this time the Mass was celebrating the opening of the new semester. All-school Masses are always interesting because first, they have a ton more people than any other Masses and second, the Marian Choir is the leader of the songs at Mass.  The first point tends (for me anyway) to make concentration and especially prayer more difficult.  I don't really know, at the March for Life it was so awesome to be surrounded by tons and tons of people - it was a very powerful, and even prayerful, moment - but for some reason the large numbers at Marian don't inspire me the same way.  Anyway, moving onto the positives, the music at Marian was pretty good.  I always go into all-school Masses not knowing what to expect (remembering the bongo's that appeared several months ago), but at yesterday's Mass the percussion instruments went un-played and the guitar was mercifully quiet.  Yes, I could complain about the choice of hymns, but they weren't heretical, and Ubi Caritas, despite their playing it every. single. time., is actually a beautiful hymn.  Overall, I found that going in with a (slightly) open mind, and less of a negative attitude, worked wonders for making the all-school Mass a better experience.  I know, I know, most of this post was listing off my complaints, but the Mass is seriously getting better every time, and I am seeing it in a more charitable light.

Second, Schola Practice.  Yesterday we had our second schola practice and we really got down to working on the hymn for parents and pastors (a Saturday 2 weeks from now during which all the guys' parents and pastors are invited to Bruté).  Anyway, as I mentioned previously, I have been slotted (to my chagrin) into the base part along with another guy.  Thank goodness, in at least this particular piece of music, a certain version of Ave Maria, the base section stays in a perfectly singable range of notes, and though it has a few tricky spots, I can easily hit the entire range.  The other positions have much, much harder sections than I do.  The soprano and tenor section both have to hit incredibly high (well into my falsetto) notes, and they, along with the alto section, have a much more complicated melody to remember.  I am certain that once we pull it together it will sound splendid, absolutely fantastic.  I don't know if I will be able to record it for your listening pleasure, we'll see.  

Third, Compline.  Last night we chanted night prayer as a community directly after schola practice.  As it so happened, yesterday was my day to be the cantor, so that meant that I was in charge of intoning the hymn at the beginning, leading the "cantor-side" of the psalm and canticle, and then the hymn (praising Mary) at the end.  I was pretty confident a few days back because I thought I could pick up right where I left off last semester.  Of course, things couldn't go that smoothly.  First, the few times I practiced I had a few minor slips on the chants during the psalm and/or canticle.  We are using a somewhat simplified version of the Meinrad chant tones, and while I'm pretty good at being able to lead them (especially because we have an organist playing the melody along with), there are a few spots where I stumbled transferring from one line to the next and I my pacing just didn't seem quite right.  Anyway, it also so happened that we changed the hymns up for the day.  Because it was the  celebration Queenship of Mary the hymn at the end changed from Salve Regina to Ave Regina Caelorum - I knew both of them no-problem, but the change meant one more thing to remember...  Also, I thought that I would use Holy God as the opening hymn - it's easy, everybody knows it, and it's one of my favorite hymns - but, it was not to be, Tony, the prayer leader for the night wanted O Christ You are the Light and Day.  Again, I thought I had it no problem...  Once I walked back to the organ (where the cantor leads from for compline) I hummed the first few bars of the opening hymn to check what note I wanted to start on.  To my horror, I couldn't take the hymn as it was in my head and get the notes right.  The jumps between the notes just weren't coming out right and I kept hitting the "light and day" on the wrong note.  Aaron (the organist) was phenomenal in singing the tune quietly for me.  Anyway, to quickly destroy any climax that I was just creating, everything ended up coming out correctly.  But wow, I was a bit worried there at the beginning.

OK, if that wall of text was too much, here's the super-short-summary:  Marian's music was better than it has ever been, Schola practice was challenging, but the song will be spectacular when we pull it off, and Compline, even with tired vocal cords and a uncooperative memory, went well.  What can I say, it was another great day!

Also, thanks to everybody who is reading my blog - the numbers have jumped up the past few days - that's very encouraging.  I'll keep posting stuff on here whenever I get the chance.  (Any ideas?  Let me know in the comment section that you should see below.)  Thanks!

OK, well it has been a few days, but, as always, I have been busy.  That said, it's about time that I said something about the classes that I am taking this semester.  On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I have 4 classes, and on Tuesday and Thursday I have 2 classes - combining to a total of 18 credit hours.

MWF - 9:00 AM - PHL 490 - Senior Philosophy Seminar

MWF - 10:00 AM - THL 216 - Moral Issues

MWF - 11:00 AM - PSY 220 - Human Growth and Development

MWF - 1:00 PM - MAT 215 - Fundamentals and Special Applications of Calculus

TR - 9:30 AM - PHL 205 - Augustine and Aquinas

TR - 2:00 PM - PHL 330 - Philosophy of Being (Metaphysics)

I (so far) really like my schedule this year.  MWF is tight, boom, boom, boom, and the day is done, and TR has tons of time where I can actually get work done for class (or whatever).  Both setups are great for getting stuff done, and I think that for the most part I will have a good ratio of breaks and classes (I guess it would be bad if I have a bunch of hard assignments line up on a certain Friday...).

Now, of course, there is also the issue of the quality of the classes, and as far as I can tell, in that area everything is fantastic.  All three philosophy classes are taught by great professors, who know their stuff and are passionate about it, the theology class is taught by a solid Catholic (yay!), and the calculus and psychology classes also seem to have knowledgeable teachers.  We will see, but I am genuinely excited for pretty much all of my classes.  Now, this doesn't mean that my semester will be easy.  Along with the relatively packed schedule, all the classes will be challenging.  All three philosophy classes will require 10+ page papers, I haven't touched math in almost 3 years, the psychology class has a relatively tough collaborative project (and it's psychology), and the theology class... Well, I don't know if it will be hard yet or not - we will see.  I can't wait to learn about all the stuff, philosophy will be intriguing, theology will be fun, calculus will be cool, and psychology will be...  Yeah, don't know yet on that one either.

Overall - I am pumped about my classes this semester.  I have a good schedule, all the classes should be interesting (but tough).  Fun times!  See the good folks - dwelling on the bad won't get you anywhere.  I was dwelling on all the negatives of this semester for the last few days until I remembered that the entire thing was in God's hands. There are so many positives if you just look for them!

On another note, schola has gotten off to a good start.  I have been moved to the roll of base, something that I was petrified of until we practiced today and I found that I could hit all the notes...  We'll see, but I think the song we are currently practicing will turn out beautifully.  Seminary is awesome folks!

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, 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!

Here is a video of the blessing of the chapel at Bruté, which happened back in January.  I wrote about it in a different blog post, but now Corey has posted a video of it (which he allowed me to embed here - thanks!).  I noted in the previous post that Archbishop Tobin's homily was great, so enjoy that too!

 

The summer is slowly rolling along.  I am looking forward to having a few days off this week at work, and the whole getting together with family/friends for the 4th of July. I also have a dentist appointment this week - that should be fantastic...  I was working on a post surrounding the supreme court's (bad) decision to strike down protections of marriage, but I haven't gotten very far into it.   Sorry folks, I was hoping to get a bunch of great stuff written over the summer and I just haven't been able too.  Anyway, have a wonderful week!  God Bless America!