Open Wide the Doors for Christ!

As many of you know, I had applied to study at the North American College back in December, and I am excited to announce that I just received word that I have been officially accepted, and thus, barring some catastrophe, will be going over there for my Theology-level seminary in a few months!  As far as I can tell at this point, I will be heading over to Italy in mid-July to begin an 8 week long Italian immersion program at Assisi.  Then, in September, I will move into the North American College in Rome, where I will continue to study Italian until classes start in October.  Obviously, I'm pretty excited about the whole thing (though not without a bit of trepidation).  Please keep me in your prayers - not only about going into upper-seminary, but also about finishing up all my classes here at Brute (it's that time of the semester, where you are just trying not to fall behind).  Hopefully I can blog a bit more regularly about everything that goes on with heading over there (but that probably won't be happening until I knock out some of the many assignments that are careening towards me over the next few weeks).  

Thanks for all your prayers, know of mine for you!  

Also, don't let the last 2 weeks of Lent slip away - recommit yourself to growing towards God!

A view from the PNAC towards St. Peter's (It's that close) It also has a (rare) bit of snowfall.

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.

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!

I just finished my last test (which was for Intro to Theology), and I can finally breath a sigh of relief that midterms are over.  The only other class I have today, Asian Philosophies, is coming up at 11, but I don't have a midterm test in there, just a normal test after the break.  With that said, I've been thinking that I really haven't said much about the classes I'm taking this semester, so since I just crossed the halfway point in all of them I figure that I probably should let you know how there all going.

Intro to Theology (MWF 9:00-9:50) started the semester on a less-than-stellar note.  We were going through pretty abstract, kinda fluffy, stuff and I was really looking for something more "meaty", more hard, more solid - you know - truth.  Anyway, the class has gotten better, and more meaningful, once I realized that this was an introductory course and was supposed to introduce people to God who didn't have a relationship with Him.  I have since began to get a lot more out of the class, and appreciate what I am learning in there.  The midterm went well; it was one of those tests that I didn't know what to expect going in, but turned out to be pretty easy, and I just might have gotten a good grade.

Asian Philosophies (MWF 11:00-11:50) was also a class I misunderstood at first.  I guess I went into the class thinking that I already had the religion I wanted (and believed), why do I need/want to study other people's religion?  Once again, it took me a little while to figure out that there is something positive about this, even if their ideas don't convince me, there is something positive about seeing the world from a different view.  If anything, I can at least understand where they're coming from (should I meet them).  There wasn't a midterm and I haven't started studying for the test coming up after the break, so there you go...

Shakespeare (MW 2:00-3:15)  I really didn't know what to expect going into this class.  I didn't think I would find it to interesting; it's Shakespeare after all, but, while hard, it has turned out to be somewhat enjoyable.  I'm really torn about this class; there is a ton of reading involved and there is a 10-12 page paper due at the end of the semester (that will definitely not be fun), but in probably every other class or so we get into a really good discussion about the stuff that Shakespeare is saying, some topic of the place of kings, or the influence of religion on life, or something (it's amazing how much stuff some people can pull out of Shakespeare), and then I really start thinking.  The midterm was a 4 page paper and it was one of those papers that never really took off and I was stuck just forcing out the 1200 words and then polishing a lot.  It turned out pretty good, but I'm worried that there just isn't enough depth to it.  We'll see...

Intro to Sociology (TH 9:30-10:45) started out pretty good.  Surprisingly, I found the material sort of interesting and the study of society and people in general didn't seem totally dumb to me.  As the course went on I started to notice a liberal/left bias in the topics and ideas we were studying, so that turned me off for a while.  Now I have just accepted that I won't agree with everything that is said, and I'm starting to enjoy diving into the debates that ensue in class as some people take conservative, sometimes libertarian views, and others go the other direction.  The midterm was on Tuesday  and I think it went pretty well.  I actually don't remember this one very well; this week has been a blur, and my brain has been fried over the last few days.

Personal and Professional Ethics (TH 12:30-1:45) is without a doubt my favorite class.  I have (surprisingly to me) found that philosophy classes are actually sometimes fun and get me thinking (which is almost always a good thing) and this class has struck the perfect balance between learning about cool/thought provoking topics and not being overwhelming in work load.  Last semester, with three philosophy classes, it was pretty tough to enjoy them just because there was a ton of work that I had to finish for them.  Ethics this semester though, doesn't have a ton of papers/tests and a moderate (almost doable) amount of reading.  It has been cool to take theories of morals (utilitarianism, libertarianism, Kantian, etc.) and see the positives and negatives associated with looking at the world in this way.  The class is shifting in topic, so this could change, but the first semester was fun.  This class had a take home midterm, which is nice because you don't have to study, and not nice because you don't have an excuse to make mistakes...  I think I did decently on it.

Music in Catholic Worship (TH 2:00-3:15)  I had some real concerns with this class going in.  Some of the music that they do in Catholic worship here at Marian is a bit too rambunctious for my tastes, so I was relieved that the class wasn't teaching from that perspective.  Most of the material of the class has been taken directly from Church documents, and it's nice to be learning something that, God willing if I'm ordained, will be very, very useful.  The midterm was pretty tough.  The test was the style where a question is asked and you have to write down a list, or sentence  or quote as an example.  Perhaps other people enjoy these types of tests, but I found myself finishing the test having saved like 30% of the questions to go back to.  Thankfully, my brain gradually started coming up with answers and I got something down in every question.  We'll see if they were right...

There you have it folks; an overview of my semester.  Sorry, it might be pretty boring for some people (it's sometimes boring for me), but I figured it was as good a time as any to get it up here. It is wonderful to have made it to midterms (alive) and now I have a week to relax! Yay!  Sorry for the dearth of posting over the last week; I have been really, really busy (and tired) and there wasn't too much going on that was super exciting or fun.  I'll get back into posting stuff over the break.  Have a great day!