Okay, so I am now on break.
Finals went very well… well, what I took of them did. I had a friend from Holmen die the weekend before finals so I went home for that. The funeral was on Thursday with visitation on Wednesday night so I tried to see if I could leave on Wednesday after my field education at the nursing home. I checked with the academic dean to see about rearranging my final times and he was all right with it. I had one final scheduled for Thursday and one for Friday so I had to get them both arranged to avoid having to make the long drive back on Friday just for one test before break. The final on Thursday was for my Catechism class and the priest that teaches that was willing to just do an oral final, in which he asked me questions about what we were going to have on the test. We did that on Wednesday after my field ed, but before I left. The final for Friday was for Latin, and since we are being taught to read it more than to speak it an oral final really wouldn’t work. The final for that also wasn’t written yet so I couldn’t just take it early. It worked out that I am going to take that final during the first week back after break. So technically I have received an “incomplete” in that for now, but will get a grade after I take the final. I had one person say that it was nice that I had two weeks more to study for it, I see it more as two weeks to forget what I knew.
So I actually kind of started my two week break a little early. We get two weeks off after every quarter. I stayed home after the funeral on Thursday and then came to Stevens Point on Friday. It has been a nice and relaxing time off for this. I haven’t had many obligations to do. I went to the Saturday evening Mass and then was asked to go out to dinner with three of the ladies who are active in the parish. That was very nice to catch up with them. I followed that up by going to visit my friends that I sometimes stay with here, we sat around chatting for a little bit. I am staying in the basement of the rectory (priest’s house) and think that I will probably stay there most of the times when I come up. There has been a futon down there to sleep on for quite a while, but we are making it a little bit more livable for down there. It has taken to being called the “seminarian suite” although it could be just a guest area at other points too. There is a guest room in the upstairs, but it is kind of nice to have the basement to myself, this way I have my own bathroom and a little bit more privacy. When I showed up on Friday I found that they had put a television down there and a recliner to sit in. I do watch TV in the evening upstairs with Father some, but it is nice to be able to just relax on my own too.
On Sunday I went to both of the Masses, I enjoy seeing all the people, but really enjoy the Mass experience at the 6:00 PM Mass on Sundays here. The student choir and the large number of enthusiastic college students is a real boost to my faith life.
Monday is Father Tom’s normal day off. He invited me to go over to the twin cities with him and another priest. They were going just for a trip to the cities, and to pick up some items for liturgies for the coming seasons. While we were there we stopped at the Ikea and picked up some furniture for the seminarian suite. We bought a dresser, an end table, and a coat rack, which a student here and I put together on Tuesday. It was a great trip to the cities, great company and conversation.
Tuesday after morning Mass I went and bought new tires for my truck and ran a few errands that I wanted to get done. I also picked up a few Christmas gifts. I had to pay attention to the price on these things a bit more than in the past, but that is not a bad thing to be doing.
Today (Wednesday) I have relaxed most of the day. A bit later we will have a student supper. I’m not sure if I mentioned that program at this parish before. It is great. Every two weeks on a Wednesday there is a supper cooked by stationary members (those that live in the area) for the student members. This starts at 5:00 and at about 5:30 a speaker starts. The speaker talks about whatever they want (based on what Fr. Tom has asked them to talk about). It is a great chance for the Catholic students to get together and socialize with other students who share their faith. The norm is somewhere between 50 and 70 students who show up to this, occasionally closer to 100. I think that this is a great turn out for college students with their busy lives to take time for an event at the church. At 9:00 tonight will be a “Late Night Mass” that is a week day Mass geared towards the students. I always really enjoyed these late night Masses because they are a great ways to take a break from the week and focus on what is important.
I will stick around in Point until tomorrow morning until after morning Mass and then head towards home. I am very excited because this weekend I get to go deer hunting with a couple of friends. I will relax there until after Thanksgiving. Fr. Tom has asked me to come back to point to be the server (altar boy for those who don’t know the word) for the Masses the weekend after Thanksgiving before heading back down to Mundelein Seminary for classes to begin that Monday.
I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving.
Peace,
Adam
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Reflection for Nursing home 1
Hello everyone,
I have been busy preparing for finals with studying and projects so it has been about a week and a half since I have written. I am leaving tomorrow after my field education and my last final of the quarter to go home for a visitation, and then a funeral on Thursday. So I don’t have time to reflect a whole lot on the ending of my first quarter of seminary. It is amazing that it is over already, only 17 more to go… I hope to write something next week for reflection on this, I can’t make any promises.
For the blog post this time I thought I’d share with you what I am sharing with the people at the nursing home tomorrow. As I have said I go to a nursing home every Wednesday and in addition to room visits and taking communion to people’s rooms we have a communion service with host that has been consecrated by a priest at a previous Mass. At this communion service we go through the Church’s prescribed Mass readings for the day, and then either I or the other seminarian offer a reflection. Since we aren’t ordained it isn’t considered a homily, although you would think it was a homily if you just looked at it.
Below I have copy and pasted the readings for tomorrow (except for the Psalm, since I don’t refer to that in here). The first reading is from the Letter of St. Paul to Titus, the Gospel reading is from the Gospel of Luke. I think it is obvious enough where the readings stop and my reflection begins. Enjoy, and feel free to give feedback if you want, I’m always looking to improve.
Peace,
Adam
Reading 1
Ti 3:1-7
Beloved:
Remind them to be under the control of magistrates and authorities,
to be obedient, to be open to every good enterprise.
They are to slander no one, to be peaceable, considerate,
exercising all graciousness toward everyone.
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deluded,
slaves to various desires and pleasures,
living in malice and envy,
hateful ourselves and hating one another.
But when the kindness and generous love
of God our savior appeared,
not because of any righteous deeds we had done
but because of his mercy,
he saved us through the bath of rebirth
and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
whom he richly poured out on us
through Jesus Christ our savior,
so that we might be justified by his grace
and become heirs in hope of eternal life.
Gospel
Lk 17:11-19
As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem,
he traveled through Samaria and Galilee.
As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him.
They stood at a distance from him and raised their voice, saying,
“Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!”
And when he saw them, he said,
“Go show yourselves to the priests.”
As they were going they were cleansed.
And one of them, realizing he had been healed,
returned, glorifying God in a loud voice;
and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.
He was a Samaritan.
Jesus said in reply,
“Ten were cleansed, were they not?
Where are the other nine?
Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?”
Then he said to him, “Stand up and go;
your faith has saved you.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This Gospel reading from Luke is so memorable that we could all almost proclaim it from heart. What am I going to talk about? The amazing act of Jesus’ miracle? Well, it is amazing, but no. Am I going to talk about how great it was of the one to come back to give God thanks, but terrible of the others to accept His gift without any acknowledgement? While there is truth in that, you have all heard those before…
I am going to speculate a bit on what those other nine did. Maybe they had been fighting leprosy for a long time and needed to go and check if their family was still intact. They may have had a shop that provided necessities to others in their community that they needed to see if they could salvage. These cured lepers may have gone to the temple to give thanks to God on their own, in the way that they knew. Maybe, just maybe they went to the priest as Jesus told them to. This was the necessary way for a Jew to return to society from these diseases, to show themselves to the priest to prove that it was gone.
I like to give these people the benefit of the doubt, sure they should have given thanks immediately, but maybe they did later to make up for it. Maybe they ended up squandering the opportunities that they were given by this second chance. But I like to think that this experience left them changed, and allowed them to grow in life.
These changes do happen. As Paul wrote in his letter to Titus, the first reading from today, even he was: foolish, disobedient, deluded, a slave to desires and pleasures, full of malice, envy, and even hate. Paul had an encounter with Christ and as he said “when the kindness and generous love of God our savior appeared, not because of any righteous deeds we had done, but because of his mercy…” he would become an heir to Christ, in hope of eternal life.
We all have encounters with God, let us be sure to take some time out of our day to thank him, as the one leper did, but let us also allow His grace to change us as it surely did to Paul and Titus, but also hopefully to the other nine lepers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have been busy preparing for finals with studying and projects so it has been about a week and a half since I have written. I am leaving tomorrow after my field education and my last final of the quarter to go home for a visitation, and then a funeral on Thursday. So I don’t have time to reflect a whole lot on the ending of my first quarter of seminary. It is amazing that it is over already, only 17 more to go… I hope to write something next week for reflection on this, I can’t make any promises.
For the blog post this time I thought I’d share with you what I am sharing with the people at the nursing home tomorrow. As I have said I go to a nursing home every Wednesday and in addition to room visits and taking communion to people’s rooms we have a communion service with host that has been consecrated by a priest at a previous Mass. At this communion service we go through the Church’s prescribed Mass readings for the day, and then either I or the other seminarian offer a reflection. Since we aren’t ordained it isn’t considered a homily, although you would think it was a homily if you just looked at it.
Below I have copy and pasted the readings for tomorrow (except for the Psalm, since I don’t refer to that in here). The first reading is from the Letter of St. Paul to Titus, the Gospel reading is from the Gospel of Luke. I think it is obvious enough where the readings stop and my reflection begins. Enjoy, and feel free to give feedback if you want, I’m always looking to improve.
Peace,
Adam
Reading 1
Ti 3:1-7
Beloved:
Remind them to be under the control of magistrates and authorities,
to be obedient, to be open to every good enterprise.
They are to slander no one, to be peaceable, considerate,
exercising all graciousness toward everyone.
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deluded,
slaves to various desires and pleasures,
living in malice and envy,
hateful ourselves and hating one another.
But when the kindness and generous love
of God our savior appeared,
not because of any righteous deeds we had done
but because of his mercy,
he saved us through the bath of rebirth
and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
whom he richly poured out on us
through Jesus Christ our savior,
so that we might be justified by his grace
and become heirs in hope of eternal life.
Gospel
Lk 17:11-19
As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem,
he traveled through Samaria and Galilee.
As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him.
They stood at a distance from him and raised their voice, saying,
“Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!”
And when he saw them, he said,
“Go show yourselves to the priests.”
As they were going they were cleansed.
And one of them, realizing he had been healed,
returned, glorifying God in a loud voice;
and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.
He was a Samaritan.
Jesus said in reply,
“Ten were cleansed, were they not?
Where are the other nine?
Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?”
Then he said to him, “Stand up and go;
your faith has saved you.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This Gospel reading from Luke is so memorable that we could all almost proclaim it from heart. What am I going to talk about? The amazing act of Jesus’ miracle? Well, it is amazing, but no. Am I going to talk about how great it was of the one to come back to give God thanks, but terrible of the others to accept His gift without any acknowledgement? While there is truth in that, you have all heard those before…
I am going to speculate a bit on what those other nine did. Maybe they had been fighting leprosy for a long time and needed to go and check if their family was still intact. They may have had a shop that provided necessities to others in their community that they needed to see if they could salvage. These cured lepers may have gone to the temple to give thanks to God on their own, in the way that they knew. Maybe, just maybe they went to the priest as Jesus told them to. This was the necessary way for a Jew to return to society from these diseases, to show themselves to the priest to prove that it was gone.
I like to give these people the benefit of the doubt, sure they should have given thanks immediately, but maybe they did later to make up for it. Maybe they ended up squandering the opportunities that they were given by this second chance. But I like to think that this experience left them changed, and allowed them to grow in life.
These changes do happen. As Paul wrote in his letter to Titus, the first reading from today, even he was: foolish, disobedient, deluded, a slave to desires and pleasures, full of malice, envy, and even hate. Paul had an encounter with Christ and as he said “when the kindness and generous love of God our savior appeared, not because of any righteous deeds we had done, but because of his mercy…” he would become an heir to Christ, in hope of eternal life.
We all have encounters with God, let us be sure to take some time out of our day to thank him, as the one leper did, but let us also allow His grace to change us as it surely did to Paul and Titus, but also hopefully to the other nine lepers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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