Christmas break 2011

Hello everyone,

I had hoped to write sooner, but then I left my computer in Stevens Point on Christmas day when I headed back to Winona for a few days.  Break has been great.  I have had times where I am busy doing things that I enjoy and times that I have been able to just simply relax.

I can’t remember if I posted that I found out where we will be going for the CRS mission trip in February or not?  In case I didn’t, it is Burkina Faso, a country in Western Africa.

Break started out pretty normal with me going to Stevens Point and spending time with a couple of friends.  I had to go to Marshfield for the extended family Christmas party on that Sunday, after which I drove back to Winona. 

I went to Mass on Monday morning in La Crosse, hoping to see a friend who goes to Mass most days, but she wasn’t there.  I then had my annual check-up to see if the cancer has returned (it hasn’t!) and then I was able to take some down time.  I was given one of my Christmas gifts early from my mom and Perry, a certificate for 30 workout sessions at the gym that they go to.  It is very nice that the gym allows it to be used as a punch card, since I’m not there very often a month long certificate wouldn’t be able to be used much.  I was able to get in a few workouts during the time I had in Winona over break.  I always feel so good after those work outs.

On Wednesday I had to meet with the admissions board and the Bishop again as I move from pre-theology to theology studies.  The board had a short discussion of how I felt I have grown in seminary and how I hope to continue to grow.  The Bishop and I talked for a while; he is still trying to get to know us seminarians.  It was a great conversation.  During this I was told to go ahead and apply to St. Paul Seminary, something I will work on when I get back to Mundelein.

We then had the seminarian Christmas party (yes, during Advent, don’t ask me why) and I went and spent some time with friends in La Crosse after that.

On Thursday I headed back to Stevens Point to help with final preparation for Christmas, such as setting up and whatever else was needed.  I served at all three Christmas Masses (two on Christmas eve and one on Christmas morning) before heading back to Winona to celebrate Christmas with the immediate family there. 

Following that I had 3 days with nothing scheduled to do, I can’t remember the last time that I had 3 full days in a row to decide what to do.  I spend some of the time at Mass of course, and getting some reading done for School and visiting with friends, but it was pretty much three down days.  I enjoyed the time, but was starting to want to get to doing things again, so I came back here to Stevens Point yesterday to see what I could do around the parish.  I will be here for a few days and head back to the seminary on New Years day.

Remember, it is still Christmas season (it starts on Christmas day in the Church’s view) so be sure to still be celebrating the incarnation of the Lord.

Peace,

Adam

Advent reflection points 2011

Hello again everyone,

Advent is well underway now and I thought I’d take a minute to give an advent reflection.  First just a quick update, I have been very busy beginning this quarter, we have had a couple of extra things that they wanted to get in before Christmas rather than postponing them until January, plus the professors want to get some level of an assignment turned in before the break so that they have the break to go over them.  So we have all been dumped on with a ton to get done.  Thus, I will keep this short.

Advent is a time of preparation.  In current times it consists of the four Sundays preceding Christmas and the weeks that follow them, in a year like this with Christmas on a Sunday we have 4 full weeks of Advent, but it can be as short as the Monday after the 4^th Sunday.  Over time the length of Advent has varied, I’m not quite sure how the traditions have changed, but I know that had one time Advent was 40 days, to correspond with Lent before Easter. 

Now onto the reflection… (It may be more of my ramblings than a reflection, sorry, my mind is in a lot of different places.)

The image that comes to my mind most years during Advent is that of John the Baptist.  John fulfilled prophecies from the Old Testament regarding a messenger preparing the way of the Lord when He comes.  “A voice cry’s out from the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths for our God.”  John was the one there to do this for the incarnation of the Word becoming flesh. 

How do we prepare in a special way for Christ’s coming, not only in the celebration of Christmas, but every day.  Is our little corner of the world ready for Him at all times?  How can I make it better? 

My mind tends to wander quite often to preparing Christ’s way to come into me.  Into my heart, into my soul, and into my body through the Eucharist.  What obstacles need to be removed for this, namely sin.  How do I recognize when Christ comes in, this was a problem for Him when He was walking around Palestine and Israel, what do I do to make sure that I don’t make those same errors? 

What will I do after Advent to continue my readiness?  How will I live every day in anticipation?

These are just some of the thoughts that I reflection during Advent.  I hope that you may be able to use them to guide your own prayer and preparation.

Peace,
Adam

Beginning Winter quarter 2011-2012

Hello again everyone,

I hope that everybody had a very happy Thanksgiving and took some time to be thankful to God for all that he has given to us.  He is the ultimate cause for all the rest of the stuff that you are thankful for.

I have had a great (almost) two weeks since I wrote last.  In addition to spending time in Stevens Point and the wonderful talk given by Fr. Chris regarding the new translation of the Roman Missal I have done quite a bit. 

I spent the weekend before Thanksgiving staying at a friend’s farm so that I could just wake up and walk out the door for hunting.  These are the friends who got married last spring and I was the best man in their wedding.  I didn’t see any deer at all opening weekend, but it was still great to get into the woods for a bit.  The weather was decent too.  I went to Mass on Saturday evening at St. Elizabeth’s in Holmen; it is always nice to go back to the parish that I grew up going to.  The new priest that came in last summer is wonderful.  Sunday night I went up to my mom’s house to take Monday off for myself and Tuesday to spend with her since she had off of work.

Wednesday I went hunting at the farm again in the morning, still no deer to be seen, and then went hunting with a great friend in the afternoon on some public land that we hunted growing up, again no deer.  Wednesday evening I was able to go out for wings with some good friends before hunting again Thursday morning.  I wasn’t seeing any deer so I came in early to go to Mass for the Thanksgiving holiday, they asked me to be the reader, I haven’t read in that parish in more than 10 years, so that was very nice.  Then I went back to my mom’s and had all the Thanksgiving stuff with family.

On Friday I packed up all of my stuff and headed back to Stevens Point.  I went out hunting there on Saturday morning and saw the first deer I had seen all season and I got him, a five point buck.  After getting him all butchered up I got cleaned up for the Saturday evening Mass. 

This was the first weekend of Advent and the first weekend with the new translation of the Mass.  I was serving (altar boy) for it and was pretty impressed with how smoothly it went.  Of course there were a few hiccups since it was the first change in 40 years but the Newman University Parish was well prepared.  After going out to supper with a couple of parishioners and then serving at the Sunday morning Mass I picked up one of my friends to bring him back to where he goes to school in Milwaukee, which is along my route to get back to school. 

Classes started yesterday (Monday) for the new quarter and I am pretty excited for them.  This will be my easiest class schedule by far, since I only have 4 classes this quarter.  I still have all the other stuff like field education and formation and such, but it is nice to have fewer classes.  I have three classes that meet on Mondays and Thursdays and only one that meets on Tuesdays and Fridays.

The class that I have on Tuesdays and Fridays is Political and Social Philosophy, which I still don’t quite have a handle on what we will be going over in this, maybe I’ll say more on it later.  This is taught by Fr. Bob Barron, who produced the Catholicism TV series and runs to Word on Fire ministry.  He is a good speaker and presents information well, so I’m sure that I’ll get a lot out of it.

My first class on Mondays and Thursdays is on the Gospel of Mark.  This is normally one that people take in first year of Theology, but since I dropped Greek, this is what they had me pick up.  It should be fun and educational having this presented in class.  The Gospel of Mark is believed to be the first Gospel that is in the Bible to be written.  It is believed to have been written somewhere between 55 and 70 AD, so the author seems to have known St. Peter and taken many of his stories directly.

My second class is Humanities II.  This will be pretty fun I think.  It seems like we will read a couple of novels and talk about a wide spectrum of humanities topics such as music and architecture in addition to the novels.

My final class on Mondays and Thursdays is Modern Philosophy.  This will cover works by philosophers such as Descartes (although we have done some of his stuff already, he is who most of the others work off of), Spinoza, Locke, Kant, and Nietzsche to mention a few.  I really enjoy the instructor for this so I am looking forward to this class quite a bit too.

We are only here for three weeks at this point, before getting another two weeks off for the Christmas Holiday.  So we have a little sprint with a lot of material and then come back to finish out the quarter after the New Year’s Day holiday.  We will only have six weeks left at that point since this quarter is only nine weeks long for those of us in second pre-theology.  The final week of the quarter and one week of our two week break will be taken up by a mission trip.  We had the opportunity to apply for going to Mali in Africa with CRS (Catholic Relief Services) or to a Native American reservation in Arizona.  I have applied for the CRS experience, but we have not found out for sure if we are accepted yet.

Well, that is enough for now.  I hope everyone is doing well this Advent in preparing for the incarnation of our Savior.

Peace,

Adam

Fall finals and beginning of fall break 2011-2012

Hello again everyone,

                My finals last week went pretty well.  I am glad to be done with the quarter, this was probably the most stressful quarter that I’ve had in seminary, but on the whole it wasn’t too bad. 

After finishing finals I hit the road right away to get to Stevens Point.  I had decided to spend the night at the house of a couple that are close friends of mine before going to Fr. Tom’s on Saturday.  I was getting into town early and since it was Veteran’s Day I decided to stop for my free meal at the Appleby’s restaurant which I was passing on my way in.  The line was out the door, this is a very popular thing that they do, however, I was alone so I was told that I could sit right away if I didn’t mind eating at the bar.  So I did that and had a beer and the shrimp basket meal that they had on the veterans menu.  It is very nice of them to give the free meal, although the beer was kind of expensive.  I then headed down to my friends and had a great evening playing with their kids and visiting with them.  It is always nice to catch up with friends.

Saturday was pretty much a down day until Mass and going out to supper with a couple of parishioners.  I also attended both Masses on Sunday, I get so much strength from this community and although I get here regularly it is always special.  Following the evening Mass on Sunday Fr. Tom and I were planning on picking up a priest friend of his at the airport nearby, but his first flight was delayed so he missed his connection and we had to drive to Appleton to pick him up.  This friend is leading a talk tonight (Thursday) at the parish about the new translation of the Roman Missal which will be changing many of the words used at Mass starting on the First Sunday of Advent.

After we finally got out of the airport at about 10:30 we stopped for Supper and then Fr. Tom asked me to drive back to Stevens Point.  I have driven his car quite a bit, so this is fairly normal.  Driving back from Appleton is a 65 mile per hour road and we were rolling along until at about quarter after midnight I see a deer in the median running out in front of me, I hit the brakes but ended up hitting the deer.  After calling the sheriff, Fr. Tom calls AAA to get a tow, since the car was not able to be driven.  This took quite a while but we eventually got back to the house at a little before three on Monday morning.  Fr. Tom and his friend Fr. Chris were planning to head up to a parishioners cabin up north on Monday and after dealing a little bit with the insurance company that morning he was able to borrow a car and still have their relaxation time. 

I of course felt really bad, but there is nothing that can be done when a deer runs out in front of you.  I spent a lot of Monday doing some little things around town before going to have dinner with another couple of my college friends.  A little after leaving there I got a call from Fr. Tom that the insurance company said that the car is totaled, so he is beginning to look for a new car.  I was then able to sit in on a Bible study at the parish with college students before catching the second half of the Packers Monday Night Football game. 

Tuesday I served for a funeral that the parish was having.  A retired priest celebrated the funeral.  The lady that died wasn’t really a parishioner.  She had just moved to town when her health turned so she hadn’t joined any parish yet.  She had met Fr. Tom through one of our parishioners who works in spiritual services at the hospice and she had asked Fr. Tom if our parish would have the funeral.  I was kind of saddened that there were only about 50 people who attended the funeral, and although it sounds like this woman was a devout Catholic it didn’t seem like her children could even remember the responses at Mass.  This makes me a bit sad.

Other than that I did quite a bit of work around the parish on Tuesday and Wednesday and was able to go to the Pointers men’s basketball season opener game, which I went to a lot of games while I was in college, so I always enjoy that.  On Wednesday the two priests returned and we went to a talk at the university by a history professor who has looked in to the various types of propaganda that countries use when going to or in war.  This was a very interesting talk, and it was kind of set up to time with the art display Visions of War that the university had by art students and veterans timed to coincide with Veteran’s Day.

On Wednesday night Fr. Chris had the late night Mass and it is always so very wonderful to pray with a group of about 50 college students at a weekday Mass.  I will do a few more things for the parish today before the talk tonight.  Tomorrow morning I will head home to get ready for the gun deer season which opens this Saturday.

That is the update for the first part of this break.  I hope you all are doing well and incase I don’t get another post in before it, have a Blessed Thanksgiving and don’t forget to give thanks to God.

Peace,

Adam

Catholic Q&A November 2011

Hello everyone,

It is Finals week, so I am of course very busy.  So I thought I’d share with you a recent e-mail conversation.  I received a comment on the blog from someone asking me to e-mail her to answer some questions about the Catholic faith.  I am going to put two e-mail exchanges with her here.  I have removed her name for privacy.  Enjoy.

Peace,
Adam

Her to me #1

 Lately, God has been placing it upon my heart to become more aware of other denominations, which is when I came across your blog. After reading it, I was in awe of how different this denomination is from what I am used to. I grew up Lutheran but now I do not affliate myself with anything other than a follower of Christ.  So there were a few questions I had about catholicism that I would like to ask you-I feel it would be more insightful to learn from a devout catholic themself, rather than an online wikipedia entry.  With that said, I was wondering if you could tell me what catholics believe about Mary and what the significance of the Rosary is in relaion to her? What do catholics believe about Jesus Christ and His divinity?  Why do catholoics go to a priest to confess their sins?  No need to elaborate too much on these questions, just a general response would be great.  Thank you so much for your time!

God bless,

Me to her #1 Reply

May God Bless you in your inquiry.  Since you asked for the short answers I will try to keep this short.  

Your first question was in regards to Mary.  We honor Mary because she is the first Christian and the one who said, "Yes" to bringing Christ into this world.  We also see her as an able to, willing to, and wanting to plead for us to her son.  If you look at the story of the Wedding at Cana you will see this in action with her pleading with her son to help out those hosting the wedding.  Also, on the cross Christ pointed to John and said, "Behold your mother."  We see that as a message to all of us, not just John.  When praying "to" Mary we are truly praying through Mary.  God the father and God the son both honored Mary so we feel that we should to.  If you look at prayers like the Hail Mary (the most frequent in the rosary) they do not ask for Mary to do anything more than to pray for us.  Also, in regards to the rosary, it is more than simply reciting the words.  There are four sets of five "mysteries" which are announced before each decade (Our Father, 10 Hail Marys, and a Glory Be) to be meditated on during the decade.

As for Jesus Christ and His divinity it is most likely the same as you learned growing up as a Lutheran (by the way, which synod were you part of, I may be able to explain stuff better knowing this, I have a great deal of family and many friends in different synods of Lutheran)  We believe that Christ is both fully God and fully man, understandable only as a mystery of the faith, in the two thousand year history of the Church we have battled the teachings of some who have taught that either was only an illusion, one thing that helps our Church is the extensive history of clarifying the understanding from the scriptures.

The reason that Catholics participate in the sacrament of Reconciliation (confession) is because Christ told us to.  Upon the sending of the Apostles he gave St. Peter the keys to Heaven and told the Apostles "who's sins you forgive are forgiven, whose sins you hold bound are held bound" so we see this as Christ forgiving sins through the priests.  We are not confessing our sins to the priest, at that time they are acting as a mediator between us and Christ by the power that Christ gave to His Church.  I understand the difficulty that some would have with this when you can go directly to God and I am struggling to explain it in short.

I think that this answers what you were asking at least to some extent... let me know if there is more that I can help you with.  One website that may help you with questions is www.catholicscomehome.org this site is focused on bring those who left the Church or those from other Christian faiths to a better understanding of the teachings.  It has the goal of bringing people into the Church, I don't know if that is a possibility with you or not, but it has a pretty good frequently asked questions section.

Peace,
Adam

Her to me #2

Hello,
Your answers have definitely given me a better understanding of the Catholic faith so I appreciate you taking the time to answer them!  The website was very helpful as well. Thank you for the scriptural basis-I now have a clear picture of where the catholic beliefs come from, especially the role of Mary. There are only 2-3 more questions that I have.  What are catholics' beliefs on believers performing miracles/healings today?  What do they believe the role of the Holy Spirit is in our daily lives?  On a more personal note, what does your relationship with God look like (quiet time, prayer life, etc. )  I promise, those will be the last of my questions!  No need to feel rushed in answering the questions-I understand that you're busy with your class obligations.

Thanks!

Me to her #2 Reply

Feel free to ask more questions, I enjoy answering peoples questions, it helps me get things ever more clearer in my mind every time I do so.  I am glad that the website was helpful.  I wouldn't imagine giving information like that without the scriptural references (although I don't often cite book chapter and verse unless you want me to).  Now onto the questions here.

No believer can perform miracles themselves.  All miracles are acts of God.  God may and does work through His believers in this regard.  As Catholics we put a great deal of emphasis on science as a gift from God to help us understand and better serve the world, but there are many areas that He gets involved and will go against science to help us out.  If our prayers line up with His will it is very easy to see miracles happening often.  Many of these are small miracles while others are bigger.  We wouldn't give the credit for a miracle to a believer, but to God working through them.  This applies both to believers still alive on earth and those living in Heaven.  The definition of a canonized Saint is someone that we are sure is in Heaven with God, but they are still simply a believer.  When someone says that they were healed through their prayers "to" St. so-and-so it is simply a way of saying that we asked that St. to pray for us and God worked a miracle.

The Holy Spirit is very, very important in the Catholic Church.  In fact, the feast of Pentecost is considered the birthday of the Church (Pentecost is the celebration of the Holy Spirit descending upon the Apostles to guide them in their ministry)  We believe that the Holy Spirit is involved in our understanding and growth.  Most Catholics ask for the Spirit to be with them when reading scriptures since it was the Spirit who gave the authors their inspiration.  As a future priest I will be asking the Spirit to guide my ministry to the people at all times.  We see the Sacrament of Confirmation as a Holy Spirit sacrament in the growth of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in promoting and defending the faith.

As for my personal relationship with God.  All of us are to be constantly growing in our relationship with God.  As Catholics we see this as a life long process.  Our faith and relationship with God should be (and for me is) centered around the Eucharist.  The Eucharist is the true presence of Christ in communion.  When we receive communion we are receiving the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ into us as He instructed at the last supper.  Christ is everywhere but in a special way is present in the Eucharist both during Mass and when it is reserved in the tabernacle.  (The tabernacle is the place where we place consecrated hosts for times when the sacrament is needed for those who are unable to attend Mass such as the homebound or the sick.)  So I spend time every day just saying prayers in front of the tabernacle since Jesus is there in such a special way.  I of course go to Mass every day to receive the Eucharist and be fulfilled by the Word that is part of the Mass.  I pray at all times, sometimes these are formalized traditional prayers and other times it is just something that the Spirit moves me to make up as I go.  In my previous career I was a forester so I see God's work in all of His creation so I spend a lot of time praying outdoors too.  I also have a book called the liturgy of hours which is a set of prescribed prayers to be prayed at five times during the day, this is required of priests and religious (nuns and brothers) and a good practice for me as a seminarian to get into.  This is something that is growing among the laity, but probably most Catholics that you would ask wouldn't be familiar with it... it just isn't out there as much.  I also am a very visual person so I use icons and statues to point me to God.  Many of these are of different biblical stories which is obvious how they point to God.  For a protestant you may not as easily understand the statues to the Saints, but these are all tools to guide us to God.  When I see a statue of St. Francis I can think of the mission that God gave him to rebuild His Church and so on.  I also try to spend time in the scriptures every day.  There are prescribed readings every day for Mass and I like to take these to my personal prayer as well as listening to them at Mass and listening to the Homily (sermon) during Mass.  I can find these every day either in a book that I have or at http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings  

I hope that this answers today's questions.  Feel free to ask more.  I don't check this e-mail account a lot unless I am expecting something so please be patient if you send and future questions.

Peace,

Adam

Chicago's transitional Deacon Ordination and more 2011

Hello everyone,


It has been a joyful week here at the seminary since I last posted. On Saturday 11 men were Ordained to the Deaconate. Ten of them are going to be Chicago priests and one is going to be a Springfield priest.



When we talk about Deacon Ordinations we often use either the word permanent or transitional. In reality the office of Deacon is the same, the Ontological changes (changes in being, mark on the soul, etc…) are the same. A permanent Deacon is a man who feels that this is where they are called to in life while a transitional Deacon is a man who is preparing for the priesthood. Canon Law requires that a man be a Deacon at least 6 months before being ordained a Priest is why there is this step. I am not entirely sure on all of the theological reasons for this. So now you know what we are talking about when we use the terms transitional or permanent Deacon. It is a blessing for these two Diocese to take this next step towards having them as priests.



The man from the Springfield Diocese is a wonderful story. In short he was a minister in a protestant denomination (I’m not sure which one) who over time and study realized the truth of the Catholic faith and converted to Catholicism. One interesting thing in his situation is that while most priests are not allowed to marry, if someone was ordained in certain protestant churches they can get a dispensation from the Vatican to later be ordained as Catholic priests despite being married. This is only possible if they were not raised Catholic, so it isn’t an end around that a man could go and be ordained in one of these Churches, get married, and then come back to Catholic…



Other than the Ordination we are all busy finishing up projects, papers, and studying for finals which are next week. All five of my finals are Thursday and Friday, the 10th and 11th of November. After that I get another two weeks off. I am sure I will write about that in a later post.



Today I found out some wonderful news (wonderful for me). I will be able to be done with Greek after this quarter. I am enjoying the class, but my brain just doesn’t seem to work in the detail needed for language studies, at least a language that can’t be used in modern conversation. I seem to understand the concepts that are being taught, however, I am still struggling to memorize the things that we were supposed to memorize the first week. This isn’t due to me not working on it. I am studying for Greek between 12 and 16 hours a week at least, plus class time. I just can’t seem to memorize the details. I think that the professor can tell that I am indeed working and will allow me a passing grade in the course, even if my scores don’t justify it. The reason that I am dropping for next quart isn’t the work load, I wouldn’t mind that amount of work if I was getting the material and at least partially able to keep up, but now it seems pointless to continue when I am not able to apply what I am learning. It looks like I will be taking a course on the Gospel of Mark instead, something that will be very useful in the future.



Well, I should probably get back to homework, so this is a long enough post. I will try to write another short post next week.



Peace,

Adam

Week 8 Fall 2011-2012

Hello again,

This past weekend was my first weekend with no major obligations in quite some time.  It was very nice to be able to relax and get some things done. 

One of the cool things that I have started to get into lately is a young adult ministry program at a church not too far away.  I was invited to an event that they were having by a friend of mine from college who goes to that church and is on the leadership team for this young adult ministry group.  I enjoyed the event and the people there.  I was asked if I had any tips for the ministry program.  It sounds like at that church they had a decent young adult ministry that kind of fizzled out but they are trying to get it going again.  I have been part of a good young adult ministry program and a not so good one, so I do have some ideas and look forward to the possibility of helping them with this.

I think that young adult ministry is one thing that the church needs to get better at, and fast.  The Catholic Church has long been pretty decent at young family ministry, and I think it is getting pretty good at campus ministry for the college students but there is a gap in between when many people feel neglected by the Church and we could improve.  I hope that I can help with this group, and give myself the enjoyment of participating in it.

Today would have been my sister’s birthday.  She would have been 39 today, but she died almost 9 years ago.  She had been born with numerous birth defects that we suspect are related to Agent Orange exposure.  I never knew her much.  She lived in the home of another family most of my life.  This family was able to take great care of her and I am thankful for them every time that I think of it.  I kind of get sad because while I had a sister I never got to experience the things that most people do with their sisters.  I never get in trouble for pulling her hair or got to see her go to prom or get married.  I occasionally think of this and it kind of gets me down.

I am happy to think that she is in heaven now though.  I have no doubt about this.  In the Catholic understanding there is no question about this since with her physical and mental limitations she could not understand right and wrong and thus could not sin.  She was baptized to wipe away the stain of original sin and since she could not sin she is most assuredly in Heaven.  This makes me happy and I pray that I will be able to join her there when my time on Earth is finished.  I like to think of her in Heaven free of all the limitations that she experienced in this world. 

Well, that is the goings on with me for now.  I hope everyone has a Blessed week.

Peace,
Adam

Visiting St. Paul Seminary

Hello again everyone,

I have received a few nice comments on the paper that I posted last week.  I am glad that you enjoyed it.  I will try to post more papers in the future if I think they are the type that you would enjoy. 

To catch up a little bit from before that post… The weekend before I attended the wedding of two good friends.  They had asked me to serve and then say the grace at the reception meal.  I am always very honored to be asked to join in peoples special day.  The wedding was a lot of fun, almost a reunion for a large number of my friends from college.  In fact, every Eucharistic Minister (except the priest) at the wedding was a person that I had worked with when I worked at the Newman University Parish.  I had a lot of fun. 

For the wedding I had called the priest at the parish where it was being held to see if I might be able to stay with him to save some money.  He said that normally he would, but his family was in town that weekend.  He did call offer to and did call a neighboring parish and got me permission to stay with them.  This was great, because hotel rooms in that area were near $90 a night and would have made my budget really tough.

Last week at school was a few mid-terms and other than that normal until having Friday off.  We get one long weekend during the fall quarter, I’m not entirely sure why, but it is a nice break.  On Thursday afternoon another seminarian from La Crosse in my class and I drove up to Stevens Point.  We had to drive separately, since he had to be back early but we both arrived at near the same time.  We went out to supper with Father Tom and then spent some time together before all of us went to bed early.  We had to leave at 6:00 in the morning to head to St. Paul, MN to visit St. Paul seminary there. 

I had set up this visit a while back with a couple of seminarians that La Crosse has there already.  We didn’t feel the need to drive way early to get there for the first class, but made it easily in time for the second morning class.  Mark (the other seminarian) and I attended class with Billy, a seminarian from La Crosse in first year Theology.  After that class we looked around the seminary a bit and then had Mass.  I kind of like that mass is at 11:35 there, rather than first thing in the morning.  I like the idea of centering my day around Mass, but there is also something to be said for starting the day with Mass like they do here at Mundelein.  I guess it is just personal preference for different people.

The campus there is smaller than here at Mundelein, but very nice.  The rooms that the seminarians live in are comparable size.  At St. Paul Seminary each seminarian shares a bathroom with one person, opposed to here where we have our own.  It probably wouldn’t be too big of a deal to share with one.  The fitness areas at St. Paul are a bit smaller, but I may be able to find other areas to work out on the St. Thomas University campus, of which the seminary is part.  I like the idea of being part of a larger university.  I am not sure how much interaction the normal seminarian would have with others on the campus, but it would surely open up some more opportunities for activities.

The classes that Mark and I attended were both very interesting, and very well presented.  It seems that there is a smaller percentage of the faculty that is priests at St. Paul, but the professors were very engaging and seem to have good relationships with the students.  I wish that I’d gotten a chance to talk to the rector of the seminary or to say more than hello to the vice rector, but in the little encounter that I had with each of them they seemed nice.

People have asked me if this means that I am for sure transferring next year.  I can’t say that.  I am going to pray about it a little more, but I think that I will tell the vocation director that I am interested in transferring and ask him to ask the Bishop if I should start the application.

Well, that has brought this up-to-date.  We are now in the four week sprint to the end of the quarter, I don’t think that I have any more travels in that time.  We’ll see what I can do to make it interesting.

Peace,

Adam

Paper on Monotheism vs polytheism

Hello everyone, today I wanted to treat you to the paper that I talked about a few posts back in regards to the difference between Monotheism and Polytheism.  As I said before it was very interesting to write, I hope you enjoy it.

Peace,
Adam

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Adam James

Philosophy of Nature

Polytheism vs. Monotheism:

The Metaphysical Implications of Their Respective Narratives

            When thinking about the differences between a polytheistic faith and one that is monotheistic, it is common to believe that it is simply a difference of the number of gods that a faith embraces.  While this is an understandable mistake, the words are deceiving.  The idea of god is completely different in the polytheistic view compared to that of the monotheist.  In these two settings the idea of gods is different in part because of the different views on the matrix that encompasses everything. 

            In a polytheistic tradition people grow up with the notion that their gods are born.  This in itself means that there must be something before their gods.  It also means that there must be more than one, for one has to give birth to another.  The gods in this view are procreated, so there is an element of the unsuspected and unwilled involved with them and their actions.  From this it is seen that the matrix of all reality predates the gods.  This raises the question as to what or who created the matrix.    

            The gods in a polytheistic view are subject to fate, as is all that exists.  Fate means that what is destined to happen will happen with no effect of will.  The polytheistic people pay homage to the gods, despite the belief that all is subject to fate.  They do this because the gods are typically quite cruel and demanding of their attention. 

The only way that a person can influence fate is through magic.  This magic is not simple tricks as in the current definition of magic but is a way for the polytheist to tap into the metadivine.   If the act for magic fails to influence fate, it doesn’t necessarily hurt the faith of the polytheists.  They feel that if magic doesn’t work it can only be because they performed the magical act wrong.

A polytheist learns all of this through narrative.  The best known of these narratives would be Iliad and Odyssey by Homer.  These stories tell the tales of the gods and show all about them, how they came about, how they act, and the fact that they are subject to fate.  These tales are the narrative that tied the culture together and similar tales exist in every polytheistic culture.  These tales show a cyclical system to the polytheists’ understanding.

Monotheism has a completely different take on the metaphysical realm.  Monotheism is unique in history from the Israelite God to the faiths that have come from that, namely Christianity and Islam.  Monotheistic metaphysics is summed up in the first line of Genesis.  Which describes how in the beginning there was nothing and then God willed everything into being.  This shows a couple of the biggest differences between polytheism and monotheism.  The first that this shows is that God has always been, not born from something.  Along this same line it shows that God pre-existed everything.  This shows that in monotheism the metadivine is linear, not cyclical as in polytheism, if there is such a sing as a metadivine in monotheism, maybe it is more accurate to say time or history.

The other big difference that this first idea in the Genesis shows is that God’s will is the ultimate thing in this realm.  God is not subject to fate, His will trumps all.  God willed the world into existence, and it was so.  This is a big difference, it means that everything was created intentionally, not procreated and getting whatever comes. 

In monotheism prayer is the way to influence God, not magic.  This leads to and understanding that God can do anything that He wills. 

While monotheism has a narrative as does polytheism it differs in several ways.  One way that the narrative differs is that it comes about through revelation.  In revelation God has shown himself and what is true at the time and to whom He knows will spread it in the proper way.  Polytheists don’t believe in this idea of revelation, although their gods interact with them in a constant manner.  Monotheism tends to be more difficult to get people to convert to because of this revelation aspect.  It has a less obvious metaphysical idea than polytheism, so is believed in primarily by those to whom it has been revealed.

So while polytheists have many gods and monotheists believe only in one God as the words would show there is a very great deal more to the difference between monotheism and polytheism.  This difference is shown best in the narratives of the two ideas.  In the polytheistic narrative one sees the creation, or more properly procreation, of the gods while in the monotheistic narrative one sees that God is before and above everything else that has and will ever exist.

Dad's visit and more

Hello again,

So the big thing to type about this week was family day here at the seminary on Saturday.  It is a day of great joy with quite a large turnout for families coming here.  I enjoy meeting the families of my seminary brothers a lot.

To make it even better, I got to see my dad.  His trip in just happened to coincide with family day, but it was nice to be able to take advantage of all that was offered.  My dad had ridden the motorcycle from his home in Montana to Wisconsin at the beginning of September to help one of his sister-in-laws to drive out to spend time with them in Montana.  Last week they drove back to WI and after spending some time with my brother and his family, and some time getting the motorcycle worked on my dad came down on Friday to see me.  We got him settled into his room and then went out for pizza with one of my classmates whom I am good friends with.  It was great spending this time with him and talking.

I showed my dad around the seminary a bit and then on Saturday we took part in a few of the activities.  I showed him the book store here and he bought me two polo shirts with the logo on them, which was very nice of him.  We then sat in on a mock lecture regarding the importance of liturgy in the faith and the importance of adhering to liturgical norms since the liturgy is the prayer of the entire church.  I was a bit concerned how my dad would handle this since religion has never been a big part of his life, however, he really enjoyed it and was glad that we had attended.

After that we did a little bit of work on the bike, we didn’t get the problem fixed, but decided that the indicator light he had on was a sensor making a bad connection and not really the problem that it indicated.  We followed that by lunch and then the wonderful architecture tour that they offer on campus for family day.  The professor that leads this tour does an absolutely amazing job of describing all the thought that went into the design of the buildings on this campus.  He gives a great deal of background and insight.  I can’t even begin to go into detail describing what he talks about, but it is amazing.

After that my dad and I went out for a nice supper and time together.  He left on Sunday morning.  It was great to be able to spend time with him and to show him this part of my life.

Classes are of course busy, as well as all the other stuff that we have going on.  At my field education we had one last night of preparing for the people that we will serve starting this Thursday.  We were reorganizing the supplies and cleaning up the store room.  I am excited for the people to start coming in.  I am sure I will tell you about it in future posts.

Last Thursday morning I was able to participate in a special Mass offered by the retired Archbishop that I have for my Vatican II class.  He invited me to participate since he was offering the Mass for my friend Casey who was hurt seriously hurt and his wife.  Casey is doing much better.  Last Thursday or Friday the doctors told Carolyn that it appears that Casey MIGHT be able to regain some sensation in his lower extremities, but it is still too early to tell.  This is a great step up from the sure paralysis that was being told to them.  Casey was moved yesterday from the ICU to a normal hospital room, so he is making great strides.

That is again enough for now.  Have a Blessed week everyone.

Peace,
Adam

What a week

Hello again,

               

This has been a week with a wide variety of prayer.  Not long after I posted my last post here I received news that one of my friends was seriously hurt at his job.  Casey is a guy that went to the same high school and university as me so I have known him for a long time.  At the university Casey got actively involved at the parish and became a member of the RCIA team, to help welcome people into the faith and teach them what the faith is all about.  Casey got married last summer and both him and his wife are involved in the life of the parish.

               

Casey worked in a tree service job and was hurt when a tree fell on him.  He was airlifted to the hospital in Marshfield and through some miracle they were able to save his life.  He had severe injuries that I can’t even begin to describe.  On Wednesday Carolyn received a report from the doctors that there appears to be severe spinal cord injury and it is believed that Casey will be a paraplegic for the rest of his life, if he survives.  It appears now that he is going to survive.  I asked the whole seminary community to pray both for healing for Casey and for strength for him and Carolyn as they grow into their new lifestyle.  The retired archbishop who teaches one of my classes is going to offer Mass for them this Thursday.  This whole event was and still is some obviously emotionally difficult prayer time.

                For some wonderfully joyous prayer I drove to Stevens Point on Friday night and then over to Colby on Saturday for an Ordination of a friend to the deaconate.  I may have mentioned it before but incase you don’t know, while there are men who are permanent deacons in the Catholic Church a man who is going towards the priesthood is ordained a deacon at least six months before his priesthood ordination.  Jeff is one of three of these “transitional” deacons that we have in the La Crosse Diocese this year.  It was a great joy to attend and pray at this event.

               

Aside from those two extremes it was a fairly routine week, nothing spectacular occurred in my classes.  The trip to Stevens Point was of course great.  I draw so much strength from getting to be with the Newman Parish there that I can’t even describe how wonderful it is. 

I guess that this is enough for a short post this week.

Peace,

Adam

Third Week 2011-2012

Hello again everyone,

                So the quarter is rolling along very well.  I have been very busy with homework.  I am planning a few weekends in a row which I won’t get much homework done, so I am trying to get ahead in any area that I can. 

I have written a couple of papers well ahead of when they are due.  I like it when I am able to do this.  These papers are in a format that I know because I have had this professor before and he hasn’t changed.  They are summaries of readings that we have to do so I can get them accomplished without waiting for the lecture on the topic.  These are probably interesting only to those who are studying this stuff and to a certain extent only a little bit interesting for some of us.  This has lifted quite a bit of weight off of me for the rest of the quarter, which has only seven and a half weeks left… wow that seems so short of a time.

               

                One paper that wasn’t early but that I have done so far is very interesting.  It was comparing the difference between polytheism and monotheism; it is more than just numbers.  I am checking to see if the professor will let me put it up here.  I think that I have to check, because even though I wrote it, it was written for that class, so to my understanding it would be possible to plagiarize my own work if I don’t get permission.  I really enjoyed writing that paper and the lectures that led up to it.  It gave me a greater understanding of where western thought has come from.

                This past Saturday five of us went to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.  I had been able to get some free tickets from a friend.  It was great because the tickets were the high end ones that included everything.  We took the train into town and the “El” line to get close to the aquarium and then walked over.  There were a lot of people in the area because early in the afternoon the Wisconsin Badgers were playing Northern Illinois University at Soldier Field near the aquarium.  It was kind of fun seeing all of those people. 

                The aquarium was very cool.  We got there just in time to go to the dolphin show before starting our walk around through the place.  They have a lot of stuff that isn’t just in big square aquariums, but in pretty cool displays, we all really enjoyed it.  After the aquarium we decided to just walk back to union station rather than take the “El” and walked through a couple of parks and looked at all the big buildings.  I enjoy visiting big cities, and can put up with them for a time, but would never want to live in one long term.  The train rides were fun and we made it back in time to get some stuff done on Saturday night, so it was an overall good day.

                Sunday was pretty uneventful.  I followed the Packers game online while I was doing homework.  Being in the Chicago metro if the Bears are playing at the same time I don’t get to see the Packers games.  A few guys went to the Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the game, but I decided not to.  I am going away a couple of times this quarter so need to save money for gas, plus I was able to get some homework done.

                I am really enjoying my classes this quarter.  I even enjoy Greek, although it is very tough for me.  I am spending most of my study time on it, but my brain doesn’t work the language type learning too well.  I figure I will put in my time and get what I can get out of it and then move on.  I am not stressing it too much. 

                Well, I think I will end it there.  If I get permission to post that paper I will try to do that shortly.

Peace,
Adam

Getting started again, fall 2011

Hello again,

                So the school year is off and rolling.  I haven’t written since just before the silent retreat so let me fill you in on that.  As I have said before, silent retreats are very difficult for me.  I can control myself from talking just fine, and I can focus on my prayer, so that is good.  The thing is though, is that with me being so very extroverted I draw my energy from interacting with people.  When I am on the silent retreat I don’t have that source of energy.  Most priests (and thus most seminarians) are quite introverted, so it works well for them to be on silent retreat.

                This retreat was what is called a “preached retreat” meaning that there is someone who preaches or gives sessions during it that give you stuff to pray about.  The presenter this year was Father Andrew Ricci, a priest from the Diocese of Superior, Wisconsin.  A few years ago he was their vocation director, and is now the rector of the Cathedral in Superior.  I talked with him a bit before the retreat started, he is a good man and I enjoyed his sessions.  He started out guiding us a bit in getting to know ourselves.  From that he went into growing what are called the theological virtues, these being faith, hope, and love.  From that he talked about in general being better men and better future priests.  It was pretty good, although as I said draining on me.

                After that ended we had our cam day of reflection for the cam that I am on.  Remember that a cam in Latin for dorm or hallway, so we use the word cam for the hallway that we live on.  My cam chose to have it before the classes start so that we aren’t distracted by that.  It was a pretty simple event.  We went to a retreat house nearby and had prayer and a sharing of each of our vocation stories and then Mass.  We attempted to go mini-golfing in the afternoon, but it was raining so we ended up just playing board games and such together before going out for a nice meal. 

                Classes started this past Monday.  I have five classes plus my field education this quarter.  For my field education I am going to be going to a site that one night a week is a homeless shelter.  I haven’t started there yet, so I’m not sure exactly what I’ll be doing, we’ll have to wait and see.  My classes are Greek I, Medieval Philosophy II, Natural Theology, Philosophy of Nature, and Documents of Vatican II.

                Greek I is obviously just like you would think.  We are learning the basics of Biblical Greek so that we have a better grasp on the nuances of what is being said in the new testament, most of which was written in Greek.  It seems like the professor that teaches that, a lay woman, is going to be pretty good.  She seems to have a very systematic approach to it and also the ability to make it fun.  I am looking forward to this much more than I was looking forward to the Latin classes I took last year.

                Medieval Philosophy II seems like it will be pretty heavily based on the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas.  I like that a lot, his writing is very readable and important in Church history.  Although obviously some of the issues he deals with are a bit dated (he lived in the 1200s) it has a great impact on our understanding yet today.

                Natural Theology seems to be quite a bit about what revelation has told us about seeing God.  It seems like it will be very applicable to our future priesthood.  I don’t know quite what all we will encounter in it.

                Philosophy of Nature seems like it will cover much of the same ground as Natural Theology, but from a bit of a different angle, a bit more the reasoned approach than the revelation.  Again, I’m not quite sure where all this will take us, so I’ll fill you in more as the course goes on.

                Documents of Vatican II is our study of what was written during that great ecumenical council.  It is taught by a retired Archbishop, he wasn’t involved in the council, but was a priest before it started so lived through much of the change that it brought about.  I am looking forward to this class quite a bit.  I have read all of these documents in the past, but it will be fun to be taught how they can be interpreted and such.  Many people talk about the council without a real good basis in it.  They say that the council did all these radical things, but many of them were people taking stuff further than what was intended. 

                As usual here on the quarter system we hit the ground running right away.  With only 10 weeks of classes we don’t have the luxury of working into something slowly like we did in college on the semester system.  I have already done about 700 pages of reading and hope to get 3-4 papers done this weekend.  Only 1 is due next week, but if I get the others done now that is that much easier of a time later on, since we never know what will come up.

Peace,

Adam

Back to Mundelein 2011

Hi again,

So I am back here at Mundelein getting ready for the second year of pre-theology.  Our silent retreat starts tomorrow night and runs until Friday so I thought I’d write quickly before then.  I am then occupied the next day, so if you are going to contact me wait until next week Sunday.

Since I wrote last I have had a few things go on while I have been getting ready for the new school year.  One of these is a fundraiser that the seminarians help out with.  The money raised helps the vocation program for the Diocese of La Crosse.  This year it was a bit different than the way it had been in the past, but I liked this a bit better. 

We converted the large dining room at the diocesan center to look somewhat like a place that you would see in Rome.  The event was titled “A Night in Rome with Bishop Callahan”.  We borrowed a lot of props from the local Catholic University’s theater department and I would say that it looked wonderful.  In the past there had been a nice served meal, this year it was kind of buffet style of Italian dishes.  Part way through the night the vocation director and the bishop talked for a few minutes and then it went back to just a socializing evening with seminarians and the bishop mingling and talking to people.  It was nice.  I left shortly after the talks so I had gone down early to set up.  I was leaving to go to a friend’s birthday parting across the state. 

I had thought that the friend’s birthday party was Friday night when I set up to leave early, I found out shortly before the event that it was Saturday, but I still left early to drive part way across the state so that I could get to my friend’s early.  The friend whose birthday it was is one of my dearest friends.  She has moved to the west coast for work and we don’t get to see each other much.  I was so happy to go to this party, see her and some other friends.  We had a bonfire and camped out in the back yard before going to church together the next morning. 

After Mass I headed to see another friend who lived near that area before driving back to Stevens Point for a few days.  Again this time in Stevens Point was nice and relaxing.  I did some chores around the parish, and went out to dinner with a few parishioners before getting ready to head back to Mundelein.  I got in here on Thursday afternoon and got to work setting up my room.  I built a loft for my bed to give me more room, this was a big project but it makes my room very livable, I like it a lot.  It has been great spending time with friends and catching up after the summer before the retreat begins.

You will all be in my prayers during this silent retreat.

Peace,
Adam

End of Scout Camp and Start of Time Off 2011

Hello again,

                Since I wrote last I have had a half a week of being very busy at scout camp followed by a week in Stevens Point without regular internet access, plus I just didn't write for a few days after getting back here.  It is amazing how long it seems since I have written, although it has been pretty low key, not a lot going on.

 

                In my last post I promised that I would write about finishing up at camp, the last week of Boy Scouts and the half week of Weblos.  The last week of Boy Scouts was both great and difficult at the same time.  Attendance at the chapel services was pretty good, and I felt like I connected with quite a few of the scouts. 

 

Although I had been offering to the leaders all summer to come in for an ethics talk with the scouts I had never had any troops take me up on it.  The last week of scouts I had 4 troops ask for this.  For these ethics talks another staff member and I go in and sit down with the scouts, ask the leaders to leave for about 45 minutes and talk about issues that are affecting young men of this age range.  I asked the leaders if there were any specific issues going on in the troop.  Each and every one of them said that they were having major bullying issues with the scouts in their troop, so this was a big part of the talk. 

 

It is expected that boys of this age will have some issues with bullying, but this was an exceptionally bad case of it.  It amazed me how during the summer each week seemed to have its own characteristic of what the troops were dealing with, despite the fact that they were from all over and not really and pattern to when they come in.  But they have some of the same issues, and that week it was bullying.  I am sure that these 45 minute talks weren't going to work miracles with this issue, but the leaders did comment to me that there seemed to be some improvement after the talk.  It gave them some time to think about it, and I think that the way that we presented the issue to them caused them some pause when they were about to be bullying someone. 

 

After that week was the half week of Weblo scouts.  This is the oldest two years of Cub Scouts, before they transition to Boy Scouts.  This half a week ran quite a bit like those with the Boy Scouts, just condensed into a shorter time.  I was surprised with these scouts being a bit younger that I didn't have much for homesick to deal with, I guess that is partially because of how short the time was for them.  I did something pretty cool with them that I hadn't done with the scouts.  We only had one chapel service due to the time, but instead we did a chapel minute at the end of most meals.  There were a couple that time just got too short, or the person coordinating the after meal activities forgot.  It was pretty cool and I got a lot of compliments on it.

 

When I left scout camp I went out for a drink with a couple of friends from camp before heading to Winona for one night.  I left the next morning and after completing a bit of running around in La Crosse I headed over to Stevens Point.

 

Nothing too special was going on in Stevens Point.  I took care of some chores for the parish and I served both Masses on the weekend in addition to catching up with some friends in the area.  It was a nice visit.  I then came back to Winona and will be here for a week and a half before heading out again.  I am keeping up with personal prayer and attending daily Mass often to revitalize myself before heading into the upcoming school year.  I have been looking into the possible move to St. Paul seminary after this year.  It is kind of fun doing this research and having some down time is nice.

 

Peace,

Adam

Seminarian retreat 2011

Hello again,

It has been since before the seminarian retreat since I wrote last.  So I’ll go ahead and get right into it.

You may remember that last year I was quite disappointed with the seminarian retreat.  I actually didn’t think that I should have even been on that retreat since I had not yet started seminary.  I thought that it was not much of a retreat, last year was very heavy on the business side of things, and didn’t feel like a retreat much at all.  It had been nice to meet a few of the guys that I would be with, but not much of a retreat.  This year was much less business but still a stretch to call it a retreat, it was more of a seminarian get-together.  We did pray a lot, and it was quite nice, but not quite what I think of as a retreat.  I will be having the silent retreat when I get to Mundelein, so that isn’t a bad thing and since I was expecting this I wasn’t as disappointed as I was last year with the diocese seminarian retreat.

On the retreat several of the seminarians were giving talks.  The talks were about their thoughts on a specific aspect of the priesthood or about their summer assignments.  I gave a talk about ministry at a scout camp, I thought it went very well.  Each seminarian who has been through at least a year of seminary had a one-on-one meeting with Fr. Hirsch, the vocation director and another one-on-one meeting with Bishop Callahan. 

My meetings went very well.  I have spoken with Fr. Hirsch enough that this went about as expected so there isn’t too much to write about.  I had only spoken to Bishop Callahan twice for about a minute each in the past so the 10-15 minutes in this was very nice. 

We all knew that Bp. Callahan was wanting to diversify where we were attending seminary a bit.  I don’t think that he sees anything wrong with Mundelein, but I think that he may be concerned that 12 of the 14 men at major seminary were there this past year.  We all expected this to be an issue.  He used to be a spiritual director at the North  American College seminary in Rome and already was sending two more guys there this year.  The other seminary that we had one guy at is St. Paul seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota.  With us knowing this and the fact that these moves would normally happen either after a guy finishes college seminary or pre-theology I had obviously been thinking about this some.  I had decided that I had no interest in studying in Rome, while it would be cool to live there for four years I have been away from home quite a bit in the recent past and I didn’t want that for now.  I also felt that it seems kind of stuffy to be studying at the NAC, so I did not want this.

While I like Mundelein Seminary I am not too attached there and was going to say that I would be happy to look at and discern moving to St. Paul seminary starting in the fall of 2012.  It was surprising with the little contact that I had had with Bp. Callahan that when I sat down with him, after the initial pleasantries he said that he though the NAC would be too stuffy for me, but would like me to think and pray about St. Paul Seminary.  I am quite surprised that he was able to pick that up about me already. 

It is not set in stone that I would move there, but I got the impression that this is what he wants me to lean towards.  There will be six guys who line up in my class if we all continue in seminary, three that are going into their senior year of college seminary and three of us going into second year of pre-theology.  I think that the Bp.  Callahan and Fr. Hirsch may look to send two of us to each place for theology.

The retreat was good for me in my discernment as well.  I had been struggling quite a bit with my discernment.  While I wasn’t ready to say that I was thinking that I was dropping out of seminary I had been thinking that I’d make a few comments so that guys wouldn’t be surprised if I dropped out.  While I still am not sure of my vocation this retreat did make me more sure that I am doing the right thing in going back to seminary for this year.  I have said in the past that I am taking seminary a school year at a time, I still think that in general this is what I am going to do, but if I go back and it is clear that it isn’t right I think that it would be appropriate to leave at mid-year, but not after a little bit of issues, it would have to be very clear.  I am looking forward to this next year and the discernment that will come. 

This week after the retreat was the last week of Boy Scouts at camp, and only a half a week of Weblos to come, Weblos are the oldest two years of Cub Scouts, so a half a week is a great transition for them.  I will write about the last week of Boy Scouts and the Weblo half week in my next post as this is long enough already.

Peace,
Adam