Hello everyone,
Break is flying by, as those things tend to do. It is always amazing how slow time can seem to go at some points and so very fast at others.
I finished up the quarter pretty well. I think that my tests went about as I expected them to if not a little bit better. I won’t know my grades from last quarter for a while, but they haven’t called and said that I failed out, so that is a good sign.
After my last final on Friday I waited a little bit for one of my classmates to get done so that I could give him a ride home too. We had to go a bit out of our way so that I could pick up something at the Newman Parish in Stevens Point that I was borrowing for the weekend. I was still able to drop him off at home at about 7:30 and I managed to get to my mom’s at about 8:15 or 8:30 at night, truly beginning break.
My nephew had spent the night at my mom’s house and it was great to see him and play with him for a bit both Friday night and Saturday morning before I got to take him home. He is so much fun to be around, I really enjoy the time that I get to spend with him.
After taking Alex home I spent a good part of the day preparing for a friend’s bachelor party that I was hosting since I am going to be the best man in the wedding. Obviously when you have a seminarian planning your bachelor party it is going to be fairly low key, but that is what he wanted anyways. It was a bunch of fun to get together with him and some of our other friends.
Sunday was pretty much just church and hanging out with my mom and her husband. On Monday I got up and went to Mass in La Crosse with a wonderful lady, the one who helped me to be able to begin seminary this year. It was great to be able to see her and attend Mass with her. I didn’t get to spend much time with her because I had a doctor’s appointment to get to. This was my big check to make sure that the cancer hasn’t come back. Due to switching insurance companies when I left my job I had to switch hospitals so the doctor spent a bit of time getting to know me and what has gone on and then I had an ultrasound of the area that the cancer had been and some blood-work done. Everything came back clean, so that is great.
On Tuesday I went to St. Elizabeth’s in Holmen for Mass and then stopped at my old office in La Crescent, MN to see people before heading over to Stevens Point for a while. It was great to get back to Stevens Point and see the wonderful people here.
I didn’t do a whole lot on Tuesday but on Wednesday I gave the first of three talks that I am giving to the eighth graders at St. Peter’s Middle School. I have a good friend who is an eighth grade teacher and asked me to come in and talk to her class so I am talking to all three of the eighth grade religion classes. Since they meet at the same time it has to be on three separate days. I gave one on Wednesday, but Thursday is the school Mass so that takes the place of religion class so I gave my second one on Friday and will give another one on Monday. My talk is just a general vocation talk, for people to figure out what vocation is right for them and I also take some time to tell them a bit about the life of a seminarian. The kids really seem to get into it, so that is fun.
I ended up substitute teaching for the religious education at the Newman Parish on Wednesday night, another fun experience for me. Wednesday night also has the late-night Mass which is attended by somewhere between 40 and 60 students from the University. I really enjoy the energy and enthusiasm at that Mass. The parish had an all-night prayer vigil for peace and justice in the world after the Mass. There was adoration of the Blessed Sacrament with Exposition (meaning you can see the Body of Christ while praying). I was asked to spend the whole night incase someone who had signed up for an hour didn’t show in the early morning hours. We had some organized prayer times throughout the night such as a period of Taize prayer, night prayer, the Rosary, Memorare, the Magnificate, and morning prayer. The vigil ended with Benediction (taking down the exposed sacrament) and the morning Mass on Thursday. I had been up all night but when more people started showing up at about 5:00 am I started thinking about taking a quick nap. I went upstairs at about 5:30ish and was planning on getting up at 6:25 since I was scheduled to do a reading during morning prayer. I know I set my alarm, but am not sure if I didn’t turn it on, or if I turned it off without fully waking up but I woke up at 6:59 and raced downstairs for the 7:00 morning prayer, cutting it very close.
I think this is long enough, I’ll write more in another post in a couple of days.
Peace,
Adam
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Finals week winter 2010-2011
Hello again,
So it has been an interesting week and a half since I last wrote. We are now in finals week so I had a lot of papers to write and many other things to get done… which is the reason that it has taken so long.
One important thing that happened since I last wrote was of course the Packers winning the Superbowl. Every year one of the cams on campus hosts a Superbowl party in one of the recreation halls. They had both the normal big screen TV that is in the room and they rigged up a projector with a sheet on the wall to watch to, giving more space. It was very cool, they ordered in a bunch of pizzas and had snacks and iced cream for all that wanted it (I didn’t partake more than a couple of slices of pizza because I am trying to lose weight). I am sure that the party would have been even bigger if the Chicago Bears had made the Superbowl, since they are the hometown team, but there are many Packers fans here too, plus the guys who just like football in general it was great fun to watch the game with a big group.
I spent a lot of time writing papers over that weekend and since as I said. One of the more interesting papers that I wrote was analyzing the use of the atomic bombs during WWII based on the Principle of Double Effect. The Principle of Double Effect is a method in which one can systematically look at an action and determine if a negative effect is allowable from the performance of an action. It includes 4 points to analyze, each of them must be met. The four points are: 1) The act must be good in itself or at least neutral 2) The good outcome may not be obtained directly because of the evil effect 3) The evil must not be intended for itself but only tolerated 4) The good must be proportionally grave to outweigh the evil. As I said, an act must meet all 4 points to be justifiable, I found that the use of the atomic weapons could reasonably be seen to meet points 1 and 3 but failed on point 2. I determined that the 4th point was completely in doubt and too murky to know, and a neutral on one of the points equates to a fail. So in my paper I argued that the use of the atomic weapons was not justifiable, however, that is easy to say in hindsight and may have been different at the time based on what was known.
The flu really hit the seminary hard over the last two weeks or so. I guess that is to be expected with us all living in such close quarters and so many of us going to hospitals and nursing homes for field education. I had gotten the flu shot last fall, and thought that I wasn’t getting the flu. I did end up being pretty sick Thursday through Sunday but am pretty much over it now. Last Wednesday the guy that I go to the nursing home with was down sick so he didn’t go, rather than risk infecting those that we are ministering to. He had been scheduled to give the reflection during the communion service, so I had to figure out something to say on Wednesday morning. I didn’t have time to write it out word for word as I have shared here in the past, but I put down a few notes on the thoughts that I had and I think that it turned out pretty good. I may try to reconstruct it out of my notes so that I can share it, but I’m not sure if that would work so well… we’ll have to see.
Last Wednesday we had a Mass to install Acolytes. For the most part people would know acolytes as servers or altar boys/girls. There is a bit more to the official ministry of Acolyte. An acolyte is primarily one who assists in preparing for the celebration of the Eucharist and in the purification of the sacred vessels after the distribution of the Eucharist (communion). As I discussed in the post where I talked about the installation of Lectors many of these duties are allowed to be performed by laity now, but it is still an important time for those who receive this installation on the way towards priesthood. A unique fact about Acolytes is that at least in the old Canon Law (I’m not sure if it still is or not, but I think so) they are allowed to bless fruit. I assume that this goes back to blessing the grapes that would be turned into the wine for consecration, but it is allowed for all fruit.
Tomorrow I am going to the nursing home again, but am going to allow Matt to give the reflection since he missed out last week. I have 2 final exams on Thursday and 2 more on Friday before being able to go on break. It is nice to be able to look forward to another break so soon. It will be a great chance to catch up with people and just relax. I am hoping to be able to go in to the class room of one of my friends who teaches at a Catholic middles school and talk with the students. I am not sure yet what she will want, if she will want me to give a vocation talk, talk about life in the seminary, a combination of both, or something else altogether, but that is exciting to look forward to as well.
Well, I’m going to get back to studying, I hope everyone is well.
Peace,
Adam
So it has been an interesting week and a half since I last wrote. We are now in finals week so I had a lot of papers to write and many other things to get done… which is the reason that it has taken so long.
One important thing that happened since I last wrote was of course the Packers winning the Superbowl. Every year one of the cams on campus hosts a Superbowl party in one of the recreation halls. They had both the normal big screen TV that is in the room and they rigged up a projector with a sheet on the wall to watch to, giving more space. It was very cool, they ordered in a bunch of pizzas and had snacks and iced cream for all that wanted it (I didn’t partake more than a couple of slices of pizza because I am trying to lose weight). I am sure that the party would have been even bigger if the Chicago Bears had made the Superbowl, since they are the hometown team, but there are many Packers fans here too, plus the guys who just like football in general it was great fun to watch the game with a big group.
I spent a lot of time writing papers over that weekend and since as I said. One of the more interesting papers that I wrote was analyzing the use of the atomic bombs during WWII based on the Principle of Double Effect. The Principle of Double Effect is a method in which one can systematically look at an action and determine if a negative effect is allowable from the performance of an action. It includes 4 points to analyze, each of them must be met. The four points are: 1) The act must be good in itself or at least neutral 2) The good outcome may not be obtained directly because of the evil effect 3) The evil must not be intended for itself but only tolerated 4) The good must be proportionally grave to outweigh the evil. As I said, an act must meet all 4 points to be justifiable, I found that the use of the atomic weapons could reasonably be seen to meet points 1 and 3 but failed on point 2. I determined that the 4th point was completely in doubt and too murky to know, and a neutral on one of the points equates to a fail. So in my paper I argued that the use of the atomic weapons was not justifiable, however, that is easy to say in hindsight and may have been different at the time based on what was known.
The flu really hit the seminary hard over the last two weeks or so. I guess that is to be expected with us all living in such close quarters and so many of us going to hospitals and nursing homes for field education. I had gotten the flu shot last fall, and thought that I wasn’t getting the flu. I did end up being pretty sick Thursday through Sunday but am pretty much over it now. Last Wednesday the guy that I go to the nursing home with was down sick so he didn’t go, rather than risk infecting those that we are ministering to. He had been scheduled to give the reflection during the communion service, so I had to figure out something to say on Wednesday morning. I didn’t have time to write it out word for word as I have shared here in the past, but I put down a few notes on the thoughts that I had and I think that it turned out pretty good. I may try to reconstruct it out of my notes so that I can share it, but I’m not sure if that would work so well… we’ll have to see.
Last Wednesday we had a Mass to install Acolytes. For the most part people would know acolytes as servers or altar boys/girls. There is a bit more to the official ministry of Acolyte. An acolyte is primarily one who assists in preparing for the celebration of the Eucharist and in the purification of the sacred vessels after the distribution of the Eucharist (communion). As I discussed in the post where I talked about the installation of Lectors many of these duties are allowed to be performed by laity now, but it is still an important time for those who receive this installation on the way towards priesthood. A unique fact about Acolytes is that at least in the old Canon Law (I’m not sure if it still is or not, but I think so) they are allowed to bless fruit. I assume that this goes back to blessing the grapes that would be turned into the wine for consecration, but it is allowed for all fruit.
Tomorrow I am going to the nursing home again, but am going to allow Matt to give the reflection since he missed out last week. I have 2 final exams on Thursday and 2 more on Friday before being able to go on break. It is nice to be able to look forward to another break so soon. It will be a great chance to catch up with people and just relax. I am hoping to be able to go in to the class room of one of my friends who teaches at a Catholic middles school and talk with the students. I am not sure yet what she will want, if she will want me to give a vocation talk, talk about life in the seminary, a combination of both, or something else altogether, but that is exciting to look forward to as well.
Well, I’m going to get back to studying, I hope everyone is well.
Peace,
Adam
Friday, February 4, 2011
Blizzard of 2011
Hello again,
This has been a very fast week and a half. I am surprised that it has been that long since I’ve written this time.
This past weekend was a very cool event. There was an inter-seminary basketball tournament held here at Mundelein Seminary. I think that it was eleven or twelve other seminaries from across the Midwest that participated. It was a great deal of fun to watch my brother seminarians both from Mundelein and other seminaries enjoy this friendly competition. Mundelein seminary has won the tournament each of the last three years, however, this year they lost in the semi-final round. Mundelein was able to win the losers bracket game very handily to finish third in the tournament.
The Mass on Sunday was a great experience. With so many seminarians from so many places it was very energetic and just a wonderful Mass.
There had been predictions about a big snow storm coming in over the weekend that made people a little nervous with the teams having to return to their home seminary after the basketball games, however this storm didn’t come in until Monday afternoon and really didn’t get to full force until Tuesday mid-day. This turned out to be the third largest snow storm on record for Chicago. Lake County, where Mundelein sits actually closed all of its roads on Wednesday so that the crews wouldn’t have to deal with traffic when trying to clear the snow.
On the seminary we had a great time with the snow. Everyone chipped in on shoveling the walks as we were able. Field education was canceled on Wednesday since we couldn’t drive anywhere so I was able to get a bit of my homework done and to help with shoveling some times. The parking lots were very snowed in. The maintenance crew’s first priority was of course to work to make the campus accessible for emergency vehicles, followed by clearing the parking lot of the conference center so that the visitors could get out and return to their lives away from the seminary. With my truck being a four-wheel drive I was able to drive around in the parking lot, but didn’t have a major need to go anywhere so I didn’t do that too much. It was fun to see the guys all working together to dig out everyone’s cars once the plows made a path through the seminarian’s lots so that we could move our vehicles to another lot while they finished in our seminarian lots.
Tonight I was going to go to a “casino night” fundraiser here on campus. Every year one of the cams hosts this fundraiser for some charity that is picked. In it people buy in for a certain amount and get a set amount of “casino night cash” which can then be wagered on table games as well as a faculty boxing tournament (using a Wii now, but historically using a rock ‘em sock ‘em boxing game). At the end of the night any gains can be used to bid on donated items. I ended up not going to this because one of the other guys who was scheduled to work at the library was asked to do something at his home parish this weekend and wanted to travel there tonight. He could not find anyone else to cover his shift so I said that I would. So I am sitting here with almost nobody in the library but it is open for the couple of guys that are here.
The charity that is benefiting from the casino night this year is a charity to help the “gunpowder children”. I believe that this one is based in Guatemala. I don’t know a ton about this, but from what I know it is a charity that helps to provide tuition and nutrition for kids in Guatemala. These kids live in such poverty that often their families can’t afford tuition or food. Many times these kids will have to quit school to work assembling fireworks. This is obviously a dangerous task, which pays very little. This charity helps to provide for the needs of these children so that this isn’t their only option.
Well, that is all I’m going to write for now. I hope you have a great weekend.
Peace,
Adam
This has been a very fast week and a half. I am surprised that it has been that long since I’ve written this time.
This past weekend was a very cool event. There was an inter-seminary basketball tournament held here at Mundelein Seminary. I think that it was eleven or twelve other seminaries from across the Midwest that participated. It was a great deal of fun to watch my brother seminarians both from Mundelein and other seminaries enjoy this friendly competition. Mundelein seminary has won the tournament each of the last three years, however, this year they lost in the semi-final round. Mundelein was able to win the losers bracket game very handily to finish third in the tournament.
The Mass on Sunday was a great experience. With so many seminarians from so many places it was very energetic and just a wonderful Mass.
There had been predictions about a big snow storm coming in over the weekend that made people a little nervous with the teams having to return to their home seminary after the basketball games, however this storm didn’t come in until Monday afternoon and really didn’t get to full force until Tuesday mid-day. This turned out to be the third largest snow storm on record for Chicago. Lake County, where Mundelein sits actually closed all of its roads on Wednesday so that the crews wouldn’t have to deal with traffic when trying to clear the snow.
On the seminary we had a great time with the snow. Everyone chipped in on shoveling the walks as we were able. Field education was canceled on Wednesday since we couldn’t drive anywhere so I was able to get a bit of my homework done and to help with shoveling some times. The parking lots were very snowed in. The maintenance crew’s first priority was of course to work to make the campus accessible for emergency vehicles, followed by clearing the parking lot of the conference center so that the visitors could get out and return to their lives away from the seminary. With my truck being a four-wheel drive I was able to drive around in the parking lot, but didn’t have a major need to go anywhere so I didn’t do that too much. It was fun to see the guys all working together to dig out everyone’s cars once the plows made a path through the seminarian’s lots so that we could move our vehicles to another lot while they finished in our seminarian lots.
Tonight I was going to go to a “casino night” fundraiser here on campus. Every year one of the cams hosts this fundraiser for some charity that is picked. In it people buy in for a certain amount and get a set amount of “casino night cash” which can then be wagered on table games as well as a faculty boxing tournament (using a Wii now, but historically using a rock ‘em sock ‘em boxing game). At the end of the night any gains can be used to bid on donated items. I ended up not going to this because one of the other guys who was scheduled to work at the library was asked to do something at his home parish this weekend and wanted to travel there tonight. He could not find anyone else to cover his shift so I said that I would. So I am sitting here with almost nobody in the library but it is open for the couple of guys that are here.
The charity that is benefiting from the casino night this year is a charity to help the “gunpowder children”. I believe that this one is based in Guatemala. I don’t know a ton about this, but from what I know it is a charity that helps to provide tuition and nutrition for kids in Guatemala. These kids live in such poverty that often their families can’t afford tuition or food. Many times these kids will have to quit school to work assembling fireworks. This is obviously a dangerous task, which pays very little. This charity helps to provide for the needs of these children so that this isn’t their only option.
Well, that is all I’m going to write for now. I hope you have a great weekend.
Peace,
Adam
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