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