Hello again,
So other than the post about the prayer services it has been almost two weeks since I posted last. That was during the week off from scout camp for the Independence Day holiday. I had some people ask why we would be off that week. I don’t know anything official but I would imagine that a lot of troops don’t want to come to camp that week since many scouts would have to choose between family trips and scout camp.
The last weekend of that week off was pretty cool. I went with a couple of friends to the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Champion, Wisconsin (just north of Green Bay.) We left early Saturday morning, I was still feeling a bit ill, but good enough to go. The friends that I was with are the parents of one of my ex-girlfriends. Her and her family are still close friends of mine. Some people may wonder about that, but it is easy in our case because after breaking up she went to a convent and I went to seminary… so still very good friends.
We drove to where her Aunt and Uncle live in Green Bay to meet up with them to go out to the shrine which is just about 30 minutes from their house. We got to the shrine in the early afternoon and looked around and prayed for about 3 hours. It is a really cool experience. This shrine is on the site of the only approved apparition of Blessed Virgin Mary in the United States. There are many people who want to get famous by saying that they saw Mary for something or another so the Church investigates the claims and determines if they are credible or not.
In the case of the apparition near Champion a young Belgian woman was walking in the mid-1800s and saw a sight that scared her away the first two times because she didn’t know what or who it was. She asked her priest what to do because she thought it might be an angel. When Mary appeared to her a third time she did as the priest had instructed and said in the name of Jesus Christ identify yourself. The Blessed Mother identified herself and told the young lady to teach the children the tenets of the faith. The young lady started a religious community and school at the site and this is where the shrine is now. One interesting thing about the site is that the great Peshtigo fire came to the edge of the property, stopped and went around without causing any damage on the site.
Marian apparitions are not a huge part of my faith, but it was very cool, and very moving to be in the presence of the site where she had appeared. I’m not sure that I felt anything special spiritually, but the knowledge of it made it very moving to me.
After that we went to Mass and spent the night in Green Bay before racing back on Sunday morning so that I could make it back to camp at a reasonable time. I had permission from the camp director to arrive late, but I wanted to be here at a reasonable time.
Last week at camp went very well. It was probably my slowest week for homesick scouts and I had no behavioral issues to deal with. I really, really, really enjoyed just going around and talking with scouts and leaders in addition to the chapel services. I felt like I was able to minister to all the scouts pretty well, rather than having to focus on the homesick scouts all the time.
This week is off to a pretty good start. The weather is extremely hot, to the point of almost being miserable. The staff is doing a great job of covering up the drag that this puts on to be able to give the scouts a great experience. I have a few more homesick scouts this week because they aren’t doing as much stuff due to the weather.
I will leave camp after Thursday’s chapel service to attend the annual seminarian retreat for the Diocese of La Crosse. One of the other staff members volunteered to run the chapel service on Friday so that is great.
Until I write again,
Peace,
Adam
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Chapel service on Prayer
Below please find the service that I have written for the scouts at camp. There may be some typos, but this will give you an idea of what the interfaith services that I run are like. This one is about improving prayer life. I may post some more in the future.
WELCOME: Hello, Thanks for coming out again. I hope that you enjoyed and were fulfilled by the outside ministers that I brought in yesterday. With that said, let’s go ahead and get started.
HYMN: Our opening hymn will be __________________________
OPENING PRAYER: Ever-loving God, your name is the greatest among us all. Thank you for this wonderful week at camp, for the safety and the fun, for the learning and the memories. We ask you to continue to bless us all as we finish out this week and go forward in the coming weeks. In all things that we do we ask you to keep us in your loving care. Amen
FIRST READING: Our first reading comes from the 3rd book of Nephi in the Book of Mormon
You must always pray unto the Father in my name; and whatsoever you shall
ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing you shall receive,
behold it shall be given unto you. Pray in your families unto the Father, always in my name
SECOND READING: The second reading for today is from the traditional religion of Kenya in Africa.
Set me free, I entreat thee from my heart;
If I do not pray to thee with my heart,
Thou hearest me not.
If I pray to thee with my heart,
Thou knowest it and art gracious unto me.
THIRD READING: Our third reading is from the book Acts of the Apostles in the Bible
And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.
FOURTH READING: The fourth reading comes from the letter of St. James in the Bible
Is any one among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him
sing praise. Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the
church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of
the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord
will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that
you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.
FIFTH READING: Our fifth reading comes from the Gospel of Luke in the Bible. This is right after the disciples had asked Jesus to teach them to pray.
And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”
REFLECTION:
Prayer, it is an important part in every faith. The readings from today demonstrate just a little bit about the scriptures relating to prayer.
Since I started seminary I often have had people talking to me about faith, I love that. One of the most common things that I hear from people is that when they try to pray they get distracted, or they don’t know how to pray. In fact, I had one of my friends e-mail me about that today. In this e-mail she said
“So, I find that lately it is very hard for my to concentrate and/or stay focused when I try to pray. I either lose my train of thought, cant focus on what I am trying to say, and mostly I feel so overwhelmed with the things I need to be thankful for and for everyone that I want to pray for that I feel I will be praying for days. Any advice?”
I have gotten e-mails along this line so often that yes, I do have some advice. In this I will talk to you about personal prayer, not the type at an organized service. The first point of advice is to keep going with what you are doing. The intent and desire to pray is itself a prayer and pleasing to God. Yes, you are going to get distracted in your prayer, but that may sometimes be God guiding you to what you need to pray for. In the Christian tradition we refer to the Holy Spirit guiding our prayer.
Don’t let every distraction lead you astray. Some of the distractions will actually lead you either away from prayer completely, or into praying for something that will be bad for you.
I think that the first step when one decides to pray is to ask God to guide your prayer and to be with you when you pray. Always ask for this grace.
A faithful person should pray constantly during the day, whenever anything comes up that is in need of God’s assistance, utter a small prayer to ask for it. When something good happens utter a small prayer to thank God for allowing it to happen, or causing it to happen. These types of prayers don’t need to have any sort of style, and others most likely won’t be able to tell that you are praying.
Often people are helped in prayer by repeating a simple traditional prayer. For many Christians this is the Lord’s Prayer or the Our Father that was taught by Jesus to his disciples. We heard this in our last reading today. For many Catholics this is praying an organized prayer such as the rosary, the simple repetitive nature of this allows your mind to flow to wherever the spirit of God takes it.
Set aside a special time or place for prayer. In my house or apartment I have almost always had a corner that I tend to go and sit in when I want some long meaningful prayer. I may set up a table with some items to help me focus on prayer. These items may be a picture of Jesus, or a bible, or my rosary, or readings on the faith. Any of these can be jumping off points to start the prayer. They can help me refocus when I get distracted. This place often has a candle in it, I like to light a candle because I can even get lost in the flickering little flame.
I think that personal prayer is often helped through attending formal prayer. In your church or whatever house of worship you may attend you can get focused and receive graces that will help guide you in your personal prayer later.
There is no set format for personal prayer, but I will give you an idea of the format that I tend to use before jumping off into wandering prayer. The first thing that I do is to address God. There are many ways to do this. I may start out with “Dear God” or “Loving God” or “Good and Gracious Lord” or some such address.
I follow the address up with a bit of praising God and thanking Him for the good in my life. This may take up most of the time, or it may be a few short thoughts. God is great, if we have our faith in Him, we should tell Him so. I use this time to count my blessings and know of great it is to be one of God’s creation and in the world with so much of His other creation.
After the praises and thanksgiving comes time to ask God for what we need or want. God knows our desires and needs, but we should be able to express them to him. Remember to ask God for forgiveness for your sins. We are all sinners who need this forgiveness. One thing that I always add to these requests is the thought that I only want this if it is God’s will that I have it. Don’t forget to ask God to take care of others, whether they be people you know or not.
I then close it with a statement expressing my confidence that God can do this all. This may be saying, “I ask this in your loving name” or “through Christ our Lord.” Use whatever is appropriate for you.
Here is an example of a simple prayer of mine, so you can see how I put this together.
Good and Gracious God, Thank you for this day that you have given to me, the ability to serve you and others. Thank you for my family and friends. I thank you for all the experiences I have had, fun and not. Please continue to bless me in all these ways and in the ways that I am not yet aware of. Please answer the prayers of all those who have asked me to pray for them and provide for those in need. I ask all this through Christ our Lord. Amen
That was just an example of a prayer for me, yours may sound like that, or be different. After that sort of a prayer I spend time praying in more detail for those things that come to mind. I will let my mind wander and just be with God. It is pretty rare for anybody to get a direct voice in response to our prayers, but if you spend enough time in prayer you will be able to feel God answering your prayers.
INTENTIONS: Let us now join our prayers together to God. Please respond, Oh God, hear our prayer.
For the world, that all people may recognize God and communicate with Him… We Pray.
For our families, may their needs and prayers be answered according to God’s will… We Pray.
For us, that we will continue to grow in our prayer life, and our whole life loving God… We Pray.
CLOSING PRAYER:
God of us all. Thank you for this time to worship you and grow in our faith. We ask you to strengthen our faith going forward and to keep us in your loving care. We ask this in your loving name. Amen
HYMN: Our closing song will be _________________________________
WELCOME: Hello, Thanks for coming out again. I hope that you enjoyed and were fulfilled by the outside ministers that I brought in yesterday. With that said, let’s go ahead and get started.
HYMN: Our opening hymn will be __________________________
OPENING PRAYER: Ever-loving God, your name is the greatest among us all. Thank you for this wonderful week at camp, for the safety and the fun, for the learning and the memories. We ask you to continue to bless us all as we finish out this week and go forward in the coming weeks. In all things that we do we ask you to keep us in your loving care. Amen
FIRST READING: Our first reading comes from the 3rd book of Nephi in the Book of Mormon
You must always pray unto the Father in my name; and whatsoever you shall
ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing you shall receive,
behold it shall be given unto you. Pray in your families unto the Father, always in my name
SECOND READING: The second reading for today is from the traditional religion of Kenya in Africa.
Set me free, I entreat thee from my heart;
If I do not pray to thee with my heart,
Thou hearest me not.
If I pray to thee with my heart,
Thou knowest it and art gracious unto me.
THIRD READING: Our third reading is from the book Acts of the Apostles in the Bible
And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.
FOURTH READING: The fourth reading comes from the letter of St. James in the Bible
Is any one among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him
sing praise. Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the
church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of
the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord
will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that
you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.
FIFTH READING: Our fifth reading comes from the Gospel of Luke in the Bible. This is right after the disciples had asked Jesus to teach them to pray.
And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”
REFLECTION:
Prayer, it is an important part in every faith. The readings from today demonstrate just a little bit about the scriptures relating to prayer.
Since I started seminary I often have had people talking to me about faith, I love that. One of the most common things that I hear from people is that when they try to pray they get distracted, or they don’t know how to pray. In fact, I had one of my friends e-mail me about that today. In this e-mail she said
“So, I find that lately it is very hard for my to concentrate and/or stay focused when I try to pray. I either lose my train of thought, cant focus on what I am trying to say, and mostly I feel so overwhelmed with the things I need to be thankful for and for everyone that I want to pray for that I feel I will be praying for days. Any advice?”
I have gotten e-mails along this line so often that yes, I do have some advice. In this I will talk to you about personal prayer, not the type at an organized service. The first point of advice is to keep going with what you are doing. The intent and desire to pray is itself a prayer and pleasing to God. Yes, you are going to get distracted in your prayer, but that may sometimes be God guiding you to what you need to pray for. In the Christian tradition we refer to the Holy Spirit guiding our prayer.
Don’t let every distraction lead you astray. Some of the distractions will actually lead you either away from prayer completely, or into praying for something that will be bad for you.
I think that the first step when one decides to pray is to ask God to guide your prayer and to be with you when you pray. Always ask for this grace.
A faithful person should pray constantly during the day, whenever anything comes up that is in need of God’s assistance, utter a small prayer to ask for it. When something good happens utter a small prayer to thank God for allowing it to happen, or causing it to happen. These types of prayers don’t need to have any sort of style, and others most likely won’t be able to tell that you are praying.
Often people are helped in prayer by repeating a simple traditional prayer. For many Christians this is the Lord’s Prayer or the Our Father that was taught by Jesus to his disciples. We heard this in our last reading today. For many Catholics this is praying an organized prayer such as the rosary, the simple repetitive nature of this allows your mind to flow to wherever the spirit of God takes it.
Set aside a special time or place for prayer. In my house or apartment I have almost always had a corner that I tend to go and sit in when I want some long meaningful prayer. I may set up a table with some items to help me focus on prayer. These items may be a picture of Jesus, or a bible, or my rosary, or readings on the faith. Any of these can be jumping off points to start the prayer. They can help me refocus when I get distracted. This place often has a candle in it, I like to light a candle because I can even get lost in the flickering little flame.
I think that personal prayer is often helped through attending formal prayer. In your church or whatever house of worship you may attend you can get focused and receive graces that will help guide you in your personal prayer later.
There is no set format for personal prayer, but I will give you an idea of the format that I tend to use before jumping off into wandering prayer. The first thing that I do is to address God. There are many ways to do this. I may start out with “Dear God” or “Loving God” or “Good and Gracious Lord” or some such address.
I follow the address up with a bit of praising God and thanking Him for the good in my life. This may take up most of the time, or it may be a few short thoughts. God is great, if we have our faith in Him, we should tell Him so. I use this time to count my blessings and know of great it is to be one of God’s creation and in the world with so much of His other creation.
After the praises and thanksgiving comes time to ask God for what we need or want. God knows our desires and needs, but we should be able to express them to him. Remember to ask God for forgiveness for your sins. We are all sinners who need this forgiveness. One thing that I always add to these requests is the thought that I only want this if it is God’s will that I have it. Don’t forget to ask God to take care of others, whether they be people you know or not.
I then close it with a statement expressing my confidence that God can do this all. This may be saying, “I ask this in your loving name” or “through Christ our Lord.” Use whatever is appropriate for you.
Here is an example of a simple prayer of mine, so you can see how I put this together.
Good and Gracious God, Thank you for this day that you have given to me, the ability to serve you and others. Thank you for my family and friends. I thank you for all the experiences I have had, fun and not. Please continue to bless me in all these ways and in the ways that I am not yet aware of. Please answer the prayers of all those who have asked me to pray for them and provide for those in need. I ask all this through Christ our Lord. Amen
That was just an example of a prayer for me, yours may sound like that, or be different. After that sort of a prayer I spend time praying in more detail for those things that come to mind. I will let my mind wander and just be with God. It is pretty rare for anybody to get a direct voice in response to our prayers, but if you spend enough time in prayer you will be able to feel God answering your prayers.
INTENTIONS: Let us now join our prayers together to God. Please respond, Oh God, hear our prayer.
For the world, that all people may recognize God and communicate with Him… We Pray.
For our families, may their needs and prayers be answered according to God’s will… We Pray.
For us, that we will continue to grow in our prayer life, and our whole life loving God… We Pray.
CLOSING PRAYER:
God of us all. Thank you for this time to worship you and grow in our faith. We ask you to strengthen our faith going forward and to keep us in your loving care. We ask this in your loving name. Amen
HYMN: Our closing song will be _________________________________
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Second week at scout camp 2011 and start of week off
Hello again,
It has been a while since my last post so that I could think about how or if to write about the biggest incident that I dealt with last week at camp. I decided to do so. Obviously I cannot and would not use names, but I will try to write it out so you can see some of the stuff I am dealing with.
So the week started off great, I was having an amazingly low number of homesick kids so I was able to focus on just going around and being with the scouts and leaders at their normal activities. Then, on Monday, right after lunch I get a call that a leader is looking for me. I figured that it was a homesick kid so I hurried to get working with the scout. I find the leader, and both leaders for the troop meet me at the entrance to camp, not what I was expecting. It turns out that 11 year old scout A had found out that 13 year old scout B has a sister who is a lesbian. Scout A started harassing scout B and talking about how wrong it is to be gay and that he shouldn’t be gay because it was wrong and against scouting and against God.
To complicate matters scout A had taken off without telling anyone where he was going and without having a buddy with him which is required by camp rules. While I let the leaders and other staff track him down I worked to comfort scout B. I was able to work with him fairly easily, he was still upset about the lack of sensitivity when it comes to something like this, but was over the harassment he had endured. Scout A was finally located and I talked with him about being nice to people and how there are some topics that are inappropriate for scouting to be talked about. He said all the right things, and said that he would apologize. I told him that he had until an hour after dinner to apologize to scout B and he said that he would. I also talked to him about multiple other incidents already in just a day that had occurred with other scouts in his troop.
After dinner I waited for a while and then went back to the campsite. I asked scout B if he had even been approached and he hadn’t. I asked the leaders and they said that the other stuff hadn’t stopped. So I talked with scout A again. Scout B also wanted us to talk with the whole troop about being sensitive in what is said and careful of our wording. This went surprisingly well.
The leaders, however, were getting extremely frustrated with scout A. They even asked the camp director and me if we could support asking his scout A’s mom to pick him up. We said that the decision for that is up to them, but that we would support their decision. This is what ended up happening. After breakfast on Tuesday I was with the leaders when they told scout A that his mom was on the way to pick him up. He proceeded to cuss them out and when I tried to comfort him he cussed at me for quite a while as he packed his stuff. Thankfully, his mom got there soon. She signed him out. She was upset at him and the leaders, but didn’t make too much of a scene.
Then I thought we were going to just go on the rest of the week. That afternoon, however, scout A’s mom showed back up. She asked to speak with me and the camp director. We sat down and she asked if I had told her son that it is okay to be gay, I assured her that I had not and that I had only talked to him about being nice and respectful to all people. She accepted that and then asked who had made the decision to send her son home, we informed her that it was the troop leader’s decision and that we supported leaders when they made those decisions. She seemed to leave quite satisfied.
To finish with this story before going on to the rest of the week… On Thursday the BSA district executive came out and I ran into him talking to the troop leader for these scouts. They asked me if I could support allowing scout A to come back for the last day of camp, since he had been remorseful and expressed intent to not repeat the actions. We talked with the troop and they agreed to give him another chance. I talked to them about forgiveness when we were discussing this. Scout A returned and the last went quite well.
Other than that incident, the week was pretty quiet. Still very busy keeping on top of little situations so that they didn’t get bigger but very enjoyable. Thursday was my birthday. So for the Mass on camp on Wednesday I had invited one of my favorite priests to offer Mass and he did. It was a much smaller crowd than the week before, but very nice. I also took a few hours off on Thursday morning to go to Mass. I’m such a seminarian that this is my birthday gift to myself. I was starting to feel not well, but figured that if I took it easy I’d just get past it.
When we got done on Friday we started a week off. The camp is closed the week of Independence Day since many troops wouldn’t want to come that week, and the camp is able to rent out to an outside group who donates a lot of money. So on Friday night I drove to Stevens Point. On Saturday I slept in until 7:45 and then went to breakfast with Fr. Tom. I took it easy most of the day, went for a couple of nice walks around town and went to the farmer’s market. After the Saturday evening Mass Fr. Tom grilled out for me and another seminarian who is in town there for the summer. It was great spending time with them and just hanging out.
On Sunday after Mass I drove back to my mom’s in Winona and took a nap. My throat was really sore and I was painkillers to get by. I rarely take pain pills, so this was tough on me. After my nap I went down to La Crosse and sat with my mom and Perry while they ate, I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to swallow so I didn’t eat. I then met up with a couple of friends to go to Riverfest, the festival in La Crosse for Independence Day. I had a good time, and enjoyed their company. On Monday I decided to go to the urgent care to have them look at my throat, to see if it was strep or if there was anything I could do. The doctor said to just keep taking Ibuprofen to keep the swelling down but that since it was a virus there was nothing more I could do.
After the doctor visit I went to those same friend’s house. We were going to eat lunch with some people and then head to Riverfest again and watch the fireworks. I enjoyed the lunch, and my mom and Perry came in and sat around chatting for a while with us. It was a lot of fun. I decided to go home and rest rather than go to the fireworks. I haven’t done much else during my week off. I did go to Mass at St. Elizabeth’s on Wednesday to attend Mass with the new priest there. It was wonderful and reminded me of the church that I used to know.
I am starting to feel better, but still not 100 percent. I am very thankful that I had this week off to get better.
I will write again when I can.
Peace,
Adam
It has been a while since my last post so that I could think about how or if to write about the biggest incident that I dealt with last week at camp. I decided to do so. Obviously I cannot and would not use names, but I will try to write it out so you can see some of the stuff I am dealing with.
So the week started off great, I was having an amazingly low number of homesick kids so I was able to focus on just going around and being with the scouts and leaders at their normal activities. Then, on Monday, right after lunch I get a call that a leader is looking for me. I figured that it was a homesick kid so I hurried to get working with the scout. I find the leader, and both leaders for the troop meet me at the entrance to camp, not what I was expecting. It turns out that 11 year old scout A had found out that 13 year old scout B has a sister who is a lesbian. Scout A started harassing scout B and talking about how wrong it is to be gay and that he shouldn’t be gay because it was wrong and against scouting and against God.
To complicate matters scout A had taken off without telling anyone where he was going and without having a buddy with him which is required by camp rules. While I let the leaders and other staff track him down I worked to comfort scout B. I was able to work with him fairly easily, he was still upset about the lack of sensitivity when it comes to something like this, but was over the harassment he had endured. Scout A was finally located and I talked with him about being nice to people and how there are some topics that are inappropriate for scouting to be talked about. He said all the right things, and said that he would apologize. I told him that he had until an hour after dinner to apologize to scout B and he said that he would. I also talked to him about multiple other incidents already in just a day that had occurred with other scouts in his troop.
After dinner I waited for a while and then went back to the campsite. I asked scout B if he had even been approached and he hadn’t. I asked the leaders and they said that the other stuff hadn’t stopped. So I talked with scout A again. Scout B also wanted us to talk with the whole troop about being sensitive in what is said and careful of our wording. This went surprisingly well.
The leaders, however, were getting extremely frustrated with scout A. They even asked the camp director and me if we could support asking his scout A’s mom to pick him up. We said that the decision for that is up to them, but that we would support their decision. This is what ended up happening. After breakfast on Tuesday I was with the leaders when they told scout A that his mom was on the way to pick him up. He proceeded to cuss them out and when I tried to comfort him he cussed at me for quite a while as he packed his stuff. Thankfully, his mom got there soon. She signed him out. She was upset at him and the leaders, but didn’t make too much of a scene.
Then I thought we were going to just go on the rest of the week. That afternoon, however, scout A’s mom showed back up. She asked to speak with me and the camp director. We sat down and she asked if I had told her son that it is okay to be gay, I assured her that I had not and that I had only talked to him about being nice and respectful to all people. She accepted that and then asked who had made the decision to send her son home, we informed her that it was the troop leader’s decision and that we supported leaders when they made those decisions. She seemed to leave quite satisfied.
To finish with this story before going on to the rest of the week… On Thursday the BSA district executive came out and I ran into him talking to the troop leader for these scouts. They asked me if I could support allowing scout A to come back for the last day of camp, since he had been remorseful and expressed intent to not repeat the actions. We talked with the troop and they agreed to give him another chance. I talked to them about forgiveness when we were discussing this. Scout A returned and the last went quite well.
Other than that incident, the week was pretty quiet. Still very busy keeping on top of little situations so that they didn’t get bigger but very enjoyable. Thursday was my birthday. So for the Mass on camp on Wednesday I had invited one of my favorite priests to offer Mass and he did. It was a much smaller crowd than the week before, but very nice. I also took a few hours off on Thursday morning to go to Mass. I’m such a seminarian that this is my birthday gift to myself. I was starting to feel not well, but figured that if I took it easy I’d just get past it.
When we got done on Friday we started a week off. The camp is closed the week of Independence Day since many troops wouldn’t want to come that week, and the camp is able to rent out to an outside group who donates a lot of money. So on Friday night I drove to Stevens Point. On Saturday I slept in until 7:45 and then went to breakfast with Fr. Tom. I took it easy most of the day, went for a couple of nice walks around town and went to the farmer’s market. After the Saturday evening Mass Fr. Tom grilled out for me and another seminarian who is in town there for the summer. It was great spending time with them and just hanging out.
On Sunday after Mass I drove back to my mom’s in Winona and took a nap. My throat was really sore and I was painkillers to get by. I rarely take pain pills, so this was tough on me. After my nap I went down to La Crosse and sat with my mom and Perry while they ate, I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to swallow so I didn’t eat. I then met up with a couple of friends to go to Riverfest, the festival in La Crosse for Independence Day. I had a good time, and enjoyed their company. On Monday I decided to go to the urgent care to have them look at my throat, to see if it was strep or if there was anything I could do. The doctor said to just keep taking Ibuprofen to keep the swelling down but that since it was a virus there was nothing more I could do.
After the doctor visit I went to those same friend’s house. We were going to eat lunch with some people and then head to Riverfest again and watch the fireworks. I enjoyed the lunch, and my mom and Perry came in and sat around chatting for a while with us. It was a lot of fun. I decided to go home and rest rather than go to the fireworks. I haven’t done much else during my week off. I did go to Mass at St. Elizabeth’s on Wednesday to attend Mass with the new priest there. It was wonderful and reminded me of the church that I used to know.
I am starting to feel better, but still not 100 percent. I am very thankful that I had this week off to get better.
I will write again when I can.
Peace,
Adam
Saturday, June 25, 2011
First week with scouts
Hello again,
Wow, I thought that the life at seminary required long days. It turns out that when I am there I am getting a lot of down time compared to what I am doing as a scout camp chaplain.
This was the first week with scouts in camp. It was amazing both how fast it seemed and how long it seemed. After staff week I got off fairly early on Friday evening and when I got to my mom’s house my aunt and uncle were in town. We had supper and talked late into the evening. On Saturday we went to an overlook in Winona so they could see the city from above. It was nice, and since it was steamboat days, the festival in Winona, there was a lot to see. In the afternoon we drove to Wabasha to go to the National Eagle Center. We sat in on one of their one hour class sessions. I had heard pretty much all of the information presented, but it was nice to have it presented in a condensed, organized fashion. We followed that up by going to a restaurant in the country near Nelson, WI that may aunt had read about in the magazine. That was nice and we finished off the day by again chatting into the evening.
On Sunday I went to Mass in Holmen before heading out to the camp. When I got to camp I had a few things to set up and get ready since the scouts were coming in soon. We were required to be there by 1230 and I was quite early to get stuff done. When the troops were starting to register I was asking the leaders if they knew the faiths that their scouts practiced. All of the scouts were Christian as far as I could find out, but I decided to still run the services as interfaith, rather than ecumenical incase the leaders had missed one or two. I did feel confident to go a bit heavier on Christian than even I had planned.
I found out Sunday evening that one of the troops had scheduled the priest from the parish that most of them attended to come in for Mass on Wednesday. This frustrated me to an extent because I had spent a bit of time scheduling a different priest in, and this troop hadn’t let me know in advance. So I had to end up calling and canceling the priest that had been scheduled in by me, somewhat embarrassing me, but he was fine with it.
I was alerted to a few scouts that the leaders were concerned would be homesick during the week. I made it a point to be a bit extra attentive to those scouts so that I had been with them if I had to start dealing with home sickness problems. I had a little bit with each of them, but they weren’t any too bad. On Monday and Tuesday I was able to quickly schedule in the Catholic Priest for next week, but had a bear of a time scheduling a protestant minister for the Wednesday. I think I called 20-25 churches before getting one. It would come on Friday that he ended up canceling so I called another 10-12 before getting one that I think will show up.
Monday and Tuesday were my busiest days for homesick scouts. Each of them is so different that I have to figure out a way to distract them and try to keep them in camp. Probably the third scout that I had dealings with I spent a lot of time with. Everything that I did to distract him he had fun with, but when I would mention him doing it again later in the week he would say, “No, I’m going home today.” I was pretty frustrated with myself for not being able to convince him, it was so hard headed though, that on Tuesday his leaders agreed to let him go home. He is the only scout that I wasn’t able to convince to stay, so I think I did pretty well.
As for my chapel services… I’m not as happy with them as the scouts and leaders are. I am planning on writing one or two more and then just editing as the summer goes on. This will also give me quite a bit more time to spend with the scouts. The hours I am putting in amaze me. On Sunday I was with scouts and leaders until 10:30 when we had a staff meeting. Then I get up at 5:30 in the morning. Monday was a 21 hour day and Tuesday was 20. Wednesday I had some homesickness issues in the morning but by the afternoon it slowed down so Wednesday and Thursday were only about 15-18 hour days and Friday I was leaving camp by a little after 9 p.m. It was very nice to go to my moms and climb into a real bed before 10:30 at night.
However, shortly after I climbed into bed I heard one of my step-brothers and a group of his friends come in and they were hanging out. I was so exhausted that I didn’t come out and see them. I dozed and woke up quite a bit until they went to bed about 3:30 am. I managed to sleep until 7:00 so I am good and with one more night’s sleep I will be ready to go for another week with scouts.
Thanks for reading.
Peace,
Adam
Wow, I thought that the life at seminary required long days. It turns out that when I am there I am getting a lot of down time compared to what I am doing as a scout camp chaplain.
This was the first week with scouts in camp. It was amazing both how fast it seemed and how long it seemed. After staff week I got off fairly early on Friday evening and when I got to my mom’s house my aunt and uncle were in town. We had supper and talked late into the evening. On Saturday we went to an overlook in Winona so they could see the city from above. It was nice, and since it was steamboat days, the festival in Winona, there was a lot to see. In the afternoon we drove to Wabasha to go to the National Eagle Center. We sat in on one of their one hour class sessions. I had heard pretty much all of the information presented, but it was nice to have it presented in a condensed, organized fashion. We followed that up by going to a restaurant in the country near Nelson, WI that may aunt had read about in the magazine. That was nice and we finished off the day by again chatting into the evening.
On Sunday I went to Mass in Holmen before heading out to the camp. When I got to camp I had a few things to set up and get ready since the scouts were coming in soon. We were required to be there by 1230 and I was quite early to get stuff done. When the troops were starting to register I was asking the leaders if they knew the faiths that their scouts practiced. All of the scouts were Christian as far as I could find out, but I decided to still run the services as interfaith, rather than ecumenical incase the leaders had missed one or two. I did feel confident to go a bit heavier on Christian than even I had planned.
I found out Sunday evening that one of the troops had scheduled the priest from the parish that most of them attended to come in for Mass on Wednesday. This frustrated me to an extent because I had spent a bit of time scheduling a different priest in, and this troop hadn’t let me know in advance. So I had to end up calling and canceling the priest that had been scheduled in by me, somewhat embarrassing me, but he was fine with it.
I was alerted to a few scouts that the leaders were concerned would be homesick during the week. I made it a point to be a bit extra attentive to those scouts so that I had been with them if I had to start dealing with home sickness problems. I had a little bit with each of them, but they weren’t any too bad. On Monday and Tuesday I was able to quickly schedule in the Catholic Priest for next week, but had a bear of a time scheduling a protestant minister for the Wednesday. I think I called 20-25 churches before getting one. It would come on Friday that he ended up canceling so I called another 10-12 before getting one that I think will show up.
Monday and Tuesday were my busiest days for homesick scouts. Each of them is so different that I have to figure out a way to distract them and try to keep them in camp. Probably the third scout that I had dealings with I spent a lot of time with. Everything that I did to distract him he had fun with, but when I would mention him doing it again later in the week he would say, “No, I’m going home today.” I was pretty frustrated with myself for not being able to convince him, it was so hard headed though, that on Tuesday his leaders agreed to let him go home. He is the only scout that I wasn’t able to convince to stay, so I think I did pretty well.
As for my chapel services… I’m not as happy with them as the scouts and leaders are. I am planning on writing one or two more and then just editing as the summer goes on. This will also give me quite a bit more time to spend with the scouts. The hours I am putting in amaze me. On Sunday I was with scouts and leaders until 10:30 when we had a staff meeting. Then I get up at 5:30 in the morning. Monday was a 21 hour day and Tuesday was 20. Wednesday I had some homesickness issues in the morning but by the afternoon it slowed down so Wednesday and Thursday were only about 15-18 hour days and Friday I was leaving camp by a little after 9 p.m. It was very nice to go to my moms and climb into a real bed before 10:30 at night.
However, shortly after I climbed into bed I heard one of my step-brothers and a group of his friends come in and they were hanging out. I was so exhausted that I didn’t come out and see them. I dozed and woke up quite a bit until they went to bed about 3:30 am. I managed to sleep until 7:00 so I am good and with one more night’s sleep I will be ready to go for another week with scouts.
Thanks for reading.
Peace,
Adam
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Staff week at camp
Hello again,
As I said before, I think that posts this summer will be a little more sporadic than I would like them to be. I have found out that I do have internet access at the boy scout camp, but I am going to be very busy… I will post as I can.
So since my last post I went to Stevens Point for Pentecost weekend. I helped out at the Masses at Newman Parish and really enjoyed them, as always. I went out to eat couple of times with Father Tom, it was nice to catch up with just him. On Saturday evening there was an Ordination Mass to the deaconate for one of the guys from the La Crosse Diocese. He will be ordained a priest next year. There was going to be an Ordination for another guy on Sunday, but I couldn’t go to that, as the time conflicted with the Mass at Newman.
This deacon Ordination is the same Ordination as for a guy who is going to stay a Deacon, but since this one is going to be a priest, he is called a transitional deacon by those who know him. This doesn’t change any of his faculties or authorities. It is just a term used to clarify incase people are curious. Dan, the new Deacon at the Ordination I went to and Dave, the one for the Ordination that I didn’t go to are great guys. They will both be great priests.
After the Sunday Mass I helped a bit with changing the decorations in the church from the Easter Season to Ordinary Time. Ordinary time isn’t about the boring type of ordinary, but means ordinal, such as a number sequence… just a way of keeping track as to where we are in the liturgical year. I had to leave before this change over was complete… I had to head to the camp for staff week.
When I arrived at camp I checked in and moved the supplies that they had down to the chapel to begin preparing for the summer. I have a nice outdoor chapel to use. I really like it. I found out that they did indeed want chapel services during the staff week, I hadn’t been expecting that, so I raced to put some of them together.
The staff at camp is great. I really like everyone that I have gotten to know over the week. They all seem happy to have a chaplain there, and attendance for the chapel services has been great. I spent a lot of the week figuring out what I was going to be doing, and writing the chapel services. It was a bit difficult with the services because the music books they have are not good. I struggled with them for Monday’s chapel service, but then decided to make up some handout sheets for music. I got this done and it was nice, but it turns out that the people there only knew some of the songs. I had downloaded some music to my IPod to play along, but for the speakers I need power, there is an outlet in the chapel, but it doesn’t work. I am going to use an extension cord so that I can do this in the future, also one of the guys on staff has a portable keyboard and plays piano for his church at home so he volunteered to help out.
The leadership at the camp is great about the importance of chapel. For example, even though it was staff week and heavy on training, if there was an announcement to be made about something for the rest of the afternoon, the programs director would say to the people to meet out at the entrance to the chapel, not make an announcement in the chapel, since that isn’t what it is for. I had mentioned in passing to someone how much I enjoy rappelling and the programs director said that if I want to help out occasionally with the rappelling program I can, but that it is up to me, so that I can function fully as chaplain.
We worked hard this week setting everything up too. I enjoyed the good physical work and pitching in when I could. It was wonderful of the camp leadership to allow me to decide if I wanted to and not do stuff at the expense of the chaplaincy.
I am looking forward to the scouts coming in next week, and spending this summer doing this ministry.
Peace,
Adam
As I said before, I think that posts this summer will be a little more sporadic than I would like them to be. I have found out that I do have internet access at the boy scout camp, but I am going to be very busy… I will post as I can.
So since my last post I went to Stevens Point for Pentecost weekend. I helped out at the Masses at Newman Parish and really enjoyed them, as always. I went out to eat couple of times with Father Tom, it was nice to catch up with just him. On Saturday evening there was an Ordination Mass to the deaconate for one of the guys from the La Crosse Diocese. He will be ordained a priest next year. There was going to be an Ordination for another guy on Sunday, but I couldn’t go to that, as the time conflicted with the Mass at Newman.
This deacon Ordination is the same Ordination as for a guy who is going to stay a Deacon, but since this one is going to be a priest, he is called a transitional deacon by those who know him. This doesn’t change any of his faculties or authorities. It is just a term used to clarify incase people are curious. Dan, the new Deacon at the Ordination I went to and Dave, the one for the Ordination that I didn’t go to are great guys. They will both be great priests.
After the Sunday Mass I helped a bit with changing the decorations in the church from the Easter Season to Ordinary Time. Ordinary time isn’t about the boring type of ordinary, but means ordinal, such as a number sequence… just a way of keeping track as to where we are in the liturgical year. I had to leave before this change over was complete… I had to head to the camp for staff week.
When I arrived at camp I checked in and moved the supplies that they had down to the chapel to begin preparing for the summer. I have a nice outdoor chapel to use. I really like it. I found out that they did indeed want chapel services during the staff week, I hadn’t been expecting that, so I raced to put some of them together.
The staff at camp is great. I really like everyone that I have gotten to know over the week. They all seem happy to have a chaplain there, and attendance for the chapel services has been great. I spent a lot of the week figuring out what I was going to be doing, and writing the chapel services. It was a bit difficult with the services because the music books they have are not good. I struggled with them for Monday’s chapel service, but then decided to make up some handout sheets for music. I got this done and it was nice, but it turns out that the people there only knew some of the songs. I had downloaded some music to my IPod to play along, but for the speakers I need power, there is an outlet in the chapel, but it doesn’t work. I am going to use an extension cord so that I can do this in the future, also one of the guys on staff has a portable keyboard and plays piano for his church at home so he volunteered to help out.
The leadership at the camp is great about the importance of chapel. For example, even though it was staff week and heavy on training, if there was an announcement to be made about something for the rest of the afternoon, the programs director would say to the people to meet out at the entrance to the chapel, not make an announcement in the chapel, since that isn’t what it is for. I had mentioned in passing to someone how much I enjoy rappelling and the programs director said that if I want to help out occasionally with the rappelling program I can, but that it is up to me, so that I can function fully as chaplain.
We worked hard this week setting everything up too. I enjoyed the good physical work and pitching in when I could. It was wonderful of the camp leadership to allow me to decide if I wanted to and not do stuff at the expense of the chaplaincy.
I am looking forward to the scouts coming in next week, and spending this summer doing this ministry.
Peace,
Adam
Monday, June 6, 2011
Training for the summer and taking some down time
Wow, so I thought I had put up a post last week, but just looked and it turns out that I didn’t. Sorry about that if you were looking for a post.
After my last post, I was able to spend some time with my dad and his wife who were out for that funeral. Obviously the circumstances weren’t great, but it was great to see them. We spent a lot of time talking and just hanging out. On that Friday I went to the funeral with them. It was a very nice funeral. I stayed at the lunch for just a little bit before heading out. I had a few things to get done before heading towards Stevens Point.
I didn’t really have anything to do in Stevens Point, but it was a lot closer to where I had to be on Saturday and I was able to spend some time with a good friend and his kids. His wife was out of town with a team that she coaches at the school she teaches at. I got over there a little early so was able to relax and even do a bit of running around in Point before he got off of work. We then had pizza for supper and shared a couple of beers after the kids went to bed. When I was finishing up college I used to spend quite a bit of time with him and his wife, and it is always fun to catch up.
Saturday I headed up to the training for my summer position. This is part of the National Camp School for the Boy Scouts. Most camps don’t send their chaplains to this, but the camp that I am working at thought it would be a good idea. It was fun to be at a camp again. I will say that I was actually quite disappointed with the training, maybe more so with the trainer. She was nice enough, but there was quite a bit to frustrate a person. First of all, she was extremely disorganized which made the training go in fits and spurts. We would race through a lot, and then play it off as if there was almost nothing to do before racing forward again. Probably more frustrating than that was that while she put on being inclusive and accepting of all traditions she would get in digs against the Catholic Church with a great deal of frequency. I corrected her on most of her false statements about the Church, but she just kept them coming. I was quite disappointed by this, and happy to be done on Tuesday. I am still excited about working at the camp, because I won’t be dealing with that there.
Over the weekend there were a lot of priest reassignments announced within the La Crosse Diocese. I had a list of them and am excited about many of them. Some are difficult situations due to a shrinking number of priests, but I think that the Bishop and the personnel board did a great job on fitting different priests with different parishes on the whole, and making the decisions that had to be made.
I came back to Winona after that and kind of took it easy for a day or two other than a few chores around the house. On Friday I volunteered with the foresters back at the Corps of Engineers that I worked with during college. I was working with the students that they have working for them this summer. I helped them repair some tree tubes on an island where the flood had pushed them over. Obviously the trees can’t grow in tubes that are lying down. It was oh so very hot on Friday. We were all drinking water constantly. The students were glad to have me there because with the extra worker we were able to finish up by noon and boat back to the landing. We were then going to take lunch in the air conditioned truck before heading back to the office, but I recommended that we stop at the Corps office right near there to use their air condition. I had worked with those guys some times when I had been in the area before; it was good to see them.
I left from there and drove to Stevens Point to help out at the Masses over the weekend. On Friday night Fr. Tom and I went to the house of a couple of parishioners for supper. A couple of other parishioners were also there. It was a great night of conversation and company. I really enjoyed it.
On Saturday I had some chores around the church and the rectory to get done. I cleaned up at the church and did some setting up for other events this coming week. I also trimmed all of the shrubs at the rectory for the summer. It is fun to be doing outdoor work again, no matter how little. After Mass Fr. Tom and I went out to dinner with a couple of parishioners who are also neighbors to the rectory. We followed that up by going to the parish picnic of another parish in Stevens Point. We talked to a few people there, including the priest at that parish. In the coming changes he is going to be taking over another nearby parish too. He is working to figure out how all of that will work.
I came back to Winona after Mass on Sunday. After a while I drove down to Holmen thinking that I was going to the Knights of Columbus meeting, but it turns out that the meeting is next Sunday night. Today I spent time cleaning my truck. I also waxed it and cleaned all the windows in addition to vacuuming and shampooing the carpet. I really liked doing that, it had been a while and it was nice to take care of my truck like that.
I think that this has me caught up since my last post. I hope you are all doing well.
Peace,
Adam
After my last post, I was able to spend some time with my dad and his wife who were out for that funeral. Obviously the circumstances weren’t great, but it was great to see them. We spent a lot of time talking and just hanging out. On that Friday I went to the funeral with them. It was a very nice funeral. I stayed at the lunch for just a little bit before heading out. I had a few things to get done before heading towards Stevens Point.
I didn’t really have anything to do in Stevens Point, but it was a lot closer to where I had to be on Saturday and I was able to spend some time with a good friend and his kids. His wife was out of town with a team that she coaches at the school she teaches at. I got over there a little early so was able to relax and even do a bit of running around in Point before he got off of work. We then had pizza for supper and shared a couple of beers after the kids went to bed. When I was finishing up college I used to spend quite a bit of time with him and his wife, and it is always fun to catch up.
Saturday I headed up to the training for my summer position. This is part of the National Camp School for the Boy Scouts. Most camps don’t send their chaplains to this, but the camp that I am working at thought it would be a good idea. It was fun to be at a camp again. I will say that I was actually quite disappointed with the training, maybe more so with the trainer. She was nice enough, but there was quite a bit to frustrate a person. First of all, she was extremely disorganized which made the training go in fits and spurts. We would race through a lot, and then play it off as if there was almost nothing to do before racing forward again. Probably more frustrating than that was that while she put on being inclusive and accepting of all traditions she would get in digs against the Catholic Church with a great deal of frequency. I corrected her on most of her false statements about the Church, but she just kept them coming. I was quite disappointed by this, and happy to be done on Tuesday. I am still excited about working at the camp, because I won’t be dealing with that there.
Over the weekend there were a lot of priest reassignments announced within the La Crosse Diocese. I had a list of them and am excited about many of them. Some are difficult situations due to a shrinking number of priests, but I think that the Bishop and the personnel board did a great job on fitting different priests with different parishes on the whole, and making the decisions that had to be made.
I came back to Winona after that and kind of took it easy for a day or two other than a few chores around the house. On Friday I volunteered with the foresters back at the Corps of Engineers that I worked with during college. I was working with the students that they have working for them this summer. I helped them repair some tree tubes on an island where the flood had pushed them over. Obviously the trees can’t grow in tubes that are lying down. It was oh so very hot on Friday. We were all drinking water constantly. The students were glad to have me there because with the extra worker we were able to finish up by noon and boat back to the landing. We were then going to take lunch in the air conditioned truck before heading back to the office, but I recommended that we stop at the Corps office right near there to use their air condition. I had worked with those guys some times when I had been in the area before; it was good to see them.
I left from there and drove to Stevens Point to help out at the Masses over the weekend. On Friday night Fr. Tom and I went to the house of a couple of parishioners for supper. A couple of other parishioners were also there. It was a great night of conversation and company. I really enjoyed it.
On Saturday I had some chores around the church and the rectory to get done. I cleaned up at the church and did some setting up for other events this coming week. I also trimmed all of the shrubs at the rectory for the summer. It is fun to be doing outdoor work again, no matter how little. After Mass Fr. Tom and I went out to dinner with a couple of parishioners who are also neighbors to the rectory. We followed that up by going to the parish picnic of another parish in Stevens Point. We talked to a few people there, including the priest at that parish. In the coming changes he is going to be taking over another nearby parish too. He is working to figure out how all of that will work.
I came back to Winona after Mass on Sunday. After a while I drove down to Holmen thinking that I was going to the Knights of Columbus meeting, but it turns out that the meeting is next Sunday night. Today I spent time cleaning my truck. I also waxed it and cleaned all the windows in addition to vacuuming and shampooing the carpet. I really liked doing that, it had been a while and it was nice to take care of my truck like that.
I think that this has me caught up since my last post. I hope you are all doing well.
Peace,
Adam
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
First week of summer break 2011
Hello everyone,
Well, it is the first week of my first summer break from seminary. Finals actually went pretty smoothly. I was honestly a little surprised at how well I felt that they went. I guess that we’ll see if my assessment is accurate when grades come. I don’t even know if I’ll get my grades before I go back. The past two quarters the grades were delivered to my campus mailbox but I do hope that they mail them so that I’ll see them this summer.
I managed to get everything moved over to my new room and get on the road as scheduled. I made it up to La Crosse a couple of hours before the wedding rehearsal so I stopped in at the store that I worked at while in high school to say hi to anyone that still worked there that I know. I found out that one of my friends there died of cancer a month or two ago… that was quite sad, she was a great lady.
The wedding rehearsal was very fun. The groom is one of my best friends from school. He and I used to shovel driveways together and do a lot of hanging out together. I do think that he is quite possibly the hardest working man that I know, and he really enjoys it. The wedding on Saturday was very nice too. The reception afterwards fit the couple greatly. It was held in the machine shed of one of the members of the groom’s family. They have a big area where we were able to set tables for supper and then a smaller area with a concrete floor where the DJ set up and the dance was held. It was cool to catch up with so many people from high school and to celebrate this special day with my friends.
On Sunday I went to an early Mass before going to the Lutheran church that the wedding had been at with the new couple and the groom’s family. I am very happy that they are making faith a strong part of their lives. After the Lutheran service I found out that one of my dad and his wife’s brother-in-laws had died. He lived in La Crosse so my dad and step-mom headed out here from where they live in Montana. I was able to see them today. And will see them a couple of more times before they head back.
Yesterday I had a meeting with the chairman of the Catholic committee on scouting, the vocation director, and the camp director for the Boy Scout camp that I will work at this summer. I am pretty excited about this. I will lead a chapel service every day that the scouts are there and arrange for a priest to come in for Mass once a week. I have some training for this starting this Saturday through next Tuesday.
Yesterday I also was able to spend some time with a good friend who is about to enter the novitiate for the religious community that she has been a postulant in for almost a year. She is both excited and nervous about this. It was great to spend time with her and her family. I really enjoy their company.
I think that this is about what has happened for the last week. So have a good one.
Peace,
Adam
Well, it is the first week of my first summer break from seminary. Finals actually went pretty smoothly. I was honestly a little surprised at how well I felt that they went. I guess that we’ll see if my assessment is accurate when grades come. I don’t even know if I’ll get my grades before I go back. The past two quarters the grades were delivered to my campus mailbox but I do hope that they mail them so that I’ll see them this summer.
I managed to get everything moved over to my new room and get on the road as scheduled. I made it up to La Crosse a couple of hours before the wedding rehearsal so I stopped in at the store that I worked at while in high school to say hi to anyone that still worked there that I know. I found out that one of my friends there died of cancer a month or two ago… that was quite sad, she was a great lady.
The wedding rehearsal was very fun. The groom is one of my best friends from school. He and I used to shovel driveways together and do a lot of hanging out together. I do think that he is quite possibly the hardest working man that I know, and he really enjoys it. The wedding on Saturday was very nice too. The reception afterwards fit the couple greatly. It was held in the machine shed of one of the members of the groom’s family. They have a big area where we were able to set tables for supper and then a smaller area with a concrete floor where the DJ set up and the dance was held. It was cool to catch up with so many people from high school and to celebrate this special day with my friends.
On Sunday I went to an early Mass before going to the Lutheran church that the wedding had been at with the new couple and the groom’s family. I am very happy that they are making faith a strong part of their lives. After the Lutheran service I found out that one of my dad and his wife’s brother-in-laws had died. He lived in La Crosse so my dad and step-mom headed out here from where they live in Montana. I was able to see them today. And will see them a couple of more times before they head back.
Yesterday I had a meeting with the chairman of the Catholic committee on scouting, the vocation director, and the camp director for the Boy Scout camp that I will work at this summer. I am pretty excited about this. I will lead a chapel service every day that the scouts are there and arrange for a priest to come in for Mass once a week. I have some training for this starting this Saturday through next Tuesday.
Yesterday I also was able to spend some time with a good friend who is about to enter the novitiate for the religious community that she has been a postulant in for almost a year. She is both excited and nervous about this. It was great to spend time with her and her family. I really enjoy their company.
I think that this is about what has happened for the last week. So have a good one.
Peace,
Adam
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Finals Week Spring quarter 2010-2011
Hello again,
First a note that I hope to keep updating this blog during the summer, but I’m not sure what sort of internet access I will have during this time. I may type up posts and then have to upload a few at a time, sorry, we’ll have to see how it goes. This summer I am going to be a chaplain at a Boy Scout camp in Holmen, WI. This is the camp that I went to most of the time when I was a scout growing up, so I am very excited about it. I don’t really know what all my duties will be; I’ll have to write more about that as I find out more.
This is finals week. It is hard to believe that in less than a week I will be done with my first year of seminary studies. Wow, has this time gone fast. When I try to think back on all that I have done this school year I am amazed that it has been fit into such a short period of time. I feel that I have grown in many ways. This includes the academic, the practical, and the spiritual. I think that I had a pretty good spiritual life coming into here, but I have grown in my appreciation for the formal liturgical celebrations of the Church. I think that practically I’ve grown in quite a few ways.
Academically I have so much greater of an understanding of a wide variety of topics. As I have said before, these first two years are focused on philosophical studies, and I have seen the development of where human thought developed (western thought mainly) to the point that we were able to better understand religion and divine revelation. I am sure that I will continue in this next year. I have also had a pretty good overview of churchy type of topics, such as the Catechism of the Catholic Church and introductions to both the Old and the New Testament studies. I have even struggled through a year of Latin studies… I have done my best and have only the final to go in it. I am not very proficient, but I believe that the goal of exposure to Latin has been met.
My finals schedule isn’t really that overloaded. I am supposed to have two tests Thursday and two on Friday but I was able to move one from Friday to tomorrow (Wednesday). I did this because I have to get on the road since one of my best friends is getting married on Saturday. I am the best man in the wedding so I really should try to be there for the rehearsal. I am pretty excited about this wedding. Although I have been in the wedding party at many weddings, this is my first time as the best man.
One thing that is making this week even busier is that I am moving rooms. I can’t remember if I wrote about this or not. To help a guy get used to seminary they have those of us who are new to the seminary process live on two hallways (cams) together. After this year we move to a place where we will be for the next five years. I have been packing up all of my stuff little by little and moving it over. Thankfully the room that I have been assigned for next year is unoccupied already so I don’t have to wait for a guy to move out before I can move in. I am not able to set up the room as I will have it because there is a project this summer to install fire sprinklers in all of the rooms to bring them up to the code that will be implemented in Illinois in 2012. So I have been just piling stuff in an area out of the way, not setting it up as I’d like to, but that is the way it goes.
The last week and a half has been kind of interesting around here. Since the class of 2011 has graduated it is interesting to see which guys have already taken off to get ready for their ministry and which are spending time here, either working on further degrees or just using this time for preparation. Some have known where they will be assigned for a while now, others are only finding out a day or two before their Ordination. Please keep them all in your prayers as they work to fulfill God’s call in their lives.
Peace,
Adam
First a note that I hope to keep updating this blog during the summer, but I’m not sure what sort of internet access I will have during this time. I may type up posts and then have to upload a few at a time, sorry, we’ll have to see how it goes. This summer I am going to be a chaplain at a Boy Scout camp in Holmen, WI. This is the camp that I went to most of the time when I was a scout growing up, so I am very excited about it. I don’t really know what all my duties will be; I’ll have to write more about that as I find out more.
This is finals week. It is hard to believe that in less than a week I will be done with my first year of seminary studies. Wow, has this time gone fast. When I try to think back on all that I have done this school year I am amazed that it has been fit into such a short period of time. I feel that I have grown in many ways. This includes the academic, the practical, and the spiritual. I think that I had a pretty good spiritual life coming into here, but I have grown in my appreciation for the formal liturgical celebrations of the Church. I think that practically I’ve grown in quite a few ways.
Academically I have so much greater of an understanding of a wide variety of topics. As I have said before, these first two years are focused on philosophical studies, and I have seen the development of where human thought developed (western thought mainly) to the point that we were able to better understand religion and divine revelation. I am sure that I will continue in this next year. I have also had a pretty good overview of churchy type of topics, such as the Catechism of the Catholic Church and introductions to both the Old and the New Testament studies. I have even struggled through a year of Latin studies… I have done my best and have only the final to go in it. I am not very proficient, but I believe that the goal of exposure to Latin has been met.
My finals schedule isn’t really that overloaded. I am supposed to have two tests Thursday and two on Friday but I was able to move one from Friday to tomorrow (Wednesday). I did this because I have to get on the road since one of my best friends is getting married on Saturday. I am the best man in the wedding so I really should try to be there for the rehearsal. I am pretty excited about this wedding. Although I have been in the wedding party at many weddings, this is my first time as the best man.
One thing that is making this week even busier is that I am moving rooms. I can’t remember if I wrote about this or not. To help a guy get used to seminary they have those of us who are new to the seminary process live on two hallways (cams) together. After this year we move to a place where we will be for the next five years. I have been packing up all of my stuff little by little and moving it over. Thankfully the room that I have been assigned for next year is unoccupied already so I don’t have to wait for a guy to move out before I can move in. I am not able to set up the room as I will have it because there is a project this summer to install fire sprinklers in all of the rooms to bring them up to the code that will be implemented in Illinois in 2012. So I have been just piling stuff in an area out of the way, not setting it up as I’d like to, but that is the way it goes.
The last week and a half has been kind of interesting around here. Since the class of 2011 has graduated it is interesting to see which guys have already taken off to get ready for their ministry and which are spending time here, either working on further degrees or just using this time for preparation. Some have known where they will be assigned for a while now, others are only finding out a day or two before their Ordination. Please keep them all in your prayers as they work to fulfill God’s call in their lives.
Peace,
Adam
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Reflection for the third Wednesday of Easter Year 1
Here is the reflection that I gave at the nursing home last Wednesday. One note on these is that while I write them out, I tend to add or take stuff out depending on how it goes, and it is tough to go back and put it just like that... but this is close.
As I normally do, the readings for the day are attached below.
Peace,
Adam
----------------------------------------------------------------------
As Christians our first priority should be to do God’s will. This is what Christ did, as he said, “I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me.” Our will should be God’s will.
In the first reading we heard of a tough time for the early Church. Stephen had just died, Saul was trying to destroy the Church. Believers who hadn’t been killed were either scattering or hiding.
These believers were doing God’s will too. The ones who were scattered throughout the known world were doing God’s will through preaching the Gospel to those that they encountered there. The believers who were in hiding were doing God’s will by not denying Him and by strengthening their own faith. It is said elsewhere in the Bible that God wills all to be saved… so by strengthening their own faith that is indeed doing God’s will.
How can you do God’s will? You probably aren’t going to be asked to die for your faith. You probably won’t be sent to the corners of the world to preach God’s Word. But there are plenty of little things that we can do. We can comfort the sick or sorrowful. We can rejoice with those who are rejoicing. We can open a door for someone, or just spend time with them.
These are the little things, but they are also God’s will. I forget who said it, but there was a Saint who said, “We sanctify the things that we should be doing when we do them for God’s will.” It is an attitude with which you do things.
One more thing that we can do for God’s will is what we will be doing in a few minutes. Receiving the Eucharist. Christ said that when you see Him you see the Father. He said that He is the bread of life. He also said to Do this in memory of Me. Christ is God, His will is God’s will. So when we receive communion here, or at Mass, or any time do it because it is what God wills.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter
Reading 1
Acts 8:1b-8
There broke out a severe persecution of the Church in Jerusalem,
and all were scattered
throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria,
except the Apostles.
Devout men buried Stephen and made a loud lament over him.
Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the Church;
entering house after house and dragging out men and women,
he handed them over for imprisonment.
Now those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.
Thus Philip went down to the city of Samaria
and proclaimed the Christ to them.
With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip
when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing.
For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice,
came out of many possessed people,
and many paralyzed and crippled people were cured.
There was great joy in that city.
Ps 66:1-3a, 4-5, 6-7a
Responsorial Psalm
R. (1) Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Shout joyfully to God, all the earth,
sing praise to the glory of his name;
proclaim his glorious praise.
Say to God, “How tremendous are your deeds!”
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
“Let all on earth worship and sing praise to you,
sing praise to your name!”
Come and see the works of God,
his tremendous deeds among the children of Adam.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He has changed the sea into dry land;
through the river they passed on foot;
therefore let us rejoice in him.
He rules by his might forever.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Jn 6:35-40
Gospel
Jesus said to the crowds,
“I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.
But I told you that although you have seen me,
you do not believe.
Everything that the Father gives me will come to me,
and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,
because I came down from heaven not to do my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.
And this is the will of the one who sent me,
that I should not lose anything of what he gave me,
but that I should raise it on the last day.
For this is the will of my Father,
that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him
may have eternal life,
and I shall raise him on the last day.”
As I normally do, the readings for the day are attached below.
Peace,
Adam
----------------------------------------------------------------------
As Christians our first priority should be to do God’s will. This is what Christ did, as he said, “I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me.” Our will should be God’s will.
In the first reading we heard of a tough time for the early Church. Stephen had just died, Saul was trying to destroy the Church. Believers who hadn’t been killed were either scattering or hiding.
These believers were doing God’s will too. The ones who were scattered throughout the known world were doing God’s will through preaching the Gospel to those that they encountered there. The believers who were in hiding were doing God’s will by not denying Him and by strengthening their own faith. It is said elsewhere in the Bible that God wills all to be saved… so by strengthening their own faith that is indeed doing God’s will.
How can you do God’s will? You probably aren’t going to be asked to die for your faith. You probably won’t be sent to the corners of the world to preach God’s Word. But there are plenty of little things that we can do. We can comfort the sick or sorrowful. We can rejoice with those who are rejoicing. We can open a door for someone, or just spend time with them.
These are the little things, but they are also God’s will. I forget who said it, but there was a Saint who said, “We sanctify the things that we should be doing when we do them for God’s will.” It is an attitude with which you do things.
One more thing that we can do for God’s will is what we will be doing in a few minutes. Receiving the Eucharist. Christ said that when you see Him you see the Father. He said that He is the bread of life. He also said to Do this in memory of Me. Christ is God, His will is God’s will. So when we receive communion here, or at Mass, or any time do it because it is what God wills.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter
Reading 1
Acts 8:1b-8
There broke out a severe persecution of the Church in Jerusalem,
and all were scattered
throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria,
except the Apostles.
Devout men buried Stephen and made a loud lament over him.
Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the Church;
entering house after house and dragging out men and women,
he handed them over for imprisonment.
Now those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.
Thus Philip went down to the city of Samaria
and proclaimed the Christ to them.
With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip
when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing.
For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice,
came out of many possessed people,
and many paralyzed and crippled people were cured.
There was great joy in that city.
Ps 66:1-3a, 4-5, 6-7a
Responsorial Psalm
R. (1) Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Shout joyfully to God, all the earth,
sing praise to the glory of his name;
proclaim his glorious praise.
Say to God, “How tremendous are your deeds!”
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
“Let all on earth worship and sing praise to you,
sing praise to your name!”
Come and see the works of God,
his tremendous deeds among the children of Adam.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He has changed the sea into dry land;
through the river they passed on foot;
therefore let us rejoice in him.
He rules by his might forever.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Jn 6:35-40
Gospel
Jesus said to the crowds,
“I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.
But I told you that although you have seen me,
you do not believe.
Everything that the Father gives me will come to me,
and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,
because I came down from heaven not to do my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.
And this is the will of the one who sent me,
that I should not lose anything of what he gave me,
but that I should raise it on the last day.
For this is the will of my Father,
that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him
may have eternal life,
and I shall raise him on the last day.”
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Racing to the end of the first year
Hello again,
I am sorry that I didn’t get up a post later in the week last week about what had been going on at the seminary since Holy Week. I was just overloaded with meetings and such. I will post this tonight and since I also have to write a reflection for the nursing home for tomorrow I will post that in a couple of days.
So Austin and I made it back to the seminary in the early evening of Easter Sunday. Monday was the day that people had to return so it was nice to kind of have the area quiet for getting things done. I was looking forward to seeing my friends, but it was nice none the less.
Class and the hectic schedule started again with a vengeance on that Tuesday. It was the start of a three week mad dash to the finish of the quarter. The weather was also starting to turn really nice which made me want to be outside. It is days like that when I really get to missing my forestry job since those were the days to enjoy walking in the woods. So I have made a lot of walks on the road around the lake that is on campus. The road can be either a 3 mile or a 2.5 mile loop depending on what exact route you take. I really enjoy that.
Class has been pretty standard, quizzes, lectures, and homework. We do a lot of reading for each class and it overwhelms some people, but it is manageable. I manage it by figuring out what needs reading, what can be skimmed, and what can be ignored. I think that I have this down pretty well. Probably my biggest study issue is the Latin class. In this I am so confused that I feel like I am spinning my wheels when I study. One nice thing about the lady that is teaching Latin this quarter is that for the quizzes we have had she allowed us to retake two of them with her taking the best grade from each quiz. So I did that today and it really felt like I think that Latin is finally starting to sink in. I guess that is good since I only have two classes plus the final left.
This is the time of the year that people are starting to ask if I am coming back to seminary next year. I say that I am unless God speaks clearly to me before then. It is up to Him. During the winter quarter I had a week or two period where I was really starting to question it, but that passed without me ever thinking that I was for sure going to leave seminary. Last week one day I had one day in which I really thought I was going to leave. There was nothing in particular; it was just that on that day I really started to think of how I was going to leave. I think that this is probably normal, Satan works through causing doubts. I was over it by the end of the day and even more convinced that I am staying. This is a part of the discernment and I imagine that times like this will come and go. Before starting seminary I set in my mind that I would take it a year at a time. I committed to this year. When I start in the fall next year I will be committing to that year. I am thinking that this will help me to evaluate if I am truly discerning out of seminary or just having a bad day or two.
This past weekend was the seminary graduation. Some of you may think that I typed wrong and should have written Ordination, but this is a University at which guys are issued degrees. The graduation is separate from the Ordination. An Ordination takes place with the Bishop of a guys home diocese but this was just like a commencement at any other university (although smaller no doubt) except that there was of course a Mass of celebration before hand.
There is a group of guys in my class who have been working out together. As you know from my previous posts I had thyroid cancer a couple of years ago and gained significant weight during that time. I had lost 10 pounds from my peak before starting seminary and as of this morning I have lost 40 since starting seminary. I peaked at 307 pounds and started seminary at 297, today I weighed in at 257, I am sorry to brag about something like this but it is something which I am proud of. I have about another 70-75 to go before getting to my goal, but I am very happy to be going in the right direction.
That is enough for now. I hope you all have a great week.
Peace,
Adam
I am sorry that I didn’t get up a post later in the week last week about what had been going on at the seminary since Holy Week. I was just overloaded with meetings and such. I will post this tonight and since I also have to write a reflection for the nursing home for tomorrow I will post that in a couple of days.
So Austin and I made it back to the seminary in the early evening of Easter Sunday. Monday was the day that people had to return so it was nice to kind of have the area quiet for getting things done. I was looking forward to seeing my friends, but it was nice none the less.
Class and the hectic schedule started again with a vengeance on that Tuesday. It was the start of a three week mad dash to the finish of the quarter. The weather was also starting to turn really nice which made me want to be outside. It is days like that when I really get to missing my forestry job since those were the days to enjoy walking in the woods. So I have made a lot of walks on the road around the lake that is on campus. The road can be either a 3 mile or a 2.5 mile loop depending on what exact route you take. I really enjoy that.
Class has been pretty standard, quizzes, lectures, and homework. We do a lot of reading for each class and it overwhelms some people, but it is manageable. I manage it by figuring out what needs reading, what can be skimmed, and what can be ignored. I think that I have this down pretty well. Probably my biggest study issue is the Latin class. In this I am so confused that I feel like I am spinning my wheels when I study. One nice thing about the lady that is teaching Latin this quarter is that for the quizzes we have had she allowed us to retake two of them with her taking the best grade from each quiz. So I did that today and it really felt like I think that Latin is finally starting to sink in. I guess that is good since I only have two classes plus the final left.
This is the time of the year that people are starting to ask if I am coming back to seminary next year. I say that I am unless God speaks clearly to me before then. It is up to Him. During the winter quarter I had a week or two period where I was really starting to question it, but that passed without me ever thinking that I was for sure going to leave seminary. Last week one day I had one day in which I really thought I was going to leave. There was nothing in particular; it was just that on that day I really started to think of how I was going to leave. I think that this is probably normal, Satan works through causing doubts. I was over it by the end of the day and even more convinced that I am staying. This is a part of the discernment and I imagine that times like this will come and go. Before starting seminary I set in my mind that I would take it a year at a time. I committed to this year. When I start in the fall next year I will be committing to that year. I am thinking that this will help me to evaluate if I am truly discerning out of seminary or just having a bad day or two.
This past weekend was the seminary graduation. Some of you may think that I typed wrong and should have written Ordination, but this is a University at which guys are issued degrees. The graduation is separate from the Ordination. An Ordination takes place with the Bishop of a guys home diocese but this was just like a commencement at any other university (although smaller no doubt) except that there was of course a Mass of celebration before hand.
There is a group of guys in my class who have been working out together. As you know from my previous posts I had thyroid cancer a couple of years ago and gained significant weight during that time. I had lost 10 pounds from my peak before starting seminary and as of this morning I have lost 40 since starting seminary. I peaked at 307 pounds and started seminary at 297, today I weighed in at 257, I am sorry to brag about something like this but it is something which I am proud of. I have about another 70-75 to go before getting to my goal, but I am very happy to be going in the right direction.
That is enough for now. I hope you all have a great week.
Peace,
Adam
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