1) RCIA
It was so nice to go back to my parish and sit in on tonight's lesson. I've such a passion for RCIA! For me it was such a fruitful experience and I am so very thankful for it. I know that many are not as blessed and that many programs are lacking. But it was good to go and see Drew and the volunteers, and also to sit and talk with some of this year's participants.
It's a funny sensation, knowing that at that very moment, the Holy Spirit is working through you. I've had a few of these experiences [they seem to be more and more prevalent nowadays] and I am always somewhat caught off guard by them. But it is such a beautiful thing to let go and let the Spirit take over. Really, for the whole evening. My conversations with participants. My short witness talk [I'm not even sure what exactly I said, even!]. And my conversation with Drew after class was over.
That was something special. Drew, who runs and teaches the RCIA program at my parish, has been a great role model for me. It was he who helped me so much during my own time in the program, especially in enduring the opposition from my family. Well, he and I talked for a while after class. I had told him about my desires to apply with a certain community and he had nothing but encouraging words for me! Then he told me a little bit about his own discernment process... He spent time as a seminarian with the Legionaries of Christ before being asked to leave. He discerned the diocesan priesthood. And eventually met his wife, married, and now has a beautiful Catholic family [7 children, with the 8th on the way!]. He's just a great man and has always been someone I've looked up to in regards to the faith. So it was nice to talk to him about all of this.
2) "I Can Love You Like That" by John Michael Montgomery
I heard this song on the radio coming home tonight. [Yes, I am a country music fanatic!] This song absolutely cuts me to the heart. Every. Single. Time. I have a tendency to hear country love songs and think of God. I know, I know, pretty pathetic and perhaps a bit too sentimental. But it's true. Anyways, this song has always been special to me in that context. Just a reminder of how much God loves me and how desperate He is for my love in return. I don't know. I just love this song.
3) "I'm Alive" by Kenny Chesney
While I'm in the country music mode, I figured I'd give a shout out to Kenny Chesney's new song "I'm Alive." Good song. So is "Sounds Like Life to Me" by Darryl Worley.
4) Haiti
The situation in Haiti is terrible; my heart is aching for everyone involved in the tragedy. I've such the urge to just hop on a plane to go and help with the search and rescue teams. Unfortunately that's not much of a possibility for me. Please keep these people in your prayers. Death toll is nearing 50,000 and is on the rise. Rumour has it that along with the Archbishop, many priests and seminarians were killed in the earthquake.
5) Spiritual Direction and Fame
After RCIA tonight one of the sponsors came and asked if I knew a certain priest that works at my school who happens to also be fairly famous in the Catholic world. This particular woman knew him from EWTN.
Yes, I know him. Yup, he's a genius. Yup, he's really holy. Yup, he's my spiritual director. Although I don't say that last part. But it's always interesting how so many people know him. I had no idea who he was when I first met him and when he first suggested direction. But hey, I guess that's how God works sometimes.
6) Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures by Joseph Ratzinger
I read this today. It's a shorter book, just over 100 pages or so. It's one of the books I'll be reading in my Contemporary Catholic Philosophy class later this semester. I had ordered it about a month ago and read it today so as to procrastinate working on my honors thesis. [Yes, I'm that pathetic.]
It was an interesting read. I'm looking forward to reading it more in depth and discussing it during class. But Ratzinger re-proposes Pascal's Wager as a response to today's Modern culture. He recognizes the crisis we are facing: By throwing God out of, well, everything [the public square, philosophy, etc] we have no grounding for any objective morality. Our world is one of relativism and subjectivity. Kant attempted to throw out God and keep morality... but as ingenius as his system is [which, one has to admit, it is a work of a genius], he failed. Ratzinger's answer? Well, he basically states that no one can live, practically speaking, as an agnostic. Even if you supposedly say you don't know whether God exists, practically speaking you are going to live your life in one of two ways: Either as if God does exist or as if God does not exist. Because the answer to whether God exists has practical consequences. So, the answer to our modern problem... non-believers should live as though God exists.
Like I said, I'm interested to reread. I'm not sure I follow Ratzinger's logic the whole way through and I'm not sure that his argument will do much for non-believers. Because, frankly, they don't really care about the crisis of our culture. He presupposes that they even want a solution to this "problem." But, most of them don't. Most have bought into this relativity of morals.
7) Things to Do Tomorrow
Okay, I need to:
*Finish laundry and finish packing
*Call my friend to ensure my ride from the airport on Saturday evening
*Call my friend to ensure my ride from the airport on Saturday evening
*Make a few returns to a few different stores
*Finish "Christmas" shopping for the gift exchange upon returning to school
*Noon Mass
*Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies <-- yum!
Hm. Not tired yet. Almost midnight. I really need to get back to school so I can get back on a regular sleep schedule.
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