tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9829585239877239422024-03-04T23:11:29.485-06:00Earl Grey SoliloquyThoughts and Experiences of a Catholic College StudentMaria B-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17147330106577619172noreply@blogger.comBlogger372125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-982958523987723942.post-70327425553052861622019-09-06T20:59:00.000-05:002019-09-06T20:59:27.445-05:00The Mystery of Vocation It is my last day at home, but somehow it hasn't hit me yet. The monastery I'm entering feels very distant when I'm sitting at the kitchen table eating lunch, or sprawled on the couch with a cup of tea and a blanket, or out shopping, or watching a movie. And yet, I know I couldn't stay like this. It's similar to how I felt going to college: I don't really know what to expect, but I know I'm doing the right thing, and I know that if I didn't go I would feel like I had never really begun my life.<br />
It's the feeling of blooming or coming out of a chrysalis, I guess. You know it will be hard and so, so different, and it's kind of scary, but there's no part of you that wishes you could go back to the way it was before, when you were a bud or a caterpillar. What butterfly wishes it were still a caterpillar? It's a poor analogy for the romance of God drawing a soul to Himself, but it's the best I can think of. Like all worthwhile things, it will be difficult. Of course I'll miss so many aspects of my life as it is right now - I'd be crazy not to - but I think it will be the way we miss the days of our childhood, looking back on them fondly, but not seriously wishing to go back to them. Jesus never promised a life of ease; in fact, He warned us of just the opposite. But He also said, "everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life." (Matthew 19:29)<br />
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I believe that God created my soul for consecrated life. I believe it for a number of reasons, but the predominant one is that I desire to be a nun more than I've ever desired anything else. It comes with a sense both of urgency and of deep peace; a still, small voice. I worried, when I was younger, about how I was going to know when God was calling me to a specific vocation. Little did I know that He was already calling me, gently, even then. Every little part of my personality, every one of my interests, every bit of my being is marked with my vocation. That's why answering God's call didn't feel like making a decision; it felt like making a discovery. Cracking the code - or really being shown the solution - to who I am.<br />
It's something people noticed in me almost before I noticed it in myself. I can think of many times when I've been told I would make a good sister. When I made a quick visit to the Norbertines this summer, I brought along a few friends, and afterwards they said they could tell how happy I was at the monastery. I hadn't been conscious of any change in my own demeanor, but they could see it in me.<br />
If I were to give advice to someone on how to find their vocation, I would say this: it's already there inside of you, because God knew you before He formed you in the womb, and He created you for a reason. So take an honest look at yourself, your interests, and your desires, and then give it to Him to show you what to make of it all. Pray with St. Alphonsus Liguori, "Grant that I may love You always, and then do with me as You will."Maria B-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17147330106577619172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-982958523987723942.post-30918513485622043332019-09-04T13:55:00.000-05:002019-09-04T13:55:36.807-05:00Let me suffer for You My constant prayer in these last few days before entering convent has been both "Jesus, let me suffer for You" and "Jesus, give me strength."<br />
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Up until now I have had a very comfortable and easy life. Nothing really tragic or difficult has ever happened to me, and somehow I've always felt that it was because God was preparing me for something. I guess this is it - the "white martyrdom" of religious life. It reminds me of my patroness, St. Therese. She was the spoiled youngest daughter of her family, and had never really known suffering before becoming a Carmelite. Well, the same is true for me, in a way; I have never had anything important to worry me, and now I am becoming a Norbertine. That probably means I will have a harder time with some aspects of the life than some of the other sisters. But if I give that to Jesus, then He can use even my naivete and ignorance to save souls. I only need Him to give me courage.<br /><div>
So many times I've asked Him why He blessed me the way He did. There can be few with the comforts of home, wealth, loving family, and good education that I have, and yet there are countless people more deserving of it. In His unspeakable mercy He gave me a life that some would dream of having. I will never understand why. I'm just doing what I can to repay Him for it. He has made my childhood and growing-up a joy and a perfect picture, so I will try to give Him my adult life and return to Him all that time spent in comfort. What would my life mean if I never suffered at all? Religious life certainly isn't anywhere near the worst kind of suffering, but I hope it will make up for a tiny fraction of His unmerited kindness to me. To give myself to Him is the best way I can think of to show my gratitude. </div>
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"From the one to whom much is entrusted, even more will be demanded," Jesus says (Luke 12:48). My life isn't much to demand - I am only one person in a world of billions - but it is the most that I can give. I pray that the Lord will give me strength to give it freely.</div>
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Maria B-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17147330106577619172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-982958523987723942.post-22252107632114779102019-08-31T20:31:00.001-05:002019-08-31T20:33:09.781-05:00Great Plains of My Heart My childhood was pretty fantastic in a number of ways, but one thing I consider myself the luckiest for is having grown up in the Midwest. I was born in New Jersey, but I will always be grateful for the fact that my family moved to Nebraska when I was still a baby. And when I was six we moved to an acreage in eastern South Dakota. Our time in the country were some of the best years of my life. I effectively grew up there, since we didn't move into town until I was fourteen. When I look back on some of the things we did, the games we played, and the peace and solitude we had, I can only be thankful.<br />
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The things I learned from growing up in the country are more numerous than I'm sure I realize. We had a lifestyle in which plans depended in a very real way on the weather, and the success of a season's harvest directly affected what food we put on our table. We lived off the land, to an extent, and I spent hours as a kid picking raspberries, shelling peas, braiding onions, and making applesauce, not to mention the jams we made and the vegetables we froze and stored in the cellar. We also had chickens from whom we collected free-range eggs, and many generations of farm cats who were supposed to help with the rodent population, but really just provided us with hours of fun. And, living in the rural midwest, we ate local grass-fed beef and pork from pigs raised by our friends. We also experienced devastating storms which made us lose power and blew down trees and even our windmill. Every fall, when the farmers harvested the corn or beans from the field across the street, we would get a swarm of asian beetles (orange ladybugs) on our back porch. Sometimes we heard coyotes at night, and more than a few times we came home to find a family of skunks or raccoons eating the cat food in the garage. </div>
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Midwest people are hardy, largely because of our brutal winters. One Christmas everyone we knew got snowed in and none of us could get to church. The winter of my freshman year in college, we had a solid ten days of -30 degree weather, when it was so cold the cars wouldn't start. The first snowfall would usually happen in October, and we often had blizzards in May and once a huge ice storm in the end of April. After all of that, less deadly weather occurrences seem like a breeze. And when your life can be put on hold like that because of the forces of nature, you tend to be good about going with the flow and not panicking when things don't go according to plan. </div>
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The sheer space between us and the nearest neighbors, the quiet summer nights with thousands of fireflies, and the time spent playing in our woods and wading in our creek, will always be impressed upon my mind. I am so thankful to have grown up in such an environment, and I am excited to be going back to my roots, in a sense, when I enter the convent! It won't be the midwest, but it will be wonderful to live in the country again, and never have to leave.</div>
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Maria B-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17147330106577619172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-982958523987723942.post-9363396645281660882019-08-29T10:33:00.000-05:002019-08-29T10:33:33.313-05:00Leaving College What a summer! Getting ready to enter a convent feels a bit like planning a wedding. Well, maybe not a wedding, but planning to get married. I am just ready for the preparation process to be over, so I can start my new life!<div>
I spent the summer on campus, working in the TAC admissions office. It was great to be on campus in the peace and quiet, and to have time to do things I don't normally have time for during the school year. It almost felt like a three-month-long retreat. I was also able to get together with friends before leaving campus for good. It doesn't feel real yet that I'll never be back there, but I'm guessing it'll sink in once I start cloistered life. </div>
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TAC was a blessing in my life in so many ways. On the academic side, of course, college was amazing. I spent two years reading and thinking in company with others who were reading and thinking, and for a temperament like mine, that's a little slice of Heaven. But beyond the academics, there was so much more that I learned from college, about God, myself, others, the Church...the list goes on. And I met people who have had a profound and lasting influence on me as a person.</div>
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And, of course, if I hadn't gone to TAC I would never have even thought of visiting the Norbertine sisters! I can't credit TAC with my knowing about them at all, but I can credit it with making me actually notice them. One of our on-campus chaplains is a Norbertine, and we've had others visit now and then, which makes a strong presence for a little-known order. (Have I ever mentioned the beautiful variety of chaplains we have? -- A diocesan priest, a Jesuit, a Dominican, and a Norbertine, all living with us and being our spiritual fathers.) In addition to that, campus is within easy driving distance of the sisters' monastery in Tehachapi, which is really what made visiting them feasible before the beginning of sophomore year. And again at Easter, and a couple of times this summer. </div>
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It's funny, because as indecisive as I am, I never once wavered in my decision to go to TAC (which, by the way, I made when I was nine years old). I'd often wondered why I was so certain about that one aspect of my life, and discovering my vocation to the Norbertine order gave me the answer. God put me in the perfect position to be open and available to receive His call. I would never have come to California otherwise, and now I'll be spending the rest of my life there. So nothing was an accident, or a weird fluke. The Holy Spirit drew my heart west before I realized what was happening.</div>
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Saying goodbye to my family this summer was really hard, and saying goodbye to school was hard too. Especially right now that the school year has already begun, and my friends are telling me about their new classes and tutors, there is a bit of a feeling of being left out. I think that'll go away once I get settled at the monastery, though. I'm "left out" now, but soon I will be included in something greater. This in-between period is weird, but I guess that happens with any transition.</div>
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Anyway, it was a wonderful and prayerful summer, and I really am ready for my entrance, with apprehensions about it only coming up occasionally. I know God's got me, and so does my confirmation saint, St. Therese, who was also a cloistered nun! If she can do it, so can I, with her prayers. And a lot of other people's prayers.</div>
Maria B-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17147330106577619172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-982958523987723942.post-8231893687098830792019-05-18T08:26:00.000-05:002019-05-18T08:26:04.445-05:00To my graduating class at TACDear TAC Class of 2021,<br />
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We’ve been through a lot together. Freshman year we had two different campus evacuations, not to mention all of the changes that came with opening the Northfield campus. Sophomore year we had, well, sophomore year, and an extra-big freshman class under us, and many good people who left our class for different reasons.<br />
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I can honestly say that for almost two years, I never thought I would be one of the ones to leave our class. Not until Easter break did it even become a possibility. It is bittersweet to be leaving all of you, who are wonderful people and have taught me so much. And as sudden as my decision was, it was partly my fault; I’d been telling God this whole year that I was okay with leaving school if that was what He wanted. He took me seriously. I guess that’s how God works. If you give Him everything, He takes everything. I won’t pretend that there wasn’t a small part of me inside that regretted telling Him I wasn’t attached to getting a degree. But it’s better this way. Now I can pray for all of you as you finish junior and senior year and go out into the world!<br />
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Thinking about our class, as much of a challenge as we’ve been to ourselves and the other classes, we are a good group of kids. I will miss each and every one of you. Knowing there are many of you I’ll never see again is hard, especially when I remember the good times we had inside and outside of class. But that’s the amazing thing about offering my life to God in prayer and penance: the work I’ll be doing isn’t limited by time and space the way we ourselves are. So I can be one of you spiritually, if not physically. <br />
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To my freshman and sophomore sections and seminars, you guys are amazing and have such beautiful souls. The relationships we can develop with one another through class discussion are really unique. Thank you all for sharing some of yourselves with me by being a part of my intellectual formation. You have touched my life in a way that I probably don’t even realize yet. Thank you for your patience and charity toward me during our archeological digs for the Truth. If I am any good at living in community as a nun, it will be in large part due to your examples of love for God and neighbor. <br />
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To those I never had in class, I’m sorry I missed the opportunity to learn with you and from you. But thank you for our conversations outside of class, many of which were equally as educational for me. I hope I made a small difference in your lives, just as I hope my life from here on out can affect yours for the better. <br />
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All of you, Class of 2021, are beautiful people so full of love and life and an energy I always admired. There is so much love for one another within our class. I know that all of you will go on to do amazing things after TAC. You can’t be such a dynamic and enthusiastic group for nothing! You give me confidence that our generation really can change the world. I know that you will. <br />
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It has been an honor to be a member of this class. I actually almost graduated high school a year early and came to TAC a year early, before deciding to wait. I think that was because God wanted me to be with you. Looking back, it seems indubitable that I came to TAC specifically to find my vocation. And God knew what He was doing, putting me into a group of people like you! Each of you can be confident that you helped me discover God’s will for my life, in some small way at least. I hope that I have done the same for you, in some small way at least. For me, college was more a “school of the Lord’s service” than a place for secondary education. The maturity, emotional and spiritual, that I have gained here are doubtless what allowed me to respond to God’s call. His ways truly are mysterious, and truly are wonderful. <br />
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Best of luck for your junior and senior years. I will be praying for you all, and I know you will be successful in whatever you end up doing. Please pray for me as well. May we meet again in Heaven. <br />
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MariaMaria B-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17147330106577619172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-982958523987723942.post-47006952706707076722019-05-16T08:18:00.000-05:002019-05-16T08:18:10.145-05:00A Love Story Anyone who knows me knows uncertainty scares me. I'm terrible at making decisions and I'm afraid of commitment for the most part. So how am I ever going to find a religious community to join, let alone actually join one?<br />
Well, God took care of that for me a long time ago, without my realizing it.<br />
And now here I am, preparing to enter the Norbertine order as a Canoness of the <a href="http://norbertinesisters.org/" target="_blank">Bethlehem Priory of St. Joseph</a>. Not only joining a convent, but leaving college to do so. That's a pretty drastic decision. But really, it wasn't my decision. It was God's decision, and He made it a long time ago. He just showed it to me over Easter.<br />
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I feel as though my life has always been a puzzle, with pieces strewn here and there, and I didn't know they were connected or even that there was a puzzle. But God knew, and he put all the pieces in front of me. The solution was right there, but it took one intense Triduum and a few nuns to show me how to solve it. And now it all makes sense, and I am amazed I didn't see it before; but maybe I wasn't meant to see it before.<br />
The Norbertine Order fits my personality perfectly. I would say that it's like God took my personality and interests and made a religious order out of them, but it's more the other way around: He took an order and made a person to belong to it. Now I know why I never felt at home in other orders: there was still one out there for me! I never imagined it would be this, well, easy to join a convent. They say that you can be pretty confident you're doing God's will when you start doing it and obstacles just kind of...melt away. I've definitely experienced that so far. For example, my student debt to pay off before entering was thousands of dollars less than I expected it to be. Thank you, TAC financial aid! Other such small things have occurred which indicate, it seems to me, that I'm on the right track.<br />
Obviously, it's going to be difficult in a lot of ways. One of the few disadvantages of a large family is I'm leaving a lot behind when I leave the world! I will never be around to watch my nieces and nephews grow up and I'll never go to the weddings of the rest of my siblings. But at the same time, what a deep and profound spiritual bond I can have with my family members and friends, as I give up my whole life in prayer and penance for them and for the world! I will be like their full-time spiritual tech support. Frankly, I will be a lot more useful to them than in any other circumstance.<br />
This whole year leading up to the discovery of my vocation has been a lesson in love. Freshman year for me was all about learning to trust God, and in a similar way the theme of sophomore year was learning to love. Love God, love other people, love myself, love life and the joys and sufferings that come with it. Learning to love every minute He gives me and live it to the fullest. It is through love that we have life and "have it abundantly".<br />
Learning to love will be a slow process for me. It's a good thing you don't have to already be holy to enter a convent! I have so much to learn from my Sisters, and they - God bless them - will have a lot to put up with from me. One of the sisters told me their community would be a challenge for me, but I wonder if I might end up as more of a challenge for them! Praise God for His mercy in giving us the grace to live out our vocation well; otherwise, I think it would be next to impossible.<br />
I am terrified yet excited to begin this new adventure. It takes a lot of faith going into something with so many unknowns, but God has gotten me this far and if I just follow, He'll lead me where I need to go. Prayers for me during my preparation and entrance would be greatly appreciated. Saying good-bye to the world is hard, and saying hello to religious life will probably be just as hard, but it will be worth it! After all, the Lord tells us to leave our families and everything behind to follow Him. It's easier said than done, but with the help of a multitude of prayers and plenty of grace from God, I know I can do it.Maria B-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17147330106577619172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-982958523987723942.post-29847223023262954202019-05-14T13:46:00.000-05:002019-05-14T13:46:20.967-05:00Why I love the traditional Mass Growing up, my family went to Mass in the Extraordinary Form and in the Novus Ordo just about equally often. I am very appreciative of this "bi-ritual" upbringing, because it has prevented me from thinking that either form of the Mass is the only acceptable one and that those who go to the other are somehow wrong. As time went on, we got into doing music for one of our parishes, and the Latin Mass community in our diocese dwindled due to a shortage of priests, so my family became more exclusively Novus Ordo. In high school, we moved even farther away from access to a regular Latin Mass, so the option as good as disappeared from my life. At the same time, I was growing to love the Latin Mass more and more.<br />
My appreciation for traditional Catholicism can, in large part, be credited to a good foundation of education in sacred music, provided by my parents and music teachers. Even as a baby, my mother tells me she used to sing me to sleep with the Salve Regina chant, and my father has been putting on good baroque and classical music every Sunday morning for as long as I can remember. That kind of environmental formation gave me a preference for Gregorian chant and ancient polyphony over more modern sacred music. I used to listen to Gregorian chant whenever I was upset because it calmed me down better than anything else. With this and continuous music lessons from first grade until the end of high school, as well as helping with music ministry in countless circumstances, I became more and more disenchanted with modern church music, and wondered why it seemed to have pride of place over the ancient melodies of the Church.<br />
In spring of my senior year in high school, I spent a week with the <a href="https://earlgreysoliloquy.blogspot.com/2017/05/visit-to-priory-of-our-lady-of-ephesus.html" target="_blank">Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles</a>. These nuns are exclusively Extraordinary Form, so I got to reconnect with my roots during my stay there. I think it was during this visit that I had the realization that every saint I knew who died before the 1960's (which is the vast majority of them) had attended the Traditional Latin Mass, and those who had lived monastic life had prayed the Office in the Extraordinary Form. Knowing that, and praying the Mass and the Office in the same way they had centuries before, made me feel akin to my favorite saints in a new way. This, I realized, was the life of the universal Church up until very recently, and now almost no one is exposed to it.<br />
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Here at TAC, we lean rather traditional with regard to the Liturgy, and my suspicion is that this traditionalism is one of the reasons for our high ratio of students who attend daily Mass. I find that people my age like concrete things. Things that are objectively good or bad, that don't depend on the times or the culture or one's own feelings. People my age need something like that to cling to, when everything else--society, friends, maybe grades--seems to be in constant flux. This is evidenced by the fact that even though all Masses at TAC are traditional, there is a growing number of regular attendants at the Masses our chaplains offer in the Extraordinary Form. In other words, the more reverent, objective, and ancient it is, the more people my age like it.<br />
I have found this in myself as well. I've always loved all the pomp and grandeur of the traditional Liturgy, and I do love old things. I don't like being asked what I think; I like being told what the Faith is and expected to believe it and act on it. With matters as important as eternal life, I don't think the Church should be consulting me, or catering to me. The Church knows better than I do. I like the Traditional Latin Mass because there's no negotiation involved. The Mass is what it is, take it or leave it. This characteristic emphasizes--along with other aspects of the TLM--that the Mass is truly a sacrifice, one that spans across space and time and never changes. Mass isn't supposed to make you feel comfortable, or even fill you with love; it's supposed to make you praise God, no matter how you feel. Sometimes, having no choice is better. What is faith, after all, if it depends on our current emotions? The virtue of faith is that we have it despite our emotions.<br />
Not to mention the sublime beauty of the Church's tradition. To ignore Sacred Tradition is to reject our spiritual and cultural heritage. The deposit of Faith is made up of Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, which is what makes the Catholic Church different from Protestant denominations. Let's not downplay the difference. Isn't society all about celebrating differences, anyway? We've got ancient chants and fancy vestments and "smells and bells", in addition to classic Christian hymns and homilies. Let's embrace the extra.<br />
This is all definitely not to say that the Novus Ordo has no place, or even that the Extraordinary Form is always better. It is just to say that tradition is good, and we shouldn't forget how ancient our religion is amid fretting about being "relatable". Because people my age don't want relatable; we want real.Maria B-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17147330106577619172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-982958523987723942.post-24944282970192575242019-01-05T21:52:00.000-06:002019-01-05T21:52:00.145-06:00On-Campus Beauty<div style="text-align: center;">
I live inside a postcard from God.</div>
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<br />Maria B-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17147330106577619172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-982958523987723942.post-57997999540780293742019-01-02T21:43:00.002-06:002019-01-02T21:43:40.632-06:00Tumbling into 2019 Merry Christmas, and happy New Year! It's hard to believe yet another 365 days have passed and I'm still living and loving in this beautiful, fast-paced world of ours. I thought about doing a "2018 in review" post, but I didn't do much in the past year besides be a student, and there's little else in view for the near future, so I decided to pass it up. <div>
This year, I really wanted to come up with one good, solid thing to make my Resolution and put all my effort into living it out. The problem was, I couldn't think of anything concrete enough to put into practice on such a large scale. (Things like "be more patient" and "learn to let go of control" were nice ideas, but unrealistic as achievable goals.) So, instead, I thought of a few smaller and less life-altering things to make into <i>habits </i>this year. What, after all, is virtue but a good habit? (Please don't quote Plato at me for saying that.)</div>
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Daily, I'm resolving to do morning and night prayer when I wake up and go to bed, write in my journal, and make an examination of conscience. These are all things I already habitually do, but writing them down and making them official helps me not to forget. </div>
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Weekly, I plan to do at least one creative thing such as art, writing, playing piano, etc., as well as set aside time to write letters and make phone calls.</div>
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Monthly, I want to get rid of/give away 3 - 5 things I own but don't need or don't use (this category will mostly be clothing). Lately I've been feeling the burden of owning too much stuff, and while minimalism sounds nice in theory, it's hard to put into practice. </div>
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As more general resolutions, I want to focus this year on prayer and penance, especially penance, which I'm not very good at. In addition, I'm going to see how well I can live out the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience before I find a community in which to live them out as a religious sister. </div>
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Doing all these things is certainly less romantic than making a giant, all-around Resolution, but I think it will be more doable. </div>
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With that, I ask for prayers - and promise prayers in return - for a happy, healthy, and holy 2019! </div>
Maria B-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17147330106577619172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-982958523987723942.post-47638386489217970712018-12-24T20:05:00.000-06:002018-12-24T20:05:13.412-06:00An Article on the IncarnationEarlier this year, I was asked to write something to contribute to a piece in our diocese's newsletter, the Bishop's Bulletin. They got five people who live out different roles in the diocese to submit a few words on preparing for the Incarnation. My entry is the last one on this link:<br />
<a href="http://www.sfcatholic.org/bishopsbulletin/pondering-the-incarnation-god-is-with-us/" target="_blank">http://www.sfcatholic.org/bishopsbulletin/pondering-the-incarnation-god-is-with-us/</a><br />
Enjoy!<br />
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<br />Maria B-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17147330106577619172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-982958523987723942.post-21051681977807171692018-12-18T12:34:00.000-06:002018-12-18T12:34:31.810-06:00Sophomore Year Hello, world! I’m Maria, a sophomore at Thomas Aquinas College, and that means I spend every minute of every day either in class, at work, at Mass, or studying! Sounds nice, huh? It is, but the lack of free time/sleep really gets to you. Which is why, on Christmas break, I am enjoying an abundance of free time and sleep. And I have time to write a blog post.<br /><br /> Sophomore year is crazy. Everyone says it’s the hardest year at TAC, and that seems about right to me. The step up from freshman year, in terms of both workload and content, is huge. For instance, we’ve gone from reading ten pages of the Gospel of Luke for a theology class to reading 60 pages of St. Augustine’s arguments against the Pelagians and wondering if predestination takes away free will. We’ve gone from naming the Ten Categories in philosophy to arguing about whether chance exists and analyzing Aristotle’s deceptively concise definition of motion in the <i>Physics</i> (with little help from the Coughlin translation). 150-page seminar readings, which were horrifying and infrequent last year, are now the expected norm. It’s a ridiculous amount of work, and there’s little payoff at this point.<br /><br /> But I love it. There’s something exhilarating about getting into the nitty-gritty of the intellectual life and literally devoting all your time to your studies. It feels medieval, in a way. You really get to know what the vocation of Student—with a capital S—entails. The human mind is incredible, and the capacity of an average 19-year-old girl to understand and retain thousands of pages’ (and years’) worth of knowledge is incredible. <br /><br /> As we are finished with first semester finals, part of me feels like we’ve hardly learned anything. But that’s because we’ve finally begun to wade into the waters of the truth, and now we’re realizing just how big the ocean is. How can our 90-minute discussions of a few paragraphs of Aristotle’s <i>Physics</i>, or a few lines of St. Thomas’ Latin, get us anywhere, in the grand scheme of things? Well, you’ve got to start somewhere. And, in a way, you have to forget about the size of the ocean in order to have courage to step into the water. It’s going to be a long journey—a lifetime long, or more—but that is all the more reason to get started. <br /><br /><div>
This life is not for everyone. That is evident, now that we’ve begun it in earnest, in how many people we’ve lost from our class this year. None of us really knew what we’d be getting into when we came back to campus after the summer, and I think none of us can say we were pleasantly surprised. We’ve lost the bright-eyed enthusiasm of freshman year but don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel like the upperclassmen do. But you learn to keep going, because the end goal of all your lost sleep and eyestrain and scribbled pages and chalk drawings is worth the suffering involved in reaching it. No one said it would be easy. If we want the truth, we have to work for it. We have to desire it with a persistent, almost foolhardy desire that doesn’t let us give up before we’ve reached it. The more we learn, the more we realize we don’t know, and that’s a good thing. Anything which leads us to greater dependence on God is a good thing on some level. Participating in this vocation of Student, and knowing that every time I open my City of God or practice a prop or do a science lab, I am doing God’s will, is a difficult and beautiful way to live life. As Pope St. John Paul II put it, "Study is an expression of the unquenchable desire for an ever deeper knowledge of God, the source of light and all human truth." (<i>Vita Consecrata</i>, 98)<br /><br /> They say that “sophomore” means “wise fool”. Typically that isn’t a compliment. But there may be some wisdom involved in realizing how much of a “fool” you are—how much you don’t know. And that, it seems to me, is what sophomore year is all about. </div>
Maria B-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17147330106577619172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-982958523987723942.post-86478831742107268882018-07-23T22:13:00.000-05:002018-07-23T22:13:39.985-05:00My Favorite Readings of Freshman YearIn college, we read a lot of amazing books, from science experiments to tragic plays to Sacred Scripture. In this post I'm going to share, in no particular order, some of my favorite readings from freshman year.<br />
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<b><u>1. The book of Ezekiel</u></b></div>
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For freshman theology, we read the entire Bible throughout the year. I enjoyed it as much as I expected to - maybe more - but I loved certain books of the Bible far more than I thought I would. Most of the books of the prophets were great, filled with solemn pronouncements and the various anecdotes so familiar to us. The book of Ezekiel was a whole different experience. Of course, I knew a few of the things that occurred in Ezekiel beforehand, but I had definitely never read it straight through before. It felt a lot more like reading Revelation than the other prophetic books, with all of Ezekiel's strange and disturbing visions. I didn't actually like reading it all that much, but our class discussions on Ezekiel were out of this world. </div>
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We focused especially on chapter 16, which is a rebuke of Israel for her faithlessness in view of all God has done for her. The imagery of a virgin bride turned harlot, which occurs in countless places throughout the Old Testament, here holds a unique bitterness, a tone reminiscent of a jilted lover. The author details how God brought up Israel to be a beautiful bride and adorned her with finery, but she turned away from Him and sold her beauties in sordid places. The comparison of Israel's sins with those of notorious cities such as Sodom and Gomorrah is harsh to the point of damning: "You have committed more abominations than they, and have made your sisters appear righteous by all the abominations that you have committed." (Ezekiel 16:51, NRSVCE) </div>
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One of the themes we brought up all year in theology was identity (I actually wrote my first semester final about it), so in Ezekiel 16 we talked about the repercussions Israel's sin has on her identity as the Beloved of God, as belonging to Him. If marriage is a choice to forever be identified with another person, a kind of renouncement of one's identity, then adultery and harlotry are forceful rejections of that identity. Sins of infidelity are a selfish severing of one's identity from that of one's spouse, thus losing a sense of self-identification. Israel has lost who she really is in turning away from God, and only returning to Him will restore her true "personhood". All sin, really, is this kind of rejection of our identity as belonging to God. When we sin, we turn away from who we are and seek to make for ourselves a new, autonomous identity. And since we are nothing without God, it never works. </div>
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Despite all this railing against Israel's harlotry, Ezekiel 16 ends with an affirmation of God's continuing fidelity and mercy. "I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord," it says, "in order that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I forgive you all that you have done, says the Lord God." (Ezekiel 16:62-63, NRSVCE). Nothing that Israel can do, not even this most abominable of sins, can stop God from loving her as His own, and He is willing to re-establish His covenant with her again and again, as many times as she repents and turns back to Him. There is no vindictiveness in this jilted lover; only deep and unutterable mercy. </div>
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These are only a few of the things we discussed in our two fabulous classes on Ezekiel. Since I don't have my Bible with all its notes in front of me, I'm sure I've left out a good deal. But here is a taste of why I loved freshman theology so much!</div>
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<b><u>2. Aristotle's <i>Posterior Analytics</i></u></b></div>
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<i> </i>Yes, I was one of the few who thoroughly enjoyed our voyage through formal logic in freshman philosophy. I really like reading Aristotle, actually. His writing is dense, but he explains things in the same way that I think about things, so it is easy going for me. After going through all the valid and invalid syllogisms in the <i>Prior Analytics,</i> here we finally arrived at the real thing: unqualified scientific knowledge, and how to obtain it through demonstration from first principles. I wrote 1500 words on demonstration for my philosophy paper (it happened to be my favorite paper I wrote all year), so I could go on and on, but I will spare you. Suffice to say that I <i>loved</i> going through Aristotle's exposition of demonstration and its necessity for scientific knowledge. All this experience of logic really makes me aware of people's arguments and what makes them valid or invalid. (Shoutout to Mr. Oleson, too, for giving us two non-syllabus classes on formal and informal fallacies!)</div>
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<b><u>3. The Oresteia</u></b></div>
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The first set of plays we read in seminar was Aeschylus' Oresteian trilogy, made up of <i>Agamemnon,</i> <i>Libation Bearers, </i>and <i>Eumenides</i>. Back in eighth grade, the Oresteia was my first introduction to Greek tragedy, and it has held something special for me since then. The plays are about the homecoming of Agamemnon from the Trojan War, how his wife Clytamnestra murdered him, and how his son Orestes returned from abroad to avenge his father's death by killing his mother. The main theme of this trilogy is a certain family curse which was called down upon Agamemnon's father, Atreides, after he committed an atrocious crime against his friend. As the actual substance of the curse is never explicitly stated, much of our discussion was taken up by looking at the clues and figuring out what the curse was.<br />
There is a disturbing cycle of guilt contained in the plot of the trilogy: before setting out to war, Agamemnon sacrificed his own daughter, Iphigeneia, to appease Artemis, who otherwise would have sent unfavorable winds and not let them sail safely to Troy. Clytamnestra, later, kills Agamemnon on the grounds that he killed her daughter, which seems justifiable, though whether that was her only motive is highly questionable. Then Orestes, who is heralded by the Chorus as a kind of "savior from the outside", returns home and avenges his father by killing his mother. The Furies turn on him in the final play, condemning him as a matricide. The horrific cycle of killing a family member to avenge the somewhat-justified dmurder of another family member thus goes on for far too long before the gods step in and the Furies are sated. This, so my seminar thought, was the curse called down upon Atreides after he forced his friend to unwittingly eat his own children. It is a haunting and truly tragic chain of events, in which no character is either totally wicked or totally justified in his actions. One of my seminar tutors, our president Dr. McLean, brought up at the end of our discussion how this tragic cycle of guilt and need for a "savior from outside" to make things right sounds a lot like the state of mankind in need of a Redeemer. It just goes to show that the greatest minds of the ancient times, even before God's revelation, had some inkling of what was to come--and why it was necessary.<br />
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<b><u>4. Gregor Mendel's experiments on genetics</u></b><br />
Natural Science was definitely the hardest class for me in freshman year. Despite it being the most intense and lively class for my already wild and combative section, I didn't find the subject material very engaging. That is, until we read Mendel. I have always been interested in genetics, and reading Mendel's own account of his experiments on his thousands of pea plants was fascinating. His simple method of observing and opening every single pea pod to record its characteristics yielded some remarkable results: probability ratios of offspring genetics, ratios of hybrids to constants, and proportions of how offspring would actually look compared to its genetic makeup (because of the tendency of the dominant trait to always manifest when present). It was amazing how, when he had enough samples (tens of thousands), the numbers he counted by observation matched up almost perfectly with the numbers he predicted by his probability ratios. Mendel's discoveries are still relevant today, as the quiet little botanist monk is now known as the father of genetics.<br />
Reading Mendel's report, I was so enthusiastic about his successful experiments that I explained it all to several people, including my suite mate Emily, whose section had the misfortune of skipping the Mendel reading due to schedule constraints. I had never experienced such excitement about natural science, and it was really a treat to participate in our two class discussions on Mendel's work.<br />
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<u><b>5. Thucydides' <i>History of the Peloponnesian War</i></b></u><br />
Thucydides was one of the two things we read in seminar that effectively killed almost all freshman enthusiasm. Our three weeks spent on him involved 150-200 page readings of dry historical accounts every week, which turned even <i>finishing</i> the seminar readings into a rare occurrence, let alone liking them. To be honest, I'm not really sure why I did like Thucydides so much. The military aspect of his history (it was about a war, after all) did not make it appealing, and the speeches interspersed between the accounts of battles were interminable and almost worse than the battles. But his style of retelling the events of the war kept it interesting for me, in large part because it was reminiscent for me of learning ancient history in elementary school, when my mom read to us aloud from <i>A Child's History of the World</i>. I understood the military maneuvers and strategies much better than I expected to, and found myself well able to comment on the advantages and disadvantages of the various decisions the generals and rulers made. My favorite part of the history was when the Athenians decided, against Nicias'--and Pericles'-- express advice, to try to conquer Sicily, which failed horribly. (As a side note, I was hardcore on the side of Sparta the whole time.) Another fun aspect of Thucydides was that afterward we read Aristotle's <i>Rhetoric</i>, which gave us new knowledge with which to analyze the numerous speeches in Thucydides, including Pericles' famous funeral oration.<br />
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These, among other things, were some of my favorite readings of my freshman year of college. It was an amazing year, as I can't stress enough. What an opportunity God has given me!</div>
Maria B-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17147330106577619172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-982958523987723942.post-56847939664803908492018-07-01T14:24:00.000-05:002018-07-01T14:24:01.720-05:00Radiant Joy<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Look to Him that you may be radiant with joy." (Psalms 34:5)</blockquote>
The liturgical year undergoes a cycle of varying emotions which match the season at hand. The hopeful waiting of Advent gives way to the exuberance of Christmas, which soon fades into the somber penitence of Lent. And after Lent comes the splendor of Easter, followed by the zeal of Pentecost and the mysteries of Ordinary Time, which end in triumph at Christ the King Sunday. But one thing that is never absent, during the whole year, is the "radiant joy" of him who knows the love of God. Even in the most desolate, penitential hours of Good Friday, the Christian has cause for joy, because "God so loved the world" (John 3:16). With such knowledge, what can the soul do except sing His praises unceasingly? And so, even in the most barren and devastated moments of our lives, we can maintain the hope and joy that come with knowing Him. And with that continued joy comes trust, and trust is followed by utter abandonment to His will. Because He seeks only to multiply that radiant joy for us; He works so that our "joy may be full" (John 15:11).<br />
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<br />Maria B-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17147330106577619172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-982958523987723942.post-46359058695910990992018-06-29T09:54:00.000-05:002018-06-29T09:57:12.366-05:00Enjoying SDSince spending all school year in California, it is a treat to be back home in South Dakota for the summer and enjoy the wide-open spaces, green fields, quiet streets, and amazing skyscapes. I missed the prairie while nestled in the mountains of southern CA!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">taken by Mrs. Scott</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAwf2Xp-qOKKxp1VGtfIi_ZWPXdIqIgBtC3NOdv_OqmrCzTB5kPNd2t7l6HxVc2b9LUr26NxmtxFhMmBHbbrmKeCcveyx2lUoqlDdXtdgnKcGpO42ADhLNWjjzUfoMHnsbMhVOTnUpu8M/s1600/IMG_2124.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAwf2Xp-qOKKxp1VGtfIi_ZWPXdIqIgBtC3NOdv_OqmrCzTB5kPNd2t7l6HxVc2b9LUr26NxmtxFhMmBHbbrmKeCcveyx2lUoqlDdXtdgnKcGpO42ADhLNWjjzUfoMHnsbMhVOTnUpu8M/s640/IMG_2124.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I love the farm at the end of our neighborhood street</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As we like to say, God's country!</td></tr>
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<br />Maria B-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17147330106577619172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-982958523987723942.post-73144393905953013472018-06-09T15:55:00.000-05:002018-06-09T15:55:43.613-05:00Living with a Dress Code Telling others about Thomas Aquinas College, many people are, shall we say, appalled when they hear of our strict class dress code. If you don't know, our dress code is as follows: for class, Mass, and meals, boys must wear collared shirts, dress pants, and dress shoes; girls must wear skirts which fall below the knee, sleeves which cover the shoulders, and necklines no lower than four fingers from the collarbone. Sounds excessive, right? "Sends the message that girls can't learn while wearing pants," you might be thinking. I won't pretend it doesn't feel burdensome and a little archaic at times. But the truth is, having everybody dressed so well does a lot to improve the atmosphere, dominated as it is by college students with no pretensions to put-together-ness. It makes us hold ourselves and each other to higher standards.<br />
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(Disclaimer: the following are my own thoughts, and not the official reasons for TAC having the rules it does. I do not speak on the College's behalf.)<br />
I think the characteristic quality of people my age is laziness. At this time of life, we have so much potential to do whatever we want with our lives. The main reason many people don't reach this potential is simply not being willing to work for it. Everything worthwhile must be worked for: if we were just handed all the good things of this life as children, what pleasure would we derive from them? This rule holds true for, I would argue, every aspect of life. What you achieve is directly proportional to the amount of effort you put into it. But the fact is that most people my age don't have a good work ethic and have no desire to work for what they want. This attitude leads to bad grades, slovenliness, carelessness about morals, and a host of other evils.<br />
How, then, to fix this generational disorder? One way is to mandate effort. It sounds weird, but if you are required to put effort into something, it will get you used to doing so, even in non-compulsory situations. This is the beauty of the "fake it til you make it" philosophy. And that's one of the things that a strict dress code achieves. We have to put effort into a seemingly small aspect of life--the very clothes we wear--and as a consequence we find it less taxing to put effort into a more important thing, like our studies.<br />
But that is only one of the benefits of having a dress code. Another is mindset. Like it or not, no one can deny that the mental disposition of a person while wearing sweatpants and fuzzy socks is not the same as the mental disposition of the same person wearing a business suit. Occasions for which we dress well tend to have more import, and thus we are more engaged in whatever we are doing. One thing our dress code has taught me is to take things more seriously. Dressing in such a way as to be better engaged helps us acknowledge the <i>gravity</i> of what we do in acquiring an education. At TAC, we place a great emphasis on education as a serious pursuit of the Truth. This pursuit is essential to education--how can we pretend to any kind of knowledge or wisdom if we are not constantly seeking out what is good, true, and beautiful? And if dressing well aids us in this search, we have little excuse to set it aside. As my friend Emily put it, our dress code is "our way of paying respect to what we set out to find in every class--the truth."<br />
Another aspect of this discussion is paying attention to how we perceive ourselves and how others perceive us. As human beings, we depend on sense perception for our knowledge of the world around us, and sight is one of the principle senses we rely on. Because of this, we tend to make judgments about things and people based on appearance. This is not altogether good, but is also not necessarily a failing; someone's character is often manifested in their mannerisms, body language, and personal attire choices. It can often be an identifying feature--think of how easy it is to spot American tourists in foreign countries because of our distinctive habits of dress and mannerisms. It is a gift to have such an impactful way of expressing ourselves in our appearance, but it is one that ought to be used properly, as with all gifts. And it should be noted that this can sometimes work in the other direction, too: dressing better may positively affect my self-image.<br />
If my dress can have this much weight for my perceived person--and perhaps in who I really am, to a certain extent--then I ought to take my habits of dress seriously. If I want to be construed as a classy, put-together person, worthy of respect, then I should dress in a classy, put-together manner that is worthy of respect. Every human being has inherent dignity as a child of God, and we should dress in accordance with that dignity. Dressing well serves as a reminder, to ourselves and to others, of our value and our right to be respected.<br />
All this is common sense, and is reflected in TAC's custom of dressing with modesty and some degree of formality in classroom and social settings. Living with this custom has made me more aware of the dignity of myself and others, and of the importance of my education. Yes, it can be a pain at times, but it is well worth it.<br />
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Maria B-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17147330106577619172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-982958523987723942.post-27299675251574868662018-06-03T15:13:00.000-05:002018-06-03T15:13:49.311-05:00Summertime!Well hello, world!<br />
It's been a long time since I sat down and wrote a blog post!<br />
Freshman year has come and gone, and I am a little in shock looking back and seeing how fast it went. So much has happened in the past year, but it hardly feels like any time has passed! I have learned a lot about God and the world and other people and myself. I have met countless new and beautiful people, and thought of and talked about things I never thought of or talked about before. I got to experience the true Catholic life--living every day according to the liturgical calendar--and learned to value the Mass and the Sacraments in a new and better way. I read dozens of ancient books written by great and thoughtful men, and discussed them with great and thoughtful tutors and classmates. I had the new and different experience of meeting people who know only me, and not my whole family (which is weird for a big-family Catholic homeschooler). I was reminded again and again of the hugeness of the world and the littleness of my own experience of it. I learned to appreciate so many small things I took for granted before: a breathtaking view, a quiet library, good food, laughing with friends, saying good-night to my family, dancing to loud music late at night, kneeling in the still chapel while the sunlight slants in through the windows high above my head. I was unambiguous about my excitement for college before. But nothing could have prepared me for how absolutely wonderful it has been so far. It exceeded my expectations in every way.<br />
And now I am spending a quiet summer working and resting before the craziness of sophomore year. It is such a strange feeling to be "visiting" home and have school be the place I go back to at the end of break. It certainly makes me want to enjoy this summer as much as possible. It's like a three-month retreat for my brain. And heaven knows my brain needs it! Being home from college gives me an opportunity to look back on the year and realize how truly amazing of a year it was. And to prepare for next year, so I can learn even more and make even better habits and friends and memories. The past year has really motivated me to simplify my life--to own less stuff, make fewer plans, and focus only on what is important: God and my family and my friends.<br />
Such is my frame of mind going into this summer, and such hopefully will still be my frame of mind going into sophomore year. With the grace of God and the help of the saints, we journey on upward!Maria B-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17147330106577619172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-982958523987723942.post-50734766513460102322018-03-20T13:23:00.000-05:002018-03-21T13:24:42.119-05:00Walk for Life San FranciscoEvery year, TAC leads the Walk for Life in San Francisco, so in January we hopped on a bus and drove up for a crazy weekend in the crazy city!<br />
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It was a really cool experience being the ones to lead the walk and know what was going on. We walked past a lot of counter-protestors, some of whom were pretty aggressive, but we were all singing and laughing. Everyone involved in the walk was cheerful and helpful, and they were so grateful for the College coming up to give the witness of young people standing up for the truth. It was definitely a pilgrimage of sorts--sleeping on a gym floor with two hundred other people and no showers--but as usual, the pilgrimage was worth it. And it was really nice marching for life in beautiful sunny weather as opposed to a blizzard!</div>
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<br />Maria B-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17147330106577619172noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-982958523987723942.post-58880198700197928572018-01-01T18:15:00.001-06:002018-01-01T18:15:41.336-06:002017 in ReviewHappy New Year! It's always fun to take a look back on the previous year month by month.<br />
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<b>January.</b><br />
In January I went on a five-day vocation retreat with the Nashville Dominicans, and even after the rest of the 2017, it's still one of the best things that happened this past year. I hope I can go back to visit them again soon.<br />
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<b>February.</b></div>
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One of the main things I did in February was work on my writing, both my big projects and my smaller ones. It was a blessing to have so much time to do it in senior year because I have pretty much zero writing time at college!</div>
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<b>March.</b></div>
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In March Patrick flew Tessie and me out to Chicago for a birthday trip. It was such a fun weekend filled with lots of walking, yummy food, and cool museums and sightseeing! I don't think I'd like to live in Chicago, but it's definitely a nice place to visit. </div>
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<b>April.</b></div>
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April saw my last homeschool dinner dance! It was a fun tradition in high school, and it's only gotten more fun in college with five dance this past semester. </div>
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<b>May.</b></div>
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I graduated! What with senior recital, open houses, and lots of other end-of-the-school-year things going on, May was a crazy time for sure. I'm still so happy to be done with high school. </div>
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<b>June.</b></div>
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My summer job (research assistant at Dad's center, GSCE) may have been boring in itself, but doing it with one of my bestest friends every day made it so much fun! We made a lot of memories in that cold, dark computer room this past summer, including but not limited to helping each other stay awake, bonding over Spotify playlists, getting frustrated with Excel, and learning more than we ever expected to about Central Asian countries. </div>
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<b>July.</b></div>
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Isabel and Matthew got married on July 8! It was awesome being a bridesmaid for their wedding, and Matt has been such a fun addition to the family!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE6a4ajPz-vaUk39qml-MU8tSyQPSCUDHQQ0xFh0qQKsQEm7gp_2PeNkjBs__tVMp79Rac071-AVYSmvcHxZ-JuiVyPXzFx2wXp6D1NZmnf4-GaPDqV3BJLJ9B18pE_jvVFKnkmPw1PiA/s1600/20953797_10155619096682486_3336643911633570276_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="960" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE6a4ajPz-vaUk39qml-MU8tSyQPSCUDHQQ0xFh0qQKsQEm7gp_2PeNkjBs__tVMp79Rac071-AVYSmvcHxZ-JuiVyPXzFx2wXp6D1NZmnf4-GaPDqV3BJLJ9B18pE_jvVFKnkmPw1PiA/s320/20953797_10155619096682486_3336643911633570276_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>August. </b></div>
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On August 17th I became a real live TAC student--a dream I'd had for years! I expected a lot from college going in, but it's been so many times better than I ever dreamed! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnXQcn4gQoi1xniWuUHQVSwQaJLihOGRmEzC1QAu12_DLwKA7CJ0moeAwZPp358uB65bj8hUD8i1JF8-GNbTO85eGM2vRjRxG2fa_TzpOpFb6Zhz5k2-aFqF5UeDFnqq7oLT8cVYt4TuM/s1600/20841958_10214331947278971_8543484394744949021_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnXQcn4gQoi1xniWuUHQVSwQaJLihOGRmEzC1QAu12_DLwKA7CJ0moeAwZPp358uB65bj8hUD8i1JF8-GNbTO85eGM2vRjRxG2fa_TzpOpFb6Zhz5k2-aFqF5UeDFnqq7oLT8cVYt4TuM/s320/20841958_10214331947278971_8543484394744949021_n.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<b>September.</b></div>
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I joined our school's student-led chamber choir, Chrysostomos. Here's one of our songs that we sang for All-Night Adoration in November.</div>
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<b>October.</b></div>
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I got to be Tessie's Confirmation sponsor in October! It was a quick visit home, but I was so glad I was able to make it for such a special day. </div>
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<b>November.</b></div>
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For Thanksgiving Break some of us went to my friend Maddie's house in Vista, CA. It was a super fun and relaxing weekend, and so nice to hang out in a house with a family again! I have made so many wonderful new friends in college and I'm so lucky to share freshman year with them. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The harbor in Oceanside, CA.</td></tr>
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<b>December.</b><div>
I could mention the California fires here and all that drama, but I have something more important to remember as the highlight of December 2017: Gus and Jessie's wedding! I am so happy to have Jessie as a sister-in-law--what a great Christmas gift! As a side note, Christmas weddings are the bomb. </div>
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So there are some of my highlights from the year 2017! Thanks everyone for making it a great year, and here's to a fantastic 2018!</div>
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Maria B-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17147330106577619172noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-982958523987723942.post-53844450407210301762017-12-31T17:39:00.000-06:002018-01-01T17:40:03.633-06:00Christmas and a WeddingIt was a fun and relaxing Christmas. The whole fam came home, so we were squeezed in our house..but not for long! December 27 saw us heading down to Sioux Falls for the rehearsal dinner of Gus's wedding.<br />
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Claudia wasn't able to get home until late Christmas Eve, but at least we had Jessie so the girl-to-boy ratio wasn't too off!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfpqGng7Jre5eLIUd7HaLeahwPOyj6sX7Vd-TS0aIStvlMzKxzsX5kNpB4EwSAwyAkRvcU0KOu63rj9Igcfalxcr0c9_9JPHZGyR88-d1ItXOtGvxVWs0s22LhSLv-a9GZBWUDrRmqZC8/s1600/fullsizeoutput_d94.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1143" data-original-width="1600" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfpqGng7Jre5eLIUd7HaLeahwPOyj6sX7Vd-TS0aIStvlMzKxzsX5kNpB4EwSAwyAkRvcU0KOu63rj9Igcfalxcr0c9_9JPHZGyR88-d1ItXOtGvxVWs0s22LhSLv-a9GZBWUDrRmqZC8/s400/fullsizeoutput_d94.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Tessie, Isabel, bro-in-law Matt, and friend Nicole and I did the music for the nuptial Mass. It was a challenging but rewarding project being in charge of wedding music! I think we sounded pretty good. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My fuzzy photo from the choir loft.</td></tr>
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It was a great party and so nice to see so many family and friends at once, since I'll be going back to school soon. <div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All dressed up and Christmassy! Christmas weddings should happen more often!</td></tr>
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Since getting home from the festivities, we've had some nasty cold temperatures, but aside from going to church we've been curled up at home recovering from the holidays. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the warmer recent days.</td></tr>
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So you see, I have an excuse not to have posted in a while, because on top of Christmas and the wedding, I've had finals to study for. I have one more week home and I need to get as much reviewing done as possible before the real deal begins on Monday!<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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Maria B-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17147330106577619172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-982958523987723942.post-2399239274801658972017-12-14T11:20:00.001-06:002017-12-14T11:20:57.658-06:00Gratitude It's been a crazy time, that's for sure. TAC decided to end the semester early, so we have finals week once we get back in January. While none of the buildings on campus were damaged by the fire, there is a lot to do still, including replacing the food that went bad, getting power back, and clearing out trees that were burned. I flew home early once we got the OK to do so, but some of my friends drove back to campus to grab their books and clothes. Several of them said everything surrounding campus is black and destroyed--it's really a miracle campus is okay.<br />
It's definitely a different Christmas break than I was expecting, what with not having any of my belongings and having an extra week of break, but it sure is nice to be at home and sleep a lot. My brain is slowly adjusting to the lack of constant California sun and the central time zone. In the meantime, I have time for things like knitting, baking, and watching TV! Crazy.<br />
So many people helped me in so many ways during the fires. To name the principal ones:<br />
Thank you to Tahlia, who graciously and calmly drove a very full car off campus that first night.<br />
Thank you to Leslie, who let us use her car, and to Marya, who drove us from Ventura to Ojai in Leslie's car.<br />
Thank you to Dominique and Lizzy, who hosted us in their adorable house in Ojai until we decided to leave for a safer area. Thank you for being our moms for those few days!<br />
Thank you to Mrs. Hurtado, who drove through burning areas to pick us up and take us to her house, and who hosted me for the rest of the week and drove me to the airport.<br />
Thank you to the several people who went into my room on campus and got the essential things to ship to me in South Dakota. You are lifesavers!<br />
As you can see, I have a lot to be thankful for.<br />
Times of crisis like this really show you what kind of people people are. And all I can really say is, I chose wonderful friends. They all stayed calm and cheerful and practical during the chaos. You learn how much you love everyone when you're in danger like that. We have an incredible community at TAC. I wouldn't change it for anything.<br />
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As a side note, one of our chaplains told me to meditate on my death on the first Sunday of Advent. It's been a pretty prominent theme during this Advent, with everything that happened. I'm guessing that's not what he meant. :)Maria B-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17147330106577619172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-982958523987723942.post-8747015023496718452017-12-07T20:02:00.000-06:002017-12-07T20:03:38.718-06:00Fires and Finals<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Christmas break is right around the corner! We put a mini Christmas tree in our room for decoration. </div>
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We also decorated Maddie's room to surprise her when she got back from Massachusetts. </div>
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Just the other day, campus looked like this....</div>
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And then, on Monday night, it looked like this. </div>
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A huge fire started at the campground right next to campus. Campus got evacuated and we all drove to a church in Ventura. Then Ventura got evacuated, and the group I was in drove to the house of some alumni in Ojai. Late into the night, we weren't sure if we were going to get told to leave Ojai too, so we drove to Goleta, CA (near Santa Barbara) at 3am. We spent a couple days hanging out in Goleta until Emily's mom picked us up and now I'm at her house in Perris. On the way, we passed by some sketchy smoke-filled areas. </div>
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This fire is still 0% contained so far and has ravaged through 96,000 acres last I heard. They are calling it the Thomas Fire, which we don't really appreciate, since we didn't start it. Actually, campus is totally fine, even though everything surrounding it is burnt up and there's no power. So the authorities are trying to get us all back on campus in time to have finals next week. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marya put it well.</td></tr>
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Yeah, they still want to have finals. We've been without our books since Monday and had no classes, but I guess we could still take exams, right?</div>
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We are all eager to get back to campus--and our possessions. It's been a rough few days, but we're counting our blessings. You don't realize how much you love everyone until times like these. I'm just happy I'll be heading home to SD soon, where there is no chance of fires. Until then, we're chilling with Emily's tiny dogs and waiting to hear from TAC.</div>
<br />Maria B-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17147330106577619172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-982958523987723942.post-55885182389598834182017-12-05T19:47:00.000-06:002017-12-07T19:48:15.455-06:00Thanksgiving BreakOver Thanksgiving I went to my friend Maddie's house in Vista, CA. It was a super fun and relaxing weekend filled with music, games, shopping, and movies galore! The weather was beautiful over Thanksgiving, so we walked by the harbor in Oceanside. It was so nice to hang out in a house with a family and eat non-school food! Maddie and her sisters took us to the Mission of San Luis Rey, the Benedictine abbey near their house, and some fun places to walk around. Our train back to campus on Sunday left at 5:40am, but we didn't let that stop us from having a great time. Being back on campus was nice, too, though--it's weird how quickly we started to miss everyone. It's so good to have good friends.<br />
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<br />Maria B-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17147330106577619172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-982958523987723942.post-82761972107265497082017-11-04T16:45:00.000-05:002017-11-04T16:45:25.230-05:00Section DinnerFirst of all, I have a Public Service Announcement: my section (Section 1) is the best freshman section at TAC this year. It's objective.<br />
Now that you know that, I'll recount a fun thing my section did this week...section dinner! Each freshman section goes to dinner at the house of one of their tutors, co-hosted by another tutor. We got two of our favorite tutors for section dinner, and it was such a fun night! It was really nice to be at a house again, eat homemade food, play with little kids, and just relax. We love hanging out together. On the way back to campus, we blasted Christmas music. And later that night, my choir sang for All-Night Adoration, which we have every First Friday.<br />
Now we have a relaxing weekend, with our theology paper due in two weeks. We had no classes on All Saints Day (perks of Catholic school), so we're in a bit of an academic lull, which is nice. Every day it gets better. It's crazy how fast freshman year is going! What a blessing to be here.<br />
<br />Maria B-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17147330106577619172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-982958523987723942.post-91323286741023024672017-10-15T16:42:00.000-05:002017-10-15T16:42:11.546-05:00Tessie's ConfirmationI flew home on Columbus Day weekend for Tessie's Confirmation, since she asked me to be her confirmation sponsor. It was a really fun and relaxing visit, and a beautiful Confirmation Mass.<br />
She chose two confirmation saints: St. Faustina and St. Martin de Porres. She needed to give one name for the bishop to say during the ceremony, so she chose Martina -- which she told me may be the feminine form of Martin, or may be a mash-up of Martin and Faustina. Who knows. It's cool because my aunt Nina, whom Mom and I visited at her abbey in Germany last year, has the religious name of Sr. Martina after St. Martin de Porres. So she and Tessie are saint twins now!<br />
I feel so blessed to be Tessie's sponsor; it gives us an extra connection over the miles.<br />
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Love you, Tessie!</div>
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<br />Maria B-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17147330106577619172noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-982958523987723942.post-30556278296655467862017-10-14T16:36:00.000-05:002017-10-14T16:36:11.269-05:00General Life UpdateHello, yes, I'm still alive.<br />
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College is absolutely insane, but in a good way. I'm loving every minute of it. </div>
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I love my section and my tutors. Here are my classes:<br />
Math (four times week)<br />
Language (three times a week)<br />
Philosophy (twice a week)<br />
Theology (twice a week)<br />
Natural Science (twice a week)<br />
Literature Seminar (once a week)<br />
In addition, I have 13 hours a week of work-study in the kitchen and sing in two choirs. It's a lot of work, but I love it.<br />
This upcoming week is Don Rags, which we have instead of midterms. It's when your tutors sit down together and evaluate how you're doing as a student. I'm excited because I think it will improve my section a lot, since we will know what we need to work on individually. Another nice thing is Don Rags means we get three days of no class!<br />
We have four fabulous chaplains on campus, which makes it easy to get to Mass, Confession, etc. There is a Dominican, a Jesuit, a Norbertine, and a diocesan priest. They are all wonderful to talk to and such a beautiful presence on our campus.<br />
When people ask me what I like best about college, its hard to answer, because there isn't really any aspect I don't like. It's surreal to be so at peace with a decision I've made.<br />
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Well, that's all I'll say for now. Gotta get back to studying.<br />
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Maria B-Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17147330106577619172noreply@blogger.com1