This Place

Last night there was a band playing live music on campus. I went with great excitement. Since I've been student teaching, I haven't been very involved in campus-life (to say the least). This event genuinely sounded like fun. So, I persuaded all of my apartment-mates that it would be worth our time, and we went together.

The band played a lot of covers, which was good, and their sound was pretty good too. Overall, it was an enjoyable experience. Unexpectedly, it was an event that led me to adoration.

For the past four years, I have been blessed beyond measure. Though I have said those words before, I doubt that I mean them with enough sincerity even now. Benedictine is place of true community. It is a place of clear identity. It is the home to a vast majority that strives to live not for this life, but for the next.

To the world outside of Benedictine, I look (and sometimes feel) like I am one of the few.  It can be difficult to find people who are genuinely and with great passion striving to live a life within the context of God's will.  Many people seem to live within the context of their own desires.

Though true devotion may be a characteristic of the minority, I know that is the characteristic of more than only a few. Benedictine has taught me that.

Last night, at that concert, I was struck with genuine gratitude. I am honestly and eternally thankful to the God who led me here, to this place. Through it He has taught me many things.  I have learned much about His Church and about who He is. I learned the necessity, beauty, battle, and peaceful joy of discernment.

I have learned that I am not alone. He is with me, not only in His omnipresence, but also in a true and tangible way in the hearts of those who surround me. And those people are a true gift, a reminder of His undying faithfulness and His sacred and good plan.

Through this place, I have been wrapped up in God Himself.  When I'm no longer here, He'll still be wrapped around me.

In this place, I have learned to trust Him. I have learned faith.

I said death 2x and dead 1x, but still...

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The Year 2101

Student: In the year 3000 I'll be a hundred years old!

Me: You would be a thousand years old.

Student: Oh. I'll probably live to 2101. Then I'll be 101 years old.

Me: I see.

Student: You'll be dead!

Failure

I've been bothered lately by the apparent lack of sacrifice in my Lenten devotion.  Since I knew I would be student teaching, I didn't want to go as hard-core this Lent as had been typical in the past. However, I think it became an excuse for me to demand little of myself, despite its well-intentioned beginning.

Today I heard the story of priest who once said that 40 days was just long enough for us to fail.  The point being that Lent is time for us to focus on putting forth our very best so that when we fail we come to more fully acknowledge that, even with our best efforts, we are desperately in need of God's grace, and, when it comes down to it, we are nothing without Him.