5 Weeks In

Wow, is all I can say. I can't believe tomorrow marks the 5th week of me being here at seminary. It has been a packed 5 weeks. I am definitely on INFORMATION OVERLOAD at the moment.

I talked to my wonderful mother last night who encouraged me to make sure I'm taking time to reflect on everything I've been learning: hints, the new blog post. Thank you, mom, for the important reminder. :) I love you!

I've had the opportunity to attend several church related activities over the past few weeks. The service of the Elevation of the Cross was held at our chapel a few fridays ago. Such a beautiful time of remembering Christ's sacrifice on the cross. It was a wonderful service - the priests were in red, the church was adorned with flowers, and the music was simply beautiful. The words to the hymns were deeply meaningful. I felt so blessed to be part of the singing that night. I went to Manhattan to see a performance by St. Tikhon's Orthodox Choir last week - incredibly beautiful. It made my attempts at singing in our little choir here seem futile, but it was inspiring none the less. This past Monday, me and several other classmates went to a liturgy honoring St. Thecla - a saint known for her chastity and purity of life. Her icon, at a beautiful little church in New Jersey, started miraculously streaming myrrh last week. Her monastery in Syria has been and currently is being persecuted. Please pray for their deliverance. It was really neat to participate in that service.

Theologically, I'm learning so much. Right now, many of my classes are discussing the early church. It's extremely fascinating (and often confusing) to learn about the development of the church. There's so much to learn, and I'm finding that I'm barely going to scratch the surface of the intricacies of everything while I'm here. It's also humbling. I may have said this in my previous post, but it becomes more true all the time, the longer I'm here the more I realize I don't know anything. But you know what, that's really good for me. It makes me question the way I've dealt with past conversations and arguments with such pride in my "knowledge". It's funny though, as many new things as I'm learning here that I believe are important about history and church fathers and the development of church practice, it's great to be reminded that what matters in the end is what (or who) all the facts, knowledge, and information point to - Jesus Christ.

 It's been especially interesting to participate in Father John Behr's spirituality classes. One thing he's been drilling into us is that Christ (the Christ spoken of by the apostles and revealed through scripture) is central to everything. Everything points to Christ. Not the Christ who lived, but the Christ who lives and works in our lives right now. I want to expound on this more in a later post devoted to what I've been learning in Fr. Behr's classes. It's definitely worth an entire post. :)

My friends and I have decided to take a road trip to Boston and Portland, Maine over the Fall break (one week from tomorrow). I can't wait to see all the new sights! It's been a dream of mine for a while to go to Maine. Can't believe it's actually going to happen! :D :D

It's amazing the inside jokes and funny little quarks about life at St. Vlad's that pile up around here, such as the strange assortment of food at meals (egg roles and french fries), the constant shortage of toilet paper, sporadic convos about deep life things (like relationships), restaurants that never offer to split checks (seriously, every restaurant we've been to has put our huge group on the same check),  solos in music class, and the list goes on; I hope in the future to be able to fill you in on these funny little things. The list grows every day.

To finish up, I want to leave you with some little quotes, pictures, and a sound bite of my experiences here as of late. As always, I miss you all so so much. Thank you for remembering me in your prayers.

Quotes:

"The spiritual life is realizing ever more the depth of your sinfulness. Spirituality is facing reality, facing the reality of Christ and ourselves." - Fr. John Behr

"Every person you meet, you should leave with strength and hope." - Dr. Rossi

"Every moment is a sacrament." - Schmemann

"Learn to see everything in light of Christ - this leads to humility; out of humility we learn to love."

"Tradition does not just look to the past, but to the providential plan of God in the future, it points us to the victory of Christ." - Fr. John Erickson

"Don't worry about the future, you will discover it when it comes." Dr. Rossi

Photo Collage:

Here is a song I recorded by the St. Tikhon choir at their concert:

Love, love, LOVE you ALL!

So Far at St. Vlad's...

To My Friends and Family,

Hi!! First, I must say that I miss you all so much!!

I have decided to start a blog to record and share thoughts from my experiences on this new journey at St. Vladimir's. I think it's definitely time to give an update since I have failed to do so up until this point. :) I hope not only to give updates about what I've been up to in the city, but also share thoughts about what I'm learning theologically, spiritually, and personally during my time here, and maybe throw in a few fun topics that will be more of a surprise. ;) 

It's hard to believe it's been three full weeks today since I flew away from Arkansas. In some ways the time has flown by, and in other ways it seems as if I have already been here forever. There are about 39 new incoming students this year. A majority of the students have family on campus; those of us who aren't married tend to do everything together - classes, meals, studying, walking around, going to chapel, singing in the choir. Needless to say, we will know each other very well by the time we all leave here. The group of people here are truly great, and it's awesome to be learning about Christ alongside them. Being on campus is definitely like being in a bubble. Campus is very small and we have all of our classes in the same classroom! 

A typical day in the life of a seminarian involves waking up, going to a chapel service, going to breakfast, going to class for the whole morning, going to lunch, going to another class after lunch, another service in the evening, then dinner, then often we will have another class or choir practice or community service or other random responsibilities that fall into our day. As you can tell, life is very busy. The weekend is usually a great time to work on homework that piles up during the week or get away from campus for a bit. 

I will say that the bugs around here are terrifying. The other day while enjoying some tea in the break room with a couple friends, a cockroach looking thing that was HUGE scurried into the room. Panic is a great term to use for what occurred when we saw the thing. Truly disturbing. Thankfully, it's dead now. And only a few minutes ago I killed a centipede looking critter in my room. I guess you can't escape bugs. Apparently, there's an illusive figure on the boys floor that kills spiders and leaves their bodies laying there. Still trying to figure out who the culprit is. The weather here has been surprisingly hot, but it seems as though the weather will be getting a lot cooler as of tomorrow, which I know we will all appreciate much.

The spiritual aspect of life here has already impacted me so much. I am overwhelmed by the information I am learning (in a good way). I had several wise people warn me before coming to seminary that there would be many new challenges I would face, since the devil tends to work extra hard to hinder people attending seminary and such places. I have found this to be very true already. I've already had internal struggles come to the surface that I wouldn't have expected to face, and I’ve only just begun. I can definitely expect to be stretched by God, and I pray that He will give me the strength to persevere. Aside from the struggles, I am already learning incredible things about God and church and history and more. The nuggets of knowledge I have received the past few weeks, honestly, would be enough for me to think over for a very long time. The longer I’m here, the more I realize how much I have to learn about myself and who God is. I feel incredibly blessed to be in a place like this where I have the opportunity to learn such things. I look forward to sharing some of those things with you.

I was also EXTREMELY excited to hear that there will be mission opportunities coming up at the beginning of next year for me to participate in through St. Vlad’s. More to come on that later. There’s also a pro-life group on campus that I hope to participate in as well. I just have to say that God astonishes me with His goodness. He truly does know our hearts and provides for us at the right time. I can’t wait to see what doors He opens up during my time here.

Oh, and you’re probably wondering how I’m doing in the city…thankfully, campus is in a quaint neighborhood area, so it doesn't feel as suburban. And I've been enjoying life here so far. Seeing New York City was fun. I do miss haybales and wide open spaces and car drives with country music and the windows down and my family and friends and fishing and the fresh air and……ok I miss Arkansas a lot, but I’m so excited about the new things I’m experiencing here as well. It’s really neat to be somewhere I've never been before. Everywhere I go is a new experience.

I’m now regretting waiting so long to give this update since I have so much to say! But I hope this has given you a little idea about what life up here has been like so far.

I cannot thank you enough for your prayers as I continue to settle in. I miss all of you back home so much.

I will leave you with this quote from orientation that I hung on my wall:

“This is the time of discernment to see how the image of God will be formed in you.” – Fr. John Behr. What an exciting thought to know God is forming us at this very moment in our lives. Can’t wait to see what He does, not just in my life, but in the people’s lives that I love so dearly.

Love, love, love you all! 

From home to the city.