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!