Giant Post-Spring Break Update!

I had a fantastic spring break last week, so I thought I'd share a little of went on and what's going on with me.

I already told you about my adventures with Josh and Craigr (old picture) at the beginning of the break: we hung out on Friday night and then traveled to our old college on Saturday morning to help out with the Catholic student group's retreat. I spoke about Confession and Josh gave a rousing "how to live your life as a Catholic" talk. We also played some praise and worship music and had Mass to close the whole thing. Afterwards, we traveled to Canton (where, contrary to what Relient K sings, you can enjoy yourself) to meet up with our good friends Ben and Shaina who I hadn't seen forever. We came back to the Ville late and slept well into the next morning. After some more hanging out, Craigr left and I headed to my grandparents' house for the afternoon. Magnadoodle art happened.

The rest of the week: I spent a lot of time at FUS going to Mass, praying, reading, hanging out with my sister and generally enjoying the lovely Catholic atmosphere. One evening, I attended a great talk by some Capuchin Sisters on prayer and suffering. The sister who spoke also strongly recommended wearing a scapular. I always have, but her talk really helped me understand and appreciate it a lot more.
On Friday, I helped Josh look for his cat and watched his dog eat a rock while we drank Earl Grey tea on his deck. Oh yeah, though the week started out in the winter, by Thursday, it felt like summer and I LOVED it. That night I went bowling with some other friends (great time) and then made the mistake of going to see Watchmen. I don't want to say a lot about it ... suffice to say, it was beautifully filmed but had violence and sex that I did not need to see. Bleh.

On Saturday I slept a lot and then met up with a big group of people from my old college who came in for the Festival of Praise. We went to Wal-Mart and then got pizza and hung out until the FOP. The Festival itself was great - very beneficial. After the MUC crowd had left, Josh and I went to a "coffeehouse" that FUS tends to have after FOPs. It's basically a kind of a concert with lots and lots of acts. This one was dedicated to Mary and I have never seen such beautiful and healthy devotion to Our Lady before. The whole night really affected me. One highlight was seeing some guys I know singing Franz Biebl's beautiful Ave Maria.

Finally, on Sunday I went to Mass with my sister and then headed out to my Grandparents again. We watched a movie and played with our cousins. Then I came home, walked the dog, packed and caught my ride back to PA.

Spring break: over.

Since coming back, I've done a bunch of work and gone to classes and such.
The rest of this week: (early) St. Patrick's Day party in the monastary, the first half of BSG's finale and hopefully some weather conducive to mountain biking. Also, I've decided to move into an open room in the other section of the seminary (the section where each room has its own bathroom). I'll be moving Saturday sometime.