I guess we could go back a couple weeks. Two weeks ago tomorrow, I left the house at around 6:45, having overslept and missed an early departure time to try to make it to Chicago before the marathon started. I discovered my dash kinda broken up and my cd player was gone (reminiscent of this happening 2 years ago and me not replacing it until 2 months ago). I stopped by Tom's house and picked up Bo and then headed to the train station. There were more people on there than usual (from the times when I used to commute), lots of excitement about the marathon. At some point we discovered that Sheila was on the same train so we went back and sat by her, and when we got into the city we tried to make it over to see the lead pack as they passed the 12 mile mark, but the timing was too close and they were too fast. We ended up seeing my roommate Pete, once in Chinatown, and I saw him close to the finish but the others couldn't pick him out. He dropped nearly an hour off his time (!!!) to run ~ 3:50. I saw various other faces I recognized, and we met up with a few friends on the northside for brunch and then missed our return train.... by seconds.... and made a quick trip to the Sears tower while waiting for the next train 2 hours later. We had actually made Pete run to catch the first train, and we still didn't make it.
This past weekend, Pete & I took part in St. Bavo's semi-annual (that's twice a year, not every other year) mens Christ Renews His Parish retreat. It's similarity with Kairos from college (of which many students had also gone to one in high school) was striking. It was basically a 2-day version of Kairos and only for men. (there is also one for women) I guess the only specific difference was the availability of Christ Himself for 24-hour adoration the entire time in the chapel, and past team members signed up for an hour each to sit with Him so that He was never... "unadored" in that room.
Jumping to last night, Thursday, Pete and I went to a followup meeting. Discussions that evening: preceding the evening with Mark, at the meeting with all the men, and following the evening with Pete, I was repeatedly exposed to the dilemma of where to commit my energy. The whole topic of "priorities" has been something that I've dealt with pretty strongly since college, trying to always analyze what I'm doing with my life and where my priorities are and where they should be... and it's not surprise to me that everybody else deals with this too, but yet another aspect of "life in common", "community life", is that I get to see and experience how people mesh these priorities with other people's. For me, the topic has always been a very internal one, and if anything I am sharing my thoughts with people. But now, being a part of a community where we actively strive to improve each other and seek God's will together, I'm struggling through and learning yet another form of ecumenism. What are my priorities as a Christian? What are my priorities as a Catholic? Narrow is the path. But it's so exciting to be encouraged in all of this, by people from such varied life experiences and different theologies, all holding great respect for what I discern to be the voice of God in my life.
One:Ten Communications unveiled a shiny new website. Emmaus Project is in it's infancy stage. Lucky Prompt is converting people to Ruby and running. I'm going paintballing tonight with 13 or 14 7th graders, for the first time ever. For the first time in over 3 years, I'm taking care of my teeth.
This past weekend, Pete & I took part in St. Bavo's semi-annual (that's twice a year, not every other year) mens Christ Renews His Parish retreat. It's similarity with Kairos from college (of which many students had also gone to one in high school) was striking. It was basically a 2-day version of Kairos and only for men. (there is also one for women) I guess the only specific difference was the availability of Christ Himself for 24-hour adoration the entire time in the chapel, and past team members signed up for an hour each to sit with Him so that He was never... "unadored" in that room.
Jumping to last night, Thursday, Pete and I went to a followup meeting. Discussions that evening: preceding the evening with Mark, at the meeting with all the men, and following the evening with Pete, I was repeatedly exposed to the dilemma of where to commit my energy. The whole topic of "priorities" has been something that I've dealt with pretty strongly since college, trying to always analyze what I'm doing with my life and where my priorities are and where they should be... and it's not surprise to me that everybody else deals with this too, but yet another aspect of "life in common", "community life", is that I get to see and experience how people mesh these priorities with other people's. For me, the topic has always been a very internal one, and if anything I am sharing my thoughts with people. But now, being a part of a community where we actively strive to improve each other and seek God's will together, I'm struggling through and learning yet another form of ecumenism. What are my priorities as a Christian? What are my priorities as a Catholic? Narrow is the path. But it's so exciting to be encouraged in all of this, by people from such varied life experiences and different theologies, all holding great respect for what I discern to be the voice of God in my life.
One:Ten Communications unveiled a shiny new website. Emmaus Project is in it's infancy stage. Lucky Prompt is converting people to Ruby and running. I'm going paintballing tonight with 13 or 14 7th graders, for the first time ever. For the first time in over 3 years, I'm taking care of my teeth.