Advent is here!

Today at mass, before the celebration started, a family of parishioners went to the microphone to read a short prayer and light the first candle on our church's Advent wreath. I sat and watched, with a gleam in my eye, because my mother signed our family up to light the Advent wreath on the last Sunday of Advent. She knows all too well how, since childhood, my brothers and I would fight over who got to light the pink candle. Dearest mother, in her infinite wisdom, picked the Sunday with the most candles to light, and the longest prayer to read, so her children could live in harmony. Far be it from us to let being in our twenties stop us from acting with the heart, soul and maturity of children.

Once I got over myself, and how much cooler our Advent wreath lighting slot is than all the other families who sieged the sign up sheet in the lobby of the church as soon as the elderly secretary made it available, I was able to concentrate on the mass. The homily today was particularly inspiring for me. I wasn't exactly ready for Advent to start. Certainly I welcome it, because it includes fabulous things like purple and pink candles, and my birthday, but I have been so busy being busy that I never took time in my daily prayer to prepare myself.

Thankfully, God puts people in your life to kick you in the butt, and today Father Cristiano did just that. His homily centered on how Advent is a season of self-examination. So here I sit, thinking about how I am going to examine myself, and prepare for advent. Here is what I have come up with so far:

1. Figure out what Advent is
2. Write a blog post about it
3. Pray, pray, pray
4. Keep praying, it's good for you.

I am still working on refining steps 3 and 4. I might add a fifth step, which I think is going to be something along the lines of gloat about getting to light the pink candle because it's on my birthday, but hopefully praying and examining my conscience will refine that step as well.

Silver Lining

Today has been cold and dark with spots of rain every now and then. It is also exam week. The gloominess is almost unbearable.

Before exam week started, the students who attended the 10pm Sunday mass (yes, PM), received Father Peter's "blessing of the brains" that he gives at the end of every semester. The blessing was so beautifully said, asking the Holy Spirit to fill the students with peace, easing their anxiety. Father Peter prayed that we would not neglect our prayer or our studies.

How perfect was it that prayer was listed before studies. As a Catholic college student, it is so easy to get wrapped up in the idea of being a "good student" that we are no longer a good child of God. Today I took a small hour break from my studying to go to the chapel and pray, and then say hello to friends that were studying in the chapel's library. As gloomy and nerve-racking as the day had been, just being in front of the Blessed Sacrament helped soothe my soul. Just that quick conversation with Jesus helped me offer up my own anxieties.

As I said my goodbyes to my friends in the chapel's library, and walked outside, I was greeted with no rain! How wonderful! The rain had stopped, and I know the sun is patiently waiting behind the clouds, relishing in the idea of the moment I am done with my final final exam at 4pm tomorrow, so he can burst out from behind the grey, and welcome me into summer!

Injury

I am deeply sorry to all of my adoring fans for the lack of posts. I hurt my ankle, and I need that to type, obviously.

Instead of any inspirational tidbits of faith, I will share with you some fetching finds found around the web. Just click on the link [for my parents if they are reading, the link is the colored underlined word ;)

-Father John Zuhlsdorf had a great blog post on the importance of prayers being memorized

-true and beautiful

-let's get some school vouchers, PLEASE

I hope you enjoy! If you like this, maybe next Saturday I will do it again!
Peace!

Results

For every action there is a reaction. For every sult, there is a result?

I learned, for the umpteenth time, the result of procrastinating. I will be enjoying a late evening finishing my spanish paper. I only have 300 more words, but need I remind you, those words are in Spanish.

The gospel on Sunday just proved to me, for another umpteenth time, that Jesus is awesome and he never procrastinated. In fact, he was always vigilant and sober, ready for anything. He fasted and prayed for 40 days in the desert (not much else to do in the desert, according to Father Peter at mass), so that even when he was face to face with Satan himself, he could ignore those temptations. In fashionable internet speak amongst young people, Jesus pwnd. Everything the devil tossed out, Jesus had his response made ready.

One of my favorite verses in the bible is 1 Peter 3:15, which reads "Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence" (NRSV).

Procrastinating is certainly not being prepared for anything. Fortunately, I am what society calls a college student, and we can run off minimal sleep for extended periods of time. This knowledge of my ability to function on little sleep, as well as knowing I procrastinated by going to the gym for an hour and a half, and writing in this blog, help me rationalize this terribly silly habit of procrastination.

So tonight's actions and results?
Paper-not done
blog- DONE!
sore muscles- DONE!

2 out of 3, not bad.

Economics of Sacrifice

I was absolutely delighted at the homily in daily mass today. Father was talking about sacrificing things during the Lenten season, and how we might sacrifice things and not even know about it (which ultimately doesn't end in spiritual growth). For example, being so busy with school work you miss a meal. You probably won't be blessed abundantly for being so pious and "fasting" from that meal, but it was a "sacrifice" nonetheless.

I am studying economics, so of course I wanted to raise my hand and say "actually, I would call that a trade off", but homilies aren't the time to be raising hands. Instead I pondered.

What are the differences? Every sacrifice is a trade off, but not every trade off is a sacrifice. Sacrificing is a trade off with the end in mind of growing closer to God in some way. A trade off is a simple human mechanism of exercising our preferences in a world of scarcity.

Examples
Trade off: Pressing the snooze button a third time. You prefer 5 more minutes of sleep to 5 more minutes getting ready and letting your face look more awake and less zombie.

Sacrifice: Not eating dessert after dinner to complement your prayer for souls in purgatory.

Both examples involve giving up one thing for the sake of another, but a sacrifice involves a conscience and deliberate trade off for the sake of holiness. (I'm just making these up, so correct me if you have a better text book definition)


Something new I have learned thus far in Lent: Prayer+Fasting= amazingly amazing if you want God's will to be done. I haven't experienced it quite yet, but I hope I can successfully try this combination.


In other less Lent-y news, I am visiting home this weekend! My mom is throwing a casino party tonight, and I just couldn't miss out on playing blackjack and craps without worrying about spending my own money. We are having two dealers come in and set up their tables (real ones! with green felt and everything!), and lots of good friends to come and enjoy the party.

The menu had to be redone a week or two ago, when my mother realized she planned the party for the first Friday in Lent. Luckily, we live right near a big ocean so seafood is easy to come by and deliciously fresh. This ties in so well with Father's homily though, because my mom made a trade off, and a sacrifice, by reconfiguring the entire menu and working tirelessly to cook and prepare for the party, so that we could still follow the rules of Fridays in Lent, and assure that her house guests enjoyed themselves. Mommas are awesome.