Cute Church Lady

Today I went to daily Mass at my parish (St. Andrew's, Fort Worth) and this wonderful old woman sat behind me. During the consecration she whispered "My Jesus." I'm not sure if she knew she was doing it out loud or not, or maybe that is just how she prays! It was beautiful though; similar to my non-verbal prayer of "My Lord and my God." After Mass some woman came and was talking with her, which was a tad distracting while trying to pray morning prayer, but when the other lady left this old woman said "She is precious. There are so many precious people in the world." Oh my goodness, was it ever cute and beautiful! By her simple acclamations I can tell this woman has a genuine love for everyone and a heart open to God's love and grace. She was very inspiring and she doesn't even know it.

Fort Worth has been great. I love my parish and the parish staff and I love the flexibility of working for the Church! I have tomorrow off and I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet, but I think I'm going to hit up Mass at the Cathedral, then some shopping? One of my roommates and I are going to the Symphony tomorrow night with the young adult group from the area. I think that will be a lot of fun. I'm exhausted now and should probably get to bed!

Poem Time

I wrote this poem last summer, I think. Today I typed up all my poems into a Word document and it's 13 pages long, so that is pretty cool. I thought I'd share one of my poems now.

Summer Beginnings

The beginnings of summer sweep over the night

The warm still air seeps in through the open window

And the sleeves of a sweatshirt cover her sun-kissed arms.

Passively time ticks on

Being at home brings back memories:

Photographs of a childhood now gone

Journal entries of carefree high school days

Mental images of time spent with a boy

Who she thought was ‘the one.’

Many months are ahead, summer is only beginning

She gently lays her head on her pillow

For tomorrow is a new day

The rain has emptied itself and passed

The sun shall bring with it the morning.

How does that happen at grad school?

It turns out that I have a slightly injured back; how does that happen at grad school!?! I feel like I hardly did anything except sit in a classroom for way too long, every single day. I did enjoy some Echo volleyball about once a week, but I do not feel that was too strenuous. So anyway, I went to the chiropractor today and he said my lower back is injured, something about muscles and my spine. He told me I need to ice it, which I am doing now, and that I have to rest it... which means no running :( . I really wanted to get into running for the week I have left at home, but it doesn't look like that will be happening. Shoot dang!

I am home now, back in the great state of Wisconsin, but only for one week as of today. I have to pack up my life soon and figure out what I'm taking down to Texas. I don't even know where to begin with what to take because I will be there for two years, so I guess it is a matter of deciding what are the most important things. I mean...wow, I have to pack up and move down to Texas for two years! It seems like I should just be packing up for college again, but I won't really be home, and even when I come home I'll be flying in. Well, here I am, starting this new chapter in my life. Chapter 46: Conquering the Texas heat (and catechizing my way through life).

In the meantime, here at home, I hope to do a lot of reading. Right now I am reading The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. I read it once for a class, but I think that was 3 or 4 years ago. We talked about it in one of my classes this summer and other Echo people were saying how great it was, so that inspired me to pick it up again. It definitely is interesting, even finding the parallels between the imagery in this book and Heaven and Hell and looking at it on a deeper level. Sometimes I don't like reading books for class because I feel like I read the material to simply read it, I can't dive into it because there isn't enough time! I guess that is what the rest of life is for! I have several books I'd like to read, books I was supposed to read for class, but perhaps didn't quite do so. We'll see what all I can finish in one week at home. The Confessions is also on my list. Well, time to clean out my Echo binder then put the ice back on!

St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us!