To lead off with, my thoughts and prayers are with Jennifer Fulwiler of Conversion Diary, and her family. Jen was hospitalized yesterday due to pulmonary embolisms in both her lungs. As of last night, she and her unborn baby, both of whom are doing well, were discharged and sent home to continue treatment there. Please keep all the Fulwilers in your prayers. Get well soon, Jen!
I promised an update on how last semester finished up, so here goes:
Out of four classes, I passed two and failed two.
Yes, it was entirely my fault. Yes, coming close and yet falling short again was a demoralizing experience that left me feeling rather defeated. Yes, I’m going to pick myself up and try again, in no small part because I don’t have any other practical alternatives. This did not stop me from calling the local commercial truck driving school the day after I got my grades to see about getting my CDL, but tuition is north of $3,000, and somehow I doubt my Pell Grants would apply to that. Oh well, guess I’d better stick with Plan A (actually by this point I’m on Plan E or F for my life, but you know what I mean).
Oh, and speaking of this coming semester, this showed up in my inbox yesterday as I was getting ready to go to sleep.
…January 7?
LOUD WORDS! LOUD PANICKED ANXIOUS WORDS!
*hides under covers and tries not to completely freak out*
*sigh*…The important thing that I have to remember in all of this is that I don’t have to worry about carrying this cross. In fact, I don’t even have to worry about whether it will be carried at all by anyone! Jesus has already carried this cross for me. All that remains for me to do is to decide whether I am going to go my own way and stop helping Jesus to carry my cross, or whether I am going to persevere in aiding Him as He labors His way to Calvary.
True to form, I blew all of my Christmas money this past week in one fell swoop at the bookstore. I regret nothing.
Anyway, after heeding the advice of some of my friends/Catholic brain trust on Twitter, one of the items I ended up getting was a rather nice hardcover copy of The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis. I’ve never read it before, but so far I am finding it to be quite enjoyable and enriching. Though I do feel like I am going to have to reread it a couple times before its lessons really start to sink in.
I don’t have any specific New Year’s resolutions, but I did make a decision right around that time, so close enough: I am going to start setting a little money aside from each paycheck and saving it in case I ever decide to go spend a year in Peru with the Missionary Servants of the Poor in the Third World. I encountered this religious order about four years ago at a vocations fair, and my takeaway impression was, “If I were to be called to the religious life, this is exactly the kind of order and the kind of ministry of which I would want to be a part!” Four years down the line and I’m still fascinated, and possessed of an itch to explore this further, if possible. The primary obstacle (other than the necessity of learning some elementary Spanish to see me through the first month or two) is the cost of airfare to Cuzco, and it’s about time that I started saving.
I don’t know if I’m being called to religious vocation, with this order or in general. I don’t even know if I’ll end up going in the end. But it does seem prudent to at least start making that option available, so that’s what I am going to do.
Oh, and they have some amazing videos on their YouTube channel about their founding, mission, and the various vocations within the order. Go check it out.
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Thank’s to the aforementioned Jennifer Fulwiler and the Saint’s Name Generator she has on her website, I was able to receive a randomly-selected (or was it random?) patron saint for 2013: St. Wenceslaus. So there’s that.
Go on, it’s only 1/04! There’s still time to go get your own patron saint for the year!
THREE WEEKS UNTIL THE MARCH FOR LIFE!!!
Yeah, I’m getting pretty excited. Because marching for babies, and because I’ll (hopefully) get to meet up with some friends who up to this point I have only known online, and because afterwards I’ll be attending my first Mass offered in the Extraordinary Form. A Pontifical High Mass to boot!
Total Catholic geek-out moment!
Finally, I met with my therapist yesterday, who is really sweet and has helped me a lot, including by charging me at a reduced rate, now that I no longer have health insurance. Our session did contain this funny/awkward moment:
My therapist asked me today, “What do you do for FUN?!” All I could come up with was reading and going to Mass. #facepalm
— Christmas Mike (@MikeCGannon) January 3, 2013
I have no life. LOL.
For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!
