Eat & Sleep

Not what I meant by good nutrition.  A sign of good Franco-Italian relations

This time of year assignments are coming due and exams are coming soon.  Remember to eat and sleep.  When I work with couples in marriage prep I deliver that message in the last interview and remind them that in the last two weeks before the wedding they don't want tire themselves out so much that they don't remember the wedding itself.

In school it is a question of pacing.  Not only do you want to have the knowledge necessary to do well in exams but you want to be mentally alert enough to be smart about it.

This bit of discipline will be a big plus in the working world.  There's less time off and jobs are either ongoing or represent larger projects.  Pace will pay off.

Blessed with youth you may also think it is fine to eat anything.  Balanced eating will give you more energy, make your sleep better and keep you generally feeling more fine.  Sleep.  Get enough.  If you push yourself don't stretch it.  Two or three days at most before making up your sleep deficit.

There's an old saying:  "Grace builds on nature".  In other words, you might say that taking good care of your nature will make you better able give and receive God's love, care and concern for others.  You'll enjoy your relationships more and be able to be more aware of others' needs and will feel closer to your friends and family. 

Post-Thanksgiving; Post-Reading Week; Pre-Exams . . .

About this time in the semester I felt up to my ears.  Some of my assignments were done; many were in various stages of completion.  There were social things to attend to and I had a part-time job too. 

This feeling of being in the middle of things is probably a fairly accurate portrayal of how your parents have been living most of their lives and how you will probably live a good deal of your life. 

So it might be good to know that there are places to rest along the way.  In healthy lives, I think faith can and should challenge us, but there is also a place for it to be a place of rest. 

Thomas Merton, famous monk & writer on prayer

Have you ever visited a church when there is no service?  I was lucky at U of T, that there was both St. Basil's Church and Newman Centre.  I would often go into the church or chapel for a quiet visit with Our Lord.  With the busy brain I had, I tried to say as little as possible, just letting God know I was listening.  At first it was 20 minutes or so and then 30 minutes.  For at least part of my undergrad, this was an anchor in my day.  If you don't have that chance starting with a quiet 5 minutes and then maybe 10 could be something you find space for at home. 

Of course, we are never perfectly still nor free of thoughts, but slowing down and even just repeating the name of Jesus can be a wonderful thing.  Fewer energy drinks, more sleep and a little contemplative stillness could be just the thing to cope with the multiple competitors for your attention these days! 

Deadlines

In the Catholic Church we sometimes say the only true deadline is death; that's not strictly true!  Attitudes about deadlines can vary.  If we think they are just imposed on us we might object to them.  Our conditioning these days makes us likely to think that.  Computer games allow us to reset in various ways -- more lives or whatever.

Part of college or university experience and even more so in work or apprenticeships is the reality that we have to complete things without cutting corners.

Entry to Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

We've all got strengths and weaknesses when it comes to school.  Reading may be a challenge for some, mentally or even physically.  I've got poor eyes, so I can only read a couple of hours per day.  I learned some tricks.  I took a speed reading course.  I learned how to skim effectively and I developed a few methods of my own for reducing the reading burden.  Most of us will need to develop some coping skills like that.  We just don't want to end up being our own worst enemy.  Cramming is no fun and seldom effective.

In marriage prep with couples I often say:  "If you're itchy -- scratch!"  What I mean is that when we are itchy we usually scratch and in marriage I'm hoping that if there are issues between the soon-to-be spouses that they talk them out without putting it off.

If you have a problem getting an assignment, SCRATCH!  Get the input you need!  It might be talking to the prof or teacher or teaching assistant or someone in your class.  And believe it or not your parents might even have suggestions to help get you going; just make sure you are headed in the right direction before you burn too many calories.

Experience is a good teacher.  Dose it out however.  Allow the new experience to challenge you enough to benefit from it.  Like a sensible workout that builds your strength and endurance but doesn't cause you injury, healthy challenge is a good thing.

So what about that deadline?  It seems far off, but the weeks pass quickly and who knows with so much socializing you might just be sick for one of them, some unplanned down time.  Work backwards.  The deadline means your assignment is complete, has been checked over and fixed up if necessary and can be handed in.  What are the steps before that?  If you don't know the answer, look for a workshop provided by the student centre at school.  Good method will save many calories and give you a better result.  Note the steps down and think carefully about how much time you think you are going to spend on each and if you are new to school, double it to be on the safe side.  You might decide to say that you'll have to do less research or be selective in your reading.  Probably it is better to have a complete assignment that is less than ideal rather than an incomplete assignment that falls short in the end.  It is a 13-week semester and assignments are not doctoral theses and of course there will be some super student in the class who seems to do the impossible.  Just be thankful that God made them.

Sometimes appearances in this regard can be deceptive.  I encountered a super student who had assignments done long in advance of deadlines with apparently super amounts of work done.  In the end, this drive turned out to be a challenge to balanced living.  The person clearly had other kinds of challenges that people didn't see because they were dazzled by the work.  So don't be dazzled -- be yourself.

The first reality of our life is that we are loved.

The 13-Week Sprint!

College and university semesters are built on a 13-week period.  When I was so young that I played in a sandbox I'd have told you, "The summer is a really long time!"  It doesn't seem that way now!  8 weeks in July and August go by quickly. 

13 weeks is 1/4 of the year.  I have lots of time; there's reading week (ski week or whatever you might want to call it).  Yet we need to get immersed in a topic that is entirely new to us and go through some mysterious process by which we will feel comfortable with it by the end of the semester. 

It is a really short period of time.  It is much more concentrated than high school and part of our preparing for a working world where deadlines do loom and where we feel that others do rely on us. 

Like a good workout the semester will stretch us and tear us a bit, but we will grow stronger muscle because of it.  Launch well! 

Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

The Moral LIfe

We definitely get the wrong idea.  As soon as the world "moral" is spoken we think someone is going to tell me what to do.  Or maybe . . . what NOT to do. 

The moral life, however, means a life lived with a developed and developing conscience.  For some choices to be bad, there need to be good choices.  We wouldn't recognize darkness if we had never seen light.  It does seem to be human or one of our flaws to concentrate on the negative. 

As you journey in the space between adolescence and the full responsibilities of adulthood this  is the time you can be consciously developing that moral life -- the sense of what is good. 

This is both something that is shared and something personal.  As Catholics we share what we believe has been revealed by Christ.  So for us the moral life is one that is following the life Christ is showing to us.  I am also a moral person.  In my own life I have the chance to develop gifts that I have received.  Being moral also says that these gifts are part of the lives of others.  It is natural for me to think of sharing the good gifts I have received. 

While we are building a life it is good and necessary that we think about the things that will give us a job and help us to earn a living.  But there are more questions to be asked.  What is it that I am really looking for in this life?  How can I develop my gifts to be of service to this deeper longing. 

You may be thinking of couple life and parenthood in the future.  You may realize that you have gifts that can be transformative in some way for others.  You may have gifts that bring joy to our world, a deep joy of the heart. 

The moral life then has a great texture, one where we need God's word, quietly speaking as we listen and then respond in words and in our actions. 

Moral is good.  Taste that moral goodness that is the Lord's gift for you. 

Franciscan styled crucifix in the Church at Nazareth where Jesus grew up. 

Getting "Into" the Mass

Not too long ago I booked a ticket on a VIA train to Ottawa.  I wanted a window seat so I could look out the window and not be bothered by the movement in the aisle.  Much to my surprise the window seats were already booked.  . . . But it wasn't to look out the window.  Something much more essential was nearby and many passengers knew it. 

A plug.  Very soon the train filled up with university students heading back to the University of Ottawa and to Carleton.  And they came with many appendages, things hanging off their hands and arms!  Laptops, tablets, phones and headphones appeared.  VIA offers Wifi!  And so away we went. 

By comparison what happens when you come into church for Mass?  It can seem mighty passive.  But what is happening is a different language in a sort of a way.  We are conditioned to think that something that is old is not very useful.  We have "better" ways of doing stuff now.  This can apply in many areas of life, but there are areas of life that don't change as much as we might think.  When I do marriage interviews the ingredients that go into good deep relationships seem to be the same as they were 24 years ago when I was a baby priest. 

And so in the midst of our busy techy world, we also still need the anchoring experiences that root us.  So it is true when we come into church we enter into a world that is probably more still than we are used to. 

Our thoughts can be overwhelming almost.  The busy activities we are used to don't give our emotions and our spirit much time to catch up.  We might see this as a barrier to prayer but we can actually start by making these things part of our prayer. 

There will be quite a few more entries on the blog that help to unlock this special language we use when we give praise to God together as God's people at the Eucharist. 

The Pelican feeding its young from its own breast, an ancient symbol of the Eucharist.  Window on north side of St. Gregory's Church, Oshawa

Catholic Presence at Colleges & Universities

If you are going to university in the Toronto area, there are a number of ways to connect with other young people looking to experience community in their faith life.

At Ryerson there is a Catholic Chaplaincy.  There is a Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/RyersonCatholics.  

At U of T there is a chaplaincy at St. Michael's College as well as Newman Centre on St. George Street.  Initiatives have also been taken at UTM.  For Newman see:  www.newmantoronto.com.  For UTM see:  http://utmcsc.wordpress.com/.  For St. Mike's see:  http://stmikes.utoronto.ca/campusministry/.  
York also has a Catholic Chaplaincy:  http://yorkcatholic.ca/.  Locally UOIT has a Catholic chaplaincy:  http://catholicstudentassociation.com/.  This chaplaincy is also for Durham College students.

If you are studying farther afield and would like some help just let me know at the parish.

Aside from experiencing community with other young adults living their faith these chaplaincies are in tune with your own growth and development.  The activities and experiences offered are more self-directed than you might be used to back at the parish.  They give you a chance to "own" your faith in new ways.

Medieval chapel at a German castle outside Cologne

Welcome to St. Gregory @ Large

In the mobile world in which we live we need to connect electronically.  This blog is meant to help us at St. Gregory the Great Catholic Parish in Oshawa to stay connected with one another. 

The most regular group of "travellers" are young people, headed away from home for school or work or sometimes adventures and formative experiences. 

I hope the blog helps to support your life of faith.  It will be interactive and the themes that make up the entries hopefully will be things you can apply in daily living. 

Jesus says to us that He is near.  As we grow and change we need to be updating our receptors and developing our ways of sharing that nearness. 

Tapestry of the resurrected Lord at the Vatican Museums originally woven for the Sistine Chapel.