What did and didn't happen.

Today I'm going to share with you a list of things that did happen since the last time I've posted and a list of things that didn't happen since then......

I DID get outside of Denver.  We went driving through the mountains and got out to explore a little bit too.  Yvonne said, "You just don't realize how much you need to get out of the city till you're out!"  To which I replied, "Well, sometimes you do..."
I DID leave a phone message for a woman in Spanish.  She didn't understand it, but she called back and I explained again, and this time she understood.  That's good enough for me. 
I DID go to another Rockies game- their last home game. 
I DID receive a million dollars in the mail.... unfortunately, all the bills said "fake" on the back.  Thanks, Joe.
I DID figure out how to register a team for a local basketball league.
I DID rejoice with a woman who attends our bible study at the Sam House, who told us she is going to become Catholic!
I DID play in the rain for half an hour during the only thunder storm that's happened since I've been here.
I DID skype with all of my roommates from last year. 
I DID get assigned as Master Chef for the upcoming week, and Bishop Conley is coming for breakfast this week.  Get ready for a taste of the Midwest, Bishop!
I DID hold a two-week old, four pound baby girl. 
I DID drop Bri's breakfast on the ground.  Then, in the process of making more eggs for her, I dropped and broke the plate too. 
I DID find what I believe to be the only hill within my current running radius.  I decided that I enjoy running on varied terrain more than I dislike running up hills. 
I DID wear my Nebraska hoodie, and was greeted by 3 different supporters.  The only negative comment I received was from a teammate whom I have yet to convert. :)
I DID listen to an awesome talk by Cardinal Arinze.  Here's a picture of him, Archbishop Aquila, and some of us missionaries.

I DIDN'T get completely rid of that hematoma that's been on my leg since sliding into 3rd base back in early May.... maybe in another month it will disappear. 
I DIDN'T go hungry.
I DIDN'T play cards.... lame.
I DIDN'T receive my new blood donor card in the mail yet.
I DIDN'T get tuberculosis.  Two TB tests have proved so. 
I DIDN'T clean my room. 
I DIDN'T remember the new Spanish word I learned this week: the word for a swing.  Spanishdict.com reminded me that it's un columpio. 
I DIDN'T stay in contact with as many people as I wanted to.
I DIDN'T learn to bilocate.
I DIDN'T write blogs for the Mullen Home like I was supposed to.  Guess I've been failing at a lot of blogs lately.
I DIDN'T get bitten by a bug, cause they don't exist in Colorado. 
I DIDN'T get a back massage.
I DIDN'T get mistaken for a homeless person, as a few of my teammates have had happen to them. 
I DIDN'T have anyone come visit me... I'm still waiting....
I DIDN'T figure out my way around Denver yet.  Seriously, I know I'm bad at directions, but who builds a city like this??

I LOVE MONDAYS!

I love Mondays.  No, I'm not being sarcastic.  Yes, this is real life.  I love Mondays!

First of all, Mondays are great because usually I get at least a little more sleep over the weekends, so I feel slightly more awake than I do the rest of the week.  Also, we start Mondays with mass and a holy hour.  (And even though I do have that extra bit of sleep in me, I still find myself falling asleep in adoration, but what better place to sleep, right?!)  Then, we have a great breakfast, and since our weekly chef typically does the shopping over the weekend, nothing is expired yet and we have things like fruit and yogurt sometimes! 

After breakfast we have intellectual formation, so a speaker comes to our place and gives us a lecture on a variety of topics.  Today we just finished up salvation history, and I learned a lot about the Old Testament world that I never learned before.  Next I do some office work for about 3 hours.  I never thought I'd be excited to do office work, but I really enjoy it!  I get to email a bunch of people about a bunch of things, and I get to create and organize files, and work with the company of one or two other missionaries who do office work that day as well as our director.  I also get to have lunch with them, and today we had a great discussion about literature and our culture and immaturity and I don't even know what else.  It was awesome.  :)

You're probably thinking right now, Wow, what an awesome day! Could it get any better? Indeed, it can.  After my office work is done, I head to the Samaritan House with 3 teammates to join the 2 already there.  We eat dinner with the residents (at like 4:30, which is weird) and also catch up on how each others' day was.  I try to pop my head into Bri's office and say hi.  We split into 3 groups to lead children, teen, and adult bible studies.  I'm with the adult group.  So far, we just go through the readings for the following Sunday, then pick a book of the bible to read from and discuss if there's time.  We never know how many people will show up, if they've come before, if they're Catholic, if they want to talk your ear off or not say a word, but there hasn't been a bible study yet that wasn't fruitful in some way. 

The 4 female missionaries at the Sam House on Mondays will also have the opportunity to join an ENDOW study with the women residents there.  ENDOW stands for Educating on the Nature and Dignity of Women, and is based on JPII's letter to women.  We're there to help the women understand their dignity, but mostly I find that we learn from them.  In two weeks, I'll also start teaching the class that I was talking about in a previous post.  It's a 12 week class, once a week, but we split it into 3 sections, Community, Philia, and Spirituality, and each of these 4 week sections will be taught by 2 of our missionaries.  So I'll only be teaching the class a third of the times we go to the Sam House.  (Knew that math major would come in use somehow.)

Finally, we come back and have a little free time before night prayer, then I'm free to sleep!  Or chat with people.  Or blog.  It's a full day, but I dare say I'm changing the reputation of Mondays, one week at a time. 

Building Community One Soul at a Time

This past week has been so great.  Wanna know why?  I'll tell you why.  In a word, community.  I've had so many opportunities throughout this week to spend some quality time with people.  Like learning guitar with James.  Or "stargazing" (we only saw one that night) with Bri.  Or going to Walmart with a Spanish-speaking resident at the Mullen Home, and finally understanding that she wanted to buy a chicken.  Or running with Morgan.  Or getting to know Monica, one of the volunteers at the Gabriel House.  Or having a dollar coke date at McDonald's with the other Bri.  Or trying to find a park with Abby, and never quite making it there.  I could go on, but I'll spare you.  To top it off, we threw a big party at our house on Saturday for Mother Teresa's feast day, which was earlier in the week, as well as Mary's birthday.

Those of you who are familiar with my apartment last year know that we lived by the motto "Building community one stomach at a time."  And since we don't do outreach with food in quite the same manner as our apartment did last year, I've adapted this motto to fit me better this year.  (I literally am just deciding on this for my motto as I type this, and since I usually carefully think through these things, it could potentially change, but for know I think it will work.)  For my time with CIC, my motto will be "Building community one soul at a time." 

The thing about community is I don't just love it cause it's enjoyable.  It's much deeper than that.  Entering into community with others, whether it's those you live or work with or those you meet just once, allows us to experience Christ in a very real way.  What does that even mean?  Well, Christ dwells in the heart of every individual that we meet- we are all made in God's image and likeness.  Every time we encounter another person, we can encounter Christ.  ("Whatever you do to the least of my brothers, you do unto me.")  Community gives us the opportunity to know and love Christ better by knowing and loving those around us.  Genesis 2 even notes that "it is not good for man to be alone."  We were made to enter into communion with one another and to gain a deeper love and understanding of God through our relationships. 

Mother Teresa notes that loneliness is the worst kind of poverty.  Perhaps that is because isolation from others (not just physical isolation, but mental, emotional, spiritual isolation) is really isolation from God, since He himself is community.  He's a Trinity, who relate to one another in perfect communion.  (Side note: I'm not sure if I'm supposed to use the verb in the singular or plural in that sentence since I refer to God both in the singular and in the plurality of his Persons... if anyone wants to interject with their thoughts, I'd be really interested in knowing what to do there!)  Since God is a relationship and we are created in his image and likeness, it is our joy and our duty to enter into relationships with Him and his children.  The community we build here on earth is so great, but it is just a shadow of what heaven will be like- eternal communion with God, and through that communion, eternal communion with each other!

A professor at Benedictine once put it this way: when we enter into community with others, when we start to suffer when they suffer and rejoice when they rejoice, our souls are beginning to overlap.  (Figuratively, of course.  It's an analogy.)  The same is true for our relation to God, and the more we know and love Him, the more our souls begin to be transformed into Him.  In heaven, we will be in perfect communion, and our souls will all be completely overlapping and entirely united in God.

So I didn't mean to turn this post into preaching, this is really what's been on my mind a lot lately, so I just thought I'd share it with you!  I meant to post some pictures too, but I think I'll save that for a later time since I haven't uploaded them to my computer yet.  Until then, I plan to just build community one soul at a time!

Life

As I was trying to think of something to write about for this post, I was complaining to my teammate Liv that nothing has happened this week.  She very patiently reminded me that I don't have to write about a life-changing experience, that it's just nice sometimes to read about a simple story or a normal occurance too.  I decided to take her advice and just give you a bunch of snippets of my life. 

Not only do I feel confident in taking the bus now, I actually made a friend the other day.  That's right.  I made a friend on the bus.  Her name is Sasha, she's 19 and living on her own cause she comes from a rough family.  She's working evenings at a sandwich shop while taking classes for a GED.  She's a pretty cheerful girl, and wants to become a pediatric nurse.  I'm excited to hopefully get to know her better since she takes the bus to work about the same time I'm coming home from the Gabriel House. 

I taught 3 of my teammates to play pitch!  That made me pretty happy... even though we lost. 

Our handyman, Joe, who lives with us, took me and my teammate James out to lunch last weekend.  It was really awesome... We laughed about how we hadn't had a real burger in so long. :)

It feels like our house has pretty much turned into a food bank.  The past week or so and the next week or so, we are receiving donations that usually go to a different place, but it's closed right now.  Our fridges, freezers, and pantries are overflowing with food, although most of it is really random stuff.  In fact, today a few missionaries took a bunch of the bread we have and just handed it out to homeless people.  Our multitude of donations will probably end in about a week or two, but for now, it's nice to not feel guilty about snacking.

So one of the things I do once a week is lead a class at the Samaritan House, a Catholic shelter designed to help people off the streets and help them find housing and employment.  Part of what they have to do is attend a certain amount of classes, such as the one we are teaching.  My teammate Bri and I are teaching the 4 classes about brotherhood/ philia, so if you have any thoughts on what our curriculum should include, let me know!  One interesting thing about our classes is that they will include a service project.  I'm sure you are probably thinking, Really? You're gonna do a service project with homeless people?  Who are they going to serve?  But I'm really excited about this.  Think about the times you've had an opportunity to give back to others.  It makes you feel dignified, not to mention it helps you grow in virtue.  Now think of a time that you've felt like everyone was helping you and giving to you, but you were unable to give back.  It's rather belittling, isn't it?  I don't know exactly what we will be doing, but I'm excited!  (Again, if you have any ideas, feel free to let me know!)