The Well is Deep

Jesus the Bridegroom.  The very words send a thrill through my heart.  The sisters heard me go on and on about the topic, but you, my lucky readers, are a whole new audience!

Thanks to my time in the convent, I’ve been given a love for scripture and new eyes to see its depth.  The top two things that have opened up scripture for me are:

1. Reading scripture with Jewish eyes.
2. Seeing that Jesus is always the Bridegroom.

Today’s Gospel is the perfect example of this.  In the Old Testament, whenever a man and woman met at a well, they ended up getting married.  Another key piece of information is that the Jews and Samaritans were “divorced” from one another.  The Israelites had split into the Northern and Southern kingdoms, with Samaria in the North and Jerusalem in the South.  So when Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well and asks her, “give me a drink”, what He’s really saying is, “give me your hand.”

What really turned me on to all this is Dr. Brant Pitre and his book Jesus the Bridegroom.  I strongly recommend it to all.  The most important thing I want to convey is that Jesus is a personal bridegroom to each one of us, not just of the Church in general, and we experience this best through prayer.  When I learned how to pray according to the Ignatian method of prayer I felt like I had never prayed before.  This involves imagining the scene with all your senses and placing yourself in it.  Imagine yourself as the Samaritan woman.  Jesus asks you for a drink, you ask him for living water.  What are your “husbands”, those things that you are ashamed of, that you think make you unworthy? He already knows and He is “the one”, the Christ, the Bridegroom.

 

Waiting on the World…at the DMV

Dear Sir, what’s your story?

I left the golden island for streets of gold.  I left the warm beach for cold concrete.  I left hopelessness for a chance at happiness.  I left empty pockets and took a chance with these empty hands.  Family?  I left a daughter and a little one on the way.  I came to make it.  I came to the land of dreams.  I came again and again just like you.  Your eye?  I didn’t want to ask.  Vision’s perfect – 20/20 times two.

And now it begins……

(Posted by Victoria’s family)

On this past Sunday we took Victoria out to the TOR Sister’s Mother house in Toronto Ohio.  We will post updates when possible.  During her formation Victoria will not have access to email and limited contact with her family.  So the best way to communicate with her is to drop her a note addressed as shown on the right.

If you have mass intentions you can actually enter them here: http://www.franciscansisterstor.org/chapel/prayer-requests-2/ 

And if you want to know more about the sisters you can go to their main website at http://www.torsisters.org.

The sisters also have a facebook presence where they have posted some pictures from Sunday.  https://www.facebook.com/FranciscanSistersTOR

Please let us know if you have any questions.

 

 

Praying with Merton

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going.

Yet, my heart is joyous. ie possessing the qualities of, full of – joy

 

I do not see the road ahead of me.  

I cannot know for certain where it will end.

But that it will pass by the place of the skull.Though it may require fasting, it will end in feasting.

Nor do I really know myself,

Is that not what this road is really about?  You, Lord, knew me in the womb.

and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.

Well, that’s terrifying.  Jesus help me want what you want.

 

But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.

And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.

I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

Like children, we bring seemingly meaningless trinkets to lay at your feet.

Our earnest desire inflames your heart with love.

 

And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

My Hope is in you alone. Hope – expectant desire.  This road of fasting will end with feasting.

Be Not Afraid

“You would not have called to me unless I had been calling to you,” said the Lion.

~ The Silver Chair

I could blame it on Nemo, I could blame it on my lack of free time, but in truth I have not written in almost 3 weeks because I have been mulling over some big decisions and couldn’t quite put into words all that God has been asking of me.

In the past few weeks, I have been astounded by the mysterious, yet wonderful ways in which God opens doors.  I have learned that when God swings open a door and asks you to run through it, you make like the apostles and follow him immediately.

I have  been begging God to provide a way for my loans to be taken care of.  After being accepted, that begging became more persistent and demanding(we’re supposed to be like children, right?)  I really need to start being careful what I wish for…

God answered my prayer, but, true to form, not how I was expecting.  The same week I was invited to join the Sisters, I was also offered a nannying job which would allow me to pay off a significant chunk of my debt(but I still need your help!)  As you may remember, I’ve been part of Chi Rho Catholic Service Corps since September and had committed to do that until June.  And yet when this opportunity presented itself, there was a definite sense that it was time to move on and that  God was calling me to take a real and active step towards my Vocation. He has given me another chance to respond with an emphatic “yes!” to his call.

So, at the risk of seeming irresponsible and being rejected by those who do not understand my decision, but with the blessing of the TOR Sisters, I have left Chi Rho.  It was one of the hardest decisions I have ever made, but I am at peace with it.  I will miss my students and coworkers dearly but they will continually be in my prayers.

Stay tuned for updates as I embark on the next step of my journey!

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,  “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?”

 “Here I am,” I said; “send me!”

~ Isaiah 6:8

The Advent Revolution

This is a great video giving a different perspective on Advent. Also, this priest has tons of videos on all different topics that you should check out.

Falling in Love with DC

My Cubicle!

I really slacked off on blogging this summer… I’ll try to catch you up on all the incredible things I’ve been doing and experiencing.

First of all I need to say… I LOVE DC … No but seriously, I love this city and would move here in a heartbeat.  Well, as long as I can travel to Africa once in a while.

Sitting at lunch with my co-workers the other day I had one of those moments when you realize that you’re exactly where you belong and everything seems a little clearer.  I’ve always had trouble living in the moment and am constantly focusing on the future.  Now I can honestly say that I am completely happy and satisfied with the present, which is a wonderful feeling.

Of course, a big part of this is the fact that I’m really enjoying my internship at the Peace Corps.  I don’t feel like a lowly intern, but a real part of the team.  My input is asked for and valued and I am included in everything that my department does.  While most of the work I am doing is data entry, I am working on an exciting project.  As a reminder, I am working with World Wise Schools which creates resources for teachers to help students become culturally competent.  I’ve been asked to create an informational video about what the peace corps does geared towards third graders.  WWS has programs that allow classes to correspond with current volunteers and have returned volunteers come visit them.  For this reason, it is important for the students to understand exactly what the peace corps is.  While I probably won’t be able to see the finished product, I’ll at least get to put everything together for it.  Part of the video will include interviews with returned volunteers which I’ll get to conduct, so that will be exciting.

The other reason I love my internship is that half the time I’m not even working (Although I probably shouldn’t spread that around too much).  Thursday myself and the other interns were invited to have lunch with the director of our office.  We heard his incredible life story and picked his brain about grad school, getting a job and the inner workings of the peace corps.  Wednesday was an “all hands meeting” at which Director Aaron Williams, who was appointed directly by Obama, and other senior staff talked about the progress of the Peace Corps and the future of the organization.  Congress asked them to conduct an extensive assessment last year so this meeting was mainly an update on the outcomes of that assessment.  It really helped me see the bigger context of what I am doing and was great just to hear whats happening in the different departments.

In addition to this, on Monday there was a “coffee talk” with three returned volunteers which was just a casual conversation about their service.  Throughout the talk all I could think about was how badly I want to join the Peace Corps.  In fact, that desire is being confirmed every day at work.

At some point I transitioned from tourist to regular DC professional, so I haven’t been site seeing in while.  I did check a couple more items off of the must see list though: walking around the memorials at night and the zoo.  I’ll try to write another post about those soon. (I promise!)

Museums, Bookstores and Restaurants, Oh My!

Smithsonian American Art Museum

You’re probably starting to wonder whether I decided to join the Peace Corps and am off in some remote jungle with no internet access.  Alas, I have no good excuse for my lack of posting except for insane busyness and laziness.

I can’t believe I’ve been here for almost a month already!  The time has gone by so fast and I’ve only explored a small part of DC so far.  My first weekend here I tried to see as much as possible which included The Natural History Museum, The American History Museum and the memorial day parade and concert.  Since then I’ve visited The American Art museum and the Newseum.  Did you know that there are nineteen Smithsonian museums?!?! I’d like to try to see all of them before I leave, but we’ll see if that happens.  And that doesn’t even cover the other museums like The Holocaust Museum, The Spy Museum and countless others.

Berlin Wall

The Newseum, which isn’t part of the Smithsonian, is probably one of the most interesting museums I’ve been to yet. It’s supposed to be all about news and media but I think they took all the really cool stuff that didn’t fit into any other category and just stuck it here, creating one incredible museum.  One exhibit included pieces of the Berlin Wall and a guard tower from the wall.  Another chronicled major newspapers from the 1500’s to the present.  There was also an antennae from the World Trade Center.  Needless to say, that was extremely powerful.  One of the best exhibits was about gangsters and mobsters and the news coverage that they received.  The museum somehow obtained the actual shack that a gangster was shot and captured in!

Map of Freedom of the Press Around the World - Red=Not Free, Yellow=Somewhat Free, Green=Free

The list goes on, but I think my favorite part of the Newseum was a map portraying freedom of the press around the world.  Almost the entire continents of Asia and Africa do not have a

Guard Tower from Berlin Wall

free press, which is very disheartening.  As someone who’s interested in writing and journalism, this museum was definitely on my must see list and I’m glad I checked it out.

Another part of DC I’ve been exploring is its used bookstores.  So far I’ve found two and my wallet is definitely showing it(but not too much).  I have a weakness for books and have spent hours in both of these cheap caves of knowledge.

Very soon after arriving here I realized how expensive everything is and accepted that fact that I won’t be eating out very much.  However, the few restaurants I have eaten at have been worth it.  One day a friend and I checked out a West African restaurant down in the Adams Morgan area.  I was in heaven of course, and the food was delicious.  My friend had goat meat but I wasn’t feeling as brave and stuck with chicken.  A band came in while we were there and added even more West African flavor to our meal.

I’ve also experienced Chipotle for the first, which is like the subway of burrito restaurants.  The other day I checked out Potbelly Sandwich Shop, which everyone raves about.  It certainly lived up to its reputation.  Now that my wallet is a little thinner though, my dinners tend to consist of tuna and cheerios…

Peace Corps: The Hardest Job You’ll Ever Love

My office!

The hardest job you’ll ever love; this is the tagline used for the Peace Corps and I think it accurately describes my time there so far.  While my internship is nothing close to serving in a rural village of Kenya, it has been demanding and exciting.

I didn’t start my internship until a week after I arrived in DC, so by the time Wednesday came around I was anxious to get started at the Peace Corps.  The first day was slow going and consisted of a lot of training and waiting around. As part of my internship, I am working with databases, so I, along with my fellow interns, went through training on how to use those. Since the Peace Corps is a federal agency, everything is secure and needs to be accessed through a password, so we also worked on setting up those. A majority of my day was spent on the phone with the IT department getting access to the various programs and databases I need to do my work.  Needless to say, by the end of the day I was frustrated and ready to get my hands on some real work.

Thankfully, on Thursday and Friday I was put right to work with a combination of administrative tasks and bigger projects. My dad asked me if I was making coffee at my internship and I was happy to tell him that the answer was definitely no. My internship is giving me a first hand look at an underfunded and understaffed federal agency. Before I leave in August, at least four people are leaving my department and chances are they won’t be replaced anytime soon.  One of my tasks is to answer emails about the speakers match program which sets up returned peace corps volunteers to talk in classrooms and other venues about their experiences as a volunteer. Some of the emails were from weeks ago, telling me that no one has the time to keep up with them.

Much of my work will consist of work like this with the speaker’s match program. This will include registering new speaker’s and updating their contact information.  However, on Friday we had our first staff meeting and myself and my fellow intern, Emily, were assigned two bigger projects. The office I am working at creates resources for teachers to use in teaching about foreign countries and cultural competence. We were put in charge of creating webpages for each country in which Peace Corps volunteers are serving and making them accessible for children. Since its beginning, Peace Corps volunteers have served in over 130 countries, so this is quite an undertaking.  We are also completing the work of another intern who started a project about the history of the Peace Corps. The employees have already made me feel like a vital part of the office and acknowledge that I have significant insight to offer. Based on the work I have already done in this first week, this internship will be an incredible learning experience.

I’ve been thinking periodically about where I was last summer – Tanzania, and how different this summer is going to be. For one thing I lived in a rural village where time had no meaning and no one was in a hurry to get anywhere. My first day there I simply sat and talked with my students, without worrying about having someplace to be or something to do. I had to learn about a whole new way of life there and to some extent the same is true here. Here in DC it seems like everyone is in a hurry and walks with a purpose; I’m already getting caught up in that life. Whether it is learning to use the metro or introducing myself to a key contact, the professional world of DC is a whole new world to navigate.

When in DC: Settling in and Orientation

The Capital Building at Night

Wow. Let me take a second to catch my breath. I arrived in DC a week ago and I feel like I haven’t stopped moving, learning and taking in the sights.  There is so much going on in this city and it seems like everyone has someplace to be.  I know there is enough here to keep me busy for the next two months and I will continually be discovering new things.

For anyone who missed my last couple of posts, I’m participating in an academic internship program called The Washington Center.  I’m interning at The Peace Corps (which kind of makes me the rockstar here) and taking a research and writing class.

After a six hour train ride, I settled into my apartment and met my three roommates.  There was nothing scheduled for Wednesday so we just hung out and took a trip to Target to stock our fridge.  Our apartment is very nice and it’ll be a great place to live for the next ten weeks.

On Thursday we headed into the city for the first day of orientation.  Everyone got split up into their respective programs.  Mine is the Advocacy, Serve & Arts program.  Of course we had to start with a classic icebreaker to get to know each other and then our program advisor went over everything we’re going to be doing this summer, which is quite a bit.  The Washington Center includes many components besides the internship.  I have to do a “civic engagement” project which has to be some kind of ongoing service or involvement in public policy.  I’m still looking for something to do.  We also have a seminar which meets every Monday and varies every week.  It includes lectures from important people, networking and visits to various organizations.  In addition to my classwork, I also have to hand in periodic reflections on my internship work and develop a portfolio throughout the semester.  I’m going to be busy!!

In the afternoon, we traveled to the CityYear office, which is a long term service organization.  One of the goals of TWC is to expose us to as many options as possible for postgraduate work.  They also want to give us chances to network.  There was a  short presentation about the City Year and then we participated in some leadership activities.  The activities helped me become more aware of my leadership style and what I need to work on.  It also helped us get to know each other better.

On Friday we headed over to the Department of the Interior, catching glimpses of The White House, Treasury building and other important places along the way.  Everyone in the program gathered for a general orientation, which gave us a chance to meet even more people.  We listened to riveting (yes that is sarcasm) presentations about professionalism, the goals of TWC and diversity.  As the staff of TWC talked to us about the importance of making the most out of our internships and the fact that this is not a dress rehearsal, but a real job (albeit an unpaid one), the reality of what I was about to embark on really sank in.  Nervousness began to encroach on my excitement but Memorial Day weekend still stood between me and the Peace Corps.

If there’s one thing I know, it’s that this summer is going to be very different from last…