Archbishop Sambi...and Theology 101

So, I have now been living at BC for over a week now and it's still going great! I still love being here and everyone that I have met here! :)

But...the reason that I am writing this blog is because there is some exciting news going around campus! Tomorrow, the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Pietro Sambi is coming to BC and celebrating our opening all school mass and giving an address afterwards! For those of you who don't know what a Papal Nuncio is...I'll explain. ;) Archbishop Sambi is Pope Benedict's personal ambassador to the United States. In comparison to our society, he would be similar to one of the president's cabinet members...and he's going to be on campus tomorrow morning!! We are all very excited and I think everyone feels extremely honored to host Archbishop Sambi for the day. So, I will be sure to write another blog and update all of you about how the mass goes tomorrow...I definitely have some high expectations...possibly because I haven't been to an all school mass since elementary school . :)

Another note that I wanted to make was that for my Intro to Theology class one of our texts is titled "Theology and Sanity" by Frank Sheen. Now, I have only read a little bit of the beginning of this book but from what I can tell I'm going to enjoy it! In the twenty pages that I read, one thing that Sheen spent a lot of time talking about is our reliance on God. He made the point that we were made from nothing and without God in our lives that's exactly what we are...nothing. The way he explains the concept makes complete sense and it was a way of thinking I had never considered before so I enjoyed reading it. So...right now, I would say I highly suggest all of you to read the book (or at least pages 21-44) and read how Sheen describes theology and our dependence on our Savior.

But, I have to go...of to mass in the Abbey! :)

COLLEGE! :)

Just wanted to give all of you a quick update...

I moved down to Benedictine on Saturday and have been loving it so far! Everyone that I've met has pretty much been awesome and super nice. When we got here on Saturday we were greeted by a big group of upperclassmen and they moved all my stuff up to my room for me which was AMAZING! Marissa was already here when I got here so we talked about how we wanted our rooms and our very kind and loving fathers moved everything for us. :) And we got everything set up and some of our stuff put away right away. Then we ran to Wal-Mart to get a few last minute things (like batteries...and thumb tacks) and then there was a send-off mass for students and parents. Let me just tell you, it was absolutely amazing! The Abbey church is gorgeous (so if you've never seen it you should probably come visit me sometime) and the mass was beautiful and included one of my favorite readings of all time (Ephesians 5:21-31). They had a wonderful meditation at the end about family and growing up and now moving to college and in all honesty, I teared up a little bit but I don't consider that crying. Then we said bye to parents/family and went to have dinner.

Ever since then we have been crazy busy with ROC (Raven Orientation Camp) Week activities and we are always doing something! We get back to our room at like 11:30 and we are dead tired! It's kind of ridiculous. Haha, but it has been a ton of fun and I think I have met approximately 200 people since I have been here but unfortunately...I don't remember anywhere near all of their names :/ but I'm hoping I will get better with names as time goes on...we'll just see about that. Classes start on Wednesday and I'm actually looking forward to them just for the simple fact that I can get in a routine again. I get so lost without a routine and knowing what's on my agenda for the day (weird, I know). But I am definitely a little worried about them at the same time...basically, I'm just hoping that they aren't so crazy hard that I can't do well in them!

So, everything is going really well. Marissa (roommate) and I have been getting along really well and haven't had any problems so I'm pretty sure this year is going to be fun with her :)

**side note** Marissa and I are the pretty much the talk of our dorm...why? you ask...because we have CARPET in our room. That's right...apparently nobody else actually has carpet in their room so we have gotten lots of visitors, it's pretty hilarious! :)

But I still miss everyone back at home...I cried for a long time the night before I left because I didn't want to leave everyone and it is still weird knowing that I am so far away from all of those people who are so dear to my heart and we can't just hang out whenever like we used to, but I know I will see them again soon! I'll be home in October...so that's not so far away from now! Love you and miss you all!

Heaven is Everywhere

Another profound conversation with a young mind. :)

If you weren't aware, yesterday was pretty much the perfect day to spend at a lake and it turned into a gorgeous night on the lake as well. So, after church and dinner we went tubing and then skiing (probably past the legal time limit to be pulling skiers but the sun was still kind of out so we could see just fine, haha) and after we got done skiing and boarding we were just driving around the lake and my "little man" Kael came and sat with my dad and I up in the front of the boat and we got into a pretty amazing (but still entertaining) conversation. He started out telling me everything a 6-year-old knows about the American flag and we discussed the significane of the number of stars and stripes etc.and then somehow (I'm not exactly sure how) the conversation turned to outer space and the moon and Kael told me that if you go to outer space you can't go to heaven...and it made me wonder what his reasoning for this statement was. So I asked him if the reason they couldn't go to heaven was because they were "above" heaven when they went to outer space to which he gave a "duh Katlin" response of "No, because heaven is everywhere...including outer space."

After my reflection on that one short statement, I agree with Kael, heaven is everywhere because our planet is God's way of giving us a small slice of heaven. So, no, heaven and earth are not the same but God has given us gifts here of earth that show us glimpses of His kingdom above and we just have to look more closely to realize what those gifts are. Contrary to Kael's beliefs though, I do think astronauts can go to heaven but the kid has a valid point and heaven truly is everywhere...we just have to look for it.

:)

My Downfall

So, I am sitting in my room writing this blog and really I should be cleaning my room and tending to other items on my ever-growing to do list...but instead I have chosen to sit here on my computer for nearly the past two hours not really doing anything. Way to go Katlin. Procrastination has always been something I am really bad about. If I can put something off, I will. I always get those things done on time but apparently I really enjoy making myself miserable and extremely stressed by not working on those tasks until the last possible moment! Just so you know...my room has been messy probably since about...March. I still have binders and things sitting around from State FCCLA Conference (which was March 30-April 1) as well as graduation gifts and cards and bags and clothes from random trips I have gone on throughout the summer. Awesome. And what's worse is that I have told myself countless times that I NEED to clean my room but I come up here to do it and I find something else to do that is more appealing (such as taking a nap, or in this case, writing a blog). 

The stress that comes from the procrastination is not something that I always handle with grace but through the years I have begun to get better at it. I like to blame this nasty habit of mine on 4-H. You probably won't understand this unless you were in 4-H but every 4-Her knows that the fair projects are never done until the night before judging and sometimes not even started until the week of judging. So the whole "goal oriented" business that comes with 4-H is really a good idea but we all know that 4-Hers don't set goals for themselves until shortly before fair so that we can have something to put on our write-up. So, when I first joined 4-H back when I was in elementary school and experienced the infamous "night before fair" for the first time I cried...a lot! I wanted to get everything done but I didn't see how I was going to be able to get all of my projects done before the next morning. This trend continued for the next few years...long enough that my dad began to label that Wednesday night "cry night" because he knew it would be stressful and a 7th grade girl isn't usually one to deal with stress well. :) Now, the "cry night" hasn't happened for several years but the stress is still there and this procrastination business is something that I try to improve upon constantly but I have yet to master it...dang.

Maybe college will help me kick that habit ;)

Off to clean!

Naps on the Beach

So, I just have to share this story from my day:

I got up to the lake this afternoon and two of my younger cousins were staying with our grandparents so we were all hangin' out up here and they left Patrick and I with Makiah and Reece while they went to church since Patrick and I are going to Teen Mass tomorrow night.

We played a lot, had a snack, wrestled, watched TV...you know, the usual. But then Reece and I decided we wanted to go outside. So we got out of the house I thought it would be a good idea to walk down to the little beach area down the street. So, of course, we were about halfway there and Reece decided he didn't like my idea and wanted to turn around and go home. But I told him he would have fun at the beach and picked him up and carried him for awhile until we were practically at the beach. When we got down to the water I told him he could play in the sand and at the edge of the water but I was going to sit on a stack of dock sections that was sitting back from the water a little ways. Immediately he said he wanted to sit on my lap. So, we just hung out and talked for a few minutes about all the things we could see but within 5 minutes he was asleep. So, I decided it would be a good choice to just hang out there for awhile and let him sleep instead of walking back to the house and risking the possibility of waking him up. After 45 minutes or an hour I decided to head back home and so I picked up his shoes and started the trek back. 

As I was walking it hit me that I was experiencing just a sliver of what Christ experienced and the love I showed for this boy is similar but on a much smaller scale. I was carrying Reece and I held his life in my arms and everything that came with his precious life. Christ carried all of our lives with him on his trek to Calvary and everything that came with our lives, including our sins. I gathered up Reece and picked up his sandals and carried his tired body back to the safe dwelling of our house. Likewise, Christ picks us up and carries us back to Him when we are too weary to find our way back to Him on our own. When we have worked so hard to find our way to our Lord and we have grown too weary to have faith anymore he is always right there to sweep us off our feet and take us back home. Once we got back to the cabin, Reece peacefully awoke and didn't throw a fit or anything! (that's slightly impressive for this 2 year old boy) and when we return to the house of the Lord we should be overjoyed and well-rested and ready to be on fire for our faith all over again. And, Reece was definitely ready to play with more energy than he had before his nap.

So, basically...God is amazing and it continues to impress me how he uses everyday happenings to bring Himself into our lives and remind us that He loves us more than we could ever imagine!