Contrariwise

One morning this week, when I was praying Lauds, I looked out the window and thought about how nice God’s creation is. I saw a bird fly by and said, “Thank you for birds, Lord.” Then I saw a hawk fly into the tree across the street, carrying what might have been a squirrel. Not all of God’s creation is exactly beautiful.

Random: At work in Honors a few weeks ago, Margaret mentioned Saint Rock, patron of bad knees. What do you know–he’s real! Saint Rock, pray for me (though my knees have been feeling much better lately).

Yesterday, I got up a little after 8am. After getting up at 6 for work all week, it was a wonderful respite. I got dressed, chatted with Maura a little, then turned on my computer to check my email. At my school addres was a message from Fr. Bill: “I will be saying Mass at 12:30 today for any and all who are interested.” I looked at the clock. It was 12:25. I hesitated for about two seconds, then grabbed some shoes and knocked on Maura’s door. We were out the door and at the CSC in 3 minutes, enough time to catch our breath before Fr. Bill processed in to celebrate Mass for all five of us.

After that whirlwind start to the day, and fortified by Jesus, I went to Target and Giant. Giant was having a sale on boneless, skinless chicken breasts, so I will definitely be having chicken for a while. It’ll go well with my buy-one, get-one-free pasta. I even managed to get a parking space close to the entrance, which is a small miracle on a Saturday, and to haul all my stuff back from the parking garage in my humongous IKEA bag.

Feeling accomplished, I took a break to rub my feet and do my toenails. They get so tired after my walking on them all the time. I listened to a talk on CD to multi-task. When I helped Fr. Bill clean his office, he unearthed two things he gave to me. One was this wonderful book, Benedictus, which has daily excerpts from B16’s writings. The other was the CD I listened to, a recording from Theology on Tap in 2002. His talk was on forgiveness. He made a good point: Sure, people have all this Catholic guilt, but only in the Church is there also Catholic forgiveness. He also explained that you don’t have to forget to forgive: “If someone hits you over the head with a rock, you don’t say, ‘Oh, I forgive you. Here’s your rock back!’ The Church doesn’t expect you to be stupid.”

I went to Mass at the CSC this morning. The readings for Corpus Christi are unusually short for a solemnity. I got a shock when I realized that there is a very long sequence for Corpus Christi. I don’t think Fr. Bill realized it, either, or he would have asked me to read it. And now I know what “Panis Angelicus” is that the Catholic nerds were talking about. I had fun singing “Pange Lingua” at Vespers last night (though I forgot the last bit of it in Latin), and “Adoro te Devote” this morning (in English). We even sang “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” (link to MIDI) during Mass. I like the 10am choir if only because they usually sing the easy breviary hymns, instead of the trickier modern ones.

Fr. Bill was an English major. I don’t know if I knew that. It just goes to show that English degrees are infinitely flexible, even if it does leave you a college and seminary graduate who can’t quite manage “nuclear” in reference to Sacramentum Caritatis.