On my way to Nebraska

I'm going to be away from Kincumber for the next ten weeks. Bishop Peter is supporting me in doing the first of three sessions of an MA in Christian Spirituality through Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.

I don't really know much about Nebraska - it doesn't feature on many lists of 'must-see places'. This clip shows it to be quite beautiful and as suspected, with lots of corn and some bison thrown in. This one is a tour of Omaha.

I'm grateful for the opportunity. I look at so many people I know who have done their masters degrees while still working full time, and I realise what a privilege it is going to be to put my life and go and be fully immersed in the study. To live on campus, to eat every day with my fellow students will give lots of opportunities for sharing and learning.

I'll be posting some of what I learn and experience while I'm there so that my family, friends and parishioners can see what I'm up to. I wrote a similar blog ten years again when I was studying in Chicago, and it proved to be both a good way of communicating to everyone back home, but also a good exercise for me to distill my learnings and experiences into a small post. Aristotle thought that "the unreflected life is hardly worth living", a blog is a good way of being reflective.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Spiritual Exercises

Image
Any way of prayer or mediation may be considered a spiritual exercise. Just like physical exercise it helps to have a plan, a coach and some discipline. The Spiritual Exercises (notice the capitals) are a series of meditations and contemplations which 16th century St Ignatius of Loyola composed from his own prayer experience, and then taught to his followers, who became the Society of Jesus (The Jesuits). The Exercises are mostly contemplations of scenes in the gospels, where we are to use our imagination to place ourselves within the scene so as to meet Jesus intimately, allowing the gospel account to unfold as we watch, listen, feel and take part. Following the contemplation of the scene is a prayer dialogue with Jesus about whatever we experienced and learned. Woven throughout the program of gospel scenes which Ignatius chose are some specific meditations on sorrow for sin, choosing to follow Jesus, and then giving yourself wholeheartedly to Jesus. The Exercises can be don
Read more

Rhythm

Image
I'm now in the middle of my second term. Life on college campus has a wonderful rhythm here, which for me is 6 wake, prayer, breakfast 8 Counselling skills class 10 Theology of the Spiritual Exercises class 12 lunch, break, study 5   Mass , dinner study, exercise and that's about it! In between there are wonderful conversations in the dorm rooms and hallways,and occasional walks downtown for groceries or an evening stroll. Tuesday night is a 7pm Mass for our whole class group (about 50 people this term) and Friday night is a social dinner. Weekends are free, and I usually go to the 10.30am Mass here on campus. Some people here are getting cabin fever, feeling frustrated and/or bored of the same routine and being with the same people all the time. I like it. I think having spent years in seminary I'm quite OK with an institutional style of life. It feels to me very contained, where all my focus is on the one community of people and in the same direction. In normal
Read more

Brian Wilson

Image
Brian Wilson was the brains behind The Beach Boys, who seem to feature in the soundtrack of most people's teenage years. Tonight I went to hear him in concert in Omaha as he played for the 50th anniversary of the Pet Sounds album, a record so groundbreaking that Paul McCartney cites it as inspiration for Sergeant Peppers. I wouldn't have known the concert was on except that The Beach Boys are my room mate Kevin's favourite band. I fell in love with Brian Wilson when I watched the biopic Love and Mercy last year. Wow. What  perfect concert. It was outdoors at sunset, but in a small amphitheater rather than a stadium. As befitting a concert by a 74 year old and attended by hippies of various generations it was over by 9pm so not a long late night (its a school night!) and close enough to walk the couple of miles home. Brian and his 10 piece band played the whole Pet Sounds album including the sublime God Only Knows plus all of the upbeat favourites like Good Vibra
Read more