Still alive. . .

I'm just sticking out my head to let those of you who were wondering know that I'm still alive. I've been struggling to get organized with the beginning of a new semester and trying to stay on top of my demanding reading assignments. Over the course of this weekend I've read a book for ecumenical dialogue called One Faith, the encyclical by Pope John Paul II on ecumenism, Ut Unum Sint, a play by Plato, The Symposium, an essay by Karol Wojtyla on personhood, and much much more. Sometimes I feel as if my brain only has so much space. . . hopefully it doesn't explode. Next on my reading list is the Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila and Lysis by Plato.

Yesterday I went up to the Abbey again (yes, I know, I'm always up there...) with some friends from college and we were joined up there by a diocesan priest we know who said mass for us. After mass we got a tour of the church. Although I've been up there several times I've never had a guided tour of the church and it was interesting to learn about the architecture, art, and history of the building. Afterwards, we got permission to go to the library and spent the afternoon reading in the library. I actually got a lot done. I did take some time out though to have a nice long conversation with one of my friends who's an old Benedictine priest. He explained to me how how dixie land jazz means that no one has to experience the dark night of the soul (I never said it was a serious conversation) and we had a little debate on whether or not smoking a pipe increases the risk of mouth cancer. We stayed 'til vespers and then went out for supper and headed home. It was a nice day away, spiritually refreshing, and actually quite productive.

Anyways, this past week there have been two things I really wanted to post on. First of all, Sainte Marguerite Bourgeoys since it was her feast day this past week and she's one of my favourite Canadian saints. Secondly, I wanted to respond to gabriel's questioning of virtue ethics (see the comments for my post with excerpts from an essay by Karol Wojtyla) and further explain myself. Unfortunately I didn't have the time to post on either. I'll work on the virtue ethics post though once I get caught up on my reading.

You'll notice I'm not posting every day. Such is the life of a university student. It was nice to have the luxury to spend more time on my blog and reading other blogs over Christmas holidays but for the time being I'm having to slow down because life is hectic.