walk it out, father

Sooo formal was good, I don't really know what to say about it other than I love my sisters and I love the boys that were there -- it was a "fantastic trainwreck," if that makes any sense. A wonderful evening... and Flat Rock was absolutely incredible... the hills and the golf course and the club were all perfect. And momma duck rapped, which was pretty sweet. Delta boob tag got a bit out of control, but that was to be expected. :)

This morning I went to a new church with one of my guy pals -- St Anthony's was incredible. It's in the poor area of downtown and its racially diverse, which is awesome. The musicians weren't there today, so everyone was singing and clapping on their own. The Spirit was alive and kickin' to say the least. It made me appreciate differences in culture surrounding the Liturgy... it was the same Mass, just a different spin. I left feeling refreshed and in love with the Lord.

Father's homily was great, too... he talked about a lot of things, but one of them was wisdom and prudence. He told a really good story about an indian going to a chief and telling him that he had conflicting desires tumbling around inside of him, pulling him every which direction. The chief responded that those desires were like wolves... one biting, evil, lurking around waiting to attack... the other gentle, licking your wounds and curling up around your cold feet. The indian asked the chief, "But Father, which one will win?" ... the chief responded simply, "Whatever wolf you feed."

It made me think a lot about which wolf I feed in my life... and it made me think a whole lot about the influences of friends on what part you feed. I think the most deceptive part about the whole battle is keeping everything in perspective... when your friends are encouraging you to live purely and blamelessly, it's a lot easier. When they're not... it's harder. We all know and expect it to fall that way. My problem is getting ahead of myself -- when I grow towards purity even in tough situations, I think my spiritual life is better than it is, simply because I'm going against the grain. Yet if I had the same level of spiritual vigor around another set of friends, I'd feel the need to push myself more towards a virtuous lifestlye. Satan slips pride into the simplest of situations.

A baby got baptized at Mass today, as well... and it was seriously one of the most beautiful baptisms I've ever seen. She was smiling all through the liturgy and fell asleep right before it was her time to shine... so she literally slept through being passed around the church and having holy water poured on her head. She woke up later when we were singing a hymn because of the clapping. She was simple and pure, and for some reason her innocense really struck me. In the Catholic liturgy the priest says something along the lines of, "these white robes symbolize your blamelessness and purity; with the help of your parents and godparents, may these robes remain spotless and pure when you approach the heavenly kingdom."

Sometimes I think I'm going to approach Heaven looking like I just got finished playing paintball. Sweaty, disgusting, covered in paint, out of breath... having just had a good time, then winding up in the middle of a formal affair. I feel like I would be out of place with the spiritual life I have now... goes to show that I've got a long way to go.

That's the beauty of the Liturgy... you can hear the same thing 10,000 times, yet you always get something new out of it.

Ooh, and Father's take on St. Augustine? "Monica's patience in prayer is incredible.. she spent 33 years praying for her playboy son to come around. The hedon became a doctor of the church!"

The closing hymn had something to do with "lean on the Lord".. and Father was walking down the aisle looking like he was going to walk it out... minus the hand gestures. It was like something out of a movie... Reilly and I were dying laughing all the way to the car. Literally, he'd do the walk-it-out-lean every time the words came up. It was amazing.

Okay, so enough blogging... time to do work. I've got two HUGE papers due on Wednesday, a group presentation tomorrow, and two slideshows to get done this afternoon before Chapter. I don't even want to think about the fact that this is our last chapter with our seniors.

Lean with it, rock with it... :)