Thursday, December 27, 2012

I Can't Believe This is Happening!

Well folks, with only fifteen (yes, 15) days left until my departure for Europe, it is finally starting to sink in.  I am going to study abroad!  FOR REAL!  I have been dreaming about this experience ever since the day that I found out about my university's amazing study abroad program.  Which means that I have been dreaming about this since...well, since I was approximately a sophomore in high school and one of my good friends was in Austria for the semester.

In sixteen days I will be living here:


It is called the Kartause Maria Thron and it used to be both a monastery for the Carthusian order, as well as a palace for the Hapsburg family!  The place is older than our country!  And I get to live there for FOUR MONTHS!  (Please forgive the excessive use of exclaimation points and capital letters...I am a little bit excited, if you can't tell...)

Anyways, there are many things to be done between now and then, one of the most important of which is packing.  I am now shamelessly warning you: this is about to become an intense travel blog.  :)   

Monday, December 17, 2012

Preparation


 “Remember not the former things,
nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
- Isaiah 43:18-19

This scripture verse is one that I stumbled across during household retreat (or maybe just before it).  It keeps coming up in my mind.  There is a sense of preparation contained within it.  The Lord says “I am doing a new thing.”  What is that new thing that He is doing in my heart?  I want to know, but I don’t understand yet.  I don’t perceive it.  But I know He is making straight His way in my heart (ref. Isaiah 40:3). 

All the liturgical readings for the season of Advent seem to contain this feeling of preparation, of waiting.  This sense of preparation rings through my heart.  I am waiting. I am waiting for the coming of Christ in the flesh at Christmas; I am waiting for my trip to Austria; and I am waiting for the second coming of Christ as the King of Glory.  All of these are things that require preparation, both spiritually and physically.  And so I have been thinking, what can I do to prepare for these events?  How can I understand what the Lord is doing in my heart?

The answer that I have come to is prayer.  It is so very necessary to pray, because it is how we communicate with God and how He communicates with us.  And if I want to be in union with Him, I must pray.  He will prepare my heart.  He will “make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert" and I will be able to see where He is leading me.

Just like Fr. Joseph, our associate pastor, challenged us in his homily today, I challenge you to commit to a time of daily prayer, especially in these last few days of Advent.  We want to be ready when the King of Glory comes!  

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Switchin' It Up

Don't worry, this is still my blog.  How do you like the new background?  I thought it was time to switch things up a little bit in preparation for Christmas and winter!  Maybe my new background will make it snow...  :)

But don't get too used to this lovely background because I will be switching it up again come next semester.  What would you think of a lovely picture of the snow covered village of Gaming, Austria???

In other news, I am working on a more interesting blog post than this one about...Advent!  It's getting late, but the Advent theme of "preparation" has really been on my heart in the past week or two, so I am going to write a post about it.  I am also hoping to do a Christmas cookie post!  So look out!  

"My heart is stirred by a noble theme,
as I sing my ode to the king.
My tongue is the pen of a nimble scribe."
-Psalm 45:2

Monday, December 10, 2012

Almost There


In a few short days, I will be headed home for Christmas break.  It is hard to believe that this semester is nearly over.  Wasn’t it just a few days ago that Grace and I moved into “the bunker”?  And wasn’t it yesterday that I went walking on the Panhandle trail with Jess and Elizabeth?  But I realized this past week that I only have a few more days left!  My life is not going to be the same after this semester ends.  The people and experiences in my life will be changing as I move into the next phase of life as a college student.  Since I will be leaving main campus to study abroad in Austria next semester, I can clearly see the bend in the road ahead, and the page turning in this book. 

In nostalgia for the (recent) past, here is a quick rundown of some memorable moments this semester:

1) Being roommates with this awesome lady!  Grace has been an unexpected blessing in my life.  We have shared so many things this semester: laughter, tears, late night dancing to “At Last I See the Light,” TEXTING IN ALL CAPS, “the bunker,” and many many many other things.

2) Visiting St. Anthony’s Chapel with Jess, a household sister.  After going to the zoo earlier in the day with several other household sisters and intents, we decided to try to find St. Anthony’s.  We ended up making a couple of wrong turns and then having to sit in traffic on the highway for about half an hour.  But when we finally got there it was worth it.  St. Anthony’s holds the world’s largest public collection of relics…and it is only about an hour from my college!  The moment I walked in I could feel the presence of all the many saints whose relics are there.  I felt such peace there and knew that all the saints in heaven were praying for me.  Another reason why I think the communion of saints is so powerful to me is because I am an All Saint’s Day baby.  J

3) Joining household.  Those of you who read my blog regularly were just waiting for me to write this, weren’t you?  And I did.  But really, getting to know the girls in my household and coming to a deeper realization that God loves me has been such a blessing in my life!

And now, looking forward to the (near) future, here are some things I plan to do over Christmas break when finals are OVER:

1) Bake Christmas cookies – because they are yummy and I like to bake.
2) Go shopping – I really need some new shoes and a few miscellaneous things for Austria.
3) Go to all of my brother’s basketball games.  I can’t wait to see him play basketball, because I know that he has gotten a lot better since last season.
4) Go sledding if it snows - because sledding is fun! 
5) See the Hobbit movie
6) Just spend time with my family – because I am going to be away from them for 4 months.  That’s a long time.  And I haven’t been away from home for that long before!

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Sisters


As I have mentioned in several preceding blog posts, one of the blessings of this semester has been joining a household.  Since some of you who are reading this post might not understand what a household is, I will give you a quick explanation.  In concept, a household is similar to a sorority or fraternity, but is rooted first and foremost in a life of prayer.  A household is a community of women (or men) who share prayer, fun, and all aspects of life together by living on the same wing in one of the dorms on Franciscan’s campus.  They commit to living out a common spirituality (a covenant) and support each other in becoming the fullest people that God wants them to be, saints. 

One joy that has come from joining my household has been getting to know the wonderful women in it, my sisters, better.  There is a particular person who I am so thankful to have gotten to know better over the course of the semester.  I am going to write this blog post about her.

I remember the first time I met this person.  It was at the end of fall semester last year and I was going to play floor hockey at Catholic Familyland with some friends (who are now my household sisters).  They had convinced this sister to come along with us to play, so we stopped by her “Height” (an on campus apartment) to pick her up.  From the conversation that went on in the car when she got in, I gathered that it had been “one of those days” for her.  But we had fun playing hockey together.  I thought this sister was a little intimidating, but I am not a super competitive person and she is. That is all I remember about meeting her for the first time and I don’t remember seeing (or re-meeting) her again for a long time because she left the next semester to study abroad in Austria.

This semester when she came back to campus (and I started visiting household), the person that I am writing this blog post about remembered me and I remembered her.  I am going to be honest – she still intimidated me.  But that didn’t last long.  Once I intented to household and started hanging out with her more, I realized that: 1) she has a soft heart and 2) she doesn’t like to show it very often.  Don’t be fooled…her teasing typically means that she likes you.  :) 

I saw a deeply sensitive and loving side of her after the death of her softball coach and a deeply faithful side of her during household retreat.  And earlier this week, when I wasn’t feeling well, she came to check on me.  This simple little action meant so much to me!  She also gives really good hugs. 

Basically, I am really thankful that I have gotten to know this household sister better this semester.  She is truly a big sister to me.  I am going to miss her soooo much while I am in Austria, but I hope we will be able to keep in touch through Skype and letters.

If you have lasted to the end of this long post, you are probably wondering who this person is.  In the words of a certain song written by another household sister about her, “Lauren Kuzma, that’s her name!”  The reason why I decided to write a blog post about her is because I was commenting this morning that I needed to write a blog post, but I didn’t know what to write about.  Lauren told me to write a blog post about her.  And so I did, because I love her.  Sorry that this blog post isn’t as good as the song that Dani wrote you, Lauren. ;)

To sum all of this up: Lauren Kuzma is a wonderful human being. 


Lauren and I at our household's ugly Christmas sweater party.  Unfortunately Lauren had already changed out of her sweater by the time we took this picture.  But she won the prize for ugliest sweater.  It was green with red bulbs and a shimmery garland stitched onto it.  It also had lights stuck into it, but unfortunately they weren't working.  

Monday, December 3, 2012

End of the semester update


I am a terrible blogger.  It is that simple.  And I shouldn’t make excuses for myself, but I will say that I waver between being comfortable with putting personal information on the Internet and being absolutely terrified by it.  That is part of the reason why I am such an inconsistent blogger.  But I really want to get into the habit of blogging now so that I can keep my blog updated while I am studying abroad in Austria next semester.

However, now that I have that rant out of the way, I will attempt to write about something more interesting.  For example, I am currently listening to a playlist on iTunes titled “MUSIC OF OUR LIVES.”  It consists of 11 songs that my roommate and I listen to frequently.  My favorite is “House of God, Forever” by Jon Foreman.  My second favorite is probably “Remind Me Who I Am” by Jason Gray.  Both of these songs remind me that God is always with me. And that is the kind of encouragement that I especially need right now.  Since it is so close to the end of the semester, I have been very unmotivated and burnt out.  All I really want to do is spend this dwindling time with household sisters who will be graduating in the spring.  Because I am going to be studying abroad in Austria next semester, these final two weeks of the semester are the last quality time I am going to be spending with them.  Even though I am planning to come back for their graduation I know that time will be hectic and I won’t really get to spend as much time with them then as I would like to.  But even though this is a bittersweet time of year, it is also really fun when I do get to spend time with household and friends. 

And actually, some exciting news about household is that… *drumroll* …I was inducted on Thursday night!  I am now officially a Carae Domini sister!  J 

That is all the exciting news I have for you tonight, folks.  Sweet dreams!