Back from break

I just got back from spring break. I didn’t do anything too exciting. I visited Vanderbilt University. I was really impressed with their facilities and faculty. Deciding where to go to grad school will be very difficult. I will be visiting Penn State in a couple weeks, just to make my life more difficult before April 15.

I haven’t been posting any comments at Rob’s challenge, but I have been reading. We finished Matthew last week, and are now working through Mark. While in Nashville, I bought Scott Hahn’s “A Father Who Keeps His Promises,” which I will be adding to my lent reading list. I’ve read two chapters, and I am enjoying it so far.

Matthew 17-18

Today’s reading was from Matthew 17-18. I am always moved by the description of the Transfiguration. In Matthew 17:8 states “When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.” How much easier would our lives be if all we saw was Jesus? Instead of peers, tempting us to sin, or our own reflections. Rather than desiring to please ourselves or whoever it is that we see, we would only see Jesus, and everything we’d do would be for his glory.

We are also reminded in this reading that even the disciples lacked faith at times. Their inability to drive the demons out of the child was probably a sort of ego check for the disciples. They had lost sight of who was actually performing the exorcisms. Luke’s description of this is a helpful companion to this reading (I couldn’t help but jump ahead).

In Chapter 18, Jesus states that the childlike will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. Is he speaking of humility? Or innocence/purity? All of the above? Or is it something else?

He also speaks of forgiveness in this chapter. Jesus dismisses the idea of legalism. There isn’t a maximum number of times that one should forgive others. We should forgive one another freely as we expect God to freely forgive us. Just as we wouldn’t want a superficial forgiveness from God, we should forgive others from our hearts.

And now for something completely different…

This weekend I flew out to Cleveland to visit the chemistry department at Case Western. To be honest, I was hoping that I wouldn’t like the program, but I was completely and genuinely underwhelmed. I don’t even know where to begin with my complaints, but I’ll just summarize to say that I was this program was not right for me.

For anyone reading who may have some interest in pursuing graduate school, in chemistry or any other science, I would absolutely suggest visiting the campus before making your final decision. There are some things that simply aren’t included in the US News rankings or any website a department can create. My problem with Case was that the students didn’t seem to care. They weren’t passionate about chemistry. They didn’t appear to enjoy their research (if they did, they had a difficult time communicating it). Many of the students put in the absolute bare minimum in the lab. I couldn’t find a single student who chose Case Western on merit; most of the students wanted to live in the Cleveland area, or didn’t get in elsewhere. After telling some of them the other schools that I’ve been admitted to, several said “If I’d gotten into Penn State” (for instance) “I would have gone there.” Hello? I mean, I don’t want the students to lie about their experience at the school, but at least pretend to like it. Give us something to work with.

The faculty was very much the same. They talked up other schools more than they did Case. During our one on one “interviews,” every single one of the professors talked about their research. They didn’t ask any questions, they didn’t allow us a chance to ask them questions. I completely wasted hours of my time reading up on their research. Also, they seemed very proud of the fact that they baby their American graduate students. They think that because some American students may be intimidated by the foreign students, that they need to lower the standards for the American students. They actually discussed this at length. This completely blew me away. I’m still dumbfounded. The fact of the matter is that these foreign students are going to be the ones that we’ll compete with later on, if not in academia, in industry or government research. What good does it do American students to have their hands held through graduate school?

If nothing else, I am glad that I went to this visit. I now have a better idea of what I’m looking for (and what I’m not looking for) in a graduate program. I am becoming more and more convinced that U of A will be my final choice. I will be visiting Vanderbilt next week, and Penn State in early April.

Lent Challenge: Day 5

Today’s reading was from Matthew 10-11. The key word for today’s reading seems to be “unsettling.” I agree that today’s reading was unsettling to a degree. It reminds us that the entrance to the kingdom of heaven is very narrow. While many of us in our hearts desire to be with our eternal Father in heaven, we allow worldly sins to envelope our souls. Many people become so comfortable in the idea that Jesus died for our sins, past, present, and future, that we forget that we are still obligated to aim to live a holy life. Matthew 10 states that despite the doubts and sins that may surround the disciples, that as long as the disciples (and we) maintained loyalty and faith to the Son of God, that His message would remain unblemished.

In Matthew 11, Jesus reaffirms to both John the Baptist and the common people that he is, in fact, the one who had been prophesized about. He seems outraged that despite the fact that they all knew that the Messiah was coming since they were children, and that they had seen his miracles in the flesh, that they still refused to turn from their sin. Rather than being concerned with their sin, they were looking for a politician in Jesus. They were searching for a certain image, and as such rejected what I would think would be the most important thing: that he was the son of God, and the message that he brought.

Now, obviously, it isn’t that simple. If I were to find myself in the physical presence of God, I would be terrified. Even if I had no sins, my imperfections would be amplified in comparison. It would become blatantly obvious that I was in need of a savior, because I am aware of my own sins. But for those who don’t recognize their own sins, or those who minimize their sins, I can imagine that being in the physical presence of God was not as threatening. They were obviously confident enough to continue with their normal sinful lives afterwards. For those of us who are aware of our sins, who understand the burden of our sins, Jesus offers us rest in exchange for our faith and trust. If Jesus is capable of relieving us all of our burdens in an eternally significant way, there is no doubt that he can do the same in our everyday lives.

Lent Challenge: Day 8

Today’s reading was from Matthew 17-18. I am always moved by the description of the Transfiguration. In Matthew 17:8 states “When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.” How much easier would our lives be if all we saw was Jesus? Instead of peers, tempting us to sin, or our own reflections. Rather than desiring to please ourselves or whoever it is that we see, we would only see Jesus, and everything we’d do would be for his glory.

We are also reminded in this reading that even the disciples lacked faith at times. Their inability to drive the demons out of the child was probably a sort of ego check for the disciples. They had lost sight of who was actually performing the exorcisms. Luke’s description of this is a helpful companion to this reading (I couldn’t help but jump ahead).

In Chapter 18, Jesus states that the childlike will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. Is he speaking of humility? Or innocence/purity? All of the above? Or is it something else?

He also speaks of forgiveness in this chapter. Jesus dismisses the idea of legalism. There isn’t a maximum number of times that one should forgive others. We should forgive one another freely as we expect God to freely forgive us. Just as we wouldn’t want a superficial forgiveness from God, we should forgive others from our hearts.

Lent Challenge: Day 2

Today’s reading covered the baptism of Jesus, the 40 days and nights of the Temptation of Christ, and the beginnings of Jesus’s ministry.

Lent Challenge: Day 1

Rob’s Lent Challenge is off to a great start! Today’s reading was Matthew 1-2, which includes the genealogy of Jesus’ stepfather Joseph, and the events leading up to and following the birth of Jesus from the perspective of Joseph. It emphasizes the very human aspects Jesus and his family, how Joseph had doubts about the whole ordeal. The moral of the story is that despite the doubts, despite the fears, despite what others would think of him and his wife, Joseph allowed his faith in God to prevail.

There are loads of great comments on today’s readings on the challenge page.

I will be heading to Cleveland tomorrow, so I won’t be around to blog about the readings for the rest of the week. I hope to post my thoughts on those readings when I return on Sunday.

Here we go…

My official Lent goals:

1) Pray the liturgy of the hours twice a day.
2) Pray the divine mercy chaplet once per week.
3) Read The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris and Prayers and Devotions by Pope John Paul II daily.
4) Read and contemplate the 4 Gospels in the New Testament.

Lent 2006

This Wednesday, March 1, marks the beginning of Lent. Its the 40 day period before the Feast of Easter, symbolizing both Jesus’ 40 day prayer journey in the desert before the start of his earthly ministry and our own faith journeys. It is a time for us to reflect on our lives, both the past year and our lives as a whole, think of the ways we have followed the example of Jesus, and think of areas where we need improvement. Requirements of fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and abstaining from meat on these days and the other Fridays of Lent (Church Laws, not Divine Laws, and as such changeable) are ways in which we show communion with our fellow Christians.

This Lent is special for me, of course, because it is my first as a Catholic. I recall always giving something up for Lent in middle school, because, well, it was the thing to do. But rather than (or in addition to) focusing on sacrificing things that stand in between me and God, for this period I plan to add certain things to my routine that I consider to be spiritually enriching:

1) Liturgy of the Hours: During RCIA, I prayed the Liturgy of the hours twice a day. After confirmation, it stuck for a few weeks, but due to exams and such, it kind of fell by the wayside. I think that it is very important to keep my life Christ centered, and these prayers are one way that I can do that. So, rather than hitting the snooze button thrice in the morning, I plan to hop out of bed to pray. I will pray the Liturgy at twice a day, in the morning and evenings.

2) I have been reading the bible constantly since RCIA. I read in Rob Williams’ (orangejack’s) blog that he is reading the four Gospels over the 40 day period. I plan to join him, and will follow his plan here

Now, some things that I will be giving up:

1) No internet access after 7pm. I feel that my time spent online would be better spent enriching my spiritual life and relationship with God. I will begin to pray the divine chaplet once a week, and I have several books lying around that I have been waiting to read. One is The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris. I plan to blog about this during Lent.

I will come up with more before Ash Wednesday.

God Bless,

Photos from my trip to Tucson