Update part deux, electric boogaloo

It seems only courteous that I inform my readers that I received my acceptance letter from the seminary on Friday. So I am now officially a seminarian. I no longer need any adjectives to hedge my bets against a possible, if unlikely, change of circumstances. I am a seminarian.

I move down to the seminary on August 26. I'll be spending the remaining month trying to tie up a number of loose ends on various other fronts, as well as making sure I have everything I need. I am going to have to go get measured for a cassock so I can have a properly fitted one for cassock day in October. This is simultaneously very cool and a little scary.

Your prayers, as always, are very much appreciated.

An Update

I know that some are interested in an update on my status as a candidate for seminary.

Here it is: I am in. After reviewing my information and the recommendation from the diocesan Commission for Orders and Ministries, my bishop has given his approval for my sponsorship as a seminarian.

I literally just got the letter from the diocese this past Saturday. And on that same day the diocesan vocations director called me and invited me to the seminarians' summer get together on Tuesday and Wednesday. So I spent Monday getting ready and taking care of various errands.

I still need to be accepted to the seminary itself, since it is run by another, neighboring diocese. According to the vocations director, as well as every other priest I know, this is a formality. No one approved by their bishop has every been denied acceptance. So I am now, for all intents and purposes, a seminarian.

I would like to thank everyone who has prayed for me and my discernment. If you could continue to remember me in your prayers and ask God to help me further discern His will in my life, I would be grateful.

Prayer request

Today, June 15, 2009, at approximately 2:30 PM, EST, I will be interviewed by the Commission for Orders and Ministries of my diocese. This is a panel of priests who have been given the various material I have had to submit as part of the process for applying to seminary. Having gone over it, they will use this time to ask me any questions this material may have brought up. After the interview they will suggest to my bishop whether or not I should be accepted as a seminarian. His Excellency will take their suggestion into account when he makes his final decision.

This is one of the last steps in the process of becoming a seminarian. If any of you would be so kind as to remember me in your prayers today, I would greatly appreciate it.

And now for something completely different...

I was browsing "teh interwebs" and saw this post by (amazing) sci-fi author John C. Wright. And, because I'm tired and feeling a bit whimsical, I thought I'd roll with it (even if I don't use ::shudder:: LiveJournal).



My wallpaper is a picture of one of the marines from Warhammer 40,000's Black Templar Space Marine chapter. Someone, somewhere on the web, used the drawing to make one of those "motivational poster" parodies. I'm using it because, for all its faults, the 40k universe can be fun. And because I like the caption. And because the Black Templars are kind of awesome.

You can click on the thumbnail for full size version of my desktop. AWE at a chance to get a glimpse into parts of my mind to which you have never before had access! MARVEL at the number of icons and files on my desktop! CRINGE as I continue to write cheesy lines like this one!

Update on the Seminary

Since someone asked, and since it is National Vocation Awareness Week - even if it is the last day of it - I thought I would offer an update on my current situation.

On the licentiate front:

No news, which may be good news. Classes have only recently resumed after Christmas break, and even professors deserve some time off. My director received at least two other thesis papers the day before mine, so he is reading them in the order that he received them. Hopefully I will hear something in the next few weeks.

While I wait I am preparing to answer the questions I may be asked during my oral examination.

On the seminary front:

I have had my first interview with the Diocese vocations director and have truthfully sworn that I have never committed any actions that would pose an impediment to my potential ordination - i.e. that I have never killed anyone, adhered to heresy with full knowledge and consent of the will &c.

I have visited the seminary my diocese sends her candidates through.

I have received and begun filling out the application for the seminary and sponsorship by my diocese.

I have signed most of the necessary waivers and permission forms.

I have just finished my handwritten letter to my bishop telling His Excellency that I am entering into this under my own free will, that I am doing so for the good of the Church and my own soul and that I understand, insofar as I am able, that the priesthood entails commitments to celibacy and obedience to His Excellency and his successors.

I have scheduled the necessary physical.

I have scheduled the first part of the necessary psychological exam - the written portion.

I have contacted most of the people I am going to ask for recommendations. Three have already sent them in. One has the necessary information and should be working on it (I had better give him a gentle reminder). Two or three others all work in education, so I will contact them in another week or two after first giving them time to ease into and prepare for the new semester.

I still need to write a detailed autobiography. (I was asking my mother some questions the other day, making sure I remembered various childhood details correctly. She asked me why I was writing an autobiography. She had forgotten I needed to write one for the diocese's application process and so she though I was beginning my memoirs a little early.)

I need to begin answering some of the longer questions on the seminary application. If any of them are interesting, I may share my answers here.

Update on my studies

I'm not sure if it has ever come up before, but I am a graduate student currently working on my licentiate in philosophy. All my course work is finished, so I have been writing my thesis. It's title: A Defense of God’s Freedom to Create in the Metaphysics of St. Thomas Aquinas.

I just dropped my first draft in my director's mailbox today. Not counting front and end matter--the dedication, acknowledgments, table of contents, bibliography &c.--it clocks in at just under 150 pages. My director must now read it and suggest any changes. Once he has approved it, a reader will be found for it and I can schedule my final oral examination. Once it receives reader approval and I pass the oral exam, I will receive my licentiate and be licensed to teach philosophy in any pontifical university or major seminary.

I would appreciate any prayers that readers might spare for the successful completion of my studies. I would also appreciate prayers to aid me in discerning what to do after I graduate. At the moment it looks like a decision between finding work as a teacher or entering the seminary. I am currently leaning towards the latter.

An aside

I think I am going to print up a bumper sticker that reads, "Don't blame me, I support a benevolent Hapsburg monarchy."

Other ideas:

"Don't blame me, I voted for Jefferson Davis."

"Don't blame me, I supported the Anti-Federalists."

"Don't blame me, I supported the Cavaliers."

"Don't blame me, I supported the Vendée."

"Don't blame me, I can comprehend Amendment X."

The Truth is Out There

Here's an interesting article on the X-Files:

"The Truth About 'The X-Files," by Tom Piatak.

Addendum:

I have recently participated in a discussion of the X-Files and Mr. Piatak's article over on Mark Shea's blog. The discussion is in the comments on this post. I have decided to repost my comment here, making some minor additions and edits.

The context: I am replying to a poster who thought Mr. Piatak overstated the Christian theme in the series ending and demonstrated nothing more than that the show was anti-government.

My comment: I suppose one could look at the closing lines of the X-Files and see a vague spiritualism instead of a pointer to Christianity. One could probably say the same about the following lines from T.S. Elliot's Four Quartets: "And what the dead had no speech for, when living,/They can tell you, being dead: the communication/Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living." But to do so, I think, is to ignore both the context of the lines and the work as a whole.

I have always seen Mulder and Scully as two people who compliment each other. Mulder's openness to mystery helps keep Scully from falling too deeply into a narrow scientism, while Scully's Catholic faith--however poorly practiced--and her distaste for irrational or non-rational explanations helps reign in Mulder's sometimes naive credulity. As I have begun watching the series in a more systematic order through the DVDs, I have noticed that rarely are either Mulder or Scully completely correct in their initial assessment of a case, though both may have a part of the picture. Mulder must expand Scully's narrowness while she reigns in his openness before they reach a conclusion nearing the truth. In this way I think that Scully and Mulder's relationship is an example of what should exist in true spiritual friendship--or, for any "shippers" out there, of what should exist in a healthy marriage--which is two people helping each other overcome obstacles on the path towards truth, virtue and faith.

As for the X-Files being anti-government, I'm not sure it is that simple. After all, Mulder and Scully both work for the FBI for most of the series. That makes them government agents employed by the executive branch. What the X-Files opposed was the military-industrial complex, the secretive and self-perpetuating intelligence community and any other aspect of government that--through secrecy, size and power--becomes a law unto itself, unaccountable to the moral law, to the rule of law, or to the electorate. That may be anti-our-current-government. But it is not anti-government per se, nor is it contrary to the American political tradition. I would argue that neither is it contrary to the best of classical and medieval political thought, which forms part of the basis for the political thought of the Catholic Church.

Calvin & Hobbes

Since I have been accused of having some kind of particular devotion to John Calvin and Thomas Hobbes over the past few weeks, I thought I would take some time to clarify my position.

The only Calvin & Hobbes I have any particular devotion to were written and drawn by Bill Watterson. They filled my childhood and early teenage years with much joy and wonder. As for the bucket, Pawtucket.

A word I hate

I hate the word "sentient." Though, to be honest, it's not so much the word I hate as the way it's used. "Sentient" is often used to describe beings that possess intelligence, reason, intellect &c. But "sentient" is derived from the Latin sentire, which means "to feel." "Sentient" can still be found in modern dictionaries defined as "having sense perception" and "experiencing sensation or feeling." A better word for a being possessing intellect would be "sapient," i.e. a being that possesses or is capable of possessing wisdom. Wisdom is knowledge of the highest and most universal cause and it is the intellect that allows one to know the universal. Sense perception only allows one to know the particular.

Election '08*

Once again, the major parties give us a choice between bad and worse.

EDIT: Kant attack ad on Nietzsche removed due to YouTube's refusal to remove videos of the desecration of the Holy Eucharist.

EDIT: Nietzsche attack ad on Kant removed due to YouTube's refusal to remove videos of the desecration of the Holy Eucharist.

Don't play their game! Vote for a third party and have a real choice!

EDIT: Kierkegaard third party run ad removed due to YouTube's refusal to remove videos of the desecration of the Holy Eucharist.

Or just write in St. Thomas Aquinas. Why settle for anything less than the best?

* Yes, I'm sure you've all seen these before via other, bigger blogs.** They're still funny and worth posting.

** Notice that I said bigger. I didn't say better. Discerning readers value quality over quantity and all that.

Just a thing

I was torn about posting this. I am not sure it really fits the tone of the blog. But to purposefully hide things about myself seems dishonest, and not posting after thinking I should post it seems to count as purposefully hiding things about myself.

90% Geek

I am a geek and I have been one for a very long time. I was the fourth grader who signed out an unabridged copy of The War of the Worlds from the classroom bookshelf. My teacher had no idea how such a book got on her shelf. She told me not to feel bad if I couldn't understand it. I brought it back the next day. "Too hard?" she asked. "No," says I, "I've just finished it." She asked me a few questions about the plot &c. The next week I was going to the fifth grade for reading class.

I'm not as into technology as I used to be. It may or may not show in some other posts, but I have some Luddite sympathies. I used to really be interested in technology, especially computers. I originally majored in computer science as an undergraduate. But in the end, the math I had to learn was more enjoyable than the programming. And later I found metaphysics more enjoyable than mathematics. I suppose that's a pretty Platonic progression.* Now I'm a Thomist, or at least I'm attempting to be one. Funny ol' universe.

I'd better be careful about these kinds of things though. First you're posting the results of a geek quiz. Before you know it you're posting answers to long questionnaires with questions like "What is your idea of the perfect romantic evening?"** I think we can all agree that such a path is one that it would be best to avoid.

* "Pretty Platonic progression" is an enjoyably alliterative phrase.

** The answer to this question is as follows: "Dancing barefoot on a moonlit beach to the music of the heavenly spheres." The less said about this the better, no?