"And who'll hear the echoes of stories never told? Let them ring out loud till they unfold." (Nobuo Uematsu)
Name: John Brotemarkle
I am a seminarian studying for the Diocese of Wichita, KS. Currently, I am in my first year of theology studies at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, MO
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The news today brought a chuckle to my lips. It seems that on the heels of a World Series Championship, St. Louis became number one on another list. Except, this list isn't quite as good. St. Louis has been officially rated as the most dangerous US city.
Boy, its a good thing that I don't live within the actual city limits, as the survey only took into account the actual city, not the suburbs surrounding St. Louis. The seminary is not that far from the county line that separates St. Louis from St. Louis County.
It seems that Detroit beat St. Louis at something, they are the second most dangerous US city.
The World Series is finally over. The Cardinals have taken it in 5 games. And they have the lowest record ever for a World Series champion. As I'm writing this blog, my fellow seminarians here are going crazy all over the place. We went up to the tower and started yelling from there as well.
Most people might say that it was Detroit who gave away the series. What I say, its not about the quality of the win, in the end the win is all that mattered. We like to joke that it was divine providence that kept the Cardinals winning.
This is a new experience for me, to be in a city that wins a national championship. This could have been a second time this happened (I was in Lawrence when KU lost to Syracuse in the 2003 Final). I have to say, it is exciting to feel the energy all around the city. To all my readers who aren't Cardinals fans, well, maybe your teams will do better next year.
The workshop went off pretty well. I did have one gripe about it though. Right before the workshop started, we were given a passage of Scripture and told we would have to read it out loud so that we could be critiqued on our style. I think that it would have been better if we had been given our passage the night before so that we could become more familiar with it and read more naturally. Because I didn't have a chance to become familiar with it, my reading sounded a bit rushed. What I was told was that I should learn to differentiate the multitude of characters in the the Bible.
Let's take the passage I was given: Matthew 11:2-6. There are three voices that need to be expressed. The "narrator," John the Baptist, and Jesus. Each need to stand out in their own way so that the people listening can understand the difference in ideas presented. I read all three voices in the same pitch and tone, but not in monotone.
Afterwards, we broke up into small groups and each group was given another passage. Then, each Robert went from group to group for hands-on learning. We were given tips on how to break up our passage, how to vary our pitch and tone, how to make certain ideas stand out (the central idea of the reading), and pretty much to make it flow so that the listener doesn't lose touch. All in all, I'd give it a 9 out of 10.
I would have given it an 8, but I found out that Robert Picado was in one of my favorite TV series; The Wonder Years. He played the gym coach. In fact, when he said this in his introduction, he mention my favorite episode of Wonder Years: the sex-education episode with one of my favorite lines.
Gym coach(to kids): The Jockstrap: What is it? and what can it do for you?
So, the workshop gets an extra point for this reference.
Earlier last week, I found out that there is a student workshop tomorrow. However, I didn't find out what it would be about until earlier this morning. Turns out, we're going to have our workshop on speaking and homiletics. We're going to have a couple of outside speakers come in and give the workshop. They are quite famous people. Their names are Robert Picado and Robert O'Reilly. You might know them from a famous series, Star Trek. Picado was The Doctor in Voyager and O'Reilly was Chancellor Gowron in Deep Space Nine. I'll let you know how the workshop goes.
While watching the World Series, I was amazed to find the number of connections to Wichita. In fact, the starting pitcher for Game 3 for Detroit , Nate Robertson, is from Wichita State University, and was born in Wichita. Not only that, one of the relief pitchers for the Cardinals, Brandon Looper, is also from WSU. Interesting to find out the connections one has to professional athletes.
On the same note, I found out that one of my high school classmates is a professional baseball player. I don't know if anyone will know him, since I think he's doing minor league play right now. His name is Nick Blasi, and he plays with the Oakland A's.
Being in St. Louis for the time being, I feel somewhat obligated to root for the Cardinals throughout the season. Last night, I was working on a paper and I could hear the sounds of the other seminarians who were watching the game. So, I decided to come out and see what was up. Boy, I'm glad I did. What an awesome game! Adam Wainwright did a great job in keeping the Mets from scoring, even with 2 on and 0 out. You can tell that I am going to root for them in the World Series, even if they stand little chance against the Tigers. But, the Cardinals definitely deserve a break, especially the way they ended the regular season.
Anyway, its time for me to take a little break from my studies at the seminary. So, I'm heading home to Wichita for the next couple of days for Fall Break. Hopefully, I'll be able to recharge myself and be more fervent in my studies.
By the way, the paper that was due Sunday? I finished that up before the end of the Cardinals game.
Today is a very important feast day. And it isn't only because St. Luke was an Apostle. Its because he is one of my patrons. He is my Confirmation saint.
Luke is seen as being somewhat well-educated for his time. He is described as a traveling companion of Paul. He is also the patron saint of doctors, being referenced to by many Church Fathers. Paul himself speaks of "Luke, the physician" (Colossians 4:14).
Anyway, enough with the history. What is interesting is that my life is similar to that of Luke's. Tradition has it that he was born a slave. At the time of my birth, my family was going through some hard times. He probably grew up learning medicine. That was the basis of my studies in college. Luke wrote a lot about the women who were close to Jesus, particularly his mother. I have a very special devotion to Mary myself. One of the main themes that Luke uses in his writings is the mercy of God for everyone. One of the main philosophies of my life is forgiveness for all. Even through all the pain and suffering I went through in grade school and high school, I hold no grudges against anyone. When you draw these comparisons up, it is really coincidence that Luke came to be my Confirmation name?
Realistically, when I was looking through the Lives of the Saints right before my Confirmation, I didn't draw upon these similarities. In fact, I saw that Luke was the patron of doctors, and I wanted to be a doctor, so I took his name. I've only seen these similarities in the past year, looking more at the life of Luke. It is interesting to see how the Holy Spirit works in each of us.
Well, its been quite a while since I've been able to post anything. (I told you that I'm not any good at keeping up with this type of stuff). I apologize to any readers, if any, out there. Here's a quick recap of what's happened in the last month:
Underwent Candidacy, being formally accepted by the Church as a candidate for Holy Orders (Sept 27)
Had a chili cook-off at my parish assignment (Oct 9) - didn't win, but got to see two of my brother seminarians dressed up as clowns to bring in the crowd.
Had an alumni day at Kenrick (Oct 6) - it is not like the ones at my old seminary, some of the priests performed a skit making fun of a day in class - the seminarians made fun of the professors, rector, Archbishop Burke, and Archbishop Dolan in a parody of Hollywood Squares, aka Kenrick Squares
Had an online midterm for two classes - Fundamental Theology and Pentateuch. (Oct 13) The Theology midterm was a doozy and took me a good 35 minutes to do for 22 Q's and an essay. The Pentateuch exam was 135 multiple choice, true/false, and matching questions. It took me only 18 min to finish. I got B's on both of them. Some of my pals from my old seminary may remember me as a speed-tester.
...the present...
Although, the best event that happened since my last post: Kenrick invited Dr. Scott Hahn to speak to the seminarians. In fact, that happened just this morning. He gave a very good talk on Scripture in the Liturgy, drawing from The Lamb's Supper and Letter and Spirit, both very good reads. The bookstore nearly sold out of every Scott Hahn book it had. I picked up a copy of Hail Holy Queen and Ordinary Work, Extraordinary Grace, his latest book. I had him sign both of these.
Oh yeah, I also saw the Cardinals take game 3 from the Mets in dominating fashion. Its funny that everyone seemed to think that the Cards wouldn't make it this far, especially after going on a loosing streak to end the regular season. I had a chance to go to one of the playoff games, but it was the same day as the chili cook-off, and as it was for the youth group, I couldn't refuse.
...and into the future
Not quite done with everything that needs to be done yet. I still have a 3 page paper on why we study liberal arts and sciences in seminary studies, due next Sunday. Incidentally, my fall break starts next Friday. Either I finish my paper during the week, or get it done at home over break.
