"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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Its been a long week for me, even though we had Monday off. Everyday this week, I've had something to do in the afternoons that kept me from any free time until after dinner. Tuesday was a conference about the life of Cardinal Ritter, a former Archbishop of St Louis, Wednesday was a long class and spiritual direction right afterwards, today was my work study job - working in the bookstore, and tomorrow is meeting with my bishop, who is coming into town. In addition to all that, I was asked to be the seminarian in charge of the kitchen - the go-between between the kitchen staff and the seminarians. Its a busy position.
Tomorrow marks the end of my second week of classes. So far, classes haven't seemed to too bad. I'm currently taking Moral Theology, Anthropology Sin and Grace, Pastoral Theology, Pauline Literature, Pastoral Spanish, and an elective on the Letter to the Hebrews. The only thing that's really going to bog me down is the amount of reading that each class requires along side the other obligations of the seminary.
But, I still find time to relax when I can. My trusty PS2 helps me out. I did pick up a new game to keep things fresh and exciting from my current game library. This new game is pretty original. Its called Okami. Its hard to explain it, so if you're interested in it, check the website. I considered it worth renting at the minimum.
I'll try not to work too hard, or work too little. I can guarantee that things this year will be quite different than last year.
Wow, its been quite a while since I last posted here. This shows just how busy the seminary life can be. Quick update on the previous semester: Everything went well, we got third at the basketball tourney, losing to Sacred Heart (Detroit) and my grades turned out pretty well.
Over the summer, I was in Queretaro, Mexico, studying Spanish. My bishop is really big on wanting his seminarians to learn Spanish because we have a large Hispanic population in our diocese. So, I was there for 8 weeks, living with a family, and trying to pick it up the best I could. I won't say I did extremely well, but I think I can pass for now.
After those eight weeks, I came home and helped my parents with odd jobs, and did stuff for the diocese. Right now, I'm ready for my second year of theology. The first year class has 26 guys! That's incredible, and a blessing. I know quite a few of them, having gone to Conception Seminary with them.
I can't make any promises about how often I'll update, but I'll try harder this year to be more regular in my postings. For those still reading, thanks.
Well, the Super Bowl has come and gone, and we are all getting back to the real world now. We had a very good party for the game, getting most of the guys here to come. We ate, watched some football, laughed at some commercials, and hoped to win prizes in our pool. The commercials this year seemed to be underachieving. Nothing really worthwhile stood out, just some low-brow humor from some of them. In the end, we watched as Rex Grossman essentially gave the game away to the Colts. I was talking with a friend of mine from Illinois, and he joked that Grossman should have been voted MVP.
Not much has happened to note since my last post. Just trying to make it through my classes and getting over some illnesses and sleeping problem. I have multiple assignments due in the next week and I'm heading out this weekend which makes those assignments a bit looming. For those who wish to know, I'll be heading out to the Pontifical College Josephinum for a seminarian basketball tournament. This is held every year, and this will be the first year I'll go. I'm not a starter for my team, but I'm sure we'll do well enough to win it all. I'll post the results when we get back.
Happy New Year! Yeah, it is a few days into the new year, but this is my first post of the year. Here's yet another rundown of the past several weeks.
Met up with several people that I had worked with over the summer. We worked for a summer catechetical program for the youth. Many of us met together and watched the new promotional video for other dioceses and had lunch and dinner together. The program's name? Totus Tuus. A great program, also helps foster vocations to the religious and priestly lives. Check out their website and their video (my first shameless plug of the year!).
Served almost all the Christmas Masses at my parish. Didn't do one of them because another seminarian took care of that. However, I did the evening, midnight, and early morning Masses. Still, I enjoyed serving and talking with the parishioners.
Christmas with the family was the usual, but I didn't get to enjoy unwrapping the gifts with them, as I was either at Mass or asleep. But, we had a good meal and good times together. My brother had bought a Wii a couple weeks earlier, so we enjoyed some time on that. I got one of the best presents a person can get: a car! Its only the second vehicle I can claim ownership to - I had to share one with my other brothers.
New Years was usual as well. Party at my friend's house, watching the ball drop. However, he had to leave for work an hour before the ball dropped, because he's an officer - the busiest time of year for them.
Ended break on a diocesean retreat for those interested in joining the seminary. Its called Quo Vadis or "Where are you going?" Its three days at a retreat house, listening to talks, plenty of prayer, getting to know each other, and getting to know the seminarians. I had to drive back to St. Louis the next day, so I bailed out earlier, but got to some guys.
Started the new semester out with the seminary retreat. It was five days of silence at the Cedar Creek Conference Center. Located in New Haven, MO, just an hour away from St. Louis, a very relaxing place. (My second plug of the year!) The retreat master was the Most Reverend Salvatore Matano, Bishop of Burlington, Vermont. I really enjoyed his talks, he spoke on the four pillars of formation and how we should approach them as well as apply them to our lives as future priests. He also spoke of our role in the Church today and in the future.
Tragedy struck during the retreat though. In the middle of this past week, a young boy from a nearby area was abducted. We prayed for him, his family, and his abductors. It seemed that our prayers were answered. They found the boy earlier this morning in Kirkwood, MO. Another young boy with them as well, one who had been missing for four years. Read about the story here.
Right now, we have a three day weekend before classes actually start. I'm just relaxing it away, getting myself ready for classes. Interesting thing is, the March for Life is next weekend, interrupting the schedule, but for a good reason.
I hope everyone's new year started off well, and continues to go well. For those who have classes, good luck this semester.
Wow, once again, its been about another two weeks since I last updated. Well, everything is going well, except for finals. Have you ever wondered where the idea of finals came from? I have, and I think they came about as a torture method for students who made their teachers angry. Over time, teachers came to enjoy messing with their students and implemented finals for everyone. Well, that's not the way it actually came to be, but it does sound probable, doesn't it? Anyway, the next two weeks are chock full of papers and study guides in preparation for finals. So, my blogging will become even worse than before.
A bit of a side note, but I am a huge sports fan. I follow quite a few sports - NCAA football and basketball, the NFL, and the MLB. My favorite teams from those categories are as follows: NCAA - University of Kansas Jayhawks and Wichita State University Shockers, NFL - Washington Redskins, MLB - Kansas City Royals. Yes, I know that my NFL is a bit weird, but that's a long story I'll tell sometime later. As for the rest of my teams, there is a definite pattern as I am from Kansas.
As for my college team, which is my alma mater, its been a bit rough. The football team ended up 6-6, with a chance to go to a bowl game, but they got blown out by Mizzou in their last game, dashing that hope. We also lose a talented running back in Jon Cornish, who graduates this year. Hopefully, things go well next season. As for basketball, they have had a rough time so far. They are 7-2, but should be 9-0. The two losses were very unexpected. They were to Oral Roberts and DePaul. Two teams that they should have beaten. In fact, those losses take away the joy from beating then No. 1 Florida. The team hasn't been shooting well, but its still early in the season, and hopefully they find a shooting touch and put away teams that they should be blowing out.
Here's to my last blog before the end of the semester. Take care all of you, and good luck to those of you that have finals themselves.
Wow, has it really been two weeks since I last posted? Seems like it hasn't been that long from my end. This is because I've had so many different projects due over the last couple of weeks. First, I had a 30 min Powerpoint presentation with another seminarian last Thursday. Last weekend was busy, as we had to attend a conference held in St. Louis. The keynote speaker at the conference was Cardinal Francis Arinze, who is the prefect of the Congregation on Divine Worship and the Discipline of Sacraments. He gave a good talk about the use of Latin in the Liturgy. Then, on Sunday, he visited the seminary and gave a talk to the seminarians. It was about how to lead a fruitful, spiritual seminary life. He stayed for dinner and gave a talk to the priests of the diocese.
When that was done, I had to work on an hour long Powerpoint presentation with two others seminarians for a different class Monday. Tie that in with two short papers for one class, a six page paper that was due today, and an online test today, and that makes for a busy week.
Well, with all that out of the way, Thanksgiving break is looking very nice. I won't have to do anything major over break. That will happen during finals week (although that looks weak in comparison to the past week). I probably won't post during break, so it may be another two weeks before I post again.
This weekend is one of the most important weekends at the seminary. Its the annual fundraiser, otherwise known as Convivium. Every year, people donate items to the seminary, including each class, so that they can auction it off to guests. There is both a silent auction, where the items are placed in rooms and you write a bid, and a live auction, held in the refectory. All the seminarians have to help out with the event, be it gift runner, waiter, greeter, etc. It pretty much runs all night, leaving all of us tired by the end. So, here's hoping that this year turns out well.
Well, I hope that everyone had a great Halloween. Here at the seminary, we had a great time. As part of the festivities, each class puts together a short skit and perform it at the Halloween party. Usually, the skit gets though out the day of the performance. However, my class worked on it for at least a few days. I won't bore you with the details, but it was basically a spoof of the 60's series The Prisoner, and of The Wizard of Oz. It was probably the best skit of the night.
Also, we had a costume contest. There were three prizes handed out. One was for the best pirate (we had an underlaying pirate theme), one was for best saint/blessed, and one was for best "something else." Since I was backstage getting ready for our skit, I didn't get to see the winners for the first two. However, the winner for best "something else" went to one of the deacons who was dressed up as Spock. I didn't really have hope for my costume, since it blurred pirate and "something else." What my costume entailed was Roman soldier armor and equipment, and I added pirate clothes, pirate hat, and an eyepatch to it. My story was that I was a soldier who didn't have good job security and took up pirating in order to live.
All in all it was a great night. Of course, any night in which you can make fun of the faculty and staff of the school and not get in trouble is a good night. In fact, its almost expected that you do make fun of them in your skit.
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.
