Saturday, June 6, 2009

Collegium on Faith and Intellectual Life: Day Two

Today was a busy day but we did not always follow “the plan”. First I attended Morning Prayers with the monks. I had never experienced this before. You do not sit in the auditorium seats. You sit up with the monks. There are four books to read from. The responses are chanted very, very slow. This is to make sure you can listen, you can hear and comprehend one another. It is after all a community service.

I was surprised that among the monks my voice actually sounded nice, that was a first! Afterwards we had Mass and then I went to our working breakfast. Now that is the way to start the day.

Our last mentor was having transportation problems. The result was our planning meeting was postponed an hour. That meant I had time to explore. Rodger Narloch, a mentor and a professor of psychology here at St. John’s took Maura Tyrrell, another mentor, and me on a tour of the lake. We walked these wonderful trails with hills and shoreline. Maura is a biologist so we were always learning something new. Finally we arrived at the chapel. It is a little chapel next to the lake. Inside is a statue of Mary. However, she appears to be about five months pregnant. It is a depiction of her I had never seen before. The chapel just seemed magical. The stain glass windows were of lakes and fish. There was a cool breeze inside the chapel. However, he had to get back so after a few minutes of quiet it was time for a vigorous walk back to Sexton common.

The rest of the day was one of preparation.

Collegiums members arrived. We had a banquet for them. I had walleye and it was wonderful. Afterwards we all had community prayer in the lower church. Tomorrow begins the business and excitement that is collegium.

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