Home? Again.

Yes, ladies and gents, we are broadcasting to you this evening from my home-away-from-home /second home /scholastic domicile /prison compound. It's good to be back, after a long summer, as one must be back at school in order to begin classes. I have purchased books, spoken to many professors, and have attended my first choir rehearsal of the year. 'Tis been a long day.

It's an odd sensation, though, to be back on campus after a three-month hiatus, because one gets the feeling (within just a few hours) that one has never left. The place hasn't changed, for better or for worse, and neither have the people. They are all much the same as I left them back in May, and only the shining faces of more than one hundred happy and enthusiastic freshmen clue me in to the fact that this is not, after all, last year. However, the seeming repeat of history is rather disconcerting. One goes through the exact same round of buying, selling, listening, talking, registering, and generally being busy that one went through last year. The only trick is that there are people now who know less than you. This was not the case last year, no sirreebob.

But, that's not why I'm really on here to blog. I'm really on here to tell you that the highlight of my day (so far, and I don't see Game Night as holding much promise as far as spiritual revelations go) was Mass this morning. Fr. H read to us from a speech which Benny Sixteen gave at WYD sometime in the last day or so, in which he said:

Now all of us together have to put his teaching into practice. It is this commitment which has brought us here to Cologne, as pilgrims in the footsteps of the Magi. According to tradition, the names of the Magi in Greek were Melchior, Gaspar and Balthasar. Matthew, in his Gospel, tells of the question which burned in the hearts of the Magi: “Where is the infant king of the Jews?” (Mt 2:2). It was in order to search for him that they set out on the long journey to Jerusalem. This was why they withstood hardships and sacrifices, and never yielded to discouragement or the temptation to give up and go home.

There is much more, which you can read at EWTN, but that particular passage was quite interesting, as Father compared the Magi to students at college who have left home and family to search for the Truth, and in the end he explained it all so that we were fired up and excited about learning His ways, his truths, and anything else of His that He cares to reveal. It was a pep talk from the pulpit, yes, but I appreciated it greatly. Made me all set....time to get back to work, Betty.