Holy Cross Seminarian Days

New Year and Swampped

2007-02-07T10:57:00.000-08:00

Well Ive absolutely buried. Here is my class list

New Testament Greek II
Introduction to the New Testament (TONS of reading, at least one hour a day)
Dogmatics I - Introduction to Orthodox theology (one 10-15 page paper due Mar 8)
Church History II - 800AD to modern day
Byzantine Chant II - learning two of the eight modes of chant
Liturgics - Study of Orthodox worship practices
Total of 17 credits

Im also now on a chant group and an altar group, so two weeks of every four, I have to be at church for those.

Everyone is doing well. Patrick took 3rd place in the Webelos division for the Pinewood Derby. We're trying to get Kendra enrolled in a gymnastics class. Marcus is crawling everywhere and into everything. He is definately a Fink. He likes to grab a book and crawl into the bathroom :-)

I'll stay more up to date.

Brian

Holidays

2006-12-29T04:28:00.000-08:00

Well, its been over a month since Ive posted anything. Thanksgiving and Christmas were good and exams went well. I'm still working on two last papers for Religious Education, so that is keeping me out of trouble.

Thanksgiving was nice, with a turkey dinner served at the cafeteria. Unfortunately, the basement flooded a bit while we were at dinner. So that evening we spent cleaning up. I did rig up a way to funnel the water coming through the window well by taping a dustpan to the wall and letting the water funnel through the handle to a pot.

For St. Nicholas day, a group of us went to NYC for a memorial service at the St. Nicholas church which was destroyed on 9/11. It was right next to the twin towers.
Pictures are here: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8IbNnDVqxbsca

Exam week was hectic but I got through all of them intact. I did get one exam back already. Got a 101% on my Old Testament exam.

Christmas went well other than we all had a stomach virus... that was loads of fun :-)

Now, we're just kicking back and relaxing and watching movies in the evenings.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
Brian

Psych Test

2006-11-17T03:30:00.000-08:00

Well... 5 hours taking the psych test for seminarians. I probably wasnt insane going in but 800 true/false questions later... I probably am.

They included:
People want to poison me
I like playing with fire
I have been on the cover of a number of magazines last month
I have to watch my family carefully because they are plotting against me

And I didnt even have to say I saw Jeeezus on the inkblot tests (okay... Klingon battlecruiser on one...)

They're coming to take me away haha

And tomorrow is the Lafayette-Lehigh game!!!

Weekend work

2006-11-12T14:20:00.000-08:00

I've got a 10 page paper due for Religious Education a week from tomorrow and I'm behind the 8-ball now. So obviously that will be the focus of this week. Good news on my Church History and Chanting exams... A-minuses in both.

And the Bengals once again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Time to look for a new team I think... Guess I could start cheering on the Patriots.

Oh yes, and Marcus is starting to crawl :-)

Last of the midterms

2006-11-07T04:51:00.000-08:00

Two more midterms coming up. Patrology (the study of the Church Fathers, typically theologians and authors pre-1000AD) and my second NT Greek exam, tomorrow and Thursday. Then I have a 10 page paper on Christian Education to work on for November 20th. I'm not behind the eight-ball yet but it is rolling my way.

Kids are doing well with school and they have Friday off, so not sure what we're going to do with them for a 3 day weekend where I have to do research and reading.

I'm definately looking forward to Christmas... I need some time to breathe!

Boston Traffic

2006-11-04T16:43:00.000-08:00

Well, we went out to one of the malls to get a baby gate and some winter clothing. Boston drivers are COMPLETELY insane... We couldnt figure out what these people were doing. We were trying to leave the mall and got cut off by people trying to get to our spot.

Oh yes, that and I have an NT Greek exam and a patrology exam next week. Study, study, study.

Ahhhh

2006-10-26T17:47:00.000-07:00

Long week almost over. Well I got a B on the Old Testament exam. Not sure how I did on the church history exam. Working on Religious Education right now on writing a paper on a chapter in our book. It was scary to find out that in the entire Greek Orthodox church in the US, that there are ONLY just under 22,000 kids in some Orthodox religious education. And of those, only around 2,000 are teenagers. We're losing an entire generation!!!

Old Testament Midterm

2006-10-23T07:44:00.000-07:00

Ugly exam, two biblical sections, one book section and one handout section.... oh yes and an essay. Probably got a C+/B-. Not great but one thing I learned. Dont go into the classroom when everyone is asking last second questions. It just confused me.

The Liturgy of St. James was really impressive last night. Got to take communion from the plate and the chalice for the first time since becoming Orthodox.

On to studying for Church History Midterm

Midterms ... already?

2006-10-22T03:32:00.000-07:00

Its been one long week. I did well on my chanting midterm (chant for about five minutes). But now I'm into my Old Testament and Church History midterms, Monday and Tuesday. I'm staying on top of things for the most part, but I feel that I'm a little behind in the Greek, although I'm starting to understand it more.

This is also the start of the long liturgical week. I'm on altar duty, so I have to be at church 30 minutes beforehand. We have three services today, including the Liturgy of St. James at 9pm tonight. Its one of the oldest Liturgies still in use today and I'm concerned about getting my studying done for OT. We also have a Thursday morning liturgy and then Friday night vigil this week. Then I'm planning on collapsing.

Kids are doing well, and they are going to be dancing at dinner on Tuesday night in the cafeteria.

Orthodox scholars

2006-10-12T17:23:00.000-07:00

Well yesterday brought up a very interesting topic. Both Frs. Dragas and Pentiuc brought up the problem of the lack of American Orthodox scholars, and both of them encouraged our class to begin developing native-born scholarship.

My question is how does a parish priest become an academic scholar?

Today is the start of a conference on Evil and Suffering. Tonight the keynote speaker served Vespers for us, Bishop Kallistos Ware. It was interesting to see him again and he remembered our family after I mentioned our chrismation and his broken arm back in 2002. He also gave his blessing to Marcus :-)

Time to get cracking on some Greek homework. I'm enjoying it, but its also time intensive for me to understand.

Greek Grades

2006-10-10T17:03:00.000-07:00

I got my first Church History paper back, an A, and my first Greek exam, A- . Scary thing... I dont know how I got an A- in the Greek exam.

Also was the Hellenic College vs Holy Cross flag football game (14-14 final score). I played and did well, but now Im paying for it. My heel is killing me. I'm announcing my retirement (at least until next year).

Back to studying for my weekly Old Testament quiz.
Ta-ta for now.

End of the week, Oct 5

2006-10-06T03:15:00.000-07:00

Well, I think I did okay on my NT Greek exam. I realize I need to approach Greek differently than I have been, and in fact a number of my classes. I've been trying to do each one in a giant chunk of time when I should spend 30 minutes at a stretch and on the weekends hit things a little deeper.

I took Patrick to the local cub scout meeting last night and had pizza and then archery. I definately needed to get off campus for a while.

Old Testament and ... Ozzy?

2006-10-02T08:24:00.000-07:00

Well... Ive now heard it all... As Dr. Pentiuc began to talk about the Iron Age in the battles between the Philistines and Israel, he started humming of all things... the intro riff Iron Man by Black Sabbath. "You all probably dont remember that..." he then remarked to the class. His favorite artist... Hendrix. "Same zodiacal sign as me". Im waiting to see him come in with a guitar and light it on fire now :-)

Had a good weekend, wrote one of my short papers for Church History. My first NT Greek test is on Thursday. Im starting to get the hang of it, but we'll see how I do.

Class Schedule

2006-09-28T18:19:00.000-07:00

My classes are the following:

Intro to Old Test - a study of the Hebrew Bible and a look at the messiah from the Jewish point of view - Fr. Eugene Pentiuc

Christian Education - a study on Orthodox education for children and adults - Fr. Frank Marangos

Byzantine Chant - Ni-Pa-Vou - the Byzantine equivalent to Do-Re-Mi - Fr. Nick Kastanas

NT Greek - En arxh hn o logos - In the beginning was the word - Dr. Evie Holmberg

Patrology - an introduction to the church fathers - Fr. George Dragas

Church History - an introduction to church history through the 7 ecumenical councils - Dr. Jim Skedros

So far, the work isnt hard, however, the amount is overwhelming at times.

The good news is that I have no classes on Friday, but that makes Monday through Thursday a LONG week.

Please keep us in your prayers.

Brian

Vigil, Patrick's B-day and Greek

2006-09-25T15:08:00.000-07:00

Well, I made it through vespers, the procession for the conception of John the Baptist and part of Orthros. Standing and holding a candle for about 30 minutes was rough on the ol' feet. After Orthros began, our altar service leader let me know that if I wanted to head out I could. Originally, I wanted to get through the whole thing, but Saturday was Patrick's 10th birthday. So after trying to get through some more, I finally headed out about 11:30... (yeah, I know, wimp!)

For his birthday, we went out with one of my fellow seminarians who the kids love, to a place called Bertucchis, a nice Italian restaurant chain up here. Patrick got presents from family as well as his godparents.

Sunday was a good day... Bengals beating the Steelers makes any day a good day.

Now, back to memorizing John 1:1-6 ... En archee een o logos... En archee een o logos... En ar... ARRRRRRGGGGG :-)

(Memorization is one of my worst skills)

Brian

Church and Church and more Church

2006-09-22T06:29:00.000-07:00

For those of you wondering how much church I go to...

Orthos (Matins, about 45 min) every day at 8am other than Saturday
Vespers or the Paraklesis (evening services, about 45 to 1 hr), every day at 5pm

If Im on chapel duty (like this week), I have to be there 30 min ahead of time to help clean and get things ready.

Tonight is a vigil service for the Nativity of John the Baptist. It combines three services into one: Great Vespers, Orthos, and the Divine Liturgy. It will start around 9pm and finish up ... 2-3am...

Brian

New Beginnings

2006-09-20T03:56:00.000-07:00

Well, the blog is now created and ready to go... Off to Orthros in 30 min and my second quiz in OT in 2 hrs.