February 2010 Archives

WARNING: WRITER OF THIS BLOG IS IN A REALLY WEIRD MOOD.  READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Ignatius Loyola was Spanish. (Yes, Spanish.  Not Latin American who speaks Spanish--that is not a Spanish person; it's a person that speaks Spanish. This guy is actually from Spain. Sorry--pet peeve. )  You could say that's why I chose to do my blog on him this week.  We all know about Luther by now, why not add a nice Hispanic (Hispanic=of Latin American OR Spanish decent) guy to the mix? Sounds good to me. I'm a big fan of diversity, even though the Spaniards weren't the nicest of people during this time. Perhaps my Spanish class will tie into this! We shall see.  So Loyola, he was a soldier, but then he got hurt in battle, so then he kind of had nothing better to do than reflect and educate himself, because nobles don't really work, as we all know.  He started the Society of Jesus, which is also known as the Jesuits (I already knew this! There's a Jesuit school in Chicago called Loyola! Fun fact!) .  The Jesuits were the leading missionaries of the church in that time (this gives me a bad opinion of him already, given that we are talking about the conquest of Latin America in Spanish class.)  Loyola sees salvation as something a person can get with a combination of God's grace and human free will.  In the reading, he talks about how to use that human free will as a way to serve God, in order to answer the questions of the era: "To what particular work is God calling me?" and "How can I serve God through family life?"

Loyola has two methods for making a decision in a time of tranquility.  A "time of tranquility" is when "the soul is not agitated by diverse spirits, and is freely and calmly making use of its natural powers" (side note: a comma is not needed there because there is no second subject, yet the book uses one. I don't like reading old things with old grammar rules.)  I choose to focus on the first method that Loyola uses, which has six steps:

1.       Put the thing that the choice regards in his mind.  In other words, think about it!

2.       Focus on keeping the choice unbiased and all for the glory of God.

3.       Pray that God shows which choice will promote His praise and glory.

4.       Weigh the advantages against the disadvantages--kind of like we did a risk:benefit ratio in our project forms we turned in last week.

5.       Consider what sounds most reasonable.

6.       Pray that God will accept the choice that has been made.

I would like to think I use this method already.  Sure, I didn't know this exact method, but I do have similar steps involved in my decision-making process.  Sometimes it's easy to figure out what God wants me to do, but most of the time...it's not that easy. There's not always an obvious answer to our problems, or the obvious choice that we should make.  Although I like Loyola's method, I think that God has a little bit of a different idea for us.  The reason why these choices can be so hard to make are because he wants us to make our own decisions.  That's how we grow.   And when we make mistakes...that's when we grow the most, in my opinion.  Right now, I'm trying to decide what to do this summer (job-wise, or maybe there's something else God wants me to do).  Needless to say, things aren't magically falling into place.  I really do think that God wants me to make my own decisions and learn from them, no matter what.  However, some of the hardest decisions I make are with what to fill my time.  I do think that God put La Oportunidad in my life last year, and that the reason why other places I've served in the Twin Cities haven't worked out was because he has a plan for me.  I wish I could stay there forever....maybe He can make an intern position for me for later!

What a cool hat!

Given this week's topics of reading, John de Joinville and Joan of Arc, it didn't take much for me to decide which reading I wanted to focus on.  1. Joan of Arc was an amazing heroine in history, and I've been to the place where something happened that had to do with her, so I can kind of picture her story. 2. I really know very little about her (see phrase "where something happened that had to do with her") even though I have been to some historic sites in France.  I really haven't studied her much. I think the closest I have gotten to her is the tv show Joan of Arcadia. 3. My real reason for choosing Joan: I love the tv show. :P  While it's not exactly historical (it's about a girl named Joan in present-day who hears God in random strangers), and it probably doesn't have a whole lot to do with the actual Joan of Arc (girl who heard God in voices in her head, who helped lead a battle against the English and was really brave--something Joan of Arcadia is not!), that was really my reason for deciding to study her.  Callings includes some testimonies of and about Joan of Arc, all of which make me realize that perhaps this woman had a little more going for her than Joan of Arcadia does.

There are two different views of Joan in the selection--one from the trial testimony, and one from the summary of conclusions at the examination of Poitiers.  In the trial testimony, the language is very doubtful. The author is kind of just saying "she says this and this and this and we all know she's crazy but she keeps going on and on," or at least that's the tone I got from it.  The end has a similar tone, but much more formal.  At Poitiers, the language is very official-sounding, showing that they had tested Joan and they believe her to be crazy because of the tests, etc. Neither of the testimonies seems to believe that Joan really is hearing the voice of God.

I don't know that I have met anyone with quite the zeal and confidence of Joan of Arc through my project--I think this zeal is really special and the Holy Spirit has to give it to whomever he chooses.  This kind of ties in both with the verse we talked about in Spanish class about the Holy Spirit blessing people with spiritual gifts and with the mid-project evaluation that Rocio and I went over. Although boldness is not one of the fruits of the spirit that is mentioned in Galatians 5, I can see it working in a similar way. Rocio told me that I do a wonderful job with La Oportunidad, but I need to have more boldness.  I don't always speak Spanish to the kids, and I'm not always super-friendly (I tend to be a quiet person...boldness just doesn't come naturally). I know that the things on the mid-project evaluation are there for us to learn what to work on, and that's definitely the case with me.  I pray that the Holy Spirit will give me confidence like Joan of Arc had--so that not only can I speak Spanish more in the classroom, but I can lead by example and really make a difference in those kids' lives

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This week, our blogs should sound a little bit different, because we are in a new section of writers in our book for the semester, Callings.  The writer I chose to write about was Mechthild of Magdeburg, who was one of the great medieval German mystics.  She wrote a book because she had visions and reflections on them, and a Dominican priest had told her to write down all her thoughts.  In this section, she talks about St. Dominic, the founder of the Dominican order, and how leaders truly should be, something that can apply in any era. 

The quote I chose to focus on from this reading is as follows:

"'My son Dominic had four things about him while on earth that all priors should have about them. He loved his fellow Dominicans so much that he could never bear to trouble them with things arising from some whim of his own.  The second is that he often improved the food to help and show affection for his brethren, so that the young brothers might not think back on the world and so that the older ones might not succumb on the way.  The third is that in holy wisdom he provided for them the model for being moderate, for the sake of God, in their whole being, in all their customs, and in all their wants.  The fourth is that he was so merciful that he never wanted to burden his dear brethren with any kind of penance that the order did not require for wrongdoing.'"

I really liked this quote, not just because how Dominic left his legacy on everyone.  I think it (kind of) can apply to many areas of my life, especially in my project.  I would like to leave a similar legacy with La Oportunidad (assuming I have to eventually leave!).  Obviously, it will be pretty different, as I am not a Dominican monk, and I don't have "brethren" persay, but I think this quote can be revised to fit what I would like to accomplish.  This is what it would say (I'm also going to put it in a bit more modern language, because that's just more fun):

"Heather did four really cool things while she was working here.  She loved those kids so much that she never wanted to cause them to worry.  She never wanted them to worry about her, because she was there for them.  The second thing was that she helped out a ton with the lessons to improve them, so that the kids could think about El Camino and remember how awesome it was.  The third thing was all the wisdom that she gave to the kids.  She helped them through tough situations and was a great role model for them, so that they always knew what to do, no matter what.  The fourth is that she was understanding with the children, and treated them with respect even if they did not respect her all the time."

I realize now that this quote sounds like I'm dead, and obviously I'm not yet, and Dominic's quote was like that because he was, but I kind of don't feel like changing it.  When I met with Rocio for my mid-project evaluation, we talked about a lot of these things.  She talked about my character, and how I was great with the kids, but she also said that I could take a more active role in the group.  Now that I know that I should do that (I didn't really want to overstep my boundaries before), I am really interested in helping out with lessons and things to help the kids as much as possible.  I really love those kids, and I would do anything for them.  I really hope that I can impact them as much as they are impacting me.