The start of a new year is always exciting, and this weekend I really started to notice that. Many people are back from summer adventures (Lauren from New York, Ryan from Wyoming, Blake from Madrid), new students are showing up at church (I met this awesome guy from New Delhi named Mohit, starting graduate studies in ECE), and new students are arriving in my department. I’ve got a new roommate (Jason), and all in all I’m very excited about this new year. Yay!
Archive for August, 2005
In Memoriam Frère Roger
August 17, 2005 (Wednesday)I know that despite this, there is much to be thankful for. Brother Roger is now in the presence of the one he has served for so long, and his faith has become sight. While he suffered a violent death, he was spared the embarassment of a gradual decline into senility and loss of dignity. If there is anything God is good at, it’s confounding evil by drawing a greater good from it: for even from Crucifixion came Resurrection and the salvation of the world. And for me, I’ve been blessed to not experience a major death in my twenty-two years: many my age have suffered the loss of parents, siblings, or close friends; and in many places in the world death is a daily experience. But the Taize monastery was the source of two of my most powerful spiritual experiences, and the senseless murder of its founder leaves me deeply affected; a dull, throbbing sadness fills my heart, and upon reading the news this evening I felt the need to leave work early to pray. A death has never touched me like this, and yet I trust that God is at work, that Taize will continue to bless the lives of young people from around the world and work towards reconciliation in the church, that even in death the work of Brother Roger will continue, and perhaps even that the disturbed woman who killed him will come to peace with herself and God, and grow to accept His grace and forgiveness.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison.
Don’t read this, it’s embarassing.
August 1, 2005 (Monday)TRB paper finished? Check. So for tomorrow that just leaves the TxDOT report, the PSR, creating/distributing solutions to last week’s math class, and writing notes for this week’s session on multivariable calculus and differential equations, which I left until last mostly because I don’t remember it and have to review. Arrrrrrrgh!!!
On another note, I have a confession to make. I watch Big Brother 6 regularly. I don’t know why. As a rule, I don’t like TV shows. And I especially dislike reality shows. Big Brother 6 is tacky and superficial, the characters make me mad, and host Julie Chen needs to go back to journalism school. But it’s like candy. You know it’s bad for you but sometimes you just can’t stop eating it.
Four more days before I leave for New York!
