It has been far too long since I posted. These two weeks have seemed eternal, full of life and activity and transition and laughter and tears. But I'll get to that in a minute.
For now, I'm replying to y'all's posts from last week:
Mercybear: your post was so short and it gave me nightmares. Please, never ever ever do that to us again. The same goes for Grace's post from last week. I'm getting chills just reflecting on their brevity and space bar content.
Roseacea: reading you rant gives me the warm fuzzies, and makes me homesick. Also, good luck with the beginning of sophomore year tomorrow- my little baby bear is almost a grownup!
 |
| I said baby bear so this was necessary. |
Gracieface: Your Thursday post redeemed you from last week. 'Nuff said.
Anywhoozles, I'm going to try and finish this before choir practice. I love my Mondays this semester, but I hate them at the same time, because I'm constantly doing things. But in between classes and meals and runs to Starbucks I have brief moments to myself, in the quiet of the library or stretched out on the grassy quad or seated in one of the chapel alcoves, when I am able to settle down and think and pray and praise God for how happy I am here. It's in those moments when I realize I am more introverted than I thought.
I love the routine I'm settling into here at Sacred Heart. I love the random visits from friends and family from my life before SHU- some of my friendships from high school have strangely been strengthened since I came here, which is amazing and only explainable by giving the credit to God. I love my new friends- The Roommate, who is harsh and blunt, yet nerdy and supportive at the same time; the incandescent Jeff, who looks like John Green and makes hilarious faces at me when we see each other in the halls or at the library; my nursing major friend who loves Jane Austen. These are the people I eat with, study with, and come to when I need advice (seriously, the thing that happened last week with the person would still be a bundle of confusion if Sarah and Jeff hadn't been so helpful. And of course our dear Gracie). I'm not replacing people. These kids are just my tribe in the here and now, in this amazing, tough, transitional phase of life known as college. And I couldn't be more grateful for what I have been given.
It's funny, but even though my school is catholic, my protestant faith has been made stronger just by being here. My friend Libby is the most catholic person to ever catholic. She is probably the only person of her faith that I have met who is genuinely excited about it. She helped out in VBS in high school, she listens to Hillsong, her favorite movies are Soul Surfer and God's Not Dead. We became friends in choir, and since then we have had so many fascinating, agreeable conversations about faith.
We are both Christians. I am protestant, she is catholic. We both worship the same God, both believe in the importance of loving Him and loving others. She is teaching me so much about her faith without bashing me over the head with the Bible, and I'm trying to do the same.
I knew very little about Catholicism before I came here. My mom was raised catholic, left the church after her confirmation with a bad taste in her mouth, and became a Christian when she was in her twenties. So, I knew almost nothing about the other side of Christianity, either because Mom wouldn't talk about it or I wouldn't listen when she did. And I have come to discover that the wall I put up between my faith and Libby's is imaginary. We are believers, united under our thirst for the Creator we do our best to glorify.
Are catholics and protestants different? Yes and no. What doesn't matter is when we have communion or how we confess our sins. What God sees is how sincerely our hearts motivate our actions to do His good work. And that's it. That's the Gospel. Plain and simple, like the white walls of my drafty dorm room. Ironic, how I have learned so much outside of the classroom here.
Libby has changed my view on the catholic church. With her excited faith, and with the crazy nuns practicing on the tennis courts yesterday morning, I have learned that their church can be just as fun as ours. That's all.
Mercy, I can't wait to hear from you tomorrow!
--Laura
No comments:
Post a Comment