Happy Feast of St. Jerome! (a poem)

This is best when read aloud. My vote? Superb! and hilarious :) St. Jerome translated the Bible into Latin, which automatically ranks him in the "Awesome" category. The Vulgate was the standard edition used until Vatican II, which is pretty impressive considering he died in 420 A.D. and Vatican II happened in the 1960s. He was also quite a character (as the poem shows), which is always good for people to know, I think, because it helps us remember that the saints were all regular people too who overcame the temptations and trials of the world to better serve God. Every age has their own set of problems to rise above and knowing about the lives of saints only serves to help bolster our own boldness in the faith. The Catholic Church believes all people are called to be saints, which is a beautiful image to think that all people in the world are called to be holy and followers of Christ. Whether they choose to answer this call is another story, obviously, and another reason why evangelizing through the actions of one's life is so important for Christians, to help witness and therefore plant seeds in people's hearts, in which may grow a brush the Lord can light on fire in the soul.

Bets made me laugh this morning when she mentioned that the Church has a lot of feast days--and why not? It's always fun to celebrate God's holy people and His goodness in our lives!

Elie Wiesel was also born today, which I think is worth noting.

Poem of the day: "The Pity of the Leaves" by E.A. Robinson (Fall is coming, so I think it's appropriate, even if I should perhaps save it for November).

I'm going to prayer in the Fishbowl soon, which is nice because it's like I get a double-dose of Christ in my day, which helps keep me more centered. Prayer in the Fishbowl is open to the campus, but it's mainly Christians of various Protestant denomenations who like to pray out loud (they praying "free form"--I can't think of another way to put it--instead of saying established prayers we've memorized; the rosary is said out loud, for example, and we all know I'm not opposed to speaking out loud).

When I came to college, I felt very uncomfortable praying out-loud like that, but Heather my roommate (who is Catholic as well) was very used to praying like that, most likely because she is Charismatic Catholic. She's definitely helped me with that. I love and find comfort in the repetitious nature of the rosary, which helps one focus their attention on praying to Christ, rather than the words one it saying (the words given by Christ, which makes it extra-great). I've gotten progressively more comfortable with it (outside my family setting, I mean), which I think has helped deepen my relationship with Him since praying aloud without knowing what words will come forth is a major discomfort zone for me.

Then lunch, reading, class, reading, trying to round people up to play soccer tomorrow evening, writing/ finishing my articles, dinner, running, more studying, Hillsdale Forum meeting, rosary, studying and bed time! What a day!

Quick fun story: I read and reviewed a book this summer and a friend of mine, who is quite literary, is reading it right now and recommended it to me. I smiled and said I actually read it this summer. It's always fun being on the early edition side of the book recieving line. It's funny, though, because she loves the book and I was not a very big fan of it. We'll have to talk about it when she's done reading.

AND it's the middle-of-the week! We've made it! How lovely. Also, enjoy this video. I found it on the American Papist blog yesterday and it is SO GOOD: