Notre Dame Alum!

It's official: I am now a Notre Dame Alum! It's been a whirlwind week, so allow me to recap...

A week ago Monday (July 21), I sat for my written exams. It went fairly well! The 5 topics I have been studying are Scriptural Catechesis, Christology, Patristic Exegesis: Augustine and Origen, History of Theology and Spirituality, and Prayer. I wrote about the first three. 

Following the written portion, I had about two days to prepare for the oral exam. That went pretty well, too. At 3:10 on Wednesday afternoon, they informed me that I passed my comps! I was also informed that this makes me a "Mistress" of Theology. :) What a relief! And for the first time in well over 2 years, I don't have any immediate studying to do! What will I do with myself now?! Start a new job, I suppose, and get married. :)

Jordan drove all the way to South Bend on Wednesday, so he arrived that evening to help celebrate. We had dinner at my favorite spot: Fiddler's Hearth. Also, it was an acoustic open mic night, and Ricky Watter's son (13 years old) was one of the performers! Ricky Watters was in the audience, too, by the way. I sat about 5 feet away from him. 

On Thursday, the rest of the girls in the group completed their exams, as did others in the MA program. Jordan and I spent the day touring campus one last time and boosted our wardrobes with ND garb from the ND Outlet Store. 
 

Thursday evening, the Department of Theology held a celebration Mass and dinner for all August MA grads. Pictured below is Catholic Extension Cohort #1: Mary Rebecca Anderson, Jessy Bennett, me, and Julie Labelle.

It's hard to believe that this adventure has come to a close. I have been SO blessed to have this opportunity, and I can't even begin to express my gratitude to everyone who has had a hand in it. Studying at Notre Dame was truly a girlhood-dream-come-true. Classes in the Theology Department were more formative and incredible than I could have imagined. The people I met - CE girls, CE staff and donors, fellow students, and professors - have been such a blessing. It's been a long journey, and often a challenging one, but it has been very rewarding as well. I still can't believe that I can now call Notre Dame my alma mater. The slogan definitely rings true...

Love Thee, Notre Dame.

Prepping for Comprehensive Exams

Our first week here, we were invited out to the Tom and Liz Borgers' home for our annual dinner gathering. The Borger family, along with Liz's mother Mary Naquin, are sponsoring our program. They are wonderful people, and their family's hospitality is something I want to emulate. We had a lovely dinner and a great time visiting with everyone. The president of Catholic Extension, Fr. Jack Wall, joined the gathering as well. Below are a few pictures of the first three cohorts participating in the Catholic Extension Young Adult Initiative and studying at Notre Dame (shown with some of our friends and donors at Catholic Extension):

Front row, from left to right: Jessy, Marissa, Casey, Kathy, and Fr. Jack.
Middle row: Mary Rebecca, Me, Julie, Molly
Back row: Katie, Maria, Christine

Our group pictured this time with two of our generous donors, Tom and Liz Borger.

 Featured here is our sweet donor, Mary Naquin.

Meanwhile, back at campus... The preparation continues. It's hard not to view comps as a looming, scary giant that's just far enough AND near enough in the future to make me anxious for both reasons. At any rate, the studying is coming along!

Our written exam takes place this Monday, July 21, from 8:00 a.m. to noon. For this portion, we will be given five questions and asked to write approximately 4 pages (1000 words) on three of them. No notes, no resources (other than basically a Bible and the documents of Vatican II). 

I recently found out that my oral exam will be on Wednesday, July 23, at 2:30 p.m. This portion lasts for 40 minutes. During this time, I will be answering questions posed by members of my comprehensive exam board. My board consists of Dr. Katie Cavadini, Fr. Brian Daley, and Professor Larry Cunningham. When I found this out, I was both thrilled and terrified at the same time. Let me tell you a little about each of these people to illustrate why...

Katie Cavadini is the Chair of our MA program. She's fantastic, and she's the daughter of John Cavadini, who has been one of my favorite professors in the program. He's a legend around here.

Fr. Brian Daley is a world-renowned scholar. He was awarded the Ratzinger Prize in theology a couple years ago by the Pope (which is like the Nobel Prize of theology). He basically wrote the book on two of my exam topics (no pressure there). Also, he used to (and might still) help coach the boxing team here at ND. 

Professor Larry Cunningham is another legend here at ND. He also literally wrote one of the books in my topic's bibliography. He recently wrote a book about all of the chapels here on campus.

So my board is comprised of wonderful and brilliant people. My main goal at this point is to not sound like an idiot. Back to studying so I can achieve that goal!

Summer #3

Hello all!

I am back for my third and final summer as a Notre Dame student. It's weird to think about it, but in about 8 days (God willing!), I will have completed both my written and oral examinations and be considered a Notre Dame alum!

I arrived late last night to my home for the next week and a half, Pasquerilla West Hall. How fitting, since my first summer I lived in Pasquerilla East Hall.

From now until Monday morning, the name of the game is study, study, study. And coffee, coffee, coffee.

My written exam will take place Monday from 8:00 a.m. to noon (Eastern time). My oral exam was recently scheduled for Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. (Eastern time). Please pray for me! Know that I'll be praying for you, too.

Mission San Xavier del Bac

Today we went to Mission San Xavier del Bac for Mass. What an experience! The place is magnificent:

Construction of the Mission was completed in 1797, and it's virtually the same inside as it was back then. It really made you stop and imagine for a moment what it must have been like to have been traveling through the desert and come across a place like this.

Desert Dangers

A few more stories from the Arizona desert:

I almost forgot to mention that my first day here, I had a surprise encounter with this little fella:

Okay, so you probably can't really see him, but it was a SCORPION. I think he'd made his home in one of my shoes overnight, and I was less than pleased about this roommate. I must have made an example of him, though, because I haven't seen any since!

My second brush with danger happened on our hike this afternoon. We decided to make it to the top of one of the nearby hills/mountains, so we set off on our trek. We brought with us a newfound friend, Fr. Peter Sweeney. Fr. Sweeney is a 76-year-old Irish priest, and meeting him might just have been the highlight of the entire trip. Throughout our hike, he regaled us with stories and jokes, and he set the brisk pace for us. When we made it to the top, we paused for a photo:

The view was spectacular:

 Fr. Sweeney informed us that before a saguaro cactus can grow an "arm," it must be at least 75 years old. So when you see saguaros that have many arms, they could be hundreds of years old! Fascinating!

Fascinating... and dangerous. At least, it's shorter, pokey relatives are... As we were getting ready to head back down, I had another surprise encounter - this time with a cactus. I got stuck badly enough that I couldn't get it out myself, so Fr. Sweeney came to the rescue. Don't worry - at this point, only my pride is hurt.

We're nearing our last few days in Arizona! Sounds like it's extra cold in Kansas (-5 degrees, I saw on the forecast, and that's not even factoring in the wind chill!). I may be in for a shock! But I look forward to seeing you all soon.

Desert Domers

Hello from Tucson, Arizona! The Domer adventure continues, but this time in a much different environment. (This is probably for the best, because it sounds like 0-degree temps and ample snow have been in the forecast for South Bend lately.) Here we are at the Redemptorist Renewal Center, surrounded by nothing but desert. Cacti abound - including the magnificent saguaro cacti. As challenging as this place is (by its very nature: quiet, desolate, and virtually distraction-free), it is probably the perfect environment for an intensive class. There are 14 of us studying "Jesus and the Spiritual Life." Our days have a consistent rhythm of Mass, class, meals, community prayer, exercise, reading, and some down-time. I quickly remembered from last year feeling as if I was able to get a glimpse into the monastic life - living in community. It's been great reconnecting with the rest of the Catholic Extension girls, as well as some summer ND friends. 

So we've been learning together about the necessary connection between religion and spirituality, and how the doctrine of the Church is truly a safeguard of, not a hindrance to, the spiritual life. We've done this by examining Christological developments throughout our Church's history. We started by reading about the Trinitarian controversies of the early Church, including the works of Athanasius and Gregory of Nazianzus (or G-Naz, as our professor affectionately calls him). We've also read some texts by Augustine, and we've discussed the development of the creed. These past few days, we've been learning about St. Bernard of Clairvaux, which is an extra blessing because our professor is an expert on this particular Saint. We'll conclude the course by discussing Bonaventure. It's been a lot of information to cover in a very brief period of time, but it's been an excellent course! 

When we're not reading or studying, we do have some down-time. Some of us girls have been taking advantage of this unbelievable weather and going on daily runs. We've also had the chance to take some hikes up in the Picture Rocks National Park, which is right next to the retreat center. 

It's been a great time here in Tucson, but I look forward to returning home and seeing all of you! Hope all is well, and I'll see you soon!

Another summer in the books...

15,391 pages (rough estimate, of course) later, here we are! In some ways, the time has flown by. In other ways, it feels like we've been here forever. Either way, the experience has been incredible, and I'm so thankful to be here! At the same time, I'm excited to come home! Kansas, here I come! Just 722 miles away!

While I'm at it, let me share a few more photos... Here's a beautiful view of St. Mary's Lake with the Golden Dome and the Basilica in the background (photo taken during one of my runs last weekend):

Here's a picture of the Golden Dome, which I walk by every day on the way to classes and/or the dining hall:

A shot of the Hesburgh Library (with the famous Touchdown Jesus):

Until next summer, South Bend! I was reminded of how thankful I am that our winter session class takes place in Tucson, AZ, rather than Notre Dame, IN, when I saw this sign in the parking lot: