A special shout-out...

Boomer Sooner and HAPPY BIRTHDAY

to

El Sooner Grande!!!!

Hope you had a great birthday!!! I miss ya brother!

So, this week was busy (once again!) but really good.

I finished working on the moccasins and cradleboard at the museum this week. I cleaned them and made storage pallets, and for the cradleboard I custom-made a box for it to be stored in. I felt like I was back in kindergarten going around all proud of myself because I'd made a box! Ah, it's the simple stuff that keeps me going!

I started my summer language, theological Spanish, and it seems to be going well. The instructor seems really nice and she's from Miami, so we've been talking about home this week. There was only one downside...tonight after work I had a couple of hours before class, so I sat down to do some studying and the next thing I knew it was 9:30! Class gets out at 9:00 and I had fallen asleep studying!!! Oh well, life happens.

Have I mentioned how much I really dislike Harvard, the institution not the people? I really think that Harvard as an institution is more impersonal than a municipal government! We get paid on Friday's, but my check didn't come today and all they could tell me was maybe it will show up on Monday! Ummm, some of us are poor starving grad students who depend on the tiny compensation we get for the indentured seritude we provide Harvard! Well, at least I'm only going to be here another 11 months!!!

Thanks Be to God and Boomer Sooner!
Feast of the First Martyrs of the Church in Rome

Friends, Dormies and Sooners

Well, we managed to get just about everybody moved into the dorm this weekend. Everybody seems to have settled in pretty well. There's still a couple of people scheduled to move in on Monday, but all in all, things went relatively smoothly.

Tomorrow night is the first night of the summer language program here at HDS. I'm taking theological Spanish, which I'm not looking forward to. It will hopefully fulfill my language requirement here, but I'm definitely no fan of languages...so we'll see how it goes.

There was some good soccer on this weekend what with the World Cup in full swing and all. The games have been pretty good, but the refs have been terrible! It is absolutely a travesty to have officiating this bad at such an important tournament! It really is hard to believe!

But, since Mexico and the US are now out I suppose I'm rooting for Ghana. One of my dormmates is from Ghana, so I've kind of adopted them.

We "Ghana" Win!!!

And last, but not least...my best friend from Oklahoma gave me a call tonight. He recently got married and ordained in the Methodist Church and has just moved to a new assignment in eastern Oklahoma. He seems to be doing really, really well and really happy. I'm so happy things are going so well for him!

Well, that's about it for now!

Thanks Be to God and Boomer Sooner!
Feast of Bl. Jutta of Thuringia

Busy, Busy, Busy!

I have been so busy this week and I haven't really gone into the high gear of my summer schedule!

This working full-time thing is for the birds!!!!

I start my summer language classes on Monday...I'm taking theological Spanish (and, no, I don't know how theological Spanish is different from regular Spanish). It is recommended to only work part time during the summer language program, but I'm going to be working at the museum, the library, and at my dorm! It's gonna be a long, long summer!

This week I worked in the conservation lab for my internship at the Peabody Museum. Basically, I wrote description and condition reports on three pairs of childrens moccasins that appear to be from the Southern Plains and a toy cradleboard that I believe is Apache. It has been really great to work so closely with these objects. I'm really enjoying it, even though I don't think I'm doing a whole lot right now, but I'm having a blast!

The new residents move into the dorm this weekend, so I'm going to be busy over the weekend also! I'm really looking forward to meeting them, but I'm tired!

Thanks Be to God and Boomer Sooner!
Feast of St. Thomas More

Dominican Investiture

Taken from a post by Angela on June 15...

Sister Marjorie has become Sister Mary Agnes of the Annunciation, O.P.! Her investiture was broadcast over the Louisiana Public Broadcasting and is available now online! The picture includes Sr. Marjorie with Rev. Mother Marie Valerie and Sister Mary Imelda, who you see in the video footage. You can follow this link here to see the film: Young Nun (Yes, they made a big boo-boo... it is just the investiture).

It is a beautiful glimpse into the Cloister of the Monastery of the Sacred Heart in Lockport, Louisiana. The nuns are online, so here are some links to their various online endeavors:
http://dominicannuns.blogspot.com/
http://www.xanga.com/Ldominican
http://www.geocities.com/lockportdominicans

Lord, Thy Will Be Done!
posted by Angela Louise

Thanks Be to God and Boomer Sooner!
Feast of St. Joseph Cafasso

Liturgical Dance!

My friend Lori knows how much of a liturgical dance afficianado I am and sent me this fabulous video! I being the humble person I am, share it with you...

**I absolutely LOVE liturgical dance! I wish all liturgical dance was as quality as this...Enjoy! If anyone knows how to bring this genius to the attention of the Holy Father, please get it to him! Can't you just imagine how much more entertaining the Mass would be with this guy as the liturgist?!!!



Thanks Be to God and Boomer Sooner!
Feast of St. Methodius

**I say this with all of the sarcasm I can muster!

It's a Big Week and beginning of a Big Summer

Well, this is a pretty big week and is really what is kicking off the summer for me.

First of all Monday was the move out day for everyone who isn't staying in the dorm over the summer. So, the building is really empty right now...there are only 3 rooms out of 13 on my floor occupied right now. But, new people for the summer will be moving in about a week and a half from now and then it will be a whole new community. I'm interested to meet some of these new people, some of which will be staying here in the fall.

Also on Monday, I began my summer internship at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography here on the Harvard campus. It's an eight week internship and I'll be floating between three departments so that I can get a glimpse of the inner workings of a museum. My first task is to develop a preliminary survey of educators and the public to develop an exhibit on the Harvard Indian College.

Most people are unaware that the original charter of Harvard, which is still in effect, called for the "education of English and Indian youth..." and towards that end the Harvard Overseers created the short lived Harvard Indian College in 1653, which closed in 1670 following the Pequot War (also known as King Philip's War). For over 300 years, Caleb Cheeshahteamuck (Wampanoag), Class of 1665 was the only American Indian graduate of Harvard.

So, anyway, I'm really excited and looking forward to that. The majority of my other time at the museum will be spent in the Conservation Department where I'll be working on the Native American collections in the museum (the Peabody has one of the largest Native American collections in the world. It's looking like an amazing opportunity!

So, other than the internship, my best friend here at Harvard left today for Emory University in Atlanta. I already miss him!

Now I've got about a week and a half to settle into my new internship before the new residents show up and I start my summer language work in Theological Spanish! Man, what was I thinking? Isn't summer supposed to be vacation time? Oh, well...

Thanks Be to God and Boomer Sooner!
Feast of St. Anthony of Padua

Ahhhhh!!!

:-( The Sooners lost the first game of their series with Rice 10-4, not an auspicious start to a best of three series.

But, shhhh! Don't tell anybody, but we're just lulling them into a false sense of security.

Thanks Be to God and Boomer Sooner!
Feast of Bl. John Dominici

I "heart" the Pink Sisters!

I recently found out about the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters, an order of contemplative nuns who have convents in Philadelphia, St. Louis and Lincoln, Nebraska (among others).

I don't know much about them other than the fact that they wear pink habits! They are so precious in their pink habits! I think I've fallen in love with them (is that allowed, or even healthy?)!

I "heart" the Pink Sisters!

Thanks Be to God and Boomer Sooner!
Feast of St. Ephrem

It's been a big week!

Well, this week has been busy!!!

It was graduation here at Harvard and several of my friends graduated, YEA them! Many of them are off to start careers in ministry or pursue further education. They are such great people and I really wish them the best!

Things are starting to quiet down here at the dorm. People are really starting to move out now that graduation is over. My new job as the dorm proctor (RA) starts tomorrow, so I hope I'm up to the task. I've got to check people out this weekend, and then there will be a 2 week lull before people start showing up to stay for the summer language program. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the summer!

Oh, and the Sooners are playing Rice this weekend in the NCAA baseball super-regional...Good Luck Guys!!!

The Dallas Mavericks won game one of the NBA Finals last night...I'm really conflicted over who to support, the Heat or the Mavs. I mean I'm from south Florida, so I would love it for the area to have a championship...but, I also am kind of pulling for the Mavs. Oh well, it'll be a good series!

Thanks Be to God and Boomer Sooner!
Feast of St. Ephrem

Where else but Harvard Divinity School?

We've got this great professor at HDS named Jon Levenson who's Professor of Jewish Studies...I've never had him in class, but if what follows is any indication I can't wait to take a class with him.

One of my dormmates has compiled a list of Levenson-isms from the past year.

I share them with you...it's kinda long, but I think you'll enjoy!

To the Protestants I say: If midrash is not open to you, and if historical criticism is not open to you. . . you have a problem.

"Shit, it was Leah!"--Not the most eloquent English, to be reading in church

God will punish you, not me. Or reward you, depending on God’s view on text criticism

What class could be less interesting than this?

I prefer not just in-house knowledge, but outhouse knowledge

On conversions: They had people assuming missionary positions…perhaps a poor choice of words

Parsing is how I get my kicks. That and heroin and cocaine. One is much more effective than the others.

You could write a fine dissertation on this. Boring as hell. Which makes it all the better for a dissertation.

Student: My perception was that people didn’t have horses until the 7th century. Levenson: I still don't have one.

Is it true that there are more sheep than people in New Zealand? So how do they deal with the sexual temptation? That’s why I never visit.

Student: I don’t have any handouts. Levenson: ok, you flunk!

[On the JPS 1962 Torah translation] 'Who is like you, O Lord, among the celestials?' What the hell is a celestial? A tea? An ancient near-Eastern deity with a PhD?

Hindus sometimes take offense at being called polytheists: there's a unity. Of course, I mean real Hindus, not Westerners running around HDS calling themselves Hindus. You know--people who've taken a yoga class. . .

A pure historical telling would say the Israelites left Egypt, somehow got to the other side, and somehow the Egyptians didn’t.

Now we get this postmodernist crap--and I don't mean that in a pejorative sense.

Pharaoh googles that deity--nope, haven't heard of him. I won't let your people go.

'Redeem' has lost its secular sense, except when you redeem coupons.

It’s always a bad sign when people use etymology to make arguments.
Someone asked if I had seen ‘Prince of Egypt.' I said I was waiting for the book to come out.

Student: Maybe "sft" is lips, so the sea is licking its chops. Levenson: We’ll ignore that. There’s personification, and then there’s that.

Student: I don’t know where to begin. Levenson: Books. Don’t just interview people on the street.

The Samaritan Pentateuch says 'goy'? So it was probably written by a non-Jew

I’d better figure this out before someone asks.

I don’t care. I really don’t care. 98% of what these Germans have at the bottom of the page I don’t care about. I heard a German saying ‘I’ve been here 5 and 40 minutes. When do I become a sausage?’ so that says something about these notes.

One of the few advantages of being at the bottom of the sea is that you’re not sinking.

When grammarians don’t know what something is, they make up a word for it.

I myself don’t do archaeology, because a man of my status shouldn’t get his hands dirty. That and they're drunk until 4 a.m.

You sit on your own rump and on the ass’ rump. Who’s sitting on the ass’ ass?

I did once try to get into animal husbandry, but my wife got jealous.

It’s not very intimidating that God threw the groomsmen into the water.

We’ve spent too much time on this. I don’t care.

I’d be terrible in the British royal family. First of all, I’d stay married to the same person.

When I taught at Wellesley, they had two types of shops in the square: bridal shops and bridle shops. For those well-bred young ladies.

God as "yoshev al haKruvim" (The Lord of Hosts enthroned on cherubs): What is He doing? Is this the Divine Derriere on some cherubs? Ms. Mirguet, I'll translate 'derriere' into French for you later.

I'm doing this from memory, but my memory is perfect...as long as it lasts.

It’s like the Westminster dog show, where the people look like their dogs and are fat.

The Anchor Bible Dictionary entry for zoology is very good. No pictures, unfortunately.

Student: I would rather agree with you. Levenson: I think for the purposes of this class, that’s a good idea.

Just draw a bird on the board, people will assume it's a hieroglyph.

I avoid the outdoors in general. The only time I’m outdoors is between buildings if there's no tunnel.

Of course, the larger theological question is ‘who cares'?

He’s famous for using dirty words. He’s famous for more than that, but he’s the only person who can make ‘shit’ into a 5-syllable word

The religion scholar at Duke who pronounced "shit" as a 5-syllable word. "That's just how I grew up--in Texas." "Well I bet you grew up saying "nigger" too. Language change IS possible.

If you smoke within 100 feet of a Harvard building, they will rip you apart, wrap your head in seaweed, and throw you in the Charles.

He calls me prominent because I insisted he get rid of ‘scintillating, brilliant, overwrought…’ because I’m modest.

When you talk to Lutherans it’s good to bring up Paul because their theology is based on a misreading of Paul. So I like to push that in their faces. He thinks gentiles are dreck, which is the Yiddish word for excrement, and may be anachronistic.

It would be hard to imagine someone saying they’re born again as a UU.

Sexual misdeeds—whatever we call them today, alternative lifestyles.

Its more like the missionary position—er, missionary position----missionary theology

Except for the mispronunciation of the qamatz katan, nothing makes me angrier than the misquotation of Galatians.

You can spend your life trying to tell people that they shouldn't say Old Testament, shouldn't say Indian, shouldn't say girl. . . Only in Stalinist countries--or Harvard --can we achieve these socio-linguistic changes.

Neither Christian nor Jew says ‘let's hold hands and sway back and forth and sing.'

I suggest that one of you go first, and whoever doesn’t go first should go second.

Do you want to tell everyone your theory before I tell them why it's wrong?

Who knows what the history was on this thing? I'm a historical agnostic.

Stager says it’s mounting a horse—with the purposes of riding….actually, I’ve never heard it specified. He did grow up on a farm…

They assume you're not an idiot and they can mention a couple words and you’ll know the rest of the verse. Few can, and they're getting fewer. Except in the Bible Belt.

Things have different uses. Horses are useful in combat. Dictionaries are not.

Which text am I thinking of in my pea-sized brain?

It’s hard for Protestants to grasp this thought—it’s not the only thing it's hard for them to grasp

I don’t know of any OT text which hath a clear Christological sense.

Zachariah 9:9, Matthew 21--riding on two animals at once. I once saw a rodeo performer do this. I started to wave palm branches, but nobody understood the symbolism.

This is very intelligent; don’t ever think about it for the rest of your life.

Eschatological things like the blind leaping…well, not the blind leaping, really

There’s probably someone in the linguistics dept writing a dissertation on that right now…which won't work

Lutheran minister at Wellesley: I don't see myself as a minister. I see myself as a Values Clarification Facilitator.

The universality of the Church was undercut when they got rid of Latin. The authority of Rome was undercut. I got news for you (Catholics): you get rid of Latin you can get rid of Rome. In fact, historically there's even a connection between Latin and Rome.

One thing about the Hebrew Bible: God didn’t lack ways of punishing people.

The point of the midterm is to scare you to death.

When I go to the library I go from BM to BS and sometimes I take a bathroom break.

I know people like Noam Chomsky make fun of this, but I make fun of people like Chomsky.

Why is Dr. better than Rabbi? They're equally incompetent.

I show up with a shofar, people think I’m crazy

Questions? Comments? Boredom?

I have so few examples, I have to use them over and over

You should think about things like that. Not in my presence, but…

Jemima was the daughter of Job. She was the daughter who made pancakes.

You could look across the page and see the translation. I’m hoping the class is too dumb to do that.

God provides wine so their father will have incest with them. What a compassionate God!

I don’t want any memorial services at HDS.

This is like the least Jewish place on the planet (Jackson,WY)

They had candles and matza on the supermarket shelf at the same time. For the rare calendrical occasion where Passover is at the same time as Hanukkah.

There will be translation, grammar, discussion, and discomfort.

'Deaf and dumb' is very insensitive. I usually say 'hearing-impaired and dumb.'

I say we go in alphabetical order. Or the alternative is to go in reverse alphabetical order.

That chainsaw image is too violent. I would say ‘disembowels’

This may shock you--I'm not even Catholic. This may have affected their consideration of me for the papacy. If you look at the history of Popes--there's a history of discrimination there.

They elected a new Pope, and I was very disappointed because I wasn’t even the runner up. Nonetheless, I have a platform

It’s a Yiddish expression. Jesus was unlikely to have used it.

I don’t much care. Questions, comments?

I wasn’t elected Pope. I’m getting close though. The West Virginia state bird is the cardinal

Let me say why they're bringing all this up. Why ARE they bringing all this up?

I, who dreamed of being Pope, am laughing at the Catholic church
A lot of Catholic priests became Episcopal priests and don’t know it.

[phone rings] Oh, that’s the Nobel Prize Committee again. I just don’t want to go to Oslo in the winter. Rome wouldn’t be so bad.

The dead don’t really move. That’s one of their characteristics, they stay in place

The first question is what the hell relevance is it?

What do you do if your colleagues hate you? Not personally, but in general, what's your advice?

--And what happened when they opened James's tomb?--There was nothing in it.--You see, proof that James also was resurrected!

Scholars think this was a late cemetery—a lot of people in there were late

How many people who name their son Christopher actually want him to bear Christ?

It's so obscure I wish I’d written it myself.

Can you imagine if some of these cult-of-the-dead Biblical scholars walked into a liquor store and saw them selling ‘spirits’?

You archetypal, pathetic moderns…

Keren-Happuch (Job's daughter): Her name means eyeshadow. I think she changed it to Estee Lauder.

It’s a big pile of BS and I don’t mean Biblical Studies.

If people interrupt me every time I’m right, we'll never get anywhere. If you interrupt me every time I’m wrong, you flunk.

I have no idea what I actually think, or if I actually think.

Nobody asked, ‘which one is God?’

You seem to have some gender confusion. Have you been taking too many classes at HDS? Oh, I have the gender confusion. It must be my operation.

Remind me, when I become Pope, to change that too.

If you find out, keep it to yourself so you don’t show me up.

To me, all gentile names sound the same. It’s the last class, might as well say what I actually think. And I have a large database.

I don’t know why they let Jewish students into this school.

I don’t think Babe Ruth was named after the candy bar. Good thing they didn’t call him Snickers

I call her Mrs. Levenson myself.

People who teach Biblical Hebrew are always excited and saying wow (vav)

[On the Song of Songs] It looks like a bunch of horny teenagers with a gift for poetry

If you’ve missed any of the pearls I’ve scattered before you, you might as well hang it up, you're doomed.

You should do all the secondary reading you've been ignoring and pretending didn’t exist. Many of the things we don’t read in class are irrelevant, and things we did in class are irrelevant.

Thanks Be to God and Boomer Sooner!
Feast of St. Norbert

Ready for some Rice!

Woo Hoo!!!!

It was close, but the Sooners managed to win the NCAA Div. 1 Baseball Norman Regional by defeating the Wichita State Shockers 7-6!!

It was a great game...a little too close for comfort at the end, but overall a great game! My friends were looking at me funny as I cheered (and swore) at my computer screen...they just don't understand my Sooner passion.

Next up: the Rice Owls in Houston!

Thanks Be to God and Boomer Sooner!
Feast of St. Boniface

Oh Happy Day!

Today was fantastic!!!

My good friend who's graduating this week from Harvard with an MDiv got back from moving his stuff to Atlanta where he'll be pursuing a ThM at Emory University in the fall. His parents and brother are all flying to Boston from Seoul, S. Korea to celebrate with him! It has to have been hard on him to have been so far away from home for 4 years now, the Lord has certainly granted him a lot of strength. Anyway, I really missed him and I'm so happy for him to be moving on to this next phase in his life!

And today was Pentecost Sunday! The Birthday of the Church!!! What a great thing! Cardinal O'Malley of the Archdiocese of Boston came to my parish, St. Clement Shrine, to celebrate the Mass. It was AWESOME!!!! The Mass was beautiful and really moving!!! I had such a wonderful time at Mass!

This is the main altar at St. Clement's (it is so beautiful!)

And then, how appropriate is it for there to have been a fire in my dorm on Pentecost? I mean, talk about the tongues of fire! But, there wasn't really a fire. One of my dormmates forgot a pot she had cooking on the stove and all the water boiled away and her corn burned and smoked and caused the fire alarms to go off! So, we all got to go outside and truly experience community...oh, and some of the girls were really happy to see "sexy, axe-wielding firemen!" Leave it to Divinity students to try and start a fire on Pentecost!

Oh, and it's 90 days till the Sooners 2006 kickoff!!!!!!!!

What an AWESOME day!!

Thanks Be to God and Boomer Sooner!
Pentecost Sunday

Oops!!

Ok, so I realized I made a mistake in stating yesterday that Brokeback Mountain had won Best Picture...evidently it was Crash instead.

My bad...well, my real bad was watching it in the first place, but I just wanted to set the record straight.

Oh, and Crash is an absolutely fabulous movie! You should check it out.

Thanks Be to God and Boomer Sooner!
Feast of St. Charles Lwanga and companions

What was I thinking?

I admit it, I was curious and wanted to see what all the fuss was about. So, I gave in and netflixed Brokeback Mountain. I knew better, but curiosity got the better of me.

It was definitely everything I knew it would be: immoral, unethical, unGodly, borderline pornography, sacrilegious, depicted domestic violence, adultery and divorce, etc., etc., etc...

But, even knowing all that you know what the worst part of it was? It was a bad movie! It was just horrible. What were the critics thinking? The story was slow. The movie was lllllooooonnnnggggg! I didn't think it was ever going to end! There wasn't any character development. How in the world did this movie win Best Picture?

I'll tell you how...to have voted against it would have violated everything that liberal Hollywood holds dear! This movie, according to immoral and unGodly people, broke new ground in showing a gay love story. To not support this "groundbreaking" movie would have violated their beliefs. This movie had to have their full a priori support, because if it didn't do well there wouldn't be another one like it made any time in the near future.

This movie was just plain bad! I thought that maybe I could see a good movie even if I found it morally reprehensible. But, I should've known better.

Well...Lord, yet another lesson learned.

Thanks Be to God and Boomer Sooner!
Feast of Sts. Marcellinus and Peter the Exorcist

John Paul II, Patron of the Theatre?

Catholic World News is reporting that "a leading figure in the Italian theatre" is championing the cause to name the late John Paul II as the Patron of the Theatre (full story here). This "leading figure" claims that the "theatre needs a protector because it has become too atheist."

I couldn't agree more! Has anyone seen the tripe that has been coming out of Hollywood and Broadway recently? American theatre is the guidepost for the art in the rest of the world, what kind of example are we setting for others? This is definitely not the city on a hill that I envision.

Now, I'm not one of those Catholics who's rushing to Canonize John Paul II, though I truly believe it will happen eventually, but his life, teachings, and genuine love for theatre seems to point towards him being a logical choice. Readers may not know that prior to World War II and entering the underground seminary, the Holy Father was considered an up and coming Polish actor, so the connections are definitely there.

I'm not even sure if someone can be named a Patron of something if they're not at some point in the Canonization process (St., Bl., Ven.), so perhaps this is a little early. But it's definitely something to think about...

hmmm....Pope John Paul II, Patron of the Theatre, it does have a nice ring to it.

Thanks Be to God and Boomer Sooner!
Feast of St. Justin Martyr