Well, the Newman at my Uni had a game night last night. No one showed up with any games, and there were only a few of us. I had gotten up early for a class, so I was not very talkative, and mostly listened. It was quite pleasant, if just a little lonely, but I learned a lot of amazing things about the people around me. All people ARE amazing; one lady had been overseas to Dublin, and another told us about a documentary in which we learned that certain hallucinogenic drugs make you polite. Such lives people lead!
Afterwards, the leader, another lady and I all went up to the Eucharistic Congress. It was about nine, and...I was really tired and quiet on the way up. In return for my silence, I learned that my leader has had quite an adventurous life in DC. He is one of those fellows who would be very difficult to intimidate. After you've been shot at, I guess verbal "violence" from punks doesn't seem like much of a big deal.
We arrived at the Congress, and...well, I had never been to the city that late at night. It was about nine, and the nightlife was out. There really was neon everywhere! And so many people, and just...wow. It was like a hive of activity and things like I had only seen on television were all actually happening in normal, everyday lives like it was nothing! Boy, do I sound like a country girl. Still, it was really amazing, very different; just how everything can be so alive and full even after dark. Just so many people. I think that's what really gives a city it's life: the people and how they conduct themselves. They can bring life and light to a city, or can tear it down into something dead and dark. People make a city's character, make it almost it's own being. And I doubt any two cities are the same, as long as different people live in them, with different places to go and see and live.
So we got in the Congress in the Convention Center and...well, it's very Catholic when almost the first person you see is the Bishop! But walking to and at the College Track, I saw a few friends from the Youth Group at my church whom I hadn't seen in a while. I'll probably see them again today; that's part of the fun of the Convention.
And how appropriate that the Convention is on a Memorial Day, on the Equinox! All these Feast Days in September...surely they were born to fulfill/replace the pagan Autumn Festivals around this time. And today especially...well, the Convention really is as close to a festival as you can get. It's incredibly appropriate! And the meeting of the spiritual and the material, the fulfillment of all the pagan longing for the natural and real (which I especially feel very strongly) is so encompassed in the Catholic Church. I felt it last night, too...
So, the nuns there....I think they were the Sisters for Life...they were talking about Pro-Life themes and also how they relate to college (mainly, chastity and contraception) and I really like how they compared the union of a man and woman (and the resulting child) to the Love in the Trinity between the Father and Son and the Incarnation of the Love, the Holy Spirit. I had heard of the idea before, but not put quite as well as they outlined it. It's a pretty awesome thing, how much we elevate sex to the divine! And they say we downgrade it/are anti-sex!
After the talk was over, I spent a little while during the last words looking at the other students. I was standing and perpendicular with my lil' group to the mass of seated students. I had watched a few episodes of the 80s Sherlock Holmes earlier in the day, so I went to work observing. Some students were fidgeting, while others were stone still. All the ones on the front row were in the latter category. I noticed particularly that one guy had carpal tunnel, as he was stretching and flexing his wrists and fingers in a way that's therapeutic for that particular ailment. And then, I wonder why he had the ailment? Did he type a lot? For college? Did he work in journalism? Was it genetic or was he writing some lengthy and great essay that will have some great mission to accomplish in the lives of those who read it? The possibilities are endless!
After it all ended, we were to process down to the church a few blocks away....while singing/chanting and holding CANDLES. I turned to the lady with me and commented that "this is SO not creepy" and she agreed and said we ought to have hoods. Ahh, Catholicism.
But that aside, it was actually a really great experience, even if it got kinda hard to sing near the end there. It's like something that people would have done in Medieval cities, not these fancy, night-life modern cities. It was like we were something from a distant age, or something outside of time. It was definitely an other-worldly experience, but at the same time it was SO real, and the fact that it was just a little strange and creepy was like....it very much spoke to the part of me that wants the quasi-pagan. The Church is full of a type of wonderful strangeness and horror in the mystery of so much within in and without it that it acknowledges....It's unique. There's nothing else that encompasses so much, and I don't think there's any other Christian "denomination" that would keep me within and keep me from straying into paganism: at that natural, surreal, strange, horror, material, intense, dramatic, creepy and emotional....awesomeness. It's all fulfilled here.
So in Adoration, it was very nice. The Church is old and quite lovely, and it was very quiet even with all the people there. Still, my mind was just full of music and in what I think was a good way. One of the speakers before we left for Adoration said that the Eucharist is really the moment where "Heaven and Earth" meet; it's like an "atomic bomb" as someone said...But the prospect of Heaven and Earth meeting attracts me so strongly and I think it's found so much in many other religions. And when we were in Adoration, this particular song rushed into my mind very clearly even though I was so tired, and it was just TOO perfect.
(The image it puts up looks a little wonky, but it really is a lovely video.)
If singing is like praying twice, I wonder what that says for songs without lyrics?
Well, anyways, it's a great relief that autumn is here. The weather is acting like it as well, even though it's a bit warm today. Still, I was walking down the road with the dog the other day and a breeze swept by....and the leaves started to fall around me. Perhaps the first time for many times this season. Being showered gently by the glorious, red, dying leaves who in their death create a glorious sight for everyone is like being showered with blessings undeserved. Just like being warmed by the sun.
Now, the picture! In honor of one the best things about autumn....
This one is done after the scent "Warm Apple Cider." Ahhh, I can't wait. Though I think wassail is just a little better!
Happy Mabon and First of Autumn!
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