Papers submitted. They’re out of my hands and commended to Almighty God and the instructors who will grade them. I will use my remaining brain cells to finish Gilles Emery’s books on the Trinity before class in a couple of weeks. I’m still on my long Borges kick and am revisiting the short stories in English but occasionally bouncing back to the Spanish versions too. Not sure what I’ll look at next, to be totally honest. The end of our formal studies is slowly coming into view, which means reading and study will return to (mostly) self-directed, though likely along three parallel tracks: leisure, ministerial/study, and spiritual. Speaking of:
Chautard on the interior life was exactly what I needed, and I recommend it to anyone else who is looking for the how and why of developing a habit of contemplative prayer. My spiritual director seems to be a fan of French spirituality; prior to Chautard, he had me reading Frances De Sales and Jacques Phillipe. Something about Chautard reminds me of Evagrius, though I’m unsure why. I think it’s the close association he makes between contemplative prayer and active charity and the absolute necessity of the former to carry out the latter. In any event, my morning prayer routine looks something like this:
- Office of Readings
- Morning Prayer
- Spiritual reading 5-10 minutes
- Contemplative prayer, 20 minutes
- Final prayer of thanksgiving and intent before wandering over to the office
I recently increased the time for contemplative prayer from 15 to 20 minutes; my goal is to get to 30, and I don’t think it will be terribly difficult. I use a timer to make myself accountable - originally to keep from quitting too soon. Now it serves to make sure I don’t stay in the chair too long! I can maintain this schedule just about every day of the week, though parts occasionally shift around if I’m serving mass early or, to be frank, feeling lazy on Saturday morning.
No nerd news for now. With a little more in the way of spare time I may start dipping back into radio stuff. I also promised myself a new game for the wintertime once schoolwork was done. I was weighing Rimworld and Dwarf Fortress and am leaning towards Rimworld right now. It seems easier to dip in and out of, and an online friend of mine who has played both agrees. I’m going to lay Factorio aside for now, though the new space expansion looks absolutely fantastic.