I went to a Myers-Briggs Personality workshop the other day. After taking the test and learning about different personality types, I was surprised at how accurate it was. The test measures 4 different variables for a total of 16 different personality types. It measures Extroverted/Introverted, Sensing/iNtuitive, Thinking/Feeling, Judging/Perceiving. No one is, of course, entirely one personality type versus another because each person is so radically different from other people (being incomunicable and all ;-)).
My test results were exactly what I thought they would be: INFP, the dreamer, idealist, and questor. (Those are some really good words, don't ya think! ;-)) The most extreme one was Feeling (very little thinking), followed by iNtuiting, Perceiving. Despite what many people who have met me will say, I am an introvert...a talkative one, who often speaks and then thinks. Alas and alac, when shall I learn to curve me waggin' tongue? I've inserted a short explanation of the type (slightly altered to remove inappropriate things that don't actually aply to me anyway). I'd love to know what type all of you are! (Please note, this is entirely different from the Four Temperaments, of which I am an Phlegmatic-Sanguine).
Take the test yourself!
INFP - High capacity for caring. Emotional face to the world. High sense of honor derived from internal values. 4.4% of total population.
creative, smart, idealist, loner, attracted to sad things, disorganized, avoidant, can be overwhelmed by unpleasant feelings, prone to quitting, prone to feelings of loneliness, ambivalent of the rules, solitary, daydreams about people to maintain a sense of closeness, focus on fantasies, acts without planning, low self confidence, emotionally moody, can feel defective, prone to lateness, likes esoteric things, wounded at the core, feels shame, frequently losing things, prone to sadness, prone to dreaming about a rescuer, disorderly, observer, easily distracted, does not like crowds, can act without thinking, private, can feel uncomfortable around others, familiar with the darkside, hermit, likes the rain, sometimes can't control fearful thoughts, prone to crying, prone to regret, attracted to the counter culture, can be submissive, prone to feeling discouraged, frequently second guesses self, not punctual, not always prepared, can feel victimized, prone to confusion, prone to irresponsibility, can be pessimistic
More in depth description of an INFP
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Spring Break
We arrived at Laura's place around dinner time and were picked up by my mother and brother and headed the rest of the way home. Activities included setting up a tent in the front yard (at our place, that is, not Laura's), making a human pyramid. Daniel was making a lip face at me with his tounge and bottom lip, and Joseph walked into the picture. He's got a knack for doing that. Katie, Katelyn, Deborah and I went to Virginia Beach the day after, and had fun walking around walking around and burying parts of each other in the sand. It was definitely too cold to wade for long. The last few pictures are of Seashore State Park (Bald Cypress Trees and Spanish Moss) and the Chesapeake Bay. 
Unsetting the Tent in the front yard. 
Human Pyramid!
Unsetting the Tent in the front yard. 
Human Pyramid!
Friday, March 09, 2007
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
"The Humble Exalted"
(This spoke volumes to me, because I get discouraged during certain times during the semester. Hope it helps.)
If we contemplate our misery without raising our eyes to God, the Father of mercies, we will easily become discouraged. By examining ourselves thoroughly, we will see that discouragement always comes from two closely related causes. The first is that we depend upon our own strength; through it our pride is wounded and deceived when we fall. The second is that we lack reliance on God; we do not think of referring to him in times of prosperity, nor do we have recourse to him when we fail him. In short, we act by ourselves: we try to succeed alone, we fall alone, and alone we contemplate our fall. The result of such conduct can only be discouragement. Indeed, how could we expect to find in ourselves the strength to rise again, when it was our very want of strength that made us fall? God does not want us to act by ourselves. "Woe to him that is alone," says Sacred Scripture, "for when he falleth, he hath none to lift him up" (Eccl 4: 10). Woe to him who relies only on his own strength to put his good resolutions into execution. When he falls, he will not have the aid of God's might to lift him up; thus he will remain in his misery, confused and discouraged.
Just as we should not make good resolutions without counting on God's help to keep them, by the same token we should not view our failures without considering God's mercy at the same time, for as God is the only one who can help us persevere in good, so he alone can raise us up from evil.
That is why all the saints have taught that the knowledge of oneself must never be separated from the knowledge of God and vice versa. Saint Teresa of Jesus says, "The soul must sometimes emerge from self-knowledge and soar aloft in meditation upon the greatness and the majesty of its God. Doing this will help it to realize its own baseness better than thinking of its own nature, and it will be freer from the reptiles which enter the first rooms, that is, the rooms of self knowledge.
Father Gabriel of Saint Mary Magdalen, O.C.D. (+1952) was a Belgian Carmelite priest, teacher, and spiritual director.
If we contemplate our misery without raising our eyes to God, the Father of mercies, we will easily become discouraged. By examining ourselves thoroughly, we will see that discouragement always comes from two closely related causes. The first is that we depend upon our own strength; through it our pride is wounded and deceived when we fall. The second is that we lack reliance on God; we do not think of referring to him in times of prosperity, nor do we have recourse to him when we fail him. In short, we act by ourselves: we try to succeed alone, we fall alone, and alone we contemplate our fall. The result of such conduct can only be discouragement. Indeed, how could we expect to find in ourselves the strength to rise again, when it was our very want of strength that made us fall? God does not want us to act by ourselves. "Woe to him that is alone," says Sacred Scripture, "for when he falleth, he hath none to lift him up" (Eccl 4: 10). Woe to him who relies only on his own strength to put his good resolutions into execution. When he falls, he will not have the aid of God's might to lift him up; thus he will remain in his misery, confused and discouraged.
Just as we should not make good resolutions without counting on God's help to keep them, by the same token we should not view our failures without considering God's mercy at the same time, for as God is the only one who can help us persevere in good, so he alone can raise us up from evil.
That is why all the saints have taught that the knowledge of oneself must never be separated from the knowledge of God and vice versa. Saint Teresa of Jesus says, "The soul must sometimes emerge from self-knowledge and soar aloft in meditation upon the greatness and the majesty of its God. Doing this will help it to realize its own baseness better than thinking of its own nature, and it will be freer from the reptiles which enter the first rooms, that is, the rooms of self knowledge.
Father Gabriel of Saint Mary Magdalen, O.C.D. (+1952) was a Belgian Carmelite priest, teacher, and spiritual director.
Thanksgiving Novena to St. Jude
O Holy St. Jude, Apostle and Martyr, great in virtue and rich in miracles, near kinsman of Jesus Christ, faithful intercessor of all who invoke your special patronage in time of need, to you I have recourse from the depth of my heart and humbly beg to whom God had given such agreat power to come to my assistance. Help me in my present and urgent petition.
(Make your request here)
In retun I promise to make your name known and cause you to be invoked. St. Jude pray for us and all who invoke your aid. Amen.
Pray this Novena daily. Say 3 Pater's (Our Father's), 3 Ave's (Hail Mary's), 3 Gloria's (Glory Be...) This Novena has never been known to fail.
(Make your request here)
In retun I promise to make your name known and cause you to be invoked. St. Jude pray for us and all who invoke your aid. Amen.
Pray this Novena daily. Say 3 Pater's (Our Father's), 3 Ave's (Hail Mary's), 3 Gloria's (Glory Be...) This Novena has never been known to fail.
Familial Burns
Peter was mosying around in the attic, which has very sloping ceilings. He stood up and ran his head into a light bulb, which, he tells me, hurt and singed his hair when it broke "with peices skattering down my head like rain running over!"
2 of my sisters were ironing in the dining room, when they went into the kitchen. My seven-year-old-brother decided to see if the iron was hot, and my sisters herd an "ow! The iron's hot!" from the dining room, and they scrambled to put his hand in ice water. Only a few minutes later, during the hand-rescue procedure, they heard another "EEYOOW!' from the dining room, and Peter came in flapping his hand, his face screwed up, and he promptly informed the girls in an irritated voice that the iron was hot.
Those of us who have touched ovens, grills, irons, etc. to "see if it was hot:" Peter (4x), Deborah (2x), Joseph (1x), me (1x), and the others are smart enough to have learned from us what not to do.
Various other burns have occured, but 'tis an unpleasant topic, so it shall end now.
2 of my sisters were ironing in the dining room, when they went into the kitchen. My seven-year-old-brother decided to see if the iron was hot, and my sisters herd an "ow! The iron's hot!" from the dining room, and they scrambled to put his hand in ice water. Only a few minutes later, during the hand-rescue procedure, they heard another "EEYOOW!' from the dining room, and Peter came in flapping his hand, his face screwed up, and he promptly informed the girls in an irritated voice that the iron was hot.
Those of us who have touched ovens, grills, irons, etc. to "see if it was hot:" Peter (4x), Deborah (2x), Joseph (1x), me (1x), and the others are smart enough to have learned from us what not to do.
Various other burns have occured, but 'tis an unpleasant topic, so it shall end now.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
"University vs. Culture" : i.e. "The Bubble"
For all the years I have been at my Catholic school, I have heard numerous complaints about it. The school plays mommy to us, or the school is too liberal, or music ministry does this wrong or that wrong. It is honestly a little too much, and hard to remain rational and level headed, so I just want to make a few points.
1. If you are at this school, I had better be here because it is the "best" in some way that is important to you. Either the academics are some of the best in your specific feild, the teachers are the best at what they do, the financial aspect is the best (and this is for very few of us indeed), you want to have access to some of the best Catholic Theology in the nation. At least one of these should be on your list. Why are you at the school if you don't think you are getting the best education you can get with your money?
2. If you didn't want work, you should have gotten a GED and become a bum like the rest of the kids back home. We all complain so much about how demanding our professors are, some more than others. Grant it, some of those professors deserve such censure, but most of them are giving you the tools to become the best person you can be. They know that experience is the best teacher. That's why you have to do so many presentations and papers: they will teach you to give better and better presentations and papers. No newspaper or publishing company is going to hire a stupid kid who doesn't get A's on his papers because they are no dummy.
3. The university is Catholic and promotes Catholic values. If you didn't want Catholic values, you should have gone to a cheeper state school. You're darn right MTV is blocked from our campus TVs, and it is good thing too. I've heard the argument that "we are so sheltered! How are we supposed to live in the world if we don't know what is out there? We need to be able to see what is really going on in our cluture." You want to know what is going on in our culture?! You don't know yet? Look in the trashcans behind an abortion mill (if you can get to em) and get a good hard look at all those fetal body parts. Go downtown in any large
American city after dark and feast your eyes on the pimpers and street walkers: that is what is going on in our cluture. Watch the evening news and see how many people got shot; do an internet search and find out how many children are raped by their classmates and teachers every year. Research gang activity in your area, and you will wish you never knew about it. You want to experience "the outside world", go to almost any public school in the country and you will get a taste of everything. Honestly, you don't have to experience it first hand to know that sin is out there. Is that the culture you want to be a part of, to immerse yourself in? Watching MTV and seeking evil out so you "can find out what it is like" is letting down your guard, opening you up to penetration by the "enemy," whatever the enemy is. What is the enemy? Most students don't even realize it, but it comes in three forms: the world, the flesh, the devil. The world is a vector from whence evil infiltrates our lives. We are supposed to be in the world and not of the world, yes, but we must have an inside. The world should be "out there," and our homes, our families and Church, should be "in here." Don't beleive me? Take a look at any family that watched MTV all the time, who's parents never required them to go to Church and let them make up their own mind: the kids are now in jail for drug posession or living off of welfare with one of the mothers of his three kids. This is a Catholic University, and I think the students should praise the University for attempting to upholding Catholic values. Bubble my eye. This is no bubble unless you make it so yourself. This school has a dark side, and most of you have never seen it and will never see it.
4. Jazz/Rock/R&B do not belong in the Mass. Period. YOu don't beleive me, read the Vatican documents yourself.
5. Stop judging him/her! If God had wanted you to judge people, he would have made you a god, but that is impossible so get over it.
In short, why don't you just try internalizing your Catholic faith, making it your own, and having the self-presence to actually know who you are and have at least a faint idea that you are headed in the right direction. What is the right direction? "heaven, man, heaven."
1. If you are at this school, I had better be here because it is the "best" in some way that is important to you. Either the academics are some of the best in your specific feild, the teachers are the best at what they do, the financial aspect is the best (and this is for very few of us indeed), you want to have access to some of the best Catholic Theology in the nation. At least one of these should be on your list. Why are you at the school if you don't think you are getting the best education you can get with your money?
2. If you didn't want work, you should have gotten a GED and become a bum like the rest of the kids back home. We all complain so much about how demanding our professors are, some more than others. Grant it, some of those professors deserve such censure, but most of them are giving you the tools to become the best person you can be. They know that experience is the best teacher. That's why you have to do so many presentations and papers: they will teach you to give better and better presentations and papers. No newspaper or publishing company is going to hire a stupid kid who doesn't get A's on his papers because they are no dummy.
3. The university is Catholic and promotes Catholic values. If you didn't want Catholic values, you should have gone to a cheeper state school. You're darn right MTV is blocked from our campus TVs, and it is good thing too. I've heard the argument that "we are so sheltered! How are we supposed to live in the world if we don't know what is out there? We need to be able to see what is really going on in our cluture." You want to know what is going on in our culture?! You don't know yet? Look in the trashcans behind an abortion mill (if you can get to em) and get a good hard look at all those fetal body parts. Go downtown in any large
American city after dark and feast your eyes on the pimpers and street walkers: that is what is going on in our cluture. Watch the evening news and see how many people got shot; do an internet search and find out how many children are raped by their classmates and teachers every year. Research gang activity in your area, and you will wish you never knew about it. You want to experience "the outside world", go to almost any public school in the country and you will get a taste of everything. Honestly, you don't have to experience it first hand to know that sin is out there. Is that the culture you want to be a part of, to immerse yourself in? Watching MTV and seeking evil out so you "can find out what it is like" is letting down your guard, opening you up to penetration by the "enemy," whatever the enemy is. What is the enemy? Most students don't even realize it, but it comes in three forms: the world, the flesh, the devil. The world is a vector from whence evil infiltrates our lives. We are supposed to be in the world and not of the world, yes, but we must have an inside. The world should be "out there," and our homes, our families and Church, should be "in here." Don't beleive me? Take a look at any family that watched MTV all the time, who's parents never required them to go to Church and let them make up their own mind: the kids are now in jail for drug posession or living off of welfare with one of the mothers of his three kids. This is a Catholic University, and I think the students should praise the University for attempting to upholding Catholic values. Bubble my eye. This is no bubble unless you make it so yourself. This school has a dark side, and most of you have never seen it and will never see it.
4. Jazz/Rock/R&B do not belong in the Mass. Period. YOu don't beleive me, read the Vatican documents yourself.
5. Stop judging him/her! If God had wanted you to judge people, he would have made you a god, but that is impossible so get over it.
In short, why don't you just try internalizing your Catholic faith, making it your own, and having the self-presence to actually know who you are and have at least a faint idea that you are headed in the right direction. What is the right direction? "heaven, man, heaven."
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Importance of history
I've always been interested in history because it is very interesting to know from whence you came, to see how people lived, how the times changed, why they changed, etc. I only recently realized the extent to which it affects me: who I am, where I came from, what my goals and aspirations are, what my education and culture consist of, and what my faith is. It is a reality that I didn't know was there. Prof. Gaston gave an example today in class of how he used to bring a random tool in to class, an unusual one, and pass it around. The students would puzzle over it, and pass it back, not having figured out what it was. Gaston would then tell them "this is an X and it is used to K" and suddenly, they would realize what it was for and they would be amazed; you know, respond with "Oh! Cool!" The reality was sitting there infront of them, staring them in the face, but they never knew it. One cannot understand what a tool is for without knowing what it was used to do in the past. You cannot understand what is infront of you without knowing your past. Always living and seeing what is around you, how to do things, why to do certain actions and why not to do others. Knowing one's history causes the person to look at the present world with new eyes, or, rather, not with new eyes, but actually knowing how to look with their eyes, to focus on things so that one can see the depth in them.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Knowledge
"Knowledge is only potential power. It becomes power only when and if it is organized into definite plans of action and directed to a defininte end." Napoleon Hill
"To take a risk is to loose one's footing for a moment, and then to recover. To never loose one's footing is to never live." Keirkegaard
"To take a risk is to loose one's footing for a moment, and then to recover. To never loose one's footing is to never live." Keirkegaard
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Valentine's Ice storm
Here is a frozen cup-cake bush outside the chapel =)
Horrid little prickle bush looks much better in the ice than in real life.
Franciscan U had their first Snow day in four years on Valentines Day. The whole university shut down completely. After 7 inches of snow, we sustained 1/2 inch of ice, and it really was very pretty to see.
Friday, February 09, 2007
Silent Scream
Do not forget the holy souls in Purgatory! They truly are holy, much holier than we, for they have succeeded in avoiding eternal damnation, they can no longer commit sin, and their only desire is to be with God, a desire which consumes them. However, they are in bondage, trapped by their former sins, and there is nothing that they can do to free themselves. They are powerless to end their suffering. However, they would not, if given the chance, go into heaven with God carying with them the stain of their former sins. No, the holy souls long to be with God, yet they love Him so dearly and see how much sorrow they have caused him, that they will to rid themselves of their impurity first. But they can do nothing to further their sanctity. God, in His mercy, has so ordained it that we, the Church Militant, can make attonment for their sins, can get them into heaven. You and I are their key to heaven! As Pope John Paul II said, "Our dead are among the invisible, not among the absent." They are here with us, now, crying, pleading with us, "Have mercy! Have pity! Pray for me!" They are your ancestors, your parents, cousins, religous, clergy. Their silence is their loudest call, pleading with us, for our sacrifices, our prayers, our good deeds. And when you have prayed for the holy souls, they will never forget it. When they join Our Lord in heaven, they will not cease in pursueing your cause before almighty God. You will have gained an everlasting freindship.
"Their silence is their loudest call, because it is the echo of God's silence...They are silent because they live, just as we chatter so loudly to try to make ourselves forget that we are dying. their silence is really their call, the assurance of their immortal love for us. O silent God...God of those who are silently summoning us to enter into Your life, never let us forget our dead or our living. May our love and faithfulness to them be a pledge of our beleif in You, the God of eternal life.
Let us not be deaf to the call of their silence, which is the surest and sincerest word of their love. May this word of theirs continue to accompany us, even after they have taken leave of us to enter unto You, for thus their love comes all the closer to us.
Whey we pray, 'Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them,' let our words be only the cho of the prayer of love that they themselves are speaking in the silence of eternity. " Karl Rahner, Encounters with Silence.
May the souls of the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
"Their silence is their loudest call, because it is the echo of God's silence...They are silent because they live, just as we chatter so loudly to try to make ourselves forget that we are dying. their silence is really their call, the assurance of their immortal love for us. O silent God...God of those who are silently summoning us to enter into Your life, never let us forget our dead or our living. May our love and faithfulness to them be a pledge of our beleif in You, the God of eternal life.
Let us not be deaf to the call of their silence, which is the surest and sincerest word of their love. May this word of theirs continue to accompany us, even after they have taken leave of us to enter unto You, for thus their love comes all the closer to us.
Whey we pray, 'Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them,' let our words be only the cho of the prayer of love that they themselves are speaking in the silence of eternity. " Karl Rahner, Encounters with Silence.
May the souls of the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Winterness
Sunday, February 04, 2007
The Weakest Members
"No society whether family, village or state, is really strong if it will not carry its weak and even its weakest members. They belong to it no less than the strong, and the quiet work of their maintenance and care which might seem useless on a superficial level, is perhaps more effective than labor, culture, or productivity in knitting it closely and securely together. On the other hand, a community which regards and treates its weak memeber as a hindrance or even proceeds to their extermination is on the verge of collapse."
A Primer for Health Care Ethics: O'Rourke, p.64.
Most people I've met love the season of spring best. I, myself, am odd in this respect because my favorite season is Autumn, and my second favorite is Winter. I've always had a fascination for the cold, whiteness a northern winter could bring, probably because I've lived in the South all my life and never really experienced a hard winter. Spring is lovely, with all the new growth coming in, or the old growth rejuvenated, and summer is nice with it's warm evenings. Fall is absolutely marvelous, and the splendor of nature during that season of change near the end of the year always makes my heart soar with happiness. Why? How can I say what it is that makes me so happy then? It is simply beautiful. Winter, too, makes me happy. though it is bitterly cold right now, there is still a delight, a joy, that the world is so white, glistening, despite the harsh wind. I stand there, shivering like mad, loving the snow and the white world around.
Why is it? Maybe it has to do with my personality type or something, for I love sad songs (She moved Thro' the Fair, Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya, for instance). Unlike most people I've met, I look foreward to Advent and Lent. I am attracted to sorrow, to longing, to hoping. Advent is my all time favorite Church season. Why? Perhaps God will tell me someday. Perhaps it is the assurance of a new beginning. Perhaps, a promise of good to come, a reassurance to make it easier for me to trust. Perhaps because I recognize that suffering gives me a chance to attone for past faults. I don't know. Somehow, sadness/suffering give me a taste of heaven in that they further my desire for heaven. That sounds masicistic, but I don't mean it so in the least.
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