Category Archives: Critical Mass

Graduate Record Exam

Critical Mass, Grad School/Seminary, , , , , , , , , , ,

I would love to say that the reason why I have been so incommunicado recently has been because I have been studying furiously for my GREs.

Alas.

I have put in maybe, oh, 5 hours *total* to studying, despite all my plans to work diligently on my study guide. Add that to the fact that I have never in my life taken a vocabulary class, have issues with language in general, haven’t seen simple algebra in years and can’t do geometry to save my life, and you have a picture of why my grades are suboptimal. I did, however, take an IQ test last night (yes, instead of studying….) and got a 155, which is in my normal range of 147-179. These things are important to know, when you are about to take a test that will kick the pants off you.

Right after taking the test, the computer gives you your verbal and quantitative scores. You have to wait a few weeks to get your analytical writing scores, which are graded by an actual person. The first thing I did after taking my GRE was (of course) go to Starbucks and get a venti peppermint white mocha. (Yums!) Then, I sat in my car in their parking lot and looked up my scores in their book, to see what my percentiles were.

On the quantitative/math section, I scored in the low 60s. Okay, so 40% of the population can do this stuff better than me. I’m fine with that. I said I can’t to geometry to save my life, and I’m sticking to it! I also don’t have any spatial reasoning skills, but they don’t test on that. 🙂

On the verbal section, I scored in the 96th percentile. Yippee! I’ll take it! 🙂 Hopefully, it will be good enough to get into grad school, because I am *really* excited about beginning my studies. 🙂

Oh, and what does one do after taking the GREs?
1. Starbucks
2. Find percentiles
3. Go home and dance
4. Jump on the trampoline
5. Write on your blog

The Only Bit of Good News…

Bioethics, Critical Mass, Health and Medicine, , ,

From an excerpt of a University of Michigan press release talking of the Embryonic Stem Cell Research Consortium:

In addition to deriving new embryonic stem cell lines, researchers will use recently developed techniques to convert adult skin cells into induced pluripotent stem cells, known as iPS cells. These reprogrammed cells display the most scientifically valuable properties of embryonic stem cells, while enabling researchers to bypass embryos altogether.

Yes, please, bypass the embryos.

Short Note on Prayer

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“Prayer lifts the soul into the heavens where it hugs God in an indescribable embrace.

Prayer is the desire for God, an indescribable devotion, not given by man but brought about by God’s grace. As St Paul says: For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself intercedes on our behalf in a way that could never be put into words.” — From the Office of the Readings

What a great thing to keep in mind! That prayer is a gift. It is not my list of demands to God, but the free gift of a relationship with Him. He *allows* us to communicate with Him. He doesn’t have to. How often do we — do I — take for granted the fact that I can talk to God, and He can speak to me?

I have had it happen before where I am completely unable to string together a coherent thought, but have the desire to communicate something to God. But God knows even before we do, so the words aren’t really necessary; and being coherent isn’t necessary, because He has perfect understanding. This is not to say that we shouldn’t pray, because God hears us anyway. As the way we were made, God is constantly inviting us to respond to Him and to seek a relationship with Him. Prayer is a gift, but we need to cooperate.

May the Lord God bless you!

Please pray for Blàse

Critical Mass,

Please pray for Blàse, a 3-week-old little boy who is in the NICU with many medical difficulties, mostly cardiac. He recently had open heart surgery, and he and his family could really use your prayers.

Thank you, so very much!

Lent – A Time to Grow Closer to the Lord

Critical Mass, Lent, , ,

Just a quick note on my Lenten plans.  This year, I decided that I would have a 3 phase plan for Lent.  I wanted to grow in three areas:  spiritually, physically and emotionally. 

1.  Physical growth- I hate drinking water.  I usually stay pretty dehydrated, which can get me into trouble.  So, for Lent, I will drink 2 glasses of water in the morning and 2 glasses of water in the evening.  Not only will this refresh my body, but in symbolism it is not healthy to be constantly rejecting water, since water is life.  I don’t wish to avoid life or reject life, but rather embrace life.  So, I will do this in a tangible fashion and hope that it has some effect on my spirit as well (since we are body-spirit mixes, I figure it’s worth a shot).

2.  Spiritual growth – I don’t really have a problem praying or talking to God.  And most of my friends would probably say that I don’t have a problem talking, period.  However, in my relationship with God, I find it harder to hear what He is saying to me.  So, I will make it a point to read 2 chapters of Scripture each day of Lent.  That way, I am hearing His Word and not my words.

3.  Emotional growth – this may seem like a silly one, but I think it will be the most difficult for me.  I like to listen to what I call Norte Americano Booty Music.  Mostly pop, with some rap and dance in there.  This is not always the best thing to listen to, morally speaking.  I have brought it up in confession a couple times, wondering about it, and have been told that it’s not so horrible of a thing.  However, another priest has counseled that it’s not a good idea to invite sin into our lives (good plan).  And since the message of the songs are all too frequently immoral and/or degrading, I am going to fast from this music.  Since it is all-pervasive in society, I am technically saying that I will refrain from listening to this type of music if I have control over the music being played.  For example, if I were shopping at the grocery store or something and one of these songs comes on, I’m not going to go running screaming out of the store.  However, I am not going to seek out stores to shop in because I know that they do play this music.  If I am, say, in a friend’s car, I would mention this to them, but then it is their choice to keep the music on or not — I’m not going to force my penance upon them.  Until I have lobotomized my iPod (wiped all my booty music from it and replaced it with either good music, or more likely homilies and talks from my priests), I have removed it from my car.  Needless to say, the radio’s either going to be off or on Ave Maria.  🙂

On a side note, there was an article in the weekly bulletin, mentioning these bracelets. Basically, every time you find yourself saying something unkind, or engaging in gossip, you need to switch the bracelet from one wrist to the other. Because you physically have to move something, it will help make you aware of that behavior. A friend suggested this as something we could do over Lent, like a spiritual exercise, not necessarily as our official Lenten penances. I upped the stakes by saying that we should track how many times we swapped wrists during the course of the day, and then at night say a decade of the rosary for every time we swapped, for the intention of the people we spoke against.

May all of you have a wonderful Lent, grow closer to our Lord, and soak up all the abundant grace which He provides to us in this time!

God bless!

Joyeux Mardi Gras!!!

Critical Mass, Holidays, Of Vice and Virtue, Prayer/Prayer Requests

The time of the year for the world to show it’s seamy underside as we spend a day reveling in our sin, in our shackles, in our imprisonment before reconciling ourselves to God and following Him in the path to true freedom tomorrow on Ash Wednesday. But today, as we gather our beads and eat our paczki, we should be aware of our sin and of the way in which our sin binds us and restricts our freedom. Which is why I am wearing a prison-stripe T-shirt today. This is truly a day to rejoice, for it is the last day of our enslavement! Tomorrow will bring a new season of renewal and conversion. I love Lent. I believe it holds incredible grace for us — we just have to cooperate with that grace.

As an aside, there are certain ethnic groups traditionally spotlighted today: the Polish people for the paczkis, and the Creole people with the huge Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans. As a little French girl with some Native American blood, I think that I should qualify as a Creole. 🙂 At least for the party, right? 🙂

Please remember in your prayers today René LaMourt, a friend of mine who passed away just after returning from a deployment at sea, about 11 years ago on February 28, 1998. Please also pray for Sheri, a friend of a friend, who committed suicide last Thursday.

Laissez les bons temps roulez!

Dignity of Life Speaker Series: Fr. Tad Pacholczyk – “Care and Treatment Decisions for Compromised Patients at the End of Life”

Bioethics, Critical Mass, Presentations/Talks, Right to Life Issues, , ,

Wednesday, February 25, 2008
Following 7:00 pm Ash Wednesday Mass

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D.
Director of Education, The National Catholic Bioethics Center

Fr. Tad is a priest of the diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts. As an undergraduate he earned degrees in philosophy, biochemistry, molecular cell biology, and chemistry, and did laboratory research on hormonal regulation of the immune response. He later earned a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Yale University, where he focused on cloning genes for neurotransmitter transporters which are expressed in the brain. He also worked for several years as a molecular biologist at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School.

Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church
47650 North Territorial Road
Plymouth, MI 48170
(On the corner of Beck & North Territorial)
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This series is sponsored by Gospel of Life Committee at OLGC. For more information, please contact Mark Renfer @ mark.renfer@gmail.com

Fr. Tad studied for 5 years in Rome where he did advanced work in dogmatic theology and in bioethics, examining the question of delayed ensoulment of the human embryo. He has testified before members of the Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Virginia and North Carolina State Legislatures during deliberations over stem cell research and cloning. He has given presentations and participated in roundtables on contemporary bioethics throughout the U.S., Canada, and in Europe. He has done numerous media commentaries, including appearances on CNN International, ABC World News Tonight, and National Public Radio. He is Director of Education for The National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia and directs the Center’s National Catholic Certification Program in Health Care Ethics.

The Dignity of Life speaker series is a response to the crisis of modernity as described by Pope John Paul II. He wrote that the crisis of our age is the pulverization and degradation of the dignity and uniqueness of the human person. The speaker series address this crisis and hopes to offer concrete avenues to transform the culture into a genuine civilization of love.

Yay! It Finally Arrived!

Critical Mass, Photography, Tales of My Amazing Priests

Fr. John expressed interest after seeing my T-shirt I made for the Priests vs. Seminarians basketball game — so I ordered him his own shirt. I didn’t order the super-express shipping, so it took a while, but here it is!!!!:

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Getting Closer…

Critical Mass, Grad School/Seminary, Photography

SHMS Logo
SHMS Tower

Ooooh, I’m getting excited now! I just had my admissions interview last night — which I think went pretty well. Today, I turned in my registration form for Spring classes. All that is left is to write my essay and take my GRE on 3/14!! 🙂 YAY!!

If all goes well, the week of 5/4, I will be starting my first class, a prerequisite to the graduate program: Introduction to Sacred Scripture!!!!