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Back at St. Meinrad
By Fr. Dennis | September 3, 2007
I’m back at St. Meinrad. I’ve been here for a little more than a week now. Classes started last Thursday. My entire class is preparing for our diaconate ordinations, and so we had a retreat together recently for 5 days before coming back to school.
So now we’re all here and my classmates and I find that we’re the most senior seminarians here. We’re the “deacon class.” The class of 2008. That gives us a greater burden of leadership this year than we have had in the past.
My assigned role this year will be to serve as “Lay Student Liaison.” Saint Meinrad has a Master of Theological Studies degree designed for lay persons in ministry, and in many ways two parallel communities exist at the Saint Meinrad School of Theology. My job is to help the “Lay Degree Office” bridge the gap between the “lay” and “seminary” community.
Also, I’ve got two relatively simply work-study positions. (Yes, we are eligible for federal work-study.) I’ll be helping Fr. Ken Davis with his website, and other miscellaneous technology and research issues. Also, another seminarian and I will be responsible for after hours tech-support in the student computer labs. Mostly, that involves replace toner and paper in the printers.
Two years ago, one of my classmates started offering a semi-annual Car Maintenance Clinic. He’s a serious hobbyist in the car world, and has rebuilt several cars and hot-rods. Before entering the seminary, he was a “hot rod journalist” living in LA, and he would go to car shows and hot rod conventions and write stories that might appear in such magazines as Hot Rod.
So he’s inspired me to offer a computer clinic. In a couple of weeks, I’ll be offering a one-hour presentation on 10 things you can do to keep your computer safe. Things like what to do to combat viruses and spyware, how to keep your computer registry clean, how to defrag your drive, how to use “system restore” to fix something you’ve really messed up, and how to see what processes are running on your machine and figure out if they’re harmful. Every year, someone calls me and asks me to come look at their computer because it’s acting funny and running slow, and usually they’re covered in spyware and browser hijackers. So maybe this clinic will help.
As for coursework, here’s what I’m taking this semester:
- Moral Theology: Sexual and Medical Ethics
- Pastoral Theology: Ministry to Families
- Sacramental Theology: The Eucharist
- Practicum in Liturgy and Homiletics
- Elective: Theology of the Body
- Elective: Reflections in Hispanic Ministry
Should be a fun year.
Topics: Seminary Life |
September 4th, 2007 at 8:47 am
Hey there upper-classman.
About time to update your bio sketch “About Dennis”.
Welcome back to Hoosier-land.
We had Katie over for dinner a few weeks back.
we’re holding her hostage to get you to come up some weekend.
September 4th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
how about sharing some of your computer know-how on the blog?
September 4th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Welcome back to the blogosphere! It will be nice to see you around these parts.
September 5th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
glad you are glad to be back…ten more months and you will be the grads of ‘08. Hang in there. A lot of folks need you, here and there. jack/Dad
September 7th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Glad to see you back, Dennis. I’ve moved to Louisville, and your friend’s recommendation of St. Louis Bertrand was right on the money. Great parish. Maybe I’ll see you sometime when I go to my hometown nearby
September 8th, 2007 at 10:18 am
The computer clinic sounds like a grand idea!