Ordinary Day, Extraordinary Time
I spent my birthday in a rather ordinary manner. I got up around 9, read for an hour or so, showered, and went to Sunday Mass. Mass was all right, with a decent Homily and the extraordinary ordinariness of partaking of the Body of our Lord. As the Church teaches, the Eucharist is the highest for of worship in the Christian Faith, and it seems to be the most profound of my experiences in Mass.
I stayed afterwards, first, to help sell some mother's day gifts for the local Parish Youth group and later still to talk with a man I met at Easter. We basically continued our discussion from Easter about the relationship of the Catholic Church with Protestants, specifically Evangelical, and how Evangelicals have many things that are lacking in the Catholic Church. This kind of discussion interests me immensely. We also briefly discussed some possible educational avenues that I may take in the near future. After that, I went home to eat lunch, which turned out to be Subway. It was good.
A old friend (he's been a friend for more than half my life) called me up to do "some rolling of the dice," otherwise known to the wider-world as Dungeons & Dragons. We played for probably 7 hours or so. All in all, it was a great session. We defended a pass which we were not supposed to, by killing large amounts of orcs, and through a magic scroll of change self, which the DM never even thought could be of such use, killed an age category 10 Red Dragon, although it cost one character's life. Oh well, it's called the "high death" campaign for a reason. After that battle and the subsequent retreat of the orcish hordes (who knew that a 350 foot diameter turtle landing in the middle of the orc army would cause a retreat?) the remaining party (two of four, in which I was one) were rewarded with increased rank. My character is now a captain!
Yet, this new rank carried responsibilities. I had to recruit, outfit, and supply a new company of troops with my own money. Sigh, so many thousands of gold pieces...I wasn't stingy either. I outfitted everyone with AC 5 armour, sword, war hammer, two javelins, AND I trained them myself. Gotta say, it was pretty fun doing that. My outfit of 60 men (including myself) were ambushed by 60 kobolds and 50 orcs, which we handled fairly easily, with my character killing a half-dozen orcs and 20 or so kobolds by himself. I love drow fighters (for those of you who know about them, don't ask how I am playing one on the surface). Only 9 fatalities too on my side. Pretty good show boys, although next time, we may not be so lucky!
I came home around 11 and talked to a friend of mine, who is in the middle of her exam's. Pretty damn stressful! May St. Thomas Aquinas pray for you Annie (even if you don't believe he can any longer). Afterwards, I played a few enjoyable games of Starcraft for about 90 minutes.
Now, I can imagine people asking, "why are you telling people this, it's so boring!?!"
Well, I did not find my day boring whatsoever. In fact, I was afraid that I could not fit everything in, and I could not either. Yet, that is life. Society drives us to be productive all the time. I do not feel this urge too strongly though. I find comfort in spending a day talking and laughing with old friends, doing an activity that I did in my early childhood. There is a certain peace in attending Mass and meeting with old friends that strikes accord with my soul. If only life could be that simple, always. But, maybe it can. My day was so simple because it was filled with God. Whether it was Corpus Christi in the Bread, or God in the love of my friends, I was with him all day long. I pray that I may realize this subtle truth everyday. I also pray that all of my friends my experience and know Christ through my love to them, even in our trials and tribulations.
Anyway, it is late, and I wish to read some more before the night is out. Good night all.