So I have been in Boston for a little less than two months. I am a first-year Masters of Divinity student - one of five females in this year's class. Out of maybe 30 total. I am working part-time with admissions helping prospective students as they inquire about visits and other questions. It's not too busy, and I am learning an awful lot about the other side of admissions, as opposed to being the applicant.
I am absolutely in love with my classes. Well, most of them. Fundamental moral theology is way tougher than I anticipated, a TON of reading each week. I have been taking my reading to a Browns bar with me on Sundays to watch the game, do my reading, and then walk down the street to church! It's challenging in a good way, and as much as a 20 page research paper makes me feel ill, I am excited about my topic -- love under stress. We'll see how this goes!
Disputed Questions in Contemporary Theology - less difficult than I anticipated. We examine current debated questions and then look at a middle ground. For example, last week I presented on the role of religion in peacemaking while someone else presented on the role of religion in violence, and we spend class sorting out the two ends and working towards the middle. We will be presenting soon on issues of our choosing so that will be interesting to see what people come up with.
Intro to the New Testament - I love this class. Less participation than my other classes, but I feel like I learn so much. My professor is fantastic and really know his stuff. I feel so lucky to get to study under the people I do.
Theologies of Reconciliation -- BEST. CLASS. EVER. There are six people in the class, half of them priests, all from outside the U.S., the other half women. One of the women is from Andover-Newton and is an intentional interim pastor for the United Church of Christ. The other woman is from Harvard Divinity School. There is so much diversity in our tiny class, and the course itself is incredible. It's focused on forgiveness and reconciliation and it's just amazing. We've done workshops on cultivating compassion and empathy, classes focused on restorative justice, classes on the rite of reconciliation. We get a lot of lectures from other professors which is great, including people from other schools in the BTI (Boston Theological Institute). The BTI is the consortium of all the theology schools in Boston (thus the students from Havard and Andover-Newton). They do a lot of work in forgiveness and reconciliation, and I discovered they offer a certificate in Religion and Conflict Transformation that I could earn while getting my MDiv. My professor said he was going to suggest it to me, that I seem like a real natural for it. I am still looking into details but it seems like SUCH an amazing opportunity!
There are still plenty of challenges at school. I am meeting wonderful people and am quite happy, but sometimes it's so easy to miss the people who already know you so well. Course content seems to be harder than course work. My classes leave me with a lot of questions to puzzle over, which is a good thing, but also tiring at times. Occasionally people in class say stupid things that make me want to slam my head into my desk, and I try to remind myself they are also a child of God and responding sarcastically is not why I am here. Sometimes I become so acutely aware of how much the Catholic Church pushes back on me just because I am a woman. I am here on scholarship, but so many of the men in my program are seminarians and not paying for their schooling. I don't want to be ordained, but it would be nice to say 'no, thank you.'
Then suddenly I find myself at our weekly liturgy on Thursdays, serving as a Eucharistic minister and feeling totally overwhelmed witnessing the Body of Christ in my school. I find myself with genuine feelings of loving towards people who I don't agree with on many things, but I keep discovering all the beautiful things in them. I fall in love with theologians I have never met. All the while, challenges and gifts included, I find myself falling deeper in love with God.
It is good that I am here.
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