  Today has been an absolutely fantastic day. I met with my course advisor at USMC this morning. My course schedule is as follows: Fall Term: Intro to N.T. (nicknamed "Baby Bible" by the students - very intense! ), Intro to Ministry, Intro to Theology, Ethics I, Choir, and Intro to Metaphysics. Winter Term: Intro to Ethics, Intro to O.T., Early Church History 0-843AD, Ethics II and a continuation of Choir. As I joked with the advisor, if I live through the first term, I should have no problem finishing up the degree! I will take a philosophy credit in the Summer and another next Fall. My course advisor was the sweetest man, though much younger than I would have guessed.
I feel so much more at ease about my future now that I've got my courses in place, had a tour of the Faculty and classrooms, and met a few of the professors. I felt like I fit in there. It felt right . Everyone was spectacularly friendly and offered to help in any way that they could. At one point of my visit (I was there for 1.5 hours! ), I was sitting in one of the student lounges alone (my advisor had another meeting scheduled for 10am but wanted to give me a tour of the Faculty so I waited in the lounge. ) Sitting doing absolutely nothing, I spent my time glancing around the room. Eventually I noticed an absolutely massive painting of a sad looking young woman on the back wall. It was in desperate need of restoration so I didn't spend too long looking at it. The only thing that struck me was this woman. I ruminated over her drawn, sad face and thought that it was a sort of strange picture to have in a Faculty of Theology. Shouldn't it be the painting of the Last Supper or Mary holding the Baby Jesus or even the urlLink Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt ? Regardless, I mused to myself, "You look how I feel, lady. " I resumed my glancing around the room again, but eventually my eye found its way back to that painting.
I noticed something that I didn't see before. In the far left corner of the painting, a hand is reaching out to the girl with a rose. All of a sudden, I felt my heart melt and I saw this as a sign. Yesterday I began praying urlLink the novena to St. Therese of Lisieux , which promises to send you a rose to signify that what you have been praying for will be granted.
The rose can be a real rose, but more likely, it will come in the form of the scent of roses, a picture of a rose, or even a vision of a rose. I was praying the novena this time for a sign that this move to Theology is the right thing to do. It's possible that I'm reading too much into it, but to see this woman, who I likened to myself, being handed a rose from an unseen source (presumably God) in the Faculty of Theology ...
I was startled and rejoicing at the same time. Sound crazy? Maybe. But I sure feel a lot more faith-filled, excited and at ease about this life choice. So, I find myself now in somewhat of a manic state. I'm not used to this -- I've been operating on just-above-depressive lately -- but I feel rather free and excited and unusually happy today, certainly as affected by the circumstances of the day. More to come... 
