On the Way

Several people have said some really encouraging, exhorting things in the past two days. It’s good to have people looking out for you. Thank you. You know who you are.

Two nice things about December:

1. My birthday.
2. The end of the semester.

Things are going well at the seminary, but a break is definitely going to be very well appreciated.

Somewhere between graduating from Wheaton and getting to Vlad’s this fall, I lost the ability to write papers. I’ve been struggling so much with my Patristics paper. Grrrr…

Heavy times at St. Vlad’s. Had a good convo w/a friend last night.

If you see me around, give me some grace and maybe a big hug, too.

Next time you feel awkward and like a dweeb, remember that others do, too. Don’t take yourself too seriously, because chances are, your interlocutor’s worried about the way in which he or she doesn’t measure up either.

This world’s a good place. I’m lucky to be here.

While this post is called “Orthodox Ed Day”, I’m not going to say much about the annual public event held here at St. Vlad’s with that name (which occurred yesterday). All I’ll say is that it went quite well, and I’m exhausted. You can, however, read more about the event at http://www.svots.edu/

I will, however, include a letter that I recently sent to my parish:

30 September 2008

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Hello from St. Vladimir’s Seminary! I returned to the States in August after spending two months in Poland with my mom and step-dad, taking a Polish language course and trying to prepare for seminary. Because of a scheduling change to accommodate the All-American Council, upon my return, I had to go immediately to New York for new student orientation. I was truly saddened to not be at St. Joe’s and see you all before heading East, but look forward to coming home soon.

My first month here has been both exciting and exhausting, but by your prayers and God’s grace, it’s been a great month! Here are a few highlights of my time here thus far:
• New Student Orientation. Fr. John Breck spoke to the incoming students during orientation, giving us some great pointers and encouragement for the beginning of our seminary studies. (Fr. John has written some really interesting books on topics such as ethics, Scripture, and living the Christian faith—really good stuff, and you can find some of them in the parish bookstore! (Hint, hint…)
• Chapel. We begin and end our days with prayer and worship to God, with Matins at 7:30am and Vespers at 5:00pm. Additionally, because of the particular environment of a seminary, we’re able to celebrate the lives of the saints and feasts in a way that would be difficult in a typical parish setting. Bishop Nikon presided at the Feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos and Bishop Maxim (Bishop of the Western Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the Americas) presided over the Feast of the Elevation of the Cross along with a choir of seminarians from Belgrade! With two hierarchical Liturgies each with full Vigil, we had a busy week, especially as I’ve been singing in the choir! In addition to singing, I’ve also already begun reading and serving for daily services. I’m looking forward to seeing how having the gift of daily chapel services will shape me.
• Classes. I’ve got a full schedule of courses: Biblical Greek, Church Music, Old Testament, Patristics, Church History, Liturgics, and a weekly integrating seminar. It’s great to be back in an academic environment and study the Scriptures and the Fathers. It’s tough to be believe that we’re already starting to have midterms; I had my Greek exam last week and scored a 99.25%!
• Community Involvement. In addition to singing in the choir, I’m helping teach the 7- and 8-year-old Sunday School class. This is in addition to my required community service job as team captain for one of the meal crews in the kitchen (basic prep work, setting out food, washing dishes, mopping floors, etc.).
• Community Life. With everything that I’ve mentioned, it’s easy to see that seminary life is busy! There is a little bit of free time available to interact with others, though, and it’s been great meeting fellow students from different parts of the country and the world. I even knew several of the guys from Chicago, which has certainly helped transitioning into life here so far from home. My room is in the dorm right in the middle of campus, so it’s easy to get to chapel, class, and the library—as well as grabbing a snack from the kitchen between meals! (Speaking of dorm, did you know that I’m in the same dorm room that Fr. John was in when he was a seminarian at St. Vlad’s? God’s got a sense of humor.)
• Special Visit. I was so happy to have my sister Mariola come for a visit last week. (See photo.) Since our mom and step-dad are visiting from Poland, she was able to leave her two sons (Tyler’s two and a half and AJ’s one) in their care for the day and flew out to New York just for the day! (Our mom had some frequent flier miles from her annual trip to the States that she let Mariola use to fly out for the day.) I was able to show her around campus, have lunch with her, and drive down to New York to see Times Square, and go to Vespers all before needing to drive her back to the airport!

So, as you can see, it’s been a very rich time thus far! I’m so grateful for your prayers, encouragement, and financial support, which have all allowed me to be here and prepare for the role God has for me in the Church. I look forward to seeing you all as soon as I’m able.

In Christ,

Mark Klinski

I watched the White Sox v. Twins game tonight at a local Irish pub here in Yonkers, NY, with some seminary friends (incl. a Cubs fan who was rooting for the Sox, in the hope of an all-Chicago World Series!). Another fellow seminarian who came for the game is a Twins fan. (Sorry, Nick. Maybe next year, but I hope not…)

I had a hankering for Björk’s Vespertine, too, surprisingly enough, so I’m listening to that as I type.

When I was a kid living in rural Wisconsin, I came up with an imaginary country in our backyard called “Monotaga”. I think part of this came from my love of geography, which I got from my dad. It’s easy to understand then that I made a map of Monotaga and the other countries around it. (Monotaga is actually an island nation, but on the continent to the south of it, there are many other countries.) I came up with some history about the countries and wars they had with each other, in addition to facts about climate, terrain, etc. (I even remember making one of my junior high classmates, Kristie K., suffer through a survey of the history of Monotaga on the bus after school one day!)

Being interested in music, too, I came up with national anthems for a lot of these countries. (The “national anthems” generally were nothing more than like two lines of lyrics with really simple music.) I still have a tape with these songs on it. (I liked recording myself and family members on audiotape when I was younger. I think I got this from my family, too, since at family gatherings, someone would often turn on a cassette recorder while aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins would sing Polish folk songs and talk about the stories from the past.) As far as I can remember, the lyrics to Monotaga’s national anthem were “Monotaga/You’re the star in the sky/Monotaga/Rich in land and freedom/Monotaga, you’re my home” or something like that. (Apparently, Monotagans pride themselves on the richness of their land and that of their freedom–in that order.)

All my Monotaga stuff resided in a purple pocket folder sitting in a box under my bed. I’m sure I’ve still got it all somewhere, although I can’t say that I’ve looked at it in the past ten years.

I thought about all this recently when I stumbled across the entry on micronations on wikipedia and then an article at Wired.com.

Via Rob:

http://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/article750838.ece

Really, really intriguing.

I’m back from Poland (and have been since August 18). I finished my time in Europe by spending a few days near Frankfurt am Main, Germany, visiting my friend Alex, whom I met during the Polish language school in Kraków. It was my first time visiting West Germany (that’s “western Germany”, DJ), and I loved it.

Coming back to the States, I had less than 24 hours at home before needing to drive from Chicago to New York. (This was due to a change in seminary orientation scheduling after I had already purchased my plane tickets to/from Poland.) As a pleasant surprise, I was even able to lunch with Archbishop JOB and my friend Nick Bellack prior to driving east!

I spent the night near Cleveland (at Nick’s) to split up the drive to New York. His folk’s place is right off the interstate and about halfway between the Second City and NYC. It was such a joy to catch a few zzz’s (being jet-lagged and all) and breakfast on the back patio before the second day of driving. Thankfully, the drive through Pennsylvania was quick and without much traffic, even though there were several sections under construction. After the Poconos (and then continuing until I reached the seminary in Yonkers), the road got a bit more crowded. It was stop and go over the Tappan Zee. Thankfully, I didn’t have any car troubles, and my bike remained attached securely to my vehicle, thanks to the help of my brother-in-law, who lent me his bike carrier.

We had a few days of orientation, which were full and didn’t offer a lot of time to get moved in, but helped to paint a picture of what the seminary is and what it desires to be. Classes began yesterday, and I’m looking forward to the routine. I’m not looking forward to being stressed out about the amount of work I’ll no doubt have later in the semester.

I’m grateful that (in addition to my classroom studies), I’m already learning/being challenged in regard to humility, meekness, etc. I’m thankful for the not-so-pretty aspects to living in community.

My friend Nathan Shackelford blogged this. My life is better for having seen it. Incredible.