holy spirit

Patience in the Fire

| A Musing Writer
Holy Spirit
An Autumn Sunset. Taken by me on my way home from work one evening. October 2017.

A Reflection on Pentecost Sunday

I was in Third Grade, and my teacher was a lady who hated the word “stuff.” She said that there was always a better word to replace it with, and that was why we should learn and memorize our vocabulary.

A little later on in life, in sixth grade, I had a Reading teacher who would explain to us why cursing was bad. It wasn’t your typical “it’s taking the name of the Lord in vain,” although that was emphasized. She said that whenever you curse, there was always a better way to express yourself, and that cursing actually limits your vocabulary because you tend to stick to what is comfortable, and when you are comfortable cursing, it becomes a part of  your speech that is difficult to remove as you grow older.

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Head Above Water

| A Musing Writer

Clearing the Fog

don't let me drown
The Verazzano Bridge. Wednesday, May 27, 2020. Photo taken by my sister, Annie Vogel.

Dearest readers,

It has been quite some time since my last blog post, so I’m sorry about that! Once classes moved online, I was really overwhelmed and was adjusting to quarantine life. Since school has ended, I kind of have just been decompressing. But alas, I have a pretty intense experience to share with you all! And buckle in, it’s a long one this time (to be expected, since I must make-up for lack of content somehow!)

Today, my family and I were driving back to New York from Washington D.C. after moving my sister out of her dorm room. It was a hot, humid, and sunny day today, and we were outside for about an hour doing a photo shoot for her graduation. It was a relatively enjoyable day, save the humidity, but it’s D.C. … what should I expect.

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What Do You Love?

| A Musing Writer
What do you love_
July 2019. Little Italy, Manhattan, NY. (The warmest day of the year)

Hello everyone,

Although it’s actually been fairly recently since my last blog post, I have come to the conclusion that I will never truly be able to have a regular posting schedule, and I am perfectly okay with that.

Anyway, I think it would be safe to say that I am officially old because I am now listening to podcasts in my car on the way to school. Well, not old, but it definitely makes me an adult. And not a young one.

All kidding aside, the podcast I listen to is called the Abiding Together Podcast (no, they are not paying me to write about their podcast). In particular, I listened to their episode on St. Catherine of Sienna, which is part of a 4 part series on the Women Doctors of the Church (amazing!). I have been craving the knowledge about the Church Fathers and Doctors since the beginning of my time in college. Parched and almost dead from the lack of education on these matters, the

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Stop Playing Tug-of-War With God: A Lesson on Surrender

| A Musing Writer

Hello everyone!

Surrender-A Musing Writer
Self-timed photo from Nov 2018. Me and my doggy, who I lost almost a year ago

As per usual, I am issuing an apology regarding the irregularity of my posts. It’s funny because I was speaking with a classmate and a professor this morning about how terrible I have been at posting regularly on this blog (even though I have to post regularly on my academic blog). And here I am, a few hours later, revved up with inspiration and insight! God is amazing.

So, today, I tried playing tug-of-war with God. And yes, I know you are probably retorting something like, “Well, I’m sure THAT’S going to go well.” And you would honestly be justified in the judgement.

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A Knowing in Not Knowing

| A Musing Writer

A musing on the end of the world, eschatology, and egoism

Yesterday, an acquaintance/friend of mine asked me about how I think the world is going to end.

img_4849.jpg
I searched for this picture in particular because the friend I was speaking with took it, so it is to prove that we as good friends are able to have somewhat civil discussion about faith.

As a Catholic, I don’t think about this topic much, if at all. This young man is not Catholic, and he was raised in the Lutheran Church. However, now he considers himself non-denominational. He did go to the Catholic Mass on campus pretty much every week, so that was good to see (although he received the Holy Eucharist, even after we discussed why he cannot), and he has asserted that he is not against the Catholic Church, and this fact should be well remembered as you go through this musing. There are many things I can say on that matter, but for today, I want to write about the specific topic of an impending doom that many, like my compatriot, sense.

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