.gather.

Seminary cannot be done outside of community. Period.

Here's the deal. I have an ethics paper due tomorrow. Yesterday I met with a friend to talk about the case study we were reading so as to figure out how to identify key points and then construct an argument. Our first task is to identify the main question or problem.  I had proposed what I thought the answer was, but the other person did not agree.

Sidenote: This is new territory for me. I have never taken an ethics class before and it is rare for me to make a solid, logical argument. Though this class is daunting, I have not doubt in its ability to help me in the long run. After all, our professor said on the first day of class that his job was to help us be able to make an argument and not sound like a moron. Perfect.

So my friend and I are sitting out on the quad at PSR and next thing you know, someone else from our class walks up and sits down to talk it out. Half an hour later, another classmate walks up and starts chatting about the case and his opinions about it. Before you know it we are breaking down the case in a way which we could all understand. At the end of the conversation, we felt as though we successfully defined the key issue at hand. To my satisfaction, it was in fact the originally question I posed. And while I relished in that moment for a brief time, I recognized that all the conversation that happened in between was ultimately beneficial to my understanding of the text.

Without that conversation, this paper would have been hell.


"For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am with them..." (matt. 18:20)

"It is an error to isolate oneself... If God dos not call one to solitude, one must life with God in the multitude, make [God] known there and make [God] loved."(raisa maritain)