another typical day...

It's been awhile since I just posted a typical day.  So, here's today (and then I'll get ready for tomorrow):
5:30, rise and shine, to the rhythm of the falling rain.
Okay, so perhaps I didn't shine.  I dragged myself out of bed and around to get ready to go.  Then, though, I was late and ran out the door about 6:40, and didn't get to school until about 6:55.  So, I just missed getting in with Gabriela and Alessandra who had arrived early to open the bar.  And I stood and waited until Lauds ended, and a priest came down to let a taxi in that was to take him with his parents north for a few days.  But, that got me in just in time for Mass, and so the rest proceeded more normally.  Mass concelebrated by 16 Dominicans.  Then breakfast (cornetto and cappuccino in the bar) and to class.  For two hours we translated a scholastic question that presumably was originally dealt with by Meister Eckhart from Latin into English, and corrected a translation that had already been made by a scholar in England planning to publish this find. (For a class on the Newly Found Parisian Disputed Questions of Meister Eckhart.) This was followed by a two hour lecture on participation as related to abstraction according to Cornelio Fabro as a hermeneutic to Thomism, in Italian--just how is it that an animal can be both zebra and animal at the same time, when clearly "zebra" and "animal" cannot be considered identical?  Then it was our lunch break.  So, I discussed the French language exam with a Chinese sister who has to take it next month, and wanted some tips.  While we were looking at French philosophical texts in the bookstore, a theology student (American consecrated virgin studying spirituality) asked for a clarification in a Latin commentary of St. Thomas on Ephesians on whether the Holy Spirit could suffer, which she needed for her "Did Christ suffer in the Agony in Gethsemane" paper she's presenting Friday.  And then I settled in to eat some food I'd brought, along see what was in the bag a friend had offered me for a snack.  She had packed for me a bologna sandwich, it turns out, which was very nice.  And she showed up just as I finished, and brought me a lemon yogurt for desert, and we had a chat for a bit, and moved along to my next classroom and enjoyed some hot chocolate.  Lovely.
Next was a lecture on Avicenna and his influence on Scholastic philosophers and theologians.  It ought to have been two hours, but our professor seems not to have been feeling too well, and he stopped about fifteen minutes early.  So, I grabbed my things and went off to the next classroom.  But on the way, the school receptionist stopped me with a message from a professor and a some sort of treat wrapped up in napkins from a fellow student (and she managed to do this while answering the phone!).  So, I went to go find the professor, who found he'd forgotten what he wanted to give me, and instead spent the time he was making copies discussing the future of the philosophy department with me, and offering me the handouts from the seminar I don't take with him (since I'm in another at that same time).  Soon enough, it was already time for the seminar I was supposed to be in, and we spent the next couple of hours discussing the metaphysics of the Incarnation according to St. Thomas, Duns Scotus, a contemporary philosopher in England (Robert Cross), specifically in regard to such questions as knowledge in soul pertaining to Christ's human nature, and how actions might be attributed to the Divine Word and how His human nature.    During our break for that class, I ran over to the adoration chapel just in time to catch benediction and return to class, confirming an appointment for the morrow with two classmates to continue our discussions on the substancehood/sustainability of Christ's human nature.  To confirm that, though, I also had to postpone a Latin study session.  Then, on my way home, I also had to arrange another meeting which I need to not interfere with either tomorrow's metaphysics or Latin, or tomorrow morning's study session on the notion of "delectatio" in St. Thomas' Commentary on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Book X.  So, it's a good thing that my classes tomorrow were cancelled!
Just a side note--in two of my classes today, there was a sister.  All the others in these courses are seminarians or priests.
God bless.