Thursday, July 19

Well, I do have some time so here is the final update of the Tertio Millennio Seminar.

It is, at the moment, 1:30am and it has been quite the day.

The morning began with George Weigel's talk on Europe and the Crisis of Cultures. It was a good talk and largely a lot of what he says in the Cube and the Cathedral. However, it was very fascinating to hear again as I was quite enthralled with the book when I read it and so to hear to arguments that Europe's high culture has been infected with Atheistic Humanism was quite nice to hear.

After that we had the Question and Answer period with Fr. Maciej, Fr. Neuhaus, and George Weigel. It was quite nice. Most of the questions revolved around the course itself and the how they expect it to impact the students and so on and so forth. It was a nice, refreshing, and relaxing way to end the lectures. At the end we gave them a standing ovation for the excellent work they all had done, and it was well deserved indeed.

A group of us then went to Orient Express for one last meal. A side note; Orient Express is where they have a very addictive Wiener Schnitzel. We invited George to have lunch with us and it was quite nice. Fr. Neuhaus also made an appearance and it was a good and relaxing lunch. One interesting thing did happen, and it is a trend in Europe. This interesting thing was the lack of willingness on the part of the waitresses to make change. They see it as an annoyance rather then as part of their job. It was really quite funny to witness it at its extreme this afternoon.

I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. Had some ironing to do, did a bit of reading, and just sat around for a while and it was quite nice.

We then headed off for the final Mass as a group, all decked out for our final dinner. It was hot and crowded, but it was centered on Christ in the Eucharist in the same Chapel where we began 18 days ago. Fr. Maciej made a note about how intensive this all has been, and indeed it has been. It is hard to believe it has all gone by so quickly.

After Mass we went for the final dinner which was delicious. Many great conversations were ensuing and many pictures (and toasts at individual tables) were happening. After the main course, it was "graduation" time. George had a bit of an anecdote about me and my being Canadian and made a wise crack about green martinis. We received his book "The Cube and the Cathedral", a certificate affirming we have done this course, as well as a nice print of our group photo and a rosary that was blessed by JP II. It was very awesome. After the professors had left, 4 of us had been asked to do impressions and so, before we left, we were getting them ready and it was a lot of fun.

We then got back to the priory for the closing party! There is a lot of beer, vodka, wine, pop, juice, and snacks and it was quite an awesome atmosphere. We began the night with what is a Tertio tradition, impressions of the faculty. I was privileged to do the impression of George Weigel, which I did get on tape, though I will hold that for myself for his sake :). There were also 2 great impressions of Fr. Neuhaus and a great impression of Steve White, who is George's assistant. There was great conversations, some dancing, and just a relaxing way to finish off the course.

The next post will be my reflections on the seminar in general. But for the daily updates, this is it. I do hope, however, that those who have discovered this blog will continue to check it out over time. I will be taking a couple days off to re-coup from it.

God bless!

-Harrison