And so it was that on Valentine's Day many of us juniors here at VTS got calls inviting us to serve at parishes throughout the dioceses of Virginia, Maryland and Washington for two years of field education, starting next fall. I am very happy and thankful to have received a call from Peter Ackerman, rector of St. Christopher's in Springfield, VA. Am also very happy that he has invited me (if I want) to start worshipping at St. Christopher's. I do very much want to do that; I've greatly missed being in a parish these last months, and am happy to have a place to spend Holy Week, which is also VTS's spring break.

I am extremely excited about working at St. Christopher's and with Peter. The senior who is the current seminarian there has had a great experience, and Peter is a relatively new rector (since 2010), so it will be an education in and of itself to watch him navigate waters that still may be somewhat unfamiliar to him. 

Interestingly, Peter, who graduated in 2007 completed his field ed across the street from the seminary at Immanuel Church on the Hill under the supervision of Sam Faeth, whose rector once upon a time was Taylor Moore. Peter went on to become the associate at Immanuel before receiving the call to St. Christopher's in 2010. Sam retired about that time, and she and her husband recently became members of St. Christopher's. So, I will be serving at a parish where my supervisor was once supervised by my sending rector's parishioner, with whom I'll be regularly worshipping. As my friend Martha, a priest working on an master of arts degree here at VTS, says, "There really are only six Episcopalians. The rest is smoke and mirrors."

Here's the link to St. Christopher's, with a message from Peter: http://www.saintchristophers.net

Ash Wednesday at VTS has been good, although I did miss being at St. Peter's. As is the custom at VTS, Ash Wednesday is one of handful of "quiet days," meaning we start out with morning prayer and a meditation inviting us to silence, we usually have a noonday office or Eucharist (today a Eucharist with imposition of ashes), and a closing at 3 to end the silence.

We are fortunate to have former presiding bishop Frank Griswold teaching a class here this quarter, so he did the morning mediation and the homily/meditation at noon. He's pretty amazing and said a lot of really great stuff, but my favorite thing he said (and this is a paraphrase of someone he was paraphrasing, can't remember who) concerned spending some time with Psalm 119. He suggested we chew on it like a cow chewing on cud, and like a cow, we should not become hysterical if we end up chewing on a thorn or two. Good for me to hear, since I sometimes get a little anxious when prayer is not going the way I think it should be going--as if I actually have all that much to do with it. Thank goodness I do not.

As a Lenten practice I am trying to set aside more time for prayer each day, and to that end am doing another Ignatian retreat-in-daily-life. I'll get a sampling of Ignatius's spiritual exercises over the six weeks, which I'm excited about it. I remain a big fan of Ignatius of Loyola, and am looking forward to discovering what these six weeks bring. Right now, though, must study a map of Paul's travels for an NT quiz and vocab for Hebrew. . . .

Spent  yesterday visiting wineries in northern Virginia with seminary friends. I'd planned to spend the day at a local coffee shop reading, but I think I made the right choice: riding around hilly Loudon County in the snow, tasting the Virginia varietals (lots of viogniers and petit verdots) with my friends Andrew and Greg seemed the absolute right thing before delving back into school full force on Monday. We did four different tastings at three of the dozens and dozens of wineries in the area (who knew there were 150 Virginia wineries??), plus a wine flight at lunch beforehand, so it was a full day of swirling and sniffing (and one that ended with me being a little loopy). Andrew and Greg, Californians well-practiced in wine tasting, were great tutors for my first winery experience.

And this brings up the issue of balance. I think I was so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of reading last semester that I rarely did much exploring around the area. This is not to say that I was always reading; I wasn't. I was just a little scared to separate myself too much from the books that needed to be read, if that makes sense. So, rather than take some time on the weekend to go into DC and visit a museum, I would sit in a coffee shop, or in the library or in my room with the books open but waste a lot of time on facebook, for example. This semester, I hope to take better advantage of all that's around me, to put down the work for a while and take real breaks.

This is the plan anyway. We'll see how it goes after we begin again on Monday. (Happily, on Monday we start on Paul!)