What's prayer like, you ask?

The point of my whole experience here is based in the idea of learning what the life of a Benedictine monk is like. Each day I am to attend prayer or mass. When I first arrived it was so hot that the only prayer time I could sit through without sweating buckets was 6am Laudes.

In the past couple weeks it has cooled down and I no longer maintain a constant sweat throughout the day. With this climate change I have been able to adjust my schedule and I now routinely attend midday prayer.

I am of two minds about prayer here. I understand half of the words sung or spoken, which at some points just becomes me going through the motions. This uninformed state of mind has its positives though. It has challenged me to learn the words I do not know and also gives me impervious concentration when I just need to do some thinking of my own.

Since I know the general schedule of mass I am able to silently say the English verses to prayers. I enjoy the singing in German. My pronunciation is poor and needs much work and I wish that were the sole excuse for my dismal singing (if I hadn’t quit choir after 5th grade I think I would have been kicked out) but I am eager for every chance to sing. The songs are vocally friendly and there are many great singers here who can obscure the meek, so I can belt out my part and no one can hear it.

This morning ML and I were the lone alter-servers for mass. Fr. Basilius gave us a run-through last night and Martin wrote down a couple of points to be specific about that we left in the sacristy to glance at when we would return there to fill up the incense burner. We had a couple minor errors but I think they can be forgiven.

Big news also, Mom-I bought a pair of jeans! Actually two pairs but don’t even think about throwing out any of my old clothes (I’ve been known to wear my clothes until they fall off me).