MTS Moral Theology Presentations

It\’s been busy around here, but we wanted to bring you the MTS presentations! Each sister discussed a controversial moral topic, presenting it in the style of St. Thomas Aquinas\’ Summa theologiae.

Sr. Mary Rose (Lufkin) considers the morality of birth control vs. natural family planning
 Sr. Mary Francis (Farmington Hills) spoke on whether abortion can be morally acceptable
Sr. Mary Thomas (Lufkin) discussed whether same-sex marriages can be recognized by the Church
 Sr. Maria Teresa (Summit) gave an eye-opening presentation on gender identity disorder, with a great PowerPoint presentation.
Sr. Mary Gabriel (Lufkin) was happy to finish her presentation on the morality of the death penalty
Sr. Mary Dominic (Lufkin) talked about assisted suicide and euthanasia
And Sr. Mary Giuse (Lufkin) ended on a positive note by discussing the possibility of friendship with God.
We had some of the best discussions we\’ve ever had in our years of the MTS program on these topics, and it was a beneficial learning experience for all the sisters.  We have all grown so much in our communication skills as we tried to present the fruits of our study over these past four years. Wea re deeply grateful for all these opportunities, and we know the next edition of MTS will be just as good–if not even better!

Group Photo Op, Week 2

Here we are with the amazing Rossi sisters, Margherita and Teodora! We certainly hope to meet you again some day for more classes! You are fantastic!

Thanks also for your wonderful PowerPoint slides (featured in our earlier post)!

By the way…we had to work on Sunday to accommodate a tight schedule for the Rossi sisters. We don\’t usually work that hard or have classes on a Sunday! (Although we do study pretty hard the rest of the week, especially during MTS Program!)

MTS 2013: A Modern Day Disputatio

The two teams debated the morality of head to body transplantation. (What a question!) We began our discussions in preparation for the disputatio on Sunday morning…

Comparing sources with the Rossis
Formulating objections
Everyone hard at work!

And on Monday morning, the fun began!
Whether it is moral to perform a head-body transplantation? It\’s actually an open question in the Church today, and the possibility of such a transplant is increasing. So our disputation was on a  current, if somewhat futuristic, topic!
 The objections came first. This team was appointed the task of defending the morality of a head-body transplantation. They had fifteen reasons why it should be moral (that is, fifteen objections):
Ready to present their objections in the style of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Summa theologiae.
 Sr. Mary Francis (Farmington Hills) presents one of her objection
And then the sed contra  and respondeo: why head-body transplantation should be considered immoral.
Sr. Mary Thomas (Lufkin) gave the respondeo which was written by the entire team.  This work included sources ranging from theology and philosophy to medicine, law, psychology, anthropology, Christian morality, and plain old common sense. They devoted a whole day to research in order to be fully prepared to defend their position.
 
Next, they had only 20 minutes to respond to the objections given by the opposing team. 
Sr. Maria Teresa (Summit) provided the responses (formulated with the help of her team) to the objections given by the opposing team at the beginning.
The masters listen intently. Sr. Clara Marie (Farmington Hills) represents the Church in her gold stole, and Sr. Mary Jeremiah (Lufkin), Dr. Teodora, and Dr. Margherita represent the academic world in red.
Sr. Mary Jeremiah makes a point to the teams while Drs. Teodora and Margherita listen.
What was the outcome of this disputation? Well, there was no \”winner\” in the usual sense of the word, since the object of a disputation is the search for truth. The academic and theological \”masters\” who supervised our dispute agreed that both teams did a wonderful job presenting the two sides–there was no clear disparity between the two presentations, they were equally good–however, in the end, everyone agreed that a head-body transplant should not be morally acceptable!

We had a lot of fun and worked VERY hard putting this together, and learned more about the medieval disputation than we could ever learn simply from reading or hearing about it! Did you know that St. Thomas Aquinas never turned down an opportunity to engage in this kind of disputation? It gives us a greater appreciation for the amazing gifts God gave him–he was truly a genius!

MTS 2013: The Second Week

We actually started on Saturday, due to our professors\’ schedule, so it\’s been a very intense weekend! We\’ll be bringing you updates from our classes and other adventures over the next few days, as well as our presentations.
Our professors for this second week of classes were Teodora and Margherita Rossi, who teach at the Angelicum in Rome. Teodora teaches moral theology and Margherita specializes in St. Thomas Aquinas. This was perfect for us as we decided to have a disputatio, just as they did in the middle ages!
Dr. Teodora explaining why we need disputed questions and the disputatio
 Dr. Margherita details the disputed question in the middle ages. Interestingly, for her presentation she used PowerPoint, while Teodora (discussing the modern era) used the old-fashioned chalk and board!
Dr. Teodora lectures while the students take notes
The ten students were assigned to two teams by a simple method: we all wrote our names down, and Sr. Mary Jeremiah drew them at random! After we were assigned to the teams, Sister drew to see which side would take the \”pro\” position and which would take the \”con\”. We also drew to see which team would present the determinatio. 
Drawing to see who will take which side in the disputed question
As always, we had a lot of fun doing it!
More to come! Keep watching this blog!

End of the First Week of MTS, 2013

We\’ve made it to the end of our first week of the Monastic Theological Studies Program for 2013! We are sorry to say goodbye to Fr. John Vidmar, OP, but we hope he will return to our monastery for some other presentation some time! He gave us an excellent overview of Church History that leaves us wanting to study more. 
Fr. Vidmar with the students in our traditional pose. Note Sr. Mary of Jesus (Elmira) at the far right, who acted as coordinator for our seminar again this year and did such a wonderful job! 
And these are the remaining presentations: 
Sr. Mary Francis (Farmington Hills) was all smiles as she presented her paper on St. Jerome
Sr. Mary Dominic (Lufkin) presented her paper on St. Leo the Great
Sr. Marie Augustine (Lufkin)  chose–who else but St. Augustine? She did a wonderful job!
And Sr. Mary Rose (Lufkin) concluded this week\’s presentations with her paper on St. John of Damascus.
Many thanks to all the sisters who did such hard work this past year for presenting their papers and bravely receiving the questions and comments of their fellow sisters! We look forward to next week, when the sisters will present papers on controversial topics in moral theology, and it seems we will have classes this weekend on a different topic as well…keep watching for more news!

Extracurricular MTS Activities

People may be wondering, do the nuns just attend classes and study while participating in the MTS progam? Well, mostly that\’s what we do–because the classes are intense and the seminar sessions (where we present our papers) are, too. We are grateful that our community in Lufkin is willing and able to fill in for some of our duties. But yesterday, we received 18 cases of bananas (yes, 18–about 20 bunches of bananas per case) and many of the MTS sisters helped to peel and slice bananas for drying! It was a lot of work but fun, too!
 Sr. Mary Thomas (Lufkin), Sr. Mary Jeremiah (Lufkin), Sr. Maria Teresa (Summit)
Sr. Mary Francis (Farmington Hills) and Sr. Mary Amata (Summit)
Sr. Maria Teresa (Summit) and Sr. Mary Giuse (Lufkin)
Sr. Clara Marie (Farmington Hills) and Sr. Mary Gabriel (Lufkin)
Almost the whole group was peeling and slicing! It was late in the day and we got a little wound up! But it was lots of fun and we did a tremendous amount of work! 
We are so grateful to all our benefactors who provide for us so generously–and for all who help us to process these marvelous gifts! Thank you so much! More MTS news to come soon…

MTS 2013, Continued

We\’ve really been enjoying Fr. John Vidmar\’s classes on Church History this week!

Fr. Vidmar lectures on monasticism
The students are taking notes diligently!
Some important councils…
We also have a few more presentations to bring you!
 Sr. Joseph Maria (Summit) gave a fantastic presentation on St. Ephrem using PowerPoint–which unfortunately made for a dark picture!
Sr. Maria Teresa (Summit) gave an interesting talk on St. Athanasisus
Sr. Mary Thomas (Lufkin) speaking about St. Gregory Nazianzen. Why are her eyes closed??
Sr. Mary Gabriel (Lufkin) shares a rare happy moment in the life of St. John Chrysostom