Last night was the peak of the Leonids meteor shower.  I, unfortunately, live in the city--not the best place to try to find safe, dark areas for stargazing.  But, after commenting on a friend's Facebook status, I found someone to walk to the park with me to watch.  One Facebook message and five texts later, my alarm was set for 2:08 AM.

I heated up some hot (soy) cocoa, put on two pairs of pants and socks, two shirts, and a polar fleece under my winter jacket, and walked the two blocks to the Cathedral of Learning, our campus' main building.  [Side note: there is NO academic building better than the Cathedral.  We have the Nationality Rooms, the 35-36th floor Honors College, a peregrine falcon nest, and Therapy Dog Tuesdays.  And the Common Room looks like Hogwarts.  You know you're jealous.]

I met Andrea for the first time, and we walked over to lay on the hill next to Heinz Chapel.  After a while of not seeing any stars, we walked over to Shenley Park, a few blocks away.  There were several other groups of people on blankets at Flagstaff Hill, so we joined them.  With a beautiful view of campus (while sandwiched between CMU and Phipp's Conservatory), we watched the sky and saw a dozen shooting stars.  It was well worth waking up and laying out in the cold.

The thing is, you don't just sit quietly while stargazing.  You talk.  Or, at least, we talked.  We talked about our majors, what we always wanted to be when we grow up, our families, the outdoors, science, Girl Scouts, the Lehigh Valley, religion, everything.  I could tell you so much about this girl.  And I will probably never see her again, because I'm graduating in the spring and she's a freshman.  That's one thing that college has taught me, though--take that friendship while you can, even if it's only for a few hours.

I've grown closer to strangers on a fifteen minute bus ride than I did with many of my peers throughout high school.  I've bonded with people over a smile in passing on the street, a debate about some public issue as we waited in line.  I've prayed with people whose names I'll never know--and I embrace that. 

Some friendships are made to last for a lifetime, but some are just for a moment.  And that makes them no less meaningful--just different.  God moves people in and out of our lives as we need them, and sometimes, as they need us.  Just to talk and have someone listen, to offer advice, to bond for a few hours, that's what life's about.  I now can see just how important these people are to my life, even if only for a short time.  And even if I never see them again, I'm thankful for the time we had.

I went to a "Foundations Seminar" today with my apartment-mate.  It was at the office for her church, City Reformed.  They're part of "Presbyterian Church in America"; I'm confirmed "Presbyterian Church, USA".  They tend to be a little [okay, a lot] more conservative than I in beliefs about, well, everything.  Anyway, here are the notes I took; you might find them interesting.  I didn't realize quite what separated Catholics and Protestants other than loyalty to the Pope, transubstantiation, penance, and some little stuff about Heaven.  The class was a look at the differences between Catholics and Protestants at the level of beliefs that can be found in catechisms (not just what people say).  The "-" are my thoughts and questions against the Protestants, and the "+" are my thoughts that support them. 

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1. Scripture and Tradition

Side notes on Salvation:
C: somewhere, it says that one can potentially achieve salvation through adhering to one's conscience; it's in Romans 2:12-16 and sort of mentioned in the Catechism
R: Protestantism = intellectual freedom
2. Forgiveness and Assurance of Heaven
*Fun side note: everything in the creeds is there because some random Christian cult used to believe it.  So, some group was out there preaching that, if you sinned, you could get re-baptized to take away that sin.  Hoorah!

3. Mortal and Venial Sin
4. Forgiveness and Absolution
This is a pretty fantastic flow chart from "The Gospel According to Rome" that explains how Salvation and sin work in the Catholic church; check it out!

http://gospellightbiblebaptist.com/insidepg/gar.html

5. Communion
Why the pageantry of the Catholic church would have been appealing back when Christianity started:
"Where's your God?" "Uh, He's in Heaven..."
"Where's your sacrifice?" "Uh, our sacrifice has already been done, so we don't have anything to do..."
"Where's your priest?" "Well, we're all priests..."
Having something to show is starting to look good, when the rest of your faith is so intangible.

6. Veneration of Mary

Side note: more on gender in the Church
There is no sexual relationship in the Trinity; our God doesn't have sex (but is that just because the pagan gods did it, and we didn't want ours to be like theirs?)
Both male and female are necessary to represent God; if leadership is male (because of Father God and male Christ), where do women fit in?
Conclusion
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As you can tell, I sort of took sides with the Catholics in a lot of things.  For some people, I think Catholicism is the best way to reach God.  I do see that it has a lot of things that keep people from having a pure relationship with Christ, though.  I guess I just want everyone to meet in the middle and get along.

What are your thoughts?  Did I misrepresent either side in a way that needs to be corrected?  And what do you think of the Catholic/Protestant divide?