Art thou He?

I look from afar, and lo, I see the power of God coming, and a cloud covering the whole earth.  Go ye out to meet him, and say,

"Tell us, art thou he that should come to reign over thy people Israel?"

High and low, rich and poor, one with another, Go ye out to meet him, and say, "Hear, O thou shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep, Tell us, art thou he that should come?"

Stir up thy strength, O Lord, and come to reign over thy people Israel.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.

I look from afar, and lo, I see the power of God coming, and a cloud covering the whole earth.  Go ye out to meet him, and say, 

"Tell us, art thou he that should come to reign over thy people Israel?"

~Palestrina Matin Responsory for Advent

Advent of Light

For each day of Advent, I will post a new photo and quote here especially having to do with Light.
Without further ado:


Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  

It's about who you Gno[sis]...

Here's a copy of the flyer I made for an assignment for History of the Early Church.  It was a really fun assignment and a genius idea for an exam essay.  I really enjoyed it--as you know, probably too much.  The question was released to us about a week in advance and at first, I panicked, thinking "How will I even pick a font in that much time?!"  Those of you who have been around me when I'm designing will have observed this aesthetic angst and likely have laughed at me, at least once in my life :)

But, anyway, here it is.  Would you attend this class?  Does it sound intriguing?

In order to see it, you will have to click on it, which will open a new window and then if you click again, you can read it in large print.  Sorry for the trouble!

well...it's official

To: Campus Community

From: Paul Ericksen, BGC Archives

Re: Noel's departure -- open house

Dear Colleagues,

Noel Collins Pfeifer, who has worked in the BGC Archives for three-and-a-half years will conclude her work for us is Friday, July 23. She has been a great and capable part of the team and has brought new efficiencies and her perspective to our operation and service to our researchers and others who call upon us. We will miss her contribution and friendship, but encourage her on her way. She and her husband relocate to Ambridge, PA, to begin seminary there. We'll be hosting an open house throughout Thursday afternoon, July 22nd from 2:30-4:30. If you have worked with, had contact with or are friends with Noel, we would be glad to have you stop by to add your farewell to ours.

...interruption...

I have promised a couple of people that I would post photos of some banners that Greg and I made for Trinity Sunday (weekend after Pentecost). So, I'll put these here. The inception was mostly mine, but execution I owe to several people who gave me their two cents...and especially to my husband who helped immensely and even went by himself one night to finish filling in the letters.

So, that's how people saw them as they walked in and I included a couple of close-ups for your viewing pleasure. We learned a couple of helpful things in the process. Neither of us had ever projected and traced before so that was new...though not very difficult as we soon found out. It did however take much longer than originally thought. I remember, after one night of spending several hours at the Ministry Center, Greg said that he would've preferred if I had just told him what to do. But, I realized that what he was feeling was the result of my choosing to sort of make things up as I went along. As you know, this is not usually my style. However, a couple of things came to light, a) I am a visionary in matters of art and aesthetics in the church, b) we did not have lots of time to complete our project, c) I could have done a better job of splitting Rublev's Trinity into 6 pieces which perhaps, would have helped it go a little smoother and d) as much as I love helping set up the banners and using art to represent Truth, I lack the skills, in particular with the medium of fabric to achieve much on my own. Now, I did have some help with d), but there were several issues which ensued once we began the project that required fixing by much double-sided tape, velcro and a willingness to experiment. But, I actually thought that was pretty fun. It was quite the project in ghetto-rigging. You know, though, when your church actually takes place in a high school and all materials reside on carts lovingly manhandled weekly by the RezBearers, ghetto rigging just seems to fit. :)

Speaking of which, we also were responsible for the banners in the front of the church. I really wanted to use the three colors found in the Trinity icon to tie it into the front. We actually saw the deacon who was preaching that Sunday earlier in the morning and he said he was speaking about the colors in Rublev's Trinity! So, at that point, we knew it was the Holy Spirit (we previously had no idea that he had planned to speak about this icon at all!). So, we went up front only to discover that the t-bar which is almost always with the banner supplies, was nowhere to be found. So ghetto rig we did (after Greg made an emergency trip to the Ministry Center). I stayed, armed with the three colors and an imagination. So here's what we came up with:



Now that I've actually completed this blog, it makes me think how silly it is that I didn't finish it way earlier. I even already have ideas for the next ones. However, Greg and I need to get crackin' on our pfeiferpfiles site so you can check us out over there for a little bit. Also, pictures of our other art project are soon to follow (as soon as I take them).

FY10Q1 pt III

Well, March saw the beginning of Lent. I don't even remember what I gave up now which is probably for the better. However, I do remember feeling that it was Lent. Greg and I wrote a blog for it for the bulletin for one Sunday. I'll try to dig it up.

I don't often participate in feast days but this year (oh! I just remembered, I gave up cloves and alcohol.) I decided to participate some. The best was for St. Patrick's day for which we had a great party, great cottage pie, toasted all who entered and watched Waking Ned Devine, such a sweet movie. Never has Bailey's tasted so sweet ;) But in any case, I think Greg had given me this set of flowers and as usual, they slowly began to die. I actually think red flowers are really pretty when they start dying. BUT, I saw this bunch and the one pink flower and I thought, "Whoa, this set of flowers totally says to me, 'Feast Day'". So that's what I call it and I share it with you. :)


March, I think was pretty unexciting otherwise. Greg and I did get to go to San Anton over his birthday weekend though and that was awesome. Here's some pics, mostly of the cutest little boy in the world...and a few others for kicks.

So, that was San Anton in a nutshell. Animatronic dinosaurs that Ethan was at first frightened of but then became quite fond of, T-rex eating my mom and husband, my dad's nameplate of sanctity, enjoying a little Wii Fencing and lovin' on Ethan some more.

FY10Q1 part deux

So, February. Well, I can barely remember back that far but I know we went to the quaint little town of Ambridge, Pennsylvania where we will soon be moving! For more on that, please see our joint blog at: pfeiferpfiles.blogspot.com Your news for all things Pfeifer especially as we adventure through seminary. It also has some things like ways to be lifting us up and ways you can help.

Oh, first off, we decided to show off our Pittsburgh "pride" by cheering on the Steelers at the Fairfield Annual Super Bowl party. I know it looks like I'm flipping off the camera but I'm pretty sure I was just throwing a different gangsta sign. You know how it is.

Then, we attended Trinity School for Ministry's "Be A Seminarian" for a day program. But, check this out, one of my roommates from college lives IN Ambridge (the town is seriously like 2000 people and she and her hubby and 2 girls are 4 of them!). So, our other roommate flew down from NH to hang with us. I'm sure everyone is glad that I couldn't find a picture of the dynamic trio from the college days. Maybe later :) And I just have to include this next one because, you see, in college, I was actually known for the ridiculous length of my tongue which people knew because I was so much less mature than and would often use that as my crude gesture of choice when crossed. And look, here's my roommate's daughter, a perfect protege!Heeheehee. :P Isn't she the cutest? In case you can't tell, her tongue is also out. In fact, I think there's a whole sequence of us with out tongues out :)

So, our "Seminarian for a Day" time began with a little Valentine's bowling party with the church of our kind hosts. Hooray for Ambridge's 8-lane alley!

And here's the school:



Yup, that's the whole school. One block!
Pretty sweet, eh?
But it was really nice to go and check it out, even if there was two feet of snow on the ground. We felt there was great confirmation for us to be there especially because the community is phenomenal. So, that'll be the next piece of our adventure and like I said for more on that, check out our blog.
See ya for March, I gotta go cheer for the Blackhawks!