Plato, Pond-Jumping & Sophocles

This post begins where the last one left off, at the conclusion of Monday’s second class, in which students considered the meaning of piety as it relates to Plato’s Euthyphro. Afterward it was recreation time, during which some played soccer, others took to the sand volleyball courts, and others still cooled off in the campus’ three spring-fed ponds. Over on the basketball courts, Fr. Sebastian and several of the men’s prefects engaged in fierce pickup tournament with a number of students.

Following dinner, the students gathered in St. Bernardine of Siena Library for their first study hall. “They were amazing,” reports on prefect. “It was impressive to see what a studious group we have!” At the end of study hall, the prefects led the nightly Rosary in Our Lady of the Most Trinity Chapel, after which some students returned to the volleyball courts, while others met up in the Dumb Ox Coffee Shop for Italian sodas, iced mochas, and card games.

At curfew the men and women found their way back to their respective residence halls. In St. Monica’s, the ladies listened to talks from their prefects, who shared their stories of how and why they came to Thomas Aquinas College. In Sts. Peter and Paul, the men enjoyed a light snack of chips and salsa. Then, the chaplains arrived — Fr. Paul in the women’s residence hall, and Fr. Sebastian in the men’s — and answered questions about the Mass before leading students in the nightly consecration, followed by lights out.

At this morning’s opening class, students moved on from Oedipus Rex to Sophocles’ Antigone, questioning of the title character’s decisions, and whether they make her more heroine … or villain.