Dear Friends,

   It has been more than three weeks since I wrote anything on this blog.  I have had so much to tell you that I keep delaying till I would have a lengthy time to write.  So much has happened in the last three weeks and now I finally have time to send you a long letter.
   Most importantly, I am quite well and have been really busy, working hard at some demanding projects, doing a good variety of things. 
   First, I had a class a week ago today to lead for 16 people:  six  were Jesuit seminarians, 5 nuns and then the rest were lay people except for one priest.  I had to present material on the Foundations or Fundamentals of Retreat Guidance.  It was at the Jesuit seminary in downtown Nairobi.  If you know me, you know I love to do this kind of work . . . not just to teach but also to lead a class whose topic pertains to the God-life in all of us.  It took lots of retyping notes and then finally learning how to scan previously typed pages and transmit them as attachments.  (My God, did I tax myself  and brain in trying to learn how to do the process for sending scanned documents.  I finally had to get the help of a more knowledgeable Jesuit to get this piece done.)  Anyway, I got it done and provided them  some 11 or 12 pages of relevant materials.  What I spent the better part of our two hours on was emphasizing the fundamental of all fundamentals in retreat guidance, i.e., the active presence of God's Holy Spirit in anyone of us; the Spirit prompting, speaking, guiding anyone who has learned to listen to the Spirit in their experience.  It was fun to use chalkboard diagrams to illustrate this reality in our depths.  There were good questions and good reflections on implications of this truth when working with someone who asks you to guide their prayer, their retreat.
   Then I was asked to deliver a class here at the retreat center on "ecclesiology" to 28 people learning  to be spiritual directors.  They have been coming here for the last two years for a program similar to the Internship in Ignatian Spirituality I led at Manresa for many years.  I had never addressed this theme before, so I had 4-5 days of reading to do in order to adequately prepare. What was especially new for me was to talk not just about 'church' but church IN AFRICA.  So I had to read and type a summary on the world gathering of African bishops in 1994, on the second gathering of the African bishops in 2009, and finally a 225 page book  on looking at what is church in this continent as it faces the crises of AIDS, refugees, and chronic, dehumanizing poverty.  It was lots of work, so too the typing a summary of all of this and finally presenting it to the group.  It was a good moment to present it all and hear from these Africans what is their experience of  the church living with these three huge challenges.   I learned a lot, a lot about what is going on in the 53 nations of this continent of more than 1 billion people!
  Finally, I finished this morning a two day retreat with 12 young Kenyan men, all of whom are looking seriously at entering the Jesuits come next May,  They ranged in ages from 22 to 42.  What a delight it was to do this.  We hit it off very well.  I had them seriously look at different experiences of people in the Bible being called by God and share which story they identified with most, then to look at who Jesus is to them, to consider just how much He means to them (what great sharings from them), then to consider what are the riches of Ignatian spirituality and in belonging to the Jesuits, what is the nature of the work we do (so much on what is the Kingdom of God, the basis or ultimate goal of all our ministries of schools, parishes, retreat houses, scholarly work), and finally the discussion of an article by Pedro Arrupe, our former Father General (1965-81), on the Eucharist. I wanted them who are considering being future priests to consider this theme central to being a priest and ask them whether they ever imagined themselves leading a mass, someday praying the mass while vested and leading a congregation of believers in this awesome prayer.  Again, what they had to say to these questions was truly wonderful.  Our session was so rich, so satisfying.  These men are ready to start their lives as Jesuits.
  I have never before had the opportunity to lead something like these last two items.  So I am feeling creative, challenged, and alive! 
  Last Tuesday all of the 28 people learning to be spiritual guides plus staff, myself included, went to a nearby college called Tangaza and sat in on a morning of lectures having to do with African Traditional Religion and African culture.  It was very worth our time.  We even touched on witchcraft and how much it  influences African thinking and ways of understanding the world of the gods.  Even Christians have some ways of being influenced by such in their thinking about God and how God interacts with us in the struggles of life.
  I continue to wear my orthopedic boot to protect the left foot where I broke a small bone.  I have completed four weeks and have two more weeks to wear it.  No pain, it is just clumsy to walk around with it and have a cane in my right hand to balance my walking.  I take some vitamin D pills to aid the bone growth.  In the meantime, I have abandoned all that I planted in the plot I have charge of in the huge garden on these grounds.  The fulltime caretakers have kept it watered but I have done no weeding.  I don't want to risk this foot and the helaing process!!.

(I am going to take a break now and will write more later this evening or tomorrow morning.)

Bernie Owens