OK, Friends, Here is the rest of what I wanted to write two days ago but ran out of time to do so.
First, the monkey hit again. Members of our community and workers are not careful enough to close and lock the nearby door to the dining room. The monkey has experienced remarkable "success" and will keep returning until we thwart him (or her). To be continued!
In the last three days I have received news of the deaths of three friends, one who is a Jesuit three years younger than me. He and I studied together for four years in Toronto while preparing for ordination. (1969-1973) He gave six years of his early priesthood to our mission in Uganda, the nation just to the west of us in Kenya, and then went back to Omaha to establish a school for young, pre-adolescent boys of African-American background. The school turned out to be a great success, I am told. Just last October he discovered some skin cancer. It spread rapidly and became too established for chemo to make a difference. He died a week ago last Saturday in great peace, with his family members gathered around him. He had a great, great life! Just too short!! I felt a certain vulnerability in regard to myself (being three years OLDER than him!) and a sense of needing maybe to get on with writing this second book I am feeling nudged to do and not delay much longer putting on paper my ideas! I find that once I sit to write, inspiration comes to me which I feel I don't have when I just look at my notes, stare out the window, and wonder where do I start, and will I be able to develop the idea, blah, blah, blah. I must make time for starting it.
Today as I write I am thinking of one of the greatest influences in my life, John of the Cross whose feast day is today. John wrote like no one else ever wrote. A 16th century Spanish poet, a Carmelite monk and priest who lived only 49 years (1542-1591) but with such depth, such richness and intensity, he wrote among other writings three books on the ins and outs of the spiritual journey. I took much, much from these three books for the book I wrote, which will be published very soon. My aim was to make his writings easier to read and understand for today's public. The book I took the most from is his "The Living Flame of Love," a four stanza poem about the Holy Spirit. John spends numerous pages explaining the images he uses in that poem. They are out of this world, so beautiful is his vision and way of expressing what we will all "look like" after God's Holy Spirit finishes with purifying us and opening up our divine possibilities, bringing us to a state and richness of life we can't even begin to imagine. What I try to do in my book is to make that vision more understandable and to give a sketch of the journey over which God brings us along to such a glorious destiny. Anyway, today is his day and he has been much on my mind. His life story and especially how he suffered terribly during two occasions, when he was imprisoned for about 10 months as a way to prevent him from bringing about needed renewal in the Carmelites of his time, and then at the end of his life how terribly he was treated by the religious superior in charge of the community where he spent the last weeks of his life. What emerges from the former suffering is how it opened up such great, great spiritual depths in him, reflected in his poems. The reader of his poems is so blessed to know something of these depths to which John's sufferings drove him, the depths of a human being and the depths of God.
I wanted last Friday to say something about Our Lady of Guadalupe and especially to talk about the pancho or cloak worn by the simple peasant, Juan Diego, that she appeared to in 1531. I ran out of time and could not address it with all the other things I wrote in the previous posting. Juan was an Aztec living under the humiliating control of Spanish conquerors who had just arrived in Mexico to gain greatly from the riches of that part of the world. It was a disaster for the culture of his people, a time of corporate depression. In the midst of that Juan, typical of those in his culture, has a stunning experience of the Mother of God. She appears to him dressed as an Aztec maiden pregnant with child (who later was to be understood as the Savior soon to be born through these visitations of God via Mary). She asks him to tell the local bishop to have a basilica built on the site of these apparitions. He is most afraid of this: so little is he, so exalted is the bishop. He tries to avoid her but he cannot. Eventually she strongly urges him to go to the bishop with her request and says she will make it abundantly clear to the bishop that Juan did not make up this message but is simply communicating her message at her request. What he does not realize is that when he finally consents to go to the bishop and gains a hearing, there falls out of his pancho lap in the presence of the bishop a bunch of roses --in the great cold of December, at a significant altitude that would preclude their blooming at that time of the year--that could only come from one place, the place where the basilica is to be built. And then what he does not realize is that as the roses fall out on the floor, there is seen by the bishop and all but Juan Diego an image of the Mother of God imprinted in the pancho. He is unaware of what is causing them to gasp upon seeing what is in his cloak. And with that, there begins the movement toward building the magnificent basilica that would serve as the place where God would lift up the spirits and spiritually strengthen these simple Aztecs who felt oppressed, crushed in spirit by the conquering Spaniards. With that as background I want to explain some amazing details about this pancho with the image of Jesus' mother in the form of an Aztec, pregnant maiden. Today it is mounted high up near the altar of the newer basilica at Guadalupe in Mexico City. Millions comes there every year to honor it and to bring their life with its burdens to God through her. I had the opportunity to be there two years ago last October to witness this place and learn of the story.
First, let me say that I personally know and have a special friend who lives in Farmington Hills, MI and when suffering MS she made a trip to Guadalupe in January of 1999 and asked in prayer for God's healing through the prayers of Our Lady of Guadalupe. She struggled just to get to Mexico City and get off and on the bus, on and off the plane as well. Less than 24 hours after she returned to her home in Farmington Hills, while waking from her sleep on the first morning after the return trip, she got out of bed and was shocked to find she could walk normally, that she no longer needed her walker nor any crutches. And to this day she has been free from the MS and the terrible depression or discouragement that went with it. Am I surprised by all of this? Yes, but not to the point that I do not believe these amazing events happening. I have read of some 67 similar stories of what happened to 67 people at Lourdes, France in the 1850s and later. I know the story of what happened there too well to know that what happened is nothing less than miracles of healing and they leave you stunned at the power and proximity of God. The data, confirmed by numerous doctors, some of them declared agnostics, are too overwhelming to doubt and explain away.
So let me tell you, if you are interested, something about the amazing nature of this pancho or tilma connected with the story of Guadalupe. Ophthamologists have found that when the eyes of the maiden on this tilma are exposed to the light, the retinas contract and when light is withdrawn, the retinas return to a dilated state, just as with your eyes or mine. The temperature of the tilma maintains a constant temperature of 98.6 F, the same as that of a living human body. A doctor when using a stethoscope placed below the black band at Mary's waist heard rhythmic beats at 115 pulses per minute, the same as that of a baby in the womb. No sign of paint has been discovered on the tilma. From a distance of 3-4 inches from the image, one can see only the cactus fibers of the material. In other words, the colors disappear. Studies have not been able to discover the origin of the coloration nor the way the image was produced. There are no signs of brush strokes nor any other painting technique. Scientists at NASA confirm that the paint or coloration material does not belong to any known element on earth. When the material was examined under a laser ray, it was shown that there is no coloration on the front nor the back of the cloth, and that the colors hover at a distance of .3 of a millimeter (1/100 of an inch) over the cloth, without touching it. So the colors actually float above the surface of the tilma.
Going on . . . the rough material of the tilma has a lifespan of no more than 20-30 years. Several centuries ago a replica of the image was painted on an identical piece of cactus and it disintegrated after several decades. Still, during the nearly 500 years of this amazing miracle, the cloth with the image of Mary remains as strong as it was in the first day. Science cannot explain why the material of the tilma has not disintegrated.
In 1791 muriatic acid was accidentally spilled on the upper right side of the tilma. Over the following 30 days, without any special treatment, the affected fabric re-constituted itself miraculously.
The stars that appear on the mantel of Mary reflect the exact configuration and positions of the stars that could be seen in the sky on that day (December 9) in 1531 when she came to Juan Diego and to all of us. In their total and proper places, the 46 most brilliant stars that can be seen on the horizon of the Valley of Mexico can be identified.
In 1921 someone concealed a high power bomb in a flower arrangement and placed it at the feet of the tilma. The explosion destroyed everything around it, except for the tilma which remained intact.
Scientists have discovered that the eyes of Mary have the three refractive characteristics of a human eye. In the eye of Mary (only one-third inch in size) miniscule human figures were discovered, which no artist could have drawn or painted. The same scene is repeated in each eye. Using digital technology the images in the eyes have been enlarged many times, revealing that each eye reflects the figure of the Aztec Indian Juan Diego opening his tilma in front of the bishop. The size of this scene is 1/100th of an inch.
Finally, it is interesting to learn that in the Indian language Guadalupe means "to crush the head of the serpent," which refers to the Book of Genesis 3:15 and the Book of Revelation, chapter 12. And the image on the tilma refers to a detail in the Book of Revelation, chapter 12, which says, "And a great sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet." Lastly, the black band around her waist symbolizes pregnancy, suggesting God wanting Jesus to be born in the three Americas (north, central, and south), in the heart of each man and woman of the Americas. So in some mysterious way we all are born or birthed in Jesus by her. John, chapter 19, implies this when Jesus gives her to us as our mother and each of us to her as her child. In Jesus' dying words He encourages us to take her into our depths, to cherish her as our mother and to let God do miraculous things in us through her. If we learn to be as Juan Diego--to be poor in spirit, we will realize the same kind of transformation, healing, and salvation in our lives. Those who have faith in Jesus and this mystery experience the abiding friendship and protection of Mary and will feel a sense of being special to her. To Juan Diego she said:
My little child, the smallest of all, let nothing afflict you. Do you not know that you are in my lap? Am I not here, I who am your mother?
So, I have shared with you something that either challenges faith or strengthens it. In any case, I wanted to tell you this. It means very much to me, not so much because of the details about the tilma but more because of this message from her to Juan Diego quoted above. To me it says we are much more cared for by God, much more safe in God's hands than we realize, and we have no need to fear or be worried about our future because God in Christ has given each of us to her and her protection. We are so blessed.
I trust I will write another posting before Christmas. Until then, goodbye and blessings on you in these concluding days of Advent.
Bernie Owens
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Friday, December 12, 2014
Hi, dear friends,
It is almost four weeks since I last wrote, and I finally have some lengthy free-time to write. I have lots to say and want to share or discuss with you. So here it begins.
Some of you know that last week, from the evening of December 1 to the morning of December 10, I was in retreat. When I do my annual 8-day retreat I do nothing with the computer, and read no newspapers, and do not listen to radio and watch TV. For me it is sacred time to be with my best friend. For me this really bears wonderful results, too meaningful to miss out on.
I suppose that most of you don't have a sense of what this kind of retreat is like. Let me describe the format of a day. For me I had access to a trained director, someone who knows how to listen well, to keep quiet while I describe at length what has happened to me since we last met. Only then will the guide/director ask questions or make a comment, an observation on the meaning and significance of what I described going on in my prayer time and between those times. Only then will the guide/director mention possibilities for focus and prayer till the next time we would meet. This is so helpful because it means that the guide/director respects their role AS AN AID in the process and is careful NOT TO TAKE THE PLACE of God who is directing the retreatant. It would be like being a waiter at a restaurant serving you and an honored guest coming in for a great meal and conversation, rather than trying to take over the place of the guest you are with. So it means being careful not to interrupt, not to jump in too soon, but being slow to give any advice and to reflect back implications in what you the retreatant are saying.
Anyway, I would pray four distinct times each day, for 45 minutes each time, and then see my guide/director once every two days. Once right after breakfast, then again just before lunch, a third time right before supper, and then finally in mid evening, about an hour before going to bed. Mass was either at 7 AM or at 5:15 PM when 50 other people on retreat here at the same time would gather. In between those four times I was reading a very helpful book on the how and challenges of doing Christian contemplative prayer ("Into the Silent Land" by Martin Laird.) I would see my guide/director at 2 PM every other day for about 45 minutes. In the middle of the afternoon I would either nap, work out for about 40 minutes in our modest gym (treadmill and stationery bike plus a machine for upper body exercise, or work for a couple hours in my flower garden. This time I had lots of amarylis bulbs to plant. The roses are getting the oohs and ahhs of many. They are stunning!)
In past retreats I would start off the 45 minutes of prayer with some bible passage and eventually come to a single point, a single focus and remain there for most or a good part of the time. This year I was not drawn to doing that but simply started right away with sitting still in my bedroom, closing my eyes, and being focused on the One who is present to me all the time. There is something very engaging about being quiet, just quiet but attentive to God who is "right there"! Clearly, it is love that draws one and it is deep love that enables one to "see" or sense God present to you in this way. To be steady with that awareness is a gift and truly delightful; it is completely fulfilling and very satisfying to the soul. It consists in simply being with your best and deepest friend, "hanging out" with God. Some periods were dry and did not feel like any results came forth, but the majority of these 45 minute times with God were rather rich. A few were very powerful and deeply sweet to the soul. Part of the challenge is to stay present whether you "feel" anything is happening or not. One learns over time to accept whatever happens, whatever is given and to trust that something much deeper than what you can sense is being given to you. So you stay present as best you can, regardless of any particular feelings, insights, images or thoughts. All of those are no longer that important. What is important is the Divine Other, the deepest friend who is present in a way deeper than all these familiar ways of experiencing. Faith and trust take one deeper than any of these experiences and open you out to this One who means everything to you. It becomes the prayer of "being" rather than the prayer of "doing". Being with your friend and not having to talk or discuss . . . just being quiet together and enjoying each other's presence. . . that is what it is. And so this is the way it was for the 8 days.
On the sixth day of the retreat, in the afternoon, I had spent a lot of time sitting and reading from Laird's book. I did not feel like sitting through my late afternoon period of prayer. So I decided to take a slow walk on the trail inside our 50 acre plot. (I quote from the journal entry I wrote) "I found it to be wonderful, a time of closeness between God and myself, like old friends walking together and savoring the many wonderful things we have shared over the years and briefly recalling some of the dark times we went through but how His unconditional care and friendship were ever there. It was a golden moment in this retreat."
Last fall I had the student seminarians in my course on Teresa of Avila's "Interior Castle" read a commentary on the "Interior Castle." This book ("Distractions In Prayer: Blessing or Curse?") makes more sense to me on what is meant by our sinful tendencies and self-centered impulses than any other book I had read before on that topic. It gives lots of very good examples. This book (and Teresa) makes it very clear that as one gets further along in the journey, the more we become sensitive to anything that deviates from love of God, neighbor, and self, even in the least way. It made me want to spend some time during the retreat searching to know more explicitly what in me is like this, what in me is still separated from God and comes from self-centeredness. So I asked God, somewhat warily, that I be shown my sin during the retreat, if that should please God. Well, I really got an answer. Early in the retreat I found myself obsessing about a particular Jesuit in our community who never signs up to share in a certain ministry all of us are meant to share in. Recently we have had two priests no longer be part of our team, so the lead is heavier on everyone else. I spun in my mind my commentaries and speeches, ready to nail him and ask what makes him an exception. The resentment grew. Some of my prayer periods were spent just trying to get past these thoughts and feelings. It hardly felt like prayer; rather, there was appreciable inner turmoil and an experience of being rather powerless and caught in my own compulsive thoughts and insistence that this man carry his load. Yes, there was a certain reasonableness about my objecting and feeling like others about someone not doing their part. But there was a certain intensity and I guess self-righteousness, compulsiveness on my part in relating to this man and issue. I discussed this with my guide/director and she and I laughed in a sense about how I got from God what I had asked for. I related how I even had a dream connected to this issue. In it I dreamt I was talking with the president of Kenya and was complaining to him how the national newspaper is so negative in what it chooses to report on. In the dream the president looked flustered and unable to say anything in response to what I said. (end of dream.) After just a little thought about the dream I concluded that my deeper wisdom was confronting me and my presidential ego with an over-reacting and harboring nothing but critical thoughts toward someone (whom I actually like and have had some good conversations with!) But I will admit, it gets me that he will not sign up like the rest of us to share in the load of ministry responsibilities. My guide cautioned that maybe there is further information to be gotten, something I am not in touch with right now. So at the end of the retreat I found out that this person is doing exactly the same kind of responsibility three times a week but not with us! All of this inner turmoil got quieter as the retreat moved on, but it was embarrassing (and wearying!) to see how I got caught in a righteousness driven attitude that left me angry, frustrated, and resentful toward this man. It was like the dutiful older brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son resentful toward his younger, prodigal brother who was being celebrated even though he had made a mess of his life and the family name.
One interesting dynamic that came up during the retreat was a strong inspiration to write another book. This inspiration has been coming to me at various times over the last months and now it has come home to my spirit again and rather strongly at times. I can remember while in the midst of the first book, which is coming out in March, that I "vowed" I would never do this again. After engaging in rewriting about the 10-12th time, one is so tired of doing it and almost loses interest in what you are doing. I am very glad I persevered in the first book and am somewhat surprised that God is nudging me, sometimes strongly, to write a second book. The topic is the depths of the human person reflecting the depths of God. I am initially taken by the depths of God, about what matters most to God, what moves God, what does God care about the most. I am fascinated by that topic. And instinctively I know that the depths of God are echoed in the depths of the human soul. I know that exploring that theme would make very important reading for many people who are interested in a deeper spiritual life. So I have a stack of scrap papers with short jottings on them with references to articles and books, something I know would be important matter for such a topic.
During the retreat I made some new friends, the birds who live just opposite my bedroom bay-window. There is a hedge maybe 100 feet from my window and many of them nest there. Some are beautifully plumed, with yellow and black, some with red, blue and grey, some with rust-orange, black and white, etc. I have a sill that extends a little on the outside of my window. I was putting relatively small bread pieces, sometimes cake chunks, on the sill and then sitting in my high-back chair and watching these beautiful creatures come in and take a piece. I would be only 5-6 feet away from them, on the other side of the glass window, watching them up that close. It was a treat and one of the pleasures I had during my retreat. Twice, after all the bread was taken, birds came and pecked at my window, obviously wanting more bread. They knew their source was just on the other side of that window. Really cute. Then twice, I witnessed one bird, a weaver bird with gorgeous yellow and black feathers, take a piece of bread, fly over to a nearby lemon tree, and proceed to break off small pieces and put them into the mouth of their mate. It was so wonderful to see that. He did it about 20 times. I do not know why the other bird had to be fed, but clearly the male was feeding its female mate.
Then the monkey!! On the morning I finished retreat (Wednesday, the 10th) and had said the mass, I was walking to the dining room and here, about 10 feet from me, is this monkey. It is like a medium sized dog with a very long tail and whiskers galore on its face. I said, "well, good morning!" and it ran up the side of this nearby pole and on to the roof. It got up there and stared at me. So I would give off a huff and jump one foot forward, and the monkey would jerk. I did that 5-6 times and each time it jumped, as if it was threatened. I wanted to show it who is boss. Well, once I got inside the dining room and said 'hello' to everyone after 8 days in silence, I get this story of how the damn monkey had come into our dining room the previous day, on two occasions, and stole bananas: once just one banana, the second time a BUNCH or CLUSTER of bananas! No wonder it had come back!! As I am preparing my breakfast, I see the monkey out on our veranda the other side of the sliding glass doors, too heavy for the monkey to move. The monkey was just beginning to eat the bread chunks that had been put out for the birds. So I got up from the table, went over to the window, stretched my hands high and in a threatening tone of voice made all kinds of noise--like a gorilla-- to threaten the snitch. It ran so fast over to an adjacent tree to wait for a moment when maybe we would all leave and it could make another "breaking and entering" move! Apparently, it is able to pull down the handle on the door for regular entry. We are now locking that door and making everyone come into the dining room from another entrance. What a clever and persistent rascal!! As one person at table said, "he is our cousin, you know. He has learned some of our own tricks!" So the critter is a nuisance but also a subject for conversation and humor.
I have more to say, especially regarding today's feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, but I will save that for another blog posting which I plan to write tomorrow or Sunday. It is getting late in the day here, independence day for this nation (51 years old today).
Take care!
Bernie Owens
It is almost four weeks since I last wrote, and I finally have some lengthy free-time to write. I have lots to say and want to share or discuss with you. So here it begins.
Some of you know that last week, from the evening of December 1 to the morning of December 10, I was in retreat. When I do my annual 8-day retreat I do nothing with the computer, and read no newspapers, and do not listen to radio and watch TV. For me it is sacred time to be with my best friend. For me this really bears wonderful results, too meaningful to miss out on.
I suppose that most of you don't have a sense of what this kind of retreat is like. Let me describe the format of a day. For me I had access to a trained director, someone who knows how to listen well, to keep quiet while I describe at length what has happened to me since we last met. Only then will the guide/director ask questions or make a comment, an observation on the meaning and significance of what I described going on in my prayer time and between those times. Only then will the guide/director mention possibilities for focus and prayer till the next time we would meet. This is so helpful because it means that the guide/director respects their role AS AN AID in the process and is careful NOT TO TAKE THE PLACE of God who is directing the retreatant. It would be like being a waiter at a restaurant serving you and an honored guest coming in for a great meal and conversation, rather than trying to take over the place of the guest you are with. So it means being careful not to interrupt, not to jump in too soon, but being slow to give any advice and to reflect back implications in what you the retreatant are saying.
Anyway, I would pray four distinct times each day, for 45 minutes each time, and then see my guide/director once every two days. Once right after breakfast, then again just before lunch, a third time right before supper, and then finally in mid evening, about an hour before going to bed. Mass was either at 7 AM or at 5:15 PM when 50 other people on retreat here at the same time would gather. In between those four times I was reading a very helpful book on the how and challenges of doing Christian contemplative prayer ("Into the Silent Land" by Martin Laird.) I would see my guide/director at 2 PM every other day for about 45 minutes. In the middle of the afternoon I would either nap, work out for about 40 minutes in our modest gym (treadmill and stationery bike plus a machine for upper body exercise, or work for a couple hours in my flower garden. This time I had lots of amarylis bulbs to plant. The roses are getting the oohs and ahhs of many. They are stunning!)
In past retreats I would start off the 45 minutes of prayer with some bible passage and eventually come to a single point, a single focus and remain there for most or a good part of the time. This year I was not drawn to doing that but simply started right away with sitting still in my bedroom, closing my eyes, and being focused on the One who is present to me all the time. There is something very engaging about being quiet, just quiet but attentive to God who is "right there"! Clearly, it is love that draws one and it is deep love that enables one to "see" or sense God present to you in this way. To be steady with that awareness is a gift and truly delightful; it is completely fulfilling and very satisfying to the soul. It consists in simply being with your best and deepest friend, "hanging out" with God. Some periods were dry and did not feel like any results came forth, but the majority of these 45 minute times with God were rather rich. A few were very powerful and deeply sweet to the soul. Part of the challenge is to stay present whether you "feel" anything is happening or not. One learns over time to accept whatever happens, whatever is given and to trust that something much deeper than what you can sense is being given to you. So you stay present as best you can, regardless of any particular feelings, insights, images or thoughts. All of those are no longer that important. What is important is the Divine Other, the deepest friend who is present in a way deeper than all these familiar ways of experiencing. Faith and trust take one deeper than any of these experiences and open you out to this One who means everything to you. It becomes the prayer of "being" rather than the prayer of "doing". Being with your friend and not having to talk or discuss . . . just being quiet together and enjoying each other's presence. . . that is what it is. And so this is the way it was for the 8 days.
On the sixth day of the retreat, in the afternoon, I had spent a lot of time sitting and reading from Laird's book. I did not feel like sitting through my late afternoon period of prayer. So I decided to take a slow walk on the trail inside our 50 acre plot. (I quote from the journal entry I wrote) "I found it to be wonderful, a time of closeness between God and myself, like old friends walking together and savoring the many wonderful things we have shared over the years and briefly recalling some of the dark times we went through but how His unconditional care and friendship were ever there. It was a golden moment in this retreat."
Last fall I had the student seminarians in my course on Teresa of Avila's "Interior Castle" read a commentary on the "Interior Castle." This book ("Distractions In Prayer: Blessing or Curse?") makes more sense to me on what is meant by our sinful tendencies and self-centered impulses than any other book I had read before on that topic. It gives lots of very good examples. This book (and Teresa) makes it very clear that as one gets further along in the journey, the more we become sensitive to anything that deviates from love of God, neighbor, and self, even in the least way. It made me want to spend some time during the retreat searching to know more explicitly what in me is like this, what in me is still separated from God and comes from self-centeredness. So I asked God, somewhat warily, that I be shown my sin during the retreat, if that should please God. Well, I really got an answer. Early in the retreat I found myself obsessing about a particular Jesuit in our community who never signs up to share in a certain ministry all of us are meant to share in. Recently we have had two priests no longer be part of our team, so the lead is heavier on everyone else. I spun in my mind my commentaries and speeches, ready to nail him and ask what makes him an exception. The resentment grew. Some of my prayer periods were spent just trying to get past these thoughts and feelings. It hardly felt like prayer; rather, there was appreciable inner turmoil and an experience of being rather powerless and caught in my own compulsive thoughts and insistence that this man carry his load. Yes, there was a certain reasonableness about my objecting and feeling like others about someone not doing their part. But there was a certain intensity and I guess self-righteousness, compulsiveness on my part in relating to this man and issue. I discussed this with my guide/director and she and I laughed in a sense about how I got from God what I had asked for. I related how I even had a dream connected to this issue. In it I dreamt I was talking with the president of Kenya and was complaining to him how the national newspaper is so negative in what it chooses to report on. In the dream the president looked flustered and unable to say anything in response to what I said. (end of dream.) After just a little thought about the dream I concluded that my deeper wisdom was confronting me and my presidential ego with an over-reacting and harboring nothing but critical thoughts toward someone (whom I actually like and have had some good conversations with!) But I will admit, it gets me that he will not sign up like the rest of us to share in the load of ministry responsibilities. My guide cautioned that maybe there is further information to be gotten, something I am not in touch with right now. So at the end of the retreat I found out that this person is doing exactly the same kind of responsibility three times a week but not with us! All of this inner turmoil got quieter as the retreat moved on, but it was embarrassing (and wearying!) to see how I got caught in a righteousness driven attitude that left me angry, frustrated, and resentful toward this man. It was like the dutiful older brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son resentful toward his younger, prodigal brother who was being celebrated even though he had made a mess of his life and the family name.
One interesting dynamic that came up during the retreat was a strong inspiration to write another book. This inspiration has been coming to me at various times over the last months and now it has come home to my spirit again and rather strongly at times. I can remember while in the midst of the first book, which is coming out in March, that I "vowed" I would never do this again. After engaging in rewriting about the 10-12th time, one is so tired of doing it and almost loses interest in what you are doing. I am very glad I persevered in the first book and am somewhat surprised that God is nudging me, sometimes strongly, to write a second book. The topic is the depths of the human person reflecting the depths of God. I am initially taken by the depths of God, about what matters most to God, what moves God, what does God care about the most. I am fascinated by that topic. And instinctively I know that the depths of God are echoed in the depths of the human soul. I know that exploring that theme would make very important reading for many people who are interested in a deeper spiritual life. So I have a stack of scrap papers with short jottings on them with references to articles and books, something I know would be important matter for such a topic.
During the retreat I made some new friends, the birds who live just opposite my bedroom bay-window. There is a hedge maybe 100 feet from my window and many of them nest there. Some are beautifully plumed, with yellow and black, some with red, blue and grey, some with rust-orange, black and white, etc. I have a sill that extends a little on the outside of my window. I was putting relatively small bread pieces, sometimes cake chunks, on the sill and then sitting in my high-back chair and watching these beautiful creatures come in and take a piece. I would be only 5-6 feet away from them, on the other side of the glass window, watching them up that close. It was a treat and one of the pleasures I had during my retreat. Twice, after all the bread was taken, birds came and pecked at my window, obviously wanting more bread. They knew their source was just on the other side of that window. Really cute. Then twice, I witnessed one bird, a weaver bird with gorgeous yellow and black feathers, take a piece of bread, fly over to a nearby lemon tree, and proceed to break off small pieces and put them into the mouth of their mate. It was so wonderful to see that. He did it about 20 times. I do not know why the other bird had to be fed, but clearly the male was feeding its female mate.
Then the monkey!! On the morning I finished retreat (Wednesday, the 10th) and had said the mass, I was walking to the dining room and here, about 10 feet from me, is this monkey. It is like a medium sized dog with a very long tail and whiskers galore on its face. I said, "well, good morning!" and it ran up the side of this nearby pole and on to the roof. It got up there and stared at me. So I would give off a huff and jump one foot forward, and the monkey would jerk. I did that 5-6 times and each time it jumped, as if it was threatened. I wanted to show it who is boss. Well, once I got inside the dining room and said 'hello' to everyone after 8 days in silence, I get this story of how the damn monkey had come into our dining room the previous day, on two occasions, and stole bananas: once just one banana, the second time a BUNCH or CLUSTER of bananas! No wonder it had come back!! As I am preparing my breakfast, I see the monkey out on our veranda the other side of the sliding glass doors, too heavy for the monkey to move. The monkey was just beginning to eat the bread chunks that had been put out for the birds. So I got up from the table, went over to the window, stretched my hands high and in a threatening tone of voice made all kinds of noise--like a gorilla-- to threaten the snitch. It ran so fast over to an adjacent tree to wait for a moment when maybe we would all leave and it could make another "breaking and entering" move! Apparently, it is able to pull down the handle on the door for regular entry. We are now locking that door and making everyone come into the dining room from another entrance. What a clever and persistent rascal!! As one person at table said, "he is our cousin, you know. He has learned some of our own tricks!" So the critter is a nuisance but also a subject for conversation and humor.
I have more to say, especially regarding today's feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, but I will save that for another blog posting which I plan to write tomorrow or Sunday. It is getting late in the day here, independence day for this nation (51 years old today).
Take care!
Bernie Owens
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Dear Friends,
Sunday evening here, 8:30 PM, eight hours ahead of Michigan time, EST. We received a great, soaking type rain for over an hour this afternoon and it was truly needed. I just finished these lst two days with the last parts of the rose garden:weeding, pruning, loosening of soil and loading up the root system with cow manure and bone meal . Now the entire plot of flowers has been "jazzed up" to put out lots and lots of blossoms, a wonderful sight to behold. Our visitors are noticing and commenting most favorably! Sometimes I take a walk over to that area just to get my "beauty fix" for the day and to take note of anything out of place or needing close attention. Pure fun!
The big concern around here since a week ago yesterday has been the horrific massacre that took place a week ago yesterday in a far northeastern Kenyan town called Mandera; it is close to the Somali border where terrible tensions exist between Christians and jihadist, Al Shabaab Muslims. Maybe you know already that on Saturday, the 22nd, early in the morning, a bus with over 40 people on it was leaving Mandera and traveling westward to bring people, many of them teachers in their 20s, to their home towns. School is out in mid-November through Christmas week. These people were returning to visit relatives and for rest over this vacation time. Once out of town and in the bush area they were pulled over by about 15 gun-totting men with scarfs wrapped round them to hide their faces. These men went on the bus and demanded at gun-point that people recite a sentence from the Quran; if you could not do that, then you were to get out of the bus and you were ushered over to a place and made to lie face down on the ground. 28 people "flunked" that test, so here were 28 people lying face down, all next to one another. With that two or more of these armed Somalis moved down the row and shot these people in the back of their head. The wailing and screaming was something else, survivors later testified. After these men finished murdering these people, they raised their rifles in the air and starting firing them a number of times while shouting in triumph. They disappeared across the border into the bush and a few hours later were pursued by the Kenyan army and were killed. A Kenyan jet flew in and bombed their training camp and make-shift hospital with wounded, hurting Al Shabaab militants, and killed, it is said, some 200 people in the process. Some of these 200 were women and children most likely. The Kenyan military provided no photographic proof of this raid.
There is so much anger in this nation toward the government and its fumblings, its incompetence and failures to protect its citizenry. The present governmental party is in power till 2017. That is a long time into the future. The president is someone who has been indicted by the World Court in the Hague for criminal actions during the 2008 national elections. He is the son of the first president of Kenya, a very rich man but without much foresight. This nation is so divided along tribal lines; tribes put up their man regardless of his credentials or lack thereof. And then you thought politics in the USA was awful!!
Tomorrow evening I begin my annual 8-day retreat. I finish on the morning of the 10th. I think I am quite ready for a time to be alone and extra quiet with God. Lately, prayer has been for many days very, very rich. If I can get quiet in body and focused in mind and will, then I sense I am "looking right at" God, yet with no image as such. But the sense of His presence and closeness is very, very real and profoundly rich in beauty and goodness. I am straining for words adequate to the experience, but that is the nature of the encounter.
Tomorrow is the feast day of some English Jesuits who underwent terrible torture in the 1580s for being Catholic but especially for being Jesuit. Queen Elizabeth I had him hanged, drawn and quartered, after being stretched and stretched on a rack--really a vicious way to execute anyone! One is a man called Robert Southwell (pronounced Suth-ull, with the accent on the first of the two syllables.) He wrote an extraordinary poem I would like to quote to you and with this say 'goodnight." The poem could be one meaningful way to prepare for the coming of Christmas--
The Nativity
Gift better than Himself God doth not know.
Gift better than His God no man can see.
This gift doth here the Giver given bestow.
Gift to this Gift let each receiver be
God is my gift, Himself He freely gave me,
God's gift am I, and none but God shall have me.
A blessed and happy Advent to all.
Bernie Owens
Sunday evening here, 8:30 PM, eight hours ahead of Michigan time, EST. We received a great, soaking type rain for over an hour this afternoon and it was truly needed. I just finished these lst two days with the last parts of the rose garden:weeding, pruning, loosening of soil and loading up the root system with cow manure and bone meal . Now the entire plot of flowers has been "jazzed up" to put out lots and lots of blossoms, a wonderful sight to behold. Our visitors are noticing and commenting most favorably! Sometimes I take a walk over to that area just to get my "beauty fix" for the day and to take note of anything out of place or needing close attention. Pure fun!
The big concern around here since a week ago yesterday has been the horrific massacre that took place a week ago yesterday in a far northeastern Kenyan town called Mandera; it is close to the Somali border where terrible tensions exist between Christians and jihadist, Al Shabaab Muslims. Maybe you know already that on Saturday, the 22nd, early in the morning, a bus with over 40 people on it was leaving Mandera and traveling westward to bring people, many of them teachers in their 20s, to their home towns. School is out in mid-November through Christmas week. These people were returning to visit relatives and for rest over this vacation time. Once out of town and in the bush area they were pulled over by about 15 gun-totting men with scarfs wrapped round them to hide their faces. These men went on the bus and demanded at gun-point that people recite a sentence from the Quran; if you could not do that, then you were to get out of the bus and you were ushered over to a place and made to lie face down on the ground. 28 people "flunked" that test, so here were 28 people lying face down, all next to one another. With that two or more of these armed Somalis moved down the row and shot these people in the back of their head. The wailing and screaming was something else, survivors later testified. After these men finished murdering these people, they raised their rifles in the air and starting firing them a number of times while shouting in triumph. They disappeared across the border into the bush and a few hours later were pursued by the Kenyan army and were killed. A Kenyan jet flew in and bombed their training camp and make-shift hospital with wounded, hurting Al Shabaab militants, and killed, it is said, some 200 people in the process. Some of these 200 were women and children most likely. The Kenyan military provided no photographic proof of this raid.
There is so much anger in this nation toward the government and its fumblings, its incompetence and failures to protect its citizenry. The present governmental party is in power till 2017. That is a long time into the future. The president is someone who has been indicted by the World Court in the Hague for criminal actions during the 2008 national elections. He is the son of the first president of Kenya, a very rich man but without much foresight. This nation is so divided along tribal lines; tribes put up their man regardless of his credentials or lack thereof. And then you thought politics in the USA was awful!!
Tomorrow evening I begin my annual 8-day retreat. I finish on the morning of the 10th. I think I am quite ready for a time to be alone and extra quiet with God. Lately, prayer has been for many days very, very rich. If I can get quiet in body and focused in mind and will, then I sense I am "looking right at" God, yet with no image as such. But the sense of His presence and closeness is very, very real and profoundly rich in beauty and goodness. I am straining for words adequate to the experience, but that is the nature of the encounter.
Tomorrow is the feast day of some English Jesuits who underwent terrible torture in the 1580s for being Catholic but especially for being Jesuit. Queen Elizabeth I had him hanged, drawn and quartered, after being stretched and stretched on a rack--really a vicious way to execute anyone! One is a man called Robert Southwell (pronounced Suth-ull, with the accent on the first of the two syllables.) He wrote an extraordinary poem I would like to quote to you and with this say 'goodnight." The poem could be one meaningful way to prepare for the coming of Christmas--
The Nativity
Gift better than Himself God doth not know.
Gift better than His God no man can see.
This gift doth here the Giver given bestow.
Gift to this Gift let each receiver be
God is my gift, Himself He freely gave me,
God's gift am I, and none but God shall have me.
A blessed and happy Advent to all.
Bernie Owens
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Good Afternoon, Friends,
I am writing on a Sunday afternoon, November 16. It is finally sunny here after much overcast and rain. We are into spring here, with farmers planting and lots of new growth--pollen also that makes me itch and sneeze! Our weather this week has been generally cool and rainy. Lots of rain during the nighttime, mud everywhere! Mud here becomes so slippery and unless you have stones sticking above the surface to step on, you can easily do a pratfall when on an inclined surface. There are almost no sidewalks around--those are for rich people, and affluent societies!! Most people here when walking to work carry two pairs of shoes, one to endure the mud along side the heavily traveled roads they have to walk, another pair to look nice in when walking around their office work space.
This reminds me: the traffic congestion in this urban area is mind-boggling, beyond anything we in the States experience! Maybe Los Angeles would be an exception. The roads here are utterly inadequate for handling the number of cars of those trying to get to work and get home. On Wednesday mornings, when I teach at the local Jesuit seminary, I must allot one hour and ten minutes to go about 8 miles from here to the school. One often simply sits on the road and waits for the flow to resume crawling along. I wish I could bring you all here and have you see what it is like and especially to see what is on the sides of the road: the businesses of selling shrubs, flower plants, small trees, grass sod, clay urns (some really big!) tables, clothing closets, chairs (wood or iron), beds, sofas, clean water, roasted maze cobs and chunks of sugar cane to chew on--so much life, so much commerce. With all the rains we have been having, you can imagine what it is like stepping around in these areas!! MUD!! I love to see the young mothers walking along with their small baby, papoose style on their back and with a knitted cap often times on the head of their baby, and then their carrying some object they need for their family on the top of their head--this is so, so African!
Do you know that in 25 years four out of every 10 babies born into the world will be born here in Africa??!! Get ready, world!! Nigeria will be the most powerful economy in Africa, followed by South Africa, Egypt, and Kenya.
Our cool, wet, breezy weather has led to my getting my first major cold since coming to Africa. (Now that is a pretty good record, I think, for having been here almost 15 months.) For days I thought I was having an allergy reaction, since there is so much pollen right now with the new spring growth. But, no, on Friday, two days ago, I was hit with a terrible fever, swollen sinuses, and a lot of coughing. I have slept and slept these last two days--about 11-12 hours each day-- in order to beat it and not let it become pneumonia. I am still going to have to make time for extra sleep. I am not yet over this! I have gone through probably 20 handkerchiefs in the last two days!
Our neighbor, the monkey, has been back and making a pest of himself (of it is a she?) About a week ago it went near our dining room area and found a window to the food prep area partly opened. It reached in and stole two eggs that were sitting on a counter and near the window; one egg broke on it. Then one morning it came up on our veranda where we throw bread pieces broken up for the many birds who visit us and was stealing the bread. One of our guys challenged the monkey and the monkey growled back. Yesterday the monkey was back and took an orange from one of our trees. It bit into the orange and threw it down; maybe it was not sweet enough. One of our guys picked up the orange and threw it at the pest and it chased after the orange. In general it comes around in the afternoon and tries to open the sliding glass door that separates our dining room and veranda or sun deck so that it can get into all our food, bananas and bread especially. We learn to be vigilant for this crafty, deceptive snitch.
The other interesting quirk of nature here is the snoring of birds in the early part of their nighttime. One bird has the sound like that of a creaking wooden screw, as if you were turning it and turning it while it makes a sound of wood rubbing against wood, followed by a regular rhythm of exhaling some odd, breathy sound. So funny!
I have weighed myself on three separate scales and they all agree: I have dropped about 15 pounds since I left the States more than a year ago. I think this weight-loss has also affected my energy level at times, with my having to sleep more, to rest more. Much less meat in our diet and no pies and frosting covered cakes, no munching in the middle of the day on chocolate covered raisins or cashew nuts. Also, the ice cream they buy here is often frozen skim milk--just awful! All of these factors I think explain the weight loss. Frankly, I think I am eating a better diet than I was eating in the States. All the veggies are fresh, always! Then all the fruit we get is great. We get the greatest soups every day. I always start midday meal with a big bowl of some kind of vegetable soup (yesterday was butternut squash soup) and I like to put lots of rice in it to give it some solid body. The homemade pizza is only so,so, the fish is sometimes terribly deep fried or, better to my liking, broiled and so the sweet white meat is very tasty. Lots of chicken. Pork is much too fat for me. I won't touch it!! So too, the beef is largely riddled with grissle. I find it inedible. But Kenyans like it that way. I will wait till I return to the States to enjoy a great hamburger, also a rich, creamy ice cream.
I have finished for the first semester the course I was teaching at the local Jesuit seminary. It was a course on St. Teresa of Avila's greatest book "The Interior Castle." It addresses the growth stages in oour life and in prayer for those who seek God and let God lead them. The Castle is her image for the soul of a human being. She conceives of the soul/castle having seven sets of rooms, each progressively closer to the center where Christ waits to give Himself fully to the person who takes seriously the journey within. She says most people, unfortunately, stagnate at the 3rd of the seven circles or sets of rooms; they do good things she says, keep the commandments largely, but don't let God really lead them to a much richer, deeper life that what could happen if they learned to surrender and let God lead; they are too invested in staying in control of their life. I had eleven students. All but one did very well, One person got a low C grade. Some of his problem might be that his English writing skills are lacking! He is from southern India, Kerala province where there is much less insistence on English than in the more northern cities of India. Four 'As' and six 'Bs' for the rest. I don't resume teaching until January 14 when I start a weekly course for seminarians on the poem of St. John of the Cross: "The Living Flame of Love." It is one of the greatest poems ever written; it is about the Holy Spirit of God and is so, so beautiful. I thoroughly enjoy leading discussions on matters like this. The discussions I have with these young men/future priests make my day!
The publisher of my book contacted me within the last two weeks to ask that I modify one sentence in the whole book. Everything else was fine. I was amazed. I was expecting more changes would be asked of me. Now they are laying out the pages as they will appear on the pages of the final form, then they will send it all to me for one final reading and approval. March is the due date for publication and beginning of sales. I am told things are still on schedule. I hope so! I have a book-signing evening scheduled at Manresa on Tuesday, May 26, also at the Master Gardener's Day the following Saturday, May 30.
Last Sunday another Jesuit and I went to the Natural Museum of Kenya in downtown Nairobi. It was so worthwhile. We spent three hours there. Sunday morning was a great time to go--much less traffic and almost no one in the museum when we first got there. Anyway, I enjoyed more than anything else the exhibit on human fossils discovered by the world famous archeologist, Dr Leakey. Here were fossils I had often read about but never realized I am now living almost in the center of where all of these human remains once lived-- with such moving finds about the beginnings of the human race more than two million years ago only 250 miles or so north of here. I read it all with much, much interest! Then they had on display stuffed versions of some huge animals, elephant especially, found in that area. Finally, they had a display on Kenya's move to independence, the breaking away from British rule, and how painful, violent it all was, especially in the 1940s and 50s. (Independence was granted in 1963,)
Last, today is a day of great importance to me. For two reasons. One is that the last of the students I lead through the two-year Internship program at Manresa in Michigan are graduating in a few hours from now. This is the last of my involvement at a place that was so good to me and fruitful in my efforts. Over 18 years some 375-380 students went through this program and about 250 graduated. I am proud of this and most thankful to God that I had such a opportunity to lead this.
The other reason for today being so meaningful to me is that 25 years ago this morning, in the city of San Salvador of the nation called El Salvador, six of my Jesuit companions along with their cook and her 15 year old daughter were assassinated by a death squad of the El Salvadoran army. Five of the six Jesuits were pulled out of their bed rooms and made to lie face down on the lawn of their backyard and were executed. The sixth Jesuit was killed in his bedroom. The cook and her daughter had been told on the phone the night before by her husband not to come home that night since the tension was so high and made walking home too dangerous. The cook and daughter were in one wing of the housing complex; the daughter began to cry out loud with fear and a soldier heard her cry He went down the hallway and killed them both. In that last moment the mother threw her body over her daughter in a motherly attempt to protect her child.
What was going on at that time to lead to something so awful, so vicious? There was a de facto civil war going on in that nation for much of the 1970s and 1980s. The ARENA party with a strong military grip on the nation was in control and resisted economic and political changes that the much more numerous farmers and workers in rural El Salvador wanted. The Jesuits, who were all part of the University of Central America in the capital city, tried to mediate a truce and negotiate a way of meeting some of these great needs of the people. There were charges of outside interference. Cuba and the USA under Presidents Carter and Reagan got involved and supplied many arms to the government, all in the name of fighting communism. The farmers were pawns in the middle and thousands were murdered by the government, with impunity. Justices were threatened with death or bought off. No one was being prosecuted for these crimes. The Jesuit president of the university, Ignacio Ellacuria, was the chief negotiator, trying to defuse the situation. Three weeks before he and the other Jesuits were murdered, there were listeners to talk shows calling in and saying, "Be a patriot, kill a Jesuit." And so they were all murdered 25year ago this morning.
In March of 1998, nine yearslater, I had the opportunity to join 12 others on a 10day trip to ElSalvador. And I had the opportunity to see some of the photographs of those who had just been assassinated. I was so shaken on that day. I began to hyperventilate, never had I seen such gore. I later thought that all the crime on TV never really shows the ugliness and revolting results of murders and killings. Everything" is so sanitized, falsely presented.
One of the Jesuits who was murdered, Juan Ramon Moreno Pardo, had exactly the same job/ministry I had at that time. this so, so struck me. He was doing exactly the same I was doing in 1989: part time teacher of theology at the university and assistant director of what was called the Romero Center( named after the soon to be saint Oscar Romero) on campus. I pray to that man often. He is like a brother, certainly a soul-brother. He was shot in his bedroom and when he fell forward his right arm knocked to the floor a book on his stack of books at the head of his bed. Its title was "The Crucified God." I saw it on camera as it soaked up the blood from the pool of blood coming from his body. I will never forget that picture! Something deep happened inside me that day. I have not been the same since. Here was a man doing what I was doing-teaching and helping to run a spirituality center in a troubled city. Yes, Detroit was very much at that time a troubled city. This man was dead, I was still alive. But his choice to be where God had sent him gave rise in me to a desire to give my life, in a bloody way should that give greater glory to God, for God. I am so taken by how we all get only one life and we are given the enormous opportunity to choose to do wonderful things with such a unique gift. God is so very real and so worthy, so deserving to receive all we are and the best we have. On that day I was given the strong desire to give myself completely to this most deserving Giver of all gifts, whetherin a short life or a long one, in many years of service or in a quick death that would witness to Him who laid down His life for me (and all of us.) It really does not matter whether I live a short life or long one. What does matter is this precious friendship with the greatest discovery of my life. Because of Him it really doesn't matter whether I am alive in this life or with Him in the next. What does matter is that I am alive with Him, never to be separated.
A happy Thanksgiving Day and weekend to you all. One of the Kenyan Jesuits who studied in the USA for some years is cooking Thanksgiving meal for all of us Americans on the evening prior to Thanksgiving Day. So I have that to look forward to. I begin my annual retreat on the evening of December 1 and finish on the morning of December 10. I would appreciate your prayers. please. Thanks so much.
Bernie Owens
I am writing on a Sunday afternoon, November 16. It is finally sunny here after much overcast and rain. We are into spring here, with farmers planting and lots of new growth--pollen also that makes me itch and sneeze! Our weather this week has been generally cool and rainy. Lots of rain during the nighttime, mud everywhere! Mud here becomes so slippery and unless you have stones sticking above the surface to step on, you can easily do a pratfall when on an inclined surface. There are almost no sidewalks around--those are for rich people, and affluent societies!! Most people here when walking to work carry two pairs of shoes, one to endure the mud along side the heavily traveled roads they have to walk, another pair to look nice in when walking around their office work space.
This reminds me: the traffic congestion in this urban area is mind-boggling, beyond anything we in the States experience! Maybe Los Angeles would be an exception. The roads here are utterly inadequate for handling the number of cars of those trying to get to work and get home. On Wednesday mornings, when I teach at the local Jesuit seminary, I must allot one hour and ten minutes to go about 8 miles from here to the school. One often simply sits on the road and waits for the flow to resume crawling along. I wish I could bring you all here and have you see what it is like and especially to see what is on the sides of the road: the businesses of selling shrubs, flower plants, small trees, grass sod, clay urns (some really big!) tables, clothing closets, chairs (wood or iron), beds, sofas, clean water, roasted maze cobs and chunks of sugar cane to chew on--so much life, so much commerce. With all the rains we have been having, you can imagine what it is like stepping around in these areas!! MUD!! I love to see the young mothers walking along with their small baby, papoose style on their back and with a knitted cap often times on the head of their baby, and then their carrying some object they need for their family on the top of their head--this is so, so African!
Do you know that in 25 years four out of every 10 babies born into the world will be born here in Africa??!! Get ready, world!! Nigeria will be the most powerful economy in Africa, followed by South Africa, Egypt, and Kenya.
Our cool, wet, breezy weather has led to my getting my first major cold since coming to Africa. (Now that is a pretty good record, I think, for having been here almost 15 months.) For days I thought I was having an allergy reaction, since there is so much pollen right now with the new spring growth. But, no, on Friday, two days ago, I was hit with a terrible fever, swollen sinuses, and a lot of coughing. I have slept and slept these last two days--about 11-12 hours each day-- in order to beat it and not let it become pneumonia. I am still going to have to make time for extra sleep. I am not yet over this! I have gone through probably 20 handkerchiefs in the last two days!
Our neighbor, the monkey, has been back and making a pest of himself (of it is a she?) About a week ago it went near our dining room area and found a window to the food prep area partly opened. It reached in and stole two eggs that were sitting on a counter and near the window; one egg broke on it. Then one morning it came up on our veranda where we throw bread pieces broken up for the many birds who visit us and was stealing the bread. One of our guys challenged the monkey and the monkey growled back. Yesterday the monkey was back and took an orange from one of our trees. It bit into the orange and threw it down; maybe it was not sweet enough. One of our guys picked up the orange and threw it at the pest and it chased after the orange. In general it comes around in the afternoon and tries to open the sliding glass door that separates our dining room and veranda or sun deck so that it can get into all our food, bananas and bread especially. We learn to be vigilant for this crafty, deceptive snitch.
The other interesting quirk of nature here is the snoring of birds in the early part of their nighttime. One bird has the sound like that of a creaking wooden screw, as if you were turning it and turning it while it makes a sound of wood rubbing against wood, followed by a regular rhythm of exhaling some odd, breathy sound. So funny!
I have weighed myself on three separate scales and they all agree: I have dropped about 15 pounds since I left the States more than a year ago. I think this weight-loss has also affected my energy level at times, with my having to sleep more, to rest more. Much less meat in our diet and no pies and frosting covered cakes, no munching in the middle of the day on chocolate covered raisins or cashew nuts. Also, the ice cream they buy here is often frozen skim milk--just awful! All of these factors I think explain the weight loss. Frankly, I think I am eating a better diet than I was eating in the States. All the veggies are fresh, always! Then all the fruit we get is great. We get the greatest soups every day. I always start midday meal with a big bowl of some kind of vegetable soup (yesterday was butternut squash soup) and I like to put lots of rice in it to give it some solid body. The homemade pizza is only so,so, the fish is sometimes terribly deep fried or, better to my liking, broiled and so the sweet white meat is very tasty. Lots of chicken. Pork is much too fat for me. I won't touch it!! So too, the beef is largely riddled with grissle. I find it inedible. But Kenyans like it that way. I will wait till I return to the States to enjoy a great hamburger, also a rich, creamy ice cream.
I have finished for the first semester the course I was teaching at the local Jesuit seminary. It was a course on St. Teresa of Avila's greatest book "The Interior Castle." It addresses the growth stages in oour life and in prayer for those who seek God and let God lead them. The Castle is her image for the soul of a human being. She conceives of the soul/castle having seven sets of rooms, each progressively closer to the center where Christ waits to give Himself fully to the person who takes seriously the journey within. She says most people, unfortunately, stagnate at the 3rd of the seven circles or sets of rooms; they do good things she says, keep the commandments largely, but don't let God really lead them to a much richer, deeper life that what could happen if they learned to surrender and let God lead; they are too invested in staying in control of their life. I had eleven students. All but one did very well, One person got a low C grade. Some of his problem might be that his English writing skills are lacking! He is from southern India, Kerala province where there is much less insistence on English than in the more northern cities of India. Four 'As' and six 'Bs' for the rest. I don't resume teaching until January 14 when I start a weekly course for seminarians on the poem of St. John of the Cross: "The Living Flame of Love." It is one of the greatest poems ever written; it is about the Holy Spirit of God and is so, so beautiful. I thoroughly enjoy leading discussions on matters like this. The discussions I have with these young men/future priests make my day!
The publisher of my book contacted me within the last two weeks to ask that I modify one sentence in the whole book. Everything else was fine. I was amazed. I was expecting more changes would be asked of me. Now they are laying out the pages as they will appear on the pages of the final form, then they will send it all to me for one final reading and approval. March is the due date for publication and beginning of sales. I am told things are still on schedule. I hope so! I have a book-signing evening scheduled at Manresa on Tuesday, May 26, also at the Master Gardener's Day the following Saturday, May 30.
Last Sunday another Jesuit and I went to the Natural Museum of Kenya in downtown Nairobi. It was so worthwhile. We spent three hours there. Sunday morning was a great time to go--much less traffic and almost no one in the museum when we first got there. Anyway, I enjoyed more than anything else the exhibit on human fossils discovered by the world famous archeologist, Dr Leakey. Here were fossils I had often read about but never realized I am now living almost in the center of where all of these human remains once lived-- with such moving finds about the beginnings of the human race more than two million years ago only 250 miles or so north of here. I read it all with much, much interest! Then they had on display stuffed versions of some huge animals, elephant especially, found in that area. Finally, they had a display on Kenya's move to independence, the breaking away from British rule, and how painful, violent it all was, especially in the 1940s and 50s. (Independence was granted in 1963,)
Last, today is a day of great importance to me. For two reasons. One is that the last of the students I lead through the two-year Internship program at Manresa in Michigan are graduating in a few hours from now. This is the last of my involvement at a place that was so good to me and fruitful in my efforts. Over 18 years some 375-380 students went through this program and about 250 graduated. I am proud of this and most thankful to God that I had such a opportunity to lead this.
The other reason for today being so meaningful to me is that 25 years ago this morning, in the city of San Salvador of the nation called El Salvador, six of my Jesuit companions along with their cook and her 15 year old daughter were assassinated by a death squad of the El Salvadoran army. Five of the six Jesuits were pulled out of their bed rooms and made to lie face down on the lawn of their backyard and were executed. The sixth Jesuit was killed in his bedroom. The cook and her daughter had been told on the phone the night before by her husband not to come home that night since the tension was so high and made walking home too dangerous. The cook and daughter were in one wing of the housing complex; the daughter began to cry out loud with fear and a soldier heard her cry He went down the hallway and killed them both. In that last moment the mother threw her body over her daughter in a motherly attempt to protect her child.
What was going on at that time to lead to something so awful, so vicious? There was a de facto civil war going on in that nation for much of the 1970s and 1980s. The ARENA party with a strong military grip on the nation was in control and resisted economic and political changes that the much more numerous farmers and workers in rural El Salvador wanted. The Jesuits, who were all part of the University of Central America in the capital city, tried to mediate a truce and negotiate a way of meeting some of these great needs of the people. There were charges of outside interference. Cuba and the USA under Presidents Carter and Reagan got involved and supplied many arms to the government, all in the name of fighting communism. The farmers were pawns in the middle and thousands were murdered by the government, with impunity. Justices were threatened with death or bought off. No one was being prosecuted for these crimes. The Jesuit president of the university, Ignacio Ellacuria, was the chief negotiator, trying to defuse the situation. Three weeks before he and the other Jesuits were murdered, there were listeners to talk shows calling in and saying, "Be a patriot, kill a Jesuit." And so they were all murdered 25year ago this morning.
In March of 1998, nine yearslater, I had the opportunity to join 12 others on a 10day trip to ElSalvador. And I had the opportunity to see some of the photographs of those who had just been assassinated. I was so shaken on that day. I began to hyperventilate, never had I seen such gore. I later thought that all the crime on TV never really shows the ugliness and revolting results of murders and killings. Everything" is so sanitized, falsely presented.
One of the Jesuits who was murdered, Juan Ramon Moreno Pardo, had exactly the same job/ministry I had at that time. this so, so struck me. He was doing exactly the same I was doing in 1989: part time teacher of theology at the university and assistant director of what was called the Romero Center( named after the soon to be saint Oscar Romero) on campus. I pray to that man often. He is like a brother, certainly a soul-brother. He was shot in his bedroom and when he fell forward his right arm knocked to the floor a book on his stack of books at the head of his bed. Its title was "The Crucified God." I saw it on camera as it soaked up the blood from the pool of blood coming from his body. I will never forget that picture! Something deep happened inside me that day. I have not been the same since. Here was a man doing what I was doing-teaching and helping to run a spirituality center in a troubled city. Yes, Detroit was very much at that time a troubled city. This man was dead, I was still alive. But his choice to be where God had sent him gave rise in me to a desire to give my life, in a bloody way should that give greater glory to God, for God. I am so taken by how we all get only one life and we are given the enormous opportunity to choose to do wonderful things with such a unique gift. God is so very real and so worthy, so deserving to receive all we are and the best we have. On that day I was given the strong desire to give myself completely to this most deserving Giver of all gifts, whetherin a short life or a long one, in many years of service or in a quick death that would witness to Him who laid down His life for me (and all of us.) It really does not matter whether I live a short life or long one. What does matter is this precious friendship with the greatest discovery of my life. Because of Him it really doesn't matter whether I am alive in this life or with Him in the next. What does matter is that I am alive with Him, never to be separated.
A happy Thanksgiving Day and weekend to you all. One of the Kenyan Jesuits who studied in the USA for some years is cooking Thanksgiving meal for all of us Americans on the evening prior to Thanksgiving Day. So I have that to look forward to. I begin my annual retreat on the evening of December 1 and finish on the morning of December 10. I would appreciate your prayers. please. Thanks so much.
Bernie Owens
Friday, October 31, 2014
Dear Friends,
It is Friday evening here and I am in the mood to write a new letter.
First, a bit of news on our Jesuit community. Today one of our members died. He was 76 years old, 11 months older than me. That makes me think twice! Yes, some of my contemporaries are done with their time on this earth! I feel I have so much more to do, things I need to finish before my time to leave comes! God might see things differently!!!!! May His will be done, always may His will be done. It is always wiser, and the best. He knows better than any plans we might make! I truly believe that, even though it is proper and natural for each of us to make our plans for the future. What is important is not to hold on to them too tightly, to allow God to alter them and not be unduly upset by such a surprising reversal.
Anyway, the one who died was an Indian Jesuit, someone who had served in Eastern Africa for over 30 years. He was terribly overweight, had to get around with an electric cart and sometimes with metal arm crutches. A little over a week ago He had gone to the food counter for something toward the end of our dinner time and failed to negotiate the use of one of his crutches. He fell backward and hit the back of his head hard on the tile floor in our dining room. He was taken to the Nairobi hospital where a brain scan showed he had incurred a severe concussion and that a blood mass had collected over his right eye, in the front of his brain. After two or three days of weighing options, doctors concluded surgery was unavoidable. He underwent surgery about three days ago, became conscious for a while, spoke some jumbled words, but had a high fever. This morning he died. We will bury him in our small cemetery Sunday afternoon.
This evening I was visiting with an 89 year old Indian member of our Jesuit community (sharing some brandy and potato chips also!! Yum-yum) and he was showing me the letter of a woman friend of his who died very recently of cancer in Chicago. In the letter she spoke of the very good care she was receiving and then thanked him for the times back in the 1970s and 80s when he visited her and her family while he was fund-raising in the USA. She said so simply and so beautifully 'thank you' for the gift of his friendship and prayers over the years. It meant everything to her. I was quite moved by that simple saying and thought to myself how blessed we are when we can give such a gift to each other and also receive this gift of friendship in our own lives. There are very few things that are better or more meaningful! It made me think of so many of you who read this and have blessed me with your friendship and shared over the years faith in God's love for us. It was the main reason I wanted to write a blog posting this evening, to thank you for being a very important and meaningful part of my life!
When someone dies, it makes me think about my own life and how extraordinary is this journey, how gifted we are to be, just to be (the miracle of our existence!), and then to have the opportunity to share in the lives of so many wonderful human beings. This journey we are making together is beyond wonder, it is so, so awesome. What we are being readied for is beyond description. (Of course, that is what my book coming in March is about!)
I wish to pass on to you some reflections from something I read recently, something that is just remarkable and worth pondering. It goes like this. A person is enlighten and lifted up when someone really looks at them. This originally happened when chaos was enlightened by God looking at it (See the book of Genesis, chapter 1, verse 1.) The 'Bridegroom' casts His gaze across the face of the abyss and sprays life across it. This is what happened when God created: the universe, each element in it, each event in it and web of those events held together--all thought, all friendship, all history--are given being by the eyes of the divine Other, eyes 'communicating' being to the world. Such a creation is flamboyant in its beauty, as the Word of God, glancing kindly but wildly, 'scattering a thousand graces' and flooding the cosmos with traces of who He is.
There is a marvelous sense here of God's creative act being not just a primeval beginning, but a present event. The event is as gentle, in a sense as precarious, but also as loving as the gaze of one who cares.
There is a marvelous sense too that the universe has a character to it. When God the Father gazes, He gazes through His Son. The Son is His face, smiling upon the world. "God saw that they were good," which was to make them good by 'seeing them' in His Son. Creation has a Son-like color, a Son-like shape which the Son alone could fill.
So the Son does undertake to fill us. His eyes not only hold us in being; they hold us in friendship, a friendship made possible when He meets us with human eyes. Humanity is enlightened when the Son becomes flesh, looks at us, draws us out of ourselves, and raises us up to Himself. In this the whole cosmos is renewed.
This He did when He became human, lifting us up into the beauty of God, and so lifting up all creatures in Him . . . In this raising up in the Son's incarnation and in the glory of His resurrection according to the flesh, the Father gave us creatures not just as partial beauty; we can say that He entirely clothed all creation in beauty and dignity.
God's gaze, then, clothes the world in beauty and joy; that is what happened in the event of Christ, born and risen, confirming the universe in what it is meant to be. From this perspective we wake up to who we really are! When we get in touch with how deep and personal that love is for us, then we know who we are and we have a sense of purpose in our life like never before. We want to live, we are delighted to be alive, and we want to be part of all that is. We want to do something lasting with our life. In other words, love has to give itself away. If we realize we are loved, we want to love back. And if we note that we have been and are being loved by a love that is cosmic or infinite, then we have to--in fact, we want to-- love back with an infinite, limitless love. We gaze upon the Beloved like we were first gazed upon and we look at our loved ones like we were first seen with love. This is what the best of friendships open us up to. This is what death cannot destroy. This is what is forever. It is a taste of eternal life. I hope you are able to relate to what I am talking about. Friendships in God are forever. Death ends our life here on earth but real friendship lasts forever.
I find this so meaningful and uplifting, giving hope.
I need to go to bed. Goodnite!
Bernie Owens
It is Friday evening here and I am in the mood to write a new letter.
First, a bit of news on our Jesuit community. Today one of our members died. He was 76 years old, 11 months older than me. That makes me think twice! Yes, some of my contemporaries are done with their time on this earth! I feel I have so much more to do, things I need to finish before my time to leave comes! God might see things differently!!!!! May His will be done, always may His will be done. It is always wiser, and the best. He knows better than any plans we might make! I truly believe that, even though it is proper and natural for each of us to make our plans for the future. What is important is not to hold on to them too tightly, to allow God to alter them and not be unduly upset by such a surprising reversal.
Anyway, the one who died was an Indian Jesuit, someone who had served in Eastern Africa for over 30 years. He was terribly overweight, had to get around with an electric cart and sometimes with metal arm crutches. A little over a week ago He had gone to the food counter for something toward the end of our dinner time and failed to negotiate the use of one of his crutches. He fell backward and hit the back of his head hard on the tile floor in our dining room. He was taken to the Nairobi hospital where a brain scan showed he had incurred a severe concussion and that a blood mass had collected over his right eye, in the front of his brain. After two or three days of weighing options, doctors concluded surgery was unavoidable. He underwent surgery about three days ago, became conscious for a while, spoke some jumbled words, but had a high fever. This morning he died. We will bury him in our small cemetery Sunday afternoon.
This evening I was visiting with an 89 year old Indian member of our Jesuit community (sharing some brandy and potato chips also!! Yum-yum) and he was showing me the letter of a woman friend of his who died very recently of cancer in Chicago. In the letter she spoke of the very good care she was receiving and then thanked him for the times back in the 1970s and 80s when he visited her and her family while he was fund-raising in the USA. She said so simply and so beautifully 'thank you' for the gift of his friendship and prayers over the years. It meant everything to her. I was quite moved by that simple saying and thought to myself how blessed we are when we can give such a gift to each other and also receive this gift of friendship in our own lives. There are very few things that are better or more meaningful! It made me think of so many of you who read this and have blessed me with your friendship and shared over the years faith in God's love for us. It was the main reason I wanted to write a blog posting this evening, to thank you for being a very important and meaningful part of my life!
When someone dies, it makes me think about my own life and how extraordinary is this journey, how gifted we are to be, just to be (the miracle of our existence!), and then to have the opportunity to share in the lives of so many wonderful human beings. This journey we are making together is beyond wonder, it is so, so awesome. What we are being readied for is beyond description. (Of course, that is what my book coming in March is about!)
I wish to pass on to you some reflections from something I read recently, something that is just remarkable and worth pondering. It goes like this. A person is enlighten and lifted up when someone really looks at them. This originally happened when chaos was enlightened by God looking at it (See the book of Genesis, chapter 1, verse 1.) The 'Bridegroom' casts His gaze across the face of the abyss and sprays life across it. This is what happened when God created: the universe, each element in it, each event in it and web of those events held together--all thought, all friendship, all history--are given being by the eyes of the divine Other, eyes 'communicating' being to the world. Such a creation is flamboyant in its beauty, as the Word of God, glancing kindly but wildly, 'scattering a thousand graces' and flooding the cosmos with traces of who He is.
There is a marvelous sense here of God's creative act being not just a primeval beginning, but a present event. The event is as gentle, in a sense as precarious, but also as loving as the gaze of one who cares.
There is a marvelous sense too that the universe has a character to it. When God the Father gazes, He gazes through His Son. The Son is His face, smiling upon the world. "God saw that they were good," which was to make them good by 'seeing them' in His Son. Creation has a Son-like color, a Son-like shape which the Son alone could fill.
So the Son does undertake to fill us. His eyes not only hold us in being; they hold us in friendship, a friendship made possible when He meets us with human eyes. Humanity is enlightened when the Son becomes flesh, looks at us, draws us out of ourselves, and raises us up to Himself. In this the whole cosmos is renewed.
This He did when He became human, lifting us up into the beauty of God, and so lifting up all creatures in Him . . . In this raising up in the Son's incarnation and in the glory of His resurrection according to the flesh, the Father gave us creatures not just as partial beauty; we can say that He entirely clothed all creation in beauty and dignity.
God's gaze, then, clothes the world in beauty and joy; that is what happened in the event of Christ, born and risen, confirming the universe in what it is meant to be. From this perspective we wake up to who we really are! When we get in touch with how deep and personal that love is for us, then we know who we are and we have a sense of purpose in our life like never before. We want to live, we are delighted to be alive, and we want to be part of all that is. We want to do something lasting with our life. In other words, love has to give itself away. If we realize we are loved, we want to love back. And if we note that we have been and are being loved by a love that is cosmic or infinite, then we have to--in fact, we want to-- love back with an infinite, limitless love. We gaze upon the Beloved like we were first gazed upon and we look at our loved ones like we were first seen with love. This is what the best of friendships open us up to. This is what death cannot destroy. This is what is forever. It is a taste of eternal life. I hope you are able to relate to what I am talking about. Friendships in God are forever. Death ends our life here on earth but real friendship lasts forever.
I find this so meaningful and uplifting, giving hope.
I need to go to bed. Goodnite!
Bernie Owens
Monday, October 20, 2014
Dear Friends,
Today here has been a national holiday called Heroes Day. No work. Schools, businesses, banks are closed. No mail. It honors the military personnel who died in serving and defending this young nation of 51 years. Even the national anthem was sung at the end of today's mass! I must say, the American national anthem is much more melodic and memorable.
Last Friday night-Saturday early morning it rained big time non stop for about 8 hours. It just POURED all night long till dawn! The ground is still muddy. Since then we have had various millipedes coming under our bedroom doors, hairless, ugly slugs, huge in size crawling along sidewalks and even on the sides of walls, also land snails of huge, huge size showing themselves from under their shells. A few of the flying termites too. Ha,ha. Welcome to Africa where so much is big and bigger!
During the last few days a monkey from the nearby primate park has been visiting us and wanting to steal bread crumbs put out for the birds, also looking to pilfer some papayas from our trees. This afternoon the monkey got into our Jesuit dining room and stole a banana. No real damage but it emphasizes now that we have to close the door to our dining room. I saw the critter climb a tree late this morning and jump from one tree to the next and to the next. When I first saw him I thought he was a bobcat running like a steak. But I soon spotted it climbing a nearby tree and then I could easily see it was a monkey. It has an interesting beard on its face! He is cute and wily. I am glad I am no longer into trying to raise vegetables and then having to defend what I am growing from this hairy thief! Raising roses and other flowers is much less problematical!
In these last few days I have felt so much better, more rested and energy restored. It is so important for me to get vigorous physical exercises every so often, the type of exercise that gets my heart rate up, makes my breathing deep, and gets me sweating. I have done this faithfully for a number of days in a row along with extra sleep and it has paid off big time. How this changes my attitude!! Just extra sleep is not enough. Also, the chiropractor has given me some back exercises to do and that is helping significantly. The masseuse told me to get my billfold out of my back pocket since it upsets the balance of my pelvis; so I put it in a front pocket. I can already feel the difference. Duhhhh!!!
I am sorry to see that the Tigers exited the playoffs so quickly,without winning one game. Really, though, I am not surprised at their early demise. I expected such, given all their problems--especially their relief pitching core-- and it happened. ( I am expecting the Giants to win the series in five game, six at most.) The Lions' win last Sunday was a steal, a great surprise. I went to bed with them trailing 10-3 at the half and after breakfast turned on my computer expecting to hear about their losing. But, I was delighted to see that they had won it is great style in the final four minutes of the game. Exciting football! I was sorry to see Notre Dame lose over the weekend by such a bare margin and to the #1 nationally ranked team. A questionable referee's call at the end left all ND fans upset.
I want to take some pictures of the spring like flowering going on now with trees and plants. There are some stunningly beautiful flowers around here, and then the jacaranda trees. I cannot get over their beauty.
There has been significant excitement here among us Jesuits about the two-week synod that just finished in Rome. Its process was a first of its kind in Catholic church circles. And the position paper they came up with, to be debated and reflected on for the next 12 months before next year's follow-up synod, should be something to read. I have not seen it yet.
I need to go. I am supposed to receive this week or next week the final edited form of the text of my book. I want to get this project over! I am already receiving a number of inspirations for a second book, something I vowed I would never do! But, the taste is now there in my gut and good ideas and insights are percolating. I jot them down and am preparing all kinds of things to say about the depths of God and the depths of the human person, one the mirror of the other.
God bless!
Bernie owens
Today here has been a national holiday called Heroes Day. No work. Schools, businesses, banks are closed. No mail. It honors the military personnel who died in serving and defending this young nation of 51 years. Even the national anthem was sung at the end of today's mass! I must say, the American national anthem is much more melodic and memorable.
Last Friday night-Saturday early morning it rained big time non stop for about 8 hours. It just POURED all night long till dawn! The ground is still muddy. Since then we have had various millipedes coming under our bedroom doors, hairless, ugly slugs, huge in size crawling along sidewalks and even on the sides of walls, also land snails of huge, huge size showing themselves from under their shells. A few of the flying termites too. Ha,ha. Welcome to Africa where so much is big and bigger!
During the last few days a monkey from the nearby primate park has been visiting us and wanting to steal bread crumbs put out for the birds, also looking to pilfer some papayas from our trees. This afternoon the monkey got into our Jesuit dining room and stole a banana. No real damage but it emphasizes now that we have to close the door to our dining room. I saw the critter climb a tree late this morning and jump from one tree to the next and to the next. When I first saw him I thought he was a bobcat running like a steak. But I soon spotted it climbing a nearby tree and then I could easily see it was a monkey. It has an interesting beard on its face! He is cute and wily. I am glad I am no longer into trying to raise vegetables and then having to defend what I am growing from this hairy thief! Raising roses and other flowers is much less problematical!
In these last few days I have felt so much better, more rested and energy restored. It is so important for me to get vigorous physical exercises every so often, the type of exercise that gets my heart rate up, makes my breathing deep, and gets me sweating. I have done this faithfully for a number of days in a row along with extra sleep and it has paid off big time. How this changes my attitude!! Just extra sleep is not enough. Also, the chiropractor has given me some back exercises to do and that is helping significantly. The masseuse told me to get my billfold out of my back pocket since it upsets the balance of my pelvis; so I put it in a front pocket. I can already feel the difference. Duhhhh!!!
I am sorry to see that the Tigers exited the playoffs so quickly,without winning one game. Really, though, I am not surprised at their early demise. I expected such, given all their problems--especially their relief pitching core-- and it happened. ( I am expecting the Giants to win the series in five game, six at most.) The Lions' win last Sunday was a steal, a great surprise. I went to bed with them trailing 10-3 at the half and after breakfast turned on my computer expecting to hear about their losing. But, I was delighted to see that they had won it is great style in the final four minutes of the game. Exciting football! I was sorry to see Notre Dame lose over the weekend by such a bare margin and to the #1 nationally ranked team. A questionable referee's call at the end left all ND fans upset.
I want to take some pictures of the spring like flowering going on now with trees and plants. There are some stunningly beautiful flowers around here, and then the jacaranda trees. I cannot get over their beauty.
There has been significant excitement here among us Jesuits about the two-week synod that just finished in Rome. Its process was a first of its kind in Catholic church circles. And the position paper they came up with, to be debated and reflected on for the next 12 months before next year's follow-up synod, should be something to read. I have not seen it yet.
I need to go. I am supposed to receive this week or next week the final edited form of the text of my book. I want to get this project over! I am already receiving a number of inspirations for a second book, something I vowed I would never do! But, the taste is now there in my gut and good ideas and insights are percolating. I jot them down and am preparing all kinds of things to say about the depths of God and the depths of the human person, one the mirror of the other.
God bless!
Bernie owens
Sunday, October 12, 2014
Dear Friends,
Here it is Sunday evening again. The week has gone quickly and I have used it to get a lot of rest. I have been sleeping on an average of 10 hours a day and feel largely recovered from all the heavy, relentless work of the previous two and three weeks. But I still have low, low energy in the mornings. Too much sleep? I don't know. I am a little confused about my body needs right now. What is clear is that I am much better off than I was even a week ago, much more rested in my nerves. When I have to get up and lead a class, like yesterday, for three hours, I do well. I am my old self and love the interaction with the students. So, as I said, I don't know how to read my body right now.
For three weeks I have had a bone in my lumbar area out of place and it makes me limp some. I went to a local chiropracter and had two terrific, deep muscle massages to loosen up the back and then one attempt at an adjustment of the bones in my lumbar area but it did not take. I need to go back during this week. This pinch or dislocation leaves me with some mild sciatica down the right leg. It is a bummer.
My work with the flowers continues to give me delight. Wow, I look at the roses I am caring for and see more and more beauty in them. It is very satisfying to spend time on this, just to cultivate something so beautiful as these plants and see them come alive with healthy leaves and abundant blossoms and pour out beauty upon beauty upon beauty. This is in both the front of the main building of the retreat center and also in the back. In the front I planted two dozen marigold plants to complete a long border in the front of the retreat house. The border is now full of great color from low growing flowers of much variety and then very pleasant on the eyes as you enter the main building.
Our afternoons are getting hot. Clear skies and the African sun with its very direct rays beating down can really warm you up. Thank God for low humidity!. I cover up a lot (wide-brim hat and long sleeve shirt) when I work out in the area of the flowers in the front and the back of the retreat house main building; I use sun screen also on my ears, face, and on the back of my neck.
Some of you have emailed me about the ebola scare and expressed worry for me. I must say I almost never think of it. It is so far away from here, like San Francisco would be from Detroit. I do pray each morning that the angels of God protects us all here from both disease and any violence.
I am finishing up this week with my course on Teresa of Avila's "The Interior Castle." Two Wednesdays from this coming Wednesday is the final exam. Leading the 11 seminarians through that classic and a very good commentary on it has left me with a renewed sense of awe at what God is leading us all to, in this life and finishing up in the next life. It is not easy to get people to learn to be quiet with God in sustained, regular ways and to allow God to initiate new possibilities, new way of living and praying in their lives. Most people don't seem to "get it", are not disciplined enough to let God in to themselves that much. Many have no teacher to show them the way and to cheer them on. But even with these limits, to read a book of this greatness gives you the reader a hint of the greatness, the awesome depths that are there in us waiting to be uncovered and claimed by us. We are much, much more than we seem! The busyness of daily life and its mundane, often very superficial happenings hide all of this from us, almost all of the time but not in every moment. Sometimes we do get hints, little flashes of this glory we are made for and, like the woman at the well, thirst for.
This morning at prayer something of this hit me strongly. The wounds of the risen Christ are beyond description in terms of the love and beauty and goodness of God contained therein. Is this what the doubting Thomas encountered when he put his finger into the open side of the risen Christ?? I have heard it said that we will all be saved by beauty. (this is said in a novel by Dostoevsky and Pope Benedict liked to cite it a number of times.) I mus say that there is an indescribable beauty in the wounds of Christ for any of us to see and be held by if we look there with love and gratitude. There is no greater beauty than the gift of someone totally, totally given to another. In this encounter one has the opportunity to see and be taken into a love that is more complete and more poured out in selfless care in this place of His Heart, with its open side, than in any other gesture of love ever. I have never before encountered anything so beautiful, so moving as this gift. Nothing comes close to its beauty and goodness. Nothing is so totally given, so noble, so worthy of response and love. Just to be there with no sense of time going by, just looking and being held by it all--no words can describe this!! How do you respond, especially when you open to the fact that this is all given for you, for me? It is so personal and so very powerful.
I need to get off to bed. I am up early tomorrow to go to St. Aloysius High School to process the prayer of this last week of six members of the school's faculty. They are preparing to begin the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius next January.
May your week be blessed. Enjoy the autumn color. I miss it, although there is so much beauty in nature here. Again, the jacaranda trees are in their purple glory right now, full of blossoms all over their branches. Next to the crimson bougenvilla (spelling??) blossoms, they light up the surroundings here!
Bernie Owens
Here it is Sunday evening again. The week has gone quickly and I have used it to get a lot of rest. I have been sleeping on an average of 10 hours a day and feel largely recovered from all the heavy, relentless work of the previous two and three weeks. But I still have low, low energy in the mornings. Too much sleep? I don't know. I am a little confused about my body needs right now. What is clear is that I am much better off than I was even a week ago, much more rested in my nerves. When I have to get up and lead a class, like yesterday, for three hours, I do well. I am my old self and love the interaction with the students. So, as I said, I don't know how to read my body right now.
For three weeks I have had a bone in my lumbar area out of place and it makes me limp some. I went to a local chiropracter and had two terrific, deep muscle massages to loosen up the back and then one attempt at an adjustment of the bones in my lumbar area but it did not take. I need to go back during this week. This pinch or dislocation leaves me with some mild sciatica down the right leg. It is a bummer.
My work with the flowers continues to give me delight. Wow, I look at the roses I am caring for and see more and more beauty in them. It is very satisfying to spend time on this, just to cultivate something so beautiful as these plants and see them come alive with healthy leaves and abundant blossoms and pour out beauty upon beauty upon beauty. This is in both the front of the main building of the retreat center and also in the back. In the front I planted two dozen marigold plants to complete a long border in the front of the retreat house. The border is now full of great color from low growing flowers of much variety and then very pleasant on the eyes as you enter the main building.
Our afternoons are getting hot. Clear skies and the African sun with its very direct rays beating down can really warm you up. Thank God for low humidity!. I cover up a lot (wide-brim hat and long sleeve shirt) when I work out in the area of the flowers in the front and the back of the retreat house main building; I use sun screen also on my ears, face, and on the back of my neck.
Some of you have emailed me about the ebola scare and expressed worry for me. I must say I almost never think of it. It is so far away from here, like San Francisco would be from Detroit. I do pray each morning that the angels of God protects us all here from both disease and any violence.
I am finishing up this week with my course on Teresa of Avila's "The Interior Castle." Two Wednesdays from this coming Wednesday is the final exam. Leading the 11 seminarians through that classic and a very good commentary on it has left me with a renewed sense of awe at what God is leading us all to, in this life and finishing up in the next life. It is not easy to get people to learn to be quiet with God in sustained, regular ways and to allow God to initiate new possibilities, new way of living and praying in their lives. Most people don't seem to "get it", are not disciplined enough to let God in to themselves that much. Many have no teacher to show them the way and to cheer them on. But even with these limits, to read a book of this greatness gives you the reader a hint of the greatness, the awesome depths that are there in us waiting to be uncovered and claimed by us. We are much, much more than we seem! The busyness of daily life and its mundane, often very superficial happenings hide all of this from us, almost all of the time but not in every moment. Sometimes we do get hints, little flashes of this glory we are made for and, like the woman at the well, thirst for.
This morning at prayer something of this hit me strongly. The wounds of the risen Christ are beyond description in terms of the love and beauty and goodness of God contained therein. Is this what the doubting Thomas encountered when he put his finger into the open side of the risen Christ?? I have heard it said that we will all be saved by beauty. (this is said in a novel by Dostoevsky and Pope Benedict liked to cite it a number of times.) I mus say that there is an indescribable beauty in the wounds of Christ for any of us to see and be held by if we look there with love and gratitude. There is no greater beauty than the gift of someone totally, totally given to another. In this encounter one has the opportunity to see and be taken into a love that is more complete and more poured out in selfless care in this place of His Heart, with its open side, than in any other gesture of love ever. I have never before encountered anything so beautiful, so moving as this gift. Nothing comes close to its beauty and goodness. Nothing is so totally given, so noble, so worthy of response and love. Just to be there with no sense of time going by, just looking and being held by it all--no words can describe this!! How do you respond, especially when you open to the fact that this is all given for you, for me? It is so personal and so very powerful.
I need to get off to bed. I am up early tomorrow to go to St. Aloysius High School to process the prayer of this last week of six members of the school's faculty. They are preparing to begin the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius next January.
May your week be blessed. Enjoy the autumn color. I miss it, although there is so much beauty in nature here. Again, the jacaranda trees are in their purple glory right now, full of blossoms all over their branches. Next to the crimson bougenvilla (spelling??) blossoms, they light up the surroundings here!
Bernie Owens
Monday, October 6, 2014
Dear Friends,
It is Monday evening here, October 6. We have a very impressive full moon in the sky and a big ring around it, which usually means rain is imminent. We will take it!
I spent the morning on the computer, reading about the Tigers and Lions in their major failures, and then after feeling I had had enough of that, I wandered the grounds of our retreat center on what was a beautiful morning to admire the jakaranda trees in bloom while they are dropping their little purple bell-shaped blossoms on the ground and often forming a carpet of purple that is just so lovely, so really delicate in its beauty. This afternoon I donned my farmer clothes and worked nearly three hours on my roses. They are turning out to be something quite impressive. I just love to do this because when working in the dirt I get a complete mental break from my usual work. My mind is completely on weeding, digging, applying the food for the roots, trimming with my clippers, etc. I sweat and enjoy the creativity of it all, while working with the elements (bone meal and composted cow manure) to put them around the roots of the roses and then add lots of water. I loosen the soil, pull out weeds or grass that has grown in close and compete with the rose for its nutrition. The variety of colors in the blossoms I am getting makes it a delight to observe. Almost every day I make sure to walk by this plot just to enjoy and admire. The vines I planted some weeks ago are climbing relentlessly up a wooden pole and will someday put out yellow and orange flowers, little ones, and form like a lit-up torch.
Up to about 5 day ago I was feeling so exhausted and not sleeping well nor enough. I have been working on a very packed schedule for the last 2-3 weeks with not enough space between the end of one task and the start of the next one. I have asked not to guide retreatants for our next round (October 7-16) and so I will be operating at a much reduced work load for almost the next two weeks. In the meantime I have been getting caught up on my sleep, napping sometimes--which I almost never do--and then doing what I did this afternoon: work in the dirt with the roses or sometimes I work out on a treadmill and a stationery bike. I should sleep well tonight!!
Last week I finally secured my driver's license. At the same time I finally got my entry visa card, a permanent card that makes me officially legal in this nation. I can now leave Kenya and be sure I can get back in without any trouble.
I get a haircut at a local shop for about $3.50. The local barbers are so used to cutting wiry hair for black Kenyans. So when a white man comes in with straight hair, they have to really shift in their methods. What do you expect for $3.50?? Whatever is done, it can always grow out; nature can correct mistakes! I usually tip the barber another 85 cents (100 shillings). I have yet to be hacked or chopped. So far I have not been made into an embarrassment in public!!
I am following closely and praying a lot for the synod of bishops meeting in Rome for the next two weeks. It has huge, huge implications for the way church leaders conduct a synod or council (dialogic, collegial, and empowered to make decisions) as well as on its central theme: marriage and the family. This year's two week meeting will prepare for another two week followup meeting a year from now.
I am starting to fade away, even though it is only 8:30 PM. I have to get up at 6 AM tomorrow to go to a nearby high school where I am guiding six faculty members in how to pray with certain passages of the bible I have given them. They are all doing well, which makes my travel time and energy given to guiding them worth it.
Take care.
Bernie Owens
It is Monday evening here, October 6. We have a very impressive full moon in the sky and a big ring around it, which usually means rain is imminent. We will take it!
I spent the morning on the computer, reading about the Tigers and Lions in their major failures, and then after feeling I had had enough of that, I wandered the grounds of our retreat center on what was a beautiful morning to admire the jakaranda trees in bloom while they are dropping their little purple bell-shaped blossoms on the ground and often forming a carpet of purple that is just so lovely, so really delicate in its beauty. This afternoon I donned my farmer clothes and worked nearly three hours on my roses. They are turning out to be something quite impressive. I just love to do this because when working in the dirt I get a complete mental break from my usual work. My mind is completely on weeding, digging, applying the food for the roots, trimming with my clippers, etc. I sweat and enjoy the creativity of it all, while working with the elements (bone meal and composted cow manure) to put them around the roots of the roses and then add lots of water. I loosen the soil, pull out weeds or grass that has grown in close and compete with the rose for its nutrition. The variety of colors in the blossoms I am getting makes it a delight to observe. Almost every day I make sure to walk by this plot just to enjoy and admire. The vines I planted some weeks ago are climbing relentlessly up a wooden pole and will someday put out yellow and orange flowers, little ones, and form like a lit-up torch.
Up to about 5 day ago I was feeling so exhausted and not sleeping well nor enough. I have been working on a very packed schedule for the last 2-3 weeks with not enough space between the end of one task and the start of the next one. I have asked not to guide retreatants for our next round (October 7-16) and so I will be operating at a much reduced work load for almost the next two weeks. In the meantime I have been getting caught up on my sleep, napping sometimes--which I almost never do--and then doing what I did this afternoon: work in the dirt with the roses or sometimes I work out on a treadmill and a stationery bike. I should sleep well tonight!!
Last week I finally secured my driver's license. At the same time I finally got my entry visa card, a permanent card that makes me officially legal in this nation. I can now leave Kenya and be sure I can get back in without any trouble.
I get a haircut at a local shop for about $3.50. The local barbers are so used to cutting wiry hair for black Kenyans. So when a white man comes in with straight hair, they have to really shift in their methods. What do you expect for $3.50?? Whatever is done, it can always grow out; nature can correct mistakes! I usually tip the barber another 85 cents (100 shillings). I have yet to be hacked or chopped. So far I have not been made into an embarrassment in public!!
I am following closely and praying a lot for the synod of bishops meeting in Rome for the next two weeks. It has huge, huge implications for the way church leaders conduct a synod or council (dialogic, collegial, and empowered to make decisions) as well as on its central theme: marriage and the family. This year's two week meeting will prepare for another two week followup meeting a year from now.
I am starting to fade away, even though it is only 8:30 PM. I have to get up at 6 AM tomorrow to go to a nearby high school where I am guiding six faculty members in how to pray with certain passages of the bible I have given them. They are all doing well, which makes my travel time and energy given to guiding them worth it.
Take care.
Bernie Owens
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Dear Friends,
It has been awhile since I have posted anything here. I have been so busy and then had a little sickness in the last two days but am feeling much better since this afternoon.
What do I tell you about? First, I really enjoy the course I am leading at the Jesuit seminary every Wednesday AM. I have 11 seminarians for it, four who are from India and 7 from nations in Africa (Ghana, Zambia and Uganda--no Kenyans!) They are all about 30 years old. I got accustomed at Manresa to a much wider experience in the students who came to the reading courses I led there, so I have had to shift. Still, I enjoy them a lot and their interest. They have a lot of questions and their questions reflect less life experience than what I had at Manresa. We are reading through St Teresa of Avila's "The Interior Castle", a masterpiece in presenting some of the most exciting things God can and will do in people who really want God to be God in their lives, who learn to surrender and let God lead in their life, and are faithful to daily contemplative prayer. If only more people knew about this and would commit themselves to this being part of their daily living!! The joy in it is deeper than any other joy or happiness that can be known in this life. Sometimes it is rather difficult getting to that place, the cross in it all.
Then the batch of four retreatants I am guiding now. There is one who is astounding in her experience of God, just so moving. It is all I can do not to burst out in tears during our sessions, (I do so after she leaves!) part of it because this person is touching on some of my own very deep longings for God. I even recognize in her experience some of what I have been reading in some of the more advanced stages of the spiritual journey described in the "The Interior Castle". It is like I know just what needs to be said to her since I just finished reading Teresa's advice for such situations. There are times when I leave these conversations and sense that I have been blessed to touch on the Source of all reality, the deepest and most beautiful part of life, and that we all are living most times at a rather superficial level, oblivious to what is truly in our depths, of what we are being prepared for, of how stupid are many of our values or what a waste there is in how we spend our time so often. It precipitates the question: "what is really the Real?" There is so much that is really, really empty! And it sells well, economies depend a lot on its being well marketed.
I came here almost 13 months ago. In that time I have guided 88 people in retreats, the vast majority of them for 8 days, a few for 5 or 6. Then I led a retreat in July when I gave talks, two talks a day over 8 days, to 17 others. I am amazed that I have done this much: 105 people!
Oh, yes, my roses. They give me balance from all of this listening to so many people on retreats! You should see them, the roses that is, not the people! I am now getting wonderful results from the bone meal and composted cow manure I feed them. Generous amounts of water too! The leaves are so healthy and now that the temperatures are getting warmer, the blossoms are coming. I have three bushes whose blossoms are pink but not pink-pink There is a touch of orange in the the blossoms, almost like a peach tone that gives an off-tone of pink. Just out of this world! Then I have put up two poles on opposite ends of the rose garden, about 11-12 feet tall, and planted vines from seedlings at the bottom of each pole. This plant gives off clusters of small blossoms of orange and yellow. Right now the vines are beginning to wrap themselves around the poles and climb. Someday, in 3-4 weeks, I hope the poles will be loaded with clusters of these blossoms and make them like a torch on fire.
Two-three weeks ago I made a major decision on a proposed pilgrimage to Italy I had hoped to lead. I cancelled the effort because I thought the price was just too high and many who would want to come would decide not to come because of the cost. I think the problem was the time of the year (June) when airfare and hotels are the most expensive. Right now I am exploring the possibility of a pilgrimage to Italy during late October or early November of 2015. I want to make it rather Franciscan in spirit, and also have some good times in Venice, Padua, Florence, and Rome. I should know in the next month at most whether this attempt will go or not.
I need to go. God bless. As you move into autumn, we are moving into warmer temps after some really cold days in July and August. Thank God those days and temps are over for a good long time.
Bernie Owens
It has been awhile since I have posted anything here. I have been so busy and then had a little sickness in the last two days but am feeling much better since this afternoon.
What do I tell you about? First, I really enjoy the course I am leading at the Jesuit seminary every Wednesday AM. I have 11 seminarians for it, four who are from India and 7 from nations in Africa (Ghana, Zambia and Uganda--no Kenyans!) They are all about 30 years old. I got accustomed at Manresa to a much wider experience in the students who came to the reading courses I led there, so I have had to shift. Still, I enjoy them a lot and their interest. They have a lot of questions and their questions reflect less life experience than what I had at Manresa. We are reading through St Teresa of Avila's "The Interior Castle", a masterpiece in presenting some of the most exciting things God can and will do in people who really want God to be God in their lives, who learn to surrender and let God lead in their life, and are faithful to daily contemplative prayer. If only more people knew about this and would commit themselves to this being part of their daily living!! The joy in it is deeper than any other joy or happiness that can be known in this life. Sometimes it is rather difficult getting to that place, the cross in it all.
Then the batch of four retreatants I am guiding now. There is one who is astounding in her experience of God, just so moving. It is all I can do not to burst out in tears during our sessions, (I do so after she leaves!) part of it because this person is touching on some of my own very deep longings for God. I even recognize in her experience some of what I have been reading in some of the more advanced stages of the spiritual journey described in the "The Interior Castle". It is like I know just what needs to be said to her since I just finished reading Teresa's advice for such situations. There are times when I leave these conversations and sense that I have been blessed to touch on the Source of all reality, the deepest and most beautiful part of life, and that we all are living most times at a rather superficial level, oblivious to what is truly in our depths, of what we are being prepared for, of how stupid are many of our values or what a waste there is in how we spend our time so often. It precipitates the question: "what is really the Real?" There is so much that is really, really empty! And it sells well, economies depend a lot on its being well marketed.
I came here almost 13 months ago. In that time I have guided 88 people in retreats, the vast majority of them for 8 days, a few for 5 or 6. Then I led a retreat in July when I gave talks, two talks a day over 8 days, to 17 others. I am amazed that I have done this much: 105 people!
Oh, yes, my roses. They give me balance from all of this listening to so many people on retreats! You should see them, the roses that is, not the people! I am now getting wonderful results from the bone meal and composted cow manure I feed them. Generous amounts of water too! The leaves are so healthy and now that the temperatures are getting warmer, the blossoms are coming. I have three bushes whose blossoms are pink but not pink-pink There is a touch of orange in the the blossoms, almost like a peach tone that gives an off-tone of pink. Just out of this world! Then I have put up two poles on opposite ends of the rose garden, about 11-12 feet tall, and planted vines from seedlings at the bottom of each pole. This plant gives off clusters of small blossoms of orange and yellow. Right now the vines are beginning to wrap themselves around the poles and climb. Someday, in 3-4 weeks, I hope the poles will be loaded with clusters of these blossoms and make them like a torch on fire.
Two-three weeks ago I made a major decision on a proposed pilgrimage to Italy I had hoped to lead. I cancelled the effort because I thought the price was just too high and many who would want to come would decide not to come because of the cost. I think the problem was the time of the year (June) when airfare and hotels are the most expensive. Right now I am exploring the possibility of a pilgrimage to Italy during late October or early November of 2015. I want to make it rather Franciscan in spirit, and also have some good times in Venice, Padua, Florence, and Rome. I should know in the next month at most whether this attempt will go or not.
I need to go. God bless. As you move into autumn, we are moving into warmer temps after some really cold days in July and August. Thank God those days and temps are over for a good long time.
Bernie Owens
Saturday, September 6, 2014
Dear Friends,
It is Saturday evening, September 6. The last two days have been rainy, drizzling and really cold. Ugh. Since our rooms are not heated, it has really been tough. I got out my extra blanket to add to the heavy one I already have on the bed. This afternoon we saw the sun briefly and the temps went up to a comfortable high 60s or so. The almost full moon is visible tonite since the clouds cleared. I can't wait for spring to begin (September 22) and summer to come to us (December 21!)
Second week of classes. Two more students joined my Wednesday class. We now make twelve in all, four Indians and the rest are Africans, half are Jesuits and the other half a smattering of various congregations. All seminarians, the first group of all males I have had for any kind of academic study since 1969!
I have been feeling unusually tired lately. I slept two hours late this morning (11AM--1 PM) and feel a little more normal this evening. Still, I don't feel fully restored. One guides retreats week after week and they go right through a weekend so that you lose a sense of the rhythm of a 7-day week. After awhile it can feel like a heavy grind! Listening well is a lot of work. I am not sure many people appreciate that! On top of this I am teaching, and Monday AM I begin an 8-week prep for teachers at St. Al's High School for AIDS orphans to prepare for making the Spiritual Exercises starting next January. I hope I have not bitten off too much.
This afternoon I listened to two retreatants and one directee, all who spoke so movingly of God's indescribable, deep love. The retreatants are presently praying on the washing of the feet, on the Last Supper, and Jesus' horrible experience in the Garden of Gethsemani. I was very moved! I leave such conversations wishing I could bring each of you into the room to hear what I hear. It would very likely give us all a very different take on the world and on what is important and what to be truly concerned about. Truly, this love is unprecedented and is worth everything. It changes everything. It is "the pearl of great price." And it is what will claim us all in the end.
Well, I am really tired and I am saying "goodnite". Blessings on you and whatever you are engaged in. May it all be worthy of Him and His love for you and me.
Bernie Owens
It is Saturday evening, September 6. The last two days have been rainy, drizzling and really cold. Ugh. Since our rooms are not heated, it has really been tough. I got out my extra blanket to add to the heavy one I already have on the bed. This afternoon we saw the sun briefly and the temps went up to a comfortable high 60s or so. The almost full moon is visible tonite since the clouds cleared. I can't wait for spring to begin (September 22) and summer to come to us (December 21!)
Second week of classes. Two more students joined my Wednesday class. We now make twelve in all, four Indians and the rest are Africans, half are Jesuits and the other half a smattering of various congregations. All seminarians, the first group of all males I have had for any kind of academic study since 1969!
I have been feeling unusually tired lately. I slept two hours late this morning (11AM--1 PM) and feel a little more normal this evening. Still, I don't feel fully restored. One guides retreats week after week and they go right through a weekend so that you lose a sense of the rhythm of a 7-day week. After awhile it can feel like a heavy grind! Listening well is a lot of work. I am not sure many people appreciate that! On top of this I am teaching, and Monday AM I begin an 8-week prep for teachers at St. Al's High School for AIDS orphans to prepare for making the Spiritual Exercises starting next January. I hope I have not bitten off too much.
This afternoon I listened to two retreatants and one directee, all who spoke so movingly of God's indescribable, deep love. The retreatants are presently praying on the washing of the feet, on the Last Supper, and Jesus' horrible experience in the Garden of Gethsemani. I was very moved! I leave such conversations wishing I could bring each of you into the room to hear what I hear. It would very likely give us all a very different take on the world and on what is important and what to be truly concerned about. Truly, this love is unprecedented and is worth everything. It changes everything. It is "the pearl of great price." And it is what will claim us all in the end.
Well, I am really tired and I am saying "goodnite". Blessings on you and whatever you are engaged in. May it all be worthy of Him and His love for you and me.
Bernie Owens
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Dear Friends,
Good afternoon on this Saturday, August 30. It is 4 PM here, a time for a little slower pace and hazy, rain-threatening weather yet no rain! In two hours we Jesuits here have our weekly social. I enjoy the upbeat spirit we have among ourselves during that time. We have a spread with some wine, fruit juice or scotch to choose from; Also some great cheese, including my favorite (Bre), and some thin ham with tasty multi-grain bread, chips, also roasted peanuts (which I have "overdosed" on at times and discovered I am allergic to--very itchy, big pimples break out here and there on me!). I am feeling sleepy today, but some of this is probably because of the usual low metabolic period late in the afternoon. Once I get food I pick up in my energy.
Last Wednesday morning I met for the first time with the students I will have for the course I am leading on Teresa of Avila's classic, The Interior Castle. There are ten of them; all are seminarians in their late 20s or about 30 years old. They will be ordained priests in the next year or two years or three years. Four are from India, (all of them are Carmelites), five Jesuits, and one Pallotine. The Jesuits are from Uganda, Ghana, and Zambia. The Pallotine is from Uganda. We sit in a circle at tables of good size with plenty of room to spread out our books and notes. The class consists of two 50 minute periods, with a 20 minute break between the two sessions: 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM. Already I sense a high interest. We had some excellent 'back and forth' at the first class; also students recruited one additional student who will be joining us for the rest of the classes. the course is an elective, not a required course, so everyone who is there is there by choice. That is a great attitude to have with a class of students. There are 7 or 8 other electives students could have chosen. Only one has more students than my section has, which is a class on Teilhard de Chardin's writings and through them a sketching out of a Global Spirituality. So . . . I am delighted to finally, finally be teaching again. It will be quite different than what I have been accustomed to. At Manresa I would have 30-40 people come biweekly for a reading circle/seminar to discuss great books on spiritual themes, but there was no exam, no accountability about whether people read and studied or not. This time grades are given; and an exam comes at the end of the program, plus I am requiring them to keep a journal of their thoughts and feelings on the readings and our discussions during the course.
During afternoon before this class, I met with faculty members of Hekima college, the seminary, about the Ignatian spirituality that underlies their teaching. We are to have monthly meetings. I experienced great variations in interest. Some Jesuits were not interested in being there, but the president of the school and dean definitely wanted to be there. Four of the participants are not Jesuits, so I am right now not clear on how I am going to lead this disparate gathering. The president of the college is supposed to drive out here to talk with me this afternoon before our social and together we hopefully will find some resolution, some clearer focus.
Last Thursday, the 28th, was the feast of St. Augustine, arguably the greatest theologian in the history of the Christian church. Some Dominicans may claim St. Thomas Aquinas is the greatest. Anyway, both are great and I think more would say Augustine is #1. Anyway, I had the 5:15 PM liturgy for the retreatants that day and chose to focus during the homily on one of the great themes in Augustine's writings about what happens when teaching goes on. His contention is that in each of us is the inner teacher, this God-given light that illuminates our mind and shows all of us what is the truth in that moment, what is right. It is more than conscience but an active, dynamic Presence which as time goes on and if we pay attention, we discover it is a Person, it is Christ within guiding, enlightening, leading us in the moment and for the whole journey of our life. But we have to take the time to be quiet and look within, to seek and want to be open to being guided, to be shown what is true and good, what is beautiful if we are going to be taught and notice what is true and good and beautiful. It is a truly exciting theme and says something about how to listen and how lead others, especially in a time of teaching. What means so much to me is that there inner reality is more than just an instinct about what is right and wrong but is a Person, the inner Friend who is Truth and Goodness and will show us what is in harmony with Truth and Goodness and what is not. The more we make time and a place in our life for this Presence, the better we get at noticing and understanding this Light's guidance of us. Life becomes truly a dialogue with this inner Light and a sense that I am not alone, that I am most myself when I live in communion and seek the guidance of this inner Divine Friend. I am not an isolated individual; rather, I am part of a "we" and am my best self when listening to and making choices after consulting within with this Light.
Right now I am guiding each day five retreatants. Two are making the full 30-day retreat, three are making 8-day retreats. (One of those making an 8-day is a repeat from last year!) All are nuns in their 30s; all are African. I sometimes come away from our daily conversations (I see each one separately for usually 40-45 minutes each) just amazed at how real God is, how active God is and so I am deeply touched by how God gives to each exactly what she needs at a certain point in her walk in life. I feel immensely blessed to witness such initiatives of God and sometimes want to say to all those I know: Do you realize how close and real God is! God's presence at times is so "thick", so strong! One of those on retreat four days ago experienced a major flashback of a terribly painful, humiliating experience of some years ago, an experience she had repressed for many years. Then, bang, the memory came in a flash and she trembled but was able to regain her balance and bring it to God in prayer. She has felt since then an immense freedom and healing from what happened to her all those years ago. I feel so privileged to be allowed to witness to what is clearly God's work and how God does this in people. It seems all of us suffer to some degree with a low opinion of ourselves and doubt our lovableness. A major part of these retreats, then, is providing people with the right Scripture passages and lots of time while in silence for them to process these Scripture passages that proclaim God's personal, profound love for them, and thus to be healed of the lie they often live by, that they have been "infected" by, for so many years of their life. This may sound rather rudimentary, but I have found that all of us suffer from this to some degree or other . . . some in major ways while we "go lookin' for love in all the wrong places!" Lord, have mercy!!
I need to go. God bless each of you who reads this. I wish you whatever blessing God wants you to have at this time in your journey.
Bernie Owens
Good afternoon on this Saturday, August 30. It is 4 PM here, a time for a little slower pace and hazy, rain-threatening weather yet no rain! In two hours we Jesuits here have our weekly social. I enjoy the upbeat spirit we have among ourselves during that time. We have a spread with some wine, fruit juice or scotch to choose from; Also some great cheese, including my favorite (Bre), and some thin ham with tasty multi-grain bread, chips, also roasted peanuts (which I have "overdosed" on at times and discovered I am allergic to--very itchy, big pimples break out here and there on me!). I am feeling sleepy today, but some of this is probably because of the usual low metabolic period late in the afternoon. Once I get food I pick up in my energy.
Last Wednesday morning I met for the first time with the students I will have for the course I am leading on Teresa of Avila's classic, The Interior Castle. There are ten of them; all are seminarians in their late 20s or about 30 years old. They will be ordained priests in the next year or two years or three years. Four are from India, (all of them are Carmelites), five Jesuits, and one Pallotine. The Jesuits are from Uganda, Ghana, and Zambia. The Pallotine is from Uganda. We sit in a circle at tables of good size with plenty of room to spread out our books and notes. The class consists of two 50 minute periods, with a 20 minute break between the two sessions: 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM. Already I sense a high interest. We had some excellent 'back and forth' at the first class; also students recruited one additional student who will be joining us for the rest of the classes. the course is an elective, not a required course, so everyone who is there is there by choice. That is a great attitude to have with a class of students. There are 7 or 8 other electives students could have chosen. Only one has more students than my section has, which is a class on Teilhard de Chardin's writings and through them a sketching out of a Global Spirituality. So . . . I am delighted to finally, finally be teaching again. It will be quite different than what I have been accustomed to. At Manresa I would have 30-40 people come biweekly for a reading circle/seminar to discuss great books on spiritual themes, but there was no exam, no accountability about whether people read and studied or not. This time grades are given; and an exam comes at the end of the program, plus I am requiring them to keep a journal of their thoughts and feelings on the readings and our discussions during the course.
During afternoon before this class, I met with faculty members of Hekima college, the seminary, about the Ignatian spirituality that underlies their teaching. We are to have monthly meetings. I experienced great variations in interest. Some Jesuits were not interested in being there, but the president of the school and dean definitely wanted to be there. Four of the participants are not Jesuits, so I am right now not clear on how I am going to lead this disparate gathering. The president of the college is supposed to drive out here to talk with me this afternoon before our social and together we hopefully will find some resolution, some clearer focus.
Last Thursday, the 28th, was the feast of St. Augustine, arguably the greatest theologian in the history of the Christian church. Some Dominicans may claim St. Thomas Aquinas is the greatest. Anyway, both are great and I think more would say Augustine is #1. Anyway, I had the 5:15 PM liturgy for the retreatants that day and chose to focus during the homily on one of the great themes in Augustine's writings about what happens when teaching goes on. His contention is that in each of us is the inner teacher, this God-given light that illuminates our mind and shows all of us what is the truth in that moment, what is right. It is more than conscience but an active, dynamic Presence which as time goes on and if we pay attention, we discover it is a Person, it is Christ within guiding, enlightening, leading us in the moment and for the whole journey of our life. But we have to take the time to be quiet and look within, to seek and want to be open to being guided, to be shown what is true and good, what is beautiful if we are going to be taught and notice what is true and good and beautiful. It is a truly exciting theme and says something about how to listen and how lead others, especially in a time of teaching. What means so much to me is that there inner reality is more than just an instinct about what is right and wrong but is a Person, the inner Friend who is Truth and Goodness and will show us what is in harmony with Truth and Goodness and what is not. The more we make time and a place in our life for this Presence, the better we get at noticing and understanding this Light's guidance of us. Life becomes truly a dialogue with this inner Light and a sense that I am not alone, that I am most myself when I live in communion and seek the guidance of this inner Divine Friend. I am not an isolated individual; rather, I am part of a "we" and am my best self when listening to and making choices after consulting within with this Light.
Right now I am guiding each day five retreatants. Two are making the full 30-day retreat, three are making 8-day retreats. (One of those making an 8-day is a repeat from last year!) All are nuns in their 30s; all are African. I sometimes come away from our daily conversations (I see each one separately for usually 40-45 minutes each) just amazed at how real God is, how active God is and so I am deeply touched by how God gives to each exactly what she needs at a certain point in her walk in life. I feel immensely blessed to witness such initiatives of God and sometimes want to say to all those I know: Do you realize how close and real God is! God's presence at times is so "thick", so strong! One of those on retreat four days ago experienced a major flashback of a terribly painful, humiliating experience of some years ago, an experience she had repressed for many years. Then, bang, the memory came in a flash and she trembled but was able to regain her balance and bring it to God in prayer. She has felt since then an immense freedom and healing from what happened to her all those years ago. I feel so privileged to be allowed to witness to what is clearly God's work and how God does this in people. It seems all of us suffer to some degree with a low opinion of ourselves and doubt our lovableness. A major part of these retreats, then, is providing people with the right Scripture passages and lots of time while in silence for them to process these Scripture passages that proclaim God's personal, profound love for them, and thus to be healed of the lie they often live by, that they have been "infected" by, for so many years of their life. This may sound rather rudimentary, but I have found that all of us suffer from this to some degree or other . . . some in major ways while we "go lookin' for love in all the wrong places!" Lord, have mercy!!
I need to go. God bless each of you who reads this. I wish you whatever blessing God wants you to have at this time in your journey.
Bernie Owens
Saturday, August 23, 2014
My dear friends,
As I write this to you, I look at my watch and notice it is 8:20 PM on Saturday, August 23, almost one year to the minute when I arrived here from the airport in Nairobi and began my new life at this special place. I am just amazed. I still pinch myself at times to impress upon myself that I am not in the USA anymore but am far away, on the other side of the world and south of the equator. The birds and flowers, the view are rather different, but I must say when I listen to the souls of people who come here for retreats, I see the same issues, the same challenges and hungers. It reminds me that we are all the same when it comes to this journey called life and that we are all, every one of us, on the same essential journey to God. The color of our skin, the way we pronounce words, the customs we inherited may be different, yet the needs of our souls and the longings for God are all the same. I am profoundly moved at times by all of this. And I am more and more impressed by houw our life with God, with ourself and with others is so influenced by our bodies, by their functions and trials, by our sexuality and health needs. We are not just souls!!
I feel I am at such a special time in my life. I am now 75 years old--God, that sounds old!! But it is a terrific time to see life from this many years and have a perspective I didn't have when I was 40 or 50 years old. I love this time of my life, I love what I am being permitted to be involved in. I am feeling so creative and alive with the varied opportunities I am being asked to lead, to guide, to teach, to mentor in one-on-one situations, and then, yes, to tend to large numbers of roses, which before I had always thought were too complicated and delicate for me to give my time, too difficult to raise successfully.
Next week is one of the biggest weeks yet to come along for me. On Tuesday afternoon I meet with all of the teachersof the theology school, the Jesuit seminary (these are my new colleagues where I will be teaching) and I have been asked by the presidentof the school to lead a two and a half hour gathering to reflect on a holistic teaching method applied to their teaching situations, and then what are the values of St. Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises that inform theirteaching style and choice of content. I am honored, just amazed that I have been asked to lead such a thing, with such highly educated Jesuit teachers. I guess I have arrived!!
Then the next day I teach for the first time in 15 months, this time a weekly course for two hours on Wednesday mornings for seminarians, future Jesuitpriests,and possibly Carmelite seminarians and a few lay students. What I will be teaching is the spiritual classic by the Carmelite saint, Teresa of Avila who lived in thelate 1500s. She wrote a book that is considered one of the greatest on prayer and stages of spiritual growth. It is called The Interior Castle. The castle is her image of the human soul; in it are many rooms, seven sets of rooms that represent various stages of spiritual development and growthfor the human person. With it we will read and discuss a commentaryon Teresa's great book: It is entitled, Distractions In Prayer,Blessing or Curse?? It is such a greatbook, so insightful. Its fundamentalthesis is: when you have recurrent distractions, receive them as a gift of God if you are serious about wanting to give everythingto God and cooperate with God's healing you of the various attachments and blind spots in your life, the ways in which you resist God. Letting these come up is God's way of saying to you, "So you want to give everything to me??, Then look at this, give it to me, let go of your attachment and undue worry, your anxiety, your shame, etc and let me be your Friend and Lord even of this situation of your worry, of your attachment. Let me Lord of even this part of your soul." These conversations should be exciting. I look forward to them.
I need to go now. Our internet connection was off for three days, so I have a number of emails I still need to respond to. I wish you well and God's peace. I must say, in being here God is becoming so real to me, I guessbecause I am seeing God more and more in the people and nation round me. I am more and more convincedwe usually walk around with our eyes veiled, even blinded to the divine reality that is just the other side of this veil thatseparates us from it for now. If only more could see! It is all a gift.
Bernie Owens
(there is something aboutmy omputer that is acting up; I cannot makes spaces between some words I haveto correct, so tha is why you are seeing some words being run together!)
Friday, August 15, 2014
Dear Friends,
It is now the last hour of my birthday before I go to bed and call it a day. I want to thank anyone and everyone of you who sent me a birthday greeting. I truly appreciate it, and so many of you mentioned saying a prayer for me, which I greatly appreciate. The times of celebrations have been truly good, so enjoyable. the big gathering was last evening's dinner, preceded by a social with camembert (spelling?) cheese and Chivas Regal to sip on, even some sliced ham and multi-grain bread. I loved it. Today a friend cooked me a chocolate cake, my first one in a year, my first one since arriving in Kenya last year. It tasted really great (no icing on it however!).
I have been working diligently on preparing my classes for a weekly course at Hekima college, the Jesuit seminary in Nairobi, starting on august 27. The course focuses on Teresa of Avila's classic writing: The Interior Castle, her image for the soul of a human being. she talks about the progressive growth of the human person through rooms that go deeper and deeper, closer and closer to the center of the soul, where Christ waits to receive us. This book so fascinates me. And I have found a commentary on it that is just outstanding--in fact two commentaries, one the students must read along with Teresa's book, the other for me to digest and incorporate into the classes as we go along. I have't done any sustained teaching in over 14 months and really look forward to being back in the classroom with these future priests, all Africans. I don't know yet how many I will get. It is an elective, that is, not a required course. So I might get five people, I might get 20 people. We shall soon know.
A stunning statistic I heard on a TV news program a few days ago: In 20 years from now 4 out of every ten babies born in this world will be born in Africa of African mothers. This continent is going to be more and more prominent in the world's future. I feel honored to be here at this time to do my little part, to plant seeds of God's workings and leave behind some people trained and ready to take this great work of God to its next level of development. What stories we will tell in the next life when we look back on what God did with our lives, what God accomplished with our cooperation in the hearts and minds of the people of our times.
I need to go to bed. Please pray for the many unemployed of this nation. Work is so hard to find for many; they scrape by for their families. In some parts of this country where there has been long-term drought, people are dying from starvation. It is so tough. And South Sudan, just to the north and west of us, is so ripped up because of that endless war, so too Syria and now the peoples of Iraq, especially the Christians of Iraq. The world is really cruel in some places. It has no mercy at all for the weak, for those who are different from those who have power and want to force others to live in their way and for their privileges.
Have a blessed weekend!
Bernie Owens
It is now the last hour of my birthday before I go to bed and call it a day. I want to thank anyone and everyone of you who sent me a birthday greeting. I truly appreciate it, and so many of you mentioned saying a prayer for me, which I greatly appreciate. The times of celebrations have been truly good, so enjoyable. the big gathering was last evening's dinner, preceded by a social with camembert (spelling?) cheese and Chivas Regal to sip on, even some sliced ham and multi-grain bread. I loved it. Today a friend cooked me a chocolate cake, my first one in a year, my first one since arriving in Kenya last year. It tasted really great (no icing on it however!).
I have been working diligently on preparing my classes for a weekly course at Hekima college, the Jesuit seminary in Nairobi, starting on august 27. The course focuses on Teresa of Avila's classic writing: The Interior Castle, her image for the soul of a human being. she talks about the progressive growth of the human person through rooms that go deeper and deeper, closer and closer to the center of the soul, where Christ waits to receive us. This book so fascinates me. And I have found a commentary on it that is just outstanding--in fact two commentaries, one the students must read along with Teresa's book, the other for me to digest and incorporate into the classes as we go along. I have't done any sustained teaching in over 14 months and really look forward to being back in the classroom with these future priests, all Africans. I don't know yet how many I will get. It is an elective, that is, not a required course. So I might get five people, I might get 20 people. We shall soon know.
A stunning statistic I heard on a TV news program a few days ago: In 20 years from now 4 out of every ten babies born in this world will be born in Africa of African mothers. This continent is going to be more and more prominent in the world's future. I feel honored to be here at this time to do my little part, to plant seeds of God's workings and leave behind some people trained and ready to take this great work of God to its next level of development. What stories we will tell in the next life when we look back on what God did with our lives, what God accomplished with our cooperation in the hearts and minds of the people of our times.
I need to go to bed. Please pray for the many unemployed of this nation. Work is so hard to find for many; they scrape by for their families. In some parts of this country where there has been long-term drought, people are dying from starvation. It is so tough. And South Sudan, just to the north and west of us, is so ripped up because of that endless war, so too Syria and now the peoples of Iraq, especially the Christians of Iraq. The world is really cruel in some places. It has no mercy at all for the weak, for those who are different from those who have power and want to force others to live in their way and for their privileges.
Have a blessed weekend!
Bernie Owens
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Dear Friends,
It is Sunday evening, 8 PM here, 1 PM in Michigan. I am back into giving retreats. My vacation has come to an end. Lots of the time was spent at my computer, yes, at my computer doing some creative work for projects I am responsible for during the coming months. We had two days of sun and mild temps and then today a noticeably chilly day with a wind that made you want to duck out of the way or wear a thick jacket. The days are getting longer--wonderful, and spring cannot be too far ahead. I have been working outside on two rose beds. I am determined to make the rose bushes in those two areas a grand success. They are like my little kids. Spading, lots of bone meal, pruning, more attentive watering. Soon I wish to bring in some hay for mulch, for making the soil more loose, and then the magic: some cow manure that has aged some. Not too much lest everything turns too green and leafy but with few blossoms. Anyway, I am learning and enjoying this for my present hobby. Working in the dirt and creating something beautiful from the earth always refreshes me.
The retreatants I now am guiding are from the Congo, Kenya, Uganda, and two from Tanzania. Two men, three women. The stories I am hearing are something else. We have 48 here during this week while each of them makes an 8-day individually guided retreat.
This coming Thursday is a day of huge, huge importance for all Jesuits in the world, plus those impacted significantly by Ignatian spirituality in their lives and Christian service. Thursday will mark 200 years to the day when the Jesuits were restored as a religious order in the Catholic church. We had been legislated out of existence in 1773, three years before the Declaration of Independence of the American colonies and remained out of existence for 41 years, except in Russia. Thanks to Catherine of Russia, we were not totally wiped out. This is because the decree of abolition by the Vatican was not valid until the political authority of the nation (e.g. Catherine in Russia) co-signed and made the decree effective in their territory. Catherine had schools in Moscow and St. Petersburg which these Polish Jesuits staffed. She liked very much what they were doing, so she refused to implement this decree and wanted the Jesuits to stay and the schools be kept running.
The Polish Jesuits then served as a "beachhead" for the new Society of Jesus and our resurrection in 1814. Please join me and many others in saying 'thank you' to the Lord for His mercy and sustaining power. Otherwise, there would have been no Manresa, no internship, no revival of the Spiritual Exercises as we knew it in the 1960s and more recently. I shudder to think what my life would have become if there had no Society of Jesus. So, again, PLEASE PRAY, PLEASE SAY 'THANK YOU' TO GOD WITH ALL 18,000 JESUITS IN THE WORLD FOR THIS VERY GREAT FAVOR IN JESUIT LIFE. Thank you.
What I am working on right now is a lecture for the opening class of a weekly course I am offering starting on August 27 at the local Jesuit seminary, called Hekima College. The course is on the last and greatest book St. Teresa of Avila wrote, called "The Interior Castle." It is one of the finest presentation on stages of spiritual growth and stages of prayer in the Christian repertoire of spiritual writings. So I want in the lecture to introduce the student to something of what was going on in Spain in the 16th century when Teresa lived, something about the Inquisition that the Dominicans conducted at the request of the Spanish monarchy ( to get rid of all heresy and religious crackpots in Spain!) and the efforts of the king and queen of Spain to mine the Americas for the riches of Spain, to "purify" Spain of all foreigners, Muslims and Jews, and prevent in Spain the religious disintegration that was going on at the time with the Protestant revolt in Germany, France, Bohemia, England and Switzerland. In short, I want the student to have a beginner's feel for the times and political, ecclesial, social and religious climate of her times. Besides Teresa's book, I will have the students read a small paperback that comments on the kind of prayer and distractions a person experiences in each of the seven stages Teresa talks about. These two books, this topic should lend themselves to great discussions and should be a big eye-opener regarding the interior life for those who are committed to daily meditation/contemplation and a strong, conscious relationship with God. I have waited a year to be in a position to teach again. Now that I have myself rather well established here at the retreat center, I can venture out further with a one-course, once a week teaching commitment.
We bought a cow last week. It bleated/groaned loudly so much for its first two days here, lonely I suppose for its former environs. It is producing 15 liters of milk a day (almost 4 gallons). We are pleased.
That is all for now that I can think of. God bless. Enjoy your summer while it lasts.
Bernie Owens
It is Sunday evening, 8 PM here, 1 PM in Michigan. I am back into giving retreats. My vacation has come to an end. Lots of the time was spent at my computer, yes, at my computer doing some creative work for projects I am responsible for during the coming months. We had two days of sun and mild temps and then today a noticeably chilly day with a wind that made you want to duck out of the way or wear a thick jacket. The days are getting longer--wonderful, and spring cannot be too far ahead. I have been working outside on two rose beds. I am determined to make the rose bushes in those two areas a grand success. They are like my little kids. Spading, lots of bone meal, pruning, more attentive watering. Soon I wish to bring in some hay for mulch, for making the soil more loose, and then the magic: some cow manure that has aged some. Not too much lest everything turns too green and leafy but with few blossoms. Anyway, I am learning and enjoying this for my present hobby. Working in the dirt and creating something beautiful from the earth always refreshes me.
The retreatants I now am guiding are from the Congo, Kenya, Uganda, and two from Tanzania. Two men, three women. The stories I am hearing are something else. We have 48 here during this week while each of them makes an 8-day individually guided retreat.
This coming Thursday is a day of huge, huge importance for all Jesuits in the world, plus those impacted significantly by Ignatian spirituality in their lives and Christian service. Thursday will mark 200 years to the day when the Jesuits were restored as a religious order in the Catholic church. We had been legislated out of existence in 1773, three years before the Declaration of Independence of the American colonies and remained out of existence for 41 years, except in Russia. Thanks to Catherine of Russia, we were not totally wiped out. This is because the decree of abolition by the Vatican was not valid until the political authority of the nation (e.g. Catherine in Russia) co-signed and made the decree effective in their territory. Catherine had schools in Moscow and St. Petersburg which these Polish Jesuits staffed. She liked very much what they were doing, so she refused to implement this decree and wanted the Jesuits to stay and the schools be kept running.
The Polish Jesuits then served as a "beachhead" for the new Society of Jesus and our resurrection in 1814. Please join me and many others in saying 'thank you' to the Lord for His mercy and sustaining power. Otherwise, there would have been no Manresa, no internship, no revival of the Spiritual Exercises as we knew it in the 1960s and more recently. I shudder to think what my life would have become if there had no Society of Jesus. So, again, PLEASE PRAY, PLEASE SAY 'THANK YOU' TO GOD WITH ALL 18,000 JESUITS IN THE WORLD FOR THIS VERY GREAT FAVOR IN JESUIT LIFE. Thank you.
What I am working on right now is a lecture for the opening class of a weekly course I am offering starting on August 27 at the local Jesuit seminary, called Hekima College. The course is on the last and greatest book St. Teresa of Avila wrote, called "The Interior Castle." It is one of the finest presentation on stages of spiritual growth and stages of prayer in the Christian repertoire of spiritual writings. So I want in the lecture to introduce the student to something of what was going on in Spain in the 16th century when Teresa lived, something about the Inquisition that the Dominicans conducted at the request of the Spanish monarchy ( to get rid of all heresy and religious crackpots in Spain!) and the efforts of the king and queen of Spain to mine the Americas for the riches of Spain, to "purify" Spain of all foreigners, Muslims and Jews, and prevent in Spain the religious disintegration that was going on at the time with the Protestant revolt in Germany, France, Bohemia, England and Switzerland. In short, I want the student to have a beginner's feel for the times and political, ecclesial, social and religious climate of her times. Besides Teresa's book, I will have the students read a small paperback that comments on the kind of prayer and distractions a person experiences in each of the seven stages Teresa talks about. These two books, this topic should lend themselves to great discussions and should be a big eye-opener regarding the interior life for those who are committed to daily meditation/contemplation and a strong, conscious relationship with God. I have waited a year to be in a position to teach again. Now that I have myself rather well established here at the retreat center, I can venture out further with a one-course, once a week teaching commitment.
We bought a cow last week. It bleated/groaned loudly so much for its first two days here, lonely I suppose for its former environs. It is producing 15 liters of milk a day (almost 4 gallons). We are pleased.
That is all for now that I can think of. God bless. Enjoy your summer while it lasts.
Bernie Owens
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