Good evening, friends,

  Three hours ago, around 6 PM we received a heavy rain, the first in many weeks.  My roses love this, even after I "pailed" much water to them yesterday afternoon.  We even lost electrical power for about 1.5 hours, a not infrequent experience in this country.  We ate dinner by faint candle light!

  Well, lots to share with you.

  I had my first class for my course last Wednesday.  With about 55 students in all and eight offerings before them, six chose my option: "Prayer Beyond the Beginnings:  Moving from Meditation to Contemplation."  I have two students from southern India, one from Burundi, one from Rwanda (remember that name??), one from Uganda, and one from Zambia.  It is a wonderful mix.  We sit in a big circle and I have a chalk board behind me with much space to write on.  I gave them numerous xeroxed handouts, mostly on stages of growth in prayer and intimacy with God, then too diagrams on levels of the human soul and its various functions that operate or get sidelined, so to speak, as one progresses to deeper levels of prayer and relationship with God.  I sensed much interest.  We shall see how much real interest there is when we meet again this coming Wednesday morning and I start asking questions about what they read.

   Then yesterday we received the wonderful news that Pope Francis is coming to Kenya in the week of American Thanksgiving and will visit our Jesuit sponsored parish, St. Joseph the Worker, on Thursday the 26th, which is Thanksgiving Day in the USA.  I m sure the security efforts will be huge. When asked what he wanted to see and visit here, he said "the slums."  Our parish is for people who live in very poor circumstances.  So, I am expecting to shake hands with him, probably as one of many in a line wanting to greet him.  This will be one week after I see him in a large crowd in Rome at the Paul VI auditorium.  I will be leading about 33-35 pilgrims on a two week trip in Italy (November 7-21). On Wednesday, the 18th, we will attend his Wed. morning audience.  Even though he reads English rather poorly, I intend to give him an autographed copy of my book.  I hope to do that through the apostolic nuncio (an American priest) or his secretary, Fr. Lombardi, also a Jesuit.

  I am presently leading four retreatants, three of them for thirty days.   I see each of them up to 45 minutes a day.  One is a priest and prison chaplain whose English is very difficult to understand.  The other three are sisters, two of them members of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity (one is French, the other Kenyan). The three making the 30-day retreat are having fabulous retreats.  I am often very moved by what they tell me about what happened to them during their prayer.  God is deeply touching them and I am privileged to witness closely this holy drama.  Yesterday the three sisters were praying on the holy Family's flight from the murderous monster Herod into Egypt.  This vividly reminded one of the sisters of what happened here in Kenya during the national elections of 2007. She became quite emotional when telling these memories and recounted the many killings that happened by members of the dominant tribe (Kikuyus) toward members of the second largest tribe (the Louos).  She said people were running into the woods and highlands to survive.  Many people were being hidden in homes or bused far away.  Those who did not make it out were slashed to death by crazed people with large machette knives, and the severed heads of some victims were placed on the highways to warn others in cars not to come into their towns. ( I have twice visited the area wherer this happened--Naiviasha and Mount Longunut)  She repeated often, "All they wanted was power and dominance."  The international court in the Hague, in Holland, has been trying to prosecute some present Kenyan government leaders over these atrocities.  It is amazing how some witnesses die violently or change their stories or just disappear.  The present president has been let go by the court, but the VP is still subject to legal prosecution.  (By the way, the USA is not subject to prosecution by the world court; it never 'signed on' to that world court), even when some think some US leaders in our history deserved to stand trial!)

  It is bedtime.  I need to get my 8 hours of sleep or I end up dragging myself through the next day!  I will be up at 6:15 AM.  Got to go.

Bernie Owens