Dear Friends, It is now Sunday evening here, November 6. I just finished leading a weekend retreat, a very different kind of retreat than what I usually lead. This is more like the retreat format at Manresa near Detroit in that I give talks, five of them over the weekend, but also I am the only one available to see retreatants for one-on-one conversations, and then I lead half hour group meditations, in this case, contemplative meditations which are much deeper than any other kind of prayer. One of these on Friday evening, five on Saturday, and two on Sunday morning. We finished with a 1 PM midday meal. I am tired but it is a good sense of tired. I will sleep well tonite! I had a stout beer with dinner this evening; it was a time to celebrate a little. Given the work I do, I hear some hair-raising stories at times. I will say from my hearing women admit to having had an abortion and how that memory lingers with them and haunts them in many cases, I don't see how having an abortion can truthfully be called an instance of "health care", unless it is a procedure done to save the mother's life. Even then, there is deep grief that the mother experiences, sadness over having to do what she is doing to save her life. I hear too many women being damaged psychologically and spiritually by having consented to this procedure for reasons other than to save their lives. Women who shrug off having had one and deny any spiritual damage from it were never close to God or spiritually sensitive to begin with. The other cause for concern I hear about here in Kenya is the widespread involvement with witchcraft and the dabbling in other forms of the occult. This very scary danger is widespread among high school and college age students. The high schools have been infected by people trying to make a lot of money and appeal to naive, vulnerable students to get involved in these rituals. Why you may ask would they do such? It seems that this involvement promises power over others you are angry with or want to hurt or control; also it is a way for becoming financially very successful. In Kenya there is a strong desire to get rich, to enjoy much prestige through wealth and status. Tribalism affects this kind of thinking, makes for greed and envy, also the desire to be powerful through wealth and then to have power over one's enemies through witchcraft. It may seem bizarre and far-fetched to you, my reader, but I will tell you without a doubt, I have witnessed this phenomenon myself, yes in the USA, and I know there are cases of powerful manifestations of evil powers and spirits that are very controlling and dangerous when a person opens the door of their heart to them and gives over power to them. This is very sinful in that it insults God by saying, "You, God, are not enough to guide me or provide for me. I am going to something else that will deliver to me the results I want (money, status, control, revenge, knowledge of someone in the hereafter, etc)." But when a person does such, all hell breaks loose in their lives or in the lives of their children or family. In some cases certain dabblers curse someone else and the impact on the one cursed is very, very dangerous and the one who issues the curse is in deep spiritual trouble, usually for the rest of their lives. I know of curses that affect more than one generation but two or three, and many members of the family tree. Too often certain people will brush away such stories as run-away fear easily explainable by psychological categories. Religious hysteria can indeed by explained sometimes by psychology. I am saying, however, that I know from experience that sometimes what is going on is NOT explainable by psychology but is truly a scary disturbance from the world of evil spirits, that these powers do exist and that they can do grave damage on those who play around with such stuff and put their faith in this power rather than in God. I know such goes on in Michigan thanks to certain cults and the worship of Satan. Pornography and the kidnapping and sexual abuse of children are so often connected with such evil. Here in Kenya I am aware of extreme cases of possessions that require an exorcism; persistent and aggressive spirits that ruin the lives of others and beat them up physically, psychologically, spiritually; who prompt in the possessed person impudent, hateful words, insults, accusations that are just off the wall, wild and crazy. but very threatening, wanting to do violence, even murder. I have had to listen to some religious leaders describe challenges like these, working with persons they have to care for or try to form in the early stages of religious life and who are this disturbed. What I am describing is real, I have had to listen to such cases and this truly happens at times. I am sure that what I am listening to is not just hysteria of one kind or another, but is the result of some people fooling around with the occult or being the victim of someone in their family fooling around with witchcraft and rituals of cursing. Even if later they try to get out of its power, it is often too late and they are miserably oppressed for much of the rest of their lives. What is sad and shocking is that there are some ordained leaders who deny the reality of what I am describing, seeing it entirely in terms of ancient superstitions, and subscribe entirely to explanations that psychologists can offer. Another topic: have you ever had the feeling and desire to respond to something or Someone so good and true and beautiful that you want to give yourself entirely to it or to that Someone, yet you feel very small and utterly inadequate to give what this Other deserves; that your depths are only a fraction of what you want to give, only a fraction of what you sense this something or Someone is worthy of? If you can identify, I am sure you would agree that it is an experience both painful and sweet. Right? If you can relate, I trust you know what I am talking about. It is a holy and such a life-giving experience to want to give our entire self to Someone and at the same time be overwhelmed with their goodness and lovableness while at the same time experiencing the frustration of not being able to even come close to giving what the other deserves, is made for, and is capable of receiving. Is this not the longing for eternity? the longing for the deepest communion with God? To enter into God's depths and to know and to love that which there is no reality more worthy, more lovable, more full of goodness than this One? I am quite tired after a demanding weekend. I am off to bed and pray for the USA, my homeland, and its future. May God lead us well through these tumultuous, sometimes embarrassing times. Bernie Owens