Dear Friends, I have been remiss, yes. Too many other things getting my immediate attention, especially the time I have been putting in on writing the next chapter of the book I am writing (five chapters done with the part of the book I am most interested in yet to be written! Book-writing can be all-consuming, and after a while I don't think of anything else.)......................................................................................................................................... What is this book about? I am showing the various stages of spiritual and psychological, emotional growth possible in a person's life, if they deeply connect with Christ as the greatest discovery of their life and develop a deep friendship with and love for him. (So many do not really know Him; they know about Him but do not know Him!) I am using many sources to explain this but principally the framework of Teresa of Avila and some of the great insights of John of the Cross. Both of these people are Carmelite saints of the 16th century and so perceptive. I discuss why it is that most people do not grow beyond a certain relatively early point in the spiritual journey and miss out on realizing the greater, richer possibilities we have in becoming truly happy and fulfilled. What I seek to show in the latter half or third of the book some of the richer experiences available to us in these latter, more mature stages of life. It all depends on our taking a few basic steps to open up to and receive those deeper gifts of God. The problem is: like the Rich Young Man in the Gospel, so many of us don't want to take those few steps but would rather stay in our comfort zones and pretty much settle in to a certain level of growth and there live out the rest of our lives. God still loves us as we are but there could have been so, so much more for us if we had sought guidance and learned more about the possibilities available to us all, if we had made more courageous choices. So, I hope readers in the coming years will find my book to be like a map and guide to a richer, much happier life................................................................................................................................................ While I live far from the USA, I do read from the internet each day a quick summary of the news of what is going on in the USA. Like so many US citizens I feel concern for the deepening disunity in the US, great distress at the deepening godlessness of many elements and how the media reflect an implicit atheism in the politically correct values they approve of, then the fighting and disrespect shown in public speech and behavior, and the unthinkable consequences of a war that would be fought with the weapons now in the hands of nations who keep threatening each other. It all leaves me feeling rather powerless and praying urgently that God spare us lest we end up like Sodom and Gomorrah consumed in sulphuric fire. We so need credible, articulate voices that will witness to and proclaim in a public way a basic humble and grateful attitude, rooted in a deep faith in God, and a new dedication, especially in marriages and families, to live such values. Something has to be done to counter the hypocritical philosophy or system of values praised in the last two weeks by the media when Hugh Hefner died. The media were filled with testimonies to how he was a champion of and trailblazer toward a new freedom from repression. (Yet one twitter sent in said, "I think it safe to say this is one guy who is not in a better place!") But the media treated his death and his long life as a great contribution to a better culture and better USA, even though it acknowledged that Hefner in some interview early in his career of promoting his infamous magazine and the objectification of women admitted that women are objects (for the pleasure of men.)..................................................................................................................................... Then what struck me as so hypocritical of the media was their present obsession with and condemnation of Harvey Weinstein and how he has used so many actresses for satisfying his own addiction. I ask: is there any essential difference between Hugh Hefner and Harvey Weinstein?? Why is one so praised by the media and the other so heavily condemned? Is it that one is supposed to look and fantasize but never touch?? I ask that cynically! This moral rot is killing many spiritual lives, destroying people in their hearts to indulge their ego-centric passions and live without any intent to keep any promise or vow that would inconvenience them. They lie to themselves, helped by the media, when they claim that living this way is the new freedom, is the way out of repression and joyless living. Yet when you see the fruits, the results of their choices and lifestyles, the fury of people who counted on their being faithful and trustworthy, you say, "how can that be freedom?" I have had to listen to too many people who bemoan their addiction to pornography and their loss of freedom (yes, there is that word again) and enslavement to habits of lust. Such is the legacy of Hugh Hefner and others like him; I am sure Harvey Weinstein fed his fantasy life with the garbage that Hugh Hefner and others like him dumped on America from the early 1950s till our day. ................................................................................................................................................... With the ugliness of lust there is closely connected violence and rage, like the attitude shown in Steven Paddock, infamous forever for his murdering so many people in Las Vegas. Along with his successful gambling and spending money and time with the whores of that city he indulged his furious, bitterly angry attitude toward who knows what. Sex and violence together make for a never ending source of fascination. twisted curiosity, and perverse entertainment. (I have learned that getting hooked especially on porn makes people hide from God, hide from their true selves, and often lie to others close to them, also to stay at a pretty superficial, self-focused level of life.) Too many people in our nation are expressing their contempt and fury at someone (e.g., two years ago toward little children in a Connecticut school) by turning guns made for military combat on them. ..................................................................................................................................... Why am I so interested in this area of what troubles our nation? Because I anticipate spending the last years of what is left of my life helping teens and their parents look at their lives as a gift from God to do something God needs from them, something that will make their lives really meaningful, rooted in love and friendship with Christ and His Father, and contribute to the betterment of other people, to find their joy and fulfillment in living out of these values and cares. To think first in terms of living out a call from God rather than thinking first and foremost of choosing a career to become financially well-off (One is focused on God, the other on self): I want to give the rest of my life to precisely this and to confront the powers of evil and twisted values fostered by ex-Christians and unbelievers of other backgrounds like Hugh Hefner and other egocentric failures of our society. ......................................................................................................................................... Please pray for Kenya. We face a national election next October 26. Right now on this 15th day of October, things are very fluid. It seems the election will go forward, but who knows what will happen soon after it? I have three friends coming from the States a week after the election. We are staying in safe places, not going downtown Nairobi, and will be going to the famous game park, Masai Mara, a six hours drive west of here (on November 6-9) to see the lions, giraffes, antelope, hippos, water buffaloes, crocodiles, leopards, etc. Ironically, it will be more secure to be with the animals and some of the violent people who live in the big cities of this country!!................................................................................................................................... All for now! God bless America! May God raise up some truly great Christians in our land to live the Christian faith and be the leaven in a new dough God will create to regenerate our nation. We need a new politics, a new dedication to the family and to fidelity in marriage; we need men and women who will come not to be served but to serve and give their lives out of gratitude to Him who laid down His life for each of us, Christian and non-Christian, with no exceptions. See the second letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 8, verse 9 and his letter to the Galatians, chapter 2, verses 19 and 20. Bernie Owens