A blessed and enjoyable Christmas to all of you who read this! It is Christmas afternoon here, about 4:15 PM, 8 hours ahead of Michigan time. It is about 75 degrees here, a little overcast.
Lots going on around here. We have had one of our four cows die this morning of hoof and mouth disease. She was pregnant and it is thought she didn't have the strength to overcome the disease. Her mother and the baby I saw born some 2.5 months ago plus a brown and white milking cow are improving after being inoculated. Thank God humans are not in danger from this disease. At least the last time I checked in the mirror I saw no foam pouring out of my mouth!
My retreat was quite blessed, sometimes a struggle to stay with, with some ups and downs in spirit. There is a devil!! The theme that caught my interest and was the overall focus of the 8 days was the depths of God. There is a scripture that has always drawn me, I Corinthians 2:1-13, especially verses 10 & 11 that speak of no one knowing the depths of God except the Spirit of God. But then it goes on to say the Spirit of God shares something of a secret wisdom of God with those willing to be taught regarding the things of God and so they come to understand something of the "secrets" of God through the Spirit. As I said, this scriputre has intrigued me for years and as I began this retreat it jumped out at me again.
My guide, an American nun who has spent the last 40 years here in Kenya and Tanzania, guided me. She was excellent. We would meet for about 30-40 minutes each morning to talk about what had happened the previous day in my prayer. In light of my interest in this theme of the depths of God, she loaned for my use a booklet on the artwork and commentary of a German Catholic priest by the name of Sieger Koder (an umlaut goes over the 'o' in his name). The title of this little book is The Folly of God. The artwork is extraordinary. I was guided particularly to a painting of Jesus severely beaten, lacerated, and bleeding some, stretching out fully while looking up to heaven. The title of this picture is 'Holocaust.' With this as background I prayed as the Spirit led me through this theme of the 'depths of God,' while I wondered, probed just what is God's deepest want, what does God most want to communicate and share with us, what does God 'feel' most and care about most, what is God's greatest joy and worst pain. What happened to Jesus suggests God's wanting to say something so profound, so ultimate, something almost desperate to us. These seemed to me to be fair questions to ask regarding my desire to know God much more and to grow in love of God.
At the same time I remembered reading a snippet of the writings of Blessed Henry Suso, a Dominican who lived in the late 14th century. He depicted Christ, the Sacred Heart, inviting us to enter His pierced Heart and (this was completely new to me) find our place in Christ's Heart. I thought: how strange. What would he mean by 'place" in Christ's Heart? I did not have a clue. But early in my retreat it came to me in the context of seeking to know something of the depths of God that the way to such depths is from the Heart of Christ, and so in His Heart there has to be a door and from that door there is a "stairs" that lead into the depths of God, to where God is most God, where one can "touch" what is deepest in God and gain some sense of what means the most to God in God's life. To know something of this is to have opened up to a very rich relationship with God and with one's own self, one's own depths. And I wanted this with everything I am.
My guide said on the opening evening of the retreat, "Do not hesitate to ask God for the Impossible." That saying grabbed my attention, and it gave me the courage to pursue this search and ask God to show me what is deepest in Him, what matters most to Him. It did not give specific information like answers to questions but it does open the one searching to an intuitive sense of God's person and to what is closest to God's Heart. This is such gift, and very beautiful. It may seem to be the impossible, but why not ask for it!
Yes, what matters most to God is His Son, the Christ, but right there with this awareness is the sense that what matters so much to God, what is deepest in God is me and you and everyone of us. God has become the fool in the lengths to which He has gone in Christ to love us and to share His Heart with anyone of us who would care to know Him. What is sad is that we take so long in our life, if ever we do, to wake up to this gift. In the meantime, we look for such meaning and love in all the wrong places, as the famous Country song says. We choose something much less, something that is "safer" and makes "more sense," something "more practical."
Many of you who read these blog-postings prayed for me during my retreat, and I am most, most grateful. I remembered all of you during retreat to God. So I thought I would say something about what happened for me, thanks in part to your prayers. By the way, I would highly recommend to your reading and prayer the works of Sieger Koder. Amazon.com has a lot of his works. Another book of his I used during the retreat is entitled Christ Our Morning Star. You should see Koder's painting of a young Mary embracing the body of the dead Christ just removed from the cross. Wow, it will really affect you. Then there is a painting of Koder showing the risen Christ hosting a breakfast of fish and bread for the apostles; they are just returning from a morning fishing trip. The colors and spiritual energy in that painting are brilliant.
I have to move on. In 40 minutes we Jesuits have a social followed by a turkey dinner and ice creme. I am opening for the community a large bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Scotch. It was given me by an American lawyer who made a 6-day retreat two weeks ago. I was his guide and he discovered I enjoy good Scotch at times. So I am breaking the seal on the bottle and sharing with the community the liquid 'nectar'. Some have complained about "the awful scotch" we have been drinking the last few months. So this should quiet all the complaints.
Happy New Year to you all. Have a wonderful Christmas week in whatever you are doing. I am still waiting to finish the visa process. No, they won't throw me out of the country. But it will be after Monday, the 6th, before I can resume the process because some office I have to get into doesn't open till then. Some things here in Kenya are really slow. God confronted me during retreat about some of my impatience with such things and my gripping about rarely getting away from here because I have no driver's license and we have one car for about a dozen people. This is part of the economic reality here.
Bernie
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Friday, December 13, 2013
Hi, Friends,
Even though I said in my last post that I would wait till after retreat to write another post, I have changed my mind and am writing this one hours before I start my 8-day retreat and go into a silence that avoids all computer contact and all other outside news, etc.
I have some good things happening with my effort to obtain the entry visa. I do know that the application is in the Immigration Bureau's computer system and I am told that is a good sign. My next step is, on the day after I finish retreat, December 23, to go back to their office and take this process to the next step. I am hopeful that I will have that piece of paper by Christmas week or January 1 at the latest. What an ordeal!!
One thing that is remarkable in my new life is how international everything is around here. I sit at table for a meal and I can be with two Indians, one Chilean, one Maltese, one American, and two Kenyans. So too at a gathering over these last three days of Jesuits from the six nation province (Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, South Sudan and Madagascar). Everyone speaks English with varying degrees of clarity. Sometimes I have no idea what some of them are saying!! Locals laugh and I am clueless. In that gathering were people from all six of the nations I just mentioned but also others from: Austria, Ireland and England, France, South Korea, and Egypt, and a few Americans--one is a buddy I studied with (1969-73) during my preparation for ordination 41 years ago. It is amazing to talk with him after all these years and sit in wonder at how our lives have turned out.) Our provincial is from Nigeria--which is on the far west side of Africa, maybe 2000 miles or more away from here. It is also obvious how the Africans are young in comparison to many of us non-Africans. So many are in their 30s and 40s. What a rich life they have ahead of themselves.
When I think of what I am now a part of, I am quite moved at seeing something of what God is doing in a church that is truly worldwide and yet how the thirsts for meaning and a life with dignity are the same wherever. The other item that is so prominent is the desperate poverty of so many people we are trying to serve. There is so much injustice in this world and so many people with material plenty who are oblivious and/or do not want to be involved with those who find life so very difficult.
The last week has been so rainy and cold, yes cold. Here we are a week from the beginning of summer and the temps during the day are in the low 60s; yesterday it was in the 50s. There is mud everywhere; the rains come down sometimes with such force. I have a chair outside my room; it is under a large overhang and so I can sit, stay dry, and watch this dramatic display of power of Mother Nature. Such weather reminds me of some of the late spring weather we would get in Michigan--rainy and cold prior to some wonderful sunny weather. I guess that is how to understand what we have here at the present. I am looking forward to getting back to my garden once I start retreat, but not when it is really rainy.
The monkeys are starting to show up on our property and looking for fruit from our trees--bananas and oranges. They look for an open door to our dining room so that they can sneak in to get a piece of bread--or a whole loaf. We have an air-gun with pellets and are discussing ways of using it to impress on these crafty creatures, physically and psychologically. the message of "don't touch". Yes, yes, I know: St. Francis would not be pleased. I think he would disapprove of a number of things Jesuits do!!
I had a retreatant last week whose name is Elvis, a name he is proud of. He was wonderful. No, he was not "all shook up"; and no, he did not start singing "You ain't nothing but a hound-dog." In fact, he is the vocation recruiter in Kenya for the Maryhill Fathers, a delightful fellow who speaks the King's English with much polish in his manner of speech. And yes, God blessed his retreat beautifully!
With Elvis I also had three nuns and an American lawyer from Texas. What a combination. I am more and more impressed with these African nuns and the situations they serve in: hospitals, first-aid stations in the most deserted areas of Kenya and Tanzania, others teaching in schools, some in refugee camps, etc. They are truly impressive women. They are so often the backbone of the church, and remarkable people. It is a privilege to meet with them daily for about 30-45 minutes during their 8-day retreats. They get lots out of it and so do I. In all, we get about 45 people here each 8-day period we set aside for individually guided retreats. We have a team of directors that can handle this many--quite a feat!
At one side of our 46 acre plot is a beautiful hidden area for the stations of the cross. It is very humble in its wooden plaques of the stations. The pathway is bordered on both sides with a plant that has large thorns on a stalk a little thicker than your largest finger. Near the top of these stalks are flowers that are very similar to the blossom of an Impatient. Then we have a couple of tall cactuses and large beds of low creeping plants of various shades of green, then a grove of eucalyptus trees close to the 10th-14th stations of the cross, and finally a special, large cleared area where Christ on the cross is mounted. It is really impressive and prayerful, quiet as well.
In the last few days I have finished downsizing three of the chapters of my manuscript for my book to one chapter (78 pages down to 30 pages), I am quite pleased with what I have come up with. Now I am working on a chapter, reducing it from 23 down to 14 or 15 pages. After that I have one more chapter to edit. I am expecting to be done by the end of Christmas week and then send off tot eh publishers my final version. Of course I still have to have a "censor" read the text for anything objectionable doctrine-wise and get some close friends to proofread the text for any clumsy wording. As I explain this, it might be Jan 15 before I send it all to the publisher. Whatever! It is getting closer and closer to wrapping up this huge process of producing a manuscript that some company will see fit to turn into a book and then market it.
So . . . I wish you and your loved ones a very blessed and relaxed Christmas. I will remember all of you at masses during my time of retreat and then during the Christmas season. Take care and safe travels, please, if you are doing much driving in the snows of the Midwest.
Bernie
Even though I said in my last post that I would wait till after retreat to write another post, I have changed my mind and am writing this one hours before I start my 8-day retreat and go into a silence that avoids all computer contact and all other outside news, etc.
I have some good things happening with my effort to obtain the entry visa. I do know that the application is in the Immigration Bureau's computer system and I am told that is a good sign. My next step is, on the day after I finish retreat, December 23, to go back to their office and take this process to the next step. I am hopeful that I will have that piece of paper by Christmas week or January 1 at the latest. What an ordeal!!
One thing that is remarkable in my new life is how international everything is around here. I sit at table for a meal and I can be with two Indians, one Chilean, one Maltese, one American, and two Kenyans. So too at a gathering over these last three days of Jesuits from the six nation province (Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, South Sudan and Madagascar). Everyone speaks English with varying degrees of clarity. Sometimes I have no idea what some of them are saying!! Locals laugh and I am clueless. In that gathering were people from all six of the nations I just mentioned but also others from: Austria, Ireland and England, France, South Korea, and Egypt, and a few Americans--one is a buddy I studied with (1969-73) during my preparation for ordination 41 years ago. It is amazing to talk with him after all these years and sit in wonder at how our lives have turned out.) Our provincial is from Nigeria--which is on the far west side of Africa, maybe 2000 miles or more away from here. It is also obvious how the Africans are young in comparison to many of us non-Africans. So many are in their 30s and 40s. What a rich life they have ahead of themselves.
When I think of what I am now a part of, I am quite moved at seeing something of what God is doing in a church that is truly worldwide and yet how the thirsts for meaning and a life with dignity are the same wherever. The other item that is so prominent is the desperate poverty of so many people we are trying to serve. There is so much injustice in this world and so many people with material plenty who are oblivious and/or do not want to be involved with those who find life so very difficult.
The last week has been so rainy and cold, yes cold. Here we are a week from the beginning of summer and the temps during the day are in the low 60s; yesterday it was in the 50s. There is mud everywhere; the rains come down sometimes with such force. I have a chair outside my room; it is under a large overhang and so I can sit, stay dry, and watch this dramatic display of power of Mother Nature. Such weather reminds me of some of the late spring weather we would get in Michigan--rainy and cold prior to some wonderful sunny weather. I guess that is how to understand what we have here at the present. I am looking forward to getting back to my garden once I start retreat, but not when it is really rainy.
The monkeys are starting to show up on our property and looking for fruit from our trees--bananas and oranges. They look for an open door to our dining room so that they can sneak in to get a piece of bread--or a whole loaf. We have an air-gun with pellets and are discussing ways of using it to impress on these crafty creatures, physically and psychologically. the message of "don't touch". Yes, yes, I know: St. Francis would not be pleased. I think he would disapprove of a number of things Jesuits do!!
I had a retreatant last week whose name is Elvis, a name he is proud of. He was wonderful. No, he was not "all shook up"; and no, he did not start singing "You ain't nothing but a hound-dog." In fact, he is the vocation recruiter in Kenya for the Maryhill Fathers, a delightful fellow who speaks the King's English with much polish in his manner of speech. And yes, God blessed his retreat beautifully!
With Elvis I also had three nuns and an American lawyer from Texas. What a combination. I am more and more impressed with these African nuns and the situations they serve in: hospitals, first-aid stations in the most deserted areas of Kenya and Tanzania, others teaching in schools, some in refugee camps, etc. They are truly impressive women. They are so often the backbone of the church, and remarkable people. It is a privilege to meet with them daily for about 30-45 minutes during their 8-day retreats. They get lots out of it and so do I. In all, we get about 45 people here each 8-day period we set aside for individually guided retreats. We have a team of directors that can handle this many--quite a feat!
At one side of our 46 acre plot is a beautiful hidden area for the stations of the cross. It is very humble in its wooden plaques of the stations. The pathway is bordered on both sides with a plant that has large thorns on a stalk a little thicker than your largest finger. Near the top of these stalks are flowers that are very similar to the blossom of an Impatient. Then we have a couple of tall cactuses and large beds of low creeping plants of various shades of green, then a grove of eucalyptus trees close to the 10th-14th stations of the cross, and finally a special, large cleared area where Christ on the cross is mounted. It is really impressive and prayerful, quiet as well.
In the last few days I have finished downsizing three of the chapters of my manuscript for my book to one chapter (78 pages down to 30 pages), I am quite pleased with what I have come up with. Now I am working on a chapter, reducing it from 23 down to 14 or 15 pages. After that I have one more chapter to edit. I am expecting to be done by the end of Christmas week and then send off tot eh publishers my final version. Of course I still have to have a "censor" read the text for anything objectionable doctrine-wise and get some close friends to proofread the text for any clumsy wording. As I explain this, it might be Jan 15 before I send it all to the publisher. Whatever! It is getting closer and closer to wrapping up this huge process of producing a manuscript that some company will see fit to turn into a book and then market it.
So . . . I wish you and your loved ones a very blessed and relaxed Christmas. I will remember all of you at masses during my time of retreat and then during the Christmas season. Take care and safe travels, please, if you are doing much driving in the snows of the Midwest.
Bernie
Monday, December 9, 2013
Dear Friends,
Here I am on December 9, Monday, feeling the gentle, rather cool morning breeze pass through my bedroom. It is coming in from the windows and out the door on the other side of the room. The sun is shining brilliantly. The air is so clean; it is great to live in the mountains!
I have a number of things I want to mention; I have been keeping my list so I won't forget.
First, I am experiencing a lot of hassle from the immigration people of this country. It is typical I am told. Anyway, I have made trips into downtown Nairobi (2 hours, 20 minutes to go about 10 miles the last time I went.) I found out my tourist visa has expired and was told "well, I guess you will have to leave our country in the next 2-3 weeks!" To get a renewal of the tourist visa I have to show a receipt from my applying for the more permanent "entry visa." Well, I did not have it. It is supposedly in someone else's hands, a nun who is charged with getting that process going. She has been told to get going on this pronto and get me the receipt ASAP. I am still waiting!
In addition to this mess, the Immigration people want a copy of my diploma from the school I got the PhD from in California in 1984. (I had thrown into a dumpster long ago the diploma when cleaning out things. I never framed it nor ever thought it was that important to keep!) I had sent to Immigration the transcript of all the courses I took and on that page is the statement: PhD degree granted on May 3, 1984. They refused it and demanded a copy of the diploma. So I recontacted the school and find out that they do not have a copy of my diploma and do not make copies of any diploma. So I got them to write a letter to Kenyan Immigration on paper with the school's letterhead to explain they don't have a copy of the diploma nor do they make copies of diplomas but do vouch for my having been granted the degree on May 3, 1984. They added that they hoped Immigration would acknowledge that this is enough, that they have been given the assurance that I do have the credentials and that will be enough for granting me the entry visa. The next few days will be interesting as I wait for word on whether their legalistic, literalistic attitude will yield and I will be granted the visa and be allowed to stay in the country. If I were a betting man, I would put my money on staying here.
In the meantime, we have had some heavy rains these last 5-7 days, something the ground and trees have needed. Some of the rains pounded, so heavy were they. They have also led to numerous power outages. I walk around with my flashlight on many evenings! Really frustrating when you are working on your laptop computer!!
One thing I have noticed are changes in my body since coming here. For years I have had some eczema condition on my left forearm, something about the size of a Susan B. Anthony dollar. I have often put some vaseline on it to soften the skin. I have even had a dermatologist give me some cream to aid its healing but to no avail. About a month ago I noticed it completely gone; the skin looks completely normal and blending in with the skin on the rest of my arm. What do I attribute this to?? Diet. I also notice the nails on my fingers thicker and shinier. Again, diet. I sense my "tush" is smaller as well. Once again, diet. What am I eating? Almost no meat--some fish and chicken but no beef nor pork. I hate the way the beef and pork is prepared and butchered. It is often full of fat and gristle. Every lunch and dinner we have a platter of fresh garden veggies provided. Nothing is ever frozen here. It is either raw or cooked. So too we have whole milk and there are no food additive nor hormones in any of our food. Combined with the clean mountain air I might live to 100!!
I have been working some long hours on the rewrite of my book. I took three chapters, 78 pages and collapsed all of that into one chapter, 30 pages long. Now I have two other chapters I want to reduce to one chapter and take out 15 pages from a total of 41 pages. I hope to have this all done by January 1, maybe by January 8. The end is within sight!!
I startmy annual 8-day retreat this coming Saturday evening, the 14th. I will not be reading any email or doing anything on mycomputer till I finish, on the night of the 22nd. As I begin the retreat I mark the end of my time avoiding the garden. My foot is healed enough now to permit me to resume gardening, just in time for the beginning of summer, whichcomes on December 21 here.
Ten dasy ago I finished a period of about two weeks when my skin was itching so badly I would dig and press in hard on points where I was itching. At first I blamed it on some medicine I was talking, but after going off the medicine for 4 days and still itching, I concluded that I am sitting in the midst of so man things that are flowering now. We have a bee-hive on this property and the bees are having a great time working on getting to the pollen. In the last week, with all the rains, the pollen is much less and my skin is much quieter. Thank God. I thought the itching could be a form of hell.
I got a haircut last week. I got chopped. Barbers here usually don't know what to do with straight hair. Thank God things grow out.
One quaint thing I esxperience here is how geckos come in and out of my room, often under the door, to eat insdects, espec ially mosquitoes. So they are my friends. They are little salamanders, about 3 inches long and can crawl up and down on the sides of walls. Their beady eyes are something else. I make all kinds of noises with my lips to get their attention and they do stop and just stare at me making a fool out of myself. It is fun to see them just stare and later move on behind my curtain or up my wall.
I bought a 15 foot, 2.5 ft wide carpet to throw out on my bare tile floor. I can now do stretching exercises in my room and some yoga stands, rather than having to go down to the "work-out room." Nice addition to my room.
Lastly, there are the loudspeakers across the valley that blare in this area, eitherMuslims on Friday calling people toprayer or some Christian tentpreacher typessounding like auctioneers who never take a breath as they go on and on with whatever they are saying. Thank God this is all at some distance so that we con't have to call the police to tell them to cut it.
This is enough for now. I will write again after I finish my retreat, around Christmas day or so. God bless all of you. A blessed Christmas season to you all!
Bernie Owens
Here I am on December 9, Monday, feeling the gentle, rather cool morning breeze pass through my bedroom. It is coming in from the windows and out the door on the other side of the room. The sun is shining brilliantly. The air is so clean; it is great to live in the mountains!
I have a number of things I want to mention; I have been keeping my list so I won't forget.
First, I am experiencing a lot of hassle from the immigration people of this country. It is typical I am told. Anyway, I have made trips into downtown Nairobi (2 hours, 20 minutes to go about 10 miles the last time I went.) I found out my tourist visa has expired and was told "well, I guess you will have to leave our country in the next 2-3 weeks!" To get a renewal of the tourist visa I have to show a receipt from my applying for the more permanent "entry visa." Well, I did not have it. It is supposedly in someone else's hands, a nun who is charged with getting that process going. She has been told to get going on this pronto and get me the receipt ASAP. I am still waiting!
In addition to this mess, the Immigration people want a copy of my diploma from the school I got the PhD from in California in 1984. (I had thrown into a dumpster long ago the diploma when cleaning out things. I never framed it nor ever thought it was that important to keep!) I had sent to Immigration the transcript of all the courses I took and on that page is the statement: PhD degree granted on May 3, 1984. They refused it and demanded a copy of the diploma. So I recontacted the school and find out that they do not have a copy of my diploma and do not make copies of any diploma. So I got them to write a letter to Kenyan Immigration on paper with the school's letterhead to explain they don't have a copy of the diploma nor do they make copies of diplomas but do vouch for my having been granted the degree on May 3, 1984. They added that they hoped Immigration would acknowledge that this is enough, that they have been given the assurance that I do have the credentials and that will be enough for granting me the entry visa. The next few days will be interesting as I wait for word on whether their legalistic, literalistic attitude will yield and I will be granted the visa and be allowed to stay in the country. If I were a betting man, I would put my money on staying here.
In the meantime, we have had some heavy rains these last 5-7 days, something the ground and trees have needed. Some of the rains pounded, so heavy were they. They have also led to numerous power outages. I walk around with my flashlight on many evenings! Really frustrating when you are working on your laptop computer!!
One thing I have noticed are changes in my body since coming here. For years I have had some eczema condition on my left forearm, something about the size of a Susan B. Anthony dollar. I have often put some vaseline on it to soften the skin. I have even had a dermatologist give me some cream to aid its healing but to no avail. About a month ago I noticed it completely gone; the skin looks completely normal and blending in with the skin on the rest of my arm. What do I attribute this to?? Diet. I also notice the nails on my fingers thicker and shinier. Again, diet. I sense my "tush" is smaller as well. Once again, diet. What am I eating? Almost no meat--some fish and chicken but no beef nor pork. I hate the way the beef and pork is prepared and butchered. It is often full of fat and gristle. Every lunch and dinner we have a platter of fresh garden veggies provided. Nothing is ever frozen here. It is either raw or cooked. So too we have whole milk and there are no food additive nor hormones in any of our food. Combined with the clean mountain air I might live to 100!!
I have been working some long hours on the rewrite of my book. I took three chapters, 78 pages and collapsed all of that into one chapter, 30 pages long. Now I have two other chapters I want to reduce to one chapter and take out 15 pages from a total of 41 pages. I hope to have this all done by January 1, maybe by January 8. The end is within sight!!
I startmy annual 8-day retreat this coming Saturday evening, the 14th. I will not be reading any email or doing anything on mycomputer till I finish, on the night of the 22nd. As I begin the retreat I mark the end of my time avoiding the garden. My foot is healed enough now to permit me to resume gardening, just in time for the beginning of summer, whichcomes on December 21 here.
Ten dasy ago I finished a period of about two weeks when my skin was itching so badly I would dig and press in hard on points where I was itching. At first I blamed it on some medicine I was talking, but after going off the medicine for 4 days and still itching, I concluded that I am sitting in the midst of so man things that are flowering now. We have a bee-hive on this property and the bees are having a great time working on getting to the pollen. In the last week, with all the rains, the pollen is much less and my skin is much quieter. Thank God. I thought the itching could be a form of hell.
I got a haircut last week. I got chopped. Barbers here usually don't know what to do with straight hair. Thank God things grow out.
One quaint thing I esxperience here is how geckos come in and out of my room, often under the door, to eat insdects, espec ially mosquitoes. So they are my friends. They are little salamanders, about 3 inches long and can crawl up and down on the sides of walls. Their beady eyes are something else. I make all kinds of noises with my lips to get their attention and they do stop and just stare at me making a fool out of myself. It is fun to see them just stare and later move on behind my curtain or up my wall.
I bought a 15 foot, 2.5 ft wide carpet to throw out on my bare tile floor. I can now do stretching exercises in my room and some yoga stands, rather than having to go down to the "work-out room." Nice addition to my room.
Lastly, there are the loudspeakers across the valley that blare in this area, eitherMuslims on Friday calling people toprayer or some Christian tentpreacher typessounding like auctioneers who never take a breath as they go on and on with whatever they are saying. Thank God this is all at some distance so that we con't have to call the police to tell them to cut it.
This is enough for now. I will write again after I finish my retreat, around Christmas day or so. God bless all of you. A blessed Christmas season to you all!
Bernie Owens
Sunday, November 24, 2013
HI, Friends,
Happy feast of Christ the King! The readings at today's mass were awesome. I hope you noticed.
Some of you received an invitation from me to exchange messages through LinkedIn. Someone strongly urged me to do this, but I must admit I just don't relate that much to LinkedIn. So, if you wish to communicate through that, then fine. I will catch it. This blog will be enough for many of you, I am sure.
After an overcast morning and some rain sprinkles it is very sunny here now. It is like yesterday's weather when I went swimming for the first time in Kenya at an outdoor pool. The pool is surrounded at one end by palm trees near which was a family of monkeys peeking at us and a little wary. I came back relaxed and noticed my skin is browning. By the way, I am not telling you this to rub it in that you are in snow and I am looking forward to summer. Come next May, June and especially July, we will get bad, cold weather!
On Friday I got the OK to stop wearing my orthopedic boot and using the cane. The doctor wants me to stay on flat surfaces for the next three weeks when I wear my regular shoes. If I want to walk on uneven ground, then I am to put the boot back on to protect the healing progress I have made. It feels so freeing to have the boot off. It was clumsy but necessary. I have paid my dues and now can walk normally. It will be another month I think before I return to gardening, just in time for my retreat which I intend to do from December 14-23.
Yesterday I marked three months since I arrived in Kenya. So much has happened in that time, as you see from the earlier postings on this blog. I truly feel at home now, yet somewhat confined by the fact that I still do not have a driver's license and have to depend on other people going to a mall or something else. I don't have driver's license because I still do not have a more permanent visa. Immigration has been picky with me about my getting my diploma or copy thereof to qualify for the visa. I succeeded in getting a transcript of my course work, on which is clearly the statement that I was granted the degree and did graduate. Even the date on which I was given the degree is stated there. Yet, immigration insists on the diploma or its copy. I threw away my diploma some years ago and the school where I graduated says it doesn't have a copy of it nor does it make copies of diplomas, at the time of graduation nor later. So stay tuned on this drama. I feel sure they will not throw me out of the country but are going to have to yield to the school's letter that will come to them this week saying they don't reproduce diplomas and don't make copies of such. Immigration seems so legalistic to me, so petty.
Last week one of my retreatants had some remarkable experiences in her retreat--first feeling a peace and relaxation throughout her body that she had never before felt. That day she told me everything seemed to radiate light, so full of God was any part of creation she looked at. Then on the following day everything seemedso plain, like all that light went off, yet she was very much at peace and relaxed. She felt the freedom to let God be and interact with her in whatever way God wanted.
A new group of 5 retreatants began two evenings ago. One of them today spoke about having a hard time forgiving someone who just died. While she could admit that many blessings had come to her through this person, there werea number of ways in which the person had hurt her, and try as she might, she could not shake the temptation as she woke to feel deep hurt, especially being told by this person that she didn't think she belonged in the sisterhood. In the next breath the retreatant said to me, "I love my life and feel happy in what I am doing,teaching highschoolstudents) I stopped her right there and said, "What did you just say?" She said, "I love my life and am very happy in what I am doing, but I am wondering whether Im making a mistake." I said again, "What did just say to me? "That I love my life and enjoy very much what I am doing." Then I said, "Don't you ever let anyone talk you outof what your heart is telling you." I added, "Youhave touched your core, your center, and no one's judgment should ever be trusted more than what you know in your center."
I went on to explain to her one of the most important pieces in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke; this is where Jesus is said by the people who observed His teachings and healings, that "he teaches as one with authority and not like the scribes and Pharisees."Itold her in this context the word "authority" means "from God" I said the people recognized that Jesus spoke as one coming out of the God he called Abba living in His depths. Then I added that at the heart of Jesus' ministry was His encouragement to all of us to claim in our own depths this same powerful reality and so to speak and act with the authority of God, from a faith and love that accesses this spiritual power. I said Jesus doesn't put that in us. It is already there, thanks to God's original creation. What Jesus does is get us to wake up through faith to this gift in our depths, to claim it and live in fidelity to it (God's living, dynamic presence in each of us.)
So, I said, you have to go back &walkthrough with Jesus His baptism experience where He is deeply affirmed by God ( This is my beloved. in whom I am well pleased.), get into the river after He is baptized and hear God affirm you (she had been praying on a very tender passage of Isaiah43:1-7 in which God was saying "You are precious in my eyes." I said read and re-read that passage as you come up out of the water, as Jesus did, and let those words of God wash over you. Then go with Jesus into the desert where He was exposed to 3temptations, all of them being an attempt to get Him to doubt God's affirmation, God's declaration of His personal love just for you. I said all that was going on inside you about this woman who hurt you is the same "inner critic" that attacked Jesus attacking you and trying to get you to doubt your heart and doubt your vocation.
She looked intently and nodded that this was what was happening. I added that God's affirmation for her was essentially the "north star" or guiding compass of her soul and she had to consult that inner reality, that gift of God to protect herselfand "keep herself on course,"because she will get attacked again sometime in the future. She needed to learn from this experience how to listen to God and not get hypnotized by the "inner critic" who is out to undercut her and pull her away from her truth, and this will lead to much unhappiness and spiritual confusion, and could eventually make her lose touch with God's call to her to live for Him as a consecrated religious.
Anyway, I sharethis with you to give you some sense of the wonderful work that can go on when providing one-on-one guidance to someone in spiritual direction or when making a silent retreat.
(You will notice there are a number of words here running in to others. I cannot get separation without a letter disappearing and then having to retype everything. So I apologize. I am trusting you can make the adjustment.)
I wish all of you in the USA a happy and relaxed Thanksgiving, with lots of wonderful food and drink. Thursday will be a work day here for us, like any other work day. I will think of all of you as I build up my tan while swimming laps at the pool.
By the way, you might remember my telling you about a month and a half ago my witnessing the birth of a Holstein calf, a cow for future milking purposes. In this last week it go loose twice and was jumping up and down on the lawn not far from retreatants who were sitting out on lawnchairs. What a happy calf. During the first reading that day from the Book of Wisdom, the writer spoke of the people of God after realizing their being freed by God from their slavery, leapt like lambs so happy were they. I could not help but think the Lord was providing us with a similar image through this young, happy, frisky animal.
I need to move on. God bless and a happy Advent. May God come to each of you during this upcoming special season preparing us for the Christmas season.
Bernie Owens
Happy feast of Christ the King! The readings at today's mass were awesome. I hope you noticed.
Some of you received an invitation from me to exchange messages through LinkedIn. Someone strongly urged me to do this, but I must admit I just don't relate that much to LinkedIn. So, if you wish to communicate through that, then fine. I will catch it. This blog will be enough for many of you, I am sure.
After an overcast morning and some rain sprinkles it is very sunny here now. It is like yesterday's weather when I went swimming for the first time in Kenya at an outdoor pool. The pool is surrounded at one end by palm trees near which was a family of monkeys peeking at us and a little wary. I came back relaxed and noticed my skin is browning. By the way, I am not telling you this to rub it in that you are in snow and I am looking forward to summer. Come next May, June and especially July, we will get bad, cold weather!
On Friday I got the OK to stop wearing my orthopedic boot and using the cane. The doctor wants me to stay on flat surfaces for the next three weeks when I wear my regular shoes. If I want to walk on uneven ground, then I am to put the boot back on to protect the healing progress I have made. It feels so freeing to have the boot off. It was clumsy but necessary. I have paid my dues and now can walk normally. It will be another month I think before I return to gardening, just in time for my retreat which I intend to do from December 14-23.
Yesterday I marked three months since I arrived in Kenya. So much has happened in that time, as you see from the earlier postings on this blog. I truly feel at home now, yet somewhat confined by the fact that I still do not have a driver's license and have to depend on other people going to a mall or something else. I don't have driver's license because I still do not have a more permanent visa. Immigration has been picky with me about my getting my diploma or copy thereof to qualify for the visa. I succeeded in getting a transcript of my course work, on which is clearly the statement that I was granted the degree and did graduate. Even the date on which I was given the degree is stated there. Yet, immigration insists on the diploma or its copy. I threw away my diploma some years ago and the school where I graduated says it doesn't have a copy of it nor does it make copies of diplomas, at the time of graduation nor later. So stay tuned on this drama. I feel sure they will not throw me out of the country but are going to have to yield to the school's letter that will come to them this week saying they don't reproduce diplomas and don't make copies of such. Immigration seems so legalistic to me, so petty.
Last week one of my retreatants had some remarkable experiences in her retreat--first feeling a peace and relaxation throughout her body that she had never before felt. That day she told me everything seemed to radiate light, so full of God was any part of creation she looked at. Then on the following day everything seemedso plain, like all that light went off, yet she was very much at peace and relaxed. She felt the freedom to let God be and interact with her in whatever way God wanted.
A new group of 5 retreatants began two evenings ago. One of them today spoke about having a hard time forgiving someone who just died. While she could admit that many blessings had come to her through this person, there werea number of ways in which the person had hurt her, and try as she might, she could not shake the temptation as she woke to feel deep hurt, especially being told by this person that she didn't think she belonged in the sisterhood. In the next breath the retreatant said to me, "I love my life and feel happy in what I am doing,teaching highschoolstudents) I stopped her right there and said, "What did you just say?" She said, "I love my life and am very happy in what I am doing, but I am wondering whether Im making a mistake." I said again, "What did just say to me? "That I love my life and enjoy very much what I am doing." Then I said, "Don't you ever let anyone talk you outof what your heart is telling you." I added, "Youhave touched your core, your center, and no one's judgment should ever be trusted more than what you know in your center."
I went on to explain to her one of the most important pieces in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke; this is where Jesus is said by the people who observed His teachings and healings, that "he teaches as one with authority and not like the scribes and Pharisees."Itold her in this context the word "authority" means "from God" I said the people recognized that Jesus spoke as one coming out of the God he called Abba living in His depths. Then I added that at the heart of Jesus' ministry was His encouragement to all of us to claim in our own depths this same powerful reality and so to speak and act with the authority of God, from a faith and love that accesses this spiritual power. I said Jesus doesn't put that in us. It is already there, thanks to God's original creation. What Jesus does is get us to wake up through faith to this gift in our depths, to claim it and live in fidelity to it (God's living, dynamic presence in each of us.)
So, I said, you have to go back &walkthrough with Jesus His baptism experience where He is deeply affirmed by God ( This is my beloved. in whom I am well pleased.), get into the river after He is baptized and hear God affirm you (she had been praying on a very tender passage of Isaiah43:1-7 in which God was saying "You are precious in my eyes." I said read and re-read that passage as you come up out of the water, as Jesus did, and let those words of God wash over you. Then go with Jesus into the desert where He was exposed to 3temptations, all of them being an attempt to get Him to doubt God's affirmation, God's declaration of His personal love just for you. I said all that was going on inside you about this woman who hurt you is the same "inner critic" that attacked Jesus attacking you and trying to get you to doubt your heart and doubt your vocation.
She looked intently and nodded that this was what was happening. I added that God's affirmation for her was essentially the "north star" or guiding compass of her soul and she had to consult that inner reality, that gift of God to protect herselfand "keep herself on course,"because she will get attacked again sometime in the future. She needed to learn from this experience how to listen to God and not get hypnotized by the "inner critic" who is out to undercut her and pull her away from her truth, and this will lead to much unhappiness and spiritual confusion, and could eventually make her lose touch with God's call to her to live for Him as a consecrated religious.
Anyway, I sharethis with you to give you some sense of the wonderful work that can go on when providing one-on-one guidance to someone in spiritual direction or when making a silent retreat.
(You will notice there are a number of words here running in to others. I cannot get separation without a letter disappearing and then having to retype everything. So I apologize. I am trusting you can make the adjustment.)
I wish all of you in the USA a happy and relaxed Thanksgiving, with lots of wonderful food and drink. Thursday will be a work day here for us, like any other work day. I will think of all of you as I build up my tan while swimming laps at the pool.
By the way, you might remember my telling you about a month and a half ago my witnessing the birth of a Holstein calf, a cow for future milking purposes. In this last week it go loose twice and was jumping up and down on the lawn not far from retreatants who were sitting out on lawnchairs. What a happy calf. During the first reading that day from the Book of Wisdom, the writer spoke of the people of God after realizing their being freed by God from their slavery, leapt like lambs so happy were they. I could not help but think the Lord was providing us with a similar image through this young, happy, frisky animal.
I need to move on. God bless and a happy Advent. May God come to each of you during this upcoming special season preparing us for the Christmas season.
Bernie Owens
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Dear Friends,
Here I am on Sunday evening, after a day of beautiful weather here and with a sense of summer approaching and the children and teenagers just getting out of school for their summer break till January 2. Yes, it takes me a moment to make that shift and think that I am in the southern hemisphere and so many things are reversed from what I became so accustomed to. (Still, the moon is very full right now and Venus still appears brilliantly in the western sky each night, just as they do for you in the northern hemisphere. Some things remain the same!)
I have some personal news to share, something that makes me happy beyond description. Just this last week a niece of mine and her husband in Charleston, SC succeeded after two years to adopt a 9 year old boy and his 7 year old sister. My relatives have been childless all their married years and have so wanted to have children. Learning that they would not be able to do so, they proceeded with adoption efforts. So on Monday it became official and I must say everyone I know in my family is so happy for them. It is a wonderful addition to our family.
In my previous blog-postings I have tried to give you, the reader, a sense of this place and its natural beauty. Today I want to attempt to describe for you some of the interior beauty I am privileged to witness as I engage in the work of this place, guiding retreatants in their 8 or 10 day silent retreats.
There are over 35 people here right now making retreats. They started Tuesday evening and will finish this coming Thursday morning. So that makes 8 complete days; a few of them came on Sunday evening, a week ago, and are making this a 10 day retreat.
First, let me impress on you what we mean by silence. We mean no cellphones, no newspaper reading, no access to computers, no talking with others, not even looking or greeting each other as we pass one another during the days. We say our hellos at the beginning of the retreat and have this common understanding among each other that there is no offense meant when we pass each other and do not greet one another. With that common understanding, we are able to enter into a profound, deeply focused silence of mind, imagination and heart. It is truly powerful and makes one much more sensitive to God and God's whispers during the retreat as one considers certain bible passages to reflect and pray on.
I am one of about 10 guides; I have five retreatants, four of them Kenyan women and one of them a woman medical missionary (ObGyn) from Nigeria who works in Tanzania, the nation just south of us. Each retreatant has a maximum of 45 minutes a day to talk with me about what has happened during their prayer during the previous 24 hours. What this group has said to me, in confidence, is profound. I hear the souls, the deeper desires of these people, their struggles to be true to their call and deeper selves and then to thrill with them as they experience God's very personal love for them.
One of them will engage in a ceremony at the end of this month in which she will vow and formally offer herself to God as a nun for the rest of her life in the community she comes from, the Loretto Sisters. She is a nurse among high school children but is expecting a change of ministry right after that vow ceremony. She has described her time alone with God, as she roams the grounds here and sits before the Sacrament, that she feels wooed by God, on holiday with God, so relaxed like never before, freed and cherished. She has found very meaningful passages in the Old Testament where God says to Israel that He is marrying her. She owned these passages for her own self. She just beamed. Two days ago she said everything seems to shine with a certain light, like everything is alive with God's presence and oozes the divine presence. This morning she said everything now seemed very quiet, not the excitement of the previous day but that she was OK with this shift, not worried as if God disappeared, that she was OK with this "silence" of God, because she trusts that God is deeper than all those previous manifestations; that it is fine when God wants to give you those experiences but that it is OK also to let God be with her the way God wants to be with her in a less spectacular way ... in a more quiet and prosaic way. She is learning to let God lead and give at a level deeper than what she is able to sense or think or feel. s
All these women are in their late 30s or early 40s.
Another one has the name of Magdalene, and so a big part of her retreat has been to take quality time to think and pray about Mary Magdalene in the Scriptures. It has been very moving to hear her describe deeper levels of her own identity as she ponders her namesake in the gospel stories where Mary Magdalene is spoken about: at the foot of the cross and in the garden on Easter morning. God is so amazing at how He speaks personally to people who are willing to get this quiet, to really slow down, and listen deeply with their heart as they ponder parts of the bible that reveal to them God's personal love for them and what their call is for a deeper, richer life in Him. My privilege is to meet with them each day for 8 or 10 straight days in such silence and observe the amazing unfolding of their hearts and observe their discovery of what they mean to God and to Jesus. When they taste such love as so personal and so NOW, not just 2000 years old, but now, it is very powerful what happens to them and their relationship with God, with the way they see their life and the work they are doing. My role is to hear closely each day the progress of their prayer (probably 4 one-hour periods of prayer per day, summarized briefly in a journal) and to suggest passages to pray on for the coming 24 hours. I also confirm the validity and power of what they share with me, and then point out further implications in what they shared with me, in what they prayed on and might do well to spend more time reflecting on and discussing with God. My role is a little like a waiter in a restaurant who serves as well as possible these special days between God and the retreatant. They come to the restaurant for a great meal and a wonderful meeting together and my job is to be sure the evening is a fabulous time for the both of them . . . not to hover too closely but also not be too far away and not sufficiently available when I am needed. There are many times I walk away greatly humbled and full of joy after finishing with the five retreatants. I ask myself, "Is there a better work anyone I could be involved in? Can anyone get closer to where God is active and creating something wonderful, right now??!!" Sometime I think I know why Moses in meeting God in the burning mush took off his sandals and simply bowed forward and put his face to the ground, so moved was he by the holiness and proximity of God.
Now as grandiose as this work is, I witnessed today something of the same wonder of God's presence in a rose bush a few feet away from my front door. It has about 5 or 6 yellow roses all in full blossom and giving off a rather detectable sweet aroma. I had to stop and just gaze at and wonder at what is the Maker of these roses like when they are so beautiful and yet will be gone in a few days!!
Something of the same question struck some of the retreatants I am guiding when they were focusing on an aspect of God's love in their own lives. I suggested that they take time to move from the gifts to the Gift-Giver, from thanking God for all the gifts they were so touched by and spend time look straight at God, the Gift-Giver; to look into God's eyes, so to speak, and hold steady in their asking God, "Just who are you? Who ARE you??!! ...and to let that question move around inside them during the day. It is very powerful when a person can get that still and "look into the depths of God's heart, into God's eyes" and get in touch with the joy and fullness of life that pours out of God for you. Many people are afraid to get that still, to be that present and vulnerable before our Maker and Divine Lover. But when someone comes on retreat and enters into the depth of silence we insist on and really engages God like this, powerful things happen. People see with their heart and experience at a depth they never before knew possible. This changes their lives. They are never the same. I recall a spiritual guide I had as a young priest telling me, "Once God has taken you to a certain depth, you will be bored with less." Yes, once your soul has plumbed to a certain depth, you will be restless to get back to at least that depth and to go further into the heart of God. We are made for the ultimate and we are restless until we get there. It is sad that many people want to live a distracted life, constantly extraverted and engaged in surface interests. Yes, many people choose to live this way. In this way they can avoid what they fear, yet they long at other times for something that will take them beyond their ho-hum lives. In the worst cases of this, we find addictions of various kinds, vain efforts to quiet this voice that calls them to trust and come alive to a Love they keep "looking for in all the wrong places."
It is bedtime here. I need to get a decent sleep and be ready for the five retreatants tomorrow. I start with them at 8:45 AM and end at 1 PM, with a break from 11 - 11:30AM. I wish you all a good week, and thanks so much for the encouraging feedback I have received from those of you who read what I write here. I will be continuing work on the editing of my book during afternoons. I am making progress and I am encouraged by what I have done so far. I hope to finish by January 1.
Bernie Owens
Here I am on Sunday evening, after a day of beautiful weather here and with a sense of summer approaching and the children and teenagers just getting out of school for their summer break till January 2. Yes, it takes me a moment to make that shift and think that I am in the southern hemisphere and so many things are reversed from what I became so accustomed to. (Still, the moon is very full right now and Venus still appears brilliantly in the western sky each night, just as they do for you in the northern hemisphere. Some things remain the same!)
I have some personal news to share, something that makes me happy beyond description. Just this last week a niece of mine and her husband in Charleston, SC succeeded after two years to adopt a 9 year old boy and his 7 year old sister. My relatives have been childless all their married years and have so wanted to have children. Learning that they would not be able to do so, they proceeded with adoption efforts. So on Monday it became official and I must say everyone I know in my family is so happy for them. It is a wonderful addition to our family.
In my previous blog-postings I have tried to give you, the reader, a sense of this place and its natural beauty. Today I want to attempt to describe for you some of the interior beauty I am privileged to witness as I engage in the work of this place, guiding retreatants in their 8 or 10 day silent retreats.
There are over 35 people here right now making retreats. They started Tuesday evening and will finish this coming Thursday morning. So that makes 8 complete days; a few of them came on Sunday evening, a week ago, and are making this a 10 day retreat.
First, let me impress on you what we mean by silence. We mean no cellphones, no newspaper reading, no access to computers, no talking with others, not even looking or greeting each other as we pass one another during the days. We say our hellos at the beginning of the retreat and have this common understanding among each other that there is no offense meant when we pass each other and do not greet one another. With that common understanding, we are able to enter into a profound, deeply focused silence of mind, imagination and heart. It is truly powerful and makes one much more sensitive to God and God's whispers during the retreat as one considers certain bible passages to reflect and pray on.
I am one of about 10 guides; I have five retreatants, four of them Kenyan women and one of them a woman medical missionary (ObGyn) from Nigeria who works in Tanzania, the nation just south of us. Each retreatant has a maximum of 45 minutes a day to talk with me about what has happened during their prayer during the previous 24 hours. What this group has said to me, in confidence, is profound. I hear the souls, the deeper desires of these people, their struggles to be true to their call and deeper selves and then to thrill with them as they experience God's very personal love for them.
One of them will engage in a ceremony at the end of this month in which she will vow and formally offer herself to God as a nun for the rest of her life in the community she comes from, the Loretto Sisters. She is a nurse among high school children but is expecting a change of ministry right after that vow ceremony. She has described her time alone with God, as she roams the grounds here and sits before the Sacrament, that she feels wooed by God, on holiday with God, so relaxed like never before, freed and cherished. She has found very meaningful passages in the Old Testament where God says to Israel that He is marrying her. She owned these passages for her own self. She just beamed. Two days ago she said everything seems to shine with a certain light, like everything is alive with God's presence and oozes the divine presence. This morning she said everything now seemed very quiet, not the excitement of the previous day but that she was OK with this shift, not worried as if God disappeared, that she was OK with this "silence" of God, because she trusts that God is deeper than all those previous manifestations; that it is fine when God wants to give you those experiences but that it is OK also to let God be with her the way God wants to be with her in a less spectacular way ... in a more quiet and prosaic way. She is learning to let God lead and give at a level deeper than what she is able to sense or think or feel. s
All these women are in their late 30s or early 40s.
Another one has the name of Magdalene, and so a big part of her retreat has been to take quality time to think and pray about Mary Magdalene in the Scriptures. It has been very moving to hear her describe deeper levels of her own identity as she ponders her namesake in the gospel stories where Mary Magdalene is spoken about: at the foot of the cross and in the garden on Easter morning. God is so amazing at how He speaks personally to people who are willing to get this quiet, to really slow down, and listen deeply with their heart as they ponder parts of the bible that reveal to them God's personal love for them and what their call is for a deeper, richer life in Him. My privilege is to meet with them each day for 8 or 10 straight days in such silence and observe the amazing unfolding of their hearts and observe their discovery of what they mean to God and to Jesus. When they taste such love as so personal and so NOW, not just 2000 years old, but now, it is very powerful what happens to them and their relationship with God, with the way they see their life and the work they are doing. My role is to hear closely each day the progress of their prayer (probably 4 one-hour periods of prayer per day, summarized briefly in a journal) and to suggest passages to pray on for the coming 24 hours. I also confirm the validity and power of what they share with me, and then point out further implications in what they shared with me, in what they prayed on and might do well to spend more time reflecting on and discussing with God. My role is a little like a waiter in a restaurant who serves as well as possible these special days between God and the retreatant. They come to the restaurant for a great meal and a wonderful meeting together and my job is to be sure the evening is a fabulous time for the both of them . . . not to hover too closely but also not be too far away and not sufficiently available when I am needed. There are many times I walk away greatly humbled and full of joy after finishing with the five retreatants. I ask myself, "Is there a better work anyone I could be involved in? Can anyone get closer to where God is active and creating something wonderful, right now??!!" Sometime I think I know why Moses in meeting God in the burning mush took off his sandals and simply bowed forward and put his face to the ground, so moved was he by the holiness and proximity of God.
Now as grandiose as this work is, I witnessed today something of the same wonder of God's presence in a rose bush a few feet away from my front door. It has about 5 or 6 yellow roses all in full blossom and giving off a rather detectable sweet aroma. I had to stop and just gaze at and wonder at what is the Maker of these roses like when they are so beautiful and yet will be gone in a few days!!
Something of the same question struck some of the retreatants I am guiding when they were focusing on an aspect of God's love in their own lives. I suggested that they take time to move from the gifts to the Gift-Giver, from thanking God for all the gifts they were so touched by and spend time look straight at God, the Gift-Giver; to look into God's eyes, so to speak, and hold steady in their asking God, "Just who are you? Who ARE you??!! ...and to let that question move around inside them during the day. It is very powerful when a person can get that still and "look into the depths of God's heart, into God's eyes" and get in touch with the joy and fullness of life that pours out of God for you. Many people are afraid to get that still, to be that present and vulnerable before our Maker and Divine Lover. But when someone comes on retreat and enters into the depth of silence we insist on and really engages God like this, powerful things happen. People see with their heart and experience at a depth they never before knew possible. This changes their lives. They are never the same. I recall a spiritual guide I had as a young priest telling me, "Once God has taken you to a certain depth, you will be bored with less." Yes, once your soul has plumbed to a certain depth, you will be restless to get back to at least that depth and to go further into the heart of God. We are made for the ultimate and we are restless until we get there. It is sad that many people want to live a distracted life, constantly extraverted and engaged in surface interests. Yes, many people choose to live this way. In this way they can avoid what they fear, yet they long at other times for something that will take them beyond their ho-hum lives. In the worst cases of this, we find addictions of various kinds, vain efforts to quiet this voice that calls them to trust and come alive to a Love they keep "looking for in all the wrong places."
It is bedtime here. I need to get a decent sleep and be ready for the five retreatants tomorrow. I start with them at 8:45 AM and end at 1 PM, with a break from 11 - 11:30AM. I wish you all a good week, and thanks so much for the encouraging feedback I have received from those of you who read what I write here. I will be continuing work on the editing of my book during afternoons. I am making progress and I am encouraged by what I have done so far. I hope to finish by January 1.
Bernie Owens
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Good morning, friends. Here I am continuing with what I started on yesterday's posting.
I need to tell you about this place, more about its layout and view. We have 46 acres here. It was purchased in 1979 as a piece of a large coffee plantation that went bankrupt. We are situated on land that slowly rises on one end and then about half way into the land falls off more quickly in the other half, going down toward a small river in a deep gorge. At the high point of the property we are at 5900 feet above sea level, just about as high as Colorado Springs, CO. So we are in the mountains with refreshing clean air, cool nights and hot mid-afternoons when the sun is not blocked by clouds.
The retreat house, which is an old mansion from the coffee plantation days, sits on the highest part of the property. The Jesuit community buildings sit on a lower part of the property, somewhat down the knoll of the drop-off going toward the river and gorge. It is maybe 100 feet lower than the high point of the property which is where the lawn in front of the old mansion is. The lawn is maybe 400 feet from one end to the other, a marvelous place to stroll or sit out on when you are in retreat or just want some quiet time to relax, which is what I will do some late afternoons. I will get a movable chair and go in the shade to meditate and just close my eyes to enjoy the breeze. The view from there is spectacular. From concrete benches or from movable, metal chairs that one can lift and move, you can view the range of mountains that are some 30-40 miles away. The shape and contour of the mountain ridge remind me very much of the Pennsylvania or Virginia Allegheny mountains: very green, heavily treed and filled with little villages. The ridge is up and down in its contour. The range is named the Ngong Mountain range because in the language of the Masai tribe, Ngong means knuckles like when you clinch your fist and look at the up and down appearance of the knuckles. At the ridge are some radio and TV transmission towers and also some windmills for generating electricity. The altitude at the ridge must be close to 7500, maybe 8000 feet above sea level.
Up on the highest level of the retreat house grounds are a number of tall trees and flowering bushes, not too many to clutter the grounds but just the right number and spaced correctly to make for a truly gorgeous ambiance. (One cluster of bamboo right outside my office building--maybe 20 feet up) and then another bigger cluster toward the front door of the retreat center; it is pruned or shaped to look like a huge mushroom!) A number of the bushes are flowering right now, since it is spring time here with lots of pollen in the air (runny noses and itchy skin at times also!). The color up at that point is out of this world! Camera bugs would have a field day! A little down the knoll and going toward the buildings of the Jesuit community is a grove of maybe three dozen mango trees. Wow, is that what was in paradise before Adam and Eve messed up things??!!
At opposite ends of the property are two huge gardens from which we and those who stay at the retreat house eat a lot of the veggies. We even eat some of our own beef, drink the milk that comes from two cows (two other cows are too young right now to produce for us) make our own cheese and yogurt, raise some of our honey (big bee hives), raise and eat rabbits and also quails and poached quail eggs. We have six German shepherd puppies that we are trying to sell. Any takers??!! They are for sale at $160 US per pup, already wormed and inoculated! We also have a goat that we think is pregnant. The roosters, chickens and a few cats fill out the rest of the scene.
At the other end of the property is the bigger of the two gardens, almost the size of two football fields. That is where my little plot (about 30 feet wide and 100 feet long) is. Near my plot is a grove of about 30-40 banana trees. They stand 30-35 feet up and in clusters of about 10 stalks per tree. Their huge leaves make for great shade in the afternoon sun. When I sit there I look up at a big bunch of green bananas. It is delightful to see something like this, something that is still quite new to me.
Let me try to describe the layout of the Jesuit community buildings. They consist of two long lines of apartments, single dwellings. They stretch for 235 yards, which is as long as two football fields end to end. Quite a distance!! These buildings include the administrator's central office, a TV room and a couple of meeting rooms, the dining area and recreation room, laundry area, some guest rooms, then a large chapel in the round and a smaller one; also a library and a workshop and storage place for farming equipment, including a tractor. Outside the dining room is a veranda, shaded with nice picnic type tables to eat at in warm weather. This is where the birds come in the morning to eat crumbs we throw to them. A monkey three feet tall comes there on some occasions!
There is about 60-65 feet between the two sets of buildings running parallel to each other. The roof is of light shaded rust clay-tile and the walls are made of grey stone taken from local quarries. Very solid construction. Down the middle of the space between the two parallel sets of buildings is a driveway for facilitating the pickup of anyone who is sick and weak or is not too ambulatory. In this same area are mini-fruit trees--oranges, lemons, pomogranites, then lots of rose bushes spaced nicely and in bloom right now (light pink, deep red, yellow, small red-orange ones, also some bogen-via bushes with dozens and dozens of fuschia colored blossoms and honeysuckle bushes trellising up onto the chapel roof. Really nice!!
The chapel is in the round, actually a half circle--wooden inlaid floor and lots of light coming in through the opaque windows of the roof and the back walls of glass. About 60 movable chairs are there situated in a big half-circle facing the altar. Off to the left of the altar and set into the wall is a little tabernacle with a glass door and the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance that is quite visible to anyone sitting in that part of the chapel. It is a favorite place for many who wish to pray there. Immediately to the left of the altar as you face it is a huge cross with a corpus of the crucified Jesus. It is maybe 25 feet high and is of one piece of wood, probably three times life-size, really powerful as you enter the chapel. The colors of the whole place are so tastefully coordinated.
My own living quarters are spacious, but have bare floors; the bed has a foamed rubber mattress. Ugh! I always sleep with my mosquito netting down at night. It allows me to sleep in peace. Showers have plenty of hot water but there is no stall or curtain. I have a hand-held spray head and need a bath towel to dry off the floor after showering. I blow-dry my hair in the reflection of my laptop computer--how ingenious, heh!! Lots of natural light comes through a good size bay winder. During the day I leave the sliding door of my room open as well as the windows of the bay area. No screens! (Smile!)
My office is really spacious, probably 2.5 times what I had at Manresa. It looks west and south toward the prettier parts of the grounds. I love the view!
This nation still suffers from the aftermath of the terrorist attack at the mall, Westgate. It was discovered after about a week that only four terrorists, not 10-15 were involved and that most of the damage was done by the Kenyan army shooting at what they thought were the terrorists. All four terrorists escaped through a tunnel and faded into the crowds who were running for their lives. The army now knows who each of them is and since has gone into Somalia and bombed and raided an Al Shabaab training camp that had about 300 people at it. Two Al Shabaab leaders were killed and others as well. About a week after the massacre at the Nairobi mall, the US Navy Seals had a nighttime raid from the sea near Mogadishu, Somalia, but failed to get the leader they were seeking to assassinate. They came under very heavy fire from defenders of the leader of the mall massacre. It is suspected that Saudi Arabia is funding these groups and that the pirates that formerly were capturing ships on the Indian ocean were funding their operations from the booty and ransom money they were getting.
The other big national news is that of the president of this country being indicted by the World Court in the Hague for allegedly promoting gangs of thugs to beat up and kill opponents to his election efforts back in 2008. This involved over 1000 people being killed at the time of the elections. He is trying everything to avoid going there, even threatening to pull Kenya out of the league of nations who answer to the legal system of the Hague Court. (The USA does not belong either; otherwise, you could be sure that some elected or appointed officials of the last administration and probably some of the present administration would be indicted and certainly convicted of war crimes.)
Lastly, the roads here are notoriously awful: bumpy and full of potholes, numerous, obnoxious speed bumps to slow down drivers, narrow lanes and shoulders that drop off fast into ditches. So there are many road accidents and roll-overs, numerous deaths as well. Many buses travel too fast and every so often there are terrible accidents, even last week a big head-on of two buses that killed six and badly injured about 20. The driver of one bus was waving to the other driver and lost control of the driver's wheel! Stupid!! In another incident one taxi driver (taxis are like Volkeswagon buses that can take 10-12 passengers) tried to beat a train at a rail crossing. He was wearing earphones and listening to loud music during the morning rush-hour traffic and didn't hear the horn of the train. The taxi was mangled, 13 were killed, and he ran from the scene of the accident but was later caught. He will go to prison for life.
Well, this is enough for now. It is really raining here now. Finally the spring rains are visiting us, about 3-4 weeks late. I continue to work on cutting down the size of my book because the publisher wants me to do that. I expect to receive in this coming week in the mail a contract to sign. The company is Liturgical Press from Collegeville, MN. It will be thrilled when the book is finally printed and public for purchase. That day is now in the foreseeable future. Praise God!
Bernie Owens
I need to tell you about this place, more about its layout and view. We have 46 acres here. It was purchased in 1979 as a piece of a large coffee plantation that went bankrupt. We are situated on land that slowly rises on one end and then about half way into the land falls off more quickly in the other half, going down toward a small river in a deep gorge. At the high point of the property we are at 5900 feet above sea level, just about as high as Colorado Springs, CO. So we are in the mountains with refreshing clean air, cool nights and hot mid-afternoons when the sun is not blocked by clouds.
The retreat house, which is an old mansion from the coffee plantation days, sits on the highest part of the property. The Jesuit community buildings sit on a lower part of the property, somewhat down the knoll of the drop-off going toward the river and gorge. It is maybe 100 feet lower than the high point of the property which is where the lawn in front of the old mansion is. The lawn is maybe 400 feet from one end to the other, a marvelous place to stroll or sit out on when you are in retreat or just want some quiet time to relax, which is what I will do some late afternoons. I will get a movable chair and go in the shade to meditate and just close my eyes to enjoy the breeze. The view from there is spectacular. From concrete benches or from movable, metal chairs that one can lift and move, you can view the range of mountains that are some 30-40 miles away. The shape and contour of the mountain ridge remind me very much of the Pennsylvania or Virginia Allegheny mountains: very green, heavily treed and filled with little villages. The ridge is up and down in its contour. The range is named the Ngong Mountain range because in the language of the Masai tribe, Ngong means knuckles like when you clinch your fist and look at the up and down appearance of the knuckles. At the ridge are some radio and TV transmission towers and also some windmills for generating electricity. The altitude at the ridge must be close to 7500, maybe 8000 feet above sea level.
Up on the highest level of the retreat house grounds are a number of tall trees and flowering bushes, not too many to clutter the grounds but just the right number and spaced correctly to make for a truly gorgeous ambiance. (One cluster of bamboo right outside my office building--maybe 20 feet up) and then another bigger cluster toward the front door of the retreat center; it is pruned or shaped to look like a huge mushroom!) A number of the bushes are flowering right now, since it is spring time here with lots of pollen in the air (runny noses and itchy skin at times also!). The color up at that point is out of this world! Camera bugs would have a field day! A little down the knoll and going toward the buildings of the Jesuit community is a grove of maybe three dozen mango trees. Wow, is that what was in paradise before Adam and Eve messed up things??!!
At opposite ends of the property are two huge gardens from which we and those who stay at the retreat house eat a lot of the veggies. We even eat some of our own beef, drink the milk that comes from two cows (two other cows are too young right now to produce for us) make our own cheese and yogurt, raise some of our honey (big bee hives), raise and eat rabbits and also quails and poached quail eggs. We have six German shepherd puppies that we are trying to sell. Any takers??!! They are for sale at $160 US per pup, already wormed and inoculated! We also have a goat that we think is pregnant. The roosters, chickens and a few cats fill out the rest of the scene.
At the other end of the property is the bigger of the two gardens, almost the size of two football fields. That is where my little plot (about 30 feet wide and 100 feet long) is. Near my plot is a grove of about 30-40 banana trees. They stand 30-35 feet up and in clusters of about 10 stalks per tree. Their huge leaves make for great shade in the afternoon sun. When I sit there I look up at a big bunch of green bananas. It is delightful to see something like this, something that is still quite new to me.
Let me try to describe the layout of the Jesuit community buildings. They consist of two long lines of apartments, single dwellings. They stretch for 235 yards, which is as long as two football fields end to end. Quite a distance!! These buildings include the administrator's central office, a TV room and a couple of meeting rooms, the dining area and recreation room, laundry area, some guest rooms, then a large chapel in the round and a smaller one; also a library and a workshop and storage place for farming equipment, including a tractor. Outside the dining room is a veranda, shaded with nice picnic type tables to eat at in warm weather. This is where the birds come in the morning to eat crumbs we throw to them. A monkey three feet tall comes there on some occasions!
There is about 60-65 feet between the two sets of buildings running parallel to each other. The roof is of light shaded rust clay-tile and the walls are made of grey stone taken from local quarries. Very solid construction. Down the middle of the space between the two parallel sets of buildings is a driveway for facilitating the pickup of anyone who is sick and weak or is not too ambulatory. In this same area are mini-fruit trees--oranges, lemons, pomogranites, then lots of rose bushes spaced nicely and in bloom right now (light pink, deep red, yellow, small red-orange ones, also some bogen-via bushes with dozens and dozens of fuschia colored blossoms and honeysuckle bushes trellising up onto the chapel roof. Really nice!!
The chapel is in the round, actually a half circle--wooden inlaid floor and lots of light coming in through the opaque windows of the roof and the back walls of glass. About 60 movable chairs are there situated in a big half-circle facing the altar. Off to the left of the altar and set into the wall is a little tabernacle with a glass door and the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance that is quite visible to anyone sitting in that part of the chapel. It is a favorite place for many who wish to pray there. Immediately to the left of the altar as you face it is a huge cross with a corpus of the crucified Jesus. It is maybe 25 feet high and is of one piece of wood, probably three times life-size, really powerful as you enter the chapel. The colors of the whole place are so tastefully coordinated.
My own living quarters are spacious, but have bare floors; the bed has a foamed rubber mattress. Ugh! I always sleep with my mosquito netting down at night. It allows me to sleep in peace. Showers have plenty of hot water but there is no stall or curtain. I have a hand-held spray head and need a bath towel to dry off the floor after showering. I blow-dry my hair in the reflection of my laptop computer--how ingenious, heh!! Lots of natural light comes through a good size bay winder. During the day I leave the sliding door of my room open as well as the windows of the bay area. No screens! (Smile!)
My office is really spacious, probably 2.5 times what I had at Manresa. It looks west and south toward the prettier parts of the grounds. I love the view!
This nation still suffers from the aftermath of the terrorist attack at the mall, Westgate. It was discovered after about a week that only four terrorists, not 10-15 were involved and that most of the damage was done by the Kenyan army shooting at what they thought were the terrorists. All four terrorists escaped through a tunnel and faded into the crowds who were running for their lives. The army now knows who each of them is and since has gone into Somalia and bombed and raided an Al Shabaab training camp that had about 300 people at it. Two Al Shabaab leaders were killed and others as well. About a week after the massacre at the Nairobi mall, the US Navy Seals had a nighttime raid from the sea near Mogadishu, Somalia, but failed to get the leader they were seeking to assassinate. They came under very heavy fire from defenders of the leader of the mall massacre. It is suspected that Saudi Arabia is funding these groups and that the pirates that formerly were capturing ships on the Indian ocean were funding their operations from the booty and ransom money they were getting.
The other big national news is that of the president of this country being indicted by the World Court in the Hague for allegedly promoting gangs of thugs to beat up and kill opponents to his election efforts back in 2008. This involved over 1000 people being killed at the time of the elections. He is trying everything to avoid going there, even threatening to pull Kenya out of the league of nations who answer to the legal system of the Hague Court. (The USA does not belong either; otherwise, you could be sure that some elected or appointed officials of the last administration and probably some of the present administration would be indicted and certainly convicted of war crimes.)
Lastly, the roads here are notoriously awful: bumpy and full of potholes, numerous, obnoxious speed bumps to slow down drivers, narrow lanes and shoulders that drop off fast into ditches. So there are many road accidents and roll-overs, numerous deaths as well. Many buses travel too fast and every so often there are terrible accidents, even last week a big head-on of two buses that killed six and badly injured about 20. The driver of one bus was waving to the other driver and lost control of the driver's wheel! Stupid!! In another incident one taxi driver (taxis are like Volkeswagon buses that can take 10-12 passengers) tried to beat a train at a rail crossing. He was wearing earphones and listening to loud music during the morning rush-hour traffic and didn't hear the horn of the train. The taxi was mangled, 13 were killed, and he ran from the scene of the accident but was later caught. He will go to prison for life.
Well, this is enough for now. It is really raining here now. Finally the spring rains are visiting us, about 3-4 weeks late. I continue to work on cutting down the size of my book because the publisher wants me to do that. I expect to receive in this coming week in the mail a contract to sign. The company is Liturgical Press from Collegeville, MN. It will be thrilled when the book is finally printed and public for purchase. That day is now in the foreseeable future. Praise God!
Bernie Owens
Friends,
I just spent nearly two hours typing what I have wanted for many weeks to describe to you about this place and now I think I lost it all on some crazy thing that happened on the computer. You can imagine how I feel. I need to take a break. Maybe sometime in the future I will do it again. It was a really long set of paragraphs about this place, an update on the terrorists, the government here and its mess with the World Court at the Hague, the roads here in Kenya, my book, etc, etc.! Damn!!!!!!
Go Lions!
Bernie Owens
I just spent nearly two hours typing what I have wanted for many weeks to describe to you about this place and now I think I lost it all on some crazy thing that happened on the computer. You can imagine how I feel. I need to take a break. Maybe sometime in the future I will do it again. It was a really long set of paragraphs about this place, an update on the terrorists, the government here and its mess with the World Court at the Hague, the roads here in Kenya, my book, etc, etc.! Damn!!!!!!
Go Lions!
Bernie Owens
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Dear Friends,
It has been more than three weeks since I wrote anything on this blog. I have had so much to tell you that I keep delaying till I would have a lengthy time to write. So much has happened in the last three weeks and now I finally have time to send you a long letter.
Most importantly, I am quite well and have been really busy, working hard at some demanding projects, doing a good variety of things.
First, I had a class a week ago today to lead for 16 people: six were Jesuit seminarians, 5 nuns and then the rest were lay people except for one priest. I had to present material on the Foundations or Fundamentals of Retreat Guidance. It was at the Jesuit seminary in downtown Nairobi. If you know me, you know I love to do this kind of work . . . not just to teach but also to lead a class whose topic pertains to the God-life in all of us. It took lots of retyping notes and then finally learning how to scan previously typed pages and transmit them as attachments. (My God, did I tax myself and brain in trying to learn how to do the process for sending scanned documents. I finally had to get the help of a more knowledgeable Jesuit to get this piece done.) Anyway, I got it done and provided them some 11 or 12 pages of relevant materials. What I spent the better part of our two hours on was emphasizing the fundamental of all fundamentals in retreat guidance, i.e., the active presence of God's Holy Spirit in anyone of us; the Spirit prompting, speaking, guiding anyone who has learned to listen to the Spirit in their experience. It was fun to use chalkboard diagrams to illustrate this reality in our depths. There were good questions and good reflections on implications of this truth when working with someone who asks you to guide their prayer, their retreat.
Then I was asked to deliver a class here at the retreat center on "ecclesiology" to 28 people learning to be spiritual directors. They have been coming here for the last two years for a program similar to the Internship in Ignatian Spirituality I led at Manresa for many years. I had never addressed this theme before, so I had 4-5 days of reading to do in order to adequately prepare. What was especially new for me was to talk not just about 'church' but church IN AFRICA. So I had to read and type a summary on the world gathering of African bishops in 1994, on the second gathering of the African bishops in 2009, and finally a 225 page book on looking at what is church in this continent as it faces the crises of AIDS, refugees, and chronic, dehumanizing poverty. It was lots of work, so too the typing a summary of all of this and finally presenting it to the group. It was a good moment to present it all and hear from these Africans what is their experience of the church living with these three huge challenges. I learned a lot, a lot about what is going on in the 53 nations of this continent of more than 1 billion people!
Finally, I finished this morning a two day retreat with 12 young Kenyan men, all of whom are looking seriously at entering the Jesuits come next May, They ranged in ages from 22 to 42. What a delight it was to do this. We hit it off very well. I had them seriously look at different experiences of people in the Bible being called by God and share which story they identified with most, then to look at who Jesus is to them, to consider just how much He means to them (what great sharings from them), then to consider what are the riches of Ignatian spirituality and in belonging to the Jesuits, what is the nature of the work we do (so much on what is the Kingdom of God, the basis or ultimate goal of all our ministries of schools, parishes, retreat houses, scholarly work), and finally the discussion of an article by Pedro Arrupe, our former Father General (1965-81), on the Eucharist. I wanted them who are considering being future priests to consider this theme central to being a priest and ask them whether they ever imagined themselves leading a mass, someday praying the mass while vested and leading a congregation of believers in this awesome prayer. Again, what they had to say to these questions was truly wonderful. Our session was so rich, so satisfying. These men are ready to start their lives as Jesuits.
I have never before had the opportunity to lead something like these last two items. So I am feeling creative, challenged, and alive!
Last Tuesday all of the 28 people learning to be spiritual guides plus staff, myself included, went to a nearby college called Tangaza and sat in on a morning of lectures having to do with African Traditional Religion and African culture. It was very worth our time. We even touched on witchcraft and how much it influences African thinking and ways of understanding the world of the gods. Even Christians have some ways of being influenced by such in their thinking about God and how God interacts with us in the struggles of life.
I continue to wear my orthopedic boot to protect the left foot where I broke a small bone. I have completed four weeks and have two more weeks to wear it. No pain, it is just clumsy to walk around with it and have a cane in my right hand to balance my walking. I take some vitamin D pills to aid the bone growth. In the meantime, I have abandoned all that I planted in the plot I have charge of in the huge garden on these grounds. The fulltime caretakers have kept it watered but I have done no weeding. I don't want to risk this foot and the helaing process!!.
(I am going to take a break now and will write more later this evening or tomorrow morning.)
Bernie Owens
It has been more than three weeks since I wrote anything on this blog. I have had so much to tell you that I keep delaying till I would have a lengthy time to write. So much has happened in the last three weeks and now I finally have time to send you a long letter.
Most importantly, I am quite well and have been really busy, working hard at some demanding projects, doing a good variety of things.
First, I had a class a week ago today to lead for 16 people: six were Jesuit seminarians, 5 nuns and then the rest were lay people except for one priest. I had to present material on the Foundations or Fundamentals of Retreat Guidance. It was at the Jesuit seminary in downtown Nairobi. If you know me, you know I love to do this kind of work . . . not just to teach but also to lead a class whose topic pertains to the God-life in all of us. It took lots of retyping notes and then finally learning how to scan previously typed pages and transmit them as attachments. (My God, did I tax myself and brain in trying to learn how to do the process for sending scanned documents. I finally had to get the help of a more knowledgeable Jesuit to get this piece done.) Anyway, I got it done and provided them some 11 or 12 pages of relevant materials. What I spent the better part of our two hours on was emphasizing the fundamental of all fundamentals in retreat guidance, i.e., the active presence of God's Holy Spirit in anyone of us; the Spirit prompting, speaking, guiding anyone who has learned to listen to the Spirit in their experience. It was fun to use chalkboard diagrams to illustrate this reality in our depths. There were good questions and good reflections on implications of this truth when working with someone who asks you to guide their prayer, their retreat.
Then I was asked to deliver a class here at the retreat center on "ecclesiology" to 28 people learning to be spiritual directors. They have been coming here for the last two years for a program similar to the Internship in Ignatian Spirituality I led at Manresa for many years. I had never addressed this theme before, so I had 4-5 days of reading to do in order to adequately prepare. What was especially new for me was to talk not just about 'church' but church IN AFRICA. So I had to read and type a summary on the world gathering of African bishops in 1994, on the second gathering of the African bishops in 2009, and finally a 225 page book on looking at what is church in this continent as it faces the crises of AIDS, refugees, and chronic, dehumanizing poverty. It was lots of work, so too the typing a summary of all of this and finally presenting it to the group. It was a good moment to present it all and hear from these Africans what is their experience of the church living with these three huge challenges. I learned a lot, a lot about what is going on in the 53 nations of this continent of more than 1 billion people!
Finally, I finished this morning a two day retreat with 12 young Kenyan men, all of whom are looking seriously at entering the Jesuits come next May, They ranged in ages from 22 to 42. What a delight it was to do this. We hit it off very well. I had them seriously look at different experiences of people in the Bible being called by God and share which story they identified with most, then to look at who Jesus is to them, to consider just how much He means to them (what great sharings from them), then to consider what are the riches of Ignatian spirituality and in belonging to the Jesuits, what is the nature of the work we do (so much on what is the Kingdom of God, the basis or ultimate goal of all our ministries of schools, parishes, retreat houses, scholarly work), and finally the discussion of an article by Pedro Arrupe, our former Father General (1965-81), on the Eucharist. I wanted them who are considering being future priests to consider this theme central to being a priest and ask them whether they ever imagined themselves leading a mass, someday praying the mass while vested and leading a congregation of believers in this awesome prayer. Again, what they had to say to these questions was truly wonderful. Our session was so rich, so satisfying. These men are ready to start their lives as Jesuits.
I have never before had the opportunity to lead something like these last two items. So I am feeling creative, challenged, and alive!
Last Tuesday all of the 28 people learning to be spiritual guides plus staff, myself included, went to a nearby college called Tangaza and sat in on a morning of lectures having to do with African Traditional Religion and African culture. It was very worth our time. We even touched on witchcraft and how much it influences African thinking and ways of understanding the world of the gods. Even Christians have some ways of being influenced by such in their thinking about God and how God interacts with us in the struggles of life.
I continue to wear my orthopedic boot to protect the left foot where I broke a small bone. I have completed four weeks and have two more weeks to wear it. No pain, it is just clumsy to walk around with it and have a cane in my right hand to balance my walking. I take some vitamin D pills to aid the bone growth. In the meantime, I have abandoned all that I planted in the plot I have charge of in the huge garden on these grounds. The fulltime caretakers have kept it watered but I have done no weeding. I don't want to risk this foot and the helaing process!!.
(I am going to take a break now and will write more later this evening or tomorrow morning.)
Bernie Owens
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Dear Friends,
I type this for you on a Thursday afternoon that is quite sunny and rather warm in the sun but with a gentle, mountain breeze to make you want to open your door and windows to feel quite comfortable in the shade.
Lots has happened since my last posting on this blog. First, I mentioned having to led a retreat last weekend for a number of young Jesuit priests, all from Kenya, Tanzania or Ethiopia. There were 14 in all who showed up. All of these men are between 35 and 45 years of age. They were ordained within the last five years, one of them just a few months ago. They are doing work like leading a big co-ed boarding school or running parishes or dealing immediately with Somalian refugees, working at the recruitment of future Jesuits, or being available to students at the University of Nairobi in a campus ministry, counseling capacity. How refreshing to be with such young men full of life and vision and obviously enjoying their seeing each other again after seminary days when they were together all the time. Their sense of brotherhood is so evident. I had the responsibility for choosing the themes for their prayer and discussion, also for setting up the schedule and its pacing. The weekend for them and for me was full of blessings, with some deep moments of sharing, some great laughter and beautiful times of prayer. On Saturday evening, after dinner, we relaxed around the movie Shawshank Redemption (with Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman). On Sunday evening, after the retreat was over we all went to an Ethiopian restaurant. I wish you could have seen it with its music in the background: a large round tent whose roof moved upward till it formed a peak at the center. The table surfaces were made from the slices of a large wooden tree trunk, with jagged edges, and then varnished. The one Ethiopian Jesuit with us could speak his dialect with our waitress and eat with his fingers, as is their custom. I just loved it. No, I and the rest ate with forks and knives. The food was really good. Some of the beef was moderately spicy. Yummy! I drank a beer, native to Kenya. It is called Tusker; it is 4.5 in alcohol with the color and body of maybe a Sam Adams type beer. It tasted so, so good!
Toward the end of the retreat I had them read, pray privately, and then discuss among ourselves a copy of the letter that the head of the Trappist community in Algeria wrote to his parents and siblings at the time he and his 8 fellow monks were threatened with death by jihadists. The movie "Of Gods and Men" is based on event. All but two of the monks eventually were kidnapped and beheaded. The letter reflects total love for the Muslim villagers these monks lived with and had gotten to know and care about; and forgiveness for whoever would be his assassin. It is the closest thing I have ever witnessed to Jesus' forgiveness from the cross for those who crucified him. What this article generated among the Jesuit priests is a very interesting sharing about the situation some of them are surrounded by, especially for those working in Tanzania, the nation to our south. Some of them openly talked about significant tensions there between Muslims and Christians and the talk of threats by Muslim extremists against parishes and schools. One of our schools, St. Peter Claver in Dodoma, that nation's capital, has a co-ed school and dormitories. One night the principal, James Agawa, received a phone call from a parent saying she had heard that someone was going to attack the school. It didn't happen, thank God, but James told me he wants to build a wall around the school property (1250 acres!!); he told me, "then I will be able to sleep!!" Those staffing parishes, as in Mwanza, say there are some tensions but not like in the heavily Muslim populations down near the Indian Ocean, like Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar Island, or Mombasa in Kenya.. What really stirs up Muslims are American evangelicals who openly and aggressively want to convert Muslims. We Jesuits don't do such at all, nor other Catholic parishes and groups. Our approach is to live with and offer education. If students and parents want to become Christian, then there are ways for their doing that; but our way is not a direct effort to proselytize. Unfortunately, Muslims who are angry with this effort of direct evangelizing do not distinguish between evangelicals and other Christians. Anyway, it was fascinating to see these young Jesuits hint at the prospect of their being bloodshed someday and possibly their being involved in it all. I am sure the Trappist monks in Algeria wondered the same as they discerned their call to stay in Algeria despite the danger to themselves, rather than return to France or go elsewhere. It was a profound moment for me to be in that room with all of them and hear them say this among themselves. I am so impressed with what they are doing and with their trusting God in their vow of obedience to the provincial who missioned them to these schools and parishes. By the way, the provincial was in on all of our sessions, so he knows what he is asking of these men, in the Name of Christ Jesus. Wow, talk about being at the heart of what matters most! I am privileged to be in on all of this!
And then those who are working with the refugees up in northern Kenya: some of them have risked being shot by Al Shabaab Somalis, the same type who murdered so many at the Westgate Mall four weekends ago here in Nairobi. Their usual story is of dealing with those who have lost everything and live in tents, not having a sense of home and going through what sometimes is the hell of nighttime in refugee camps with the violence and thievery that happens there among desperate, frightened people. The good news of their efforts is that they help in running a school in the camp so that refugees can get a school diploma and be more employable when they finally can go home or find a permanent place in this nation.
So...to all of you who remembered us in prayer on that weekend retreat I say a deep "thank you." God blessed us very much and you were a very important part of it all. Please keep us and their wonderful ministries in your prayers. Thanks much!
The other big piece of news is that I have broken a bone at the edge of my left foot. We all have a bony knob at the edge of the foot, about half way between the little toe and the heel. I began to feel some minor pain there in the last two or three weeks I was in the States. When I got here, as I walked more on hard surfaces and unpaved roadways, the pain increased. And when I started shoveling in my garden plot, trying to press through the hard African clay, I one day snapped something toward the top of the little toe of the left foot and stretching back on the foot parallel to the left edge. I thought it was a tendon or torn tissue pulled away from the bone. I went to a doctor the day after the retreat and he ordered an x-ray. It showed a break in the bone at that knob; it also showed a break I had had some time ago near the joint leading to the second toe of the same foot. So the doctor ordered a bone density test, wondering whether I had a condition that makes breaks easy. The test proved negative but it made me think that sometimes I press too hard with my left foot when trying to make the blade of the shovel cut into the soil. In the future I will have to use the African pick I described in an earlier blog-letter when I deal with really hard clay.
This situation, then, has made me have to wear a big boot on my left foot and walk with a support cane in my right hand. I will be this way till maybe December 1, during a six week healing process. In the meantime I have had to give over charge of my garden plot to one of the fulltime workmen. Isaac is his name and he was most understanding and reassuring that he would, in the meantime, care for my little seedlings that have sprouted and are for the most part growing quite well.
One amazing incident happened yesterday on the way back from the Westgate Mall area where I went for the bone density test. I was sitting in the co-pilot seat of a car and a nun from our health-care center was in the back-seat. She was dressed in full nun's regalia, all white with a small red cross on her chest area. Eric, a full time employee of this place, a native Kenyan and father of a new baby boy, was driving. As he was making a right hand turn (equivalent to a left-hand turn on US roads) he was motioned over to the side of this busy intersection in Nairobi by two soldiers with semi-automatic rifles over their shoulders. They wanted Eric's ID and mine. They were checking anyone who might look questionable, suspicious. After seeing our ID and learning that I was a priest, one of the soldiers, with a deadpan face through this whole conversation, said to me, "Fine, Father. Have a good day." As we drove away, the nun started laughing and laughing at the thought of these soldiers taking us for possible terrorists. So in the drive all the way back to this retreat centre we talked about how suspicious we look. I said to the nun, "Wouldn't we make a great team--you a nun, I a priest. We could pull off many jobs and the police would never suspect." She laughed and laughed some more, Eric too.
Two last items for today's blog: there is a tree in this part of the world that is stunning in its beauty. It is called the jacaranda tree. The first syllable is sounded as though it is jack. Anyway, these trees are all over Nairobi and one is on our grounds here. These trees get as high as about 60 feet up, with light rust colored trunks. What is so attractive about them are the clusters of light colored purple-bluish tinted-bells all over the tree. They are in blossom now until Christmas time. I can't get over their beauty--again, not a deep purple but a purple with a slight blue tint in the flower. And when the blossoms fall to the ground you have like a purple carpet all over the place. It is out of this world. And when you plant a pink blossoming bogen-via bush next to it, the color combination is even more beautiful. I wish all of you could see the lush growth of this area of the world. Lots of eucalyptus. Even its pine trees are remarkable; its needles about twice as long as the needles on the pine trees of North America.
Lastly, I have gotten accustomed to sleeping with mosquito netting over my bed. I like to leave the door of my bedroom open during the day with the windows on the opposite side of the room open as well. This is great for cross ventilation. In the meantime mosquitoes will wander in, especially as dusk approaches. They like to nestle in my closet, clinging to folded up clothing or on the towels in the bathroom. Then after lights are out they come looking for me, only to bump up against the netting and I can sleep in peace and not be bothered with them.
All for how. Go Tigers, go Lions. I can follow them rather closely on the internet. I feel close to the city this way and with the many of you who enjoy Detroit area sports. And I hope all of you enjoy the autumn colors!
Fr. Bernie Owens
I type this for you on a Thursday afternoon that is quite sunny and rather warm in the sun but with a gentle, mountain breeze to make you want to open your door and windows to feel quite comfortable in the shade.
Lots has happened since my last posting on this blog. First, I mentioned having to led a retreat last weekend for a number of young Jesuit priests, all from Kenya, Tanzania or Ethiopia. There were 14 in all who showed up. All of these men are between 35 and 45 years of age. They were ordained within the last five years, one of them just a few months ago. They are doing work like leading a big co-ed boarding school or running parishes or dealing immediately with Somalian refugees, working at the recruitment of future Jesuits, or being available to students at the University of Nairobi in a campus ministry, counseling capacity. How refreshing to be with such young men full of life and vision and obviously enjoying their seeing each other again after seminary days when they were together all the time. Their sense of brotherhood is so evident. I had the responsibility for choosing the themes for their prayer and discussion, also for setting up the schedule and its pacing. The weekend for them and for me was full of blessings, with some deep moments of sharing, some great laughter and beautiful times of prayer. On Saturday evening, after dinner, we relaxed around the movie Shawshank Redemption (with Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman). On Sunday evening, after the retreat was over we all went to an Ethiopian restaurant. I wish you could have seen it with its music in the background: a large round tent whose roof moved upward till it formed a peak at the center. The table surfaces were made from the slices of a large wooden tree trunk, with jagged edges, and then varnished. The one Ethiopian Jesuit with us could speak his dialect with our waitress and eat with his fingers, as is their custom. I just loved it. No, I and the rest ate with forks and knives. The food was really good. Some of the beef was moderately spicy. Yummy! I drank a beer, native to Kenya. It is called Tusker; it is 4.5 in alcohol with the color and body of maybe a Sam Adams type beer. It tasted so, so good!
Toward the end of the retreat I had them read, pray privately, and then discuss among ourselves a copy of the letter that the head of the Trappist community in Algeria wrote to his parents and siblings at the time he and his 8 fellow monks were threatened with death by jihadists. The movie "Of Gods and Men" is based on event. All but two of the monks eventually were kidnapped and beheaded. The letter reflects total love for the Muslim villagers these monks lived with and had gotten to know and care about; and forgiveness for whoever would be his assassin. It is the closest thing I have ever witnessed to Jesus' forgiveness from the cross for those who crucified him. What this article generated among the Jesuit priests is a very interesting sharing about the situation some of them are surrounded by, especially for those working in Tanzania, the nation to our south. Some of them openly talked about significant tensions there between Muslims and Christians and the talk of threats by Muslim extremists against parishes and schools. One of our schools, St. Peter Claver in Dodoma, that nation's capital, has a co-ed school and dormitories. One night the principal, James Agawa, received a phone call from a parent saying she had heard that someone was going to attack the school. It didn't happen, thank God, but James told me he wants to build a wall around the school property (1250 acres!!); he told me, "then I will be able to sleep!!" Those staffing parishes, as in Mwanza, say there are some tensions but not like in the heavily Muslim populations down near the Indian Ocean, like Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar Island, or Mombasa in Kenya.. What really stirs up Muslims are American evangelicals who openly and aggressively want to convert Muslims. We Jesuits don't do such at all, nor other Catholic parishes and groups. Our approach is to live with and offer education. If students and parents want to become Christian, then there are ways for their doing that; but our way is not a direct effort to proselytize. Unfortunately, Muslims who are angry with this effort of direct evangelizing do not distinguish between evangelicals and other Christians. Anyway, it was fascinating to see these young Jesuits hint at the prospect of their being bloodshed someday and possibly their being involved in it all. I am sure the Trappist monks in Algeria wondered the same as they discerned their call to stay in Algeria despite the danger to themselves, rather than return to France or go elsewhere. It was a profound moment for me to be in that room with all of them and hear them say this among themselves. I am so impressed with what they are doing and with their trusting God in their vow of obedience to the provincial who missioned them to these schools and parishes. By the way, the provincial was in on all of our sessions, so he knows what he is asking of these men, in the Name of Christ Jesus. Wow, talk about being at the heart of what matters most! I am privileged to be in on all of this!
And then those who are working with the refugees up in northern Kenya: some of them have risked being shot by Al Shabaab Somalis, the same type who murdered so many at the Westgate Mall four weekends ago here in Nairobi. Their usual story is of dealing with those who have lost everything and live in tents, not having a sense of home and going through what sometimes is the hell of nighttime in refugee camps with the violence and thievery that happens there among desperate, frightened people. The good news of their efforts is that they help in running a school in the camp so that refugees can get a school diploma and be more employable when they finally can go home or find a permanent place in this nation.
So...to all of you who remembered us in prayer on that weekend retreat I say a deep "thank you." God blessed us very much and you were a very important part of it all. Please keep us and their wonderful ministries in your prayers. Thanks much!
The other big piece of news is that I have broken a bone at the edge of my left foot. We all have a bony knob at the edge of the foot, about half way between the little toe and the heel. I began to feel some minor pain there in the last two or three weeks I was in the States. When I got here, as I walked more on hard surfaces and unpaved roadways, the pain increased. And when I started shoveling in my garden plot, trying to press through the hard African clay, I one day snapped something toward the top of the little toe of the left foot and stretching back on the foot parallel to the left edge. I thought it was a tendon or torn tissue pulled away from the bone. I went to a doctor the day after the retreat and he ordered an x-ray. It showed a break in the bone at that knob; it also showed a break I had had some time ago near the joint leading to the second toe of the same foot. So the doctor ordered a bone density test, wondering whether I had a condition that makes breaks easy. The test proved negative but it made me think that sometimes I press too hard with my left foot when trying to make the blade of the shovel cut into the soil. In the future I will have to use the African pick I described in an earlier blog-letter when I deal with really hard clay.
This situation, then, has made me have to wear a big boot on my left foot and walk with a support cane in my right hand. I will be this way till maybe December 1, during a six week healing process. In the meantime I have had to give over charge of my garden plot to one of the fulltime workmen. Isaac is his name and he was most understanding and reassuring that he would, in the meantime, care for my little seedlings that have sprouted and are for the most part growing quite well.
One amazing incident happened yesterday on the way back from the Westgate Mall area where I went for the bone density test. I was sitting in the co-pilot seat of a car and a nun from our health-care center was in the back-seat. She was dressed in full nun's regalia, all white with a small red cross on her chest area. Eric, a full time employee of this place, a native Kenyan and father of a new baby boy, was driving. As he was making a right hand turn (equivalent to a left-hand turn on US roads) he was motioned over to the side of this busy intersection in Nairobi by two soldiers with semi-automatic rifles over their shoulders. They wanted Eric's ID and mine. They were checking anyone who might look questionable, suspicious. After seeing our ID and learning that I was a priest, one of the soldiers, with a deadpan face through this whole conversation, said to me, "Fine, Father. Have a good day." As we drove away, the nun started laughing and laughing at the thought of these soldiers taking us for possible terrorists. So in the drive all the way back to this retreat centre we talked about how suspicious we look. I said to the nun, "Wouldn't we make a great team--you a nun, I a priest. We could pull off many jobs and the police would never suspect." She laughed and laughed some more, Eric too.
Two last items for today's blog: there is a tree in this part of the world that is stunning in its beauty. It is called the jacaranda tree. The first syllable is sounded as though it is jack. Anyway, these trees are all over Nairobi and one is on our grounds here. These trees get as high as about 60 feet up, with light rust colored trunks. What is so attractive about them are the clusters of light colored purple-bluish tinted-bells all over the tree. They are in blossom now until Christmas time. I can't get over their beauty--again, not a deep purple but a purple with a slight blue tint in the flower. And when the blossoms fall to the ground you have like a purple carpet all over the place. It is out of this world. And when you plant a pink blossoming bogen-via bush next to it, the color combination is even more beautiful. I wish all of you could see the lush growth of this area of the world. Lots of eucalyptus. Even its pine trees are remarkable; its needles about twice as long as the needles on the pine trees of North America.
Lastly, I have gotten accustomed to sleeping with mosquito netting over my bed. I like to leave the door of my bedroom open during the day with the windows on the opposite side of the room open as well. This is great for cross ventilation. In the meantime mosquitoes will wander in, especially as dusk approaches. They like to nestle in my closet, clinging to folded up clothing or on the towels in the bathroom. Then after lights are out they come looking for me, only to bump up against the netting and I can sleep in peace and not be bothered with them.
All for how. Go Tigers, go Lions. I can follow them rather closely on the internet. I feel close to the city this way and with the many of you who enjoy Detroit area sports. And I hope all of you enjoy the autumn colors!
Fr. Bernie Owens
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Dear Friends,
I typed a long letter on this day, October 6 but am afraid I lost it all.
So quickly, I have great news to share: Liturgical Publishing Company in Collegeville wants to publish my book but after I pare it down from 257 pages to about 180. That is a lot of cutting but I will do it. I so want this book to be born!! I have worked on it for three years. When will it be born? I suspect next summer or fall; it will take me till next March or so to find time to make the needed changes. Its title is: More Than You Could Ever Imagine: Ignatian and Carmelite Insights on Our Becoming Divine. It tells the process of how God leads those willing in love and trust to take on the fullness of divine life, what we will be like individually in the next life and what will be the nature of our life as a whole human race in the next life. Kind of lofty?? Certainly, but as the Christian scriptures promise: "Eye has not seen, ear has not heard nor has it so much as entered into the minds of humanity what God has prepared for those who love Him." It is more than one could ever imagine.
Then I have a weekend retreat to lead for 17 young African Jesuit priests next weekend (October 11-13). I would greatly appreciate your praying for all of us. It is a very important event for them and for me. Thanks again.
Kenya is still numb from the tragedy of the massacre two weekends ago. Pray for this country and its future, please. So much promise here and at the same time so much poverty and unemployment. This stands in contrast to the beauty of nature here.
God bless. I need to go.
Bernie Owens
I typed a long letter on this day, October 6 but am afraid I lost it all.
So quickly, I have great news to share: Liturgical Publishing Company in Collegeville wants to publish my book but after I pare it down from 257 pages to about 180. That is a lot of cutting but I will do it. I so want this book to be born!! I have worked on it for three years. When will it be born? I suspect next summer or fall; it will take me till next March or so to find time to make the needed changes. Its title is: More Than You Could Ever Imagine: Ignatian and Carmelite Insights on Our Becoming Divine. It tells the process of how God leads those willing in love and trust to take on the fullness of divine life, what we will be like individually in the next life and what will be the nature of our life as a whole human race in the next life. Kind of lofty?? Certainly, but as the Christian scriptures promise: "Eye has not seen, ear has not heard nor has it so much as entered into the minds of humanity what God has prepared for those who love Him." It is more than one could ever imagine.
Then I have a weekend retreat to lead for 17 young African Jesuit priests next weekend (October 11-13). I would greatly appreciate your praying for all of us. It is a very important event for them and for me. Thanks again.
Kenya is still numb from the tragedy of the massacre two weekends ago. Pray for this country and its future, please. So much promise here and at the same time so much poverty and unemployment. This stands in contrast to the beauty of nature here.
God bless. I need to go.
Bernie Owens
Sunday, September 29, 2013
HI, Friends,
I am writing to you on a warm Sunday afternoon at 5 PM. The sun is rather quickly moving toward its place in the west and beyond the rolling mountain range that beautifies our southern view. Off to the left, looking southeast is the big city of Nairobi at about 500' below us. I am sure you are aware of the horrible tragedy that has happened here over the last week. A small, violent group of people who call themselves Al Shabaab, an offshoot of Al Quieda, did tremendous damage to a high-end shopping mall on the other side of the city and murdered dozens of people in the process. They sought revenge for the military occupation of Somalia, their country of origin.
Two years ago Al Shabaab went public in Somalia and attempted a coup against the government there and terrorized many of the citizenry. The desperate people fled to the west into Kenya, which had to foot the bill for providing emergency care: tents, port-a-johns, food, electricity, etc for these people. With our neighbors to the west, the Ugandans, and those to the north, Ethiopians, this three-nation contingent has gone into Somalia and occupied about a third of it--what is to the immediate east of the Kenyan border. Al Shabaab is bent on setting up a strictly (fundamentalistic) Islamic state. It is most likely being funded from Qatar or Saudi Arabia or another Arabic state that wants to chase out all non-Muslims and establish this part of the world just for Muslims and then those who want to live Sharia Law with a nomadic lifestyle where men are strict chiefs over small tribal groups of young men, women and children, cows, goats, and burros.
The mall they targeted was built and funded by an Israeli couple. It is a total loss, looking like some of the buildings in World War II time that were leveled by aerial bombing. At the final stage of the showdown between Al Shabaab and Kenyan military, the army took a shoulder mounted bazooka and shot it into and through the wall where some of these terrorists were hiding. This was done after a terrorist sniper killed two Kenyan troop[s trying to enter the room through the door to it. One wonders whether that wall-piercing shell killed hostages along with terrorists. Right now forensic agents from Kenya, Israel, the US, Britain and one or two other countries are combing the rubble to get DNA samples and check on possible identification of the over 60 people who are still unaccounted for.
The newspapers here have been filled with stories about this tragedy: many, many stories of heroism but also charges of incompetence and blame for letting this event happen. It is now public that the Israeli embassy warned the authorities here that a strike was coming between the 13th and the 28th of this month. Security agents even checked the Westgate mall one or two days before the event began. So someone ignored the warnings, maybe one of many before, and was asleep at the switch. I have heard it said that guards can be bribed easily, so poor is this nation, and that guns, grenades and other military related paraphenalia could be brought in the backdoor of the mall and stored until they were to be used.
One item that scared me from newspaper stories I read yesterday was the report that Al Shabaab had originally targeted, along with the Westgate Mall, the Catholic church in the city, Holy Family Basilica. Why they did not follow through is anyone's guess at this time.
A great story emerged from the shootings about two children, a 5 year old boy and his two year old sister standing next to their mother who was lying on the floor of the mall. She had been shot and was bleeding in front of her children. The man who did this was looking at the children and the boy said to him: "You are a bad man!" With that the terrorist gave to the boy a piece of wrapped candy and walked away, letting them live, perhaps stirred somewhat with feelings of guilt. I think the mother survived.
The other news item to mention here is that I am back into gardening. Those who know me from my Manresa years know that it is one of my favorite hobbies and favorite ways to relax (swimming too). The garden here is about the size of two football fields. It is just huge and is the source of much of the food for the Jesuit community but especially for the people coming on retreat here. I asked the caretaker for a portion of it and he gave me a plot about 100 feet long and 30 feet wide. This is two and a half times more space than I had at Manresa. So...I started on Thursday to work the plot. It has to be done entirely by hand; there is no rototiller or such. The soil is a dark red, rusty colored clay. It can be loosened best by an instrument whose blade is wide like that of a hoe but is swung over your right shoulder like a pick or axe. It claws the soil well and loosens it. Right now the soil is very dry and dusty. In the last three days I have finished preparing two rows, 100' long, and planted corn, beets, peas and tomato seedlings. That last item is a roll-of-the-dice gamble. I will see whether I get sprouts that I can plant later as small tomato plants.
All of the watering is done by a huge irrigation system; each row has its water tube or soaker hose with pin-holes in them to allow the water to soak into the area where one has planted. Before watering I put by hand compost all along the rows. The most demanding part of this work is the breaking up the soil, and to do this in a strong, direct sun. (I am careful to wear a long-sleeve shirt and hat with a brim over my ears, gloves too and then sun-screen on the part of the neck and face not covered by the clothing.) I do this for about 15 minutes and them puffing and panting walk over to the edge of my plot and sit down under the large leaves of the banana grove. There I can rest and view the beauty of the garden space full of veggies that are growing so well. Again, this plot is as big as two football fields put together, Imagine what it must take to care for a thing this this . There are three men who are full time doing this six days a week, while caring at other times during the day for mowing the grass and taking care of the flower gardens and trees around the retreat buildings. The grounds and surroundings here are remarkably beautiful. They are well cared for.
Anyway, I am so glad to have this outlet here. I am expecting corn just before Christmas and peas and beets around American Thanksgiving time. We are moving into spring now and I am told the spring rains should be coming rather soon.
I need to move on now. I have to walk up hill to the garden area and turn off the irrigation valve where I have been watering my plantings. Dinner is coming soon, preceded by a 45 minute social. We do this on Sundays, when there will be a gathering of Jesuits and guests around some peanuts, beer, scotch, soft-drinks, etc.
Till later. Kwa heri. (Goodbye in Swahili) Uwe na siku jiorni (Have a good evening in Swahili)
Bernie Owens
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Dear Friends,
I hope this is read by someone. It will save me lots of individual email replies!
Anyway, Nairobi right now is tense with Al Quieda idiots at a mall not too far from here. They have killed almost 60 people so far. So surreal!
I had two family members visit me last Tuesday afternoon. We went to visit and feed the giraffes at a nearby refuge for giraffes and warthogs . . . yes, warthogs. It was fun to feed the gentle giraffes and see them up so close. Then we went to the Karen Blixen museum which is only 3 miles or so from here. She is the one who ran a coffee plantation from 1912 till the 1930s, failed in doing that, but wrote a number of very successful books. The movie Out Of Africa with R. Redford and Meryl Streep, was based on the book she wrote about her life and marriage while on the plantation. One great surprise for me was to learn that she also authored the book on which the movie, Babette's Feast, was based. That movie is one of the all-time greats for me. I have seen it three times and am deeply moved each time! Her building and plantation, now a national museum, are gorgeous, and our guide around the place was outstanding. I would recommend the tour to anyone visiting here.
Last Thursday around 5 PM I had my first encounter with a snake. It had been raining rather heavily, a chilly one at that, and as I was waiting to start the mass for the retreatants, I saw on the floor of the sacristy a black object with white colored rings every inch or so on it. It was about a foot long and not very thick. I thought it was a piece of cloth, since it lay there so motionless. After I finished the mass I stayed in the chapel to pray for 20 minutes, finished and got up only to see this same object under my chair. It was then I realized that this was a snake and that it had crawled out of the cold rain, into the sacristy, and later wiggled its way across the chapel's wooden parque floor. I did not know how to react, so I just left it there. I went to the dining room and during dinner told the other Jesuits about this incident. They told me it is poisonous. I asked what should one do in such a situation. One responded strongly, "Kill it!" Sadly, one of the nuns on retreat killed it later that evening after she had come to the other side of the chapel and found the snake had crawled to where the Blessed Sacrament was exposed and people were gathering for an hour's adoration.
Retreat work is often profound and very touching to see how God moves people to new freedoms and joy. I wish more people discovered such an opportunity. I spend my mornings listening to and offering guidance to 5 retreatants, 45 minutes for each of them. Then in the afternoon I try to take the next step in my getting situated here. I still don't have a driver's license. I have to first get my visa upstaged to a more permanent status. To do that I have to get proof of the college degrees I have earned. What a pain to try to get such from archives back in the USA and then to find a way to pay in US money for the service. My tourist visa is good till December 19.
I am able to follow Tiger baseball and Lions football on the internet and a little of Michigan news on mlive.com, national stuff on the headlines of the NYTimes.
Lastly, the interview that the new pope gave for America magazine and published earlier this week is truly amazing. This man is so frank, so down-to-earth, so disarming and human. It augers very well for the church his time of leadership. He has some major decisions to make in the coming months. God be with him!
I will close out now. God's blessings be with you and all you do.
Fr. Bernie
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Hi, friends,
I has been two and a half weeks since my last post. So many immediate things demanding my attention for me to post anything.
Anyway, I am feeling more and more settled in. I am beginning to hang pictures on walls, so I am well beyond emptying boxes and filling shelves.
You should see how beautiful this place is. We are 5900 feet above sea level, on 60 acres with beautifully kept grounds. We also have the sounds of many animals here: roosters to wake us up in the morning and the bleating of a little calf, female, born just this afternoon. She is a beauty! The mother's incessant licking and the little one's wobbly legs and struggles to start feeding from the mother were tender, charming chapters of this whole drama. (I got to see some of the birthing process--wow!)
We are anticipating the planting of many seeds here in about a month, when spring begins--yes, spring, and there are plans to get rid of the critters that peck away at the little sprouts and destroy them. I have suggested red pepper mixed with water and sprayed on the little plants. There are also these little hedge hogs that eat and eat; they roll up into a ball when they sense danger; their porcupine like needles are their protection. So there are other means--I won't mention here--to rid ourselves of them. We have lots of rabbits we are raising in cages, also quails. Also a beehive that is modestly successful, modestly because it has been quite chilly in the nights and mornings and this makes the bees stay inside the hives and feed on their honey. Last week I saw my first monkey; it was visiting us around the banana plantation, hoping to steal some bananas, which are largely green right now.
I have finished two rounds of 8-day personally guided retreats--four retreatants for each round. The greatest challenge is to understand their English spoken with an accent. Some are fairly clear, others are really difficult to understand. I am happy to say that all had good retreats, some of these amazingly deep experiences of God. What a privilege to be able to witness such spiritual richness.
One of the more characteristic things going on here are the people looking for money, for handouts. There is so much poverty in Kenya, so much unemployment and therefore numerous robberies, stick-ups, and people at our gate hoping to get a Jesuit to pay for their education. I have already had two men in their late 20s who just about stampeded me begging for 4 figure money to pay off the balance of their college tuition. Total strangers! How they found out my telephone number and new email address I do not know. What a trip!!! I guess white people and Americans at that are assumed to have big sources of money.
One feature of this place is how numerous people who work on our grounds, maintenance, garden and animal care, and in the kitchen live on the grounds with their families. So we are like a plantations. Today there was great joy with one of the families who had their second baby boy. They have a good deal and they know it...job security, food and a roof over their head.
I will close up now. Maybe in a week or so I will have more news.
Fr. Bernie Owens
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Hi, Friends,
I am typing this at 4 PM, Tuesday afternoon, with temps in the high 60s(but quite cold at night time!!) I got here in good shape but very tired. It took a total of 17 hours flying time to get here. 15 of those 17 hours involved two back-to-back flights of 7.5 hours, with a one hour stop in Zurich,Switzerland. I am having to sleep a lot just to make it through a day. Altitude adjustment??(It is 6000 feet above sea level here.) Or maybe jetlag?? Or maybe some of both.
I have my first retreatants to guide for the next 8 days: three Kenyan nuns and one Kenyan diocesan priest. It is a challenge to understand their accented English. Of course I don't have an accent!! (Do I hear some heavy clearing of throats in the background??!!
I still three mail shipments: one a package by one of you mailed to me; one I mailed to myself--garden seeds --and then a UPS shipment of 16 boxes of books, clothes, notes, pictures to hang, and medicines. I am in a mess if the UPS shipment does not show up.
I wish I could take you all on a walk around this place. It is really beautiful. Everything grows so luxuriantly. By the way I saw my first monkey yesterday. He or she comes to steal from our banana grove.
All for now!
Bernie Owens
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