Dear Friends,

  It has been awhile since I have posted anything here.  I have been so busy and then had a little sickness in the last two days but am feeling much better since this afternoon.

  What do I tell you about?  First, I really enjoy the course I am leading at the Jesuit seminary every Wednesday AM.  I have 11 seminarians for it, four who are from India and 7 from nations in Africa (Ghana, Zambia and Uganda--no Kenyans!)  They are all about 30 years old.  I got accustomed at Manresa to a much wider experience in the students who came to the reading courses I led there, so I have had to shift.  Still, I enjoy them a lot and their interest.  They have a lot of questions and their questions reflect less life experience than what I had at Manresa.  We are reading through St Teresa of Avila's "The Interior Castle", a masterpiece in presenting some of the most exciting things God can and will do in people who really want God to be God in their lives, who learn to surrender and let God lead in their life, and are faithful to daily contemplative prayer.  If only more people knew about this and would commit themselves to this being part of their daily living!!  The joy in it is deeper than any other joy or happiness that can be known in this life.  Sometimes it is rather difficult getting to that place, the cross in it all.

   Then the batch of  four retreatants I am guiding now.  There is one who is astounding in her experience of God, just so moving.  It is all I can do not to burst out in tears during our sessions, (I do so after she leaves!) part of it because this person is touching on some of my own very deep longings for God.   I even recognize in her experience some of what I have been reading in some of the more advanced stages of the spiritual journey described in the "The Interior Castle".  It is like I know just what needs to be said to her since I just finished reading Teresa's advice for such situations.  There are times when I leave these conversations and sense that I have been blessed to touch on the Source of all reality, the deepest and most beautiful part of life, and that we all are living most times at a rather superficial level, oblivious to what is truly in our depths, of what we are being prepared for, of how stupid are many of our values or what a waste there is in how we spend our time so often.  It precipitates the question:  "what is really the Real?"  There is so much that is really, really empty!  And it sells well, economies depend a lot on its being well marketed.

  I came here almost 13 months ago.  In that time I have guided 88 people in retreats, the vast majority of them for 8 days, a few for 5 or 6.  Then I led a retreat in July when I gave talks, two talks a day over 8 days, to 17 others.  I am amazed that I have done this much: 105 people!

  Oh, yes, my roses.  They give me balance from all of this listening to so many people on retreats!  You should see them, the roses that is, not the people!  I am now getting wonderful results from the bone meal and composted cow manure I feed them.  Generous amounts of water too!  The leaves are so healthy and now that the temperatures are getting warmer, the blossoms are coming.  I have three bushes whose blossoms are pink but not pink-pink  There is a touch of orange in the the blossoms, almost like a peach tone that gives an off-tone of pink.  Just out of this world!  Then I have put up two poles on opposite ends of the rose garden, about 11-12 feet tall, and planted vines from seedlings at the bottom of each pole.  This plant gives off clusters of small blossoms of orange and yellow.  Right now the vines are beginning to wrap themselves around the poles and climb. Someday, in 3-4 weeks, I hope the poles will be loaded with clusters of these blossoms and make them like a torch on fire.

  Two-three weeks ago I made a major decision on a proposed pilgrimage to Italy I had hoped to lead.  I cancelled the effort because I thought the price was just too high and many who would want to come would decide not to come because of the cost.  I think the problem was the time of the year (June) when airfare and hotels are the most expensive.  Right now I am exploring the possibility of a pilgrimage to Italy during late October or early November of 2015.  I want to make it rather Franciscan in spirit, and also have some good times in Venice, Padua, Florence, and Rome.  I should know in the next month at most whether this attempt will go or not.

  I need to go.  God bless.  As you move into autumn, we are moving into warmer temps after some really cold days in July and August.  Thank God those days and temps are over for a good long time.

Bernie Owens

Dear Friends,

  It is Saturday evening, September 6.  The last two days have been rainy, drizzling and really cold.  Ugh.  Since our rooms are not heated, it has really been tough.  I got out my extra blanket to add to the heavy one I already have on the bed.  This afternoon we saw the sun briefly and the temps went up to a comfortable high 60s or so.  The almost full moon is visible tonite since the clouds cleared.  I can't wait for spring to begin (September 22) and summer to come to us (December 21!)

  Second week of classes.  Two more students joined my Wednesday class.  We now make twelve in all, four Indians and the rest are Africans, half are Jesuits and the other half a smattering of various congregations.  All seminarians, the first group of all males I have had for any kind of academic study since 1969!

  I have been feeling unusually tired lately.  I slept two hours late this morning (11AM--1 PM) and feel a little more normal this evening.  Still, I don't feel fully restored.  One guides retreats week after week and they go right through a weekend so that you lose a sense of the rhythm of a 7-day week.  After awhile it can feel like a heavy grind!  Listening well is a lot of work.  I am not sure many people appreciate that!  On top of this I am teaching, and Monday AM I begin an 8-week prep for teachers at St. Al's High School for AIDS orphans to prepare for making the Spiritual Exercises starting next January.  I hope I have not bitten off too much.

   This afternoon I listened to two retreatants and one directee, all who spoke so movingly of God's indescribable, deep love.  The retreatants are presently praying on the washing of the feet, on the Last Supper, and Jesus' horrible experience in the Garden of Gethsemani.   I was very moved!  I leave such conversations wishing I could bring each of you into the room to hear what I hear.  It would very likely give us all a very different take on the world and on what is important and what to be truly concerned about.  Truly, this love is unprecedented and is worth everything.  It changes everything.  It is "the pearl of great price." And it is what will claim us all in the end.

   Well, I am really tired and I am saying "goodnite".  Blessings on you and whatever you are engaged in.  May it all be worthy of Him and His love for you and me.

  Bernie Owens