Dear Friends,
I write on a Monday afternoon after waking up from a nap and feeling like a truck hit me in the head! During these last few days I have been copying names and addresses of Jesuits throughout the USA and Canada who might be interested in information on my book due out in March. A brochure on the book is being prepared by the publishing company ready for mailing. How tedious to look up names and address, copy accurately. etc. I am a little dizzy from work like this that demands a lot of adjusting of my eyes back and forth between a catalogue with addresses and the laptop screen.
What has been going on here lately? More excitement with that pest, the monkey. Remember, this monkey is the size of a medium size dog, not some small toy-like cuddly creature. He has a long tail and cute face, and will do anything to get a banana. He checks out our windows to see whether any of them is unlocked. This allows him to get into our dining area and to the collection of bananas. We have recently purchased a plastic basket with a plastic lid on it that he has not yet learned to unhook. But yes, he managed to break in last week through a window left unlocked but was not able to get a banana. A small victory for humanity!! But he did break into the private room of one of our Jesuits, Rodriguo's, two doors from mine. Rodriguo had an apple in his room and a small sack of millet seeds he stored to feed the birds. The monkey came in through an unlocked window and got these items. Amazing! He could smell the apple but also knew enough to take the sack of seeds. He has no conscience!!
The big shocker, however, is what he did a few days later. An Italian nun in her 60s who has been in Africa for maybe 20 years and was on retreat here for 8 days went to our large chapel to pray before the Blessed sacrament one afternoon. The chapel gets warm in the afternoon, thanks to the heavy summer sun. So she opened a door for some ventilation. While she was silently praying and with eyes closed much of the time, in came the monkey and from behind jumped on her back. You can imagine her reaction. Again, this is no tiny monkey but the size of a medium size dog!! So his weight on her was quite noteworthy. The locals here say monkeys in general are afraid of men but not of women. In fact, some get sexually excited around women and want to "do their thing." It seems that Mr. monkey had such in mind, right in front of his creator who gave him among other things his sexual urges. If only he would learn to control himself!! The poor nun recovered and continued well with her retreat. What memories she will have of this retreat!! In the meantime I can hear the monkey in the morning running across the roof of my room and on to other parts of the long extended roof that covers all of our rooms for quite some length. He is looking for food and for any unguarded place. I feed the birds every morning with bread on the sill of my windows, but this so far has not invited the monkey. Maybe he can smell me and wants no confrontation with me. I have growled at him on two occasions and stomped my foot in his presence to make "an impression." No further excitement these last few days!!
Yesterday, five of us Jesuits drove two hours west of here to a huge lake area and game refuge. It is called Lake Naivasha. The lake might be 12-14 miles across. It has hippos in it and lots of good fish. We spent much of our time walking around a large peninsula that juts into the lake. On that peninsula is a wonderful collection of wild animals worth seeing and watching. I was amazed at how close we got to zebras and giraffes, to pelicans. Th impalas are quite skittish and start running, leaping when you come in the slightest sense of close. We were warned not to stir up the water buffalos. They are of an ugly mood at times. Well, wouldn't you know it. One of our guys was in the general vicinity of a herd of them and by God they began to stampede. We all scattered hurriedly in different directions. The fellow who began this commotion hid quickly behind a tree as the mass of animals rushed by. Fortunately it took a turn away from us all and left us greatly relieved and thankful! All in all, we had a great time and enjoyed ourselves walking in beautiful African nature. I had the extra enjoyment of seeing at a distance of maybe 30 miles the impressive silhouette of the extinct volcano I climbed last July (Mount Longonut, 7700 feet above sea level). It was gratifying to be able to say, "I climbed that sucker and about died coming down it, but down I came, successfully last July."
Yesterday our retreat center finished another set of 8-day retreat. This place is remarkable for how many people come here for individually guided retreats, for deep silence, then the luxury of praying on bible passages and having a conversation about one's prayer each day with a trained director. We get people from all over Eastern Africa (12 nations including Rwanda and the Congo) wanting to come here for their retreat. We have the reputation of being the best in this part of the world, largely because of the quality of the guides, the natural beauty of this place, and our insistence on complete silence during the retreat. These factors help people get to great depth with God. It makes my work so worthwhile and leaves me wishing more people were aware of this opportunity of encountering God with such richness. I am convinced that busyness and a hectic, constant going-going-going lifestyle keep so many good people at a level much less than what they are capable of and so they miss out on what at times they so thirst for in their lives. The one big disappointment I have is that we have to turn away too many people who want to come here for their retreats, simply because we don't have sufficient room. I am hoping to help change this situation in the near future!!
Well, I must go. This week I begin teaching again; for this second semester I will be leading a group of future priests through John of the Cross' classic poem "The Living Flame of Love." I have taught it maybe 5 times already. It is perhaps the most beautiful and profound poem ever written in Spanish. I do a lot of explanation of its main parts in my book because it describes what the Spirit of God makes us into by the end of our spiritual journey home to God. Lots of people would like to know that, but no one has ever told thm about this poem or ever encouraged people to read it.
God bless!
Bernie Owens
Monday, January 12, 2015
Friday, January 2, 2015
Happy New Year, dear Friends,
It is about 10:30 AM here on January 2. We have a crisp, clear morning sky and are getting ready for a hot afternoon. The African sun can get hot and January is one of our hottest months, like August in the States. I don't want to be in it for too long! The nights have been very clear here as well, no clouds and a moon that is getting more and more full. The stars are quite something as well since we have almost no "light pollution." It is so different from being in a large urban area.
News items: no monkey B & E's these last few days. People are observant with keeping windows and doors closed. Our supply of bananas has been adequate and we want to keep it that way!
On New Year's eve we reduced our working staff by three people. This reflects the reduction in Jesuits here in the last two months. One died in late October and one is being transferred. So too, we are losing money on our three cows. They eat more hay than what we get from their milk. More to the point: we pay a salary to a young man to do all this farming work, where before it was a Jesuit scholastic who lived here for awhile,started this little farm, and did all that work. We did not have to pay him. But lately we have had to do that. So the cows will be sold soon and the stalls torn down. This development produced a moment of panic for me since I depend on the cows to keep my roses healthy . . . if you know what I mean. But there is another place about a quarter of a mile from here where some Loretto nuns run a small retreat center and they have numerous cows. I will figure it out how to get some of that "organic magic" from there to here so that my roses and other flowers will continue to flourish. Oh, the basics of life!! As I have said to many of those who come for retreats and spiritual guidance: everyone of us has a certain "compost heap" in our life; if we are humble enough to admit that and acknowledge it, we and God together can make great things happen if we take from that 'compost heap' and let its truth keep us grounded in God's mercy and kindness and at the same time see it quicken the rest of our life as we journey to God. Nothing less than the TRUTH!!
Another Jesuit and I have been able to swim during this Christmas week break at an outdoor pool some 4 miles from here, at another residence where some Jesuits are residing. We go late in the afternoon when the sun is not so bright! How wonderful to be able to do this in January!! I have a good tan.
I have been driving some recently and am getting more and more accustomed to driving on "the wrong side" of the road, that is, on the left, which is what the Brits established here when Kenya was their colony (up to 1963). For the most part the roads are terrible by American standards, patch work, bumpy, and in most places narrow, with the shoulders in some places rather low. You dare not go off the side of the road in those places; you could roll the car if you are not careful. So, when driving I keep both hands on the steering wheel and watch closely the road and the space I have for clearing as I go by traffic coming in the other direction. The top speed I have felt safe enough to travel at is about 45 miles an hour. Usually 30-35 is the going speed. On the east side of Nairobi there is an expressway that the Chinese have built and on it one can move as fast as on any American expressway. The ramps on that expressway, I have been told, are too short and people cannot get up to speed (55 mph and more)when they get out on the expressway. So there have been some accidents and strong criticism of the Chinese engineers who built those ramps that way!! You wonder whether there was anyone overseeing that project before they built it!!
There is a plant on our property I wish I could show all of you. It is in bloom right now with blossoms of long petals of white and light pink colors. These blossoms come at the ends of long and thin stems that grow out maybe 35-50 feet from a set of branches rooted in the crotch of a tree. The tree is completely other, an independent plant. But this other plant with all the blossoms has found a home in the crotch of the tree, like a big bowl, which is made up of about four or five main branches or small trunks of the tree. We received a huge rainfall here the two days before Christmas and I am wondering whether this gave the plant a big boost and led to its spectacular growth. So now that the rains have stopped since Christmas day, I am giving this flowering plant water from our nearby outdoor faucet. So, yes, I have adopted another plant along with my roses. I am just so taken by some of the flower growth in this part of the world. I see God smiling and saying, "I have more for you to see and enjoy."
On the day after Christmas one of the Jesuits in our community and I traveled about 20 minutes from here to the famous Nairobi National Park, which is on the southern border of the city of Nairobi. Can you imagine a park of about 40 miles in length on the western edge of metro Detroit and filled with giraffes, cheetahs, impalas, rhinos and hippos, crocodiles, lions,leopards, baboons, zebras, and ostriches too?? That is one of the features of this part of the world. It is something else! The great thrill for me was to see two cheetahs stalk an oryx (large cow shaped animal with two unicorn like horns on its head). there was a fence between the cheetahs and the oryx (and giraffes, impalas, ostrich and giraffe too) But for awhile the cheetahs were lying down and the oryx was grazing peacefully. Then suddenly one of the cheetahs stands up and goes into a stalking walk, staring at the oryx. The cheetah has its humped neck showing imminent attack! Suddenly, the oryx panics, lets out a loud cry, and starts to run, oblivious of the fence between it and the cheetah. But this scared all the other nearby animals too and they started to stampede to safety. So funny!!
I need to leave now, but one last thing: it hit me in prayer this morning (my 45 minutes with just God which starts each morning) that God alone is worth giving one's all, that we are all made for that connection with God and that when we learn how to be still and really be receptive to such a Gift, we experience how unique and priceless is this Gift and the reality of being someone unique to and amazingly loved by this Gift. This Gift is the only 'thing' worth giving your all, giving everything for. It is what moves the world and makes you jump out of bed in the morning while looking forward to the gift of another day and all the things you can do for this special One in your life.
Bernie Owens
It is about 10:30 AM here on January 2. We have a crisp, clear morning sky and are getting ready for a hot afternoon. The African sun can get hot and January is one of our hottest months, like August in the States. I don't want to be in it for too long! The nights have been very clear here as well, no clouds and a moon that is getting more and more full. The stars are quite something as well since we have almost no "light pollution." It is so different from being in a large urban area.
News items: no monkey B & E's these last few days. People are observant with keeping windows and doors closed. Our supply of bananas has been adequate and we want to keep it that way!
On New Year's eve we reduced our working staff by three people. This reflects the reduction in Jesuits here in the last two months. One died in late October and one is being transferred. So too, we are losing money on our three cows. They eat more hay than what we get from their milk. More to the point: we pay a salary to a young man to do all this farming work, where before it was a Jesuit scholastic who lived here for awhile,started this little farm, and did all that work. We did not have to pay him. But lately we have had to do that. So the cows will be sold soon and the stalls torn down. This development produced a moment of panic for me since I depend on the cows to keep my roses healthy . . . if you know what I mean. But there is another place about a quarter of a mile from here where some Loretto nuns run a small retreat center and they have numerous cows. I will figure it out how to get some of that "organic magic" from there to here so that my roses and other flowers will continue to flourish. Oh, the basics of life!! As I have said to many of those who come for retreats and spiritual guidance: everyone of us has a certain "compost heap" in our life; if we are humble enough to admit that and acknowledge it, we and God together can make great things happen if we take from that 'compost heap' and let its truth keep us grounded in God's mercy and kindness and at the same time see it quicken the rest of our life as we journey to God. Nothing less than the TRUTH!!
Another Jesuit and I have been able to swim during this Christmas week break at an outdoor pool some 4 miles from here, at another residence where some Jesuits are residing. We go late in the afternoon when the sun is not so bright! How wonderful to be able to do this in January!! I have a good tan.
I have been driving some recently and am getting more and more accustomed to driving on "the wrong side" of the road, that is, on the left, which is what the Brits established here when Kenya was their colony (up to 1963). For the most part the roads are terrible by American standards, patch work, bumpy, and in most places narrow, with the shoulders in some places rather low. You dare not go off the side of the road in those places; you could roll the car if you are not careful. So, when driving I keep both hands on the steering wheel and watch closely the road and the space I have for clearing as I go by traffic coming in the other direction. The top speed I have felt safe enough to travel at is about 45 miles an hour. Usually 30-35 is the going speed. On the east side of Nairobi there is an expressway that the Chinese have built and on it one can move as fast as on any American expressway. The ramps on that expressway, I have been told, are too short and people cannot get up to speed (55 mph and more)when they get out on the expressway. So there have been some accidents and strong criticism of the Chinese engineers who built those ramps that way!! You wonder whether there was anyone overseeing that project before they built it!!
There is a plant on our property I wish I could show all of you. It is in bloom right now with blossoms of long petals of white and light pink colors. These blossoms come at the ends of long and thin stems that grow out maybe 35-50 feet from a set of branches rooted in the crotch of a tree. The tree is completely other, an independent plant. But this other plant with all the blossoms has found a home in the crotch of the tree, like a big bowl, which is made up of about four or five main branches or small trunks of the tree. We received a huge rainfall here the two days before Christmas and I am wondering whether this gave the plant a big boost and led to its spectacular growth. So now that the rains have stopped since Christmas day, I am giving this flowering plant water from our nearby outdoor faucet. So, yes, I have adopted another plant along with my roses. I am just so taken by some of the flower growth in this part of the world. I see God smiling and saying, "I have more for you to see and enjoy."
On the day after Christmas one of the Jesuits in our community and I traveled about 20 minutes from here to the famous Nairobi National Park, which is on the southern border of the city of Nairobi. Can you imagine a park of about 40 miles in length on the western edge of metro Detroit and filled with giraffes, cheetahs, impalas, rhinos and hippos, crocodiles, lions,leopards, baboons, zebras, and ostriches too?? That is one of the features of this part of the world. It is something else! The great thrill for me was to see two cheetahs stalk an oryx (large cow shaped animal with two unicorn like horns on its head). there was a fence between the cheetahs and the oryx (and giraffes, impalas, ostrich and giraffe too) But for awhile the cheetahs were lying down and the oryx was grazing peacefully. Then suddenly one of the cheetahs stands up and goes into a stalking walk, staring at the oryx. The cheetah has its humped neck showing imminent attack! Suddenly, the oryx panics, lets out a loud cry, and starts to run, oblivious of the fence between it and the cheetah. But this scared all the other nearby animals too and they started to stampede to safety. So funny!!
I need to leave now, but one last thing: it hit me in prayer this morning (my 45 minutes with just God which starts each morning) that God alone is worth giving one's all, that we are all made for that connection with God and that when we learn how to be still and really be receptive to such a Gift, we experience how unique and priceless is this Gift and the reality of being someone unique to and amazingly loved by this Gift. This Gift is the only 'thing' worth giving your all, giving everything for. It is what moves the world and makes you jump out of bed in the morning while looking forward to the gift of another day and all the things you can do for this special One in your life.
Bernie Owens
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