Good evening, friends,
Three hours ago, around 6 PM we received a heavy rain, the first in many weeks. My roses love this, even after I "pailed" much water to them yesterday afternoon. We even lost electrical power for about 1.5 hours, a not infrequent experience in this country. We ate dinner by faint candle light!
Well, lots to share with you.
I had my first class for my course last Wednesday. With about 55 students in all and eight offerings before them, six chose my option: "Prayer Beyond the Beginnings: Moving from Meditation to Contemplation." I have two students from southern India, one from Burundi, one from Rwanda (remember that name??), one from Uganda, and one from Zambia. It is a wonderful mix. We sit in a big circle and I have a chalk board behind me with much space to write on. I gave them numerous xeroxed handouts, mostly on stages of growth in prayer and intimacy with God, then too diagrams on levels of the human soul and its various functions that operate or get sidelined, so to speak, as one progresses to deeper levels of prayer and relationship with God. I sensed much interest. We shall see how much real interest there is when we meet again this coming Wednesday morning and I start asking questions about what they read.
Then yesterday we received the wonderful news that Pope Francis is coming to Kenya in the week of American Thanksgiving and will visit our Jesuit sponsored parish, St. Joseph the Worker, on Thursday the 26th, which is Thanksgiving Day in the USA. I m sure the security efforts will be huge. When asked what he wanted to see and visit here, he said "the slums." Our parish is for people who live in very poor circumstances. So, I am expecting to shake hands with him, probably as one of many in a line wanting to greet him. This will be one week after I see him in a large crowd in Rome at the Paul VI auditorium. I will be leading about 33-35 pilgrims on a two week trip in Italy (November 7-21). On Wednesday, the 18th, we will attend his Wed. morning audience. Even though he reads English rather poorly, I intend to give him an autographed copy of my book. I hope to do that through the apostolic nuncio (an American priest) or his secretary, Fr. Lombardi, also a Jesuit.
I am presently leading four retreatants, three of them for thirty days. I see each of them up to 45 minutes a day. One is a priest and prison chaplain whose English is very difficult to understand. The other three are sisters, two of them members of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity (one is French, the other Kenyan). The three making the 30-day retreat are having fabulous retreats. I am often very moved by what they tell me about what happened to them during their prayer. God is deeply touching them and I am privileged to witness closely this holy drama. Yesterday the three sisters were praying on the holy Family's flight from the murderous monster Herod into Egypt. This vividly reminded one of the sisters of what happened here in Kenya during the national elections of 2007. She became quite emotional when telling these memories and recounted the many killings that happened by members of the dominant tribe (Kikuyus) toward members of the second largest tribe (the Louos). She said people were running into the woods and highlands to survive. Many people were being hidden in homes or bused far away. Those who did not make it out were slashed to death by crazed people with large machette knives, and the severed heads of some victims were placed on the highways to warn others in cars not to come into their towns. ( I have twice visited the area wherer this happened--Naiviasha and Mount Longunut) She repeated often, "All they wanted was power and dominance." The international court in the Hague, in Holland, has been trying to prosecute some present Kenyan government leaders over these atrocities. It is amazing how some witnesses die violently or change their stories or just disappear. The present president has been let go by the court, but the VP is still subject to legal prosecution. (By the way, the USA is not subject to prosecution by the world court; it never 'signed on' to that world court), even when some think some US leaders in our history deserved to stand trial!)
It is bedtime. I need to get my 8 hours of sleep or I end up dragging myself through the next day! I will be up at 6:15 AM. Got to go.
Bernie Owens
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Good evening, everyone. I write on Sunday evening, the 23rd of August, right after a substantial dinner. I want to write especially this evening since at 6 PM about an hour and a half ago, I marked two years exactly since I arrived in Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa. This was to be where I would now live and work, with so much I could not guess would happen. I look back today with unceasing wonderment at what led up to this transition, this calling, and all that has happened since I came here. I cannot get over what I am being shown about this part of the world through the stories of those coming here on retreat.
I am being shown some amazing people who really fight for life, who struggle against great odds, who live all the time just trying to survive, they and their extended families. This is the usual, not the exceptional situation in most of the villages of this part of the world. I meet the reality of polygamy, of witchcraft, of governmental corruption (bribery,swindling and death threats), the utter inadequacy of the justice and policing systems. I meet the reality of the HIV virus and AIDs infected adults and babies, so too a lot of unemployment and hopelessness. I hear about murdered siblings and never-ending war nearby, raids and assassinations in the name of religion, starvation and severe malnutrition in the desert-like north of this country, alcoholism and domestic abuse on a big scale, sudden deaths thanks to so many car accidents on the terribly inadequate roads of this nation, fights between families over who rightly owns a plot of land and how the losers lose everything, burnt out usually, with now no place to live.
I also hear stories of terrific parents going to great ends to keep their families together, stories of great tenderness between parents and children, healings, reconciliations, celebrations with great joy and love for family-togetherness, the generosity of a family member who gets a job and provides for the rest of the family who have no jobs, then too stories of heroic nuns--so many of them-- running schools and orphanages, hospitals and medical dispensaries also. Any order and hope in this part of the world would collapse without the quality presence of these women. They make Christianity truly credible, so impressive and attractive, the vision of Jesus come alive, I am privileged to hear their stories and guide their annual 8-day or 30-day retreats.
I love the opportunity I have to teach one course a semester at the nearby Jesuit seminary, only 9 miles from here yet more than an hour by car away during the morning commute. This semester I will teach a course entitled "Prayer Beyond the Beginnings: Moving from Meditation to Contemplation." (I start this coming Wednesday.) I get students, all of them future priests, from west Africa, southern Africa, and from this eastern part of Africa, Jesuits and non-Jesuits, also students from southern India. I feel privileged to have a hand in the development of these men who are in their late 20s and will be major leaders in the church of Africa and India for the next 40-50 years. I give them courses in spirituality, usually from a developmental perspective or with a system of stages of spiritual growth that help them understand how God leads us all and shapes our life if we allow such to God. Next semester I will offer a course entitled "The Humility and Foolishness of God: A Franciscan Perspective on God's overwhelming Love for Us". Besides insights from Francis of Assisi, I will use some insights from Teilhard de Chardin, the Jesuit 20th century paleontologist. I used some of these readings when at Manresa for the biweekly seminar and people "ate it up," so interesting were the readings and our discussions.
As spring approaches I am back to digging in my rose beds and fertilizing them with rabbit compost and bone meal and, of course, lot of water. The nights are not so cold as they were only two weeks ago, so things are beginning to grow. At the same time there is lots and lots of pollen in the air. This means a runny nose for me and lots of itching all over my body. My God, do I itch sometimes!! My back, my face, my ears, my arms, my neck, etc. I took a benadryl pill a few days ago to alleviate the itching and it left me so limp for many hours! All I could do is sleep! I took only one pill!! I think I will try taking half a pill the next time. I was awakened at 2 AM one night by the itching and it was then I took that pill. I have not taken another one because I have too much work to get done! But I scratch sometimes, even dig hard into my skin or rub my back over and over again, hard too, against a door jam just to get some relief. There are some parts of my back I cannot reach!!! After awhile the itching stops. In years past this would stop on its own when the pollen subsided after two or three weeks. You might imagine all the flowers around here! The bees are so active, and we eat a lot of honey here.
I have mentioned before the inspiration I have had to write a second book. That inspiration has gotten noticeably stronger and I have been taking lots of notes for it from what I have been reading. I feel rather sure that the title of the book will be, as stated on the front cover: "If Only You Knew the Gift of God and . . . (in the lower part of the book's front cover) the Way Through the Narrow Gate." In it I want to talk about what leads up to the fundamental conversion moment for a person who truly wants relationship with God, who is willing to work at getting to know and love God, who can learn to let go and let God give this awesome gift and thereby take him or her through what Jesus calls the narrow gate, a way of significant discipline and sacrifice for the sake of that relationship. And then an extensive description of what it is like on the other side of that gate, the riches of such a friendship and love that surpasses anything we could have hoped for, with a sweetness for the person's soul that makes every other joy pale in comparison. I suppose it will take me two to three years to write this so that it is good enough to be published. (I had to do dozens of re-writes on the text of the book I recently published! Oh the painful memories about that!!) I am counting on living at least that long!!
I need to head off to bed. Be well. I have enjoyed typing this and telling you something of the latest from here. I wish all of you could see this place. I stared today out my window at a Poinsietta bush all in bloom with dozens of red blossoms, yes dozens. This bush is probably 30-35 feet high and 15 feet wide! It is stunning, and there are others bushes of them on our grounds. In Africa so many things are gigantic.
God bless!
Bernie Owens
I am being shown some amazing people who really fight for life, who struggle against great odds, who live all the time just trying to survive, they and their extended families. This is the usual, not the exceptional situation in most of the villages of this part of the world. I meet the reality of polygamy, of witchcraft, of governmental corruption (bribery,swindling and death threats), the utter inadequacy of the justice and policing systems. I meet the reality of the HIV virus and AIDs infected adults and babies, so too a lot of unemployment and hopelessness. I hear about murdered siblings and never-ending war nearby, raids and assassinations in the name of religion, starvation and severe malnutrition in the desert-like north of this country, alcoholism and domestic abuse on a big scale, sudden deaths thanks to so many car accidents on the terribly inadequate roads of this nation, fights between families over who rightly owns a plot of land and how the losers lose everything, burnt out usually, with now no place to live.
I also hear stories of terrific parents going to great ends to keep their families together, stories of great tenderness between parents and children, healings, reconciliations, celebrations with great joy and love for family-togetherness, the generosity of a family member who gets a job and provides for the rest of the family who have no jobs, then too stories of heroic nuns--so many of them-- running schools and orphanages, hospitals and medical dispensaries also. Any order and hope in this part of the world would collapse without the quality presence of these women. They make Christianity truly credible, so impressive and attractive, the vision of Jesus come alive, I am privileged to hear their stories and guide their annual 8-day or 30-day retreats.
I love the opportunity I have to teach one course a semester at the nearby Jesuit seminary, only 9 miles from here yet more than an hour by car away during the morning commute. This semester I will teach a course entitled "Prayer Beyond the Beginnings: Moving from Meditation to Contemplation." (I start this coming Wednesday.) I get students, all of them future priests, from west Africa, southern Africa, and from this eastern part of Africa, Jesuits and non-Jesuits, also students from southern India. I feel privileged to have a hand in the development of these men who are in their late 20s and will be major leaders in the church of Africa and India for the next 40-50 years. I give them courses in spirituality, usually from a developmental perspective or with a system of stages of spiritual growth that help them understand how God leads us all and shapes our life if we allow such to God. Next semester I will offer a course entitled "The Humility and Foolishness of God: A Franciscan Perspective on God's overwhelming Love for Us". Besides insights from Francis of Assisi, I will use some insights from Teilhard de Chardin, the Jesuit 20th century paleontologist. I used some of these readings when at Manresa for the biweekly seminar and people "ate it up," so interesting were the readings and our discussions.
As spring approaches I am back to digging in my rose beds and fertilizing them with rabbit compost and bone meal and, of course, lot of water. The nights are not so cold as they were only two weeks ago, so things are beginning to grow. At the same time there is lots and lots of pollen in the air. This means a runny nose for me and lots of itching all over my body. My God, do I itch sometimes!! My back, my face, my ears, my arms, my neck, etc. I took a benadryl pill a few days ago to alleviate the itching and it left me so limp for many hours! All I could do is sleep! I took only one pill!! I think I will try taking half a pill the next time. I was awakened at 2 AM one night by the itching and it was then I took that pill. I have not taken another one because I have too much work to get done! But I scratch sometimes, even dig hard into my skin or rub my back over and over again, hard too, against a door jam just to get some relief. There are some parts of my back I cannot reach!!! After awhile the itching stops. In years past this would stop on its own when the pollen subsided after two or three weeks. You might imagine all the flowers around here! The bees are so active, and we eat a lot of honey here.
I have mentioned before the inspiration I have had to write a second book. That inspiration has gotten noticeably stronger and I have been taking lots of notes for it from what I have been reading. I feel rather sure that the title of the book will be, as stated on the front cover: "If Only You Knew the Gift of God and . . . (in the lower part of the book's front cover) the Way Through the Narrow Gate." In it I want to talk about what leads up to the fundamental conversion moment for a person who truly wants relationship with God, who is willing to work at getting to know and love God, who can learn to let go and let God give this awesome gift and thereby take him or her through what Jesus calls the narrow gate, a way of significant discipline and sacrifice for the sake of that relationship. And then an extensive description of what it is like on the other side of that gate, the riches of such a friendship and love that surpasses anything we could have hoped for, with a sweetness for the person's soul that makes every other joy pale in comparison. I suppose it will take me two to three years to write this so that it is good enough to be published. (I had to do dozens of re-writes on the text of the book I recently published! Oh the painful memories about that!!) I am counting on living at least that long!!
I need to head off to bed. Be well. I have enjoyed typing this and telling you something of the latest from here. I wish all of you could see this place. I stared today out my window at a Poinsietta bush all in bloom with dozens of red blossoms, yes dozens. This bush is probably 30-35 feet high and 15 feet wide! It is stunning, and there are others bushes of them on our grounds. In Africa so many things are gigantic.
God bless!
Bernie Owens
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Dear Reader,
Today was an unforgettable day for me. With the sun up in the sky we had here the usual 7 AM morning mass with about 12-14 attending, all staff members. Around the room were a few Kenyans, a Brazilian, some Indians, an Irish nun, myself, the lone American, and a 90 year old Indian leading the mass. It was a day for very, very special memories for me. 20 years ago this morning, I led a wedding for a Japanese man and American (Slovakian descent) woman. (Today they have four lovely children, one of whom is my godson, one other I baptized.) The wedding was on the first Saturday of August, 1995,on the weekend of the US wide commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. The groom's parents and some other relatives had come from Tokyo for the wedding. The women were dressed in elegant wraps (kimonas?) and their hair was done so attractively. The father of the groom, a Tokyo university professor of American literature, then teaching at New York University, stood proud. The bride's parents, close friends of mine, were beaming. The second of the three scripture readings was read in Japanese. All during the night there had been heavy thunderstorms and in the morning the sky was so black, as if it might pour rain again, maybe even yield a tornado. At the moment I began to read the gospel selection, the black clouds separated and shone through the chapel windows, right on the couple. I could hardly contain myself with such a happening. At no other place did the light of the sun shine. It was just amazing.
When it came to the homily I said that many magazines and newspapers, TV editorialists, etc. were giving their version of the significance of this major anniversary, but I had thought God was making His own very strong statement in regard to this anniversary. I said, "how typical of God to express Himself by what was taking place in this chapel this morning, by taking a man from one country and a woman from another country, where both countries had tried to destroy each other more than 50 years ago, and through committed human love would create love, peace, communion, healing and reconciliation--something that would transcend the hatred and horrible memories and pain of that war." And here we are, twenty years later and a happy, healthy daughter and three happy and healthy sons later, looking back at God's commitment to love, healing and reconciliation expressed this way. Truly remarkable. This is real spirituality!
And so today, the gospel reading (Matthew 15:21-28) was of a non-Jewish woman, a Canaanite, pestering, shouting at Jesus to help her with her very sick daughter. Jesus rebuffs here twice but finally relents when she will not go away. In fact, Jesus is truly surprised by her dogged faith implied in her persistence. He finally receives her and even complements her for her faith in God, the faith of a Gentile, and of course, He heals the daughter by driving out of the daughter the powers of evil that had gripped her. What was so strong for me in hearing this story once again was recognizing in her shouting the "echoes" of the many desperate voices of the poor in this part of the world as they yell for help and beg for some relenting of their misery.
So when the chalice of Christ's blood was lifted up during mass today, I was so struck by the joy of God on one hand in the wedding and 20 years of life of the couple, and so too the pain, the suffering of God on the other hand in the cries of today's poor. I was overwhelmed at mass today by the power of Christ's love shown in that moment with these two events on either side of the chalice as it was being lifted up for all to gaze at. What God is doing in the world is so, so beyond our expectations!! What God embraces as He walks with each and all of us is far more than any of us can grasp. Faith in such a Love, divine Love, opens the eyes of our heart to see what is not available to our physical eyes and gives us an indomitable hope.
Take care, and goodnite.
Bernie Owens
Today was an unforgettable day for me. With the sun up in the sky we had here the usual 7 AM morning mass with about 12-14 attending, all staff members. Around the room were a few Kenyans, a Brazilian, some Indians, an Irish nun, myself, the lone American, and a 90 year old Indian leading the mass. It was a day for very, very special memories for me. 20 years ago this morning, I led a wedding for a Japanese man and American (Slovakian descent) woman. (Today they have four lovely children, one of whom is my godson, one other I baptized.) The wedding was on the first Saturday of August, 1995,on the weekend of the US wide commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. The groom's parents and some other relatives had come from Tokyo for the wedding. The women were dressed in elegant wraps (kimonas?) and their hair was done so attractively. The father of the groom, a Tokyo university professor of American literature, then teaching at New York University, stood proud. The bride's parents, close friends of mine, were beaming. The second of the three scripture readings was read in Japanese. All during the night there had been heavy thunderstorms and in the morning the sky was so black, as if it might pour rain again, maybe even yield a tornado. At the moment I began to read the gospel selection, the black clouds separated and shone through the chapel windows, right on the couple. I could hardly contain myself with such a happening. At no other place did the light of the sun shine. It was just amazing.
When it came to the homily I said that many magazines and newspapers, TV editorialists, etc. were giving their version of the significance of this major anniversary, but I had thought God was making His own very strong statement in regard to this anniversary. I said, "how typical of God to express Himself by what was taking place in this chapel this morning, by taking a man from one country and a woman from another country, where both countries had tried to destroy each other more than 50 years ago, and through committed human love would create love, peace, communion, healing and reconciliation--something that would transcend the hatred and horrible memories and pain of that war." And here we are, twenty years later and a happy, healthy daughter and three happy and healthy sons later, looking back at God's commitment to love, healing and reconciliation expressed this way. Truly remarkable. This is real spirituality!
And so today, the gospel reading (Matthew 15:21-28) was of a non-Jewish woman, a Canaanite, pestering, shouting at Jesus to help her with her very sick daughter. Jesus rebuffs here twice but finally relents when she will not go away. In fact, Jesus is truly surprised by her dogged faith implied in her persistence. He finally receives her and even complements her for her faith in God, the faith of a Gentile, and of course, He heals the daughter by driving out of the daughter the powers of evil that had gripped her. What was so strong for me in hearing this story once again was recognizing in her shouting the "echoes" of the many desperate voices of the poor in this part of the world as they yell for help and beg for some relenting of their misery.
So when the chalice of Christ's blood was lifted up during mass today, I was so struck by the joy of God on one hand in the wedding and 20 years of life of the couple, and so too the pain, the suffering of God on the other hand in the cries of today's poor. I was overwhelmed at mass today by the power of Christ's love shown in that moment with these two events on either side of the chalice as it was being lifted up for all to gaze at. What God is doing in the world is so, so beyond our expectations!! What God embraces as He walks with each and all of us is far more than any of us can grasp. Faith in such a Love, divine Love, opens the eyes of our heart to see what is not available to our physical eyes and gives us an indomitable hope.
Take care, and goodnite.
Bernie Owens
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