Friends,' It is almost a month since I last wrote. As you probably surmise, I have been super busy. This evening ended a heavy teaching schedule in five different programs, three here at the retreat center and two at the seminary. Teaching in the areas of spirituality and theology gives me a lot of life, but at the same time it takes a "lot of gas in my tank," lots of preparation and xeroxing of handouts to provide a quality learning experience. So here I am wanting to visit with you on this Friday evening when all of this is finally behind me. I now have a ten-day open space on my calendar till the next set of retreatants comes here for their 8-day retreats (the evening of 2/16). I plan to use this very rare opening on our calendar to work on my fund-raising efforts, to set up events back in the Detroit area for May and June (I return to the USA on April 22) and to seek out foundations for possible grants to the project I have chosen to lead. (I have accomplished 27% of our goal to this date. Please God, help me/us to wrap up this effort in the next year or two. I want to start writing my next book and cannot get momentum in doing that until this more immediate need is met! Writing a book takes a terrible amount of time for isolation and extended hours day after day to make any progress and to be inspired as you go along in the writing! I am certainly not lacking the desire to accomplish this.) I intend to use some of this time to promote my book that is almost a y er old among Faith Formation leaders in certain parishes in the diocese of Detroit. If a diocese can adopt it as a main source for ongoing faith formation, then I think the sales of the book will really take off in the USA. The word will get out that it is a fine source to help people go deeper in their lives with God. Some of you have expressed concern for me about whether jihadist violence is nearby or on my/our mind that much. I would say definitely not. If bombings were to occur anywhere near here, it would be in the city where lots of people congregate, like in a mall. Our retreat center is at the far western end of the metro area of 4-5 million people, and we are at the end of a dirt, rocky road that would not appeal to saboteurs/jihadists. If anything, we are more prone to robberies, and that I sense is rather remote. Yes, I lock my door every night, the windows too. And I sleep quite well. There is a certain point when you simply surrender to God your situation and trust in His protection through His angels. Yes, I do believe in angels and pray every morning to Michael and all of God's angels to protect me and this place, to also guide me in my fund-raising efforts. Three weeks ago the Kenyan army camp, stationed inside neighboring Somalia, was attacked at 4 o'clock in the morning by Al Shabaab jihadists with enormous car bombs, three of them. The cars or jeeps rammed through the main gate of the compound, literally blew it up and open and were followed by suicide foot-soldiers firing at any soldier of the Kenyans. It was a disaster for the Kenyans. So many soldiers were killed. The Kenyan government has yet to admit in public how many of our soldiers were killed. It is suspected that it was about 200. The camp has since been abandoned and the Kenyans are setting up a new camp in a nearby area. There is talk that the jihadist rebels are gaining strength. American drones do take out some of their leaders, but drones by themselves are not enough to make the difference in a military campaign. The Kenyans need to be much better coordinated and equipped. This nation is only 53 years old; it is still so young and not yet developed that much. There is so much poverty here, unemployment, behavior that is criminal(family abuse, incest, prostitution, alcoholism that sometimes leads to blindness, robberies, illegal land purchasing, etc) reflecting hopelessness and economic lifelessness, (few markets outside Africa!) And yet some wonderful, courageous things are going on through great institutions of schools, orphanages, hospitals, medical dispensaries in villages and in "the bush". It is the leaders of these signs of hope that want to come here for their annual 8 days of retreat, of quiet, so that they can regain spiritual and bodily energy to go back to their commitments. Yes, we are their oasis, their place for getting re-energized. I continue to feel the power and depth of my three weeks in Italy last November, especially from the two weeks of it on pilgrimage. God strongly touched me while there, as I said in my previous letter, especially at the Carmelite monastery in Florence and then through the biography of the 22 year old nun whose body is preserved miraculously at that monastery. She (St. Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart of Jesus) died in 1770, six years before the American Declaration of Independence. I spent the month after coming home from Italy reading closely the passages in her biography that had so moved me in the previous reading from months ago. I have a strong sense at various times that God many times "touches through" the veil that covers our mode of existence and impresses on us closely His choicest gifts, especially His own personal love for us, a love that is so sweet to the soul. From "the other side of that veil" He guides us, leads us, blesses us, gives us hints--sometimes really strong--of the life that is awaiting us all once we pass over. If we pay attention His presence will significantly impact us, stirring those deeper desires and thirsts of the soul, and sometimes these thirsts become so active, so strong that you are in His grip, so to speak, and marked deeply in your soul with an unforgettable knowledge and understanding of this inner life of the Holy Spirit stirring inside us all. "Taste and see the goodness of the Lord," as the psalmist says. This life wells up from our depths and comes out in joy and in our tears at certain times. We sense we have been touched by Divinity, and our spirit cannot forget such encounters. We long for the fullness of it all. For this we have been made, and our life is a journey to this communion that will never end nor be taken away from us. Tomorrow morning I will go to the ordination to the priesthood of a young man I led through a 30 day retreat a year and a half ago. Lawrence Otieno is his name (Otieno means you were born in the morning hours.) He will make a fantastic priest. What a good soul he is! His first assignment will be to serve in Cameroon, in western Africa, about 2000 miles west of here, in some very poor, even primitive villages. He spent some time there before he did his theology studies in Nairobi and spoke glowingly of feeling so close to God through these people who live at the edge and throw all their hope on and put their trust in God. Lawrence's father died about two weeks ago. His father was so ill and weak, bed-ridden I think, that there was no hope of his coming to tomorrow's celebration. I said to Lawrence, "God has now made it possible for your father to come to your ordination and to rejoice with you at the beginning of your life as a priest. Your father is free now and will be there to pray with you and thank God for your calling and for sustaining you." Anytime I go to an ordination, I spend some time just looking at the parents of the ones being ordained. I can never get over what an honor it is, what a blessing it must be on the marriage of the parents to see one of their children be called to such a life and make it through the long training. I will never forget my own parents and their joy shared with me on the day, nearly 44 years ago, when I was ordained (6/10/72). My God, 44 years ago! I am an old man! But I don't feel old at all. I have never been as busy or engaged as I am now, at least as much as I was when I lived in the States. (You know, it does not matter where one lives once you have discovered this greatest of friendships, the closeness and richness of Christ and His Abba, who is our Abba. This is the pearl of great price worth selling everything in order to own. Once this happens to a person, so much of what one thought important before becomes as nothing, even a liability and distraction. I need to go to bed. It is 9:45 PM here now. Tomorrow I will wear my black clerical suit for this wonderful occasion, probably the fourth time in my nearly 2.5 years here in Kenya when I will have done so. Clerics among Jesuits here in Kenya are even more rare than they are among Jesuits in the USA. Some traditional Catholics don't know what to do with us! I will say that in some cases certain Jesuits don't know what to do with other Jesuits! We are a "different breed" in a number of ways! I love being one of them! Bernie Owens