Dear Friends,
Here it is, Friday, the 27th, the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is a feast day that means so much to me. It sums up everything the Good News of Jesus contains in the scriptures and in church history. . . all that is meant to ponder at Advent and Christmas, Good Friday and Easter, Pentecost too. It contains far more than words can capture. It is so good that we have symbols like the pierced heart of Christ to capture all of this when words can fail us so often! It allows us like Moses before the burning bush to "remove our sandals," put our faces to the ground, and utter "holy, holy, holy." What a blessing when the eye of our heart opens and we "see" this reality beyond all the distractions and superficial things that are often sold to us with the promise that they will makes us really happy. "Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it so much as entered into the hearts of people what God has prepared for those who love Him." I Corinthians 2:9
Today my memory goes back to 11 years ago this very day when I was leading 38 pilgrims through France and we spent two days at a relatively small village in rural northeastern France, wheat farming country. The village is Paray-le-Monial, about 15,000 in population, pretty, quaint, with a river running through the town and a monastery that was founded in the year 998. . . yes, more than a thousand years ago. What put this small town "on the map" was a set of experiences a nun by the name of Margaret Mary Alacoque had from 1673-75 while living in a convent there in that town. Over two years she had four intense encounters with the risen Christ in which He "showed" her His heart and encouraged people to discover in His Heart, in the depths of His person the riches of God, the greatest treasures of joy and love, meaning and hope that could be found in their life . With the help of a young Jesuit spiritual guide, Claude la Colombiere, Margaret Mary gained the courage and insight to form and promote deep commitment and devotion to Christ whose love was symbolized by drawings and later pictures of His Heart, surrounded with the crow of thorns and pierced, with water and blood coming out, the ultimate act of God's love for us, of God's saving action.
What was so special for me was to pray the Sacred Heart mass on that feast day in the chapel where Christ came to her and engaged her so intensely, so personally. He said to her that He was bequeathing His Heart to her as her personal heritage and that He wanted her to share this "inheritance" with everyone she could. She also said that He asked that the Jesuit fathers join with her and her sisters (of the Visitation) to encourage among all the people they met this same love and attachment to Christ as their friend of all friends, their first love and deepest truth. That was really a special day for me. I will never forget being there and participating in an afternoon procession of the Blessed Sacrament with many hundreds of pilgrims walking in silence and sometimes in song through the sisters' cloister and then out beyond the cloister.
The next day something quite unexpected happened for me. Our group was going for the day to visit Cluny, a famous medieval fort/city that the Benedictine monks had built as a refuge from marauding Norsemen and Teutonic fights, and Taize, a modern ecumenical monastery that is open to visitors from around the world and is quite famous for its music. A few minutes before our leaving on the bus I went back to the chapel and went up into the choir loft for a short "visit." While there in came a group of about 25 German visitors who had driven over from Germany a day or two before and were getting ready to celebrate mass. All these men and women were in the thirties or even younger. As they began the mass and were singing beautifully, I was so moved by what was happening. In 1944 Nazi troops, men of their grandfathers' generation, came into Paray and carried away hundreds of men from the town. These people were never heard from after that. Obviously they had died in the camps or were shot. A large monument in the center of town has been erected to remember these citizens. And now here were members of the same nation who had brought so much hell to them worshipping the Lord on the day after the feast of the Sacred Heart. I was so struck that this is how God heals, how God makes whole that which has been broken and wounded. This was a most memorable example of "reparation" to God for the hatred and violence that people bring upon each other, especially through war. That moment that day I will never forget. Seeing those young Germans in that French chapel celebrating Eucharist must have pleased the Lord very much. It certainly moved me!
Good news: I finally got my "entry visa" yesterday. Now I go to Immigration on Monday morning and get it stamped and then I am "official." I have been here ten months as of last Monday and only now am I getting my papers! Soon I will get my driver's license. I never expected such a hassle and wait!
It has been really cold here lately. Winter has set in. Since our rooms are not heated, it can get nippy at night in our rooms. So extra blankets, flannel runner's suit or PJs are what we grab for.
I am officially on vacation till July 9 when I begin leading a "preached" or conference style retreat: 8-day long, two talks a day, 16 in all. I have led in times past four day retreats of this kind but never 8 days. My theme is who is the Holy Spirit, what does the Holy Spirit do, how do we experience the Spirit. After that retreat is over, I get two weeks off. During that second vacation period I plan to do some sightseeing and prepare projects I will be leading starting in late August. These include 8 Monday mornings starting in mid-September when I prepare six teachers of the famous St. Aloysius High School in Nairobi on how to pray Ignatian style so that in January they will be ready to have the school president lead them through the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. On September 3, I begin for 7 weeks weekly classes on St. Teresa of Avila's best book, The Interior Castle. I will do this at the Jesuit seminary called Hekima College in Nairobi. This is where future Jesuit priests study to prepare for their ordination and priestly lives. Then on Tuesday afternoons, once a month, I will meet with the teachers of the seminary and lead them through discussions on some articles they are to read regarding "mission consciousness" in the ministry of teaching at a university level. There will be about 15 of them, mostly African Jesuit priests but also a few lay men and women.
All in all, I am loving the variety of things I am being asked to lead. I did not get such opportunities when at Manresa, except in the early years of the time I was there and then each year in the biweekly reading seminar and the pilgrimages I organized. Leading the internship for 19 years was very fulfilling but after some years I really think it no longer drew from me my "creative" side. I was most ready for a change but did not realize that at the time this strong nudge from God came to me.
So, this is all that comes to mind right now. If I knew how to send an attachment with a posting, I would send you a homily I did last Sunday on the Eucharist. It turned out pretty well and I wish I could share it but I don't know how or whether one can attach to a blog posting an attachment. Anyway . . . some other day!
Lots of interest in this house in the World Cup. One person from Chile and one from Colombia keep interest high. I saw the US play Germany last night and I was quite disappointed in the manner and lack of energy in their style. I hope they change for Belgium on Tuesday or they will exit quickly from the tournament.
The killings that have been going on here in Kenya lately are more related to farmers and grazers fighting over land. The tribal killings are just awful, so many people fighting over cattle and land. Lots of widows and orphans or fatherless children. So tragic! They have AK-47 machine guns to kill each other, machetes to slit one another's throats. They do no kid around when they go after each other!
God bless!
Bernie Owens
Friday, June 27, 2014
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Dear Friends,
I am writing to you at the close of a day (Sunday, June 15, 9 PM)that has turned out to be quite, quite blessed for me. I hope you bear with me in what I say here. Some of you may think I have gone "off the edge". I cannot help it. And I really want to say what I am going to say, it has so grabbed me. I am not losing it, I know who I am and what I will share is real and authentic. I hope it invites you, the reader, to your own experience and to a renewed or new sense of how rich is this life going on in our own depths.
My effort to pray this morning was in and out of attention to God, somewhat distracted and not all that "satisfying." After I came back from breakfast, I got taken by a strong sense of how precious God is, how utterly precious Christ is. It so hit me that I began to feel tears welling up inside me. I had to sit down and just let this surprising awareness "run its course". I am reminded of the words in a psalm, "taste and see how God is the Lord." Later in the morning, while I had a break between my second and third retreatants, I took a walk over to the Stations of the Cross and was walking through a section of our grounds where we are extending the stations to make for a wider walk. In the new section someone planted lots of sunflowers and they have grown up so fast, as they usually do. Two were in blossom and standing about 7.5 feet tall, about a foot or more above my face. They were turned to the sun, which we have had little off during these cold days that anticipate the start of winter. It felt so good to feel the sun on my back, so I stopped and stood there to admire these sunflowers in bloom, remembering all the times I grew them myself in my garden at Manresa. Immediately I associated them with ourselves seeking the love and warmth and security that only God is capable of giving us to the depths we have been made for. I felt these same tears rush up inside me, just overwhelm me with a strong sense of the unqualified, unlimited love of God for each and all of us. I had heard the day before so many sad stories of violence and death to many people in this part of the world and recently in Iraq and Syria too, a fresh reminder of how broken are so many parts of the world. This sudden awareness was very strong and helped me immediately see everything in perspective: that this love is stronger than all the hate and violence humans can do to each other; that it will prevail, because it is so very strong and cannot be killed. The gift of Jesus, especially of His 'yes' at Calvary on that sad day of His being rejected and His unqualified, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do" came to mind. I am so taken by this kind of response! It is just astounding! It is so unexpected and undeserved, some say stupid and idiotic, yet it is there all the time for us to accept and reverence, or rationalize away or simply ignore. It is never forced upon us.
I have been feeling quite tired these last two days, have gotten a lot of extra sleep, and feel better for it. I napped about 1.5 hours after lunch today (2.5 hours yesterday morning after breakfast!!) and then got ready for leading today's 5:15 PM mass celebrating the Holy Trinity, the essence of the God Jesus reveals. So many have no sense of the richness of this statement about what God and God's life are like. Only if we have had a great friendship or love in our life can we appreciate something of what is celebrated on this feast day; that is, that God is a trinity of persons relating in total mutuality. Only if we are moved by a great relationship to give and receive everything with another person can we begin to appreciate what is the centerpiece of this feast: total gift of one's own self and great patience and care to listen to and receive all that the other person is and communicates. Not many people, it seems to me, are capable of that deep a friendship or quality of presence to another person, nor desire to give such time to a relationship. Its beauty and the joy that wells up because of such a discovery in one's life escapes so many people. Our capacity for appreciating this divine mystery of God's inner life and joy, of its immense beauty is pretty limited as a result.
Anyway, the "visitations" of God this morning as I walked back from breakfast and then later in the area of the Stations of Cross where I enjoyed those sunflowers in bloom and was strongly moved when I was there were a remote prep for me to lead today's liturgy with energy and great enjoyment. For communion I played a CD version of the song "Everyday God." Many of you have heard it and like it alot. Its lyrics reflect each person of the triune God in the everyday aspects of our life: a God who is very "down-to-earth" while at the same time transcending so much our abilities to understand or explain this God of unbounded love.
Like last Sunday, the music during the other parts of the liturgy were amazing: drums, tongue trilling cries, clapping in rhythm and bodies moving in sync with the music. From what I could see, all of us had a good experience of praying and honoring God on this beautiful feast day. I even had two pictures, one of the trinity in the manner of the Good Samaritan kneeling, hovering, and praying over a beaten person (representing humanity) and showing such compassion and care; another picture of the apostle Thomas putting his finger in the open side of the risen Jesus and being visibly shocked at the reality of such love--these two pictures as the ultimate expression of love of this triune God. I placed them on the altar at the end of my homily and let everyone come up in silence to view these pictures. Something only I could see during the mass was a gecko clinging upside down to the ceiling of the chapel all during the mass. For me this little lizard represented all of creation coming to honor in its own way its Creator on such a great day.
It is 10 PM and I am off to bed. Have a great week. Summer starts for you on Saturday, winter for us, longest day of the year for you, shortest day of the year for us. Have you seen the full moon last night and the night before? Incredible its size and fullness!
Bernie Owens
I am writing to you at the close of a day (Sunday, June 15, 9 PM)that has turned out to be quite, quite blessed for me. I hope you bear with me in what I say here. Some of you may think I have gone "off the edge". I cannot help it. And I really want to say what I am going to say, it has so grabbed me. I am not losing it, I know who I am and what I will share is real and authentic. I hope it invites you, the reader, to your own experience and to a renewed or new sense of how rich is this life going on in our own depths.
My effort to pray this morning was in and out of attention to God, somewhat distracted and not all that "satisfying." After I came back from breakfast, I got taken by a strong sense of how precious God is, how utterly precious Christ is. It so hit me that I began to feel tears welling up inside me. I had to sit down and just let this surprising awareness "run its course". I am reminded of the words in a psalm, "taste and see how God is the Lord." Later in the morning, while I had a break between my second and third retreatants, I took a walk over to the Stations of the Cross and was walking through a section of our grounds where we are extending the stations to make for a wider walk. In the new section someone planted lots of sunflowers and they have grown up so fast, as they usually do. Two were in blossom and standing about 7.5 feet tall, about a foot or more above my face. They were turned to the sun, which we have had little off during these cold days that anticipate the start of winter. It felt so good to feel the sun on my back, so I stopped and stood there to admire these sunflowers in bloom, remembering all the times I grew them myself in my garden at Manresa. Immediately I associated them with ourselves seeking the love and warmth and security that only God is capable of giving us to the depths we have been made for. I felt these same tears rush up inside me, just overwhelm me with a strong sense of the unqualified, unlimited love of God for each and all of us. I had heard the day before so many sad stories of violence and death to many people in this part of the world and recently in Iraq and Syria too, a fresh reminder of how broken are so many parts of the world. This sudden awareness was very strong and helped me immediately see everything in perspective: that this love is stronger than all the hate and violence humans can do to each other; that it will prevail, because it is so very strong and cannot be killed. The gift of Jesus, especially of His 'yes' at Calvary on that sad day of His being rejected and His unqualified, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do" came to mind. I am so taken by this kind of response! It is just astounding! It is so unexpected and undeserved, some say stupid and idiotic, yet it is there all the time for us to accept and reverence, or rationalize away or simply ignore. It is never forced upon us.
I have been feeling quite tired these last two days, have gotten a lot of extra sleep, and feel better for it. I napped about 1.5 hours after lunch today (2.5 hours yesterday morning after breakfast!!) and then got ready for leading today's 5:15 PM mass celebrating the Holy Trinity, the essence of the God Jesus reveals. So many have no sense of the richness of this statement about what God and God's life are like. Only if we have had a great friendship or love in our life can we appreciate something of what is celebrated on this feast day; that is, that God is a trinity of persons relating in total mutuality. Only if we are moved by a great relationship to give and receive everything with another person can we begin to appreciate what is the centerpiece of this feast: total gift of one's own self and great patience and care to listen to and receive all that the other person is and communicates. Not many people, it seems to me, are capable of that deep a friendship or quality of presence to another person, nor desire to give such time to a relationship. Its beauty and the joy that wells up because of such a discovery in one's life escapes so many people. Our capacity for appreciating this divine mystery of God's inner life and joy, of its immense beauty is pretty limited as a result.
Anyway, the "visitations" of God this morning as I walked back from breakfast and then later in the area of the Stations of Cross where I enjoyed those sunflowers in bloom and was strongly moved when I was there were a remote prep for me to lead today's liturgy with energy and great enjoyment. For communion I played a CD version of the song "Everyday God." Many of you have heard it and like it alot. Its lyrics reflect each person of the triune God in the everyday aspects of our life: a God who is very "down-to-earth" while at the same time transcending so much our abilities to understand or explain this God of unbounded love.
Like last Sunday, the music during the other parts of the liturgy were amazing: drums, tongue trilling cries, clapping in rhythm and bodies moving in sync with the music. From what I could see, all of us had a good experience of praying and honoring God on this beautiful feast day. I even had two pictures, one of the trinity in the manner of the Good Samaritan kneeling, hovering, and praying over a beaten person (representing humanity) and showing such compassion and care; another picture of the apostle Thomas putting his finger in the open side of the risen Jesus and being visibly shocked at the reality of such love--these two pictures as the ultimate expression of love of this triune God. I placed them on the altar at the end of my homily and let everyone come up in silence to view these pictures. Something only I could see during the mass was a gecko clinging upside down to the ceiling of the chapel all during the mass. For me this little lizard represented all of creation coming to honor in its own way its Creator on such a great day.
It is 10 PM and I am off to bed. Have a great week. Summer starts for you on Saturday, winter for us, longest day of the year for you, shortest day of the year for us. Have you seen the full moon last night and the night before? Incredible its size and fullness!
Bernie Owens
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Dear Friends,
Happy Pentecost! What an awesome feast! What great meaning in it for the whole world. This afternoon I led the mass for it with about 60 people in attendance. It was very African in spirit and manner: drums, tongue-trilling with the music, singing and clapping of hands, the rhythmic swaying of bodies--all in celebration of this feast that marks the birth of the church and the overflow of God's joy and Spirit on the world. It was a great joy for me to lead this and to give the homily on it. What a topic to reflect on! (Across the valley we could hear some preacher shouting something about the Gospel--it must take days for his vocal chords to recover!!--and then recorded, festive music on a loudspeaker from a local Pentecostal gathering. In short, this part of God's earth was rocking! Come, Holy Spirit!
Right now we are in Day 13 of our 30 day retreat. Today retreatants were praying on the incident in the temple when Jesus, 12 years old, gets caught up in a Q & A session with teachers of the Jewish Law who live at the temple, while his parents are frantic about trying to find him. Also, the retreatants are praying on the period of Jesus from the time He was 12 to 30. Four different people, four different approaches and personality styles, great for me to guide them each through this.
I mentioned in an earlier posting that one of the retreatants I am guiding was inspired to become a priest thanks to his associating with an American priest who worked here in Kenya for many years, especially working with the poorest of the poor and pleading their cause with the government. This priest had invited this retreatant when he was a teenager to work during the summer with him and others on projects for really poor people. The priest got significant backlash from the Kenyan government because he would challenge those with power and political/moneyed control by what he was doing and calling them to do for these very poor citizens. The government grew to dislike him a lot. In the year 2000 he publicly denounced one elected governor of the western part of Kenya for his philandering, for taking a number of young women, having a brief sexual orgy with them, then dispose of them like garbage. This priest whose last name is Kaiser documented these crimes and publicly denounced this elected official, who arranged to have the priest murdered but failed in trying to make it look like a suicide. (It sounds to me a lot like John the Baptist confronting Herod, whose new "wife" got revenge and had John imprisoned and beheaded.) While the US government has much interest in this part of the world vis-a-vis terrorism, it pursued the case of this American citizen to a point and stopped short of demanding the prosecution of this governmental murderer only because to press it fully would harm the US cause here with the government of Kenya. This murderer was given some ambassadorship in another country to get him out of the limelight. Now he is back and running for some new political office in Kenya. Much bribery here, lots of control by those with tremendous wealth and political power. Some answer to no one. They are "gods," a law unto themselves. There is so much of this, it seems especially in the Third World. What will happen to these "gods" when they meet their Maker??!! May they seek God's mercy before such a horrible moment!
The weather here is getting colder as we get closer to the start of winter (less than two weeks from now). Lots of rain last night, damp and heavily overcast, but at the same time you should see the roses we have in our yard. The pinks, the deep reds, and the occasional yellow are stunning. Two bushes of roses are about 6.5 feet tall, one loaded with about 15 gorgeous rose blossoms, the other loaded with about 20 deep red blossoms or buds. I think the secret is the cow manure, extensive mulching, and the rich red clay soil!! I walk from my domicile in the morning past these bushes while on my way to the dining room and shake my head at how much beauty surrounds me on the way.
The staff that produces the meals for the retreatants is doing very well considering the circumstances they have to work with since the explosion of a large hotwater tank and damage of the kitchen area here two weeks ago tomorrow morning. The retreatants tell me the meals are fine and served on time. What more can one ask?! One section of the building is still a terrible mess. It looks like some of the photos taken of Syrian towns after the jets of Assad bomb these villages: walls knocked down, roofs extensively damaged, outside cement-block walls knocked down or their joints cracked, debris on top of stoves and counters, dust and glass pieces everywhere. We are so, so fortunate no one got hit by the debris flying from the explosion. The morning cook missed getting hit (maybe killed?) by a half minute. This incident underscores how badly we need a new kitchen and dining area, really a new building. The food-prep men and women are my heroes and heroines.
On Tuesday I mark 42 years since I was ordained. (Bishop Tom Gumbleton at Gesu Church in Detroit on a sunny spring day did the honors!)You have to be old to mark that many years as a priest. So I guess I am now an old man, yet I still have lots of energy for what I am doing. God knew what He was doing when He invited me to come here. What a surprise that invitation!! Never did I anticipate it. It was certainly not my idea to begin with. I feel that gives me lots of leverage with God when I need something. I just say, "This was your idea and you invited me here. I have come here for you and now I need you to do this or provide that for me/us."
I am presently working on preparing 16 presentations for an 8-day preached retreat, July 10-17. Two presentations a day, then being available for one-on-one conversations with those making the retreat. The theme is on the Holy Spirit as Friend, Guide, and Giver of gifts for the life journey.Thanks for any prayers you would send my way!!
I need to say 'goodbye' and head off to bed. The peace of Christ be with you!
Bernie Owens
Happy Pentecost! What an awesome feast! What great meaning in it for the whole world. This afternoon I led the mass for it with about 60 people in attendance. It was very African in spirit and manner: drums, tongue-trilling with the music, singing and clapping of hands, the rhythmic swaying of bodies--all in celebration of this feast that marks the birth of the church and the overflow of God's joy and Spirit on the world. It was a great joy for me to lead this and to give the homily on it. What a topic to reflect on! (Across the valley we could hear some preacher shouting something about the Gospel--it must take days for his vocal chords to recover!!--and then recorded, festive music on a loudspeaker from a local Pentecostal gathering. In short, this part of God's earth was rocking! Come, Holy Spirit!
Right now we are in Day 13 of our 30 day retreat. Today retreatants were praying on the incident in the temple when Jesus, 12 years old, gets caught up in a Q & A session with teachers of the Jewish Law who live at the temple, while his parents are frantic about trying to find him. Also, the retreatants are praying on the period of Jesus from the time He was 12 to 30. Four different people, four different approaches and personality styles, great for me to guide them each through this.
I mentioned in an earlier posting that one of the retreatants I am guiding was inspired to become a priest thanks to his associating with an American priest who worked here in Kenya for many years, especially working with the poorest of the poor and pleading their cause with the government. This priest had invited this retreatant when he was a teenager to work during the summer with him and others on projects for really poor people. The priest got significant backlash from the Kenyan government because he would challenge those with power and political/moneyed control by what he was doing and calling them to do for these very poor citizens. The government grew to dislike him a lot. In the year 2000 he publicly denounced one elected governor of the western part of Kenya for his philandering, for taking a number of young women, having a brief sexual orgy with them, then dispose of them like garbage. This priest whose last name is Kaiser documented these crimes and publicly denounced this elected official, who arranged to have the priest murdered but failed in trying to make it look like a suicide. (It sounds to me a lot like John the Baptist confronting Herod, whose new "wife" got revenge and had John imprisoned and beheaded.) While the US government has much interest in this part of the world vis-a-vis terrorism, it pursued the case of this American citizen to a point and stopped short of demanding the prosecution of this governmental murderer only because to press it fully would harm the US cause here with the government of Kenya. This murderer was given some ambassadorship in another country to get him out of the limelight. Now he is back and running for some new political office in Kenya. Much bribery here, lots of control by those with tremendous wealth and political power. Some answer to no one. They are "gods," a law unto themselves. There is so much of this, it seems especially in the Third World. What will happen to these "gods" when they meet their Maker??!! May they seek God's mercy before such a horrible moment!
The weather here is getting colder as we get closer to the start of winter (less than two weeks from now). Lots of rain last night, damp and heavily overcast, but at the same time you should see the roses we have in our yard. The pinks, the deep reds, and the occasional yellow are stunning. Two bushes of roses are about 6.5 feet tall, one loaded with about 15 gorgeous rose blossoms, the other loaded with about 20 deep red blossoms or buds. I think the secret is the cow manure, extensive mulching, and the rich red clay soil!! I walk from my domicile in the morning past these bushes while on my way to the dining room and shake my head at how much beauty surrounds me on the way.
The staff that produces the meals for the retreatants is doing very well considering the circumstances they have to work with since the explosion of a large hotwater tank and damage of the kitchen area here two weeks ago tomorrow morning. The retreatants tell me the meals are fine and served on time. What more can one ask?! One section of the building is still a terrible mess. It looks like some of the photos taken of Syrian towns after the jets of Assad bomb these villages: walls knocked down, roofs extensively damaged, outside cement-block walls knocked down or their joints cracked, debris on top of stoves and counters, dust and glass pieces everywhere. We are so, so fortunate no one got hit by the debris flying from the explosion. The morning cook missed getting hit (maybe killed?) by a half minute. This incident underscores how badly we need a new kitchen and dining area, really a new building. The food-prep men and women are my heroes and heroines.
On Tuesday I mark 42 years since I was ordained. (Bishop Tom Gumbleton at Gesu Church in Detroit on a sunny spring day did the honors!)You have to be old to mark that many years as a priest. So I guess I am now an old man, yet I still have lots of energy for what I am doing. God knew what He was doing when He invited me to come here. What a surprise that invitation!! Never did I anticipate it. It was certainly not my idea to begin with. I feel that gives me lots of leverage with God when I need something. I just say, "This was your idea and you invited me here. I have come here for you and now I need you to do this or provide that for me/us."
I am presently working on preparing 16 presentations for an 8-day preached retreat, July 10-17. Two presentations a day, then being available for one-on-one conversations with those making the retreat. The theme is on the Holy Spirit as Friend, Guide, and Giver of gifts for the life journey.Thanks for any prayers you would send my way!!
I need to say 'goodbye' and head off to bed. The peace of Christ be with you!
Bernie Owens
Friday, May 30, 2014
Dear Friends,
Friday evening here, and I will not be long. But I want to say "thank you" to any and all who are praying for me and the four people (three seminarians and one nun) I am now guiding through their 30-day retreat. I have one other nun for 8 days and she finishes on Tuesday morning. There are times I am so, so moved by what is happening in these people and the stories they tell me of their own encounters with death, with struggles, with their thirst for God. I feel so, so close to God as I listen to their stories and how God has and is moving in them. I wish I could package such and show the world. This makes me think of the prophet Isaiah who describes in chapter 40 his going up to the top of the mountains and shouting to the world, "Here is your God!" while he tries to lead God's lambs and sheep to safety, to life.
One of the nuns is such a "tough" character, born the third of triplets, nearly dying as an infant, being carried in her first months in a little sack or small pouch on the belly of her mother wherever her mother went; then at the age of 18 she tells her mother she wants to become a nun, to which her mother picks up a stool or chair and throws it at her. For three days this future nun hid under a desk, slept there overnight to avoid the wrath of her mother. Only the word of her father, separated from her mother and living in another village, could spare her and manage to calm down the mother. Today, 25 years later, her mother is proud of her as a nun. (This is the same person who was part of a small group of nuns who 8 yeas ago went into a part of Ethiopia where only Muslims live. The Muslims burned down all their housing on Good Friday, would not sell food to them nor let them ride their buses, and they were saved from violence and harm thanks to a 4-5 year old Muslim boy who instinctively (providentially??) came to their protection one day when these nuns were walking in a dangerous, threatening area of the village and insisted on their being taken to his home and fed. The boy's father followed the wishes of his son and from that point on the town tolerated the nuns. The nuns are still there to this day and witness to Christ by their living among these Muslims and loving them as best they know how with the kindness and welcome of Christ. Tough heh!!?? Persistent, tough faith in Christ!! It makes one really proud to be Christian and challenged to live one's own faith in Christ's love without any shame or apology.)
Today is the first of nine days leading up to Pentecost, June 8. The significance of Pentecost has grown and grown on me through the years. It really is the climax of the church's life that we celebrate from the beginning of Advent, through Christmas and the Epiphany, through Lent and then Easter. Easter is Jesus' great day but Pentecost is our great day when the Spirit of Christ comes with such power and changes confused, fear-based people into daring apostles who go to the stretches of the known world, as far as India in the east and Spain in the west to plant the seeds of the Gospel and invite people into life in Christ. The same need is there in every generation. I see the need so strongly in our own USA where so many seem confused, don't know who they are, are spiritually comotose, some feeding on drugs or what amounts to quasi-spiritual junk food because they can't stand the emptiness of their lives and the surrounding culture and what it offers them for meaning and purpose. So many adopt pop culture, sports, and feel-good psychology in the place of the wonderfully good news of Christ and the challenge of His Gospel. They end up being spiritually anemic, even anorexic in some cases . . . like they forget to eat nutritious food and slowly waste away! And yet I have met so many really people in the Sates who are so alive, so full of hope and joy and have a clear sense of what life can be because they have experienced and live in fidelity to the love they have experienced from Christ for themselves. They really do believe and radiate His Presence. Pentecost has happened in their lives and they are wonderful to be around.
It is bedtime here. I pray for all you who read my postings. Let us, please, join in prayer Pope Francis this coming Pentecost Sunday, June 8, when he receives in Rome the president of Israel and the head of the Palestinian Authority where the three of them will pray for peace in the Holy Land. What a worthy cause!
Oh, last Monday at 5:45 AM there was a huge boom here at the retreat house. A hotwater tank exploded , rocketed into the air while landing 300' away,and tore a large hole in the roof of the retreat house's administration center, knocked down a number of walls inside as well as some of the outer walls, destroyed the kitchen and ovens, and cracked the walls and ceiling of the chief administrator's office. People outside our walls started the rumors that Al Shabaab had bombed us. Even local news stations began to report this and TV cameras came to our front gate in hopes of a sensational story. (They were ushered away quickly!!) So right now we are feeding 50 retreatants from emergency, cramped kitchen quarters while constructing an emergency food-preparation area to give our heroic cooking crew a little more room for their much appreciated work. In the meantime, 50 retreatants are in absolute silence and getting good meals on time, but it is really tough on the kitchen crew. They are our heroes and heroines right now!!
Bernie Owens
Friday evening here, and I will not be long. But I want to say "thank you" to any and all who are praying for me and the four people (three seminarians and one nun) I am now guiding through their 30-day retreat. I have one other nun for 8 days and she finishes on Tuesday morning. There are times I am so, so moved by what is happening in these people and the stories they tell me of their own encounters with death, with struggles, with their thirst for God. I feel so, so close to God as I listen to their stories and how God has and is moving in them. I wish I could package such and show the world. This makes me think of the prophet Isaiah who describes in chapter 40 his going up to the top of the mountains and shouting to the world, "Here is your God!" while he tries to lead God's lambs and sheep to safety, to life.
One of the nuns is such a "tough" character, born the third of triplets, nearly dying as an infant, being carried in her first months in a little sack or small pouch on the belly of her mother wherever her mother went; then at the age of 18 she tells her mother she wants to become a nun, to which her mother picks up a stool or chair and throws it at her. For three days this future nun hid under a desk, slept there overnight to avoid the wrath of her mother. Only the word of her father, separated from her mother and living in another village, could spare her and manage to calm down the mother. Today, 25 years later, her mother is proud of her as a nun. (This is the same person who was part of a small group of nuns who 8 yeas ago went into a part of Ethiopia where only Muslims live. The Muslims burned down all their housing on Good Friday, would not sell food to them nor let them ride their buses, and they were saved from violence and harm thanks to a 4-5 year old Muslim boy who instinctively (providentially??) came to their protection one day when these nuns were walking in a dangerous, threatening area of the village and insisted on their being taken to his home and fed. The boy's father followed the wishes of his son and from that point on the town tolerated the nuns. The nuns are still there to this day and witness to Christ by their living among these Muslims and loving them as best they know how with the kindness and welcome of Christ. Tough heh!!?? Persistent, tough faith in Christ!! It makes one really proud to be Christian and challenged to live one's own faith in Christ's love without any shame or apology.)
Today is the first of nine days leading up to Pentecost, June 8. The significance of Pentecost has grown and grown on me through the years. It really is the climax of the church's life that we celebrate from the beginning of Advent, through Christmas and the Epiphany, through Lent and then Easter. Easter is Jesus' great day but Pentecost is our great day when the Spirit of Christ comes with such power and changes confused, fear-based people into daring apostles who go to the stretches of the known world, as far as India in the east and Spain in the west to plant the seeds of the Gospel and invite people into life in Christ. The same need is there in every generation. I see the need so strongly in our own USA where so many seem confused, don't know who they are, are spiritually comotose, some feeding on drugs or what amounts to quasi-spiritual junk food because they can't stand the emptiness of their lives and the surrounding culture and what it offers them for meaning and purpose. So many adopt pop culture, sports, and feel-good psychology in the place of the wonderfully good news of Christ and the challenge of His Gospel. They end up being spiritually anemic, even anorexic in some cases . . . like they forget to eat nutritious food and slowly waste away! And yet I have met so many really people in the Sates who are so alive, so full of hope and joy and have a clear sense of what life can be because they have experienced and live in fidelity to the love they have experienced from Christ for themselves. They really do believe and radiate His Presence. Pentecost has happened in their lives and they are wonderful to be around.
It is bedtime here. I pray for all you who read my postings. Let us, please, join in prayer Pope Francis this coming Pentecost Sunday, June 8, when he receives in Rome the president of Israel and the head of the Palestinian Authority where the three of them will pray for peace in the Holy Land. What a worthy cause!
Oh, last Monday at 5:45 AM there was a huge boom here at the retreat house. A hotwater tank exploded , rocketed into the air while landing 300' away,and tore a large hole in the roof of the retreat house's administration center, knocked down a number of walls inside as well as some of the outer walls, destroyed the kitchen and ovens, and cracked the walls and ceiling of the chief administrator's office. People outside our walls started the rumors that Al Shabaab had bombed us. Even local news stations began to report this and TV cameras came to our front gate in hopes of a sensational story. (They were ushered away quickly!!) So right now we are feeding 50 retreatants from emergency, cramped kitchen quarters while constructing an emergency food-preparation area to give our heroic cooking crew a little more room for their much appreciated work. In the meantime, 50 retreatants are in absolute silence and getting good meals on time, but it is really tough on the kitchen crew. They are our heroes and heroines right now!!
Bernie Owens
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Dear Friends,
Here I am Tuesday, just before lunch. I have come from some truly amazing conversations with the retreatants I am working with now. Their stories and sharings make God seem so close, so active, so real, as if much of what passes for daily living is by comparison rather unreal and matters much less than what is contained in these stories.
One fellow tells about how he spent a summer helping some missionary priest here in Kenya with service to really poor people in villages nearby, even building homes with him. He described this priest as given to the poor and the oppressed and pressing for their rights. Eventually he was martyred, murdered by someone who did not like what he was doing to "upset" the status quo. It was from knowing and working closely for those few months that this one retreatant experienced God inviting him to be a priest. I had a lump in my throat listening to this and imagining what it must be like to experience God's call coming through the example of a martyr.
Another retreatant shared the question about why he felt so struck by two scenes in two different movies: one at the end of the movie entitled the "Mission" where the Jesuit priest, head of the Paraguyan mission, while carrying the Eucharist in a monstrance, is shot dead by Spanish or Portugese explorers looking for gold; and the other scene was from the movie "Romero" (featuring Archbishop Romero of El Salvador) when at the end of the movie while saying mass and at the moment he lifts the bread and wine to offer it to God is shot to death by an assassin standing at the back of the chapel. This young seminarian, to be ordained a priest in about two years from now, said to me with great intent, "Why did God come to me so meaningfully in those two scenes, which bear significant similarity? What does this mean for my life?"
A third retreatant shared about how two years spent in a part of Africa with defenseless people with no medical help and living in great poverty he was touched in his spirit so deeply and this left him at the same time with great joy, great gratitude for all he had been allowed to know and experience. This mystery of how God speaks especially through the poor.
Then another retreatant telling about how her group went to a part of Ethiopia, which is largely Orthodox Christian, to a Muslim village, very primitive. They built some humble dwelling places there and then on Good Friday, while they were away, everything was burned down by these Muslims. These Muslims would not sell groceries to them, would not let them ride on their buses. (Sounds like the South of the USA in the 1940s-60s!!) But one day as these Christian missionaries were walking along a road not far from the village a boy 4-5 years old came forward to protect them, lead them back to his house, and gave them some food. Somehow, in that gesture the attitude of the village changed toward these nuns. As Isaiah says, "A little child shall lead them."
I am very blessed to hear these stories. I pass on to you the gist of them.
Yesterday morning we had a very dangerous thing happen here at the retreat center. A hot water tank exploded, rocketed in the air and landed some 200' away from the building on the back lawn, tore a big hole in the roof of the kitchen area, blew out glass and concrete walls. Fortunately the morning cook was a little late in getting to the kitchen and so was spared her life.
I have to go!
Bernie Owens
Here I am Tuesday, just before lunch. I have come from some truly amazing conversations with the retreatants I am working with now. Their stories and sharings make God seem so close, so active, so real, as if much of what passes for daily living is by comparison rather unreal and matters much less than what is contained in these stories.
One fellow tells about how he spent a summer helping some missionary priest here in Kenya with service to really poor people in villages nearby, even building homes with him. He described this priest as given to the poor and the oppressed and pressing for their rights. Eventually he was martyred, murdered by someone who did not like what he was doing to "upset" the status quo. It was from knowing and working closely for those few months that this one retreatant experienced God inviting him to be a priest. I had a lump in my throat listening to this and imagining what it must be like to experience God's call coming through the example of a martyr.
Another retreatant shared the question about why he felt so struck by two scenes in two different movies: one at the end of the movie entitled the "Mission" where the Jesuit priest, head of the Paraguyan mission, while carrying the Eucharist in a monstrance, is shot dead by Spanish or Portugese explorers looking for gold; and the other scene was from the movie "Romero" (featuring Archbishop Romero of El Salvador) when at the end of the movie while saying mass and at the moment he lifts the bread and wine to offer it to God is shot to death by an assassin standing at the back of the chapel. This young seminarian, to be ordained a priest in about two years from now, said to me with great intent, "Why did God come to me so meaningfully in those two scenes, which bear significant similarity? What does this mean for my life?"
A third retreatant shared about how two years spent in a part of Africa with defenseless people with no medical help and living in great poverty he was touched in his spirit so deeply and this left him at the same time with great joy, great gratitude for all he had been allowed to know and experience. This mystery of how God speaks especially through the poor.
Then another retreatant telling about how her group went to a part of Ethiopia, which is largely Orthodox Christian, to a Muslim village, very primitive. They built some humble dwelling places there and then on Good Friday, while they were away, everything was burned down by these Muslims. These Muslims would not sell groceries to them, would not let them ride on their buses. (Sounds like the South of the USA in the 1940s-60s!!) But one day as these Christian missionaries were walking along a road not far from the village a boy 4-5 years old came forward to protect them, lead them back to his house, and gave them some food. Somehow, in that gesture the attitude of the village changed toward these nuns. As Isaiah says, "A little child shall lead them."
I am very blessed to hear these stories. I pass on to you the gist of them.
Yesterday morning we had a very dangerous thing happen here at the retreat center. A hot water tank exploded, rocketed in the air and landed some 200' away from the building on the back lawn, tore a big hole in the roof of the kitchen area, blew out glass and concrete walls. Fortunately the morning cook was a little late in getting to the kitchen and so was spared her life.
I have to go!
Bernie Owens
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Good morning, friends,
Sunday, May 25, beautifully sunny here but a little nippy as we inch closer to the start of winter (summer for you!).
Today is the last day where I have the entire day to work on long-range projects. Tonight begins the introductions for many people coming here for retreats. Some will do only 8-day retreats while most will be starting a 30-day retreat (also called the complete Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola). Yes, 30 days. I will be leading four people through 30-day retreats: three African seminarians (each about 30 years old) and one nun of the Missionaries of Charity order, the one Mother Teresa of Calcutta (Kolkata) began. This nun is marking 50 years in their order. I see each retreatant daily for 45 minutes as they pray through the meditations and contemplations on Jesus' life. Awesome, life-changing things happen when people are that focused for this length of time on God, on the fact of sin and God's mercy, their sense of being called to walk closely with Jesus in their own life, and then to look deeply at the story of Jesus' ministry, His being rejected, His death and resurrection! This process engages the person at the level of their thinking, their feeling and values. It leads them to re-evaluate their life, their priorities, and what they will do with what is left of their life. It is a privilege to listen each day to what God's Spirit stirs up and inspires in them.
My usual experience of this remarkable process has been to lead people through this retreat but stretched out over nine months. In that form they would pray one hour a day on this same biblical material and come once a week for a debriefing of their prayer during the previous week and then get guidance from me for the coming week. It has been 25 years since I have led anyone through the 30-day version of these Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius period. For the first week of the 30 day period I will also being seeing a fifth person who will make an 8-day retreat. I would greatly appreciate your praying for these five people and also for me in the role of their guide. Thank you very much. Come, Holy Spirit!
As I came back from breakfast to my room on this beautiful morning, I was strongly "hit" by a sense of God's goodness. It just came to me and grabbed my attention! I felt so present to God and the quality of God's person, so utterly good and so deeply lovable. How do I help you relate to this?? Let me try this.
If you have ever been touched by the goodness of someone, of a person you have known and come to care about over the years and then get REALLY STRUCK in a certain moment by their deep beauty, goodness, integrity and trustworthiness such that it makes you sit down, drop what you are doing at that moment, and become quiet while in that awareness, and you allow yourself to be totally captured by what you are aware of--getting in a sense STUNNED by it all--then you can relate to what I am trying to say. Sometimes this awareness has happened to me through another human being. This time it was direct, straight from God. Wow!
At mass this morning the presider homilized about the friendship with God that the gift of the Holy Spirit makes possible for us, if we will allow such to happen, if we will take the time, as in any friendship, to get to know and eventually love this very special Person. We get taken by the goodness, the beauty of this Inner Friend, and we are more and more drawn in while we give our 'yes' to this gift. We are enriched beyond anything we previously expected. We can't imagine living any other way and wonder why we didn't say 'yes' to earlier invitations to such a relationship and life. (Nice background for having to listen to four people each day over the coming month!)
One of the 'carry-overs' of the workshop I led for the 30 teachers at St. Aloysius H.S last week is the desire of some of the teachers to make the Spiritual Exercises. So the president and I are discussing this afternoon plans for how to make that happen. When at Manresa I designed an 8-10 week program called "Learning How To Pray With the Bible." I could use the same program in this instance. People begin by praying each day for about 30 minutes from Bible passages I give them and they come once a week and in small groups share the fruit of their prayer during the past week and get guidance from me for the next week. After 8-10 weeks of that, I can readily tell who has taken to the daily discipline and who hasn't. Those who got into the process and whose prayer was noticeably blessed are obvious candidates to make the full Spiritual Exercises over a nine month period.
On Friday I marked nine months since I arrived here. It has been a full nine months. I have not felt idle or bored. I sense I am more active and have had to create new things since coming here that I would not have done if I had stayed in Michigan. I loved what happened to me and was able to do when there ( 19 years at Manresa!), but now in this new chapter in my life I am getting challenged anew and fortunately have the time and the resources to create new things in this very different part of the world. Give me meaningful work and I can live just about anywhere!
Last Thursday I learned that Immigration has approved my application for a visa. It will be another week or two before I actually have the document in hand, but now it is official: I have been given legal status in this nation. (What a wait! Five and a half months since I began the application!) And with that document I will be able to get a driver's license and also to say 'yes' to some retreat and workshop requests in Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and South Sudan. I look forward to the opportunities to contribute to the church in some of these nearby nations.
While in a car last Thursday I was reading a recently purchased paperback, a collection of homilies on the Eucharist by Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa. Some passages were/are just wonderful. Let me mention two. He is commenting on the words of the hymn "Adoro Te Devote. ("Devoutly I adore You.") and comes to the line of "Everything fails in contemplating You." He elaborates to say that everything, people and things but also all thoughts, images and worries fail to express adequately this wondrous Mystery of His Presence in the Eucharist. It is too rich, it is beyond all possible expression of creatures, so beautiful, so good, so overwhelming is this One. He goes on to quote a philosopher of the late 13th century, Roger Bacon from England, to say, "If the divine majesty were to manifest itself to our senses, we would not be able to stand it and we would fail altogether in reverence, devotion and wonder. Experience demonstrates this truth. Those who exercise themselves in the faith and love of this sacrament do not succeed in enduring the devotion that is born from pure faith, without dissolving in tears and without their soul, coming out of itself, liquefying by the sweetness of the devotion, to the point of no longer knowing where they are or why." Yes, everything creaturely fails when trying to give a response worthy of God and so great a gift. I guess this paragraph brings me back to what I was sharing up above about what happened to me this morning in coming back from breakfast to my room.
Yesterday afternoon I took about 30-40 photos of the grounds here and of my room, of my office, of the chapels and of the main buildings and dormitories. I am hoping to be able to send them to as many of you as possible in the next day or two. Hopefully they will give you a sense of what an amazing place this is here. These pictures will be the next best thing to my buying you tickets and bringing you here to see for yourselves!
I need to move on. God bless. Enjoy your improving weather! This afternoon I will be getting in some outdoor swimming. The cool nights have made the water colder but once I get moving I am fine for a good invigorating 25 minute swim.
Bernie Owens
Sunday, May 25, beautifully sunny here but a little nippy as we inch closer to the start of winter (summer for you!).
Today is the last day where I have the entire day to work on long-range projects. Tonight begins the introductions for many people coming here for retreats. Some will do only 8-day retreats while most will be starting a 30-day retreat (also called the complete Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola). Yes, 30 days. I will be leading four people through 30-day retreats: three African seminarians (each about 30 years old) and one nun of the Missionaries of Charity order, the one Mother Teresa of Calcutta (Kolkata) began. This nun is marking 50 years in their order. I see each retreatant daily for 45 minutes as they pray through the meditations and contemplations on Jesus' life. Awesome, life-changing things happen when people are that focused for this length of time on God, on the fact of sin and God's mercy, their sense of being called to walk closely with Jesus in their own life, and then to look deeply at the story of Jesus' ministry, His being rejected, His death and resurrection! This process engages the person at the level of their thinking, their feeling and values. It leads them to re-evaluate their life, their priorities, and what they will do with what is left of their life. It is a privilege to listen each day to what God's Spirit stirs up and inspires in them.
My usual experience of this remarkable process has been to lead people through this retreat but stretched out over nine months. In that form they would pray one hour a day on this same biblical material and come once a week for a debriefing of their prayer during the previous week and then get guidance from me for the coming week. It has been 25 years since I have led anyone through the 30-day version of these Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius period. For the first week of the 30 day period I will also being seeing a fifth person who will make an 8-day retreat. I would greatly appreciate your praying for these five people and also for me in the role of their guide. Thank you very much. Come, Holy Spirit!
As I came back from breakfast to my room on this beautiful morning, I was strongly "hit" by a sense of God's goodness. It just came to me and grabbed my attention! I felt so present to God and the quality of God's person, so utterly good and so deeply lovable. How do I help you relate to this?? Let me try this.
If you have ever been touched by the goodness of someone, of a person you have known and come to care about over the years and then get REALLY STRUCK in a certain moment by their deep beauty, goodness, integrity and trustworthiness such that it makes you sit down, drop what you are doing at that moment, and become quiet while in that awareness, and you allow yourself to be totally captured by what you are aware of--getting in a sense STUNNED by it all--then you can relate to what I am trying to say. Sometimes this awareness has happened to me through another human being. This time it was direct, straight from God. Wow!
At mass this morning the presider homilized about the friendship with God that the gift of the Holy Spirit makes possible for us, if we will allow such to happen, if we will take the time, as in any friendship, to get to know and eventually love this very special Person. We get taken by the goodness, the beauty of this Inner Friend, and we are more and more drawn in while we give our 'yes' to this gift. We are enriched beyond anything we previously expected. We can't imagine living any other way and wonder why we didn't say 'yes' to earlier invitations to such a relationship and life. (Nice background for having to listen to four people each day over the coming month!)
One of the 'carry-overs' of the workshop I led for the 30 teachers at St. Aloysius H.S last week is the desire of some of the teachers to make the Spiritual Exercises. So the president and I are discussing this afternoon plans for how to make that happen. When at Manresa I designed an 8-10 week program called "Learning How To Pray With the Bible." I could use the same program in this instance. People begin by praying each day for about 30 minutes from Bible passages I give them and they come once a week and in small groups share the fruit of their prayer during the past week and get guidance from me for the next week. After 8-10 weeks of that, I can readily tell who has taken to the daily discipline and who hasn't. Those who got into the process and whose prayer was noticeably blessed are obvious candidates to make the full Spiritual Exercises over a nine month period.
On Friday I marked nine months since I arrived here. It has been a full nine months. I have not felt idle or bored. I sense I am more active and have had to create new things since coming here that I would not have done if I had stayed in Michigan. I loved what happened to me and was able to do when there ( 19 years at Manresa!), but now in this new chapter in my life I am getting challenged anew and fortunately have the time and the resources to create new things in this very different part of the world. Give me meaningful work and I can live just about anywhere!
Last Thursday I learned that Immigration has approved my application for a visa. It will be another week or two before I actually have the document in hand, but now it is official: I have been given legal status in this nation. (What a wait! Five and a half months since I began the application!) And with that document I will be able to get a driver's license and also to say 'yes' to some retreat and workshop requests in Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and South Sudan. I look forward to the opportunities to contribute to the church in some of these nearby nations.
While in a car last Thursday I was reading a recently purchased paperback, a collection of homilies on the Eucharist by Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa. Some passages were/are just wonderful. Let me mention two. He is commenting on the words of the hymn "Adoro Te Devote. ("Devoutly I adore You.") and comes to the line of "Everything fails in contemplating You." He elaborates to say that everything, people and things but also all thoughts, images and worries fail to express adequately this wondrous Mystery of His Presence in the Eucharist. It is too rich, it is beyond all possible expression of creatures, so beautiful, so good, so overwhelming is this One. He goes on to quote a philosopher of the late 13th century, Roger Bacon from England, to say, "If the divine majesty were to manifest itself to our senses, we would not be able to stand it and we would fail altogether in reverence, devotion and wonder. Experience demonstrates this truth. Those who exercise themselves in the faith and love of this sacrament do not succeed in enduring the devotion that is born from pure faith, without dissolving in tears and without their soul, coming out of itself, liquefying by the sweetness of the devotion, to the point of no longer knowing where they are or why." Yes, everything creaturely fails when trying to give a response worthy of God and so great a gift. I guess this paragraph brings me back to what I was sharing up above about what happened to me this morning in coming back from breakfast to my room.
Yesterday afternoon I took about 30-40 photos of the grounds here and of my room, of my office, of the chapels and of the main buildings and dormitories. I am hoping to be able to send them to as many of you as possible in the next day or two. Hopefully they will give you a sense of what an amazing place this is here. These pictures will be the next best thing to my buying you tickets and bringing you here to see for yourselves!
I need to move on. God bless. Enjoy your improving weather! This afternoon I will be getting in some outdoor swimming. The cool nights have made the water colder but once I get moving I am fine for a good invigorating 25 minute swim.
Bernie Owens
Monday, May 19, 2014
Dear Friends,
I continue to have trouble getting into this site for blogging! I have spent the last 45 minutes fooling around with this and that before the bar with 'new posting' popped up and allowed me to have something to click on. Oh well, here I am.
I am writing at 4:45 PM, 30 minutes before Eucharist, for me and the 35 or so retreatants who are here at this time. I just finished showering following some heavy digging and swinging a pick-ax to loosen and dig out a lot of dirt in a section for the flowerbed/rosebed I am now taking care of. In the place I took out soil I put in composted cow manure. Wow! Rich stuff! I am getting the area ready for the transplanting of two large clusters of cana lilies which give fire red blossoms. I found them in an area that some years ago was excavated and these flowers were left to grow in a wild area, with no one caring for them. So I am going to rescue them and bring them to the flower bed and let them grace the corner of where the rose bed and another bed of many kinds of colorful, low-growing flowers I recently planted meet. (That was a long sentence! I hope you can make sense of it!) Two weeks ago I composted all the rose plants, probably 25 in number. Already I can see the difference in the leaves. They are shiny and look quite healthy. Now I hope it leads to some gorgeous blossoms in greater number than we have been getting up to now. Till I composted them, the bushes looked, I would call it, anemic. Also, I want to find something to kill the aphids that suck on the rose vines but not use an insecticide for doing that. Also, black rust on some of the leaves. I have to learn what that means--is a spray needed to kill a disease or is it a sign of a need for some kind of plant food?? I don't know yet.
About 10 days ago I found on the CNN news website a presentation of about 40 black and white photos of the planet Mars that NASA shared with the public. The pictures came from the lander that is on wheels, full of cameras and laboratory equipment for examining soil samples. It moves very slowly on the surface of Mars. I must say it fascinated me to no end. It was even a moment of wondering at God, that God "has waited" for human beings for millions of years to come and discover up close this piece of His creation. It is all the more fascinating to me because each night when there is a clear sky here, as I leave the dining room following dinner, I look up in the easterly sky and there I see Mars with its distinctive red color. . . 35-40 million miles away and wonder at what it is like there. Well, to some degree I know what it is like there. There is no life there, no water to speak of, as barren as the Egyptian desert at Mt. Sinai or some parts of southern Arizona that are so dry nothing grows, nothing! But still, there is a history of life that is written in the rock already analyzed by the lander. I can't help but think: what must God be like to have made something like this?? And it is only a little speck in the universe, as is the planet Earth. It is all an instance of great wonder for me.
A little more about the workshop I conducted last Thursday through Saturday noon. The workshop was to open these teachers to a holistic sense of teaching, engaging the student's imagination, affectivity and values, as well as communicating to them a certain amount of information about whatever the topic was to be addressed in the course of studies. An interactive dynamic is supposed to be used by the teacher, not a style where the teacher just lectures (gives out information) with the students passively writing down notes from the lecture. Rather, the art of good teaching is largely involved in knowing how to ask good questions that draw out the students during the class time, to get them active and interested in this new part of the their world. This process came from a document a worldwide committee of Jesuits put together in the 1980s and have tried to get implemented in Jesuit sponsored schools throughout the world. I took the document and broke it down into pieces that could be processed by these teachers with some depth over the 2.5 days. They all seemed to be quite happy with what happened. It was all worth celebrating with some Dewars and great tasting cheese when I got home.
Two weekends ago one of the men who serves as a guard at our entrance gate got married at a nearby Catholic church. He invited everyone that works here at the retreat centre. Many were able to go. This man and his wife, like so many here in Kenya, had lived a common law marriage for a number of years and finally wanted to have a church wedding and have their son confirmed as well. The ceremony included three other couples who were getting married that Saturday. I am told couples do it this way so that they can share the cost of the flowers and the food at the reception that follows. On this occasion the catechist who helps prepare the couples for the wedding was supposed to present a list of the names of the couples getting married. He or she failed to put the name of the guard and his wife on that list for the priest who was receiving the vows. So the priest motioned for the couple to stay away, that they did not belong with the other three couples, that their vows were not going to be received. I am told the tears that followed, the upset in the congregation that followed reflected what a disaster this turned out to be. How hurtful for this employee of ours and his wife and son. I am told the priest was eventually persuaded that the catechist had been derelict, failing to remember to put their names on the list handed to the priest, and that the couples' vows should be received. So he did that in a private ceremony after the mass was over. But . . . can you imagine having such a memory of your wedding day??!! You might not want to go back to that church ever again! A nun who works here and went to the wedding was livid. She did comment on how all those invited from here to the ceremony as guests were so caring of this couple. She said she could see how the employees here very much care for each other. That was the saving grace.
A striking cultural thing I have just awakened to recently is the prevalence of poligamy in this part of the world. The Kenyan parliament just passed a law legalizing it among Muslims and anyone else who wants to have more than one wife. (The bill says the man is not required to ask his wife whether this is acceptable. He can just bring her into the house and that's it. Some women accept it because it means an extra hand with the farming chores, the gardening and tending of the animals.) In the process of debating the bill, the female members of the parliament walked out in protest. So you can see that it is a contested part of this section of the world. I am told that there are instances of men who come to church, want their children prepared for the sacraments, but have taken more than one wife. They are not to receive communion. Yes, I am in a different part of the world. I guess in the First World some men keep their wife but carry on with an affair or two or three, as long as they can get away with such duplicity.)
The editors of those who intend to publish my book are now reading closely everything and laying out the way the text will be positioned on the pages. I have not heard anything from them in about three weeks. Eventually they will be contacting me about any last details and changes. I must say that many days go by and I never think a thought about my book. I am so into another world, like the amazing Tigers baseball team. How fun right now to be a Tigers fan. The team just keeps winning and winning!
The Nairobi bombings! Yes, they are ugly and vicious and make one think twice about going into town, to a mall or supermarket. Life has to go on and I think the government will have to do something more radical than they are presently doing.
On Sunday evening I meet with three young seminarians, about 30 years old, and one nun around in her 50s. They are all beginning at that time the full 30 day retreat of the Spiritual Exercises. I will be their guide for the coming month, till June 25. This is a huge event in their lives and a lot of work for me. Please keep them in your prayers, please, as well as me! Thanks so much.
I need to go to dinner. We just had a major rain storm here as I was wrapping up this letter. We needed it. A great gift for us, especially for the farmers. God bless!
Bernie Owens
I continue to have trouble getting into this site for blogging! I have spent the last 45 minutes fooling around with this and that before the bar with 'new posting' popped up and allowed me to have something to click on. Oh well, here I am.
I am writing at 4:45 PM, 30 minutes before Eucharist, for me and the 35 or so retreatants who are here at this time. I just finished showering following some heavy digging and swinging a pick-ax to loosen and dig out a lot of dirt in a section for the flowerbed/rosebed I am now taking care of. In the place I took out soil I put in composted cow manure. Wow! Rich stuff! I am getting the area ready for the transplanting of two large clusters of cana lilies which give fire red blossoms. I found them in an area that some years ago was excavated and these flowers were left to grow in a wild area, with no one caring for them. So I am going to rescue them and bring them to the flower bed and let them grace the corner of where the rose bed and another bed of many kinds of colorful, low-growing flowers I recently planted meet. (That was a long sentence! I hope you can make sense of it!) Two weeks ago I composted all the rose plants, probably 25 in number. Already I can see the difference in the leaves. They are shiny and look quite healthy. Now I hope it leads to some gorgeous blossoms in greater number than we have been getting up to now. Till I composted them, the bushes looked, I would call it, anemic. Also, I want to find something to kill the aphids that suck on the rose vines but not use an insecticide for doing that. Also, black rust on some of the leaves. I have to learn what that means--is a spray needed to kill a disease or is it a sign of a need for some kind of plant food?? I don't know yet.
About 10 days ago I found on the CNN news website a presentation of about 40 black and white photos of the planet Mars that NASA shared with the public. The pictures came from the lander that is on wheels, full of cameras and laboratory equipment for examining soil samples. It moves very slowly on the surface of Mars. I must say it fascinated me to no end. It was even a moment of wondering at God, that God "has waited" for human beings for millions of years to come and discover up close this piece of His creation. It is all the more fascinating to me because each night when there is a clear sky here, as I leave the dining room following dinner, I look up in the easterly sky and there I see Mars with its distinctive red color. . . 35-40 million miles away and wonder at what it is like there. Well, to some degree I know what it is like there. There is no life there, no water to speak of, as barren as the Egyptian desert at Mt. Sinai or some parts of southern Arizona that are so dry nothing grows, nothing! But still, there is a history of life that is written in the rock already analyzed by the lander. I can't help but think: what must God be like to have made something like this?? And it is only a little speck in the universe, as is the planet Earth. It is all an instance of great wonder for me.
A little more about the workshop I conducted last Thursday through Saturday noon. The workshop was to open these teachers to a holistic sense of teaching, engaging the student's imagination, affectivity and values, as well as communicating to them a certain amount of information about whatever the topic was to be addressed in the course of studies. An interactive dynamic is supposed to be used by the teacher, not a style where the teacher just lectures (gives out information) with the students passively writing down notes from the lecture. Rather, the art of good teaching is largely involved in knowing how to ask good questions that draw out the students during the class time, to get them active and interested in this new part of the their world. This process came from a document a worldwide committee of Jesuits put together in the 1980s and have tried to get implemented in Jesuit sponsored schools throughout the world. I took the document and broke it down into pieces that could be processed by these teachers with some depth over the 2.5 days. They all seemed to be quite happy with what happened. It was all worth celebrating with some Dewars and great tasting cheese when I got home.
Two weekends ago one of the men who serves as a guard at our entrance gate got married at a nearby Catholic church. He invited everyone that works here at the retreat centre. Many were able to go. This man and his wife, like so many here in Kenya, had lived a common law marriage for a number of years and finally wanted to have a church wedding and have their son confirmed as well. The ceremony included three other couples who were getting married that Saturday. I am told couples do it this way so that they can share the cost of the flowers and the food at the reception that follows. On this occasion the catechist who helps prepare the couples for the wedding was supposed to present a list of the names of the couples getting married. He or she failed to put the name of the guard and his wife on that list for the priest who was receiving the vows. So the priest motioned for the couple to stay away, that they did not belong with the other three couples, that their vows were not going to be received. I am told the tears that followed, the upset in the congregation that followed reflected what a disaster this turned out to be. How hurtful for this employee of ours and his wife and son. I am told the priest was eventually persuaded that the catechist had been derelict, failing to remember to put their names on the list handed to the priest, and that the couples' vows should be received. So he did that in a private ceremony after the mass was over. But . . . can you imagine having such a memory of your wedding day??!! You might not want to go back to that church ever again! A nun who works here and went to the wedding was livid. She did comment on how all those invited from here to the ceremony as guests were so caring of this couple. She said she could see how the employees here very much care for each other. That was the saving grace.
A striking cultural thing I have just awakened to recently is the prevalence of poligamy in this part of the world. The Kenyan parliament just passed a law legalizing it among Muslims and anyone else who wants to have more than one wife. (The bill says the man is not required to ask his wife whether this is acceptable. He can just bring her into the house and that's it. Some women accept it because it means an extra hand with the farming chores, the gardening and tending of the animals.) In the process of debating the bill, the female members of the parliament walked out in protest. So you can see that it is a contested part of this section of the world. I am told that there are instances of men who come to church, want their children prepared for the sacraments, but have taken more than one wife. They are not to receive communion. Yes, I am in a different part of the world. I guess in the First World some men keep their wife but carry on with an affair or two or three, as long as they can get away with such duplicity.)
The editors of those who intend to publish my book are now reading closely everything and laying out the way the text will be positioned on the pages. I have not heard anything from them in about three weeks. Eventually they will be contacting me about any last details and changes. I must say that many days go by and I never think a thought about my book. I am so into another world, like the amazing Tigers baseball team. How fun right now to be a Tigers fan. The team just keeps winning and winning!
The Nairobi bombings! Yes, they are ugly and vicious and make one think twice about going into town, to a mall or supermarket. Life has to go on and I think the government will have to do something more radical than they are presently doing.
On Sunday evening I meet with three young seminarians, about 30 years old, and one nun around in her 50s. They are all beginning at that time the full 30 day retreat of the Spiritual Exercises. I will be their guide for the coming month, till June 25. This is a huge event in their lives and a lot of work for me. Please keep them in your prayers, please, as well as me! Thanks so much.
I need to go to dinner. We just had a major rain storm here as I was wrapping up this letter. We needed it. A great gift for us, especially for the farmers. God bless!
Bernie Owens
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