Sunday, July 25, 2010

A little bit of heaven: the Chautauqua Institute

July 25, 2010

Peace and Good,

Today is the 29th anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood. I am celebrating at the Chautauqua Institute where I am one of two Catholic Chaplains for the week. The Institute was founded in the 19th century as sort of a religious-cultural summer camp. It has evolved into a major nine week cultural-educational institute which several thousand people attend. They have major speakers and presentations along with many, many lectures and exhibits, operas, concerts, etc. throughout the season. As chaplain, I am asked to celebrate Mass daily and be available for confessions, etc, as well as give a lecture during the week. My theme will be on the psalms.

This past week I gave a retreat to our incoming novices (nine of them) at Carey, Ohio. They are a very good group of young men, very enthused, very sincere. I spoke of various Biblical figures and what they have to teach us about vocation. It might be a book in the making.

Carey, Ohio is a Shrine to our Lady of Consolation. I will be back there next week to preach a novena in preparation for the Feast of the Assumption. I was very impressed with the set up. It has much to offer in terms of facilities and devotion.

I have finished a couple of books. One was called the Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak. This is a Turkish author, and the story is of the intersection of two largely female run families, one Turkish and the other Armenian. It has a couple of rough sections, but it is very well written and gave me tons of insight into the Turkish - Armenian situation (which is tense to say the least).

The second book was a biography about Thomas Edison by Frank Dyer and Thomas Martin. These were two colleagues of Edison, and the biography is fawning and at times overly technical. I was hoping for some insights into the person, but did not find them in this work. Yet, Edison was incredible, working on advancements in telegraph technology, on advancing the work of Bell on the telephone, the phonograph, the electric incandescent light, and the motion picture projector. Any one of those inventions would make a person famous, he did it all, in addition to working on various industrial projects (e.g. Portland Cement).

My schedule for the next weeks is:

July 24 - 31, 2010: Chautauqua Community, Chautauqua, NY - Priest in Residence

August 5 - 15, 2010: Our Lady of Consolation Shrine, Carey, OH - Parish Novena

August 16 - 20, 2010: Maronite Seminary, Washington, D.C. - Seminarian Retreat

August 21 - 27, 2010: Ocean City, MD - vacation

August 28 - September 3, 2010: St. Francis of Assisi Friary, Mishawaka, IN - Novitiate Conference

God bless and
Shalom

fr. Jude

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Wisdom has bi\uilt herself a House

July 20, 2010

Peace and Good,

I am doing well. This past week I preached a retreat to the Sisters of Christian Charity in Menden, New Jersey. Their convent is beautiful, on 106 acres of rolling hillside with many Canadian Geese and Deer wandering around the property.

I preached on the book of Wisdom: Sirach, Wisdom, Proverbs, Job, Quoheleth, Song of Songs and Psalms. They present the idea that God reveals through the everyday events of our lives. While it was incredibly hot in the New York area, the convent is nicely cooled. The siters were a joy, the oldest being 96 years old and the youngest in their 20's.

I had a nicely soundproof room where I was able to tape a large number of daily reflections for the internet. It is always difficult to find a place that is quiet enough to do that. You often don't notice until you notice the birds, airplanes, telephones, etc.

I flew back to Mishawaka on Sunday night and picked up my van and drove to Carey, Ohio. This is a Shrine church dedicated to Our Lady of Consolation. I will be back here in a couple of weeks to preach a novena before the feast of the Assumption. I am giving a retreat to the incoming novices in our community (there are nine of them). I am preaching on the vocation stories of various Biblical figures.

I finished a couple of books. The first was a biography of Margaret of Anjou, a French princess who married the English king during an especially chaotic period of their history. The book was by Jacob Abbott. I have already read one book by him, and a number of others are on the list.

The other book is The Czar's Spy by William Le Queux. The book started out good, but ended up sounding like the plot for a mystery dinner theater. It was written in 1905 and it really shows it.

My schedule for the next weeks is:

July 19 - 23, 2010: St. Francis of Assisi Friary, Mishawaka, IN - Novice Retreat

July 24 - 31, 2010: Chatauqua Community, Chatauqua, NY - Priest in Residence

August 5 - 15, 2010: Our Lady of Consolation Shrine, Carey, OH - Parish Novena

August 16 - 20, 2010: Maronite Seminary, Washington, D.C. - Seminarian Retreat

August 21 - 27, 2010: Ocean City, MD - vacation

August 28 - September 3, 2010: St. Francis of Assisi Friary, Mishawaka, IN - Novitiate Conference

God bless and

Shalom,

fr. Jude

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Preaching in New Jersey

July 11, 2010

Peace and Good,

This past week I preached a retreat to the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration in Mishawaka, Indiana. There were also seven Carmelite sisters who joined us for the retreat. The theme was the Gospel of John, and how each of us is called to become the Beloved Disciple. There is a tremendous amount of symbolism in that Gospel, and I love unpacking it for others and applying it to our lives.

I was impressed with the devotion and simple joy of the sisters. It is wonderful that their community is getting a steady number of vocations. There is something very good happening among them.

The convent is right across the street from our novitiate. I was able to have supper a couple of times with our friars, and they always make one feel right at home. I will be back in that area next week to give a retreat to the incoming novices.

I flew yesterday to Newark, New Jersey to give a retreat to the Sisters of Christian Charity in Menden, New Jersey. I had given a retreat to another community of the same sisters in Danville, PA, either last year or the year before. The theme will be upon the books of Wisdom in the Old Testament.

I am still feeling a bit of my trip to Africa (my stomach, etc. are not quite right yet. There is such a different style of food and there are different microbes there that it usually takes me a couple of weeks to get everything back to normal. I try to offer up the discomfort for those who are suffering much more than I am.

I finished a couple of books this week. There was One Night in Boston by Allie Boniface. It is literally the story of a one day critical period in the life of a woman and the man whom she loves. It was one of the free books I obtained on my Kindle (many, many of the old books and some new ones are regularly offered for free). They do this to interest readers in the other works of the author. It was fairly good, but she tried to pack too much into that one night and at times it came across as forced.

A second book was Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Again, this was a free book on Kindle, and it is one of the classics that I have always wanted to read. It is enormously long, about 1,000 pages. Some critics of Tolstoy say that he is like God in the fact that he creates entire universes with all of the characters and all of the action that he lays out. This book is well worth reading, but it really requires a tremendous commitment. The premise of the book is that Anna, a basically good woman, leaves her husband and child for a flashy lover. That relationship eventually fails, largely because she is looking for a happiness that will never be there. She ends up killing herself. This tragic story is contrasted with another marriage which is slow to develop, but takes on the marks of domestic happiness. It is as if Tolstoy is laying out the options of life. The false path of selfishness and excitement rarely leads to true joy, but the quiet path of being true to oneself and those around one, even if that path is sometimes rocky, leads to self-discovery and peace.

My schedule for these weeks is:

July 11 - 18, 2010: Quellen Spiritual Center, Mendham, NJ - Retreat for Sisters

July 19 - 23, 2010: St. Francis of Assisi Friary, Mishawaka, IN - Novice Retreat

July 24 - 31, 2010: Chatauqua Community, Chatauqua, NY - Priest in Residence

August 5 - 15, 2010: Our Lady of Consolation Shrine, Carey, OH - Parish Novena

August 16 - 20, 2010: Maronite Seminary, Washington, D.C. - Seminarian Retreat

August 21 - 27, 2010: Ocean City, MD - vacation

August 28 - September 3, 2010: St. Francis of Assisi Friary, Mishawaka, IN - Novitiate Conference

God bless and
Shalom

fr. Jude

Monday, July 5, 2010

I'm Back

July 5, 2010

Peace and Good,

I hope that you enjoyed our holiday weekend. All is well with me.I arrived home in the States on Thursday. The trip to Ghana was great. Last Sunday I celebrated Mass in one of the local parishes. This was the first time I have celebrated a three hour Mass. They had asked that the homily be a bit longer, so I preached a 20 minuted homily. It was then translated into the local language. Every verse in every song was sung. Then, at the offertory procession, everyone dances up to place their offerings in the collection box, and since there were two collections that Sunday, this happened twice. There was a prayerful spirit all throughout the Mass.

The retreat with the seminarians went very well. It is always great to share ideas with men from all over a region, knowing that some of what one said will continue on after one has left the scene.

I found out that I was known even in northern Ghana. I was introduced to one pastor as Fr. Jude. He said, "The Father Jude Winkler?" It turns out that the friars in Ghana have been printing my articles in their magazine for years, and many of the people have read them.

I got to stand over an 8 foot crocodile. There are two ponds in Northern Ghana with the crocodiles in a place called Paga. The guides feed them live chickens for the tourists. The odd thing about the animals is that small children are swimming in the same pond where there are more than two hundred of them, and the crocodiles never harm the children.

I found a site where locals teach people the crafts of pottery and painting in the African style. They even have a few cottages where one can stay if anyone is interested. So often when one travels to a country in Africa, one gets to see the big city and maybe a game pack. This is right in the middle of where people live normal lives farming.

I finished a few books in these weeks. The first is a History of China by Wolfram Everhard. This overview of some 4,000 years of Chinese history was good. It is an incredibly volatile history, and reading about helps one understand why the present government reacts to things the way that they do. An example is the Falun Gong movement. They cracked down on them, even though they only claim to be a spiritual movement connected with types of exercises. Yet, this is exactly what various movements have done in the past which tried to overthrow the government.

The second book was the Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad. Conrad is Polish, but he is buried in Canterbury. It is incredible that he wrote in English, not his mother tongue. This is the story of a young man who is infatuated with a mysterious woman (rich, from a humble background, who is supporting a group of rebels in Spain). It waw very good. This is the first of Corad that I have read.

Finally, there was Julian, Woman of our Day by Robert Llewelyn. She is a mystic from the 15th century A.D. Her famous saying is that all will be well. She emphasized the incredible Mercy of God, and how God can cause good to come from everything, even from our sins. I had avoided Julian in the past because she was the latest thing. I always shy away from something that has gotten too much positive press. Now I want to read more about her.

My schedule for the coming weeks is:

July 4 - 10, 2010: St. Francis Convent, Mishawaka, IN - Retreat for Sisters

July 11 - 18, 2010: Quellen Spiritual Center, Mendham, NJ - Retreat for Sisters

July 19 - 23, 2010: St. Francis of Assisi Friary, Mishawaka, IN - Novice Retreat

July 24 - 31, 2010: Chatauqua Community, Chatauqua, NY - Priest in Residence

August 5 - 15, 2010: Our Lady of Consolation Shrine, Carey, OH - Parish Novena

August 16 - 20, 2010: Maronite Seminary, Washington, D.C. - Seminarian Retreat

August 21 - 27, 2010: Ocean City, MD - vacation

August 28 - September 3, 2010: St. Francis of Assisi Friary, Mishawaka, IN - Novitiate Conferences


God bless and
Shalom

fr. Jude