Rome - Chicago - Lexington - Rockford - Algonquin - Montreal

May 10, 2015 Peace and Good, I finished off my first week of definitory on May 2. The next day I flew out to Chicago, arriving the evening of Sunday. Monday I and a couple of other friars drove to Lexington, Kentucky, for the episcopal ordination of fr. John Stowe, one of the friars of Our Lady of Consolation Province, who was being ordained as a bishop for the diocese of Lexington. John is the third bishop of this relatively new diocese. The ceremony was incredibly well planned and beautiful. Wednesday we headed back to Chicago (a six and a half hour drive). Thursday and Friday I visited two friaries in the Rockford diocese that are run by the friars from Poland, the Cracow diocese. They are a good group of friars. They run three different parishes, one Polish, one Mexican and one American. Saturday I flew up to Montreal for the custodial chapter that will be held here the next couple of weeks. The friars here are of Polish origin, and they serve Polish immigrants here in Canada and in three parishes in the United States. I will be here until the 23rd. This is an easy week for me for the chapter is run in Polish and I only have to listen to the translation as much as I can. I finished a few books this week: Indignation by Philip Roth This is the story of a young Jewish man who is the son of a Kosher butcher. He, himself, is a non-believer. When the son goes off the college, the father becomes unreasonable protective, driving the son to seek a college in Ohio. There a series of unfortunate incidents lead him to be thrown out of college, and he is drafted into the Korean War where he is killed, fulfilling the worst fears of the father and leading to his own death. St. Francis of Assisi by Wyatt North North write short biographies of various saintly people and then tells about their importance for our modern days. This is that type of presentation. It is not especially deep, but it is good to reread the story every once in a while to remind oneself of what is really important. Third Degree by Greg Iles A doctor finds out his wife is cheating on her husband and he holds first her and then their children hostage. In the meantime, the doctor has been doing illegal things for profit with his partner. The authorities are getting ready to raid their clinic. The police show up and try to end the hostage situation which is complicated when they find out that the doctor is actually suffering from an inoperable tumor. A lot of action and good characterization, but some unlikely situation nevertheless. Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes This is a long and frustrating account of the battle that marines faced during the Vietnam War. They were often used for political purposes and to foster the promotion of their superiors. They were told to do one thing one day, and then the opposite the next. They built up fortifications only to have to leave them to the enemy, and then have to retake them later on. Matterhorn, is in fact, a mountain fortress that was controlling the infiltration of the North Vietnamese into that part of the highlands of Vietnam, and it is the center of the story. Eenie Meenie by Willow Rose This is another of those horror stories written by a Danish author. She tells of a prison for young male offenders. Someone, and one doesn’t come to know who until the end of the story, is angry because the offenders get off so easily. He takes it into his mind to make sure that they are punished severely for their crimes, castrating one, blinding another, etc. This author doesn’t hesitate to use gruesome scenes to make the point. I hope you have a good week. Shalom fr. Jude