Chicago - Buffalo

November 21, 2021 Peace and Good, This past week I presented a workshop on the Letters of St. Paul to our postulants. Postulancy is the first year for men who are entering out community. There are eight postulants in Chicago this year. This group was filled with questions, which I truly enjoy. Yesterday I travelled to Buffalo where I will visit some of my family and also do a canonical visitation to one of our Croatian friars who has worked here for the past 30 years. He is now quite elderly, and he probably intends to stay here at the Parish of Our Lady of Bistrica, a small parish in Lackawanna. I will be here until Tuesday, and then I will travel to Oakland (Castro Valley, CA) where I will spend Thanksgiving. On the 29th, our Minister General will arrive and I will travel with him throughout the country for about two weeks. I have finished some reading: Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet by Andrew Reilly This is a series of short essays on what it would take to establish a human presence on the planet Mars. Rather than bringing everything with them, future astronauts would have to discover how to use the resources that are already available there. Furthermore, some of those who would go there would have to intend to settle there for the rest of their lives. The author presents a list of the difficulties involved, but he also presents some of the possibilities that are available today, and what might be available in the near future. A History of Korea by Captivating History This is a history of Korea from the earliest settlements to the present era. Given its location, it has often been caught up by the national rivalries of the nations surrounding it, e.g. China, Japan and Russia. The book speaks of that dynamic, and the efforts of the local population to develop and maintain their own local culture and government. Unheard: the Story of Anna Winslow This is a series of podcasts which purports to outline an investigation into the death of a student in England possibly due to negligence by a research facility and/or a mental health facility. The premise of the podcasts are that they are part of a research project being developed by a fellow student of the deceased. Twentieth Century Ghosts by Joe Hill This is an anthology of ghost/horror stories gathered together by the author of NOS482. Some of the stories are true masterpieces, while others less so (as one often finds in any type of anthology). I would say that the book is well worth reading if one likes this type of literature. Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown This is the classic account of the fate of native American tribes during the 19th century seen mostly from the point of view of the native Americans. The stories are often tragic, and leave one furious at the blind point of view of many of the settles and soldiers during this period. There are any number of incidents that today would be called ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. The Battle of Cannae and the Battle of Zama by Charles River Editors This is account of Hannibal’s most famous and most complete victory over the Romans at Cannae, and also of his defeat in North Africa at the end of the second Punic War. It gives a good portrait of the personality of Hannibal and the reasons for his choices. The short book is well done, as are most of Charles River Editors productions. Hitler’s Furies by Wendy Lower This is a most troubling account of the women who collaborated in the murders machines that the Nazi’s ran in the East of their empire during World War II. The women outlined at times tried to outdo their male counterparts in cruelty. After the war, they often tried to discount their culpability, blaming it on being young and easily influenced by what was going on around them. David Hume by Nicholas Capaldi This is a scholarly (but readable) outline of the great Scottish philosopher who challenged many of the beliefs on knowledge and science of his era. It is a part of the great philosophers series by Audible Books. Have a happy Thanksgiving. Shalom fr. Jude

Rome

September 6, 2021 Peace and Good, This past week we met in definitory. During the week, we end up discussing events and needs from all over the world. Sometimes it makes your head spin when you have talked about situations in North America, Africa and Asia, all within a couple of hours. I have been translating a big project, a manual called Franciscan Discipleship (64 pages) over these past couple of weeks. I should finish the first draft this week, which puts me a bit ahead of schedule. I will be attending another meeting all this week. It is for the new provincials and secretaries of the provinces who were elected in this past year. We will be conducting this at the Seraphicum, our house of theology at the edge of the city. The weather has been warm. The European Community has just downgraded the status of the US again, making it a bit more difficult to enter. I am heading to the States this Sunday which will not be a problem, but coming back might be a bit tricky. I finished some reading: Great Masters: Tchaikovsky: His Life and Music by Robert Greenberg This is a Teaching Company course on the life and music of the great 19th century Russian composer Tchaikovsky. His personal life was strange. He married one of his groupies, but all but had a nervous breakdown when he moved in with her because he was gay and could not live as a heterosexual. He was also a pedophile who was forced to commit suicide because he had an affair with the son of a high ranking member of the royalty. His music well illustrates his profound psychological turmoil, as Greenberg well illustrates. Peoples and Cultures of the World by Edward Fisher This is a series of lectures by an anthropologist who gives some insights into the organization of various cultures and their economic systems. The professor goes here and there, from the Amazon to Polynesia to the US. Some of the insights are very valuable, others less so. The Korean Woman by John Altman This is the story of a North Korean woman who has been trained by the secret services of that country to be a sleeper spy in the United States. At the same time, there is an American secret service agent who is trying to launch a group of missiles against North Korea to catch them unprepared (in spite of the logical consequences to the South). The story is well developed. Blood Territory by Mark Whittaker This is the story of an investigator who travels to the northern territory of Australia to try to determine who had murdered a young man there. The police had arrested one of his former best friends and imprisoned him. Yet, there are other suspects, including the police themselves for the man murdered had submitted a lawsuit against the police for beating him up. Accidental Presidents by Jared Cohen This is the story of the various vice presidents who had taken over the presidency when their predecessors died in office (whether by illness or assassination). Some of them proved to be quite successful, e.g. Harry Truman. Others were non-entities who had been chosen for their office for political reasons. Probably the most successful of all had been Theodore Roosevelt who became president when McKinley had been killed in Buffalo, NY. This is a good book in the tradition of David McCullough. Odd Thomas: You are Destined to be Together Forever by Dean Koontz This is a novella in the Odd Thomas tradition. He is a fry cook in a California village who can see ghosts who come to him so that he might intervene on their behalf. The writing is great, and the reader is even better. Odd comes across as a decent young man who is doing the best he can in bewildering circumstances. The Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton This is the book by Merton which has been compared with St. Augustine’s Confessions. It is the autobiographical story of how he went from a Bohemian family with no beliefs to a Trappist Monastery. It is written in Thomistic language so I found its terminology a bit dates, but overall it presents a good story of how Merton abandoned a meaningless life for something which responded to his deepest hunger. Have a good week. Shalom fr. Jude