Rome

December 27, 2021 Peace and Good, It has been quiet here in Rome the past several days. The covid omega variant is spreading quickly, so many people are staying at home. Masks are now required even outdoors. Our definitory meeting ended on the 23rd. It went very long, but we got a lot done, and we don't meet again here in Rome until the beginning of March. These next two months I will be in the States (the Midwest) doing two canonical visitations (if the pandemic allows). I will fly to Chicago on the 29th of December. Tomorrow I have to go and try to get a PCR test (Great Britain, through which I am passing, requires the PCR within 48 hours of taking off, the US requires at least a rapid test within 24 hours). Then tomorrow I will have to fill out some of the forms for flying. The weather here has been rainy these past few days, but not all that cold. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice, so I will walk to the clinic (c. 45 minutes) instead of getting a ride. On Wednesday I have to head to the airport at 4 AM (with two other friars who have an earlier flight, I leave at 8:05 AM). I am glad that the winter solstice is passed. I always have problems with light deprevation in December and early January. I should check out one of those light therapies for people with seasonly affect light disorder. I finished some reading: Pyrrhus of Epirus by Charles River Editors There is a phrase concerning victory which has left the victor badly damaged. It is called Pyrrhic victory. It is named after the general Epirus, from what today is Albania named Pyrrhus. This book is a biography of that general. He fought in Greece, the Romans and enemies in Sicily. After one of his victories over the Romans, he was congratulated by one of his generals. His response was that if he had very many more victories like that one, that he would be in real trouble. 10 Big Questions of the American Civil War by Caroline Janney This is a Teaching Company course marketed by Audible (for free) on some vexing questions concerning the Civil War (e.g. was it total war, was it fought over slavery, etc.). The professor is clear and gives a reasonable response to these questions. Her presentation was well done. Micro by Michael Crichton This is the story of a company in Hawaii which can shrink people to a very small level. The problem is that the head of the company has lost his perspective and possibly his mind. He kills a number of people who oppose him in any way, including sending a group of shrunken students out into the wild where they face a dangerous attempt to return to their normal size. Fratelli Tutti by Pope Francis I read this encyclical slowly to be a daily mediation. It is imbued with what we would call Franciscan values. I found the message a bit repetitive at times, but I believe that its message is essential in our times in which people so divided over so many issues. V2 by Robert Harris Harris is one of my favorite authors. He wrote a three volume series of historic fiction on the Roman Cicero. This book is about the V2 rocket attack on London, told both from a German and an English point of view. As with all his books, it is well done and pleasurable reading. He manages to tell a historic story with real people whose lives were changed by the events that occurred in their times. Nicholas II: The Fall of the Romanovs by B. R. Egginton This is a relatively short biography of Nicholas, the last czar of Russia, giving details of the history of his times and his family. The story is well told, without trying to find heroes or villains. Sue Perkins Earpedia Animals/Plants These are two of the podcasts that I have received from Audible. She tells the story of some unusual animals (such as the platypus, of the weasel, etc.)in the first series, and then unusual plants in the second. She has a tremendous light approach with a good sense of humor. It is just an enjoyable listen. Atlas of a Lost World by Craig Childs This is the account of the author’s trips to various desolate, out of the way sites in which he uncovers evidence of early human habitation (or at least experiences things which those inhabitants would have experienced. These trips include the regions of northern Alaska and the Aleutian Islands to the swamps of the southern US. Happy New Year fr. Jude

Ellicott City, Maryland

April 14, 2021 Peace and Good, I hope you are all well. My period of isolation has been completed, and I am able to interact with the local community here in Ellicott City. This time through I am staying in the old Novitiate building at the top of the hill and not in the Provincialate. I had my first vaccination. I was given Pfizer, and I have my second shot on the 28th. I only had a bit of a sore arm for a couple of days. No other reactions. I have been using my time here for some classes on zoom. I have met with a local group twice and I have one more session next Monday. I will be meeting with the novices in California through zoom next week. I am also taping a series of talks with the Companions for broadcast upon their website over the next few months. I finished editing a book. Over the course of the various quarantines that I have gone through in this year, I have written two books and edited another two. I have also had a series of meeting on zoom with friars from all over. I find that an hour and a half on zoom is about as much as I can take without a break. There is something in the zoom meetings that really takes a lot of energy. I finished some reading: Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch I have listened to this book a number of years ago, and had enjoyed it tremendously. Reading it this time was even more fun. The story is of a special unit (only two policemen) in the London police force that deals with magic and other unusual phenomena in the city of London. The older, Nightingale, is hinted to be incredibly old, even if he does not look it. The younger, Peter Grant, is learning the trade. There are murders by mysterious characters, shape shifters, time travel, etc. Yet, in spite of all the unusual happenings, there is a verisimilitude in the story. I highly recommend it as an enjoyable read. The Triumph of Christianity by Bart Ehrman I have always been fascinated on how a handful of apostles and disciples managed to spread the faith to the point that most of the Roman Empire was Christian by the end of the fifth century. How did it happen? What difficulties did Christians face? Did Christianity answer a particular need in the pagan population? Were there pagan groups similar to Christianity in those days? How many Christians were there in the various eras? How quickly did the Church grow? All of these topics are treated in an objective and respectful manner. The History of the Medieval World by Susan Wise Bauer This is a masterful account of the Medieval World from the days of Constantine the Emperor to the days of the crusades. The author is not terribly Eurocentric, for she speaks of Korea, China, India, the Muslim caliphate, etc. There is so, so much information, but it is presented in an interesting manner. I would highly recommend this book. Harun al-Rashid by Charles River Editors This is the story of an Islamic leader of the Abbasid Empire who was both the greatest of its leaders but also the one who set it on the course to ruin. He is often mentioned in the Tales of One Thousand and One Nights, and is a symbol in literature both of a powerful leader but one who tended toward decadence. A Personal Problem by H. Bedford-Jones A man who is a loyal district manager must host his boss, who framed him for a theft many years before and who stole the woman he was to marry. He gets his revenge by having him sleep in a bed which is surrounded by huge cockroaches and centipedes and hunting spiders, things that the boss hates for he has a pathological fear of insects. Robert Harris by Audible Interviews This is an interview with one of my favorite authors. He has written the Cicero trilogy, a book on Dreyfus, the Ghost Author roughly about Tony Blair, and Munich, an account of the four days that led to the compromise that destroyed Czechoslovakia. In the Ruins of Empire: the Japanese Surrender and the Battle for Postwar Asia by Ronald Spector This is a very well done book that speaks about the role of Britain, France, Netherlands and the US in countries formerly occupied by Japan. Many of the countries involved did not want to return to their former colonial status, such as Korea, Indonesia and Vietnam. Then there is the role the US and Russia played in China right after the war. We see many of the tensions in these countries and the stated and implicit intentions of the parties involved. Keep safe. fr. Jude

Jonesboro, GA - Jacksonville, FL - Ellicott City, MD - Dublin, Ireland

February 12, 2012

Peace and Good,

This has been a good week. I began it in Atlanta. From there I drove down to Jacksonville on Monday along with two other friars to a retreat house where I would be preaching a retreat for the friars of the two eastern provinces (Immaculate Conception and St. Anthony). The theme of the retreat was that God was making all things new. This retreat and four others I will be preaching this year were part of a spiritual preparation for the joining of the provinces in 2014. The main purpose of the retreat was to make sure that the union was not simply a superficial joining of two groups of friars, but was rather an opportunity to take a look at our lives and see what needs to be changed. I compared it to moving to a new friary. One has two choices: one can simply pack everything in a moving van (thus needing a bigger one each time someone moves) or one can get rid of what wasn’t really necessary and pack light.

The talks were based on transitional moments in Sacred Scripture: Abraham; Moses; The exile in Babylon; After the Exile; the call to be disciples; the early Church; and the New Jerusalem of the Book of Revelation.

It is never easy to preach to the friars of one’s own community. They know you a little too well. But the friars could not have been more gracious. They entered into the spirit of the retreat wonderfully, and we had some really good conversations.


On a hunch, I also spent ten minutes or so before each of the conferences to talk about things that are going on in the order. Being the Assistant General, I get to see the order at a much wider level than most of the friars, and it is part of my job to let them know what is happening. A number of friars told me how much they appreciated that.

On Friday I flew back to Ellicott City, and then on Saturday night I headed out to Dublin. I will be participating in a series of assemblies (here, in Liverpool, and in London) over this next week. Then I will be heading back to Rome.

I finished a few books.

A Prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey Archer

This book tells of a young working man from London who is falsely accused and convicted of killing his best friend when a band of four rich professionals (one of whom committed the murder) testify against him. He is befriended by a man in prison who belongs to the Scottish nobility who becomes his tutor in school and also in how to comport himself in the world. When the noble is murdered in prison, the young man takes the identity of the noble (for he looks remarkably like him – e.g. The Pauper and the Prince) in order to be released so that he might prove his innocence. This particular detail is a bit unlikely, but the book is quite good overall. I wouldn’t mind reading some more of Archer’s writing.

Typhoon by Joseph Conrad

In this novella, Conrad tells of a captain transporting a group of Chinese coolies to their home city. His ship runs into a terrible typhoon, and they just barely survive. The great thing in the story is that the captain is remarkable dull witted. He never seems to be able to understand the nuances of anything that is said or done. Yet, it is his very slowness that ends up saving the ship from destruction both from the storm and from a rebellion of the Chinese. Once again, Conrad is a great author, and I could easily read anything that he has written. I just cannot believe that English was not his mother tongue. French was, and Polish was his second language. English was his third language, and yet his writing is remarkably good.

Imperium by Robert Harris

This is a historic novel about the rise of the famous orator Cicero to the imperium, the office of Council in the Roman Republic in the early days of Julius Caesar. It is written from the point of view of his private secretary, a slave. (Remember, in Roman times, many of the slaves were educated and quite respected for their expertise.) We hear about the plots and counterplots, the corruption of the later republican era of Rome, etc. Harris has done an incredibly good job in this book. I listened to the abridged version of it, and some day I would love to listen to the longer version of it, something that I could only rarely say for the books that I listen to on my MP3.

Have a good week.

Shalom
fr. Jude