Rome - London

April 11, 2016 Peace and Good, This past week we had our definitory meeting in Rome. There were no really big items on the agenda, and we had had a series of meetings in the past few months, so we actually ended up finishing the meeting early, something about which no one complained. The weather in Rome is slowly getting warmer for the beginning of Spring. There are afternoons that we can walk outside without a sweater (although for most people it is still sweater weather - I do not suffer from the cold very much, as is evident from the fact that I can wear sandals all winter long without socks. Yesterday I flew into London. I will be here in England (both London and Oxford) until Saturday, when I will fly out to the States. The weather here is considerably cooler than it was in Rome. They tell me it has been raining quite a bit, although yesterday and today were/are fine. I have not seen the custos here in a few months, and he has had some health problems, so it was good to catch up a bit. Oxford is our house of formation. I will take the train up there on Wednesday, and then on Saturday take the bus down to the airport. I finished some books: A Certain Justice by P.D. James This is the second book written by PD James that I have read. She writes about a detective named Daglish and the other detectives with whom he works in London. This is the story of the murder of a very good attorney who is arrogant and makes many enemies. Thus, when she is killed and her body left in a scene that was intended to mock her, there are almost too many suspects to count. Chief among the suspects is a young man whom she defended for killing his aunt (of which he was guilty, but found innocent) who has become engaged to her daughter (an unloved child). The plot is twisted but well explained. I intend to continue to read PD James’ books for they offer an entertaining opportunity. The Thirteenth, Greatest of Centuries by James Walsh This is a book that I read a long time ago, when I was ka freshman in college. I saw that it was available on librivox.org (an internet site where you can listen to out of print books read by volunteers). The author wrote this in the early twentieth century and was trying to show how many of the things which we assume are modern were actually invented or even perfected in the thirteenth century. This was a century that was the true beginning of the Renaissance. There are a lot of good details, but the authors constant refrain that the thirteenth century is undervalued gets a bit old at times. Hideaway by Dean Koontz Originally I thought that the hideaway would be a place in the mountains where some robbers had fled, but it turns out to be a very different type of hideaway. A man and his wife are in an accident as they are driving along in a snow storm. They are driven off the road into a mountain river where she survives and he is brought back to life by an ingenious doctor. This same doctor had brought his own son back to life, but the boy was pure evil. This first man is close to pure good. The man and his wife adopt a handicapped child who is the joy of their lives, but they must protect him against the insane predator who now stalks them. The Rise and Fall of Soviet Communism by Gary Hamburg This is a series of lectures by a professor from the teaching company that deals with the before, during and early after of communism in the Soviet Union. The presentation is good, but the voice of the professor is a bit annoying. It is a bit whiney. Yet, the content helps one overcome a natural aversion to his presentation. The Anatomy of a Moment by Javier Cercas Four years after the death of Francisco Franco, a group of army officers seized control of the Spanish parliament in an attempt to overthrow the government of Alfonso Suarez. The king refused to back the rebellion which was being called in his name, and the coup was crushed. This book investigates what led up to the coup, what happened during the seizure of the parliament building, and what followed it. The coup was not so clear cut as many would like one to think. The only problem with the book is that it has an overly journalistic, overly philosophic way of expressing things – almost as if the author wants to produce a great classic but only succeeds in producing a cheap copy of one. Have a good week. Shalom fr. Jude

Rome - Ndola (Zambia) - Rome

April 4, 2016 Peace and Good, After spending the Triduum at home in Rome, I flew with two other friars from the Curia down to Ndola in Zambia to facilitate a province assembly in preparation for their coming provincial chapter. The weather there was quite warm, in the 80's most days. It is south of the equator, so it is entering into fall. Zambia is a very fertile country, and the people are very welcoming. During the week, after we had completed our talks, we took a trip to our new novitiate in Kitwe, which is about an hour away. There are about 85 friars in the province, and like all new provinces, they have a bit of work to do to iron out the rough spots. My presentation was on the topic of minority as in being a friar minor. I took the talk from the Gospels and other New Testament writings. We then had the friars break up into small groups to discuss first of all who had served them as models of minority in their own lives, and then what elements of minority they thought that their province needed to address in these next four years. We have found that it is always better to let them decide their priorities rather than to try to impose them from above. They ended up saying exactly what we would have hoped, but it came from them and not from us, and that makes all the difference. On Friday night we flew back to Rome. It is a long flight - four hours from Ndola to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and then another six hours from there to Rome. We left at 3 in the afternoon and arrived around six the next morning (after a four hour layover in Addis Ababa). Once again, we found that the flights were very good. Air Ethiopia is a very good airline. However, the airport in Addis Ababa can only be described as chaotic. The only good thing was that there were three of us, so you didn't feel that you were struggling to figure out what was going on alone. I will be in Rome this week for our General Definitory, and then Sunday I head out to England for about a week. I have finished the following: Citizens of London by Lynne Olson This is an excellent presentation about those Americans who lived in London during the war years and helped the British win the war. This includes Ed Murrow, Gil Wynant (the ambassador), Averill Harriman (the leader of the Lend Lease Program there), and General Dwight Eisenhower. It gives an excellent impartial portrait of those people, both speaking about their talents and generosity as well as their faults. I would recommend this book to anyone who wanted more information about what it was like to survive the blitz and the other difficulties during the war. A Stranger in Mayfair by Charles Finch This is a book about a young detective who has just married and also been elected to Parliament in England. He is asked to conduct an investigation by a fellow member of Parliament who then asks him to discontinue his investigation. That man is acting very oddly, and the detective and a young man who he is mentoring decide to continue the investigation of the murder of a footman of the second parliamentarian. It is set in the 19th century, and is quite good in a Arthur Conon Doyle sort of way. Claudius the God by Robert Graves This is the second in the series on the emperor Claudius (who ruled after Caligula and before Nero). He was a decent man, a scholar, but someone who was easily manipulated by his wives, two of whom were not nice people at all. This book is based on ancient biographies of the emperor, and it gives a very human portrait of a person who never wanted to be emperor and who wanted to reinstitute the republic in Rome. Hawaii by James Michener Michener’s books are incredible, but terribly long. I thoroughly enjoyed this book which is a series of vignettes about people whose lives intersected from the arrival of the first Polynesian on the islands to the time when Hawaii became a state. It is especially interesting to see the heritage of the early congregational ministers who came to the islands as missionaries and whose families went on to own much of the land. There is also the interplay of the Chinese and Japanese immigrants who were brought to the islands to work the pineapple and sugar cane fields. The next Michener book I will read is on Poland, but I will give it a break for a while because I have been reading this one for so long. The Gardens of Kyoto by Kate Walbert This is an odd little book about a mother who is speaking with her child about things that happened when she was young and later when she grew up. When young she had a cousin who was a special friend. He was drafted during the Second World War and was one of the last soldiers killed during the war. He left her a beautiful book on the Gardens of Kyoto which was given him by his true mother (although he did not know she was until he was a teenager). The book was written by a soldier of the First World War who was shattered by the violence he saw and experienced. There is a sense in the book of how war destroys people in opposition to the peace found in the zen gardens in Kyoto. Absolute Monarchs by Julian Norwich This is an excellent treatment of the history of the papacy. It is quite long, but never gets caught up in unnecessary details. Norwich is critical without being cynical. He is an Anglican, but treats the papacy with great respect, without ever hiding from nasty details. I certainly will be seeking to read some of Norwich’s other books. Single and Single: A Novel by John le Carre Most of le Carre’s books are about spies, but this is a bit of an exception. It is about figures involved in high finance with very shady underworld investors. Tiger Single is the head of an investment firm in London that deals with mobsters from Russia after the fall of the Soviet empire. Oliver, his son, has revealed information about those dealings to the revenue agents in England, and they are on the trail of the money laundering. In the meantime, a number of disasters has befallen the Russians and they are out for revenge. As is typical of le Carre’s books, it is well written and a bit convoluted, but excellent reading. Have a good week. Shalom fr. Jude

Los Angeles - Rome - Nemi

March 23, 2016 Peace and Good, I hope that you are all having a good Holy Week. I finished my days in Los Angeles after meeting with the definitory of the California Province and some Korean friars who have a friary in Torrence. I flew back to Rome on Friday which was a long, long flight - ten and one half hours from Los Angeles to London and two and one half hours from there to Rome. Saturday I met with the assistant generals for the OFM friars and the Capuchin Franciscans. We were coordinating programs and just getting to know each other. Sunday, after celebrating Mass in the Basilica of Santi Apostoli, the General Definitory travelled out the a retreat house in Nemi. That is just outside of Rome, and is near Castel Gondolfo where the popes spend their summers. We are getting a few days of rest and prayer before we begin the Triduum tomorrow. We have a beautiful view of the vulcanic lake just below us. Tomorrow we head back to Santi Apostoli where we will be for the Triduum. Then on Easter Sunday night I head out with two other friars for Zambia to give a series of talks in preparation for their provincial chapter. This is similar to what I did in the fall in Romania. I finished some books: Dark Justice by Jack Higgins This is a complicated terrorism story about a Russian oligarch who wishes to sew confusion in the West so that his oil income might rise. He has a local Imman in London send young Muslim men to Iraq for training in terrorism. The British secret services finds out about this and they send one of their agents, Dillon, a former IRA fighter, in to break up the plot. There is a considerable amount of travel and violence before the heroes save the day. Conquest of the Americas by Marshall Eakin This is a teaching company course with 24 half hour lectures which outlines the conquest of the Americas by the Spanish, Portuguese, English, French, and Dutch. Eakin speaks of the process as a cultural collision of three rivers of humanity: native American, European and African (the slaves). He speaks of the heroes of this process and also the villains. He is not afraid to speak of the destruction of wonderful cultures by often brutal conquerors. He eventually speaks of the formation of a new, complex American identity which is a mixture of the three cultures of origin. The course is quite informative. While most of the sources are those of the conquerors, Eakin tries to bring in individuals and exiting information about pre-Columbus situations. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elizabeth Tova Bailey I bought this book because of the title. I wanted to know what it was all about. It turned out to be the story of a woman who suddenly contracted an auto-immune disease which left her so weak that she could not even sit up. Over the years she has recovered a bit only to have several serious relapses. She could do so little on her own. Her friend brought her a small plant from the woods, and on a lark she put a wild snail on it. The snail turned out to be the ill woman’s friend as she watched it slowly go about its business. She became fascinated with it, studying up on snails, etc. It is a good book which meditates on the busy-ness of life and what happens when all that busy-ness comes to a crashing halt. Dr. William Cook: Pope Francis, the Times are Changing This was a podcast presentation for the Great Courses Series on Serius Radio. William Cook is a professor of the State University of Geneseo who has produced a few courses on the Catholic Faith for the Great Courses Series. One can listen to the various presentations for free by googling Great Courses The Torch. He gave a wonderful overview of his background and theology. He also spoke about St. Francis whose names Pope Francis has taken. He then applies some of his insights to the ministry of Pope Francis. It is a very good presentation. Nixon and Kissinger by Robert Dallek This is an account of the relationship between Nixon and Kissinger and the story of their successes and failures. They come across as very insecure seekers for power. Nixon deeply resented whenever Kissinger was praised. Kissinger was willing to overlook Nixon’s anti-Jewish and other nationalities bigotry in order to be awarded the position of Secretary of State which he deeply lusted after. Neither of them comes out of this looking all that well. It is frightening how out of it Nixon was toward the end (drunkenness, irrationality, etc.). Kissinger is seen as making decisions himself that should only have been made by the president. It is a sad story. I hope you have a good Holy Week. Happy Easter! fr. Jude

Rome - Chicago

March 12, 2016 Peace and Good, I finished off the definitory in Rome this past week. Unlike our previous definitories which went two weeks, this one was only a week long - but oddly seemed to be two weeks worth of material. Then on Sunday I flew to Chicago. I have been here to present a workshop to the postulants of the three provinces of Our Lady of the Angels, St. Bonaventure and St. Joseph of Cupertino. There are four postulants this year, two from the East and two from California. Last month I was down in San Antonio where the other US province has their postulancy. This coming year the two postulancies will be united in Chicago, part of the overall program to unite all of the formation programs in the country. The weather at the beginning of this week was very warm, but the past couple of days it has settled back into more normal temperatures for March in Chicago. I head out this afternoon for Los Angeles where I will be attending a couple of meetings. I finished some books and short stories: Human Prehistory and the First Civilizations by Brian Fagan This is a 36 lecture series on the beginning of humanity from two and one half million years ago until the end of pre-history which actually occurred in the 20th century. Pre-history is defined as that which occurred before there was writing. The first chapters deal with the development of the human person through evolution. Then the author deals with the beginning of farming, organized social activities, religion, music, tools, weapons, etc. His final lecture draws time up to the present, but those immediately preceding deal with cultures in India, China, Southeast Asia, Europe, the Americas, etc. France 1940 by Philip Nord This is supposed to be a description of what led up to the horrendous defeat of the French in a very short time during World War II. It turns into a bit of apologia for the French, again and again saying that things were not all that organized, but neither were they for others such as the Soviets, the low countries, England and America. He blames the fall of the Third Republic on bad generals, who were the same villains who caused the downfall of the republic and the rise of Petain as a dictator who intended to refound the moral fabric of French society. There is a lot of information, but as said above, the authors continuous refrain that the French weren’t any worse than others becomes a bit monotonous. The Confessor by Daniel Silva I enjoy Silva’s books. They deal with Gabriel Allon, an Israeli Mossad agent who, when not working on a case, is engaged in art restoration. This is the volume where he meets his future wife in Venice. It is also the volume where he saves the life of the pope and forms a close relationship with him and his personal secretary. The book revolves around a secret organization in the Church which was involved in the holocaust and the hiding of Nazi war criminals after the war. The story is not entirely anti-Catholic, and in fact is quite positive at points. It is strongly against certain elements in the Church which view religion in a triumphalistic manner and which would use any means to revise “the glory of the papacy.” Dead Aim by Thomas Perry This is quite a good murder mystery. A man walking the beach in Santa Barbara sees a woman try to kill herself. He saves her, but she ends up dead a couple of days later. He is bothered by this and hires a private investigator to find out about her and her choice to kill herself. It turns out that she was connected to a survivalist camp that had branched out into murder. The private investigator is killed, and the man survives a number of murder attempts. He is only able to save himself by becoming the hunter instead of the hunted. Prohibition: Thirteen Years that Changed America by Edward Behr Prohibition was a vast social experiment to better society in the States. It turned out to be a horrendous failure, actually leading to an explosion of crime and corruption. The author gives a history of the temperance movement and how it eventually won and had an admendment to the constitution outlaw the production and sale of alcoholic drinks. He tells the story of some famous criminals and some honest people who just thought prohibition was a terrible idea. He then speaks of how it ended. The movement to end it ironically was financed by many of the people who pushed for it, men like Henry Ford. The rich realized that they were paying much higher taxes because the alcohol taxes were no longer being collected. He then asks questions about our country’s drug war and what lessons we could learn from prohibition about it. Hope you have a good week. Shalom fr. Jude

Rome

March 2, 2016 Peace and Good, I have been back in Rome all of last and this week. Last week was, as usual, spent in getting over jet lag and doing some smaller projects to get ready for our definitory meeting this week. We will be meeting all of this week and then I head out to Chicago on Sunday for a week workshop with our postulants in the house of formation there. The weather has changed here in Rome. It is still rainy a couple of days a week, but overall it is a bit warmer. It seems that winter is almost over. I am starting to get ready for a series of presentations that I will be making to our friars in Zambia the week after Easter. They are getting ready for their provincial chapter, and a few of us are coming down from Rome to present a workshop to them to help them in their preparations. I ask you all to pray for the repose of the soul of one of my friends who died last week in Baltimore: Daniel Schneider. I know him and his family well from the time that I helped out in his parish. He was a fine, good man and a good husband and father. I finished some books: Agent Zigzag by Ben Macintyre This is a fascinating account of a spy during the Second World War. He was a professional thief and con man who was arrested and imprisoned on the island of Jersey just before the beginning of World War II. He was caught on the island when the Nazis invaded (for the channel islands were the only part of Great Britain conquered by Germany during the war). He volunteered to be a spy for Germany and eventually was sent to a training camp in France. He then was returned to England where he immediately surrendered and offered to work for the British. He pretended to sabotoge an airplane factory (with a set designer faking the act). He then returned to Germany where he was awarded the iron cross. After some time in Norway, he was sent back to England where he served as a double agent. The man faithfully served the nation, but he was not honest or upright. He had many affairs with women, stole from both the Germans and the English, etc. He turned out to be a great spy, but the exact opposite of what the British would have chosen if it were up to them. Open Water by Sean Wilsey This is the last of the travel stories in a collection by Paul Theroux. This one is about a young man who is hopelessly lost in his life when he steals a motorbike. The man’s very rich father convinces the judge to send him to a reform camp in Florence, Italy. After his stay there, he drifts up to Venice where he learns to be a gondolier. Some twenty years after this he travels back to Venice to explore the lagoon and its many islands, many of which are now uninhabited. We hear of his adventures and misadventures on this trip. It is a good story of how a slacker finds some meaning in his life. Anthony of Cleopatra by Adrian Goldsworthy This is the third book by Goldsworthy that I have read in the past few months. The other two were on Augustus Caesar and Julius Caesar. This one continues a pattern of being a great historic account of major figures of the Roman empire. This account is not covered with sappy romanticism, but rather tells as much of the story as we know. It helps us to know these two figures much better, especially Cleopatra who has suffered from blatant misrepresentations from the days of the Romans. I will certainly continue to read whatever he has written because I find the books insightful and entertaining. Dark Horse: The Surprise Election and Political Murder of President James A. Garfield by Kenneth Ackerman This is a truly excellent historical account of how James Garfield first won the nomination and election to be president and then how he faced fights within his own party to actually govern the nation. He did not run for president but was drafted when the other candidates could not win a majority at the convention. He barely won the election after dirty tricks during the campaign. Once elected, he had to face the demands for patronage from the party bosses of various states, especially R. Conkling in New York. He faced him down, but one of his followers who was mentally unbalanced shot and killed Garfield. Chester Arthur, a close friend of Conkling, then became president and instead of acting as a puppet of Conkling, he charted his own course to become a fairly decent president. Freedom of the Monsoon by Malika Gandhi This is a series of episodes in the lives of young Indians in the period of World War II and the independence movement and also in the time immediately before independence (during the massacres between Hindus and Muslims) and leading up to the day of independence. We see how these young people face the adversities of colonialism, poverty, cruelty due to casts and privilege, etc. The dialog is a bit idealistic, but I am not sure that it is wrong given that it is coming from a different culture. It was a good read. I hope you have a good week. Shalom fr. Jude

Mishawaka - Boynton Beach - Rome

February 23, 2016 Peace and Good, When I finished the workshop with the novices in Mishawaka, Indiana, I headed south to Boynton Beach, Florida (about 40 miles north of Miami) for a meeting with the provincials of our conference. That meeting lasted from Tuesday to Thursday. We got quite a bit done in those days, especially in terms of preparing all the details for the joining of houses of formation in June. On Saturday, there was another meeting with myself, the provincial of OLA province, the custos of our Montreal custody, and the vicar of the mother province of that custody, Gdansk. We were discussing the presence of our friars in Canada. The custody serves Polish immigrants, but fewer and fewer Poles are coming to Canada and the US. Now, if they want to leave Poland for work, they tend to end up in Germany or Great Britain. They can go there for higher wages, and yet fly back home to visit their families whenever they want. As the number of new immigrants diminishes, the need for Polish speaking parish also diminishes. The question is whether this presence in Montreal could be combined in some way with the English and French speaking friars in Canada to form a new reality. This is a long term project, but we have been taking the first tentative steps in that direction. Sunday I flew back to Rome. The weather here is still a bit cool and overcast. We have a definitory meeting next week, so I have a chance this week to get over my jet lag and take care of a couple of writing and taping projects. I have finished some books and stories: Loving Las Vegas by Colson Whitehead This is the story of a young man travelling throughout the west US just after his college graduation. He is helping to write a series of quick tip travel books. He falls in love with Las Vegas. He describes it as an adult Disneyland, and as a place where one can worship decadence. He really seems to have enjoyed his time there, seeing it as a place where one can put off one’s own persona and live a dream self for the days one stays there. In the Abode of the Gods by Jeffrey Tayler This is the story of a man who undergoes a Buddhist pilgrimage in Tibet and other mountainous parts of China to visit holy sites there. It is not an easy trip. Parts of the journey are high in mountain passes, while other parts descend to jungles along the Mekong river. He is led by a husband a wife team. The man on pilgrimage realizes that suffering is part of every pilgrimage and he does not resent his difficulties. Yet, he is disillusioned by the fact that the Buddhism that he studied was not being lived in the part of the world in which he found himself. The religion had been corrupted by many superstitious beliefs that were vestiges of the original religion of the area. Death Angel by Linda Howard The girlfriend of a drug lord plays dumb so that she can enjoy his riches. One day the drug lord hires an assassin who, instead of the standard payment, asks to have sex with the drug lord’s girlfriend. He allows this, which she sees as the lowest form of betrayal. She runs away with 2 million dollars of his money, and he send the assassin after her to kill her. She dies in a way, but is sent back by her heavenly court to try to clean up her life. She does this and eventually she and her assassin meet again and fall in love with each other. Laudato Si, an Encyclical by Pope Francis This is the pope’s recent encyclical on the environment. Right after it was released, one heard so many different versions of what it contained. It really is not all that radical. It does not try to solve scientific problems. Rather, it calls us all back to Gospel values, especially as applied to caring for the gift of the creation that God has placed into our care. As always, the pope speaks of our special obligation to care for the poor who are often those most hurt when there is an environmental degradation in whatever form. Roosevelt’s Centurions by Joseph Persico This is the story of the military men who collaborated with Franklin Roosevelt during World War II. We hear both a story of what they did and some of the inside information about who they were. We hear of their strengths and weaknesses. In spite of this highly qualified team of military experts, Roosevelt is shown to make the final decisions on so many points during the war. We see how Roosevelt knew who to choose and how to use them to allow them to use their own talents (e.g. Marshall as an organizer, Admiral King as a fighter, Eisenhower as a politician in the best sense of the word, etc.). This is a good treatment of the topic. Born on the 9th of July by Patrick Symmes This is the story of a trip to South Sudan, the newest independent nation on the earth. South Sudan was cut off from the north in recent years for they are very different. The north is mainly Muslin while the south is Christian and animist. While the south is now independent, it is not very organized. In spite of the vast distances, there are hardly any roads between towns. There are many different bands of tribesmen who want nothing to do with a national government. There are many, many problems, and too few people trained to deal with them. Have a good week. Shalom fr. Jude

San Antonio - Mishawaka, IN - Boynton Beach, FL

February 15, 2016 Peace and Good This past week I have been giving a workshop on the Gospel and Psalms to the novices in our federation. They are located in Mishawaka, which is next door to South Bend, IN. There are seven of them, and they are a very diverse group: one from Netherlands, one born in Haiti, one born in Togo, one who is British, two Latino, and one Anglo. Yet, they are a very supportive group. I was very impressed with them. I have been giving this workshop to the novices for a number of years. It is a good time to get to know the men in formation. There are two of them from our custody in Great Britain, two from Our Lady of Consolation Province, two from Our Lady of Angels Province and one from St. Joseph Cupertino Province. The weather in South Bend was very, very cold. It was good flying down to Florida yesterday where the weather is much more moderate. I am here for a meeting with the provincials. We will be staying at the local diocesan seminary, and then we will be meeting at St. Mark's Parish in the area. I have been here before, having preached a parish mission here. I have finished some books: Deep Storm by Lincoln Child I have read a number of books which Child wrote in partnership with Prescott (the series about the detective Aloysius Pendergast). This is the first that I have read by him alone. It deals with a drilling platform which has detected a mysterious signal coming from below the outer crust of the earth. The government arranges to drill for it, but many of the people on the underwater drilling platform are becoming mysteriously ill. A doctor is called in to discover the cause of the difficulties. The plot becomes more complicated by the fact that someone is trying to sabatoge the project, and also that whoever placed the source of the signal underground left several forms of warnings to frighten the curious away. Wolf Hall: A Novel by Hilary Mantel This is the book behind the TV series about Thomas Cromwell, an official in the court of Henry VIII. Cromwell is presented as having very clear views about various things, but he is also a basically decent man. One sees all the intrigue of the court and the capricious behavior of the king. One also sees a very negative picture of Anne Boylyn, Henry’s second wife. The book is very good, but one must be attentive because the scene changes quite a bit. This volume ends with the death of Thomas More. Oscar the Detective by Harlan Page Halsey This is a silly story which is very dated about a detective who, although he is small of stature and seems weak and ineffective, is actually stronger and more clever than any of his opponents. He must battle against thieves, both domestic and foreign. The Poinsonby Diamonds by L.T. Meade and Clifford Halifax A doctor assigns a nurse to care for a deeply disturbed young woman (who is very rich and well connected). She slowly recovers, but then her parents arrange a marriage for her. Her future husband shows her a diamond necklace which will soon be hers. She loves the necklace, but it soon disappears. All the evidence point to the nurse who is highly virtuous. The doctor must solve the mystery to absolve the nurse of responsibility. A Moving Experience by Thomas Swick This article is written by a travel writer. He speaks of his experiences during travel. He often finds himself almost as a spectator, bored at what is passing by and not even registering it. I know what he fells like, for I have seen so many things that I really don’t want to see new things any more. He only finds his travels interesting when he enters into the lives of those whom he finds in the various sites he visits. He especially appreciates those places which are not on the “A” list of tourist sites. He prefers to visit those places which receive fewer visitors but which treat those visitors as guests and not tourists. Have a good week. Shalom fr. Jude