Leaving on a Jet Plane

April 27, 2010

Peace and Good,

Well, if all goes well, I will finally be leaving for London tonight. Actually, these days home at Ellicott City have been great. I have been out on the road almost continuously since January, and this gave me a chance to be with my own community for a little more than a week.

I also got caught up on daily reflections. I am now finished through the end of June. That means I can turn to some of my writing projects and get some work done on them.

I will be teaching two courses at Canterbury. One is an intro to the New Testament, and the other an overview of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) and the Acts of the Apostles.

I finished one book this week: The Congress of Vienna: A Study in Allied Unity: 1812-1822 by Harold Nicolson. This was a period of history that I always wanted to know about. I remember answering a question on my Regents Exam in High School about the Congress of Vienna. It occurred when Napoleon was defeated, and it was highly reactionary. The ogre/genius at the congress was the Austrian Foreign Minister named Metternich. He restored monarchies in all those countries that had become republics, forbade the formation of an independent Poland, etc. The book gives a good overview of the period, but it was heavy reading.

My schedule for the next months is:

04/17/10 - 06/12/10 - International House of Franciscan Studies, Canterbury, England, U.K.

06/13/10 - 06/18/10 - Hyatt Regency Hotel, Hamburg, NY (Provincial Retreat)

06/19/10 - 07/01/10 - St. Victor's Major Seminary, Tamale, Ghana, West Africa p.o.c. Fr. David Azambawu(Seminarian Retreat)

07/04/10 - 07/10/10 - St. Francis Convent, Mishawaka, IN 46546 p.o.c. Sr. M. Dorothy

07/11/10 - 07/18/10 - Quellen Spiritual Center, Mendham, NJ 07945 p.o.c. Sr. Teresa Marie (Sisters' Retreat)

God bless and

Shalom

fr. Jude

A Funny Thing Happened to me on the Way to Canterbury

April 22, 22010

Peace and Good,

Last week I was in Buffalo for our Provincial Chapter. A chapter is a gathering of the friars every four years to take stock of where we are and where we would like to go. We gathered along with the friars of the other eastern province because we had to make an important decision, whether the two provinces would join. My province is St. Anthony's Province and it was founded to serve Polish immigrants. The other province is Immaculate Conception Province and they served the Irish, Germans, and Slovaks. We overlap on the east coast. We voted overwhelmingly to unite in 2014. It is a good thing. It will bring up the numbers up to over 200, and it will give us the opportunity to look at our religious lives and ask whether they need some adjustment.

I was very impressed at the spirit of the friars. This was a difficult decision, and we tried to do it in a spirit of prayer and response to the promptings of the Spirit. Once could sense an openness on the part of the friars. That is what our lives are supposed to be all about. St. Francis even wanted to declare the Holy Spirit the Minister General of our order, because the Spirit should be the guide of all of our actions (ministerial, personal, spiritual, etc.)

This week, I was supposed to be in Canterbury beginning my courses, and then came the volcano. I am finally booked to fly out next Tuesday, God willing. It actually worked out well for me, for I have been on the road extensively this past Spring, as you have read. This gave me nine days at home.

I finished one CD series: The Catholic Church: A History by William Cook. This was a course from the teaching company, 36 lectures. Cook was excellent, honest and fair in his presentation of the history of the Church. It was not that there was so much new that I learned, but it is always good to go over it once in a while to review the details.

My coming schedule is:

04/17/10 - 06/12/10 - International House of Franciscan Studies, Canterbury, England, U.K.

06/13/10 - 06/18/10 - Hyatt Regency Hotel, Hamburg, NY (Provincial Retreat)

06/19/10 - 07/01/10 - St. Victor's Major Seminary, Tamale, Ghana, West Africa p.o.c. Fr. David Azambawu(Seminarian Retreat)

07/04/10 - 07/10/10 - St. Francis Convent, Mishawaka, IN 46546 p.o.c. Sr. M. Dorothy

07/11/10 - 07/18/10 - Quellen Spiritual Center, Mendham, NJ 07945 p.o.c. Sr. Teresa Marie (Sisters' Retreat)

God bless and

Shalom

fr. Jude

Easter Week with the Psalms

April 14, 2010

Peace and Good,

This past week I was in Hamburg, New York, my home town. I was giving a retreat to a group of Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph, the group of sisters who taught me when I was in grammar school. What a privilege to return a little to the sisters who gave me so much while I was growing up. In fact, one of the sisters on the retreat was Sister Vincentia, my 5th and 6th grade teacher who was largely responsible for my vocation.

I had the privilege of studying sacred scripture when I was in Rome for my theology studies. One of the courses that I took was on the psalms. We as religious pray them every day, but so few of us had the opportunity to study their symbolism and meaning. I was able to share some of that with the sisters.

This week I am in Buffalo (just up the road) for our provincial chapter. This is a meeting of the friars which we have every four years to decide what we will be doing for the next several years.

I'll be flying to England this Saturday for a seven week stay in Canterbury to teach a couple of courses at the Franciscan Institute there. I am not sure how soon I will have access to the internet, so if this blog is not done every week, don't worry about me.

I finished one book this week: The Cardinal's Hat by Mary Hollingsworth. It was a very interesting book about a Renaissance Cardinal. He was the grandson of Pope Alexander VI and the son of Lucretia Borgia (not exactly the most righteous family). He was part of the nobility from a city in northern Italy called Ferrara. His brother was the count, and he was the bishop of Milan (and eventually Lyon). Most of the book deals with his account books (what his life style cost, how he bribed people to become a cardinal, etc.). It is not an edifying account. This cardinal was a generation right before the Church started its Trent reforms and the popes and cardinals became more dedicated to their religious duties.

My schedule for the next few months is:

04/17/10 - 06/12/10 - International House of Franciscan Studies, Canterbury, England, U.K.

06/13/10 - 06/18/10 - Hyatt Regency Hotel, Hamburg, NY (Provincial Retreat)

06/19/10 - 07/01/10 - St. Victor's Major Seminary, Tamale, Ghana, West Africa p.o.c. Fr. David Azambawu(Seminarian Retreat)

07/04/10 - 07/10/10 - St. Francis Convent, Mishawaka, IN 46546 p.o.c. Sr. M. Dorothy

07/11/10 - 07/18/10 - Quellen Spiritual Center, Mendham, NJ 07945 p.o.c. Sr. Teresa Marie (Sisters' Retreat)

God bless and

Shalom

fr. Jude Winkler

Holy Week at Home

April 8, 2010

Peace and Good,

I was home all of Holy Week, and that was a real joy considering how much I have been travelling this past few months. Even there, though, I did have a few assignments.

Monday of Holy Week I gave a talk at Walter Reed Medical Center. The theme of the talk was our Lenten Practices: Conversion and Prayer. I am always pleased when I talk there. There is a small to medium size group in the chapel, and then it is televised throughout the center.

Tuesday evening I gave a talk to the Knights of Columbus in the local parish. The topic was the Passion Narratives in the Gospels. What a perfect time to give that talk. It was like an extended way of the cross.

From Thursday evening until Sunday noon, I was giving a Triduum retreat at Mariottsville Retreat Center which is not all that far away from our friary (so I was able to sleep at home each evening). There were about 20 on the retreat, and then we had the sisters who live there (The Sisters of Bon Secours) and outsiders joining us for the Triduum services.

I finished two books. I listened to HMS Surprise by Patrick O'Brien. This is a book in the Horatio Hornblower spirit. It was entertaining because it presents an archaic way of thinking. It is set during the Napoleonic Wars, concerning a captain and a ship's doctor who do great deeds of bravery.

I also finished the novella When Night Falls by Margaret Daley. This is a detective novel with a Christian background. Instead of ending up in bed every five minutes, the heroes pray and speak of their faith. The idea is great, the execution a bit heavy handed, but it was worth reading.

My schedule for the next couple of months is:

04/11/10 - 04/16/10 - Hyatt Regency Hotel, Hamburg, NY (Provincial Retreat)

04/17/10 - 06/12/10 - International House of Franciscan Studies, Canterbury, England, U.K.

06/13/10 - 06/18/10 - Hyatt Regency Hotel, Hamburg, NY (Provincial Retreat)

06/19/10 - 07/01/10 - St. Victor's Major Seminary, Tamale, Ghana, West Africa p.o.c. Fr. David Azambawu(Seminarian Retreat)

07/04/10 - 07/10/10 - St. Francis Convent, Mishawaka, IN 46546 p.o.c. Sr. M. Dorothy

07/11/10 - 07/18/10 - Quellen Spiritual Center, Mendham, NJ 07945 p.o.c. Sr. Teresa Marie (Sisters' Retreat)

God Bless

and Shalom

fr. Jude

P.S. A belated Happy Easter!

Port St. Lucie, FL

March 29, 2010

Peace and Good,

Last week saw me preaching in one of the friars' parishes in Port St. Lucie, Florida. It was great to see how loved the friars are there. We have a good, warm team of men who have done great things with the people there.

I drove down (two day ride). I love driving, both because the time in the van gives me a bit of time to myself, and I can listen to books on tape of the way there and back.

I was very impressed by the confessions on Saturday afternoon (three friars, or in this case four of us, from 2:30 until Mass time at 4:00). To me, that is a sign of a good parish, people regularly going to confession. They also piled in when I offered it every afternoon of the mission as well as Thursday when we had two penance services with multiple confessors.

One other thing that truly impressed me is that all Masses, services, talks, etc. are streaming onto the internet site for the parish. This was set up a few years ago, and it makes services available to the sick, funerals and weddings available to distant relatives, talks available to all. The initial set up is a bit expensive, but the monthly fee is about $150, which is really not all that bad. What a service to the parish and the larger Church.

I finished two books. One was a free book that I read for fun. You might notice that most of the books that I read are history or some other deeper topic. Once in a while I just read something to relax. This was one of those free books on my Kindle (e book). It is Already Dead by Charlie Huston. It has everything: vampires, zombies, New York gangs, etc. It was quite well written.

The other book was a CD set: The Messenger by Daniel Silva. Once again, it had everything: terrorist plots, the Mossad, the Vatican, art lovers, etc. It was once of those books that you listen to while you drive, and you find yourself sorry to have arrived at your destination.

I would like to ask a prayer for one of our friars who passed away recently: Fr. Bernard Prczywozny (sp?). He was one of my professors, and he was a gifted teacher. Yet, these last few years were not kind to him, and he suffered from dementia of some form. It was so sad to see him incoherent when he was so brilliant.

The following is my schedule for the next few months:

03/30/10 - St. Louis Catholic Church, Clarksville, MD p.o.c. Mike Leumas (Knights of Columbus Talk)

04/01/10 - 04/04/10 - Bon Secours Retreat Center, Marriottsville, MD p.o.c. Lynn Lieberman (Triduum Retreat)

04/05/10 - 04/10/10 - Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph, Hamburg, NY 14075 p.o.c. Sr. Joyce Kubiniec (Retreat)

04/11/10 - 04/16/10 - Hyatt Regency Hotel, Hamburg, NY (Provincial Retreat)

04/17/10 - 06/12/10 - International House of Franciscan Studies, Canterbury, England, U.K.

06/13/10 - 06/18/10 - Hyatt Regency Hotel, Hamburg, NY (Provincial Retreat)

06/19/10 - 07/01/10 - St. Victor's Major Seminary, Tamale, Ghana, West Africa p.o.c. Fr. David Azambawu(Seminarian Retreat)

07/04/10 - 07/10/10 - St. Francis Convent, Mishawaka, IN 46546 p.o.c. Sr. M. Dorothy

07/11/10 - 07/18/10 - Quellen Spiritual Center, Mendham, NJ 07945 p.o.c. Sr. Teresa Marie (Sisters' Retreat)

Historic Southern Maryland

March 23, 2010

Peace and Good,

This past week I preached a mission at St. Joseph Parish in Pomfret, Maryland. This parish is preparing for its 250th anniversary in a couple of years. (Remember, it was just a few weeks ago when I preached at a parish in Leonardtown which was celebrating its 300th anniversary).

The mission went from Sunday night to Tuesday night. Sunday the theme was the Book of Revelation and the end of the world. Monday the theme was how to live out faith in our families. Tuesday the theme was our traditions and how they help us to live our faith.

This is a small parish, but there was a great turn out. Many good confessions as well.

I finished a book called The Sisters of Henry VIII: Margaret of Scotland and Mary of France by Maria Perry. What information it had about the sisters was very good, but Henry VIII was such a powerful personality that much of the book was about him with a bit thrown it about his sisters when it was appropriate. The difficulty of a book like this is that they throw out names assuming that you can keep a hundred or so of them straight, which is not always all that easy.

I finished two good CD series. The first was the Lazarus Vendetta by John Ludlum. It is about nanotechnology (creating machines that are the size of a couple of atoms). It was based on the idea of an ecological group that had terrorist tendencies (and a subsidiary plot by the CIA and the FBI). Ludlum always knows how to write a book that is exciting and interesting.

The second one was You've Been Warned by James Patterson. Patterson writes a good murder mystery, but this one had spiritual dimensions. What are the consequences of one's bad actions? What would Hell really be like? etc. It was a good spin.

Here is my schedule for the next months.

03/29/10 - Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C. p.o.c. Kathleen Noel (Talk)

03/30/10 - St. Louis Catholic Church, Clarksville, MD p.o.c. Mike Leumas (Knights of Columbus Talk)

04/01/10 - 04/04/10 - Bon Secours Retreat Center, Marriottsville, MD p.o.c. Lynn Lieberman (Triduum Retreat)

04/05/10 - 04/10/10 - Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph, Hamburg, NY 14075 p.o.c. Sr. Joyce Kubiniec (Retreat)

04/11/10 - 04/16/10 - Hyatt Regency Hotel, Hamburg, NY (Provincial Retreat)

04/17/10 - 06/12/10 - International House of Franciscan Studies, Canterbury, England, U.K.

06/13/10 - 06/18/10 - Hyatt Regency Hotel, Hamburg, NY (Provincial Retreat)

06/19/10 - 07/01/10 - St. Victor's Major Seminary, Tamale, Ghana, West Africa p.o.c. Fr. David Azambawu(Seminarian Retreat)

07/04/10 - 07/10/10 - St. Francis Convent, Mishawaka, IN 46546 p.o.c. Sr. M. Dorothy

07/11/10 - 07/18/10 - Quellen Spiritual Center, Mendham, NJ 07945 p.o.c. Sr. Teresa Marie (Sisters' Retreat)

God bless and

Shalom,

fr. Jude

Back to the Snow

March 15, 2010

Peace and Good,

After getting back from San Diego, I drove up to Erie, PA. All of the Baltimore snow had melted in the week while I was out in San Diego, but there was still a lot of snow on the ground when I arrived in Erie.

This was my second time at Our Lady of Mercy Parish which is on the east side of Erie in Harborcreek, PA. This time the theme was the Holy Spirit. Sunday I spoke of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, Monday the Holy Spirit in the Gospels, Tuesday the Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul, and Wednesday the Holy Spirit building up the Church (for this was the tenth anniversary of the new parish church building).

The community is very warm and there is a family atmosphere that impressed me. The music is very well done and really adds to the liturgy. The snow even melted as it was time to leave and drive back to Baltimore.

One of the evenings one of the parishioners challenged me a little. I had given a couple of examples about teenagers, using my usual sense of humor. He asked whether it might be a bit of age-ism. At first I thought that it wasn't because I make jibes at every age, trying to get us to laugh at ourselves. But then I prayed more upon it and, as always, there might have been a little truth in what that person said. It is so easy to speak about others by objectifying them, making them an object of humor instead of respect. I apologize to whomever I might have done that in the past.

One of the things on TV really upset me this week. Glen Beck spoke about checking out whether one's church preaches social justice and, if it did, leaving that church. Social justice has been our Catholic teaching for the past 130 years. It is what Jesus spoke about when he told the stories of the poor Lazarus, the sheep and the goats, etc. This is one instance where we have to challenge ourselves in our political position and ask whether politics or our faith is more important. (Obviously, this is just as true for the opposite end of the political spectrum which rejects the values of life and proposes moral teachings that are unacceptable.) Somehow, we have to ratchet back a bit the polemics in our political dialog and find common ground, otherwise we will tear each other apart.

I finished listening to two CD sets and reading one book this week. The first CD set was a course of 12 lessons from the Teaching Company on the Late Middle Ages by Philip Daileador. I love history, so it was a great presentation for me. This was a period of great changes in the world and the Church. Listening to presentations like this always give me more raw material to make part of the picture.

The second series of CD's was Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis. Kiedis is the lead singer for the Red Hot Chilly Peppers, a rock group. Their music is very original, and I like them as a group. This was Kiedis' autobiography. Talk about sex, drugs, and rock and roll. He was on drugs from his earliest days, led there by the example of the dissolute life style of his father (a wantabe actor). The way he treats women and the way he talks about sex is really sad. He is a user of people. But when he speaks about drugs and how he all but destroyed his life is a true life lesson. HE spoke of how one cannot force another to give up the drugs. The best way to draw others to sobriety is by living one's own conversion. As I listened to his presentation, I realized that this is true of religion also. One cannot force conversion, one can only invite others, and the best invitation is a life of authentic holiness.

The book I finished was the first volume of the Memoirs of General William T. Sherman. It is similar to the memoirs of Grant that I read a few months ago, but it does have its own spin. The only problem with the presentation is that Sherman fills it out with letters and reports and telegrams that he had in his archives, thus sometimes treating the same incident several times. I believe there are three volumes to this memoir. The first one went from his birth to just before he enters Georgia in the Spring of 1864 (remember, this is when he made his famous march to the Sea, burning everything from Atlanta to Savanna).

Hope Lent is going well.

Shalom

fr. Jude

Here is my coming schedule:

03/19/10 - 03/25/10 - St. Lucie, Port St. Lucie, FL 34983 p.o.c. Fr. Mark Szanyi (Parish Mission)

03/29/10 - Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C. p.o.c. Kathleen Noel (Talk)

03/30/10 - St. Louis Catholic Church, Clarksville, MD p.o.c. Mike Leumas (Knights of Columbus Talk)

04/01/10 - 04/04/10 - Bon Secours Retreat Center, Marriottsville, MD p.o.c. Lynn Lieberman (Triduum Retreat)

04/05/10 - 04/10/10 - Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph, Hamburg, NY 14075 p.o.c. Sr. Joyce Kubiniec (Retreat)

04/11/10 - 04/16/10 - Hyatt Regency Hotel, Hamburg, NY (Provincial Retreat)

04/17/10 - 06/12/10 - International House of Franciscan Studies, Canterbury, England, U.K.

06/13/10 - 06/18/10 - Hyatt Regency Hotel, Hamburg, NY (Provincial Retreat)

06/19/10 - 07/01/10 - St. Victor's Major Seminary, Tamale, Ghana, West Africa p.o.c. Fr. David Azambawu(Seminarian Retreat)

07/04/10 - 07/10/10 - St. Francis Convent, Mishawaka, IN 46546 p.o.c. Sr. M. Dorothy

07/11/10 - 07/18/10 - Quellen Spiritual Center, Mendham, NJ 07945 p.o.c. Sr. Teresa Marie (Sisters' Retreat)

07/19/10 - 07/23/10 - St. Francis of Assisi Friary, Mishawaka, IN 46546 p.o.c. Br. Paschal (Novice Retreat)

07/24/10 - 07/31/10 - Catholic Community of Chataqua, Chataqua, NY 14722 p.o.c. Ellie Lesser (Priest-in-Residence)

08/05/10 - 08/15/10 - Our Lady of Consolation Shrine, Kerry, OH p.o.c. Br. Jeffrey Hines (Novena)