Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Philadelphia and snow....

Below you could find some pics from Philadelphia and also from the snow in Virginia....

Interesting that to go to Philadelphia I needed to cross 4 States (not taken into consideration DC):
Virginia
Maryland
Delaware (the 2nd smallest State)
Pennsylvania

It took me a little bit less than 3 hours to make the trip...one way...
I managed to do it both ways in the same day...

Philadelphia was nice (I must confess, not so nice as Boston)

Main Highlights:
Independence Hall (were they signed the independence agreement)
Liberty Bell
Stairs of Rocky (Actually is a very famous Museum with an amazing view over the city)

It's also on of the few cities in the US where you managed to visit everything, without needing a car.

PS: look at the portuguese "Galo de Barcelos" in one of the pics:)





































































Sunday, February 18, 2007

Last movies seen

"Last King of Scotland"... One of my favorites this year (06)!!

"Ghost Rider"... The Marvel comic.. in this case with Nicolas Cage (the movie: bahhhhhhh)

"The mysteries of Egypt".. IMAX in Philadelphia... I never been in such teather... inside the museum, that was just amazing... I got shaky and dizzy with it.... It was like been inside a big (put huge) globe.. half of it with the projection of the screen (so you need it to look down, to sides or up.. the scope was to much...)

Philadelphia

Yesterday I was in Philadelphia...
What we could call the "Guimaraes" of the USA...

Everyone might be doing funny faces....
And I give them credit for it.


This meant a ~3 hours drive, each way, but was worthwhile...
At the beginning I must admit was disappointed, but was a sort of a crescendo... finishing at the Rocky stairs:)

Pictures will come in the next days, weeks or months....

Chicago - next trip...next weekend

Flight: United Flight 499( nonstop )
Depart: Washington DC-Dulles (IAD) Fri, Feb 23 09:55 PM
Arrive: Chicago-Ohare, IL (ORD) Fri, Feb 23 10:59 PM

Flight: United Flight 1244( nonstop )
Depart: Chicago-Ohare, IL (ORD) Sun, Feb 25 09:15 PM
Arrive: Washington DC-Dulles (IAD) Sun, Feb 25 11:54 PM

Friday, February 16, 2007

Boston 2


Look at the guy praying to the Lord....

Boston



Enjoy!! Take a cup of coffee or tea and see this guys street dancing...

Could you plesae spell that out 4 me...

Salesman: where are you living?
Me: Brussels.
Salesman: Could you pls spell that out for me?
Me: anhhh.. B-R-U-S-S-E-L-S

First Pictures

Most of the pictures from Boston (great city-I spent there the weekend)… is really freezing out there….
The snow is from where I’m staying.. Fairfax, Virginia State, close to Washington…


















Tuesday, February 13, 2007

The final outcome is Yes!

Finally time to say YES!
As I mentioned to someone... if the answer will have been no... I didn't wish to go back at least in the next 10 years to Portugal...

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Day 1 - United States of America Feb 6th

Just to communicate that I arrived well and is really really cold out here.... forget Brussels cold weather!?!?
Fortunately not very windy....
But I understand that is going to snow here tomorrow... yes real snow!!!
Looking ate the news everyone is talking on the cold wave...
When I arrived was something like -5 C.

Already got a car with a GPS (fortunately I must confess...).. therefore I managed to arrived at the hotel only with 1 or 2 turns ;)

Friday, February 02, 2007

Clara Ferreira Alves

Your comments please...
CFA: "Há muita gente a ir-se embora. Não é bem o “senhora partem tão tristes”, que é um derrame amoroso. Não. Uns partem porque não acreditam, outros porque estão cansados, outros porque receberam uma oferta melhor, talvez uma oferta que não pudessem recusar. Em todo o caso, partem, e começam de novo. Uns partem para a Europa, onde é mais fácil a adaptação, onde a vida é semelhante à nossa com mais dinheiro, mais civilização, mais suavidade, menos arreganhar de dentes. Os novos emigrantes da Europa são uma raça de luxo, com propostas de empregos cotados, salários decentes, casas incluídas e escolas pagas, e vão trabalhar para corporações ou empresas que descobriram o seu valor, a sua intrínseca qualidade, a sua peritagem e conhecimentos que muitas vezes por cá se distribuíam e desperdiçavam entre uma hierarquia invejosa e ciosa dos seus privilégios e uma mediocracia bem instalada por todos os lugares, sobretudo os do Estado, onde alastra e contamina. A conspiração dos néscios nada é comparada com a conspiração dos medíocres, sempre em bicos de pés e mão serviçais, irradiando simpatia e falsidade e tratando da vidinha. Nas universidades, nos serviços, nas repartições, nos escritórios, nos guichés, nos públicos e nos privados, pulula e prolifera uma raça que não deixa os outros medrar. É uma raça assustada, espécimes em constante vigilância e assustados com a prevaricação, temendo que forças superiores e desconhecidas os arrastem dos postos e os corram pelas ruas como cadáveres inimigos numa revolução. Reformistas por natureza, partidários do pequeno remendo, da pequena, da pequeníssima medida, e da simpatia calçada como uma luva, os medíocres temem que o seu pequeno mundo se fine e seja substituído. Vivem no terror, o que os torna particularmente perigosos por causa do instinto da sobrevivência. Estão dispostos a tudo menos a partir, por isso empurram os outros, os melhores do que eles, para a porta da rua. "
...
CFA: "Um grande ano de 2007 seria aquele em que deixássemos de ter o desejo, a necessidade, a obrigação, o nojo de partir. Seria um ano em que acreditássemos, finalmente, que não precisamos de ser salvos, não queremos ser salvos, não podemos ser salvos. Não queremos ter um pai, um ditador, um patriarca, um chefe, um déspota, um iluminado. Elegemos quem nos governa, demitimos quem nos desgoverna, somos senhores do nosso futuro e ele não se chama José Sócrates, chama-se Portugal. Sócrates pode ajudar a mudar isto, isto só muda se mudarmos também. Circular e viajar não é o mesmo que abandonar e deixar para trás, como fizeram dois primeiros-ministros, recorde mundial. O seco, fero e estéril monte de que falava Camões na canção é muito longe daqui. É na dureza, num lugar distante de nós, onde nos achamos gastando uns tristes dias. Ele, claro, regressou. Teve esse atrevimento. "

Plan for California

As you may remember from a previous post, California is still to come...
Below you could find the tentative schedule for the California trip that I´m planning to do with a friend...
What do you think?



January Greetings...

Will be interesting to see if this friend of mine will continue to walk around, while I will be in California...

To all, Pax Christi...

OK, I realize that the last time I wrote it was before Christmas. I know that it has been a while and some of you were probably wondering when you would hear from me again. I purposefully waited until the end of this month because, number one, I have not had much free time as you will see by the time you get to the end of this message, and number two, it made sense to wait until the end of the month to share its happenings with you.

During the first week of January, after all of the second year novices had left for their spring experiments, the first-year novices from the Oregon Province up north arrived for a month-long series of workshops. After a two-day car trip that took I don't know how many hours, all seven of them straggled into our house and immediately began adjusting to our routine and enjoying the creations of our gourmet chef. It was good to have them, and we here at the California novitiate enjoyed getting to know them.

Our workshops touched on a variety of different topics and were conducted by some very distinguished Jesuits...

Bill Fulco, SJ, conducted a workshop on the Hebrew scriptures. A personal friend of Mel Gibson, he is probably best known for his work on Gibson's film, the Passion of the Christ, as he helped with the Aramaic and Latin translation of the script.

Frank McAloon, SJ, led a us through several days of the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, a 19th century English Jesuit. I must admit that for me, this course was probably the most difficult to sit through. Some people have a gift for interpreting poetry and finding so many things you can say about a particular poem. I am obviously not one of them!

Frank Clooney, SJ, a professor in inter-religious dialogue at the Harvard Divinity School, led us through a discussion on this important topic. His conclusion: there will always be tension between proclamation of the Gospel and dialogue with people of different faiths, uniqueness and universality, and we don't need to resolve it, but only to live with it in a fruitful and creative way. Make of that what you will, but as Frank emphasized that Catholics and Christians are only at the beginning of learning how to discuss matters of faith with Hindus, Jews, and Muslims, and we still have a long way to go. One shouldn't be required to ignore the basic tenets of his faith in order to dialogue with members of other faiths. At the same time, differences in dogma should not preclude people from various faith traditions from working together in issues that matter to all people.

As a result of this workshop, we paid visits to a Krishna Temple, a Buddhist Temple, a Jewish Synagogue, and a Mosque, and were invited to pray with the members of these communities. So at the Synagogue, for example, we donned yamikas and participated in Friday evening sabbath prayers. At the Mosque, we were invited to join in afternoon prayers, bowing towards Mecca, several times.

Other courses touched upon psychology, liturgy, and the 12 step program of Alcoholics Anonymous which is actually rooted in Ignatian spirituality.

We have spent a lot of time in our classroom, but the entire month, however, has not been focused on study. Us California novices have tried to show our fellow Oregonian brothers around the area, and several weeks ago visited a fascinating exhibit at the Getty Museum featuring icons from Sinai, and the Getty Villa in Malibu, built in the style of a ancient Roman villa, which houses the Getty's Museum's collection of antiquities.

This past week we fielded questions about religious life at one of the Jesuit sponsored high schools in Los Angeles, and spoke at one of the Jesuit parishes Hollywood. Finally I can say I got up in front of a Church of several hundred people and delivered a homily, sermon that is, on religious vocations, in both English and Spanish. Despite a little nervousness, actually a lot of nervousness, and this will probably only disappear as I do this on a regular basis, once I started talking, it was smooth sailing.

The Oregon novices departed this past Monday, and now we go back to our "normal schedule" of classes and regular house work on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and apostolates on Wednesdays and Fridays. I have already been assigned to tutor children at a Catholic elementary school in East LA, so I will have more to say about that next time.

This next month will also see us travel to the San Francisco Bay Area for 10 days visit the Jesuit universities, high schools, parishes, as well as the Province headquarters (the Curia). I will try to tell you a little about that trip in my next update.

Until then, here's wishing you, once again, all the best in the New Year...

Abortion Referendum II

One of the things that I’ll be missing will be the Abortion Referendum... I will need to cancel my trip to Portugal....

Honestly, that only helps me to get concerned on the final outcome of the result....

I must confess that I’m getting anxious...

Change of plans...

Yes, this is not a typo....
Surprises happen...
I will be in the States for over 1 month!!

So I think I´m in a position to challenge...
Does anyone wants to pay me a visit to Washington?:)

UA 951 06FEB BRU - IAD 1215 1507
UA1017 10MAR IAD - SFO 0816 1116
UA 936 17MAR SFO - IAD 0750 1551
UA 950 17MAR IAD - BRU 1752 0630+1