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...