Stage One

Greetings from Detroit! We have completed the first stage of our travels, arriving at St. Bonaventure Monastery around quarter after nine this evening. Along the way from Brooklyn we did the following on our 15-hour trip:

We recited and sang morning prayer as the golden rays of the sun bronzed the orange New Jersey foliage.

We rested at progressively bigger and cleaner service areas to fuel the van and our bodies.

We played Twenty Questions, Two Truths and a Lie, and Would You Rather...?

We paused in Clearfield, Pa., at St. Francis of Assisi Parish, where we attended Mass with several classes from the parochial school.

We talked. We slept. We took turns driving. (That is, all but myself and our youngest postulant, who does not have a license. My time is going to come, somewhere in Wisconsin and on the way back over the long and monotonous stretches of I-80. Prayers, please.)

We toured St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Cleveland and visited the Capuchin candidate who is studying there before applying to join the order in the New York/New England province. We also had dinner early at a New York-style diner, which just goes to show that you can always find a way to feel at home abroad.

For me and the postulant director, we listened to my CD of Creedence Clearwater Revival; and, for my younger, hipper brother postulants, whatever dance, club, and pop music was on the radio.

We recited and sang evening prayer facing into the Ohio sunset, with beautiful bands of baby blue and pink striping the skies between the clouds.

We laughed, sometimes quite a lot.

Tomorrow it is on to the Capuchin Soup Kitchen and the Solanus Center. Sunday after Mass we begin Stage Two, the trip to Milwaukee. Now, to bed. I bid you peace and leave you with the hope of more updates to come.