Keeping On

Lectio Divina

One more time, because I like things that come in threes:

Hear the sound of my pleading when I cry to you for help when I lift up my hands toward your holy place.

Psalm 28:2

Library

Continuing Resurrection and Priscilla and Aquila. Pledging to read more in the pamphlets from The Franciscan Institute.

Log

Today: staying at San Lorenzo Friary for our day of personal time. Aiming to read, write some letters, and take a walk. Also, a video call and a couple of telephone calls. A keep-on-keeping-on kind of day.

Tomorrow, the novice brothers begin ministry.

Weather

Clear and warm, promising to be very warm by the afternoon.

Learning on Discerning

Lectio Divina

Same as yesterday, but I will post it again:

Hear the sound of my pleading when I cry to you for help when I lift up my hands toward your holy place.

Psalm 28:2

Library

Continuing Resurrection and Priscilla and Aquila. Did not return to the pamphlets from The Franciscan Institute, choosing Tolstoy for hermitage time. But I have personal time all day tomorrow, and I will open one of the pamphlets then.

Log

Today: Wednesday is hermitage time, and I kept a low profile, as is my wont on this day. Stayed in my room this afternoon to read Tolstoy and reflect on what we have heard in our classes this morning on discernment. Revisited our lessons on personality types, namely the insights of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the enneagram.

An interesting excursus on heresies in class today, with the moral being that an openness to truth, the wholeness of truth, is just as important in spiritual discernment as an openness to love. If sin gets in the way of following God with all our heart, so error gets in the way of following God with all our mind. As I am beginning to understand it, heresy is not a Church conspiracy to suppress forbidden truths or forbidden expressions of truth, but the symptom of distorted or narrowed conceptions of truth. One tries to steer clear of heresy not so much out of a fear of error as from a desire to receive truth more fully and to live by it. Of course, this is just my perspective and I am willing to have it expanded further. I have been loath to read about or study heresy and the Church's response to it over history because it usually depresses me. And I have always felt that sin and its defeat by love is the important thing. Jesus saves us from our sins. But our gracious God who is love is also truth, and so I have to reckon with error.

This evening, we celebrated the birthday of a novice brother. Now, to relax after a day of silent reading, reflection, and what I hope was genuine contemplation.

Weather

Less hot than yesterday, and less breezy. The coming of the full moon in the cool of evening makes my heart rise.

Psalm 28

Lectio Divina

Hear the sound of my pleading when I cry to you for help when I lift up my hands toward your holy place.

Psalm 28:2

Library

Continuing Resurrection and Priscilla and Aquila. Intending to return tomorrow to the pamphlets in the series on the Franciscan intellectual tradition published by The Franciscan Institute. 

Log

This morning: sang our new Mass setting with the San Lorenzo Schola at Eucharist to celebrate the feast of Saint Augustine of Hippo. The opening and closing hymn, "O Beauty, Ever Ancient," draws on a well-known prayer of Augustine in Confessions, his spiritual autobiography. Now, continuing our class sessions on discernment. Sent eight letters in the U.S. Mail this morning and proud of it.

This afternoon: an editorial meeting to plan the October issue of The Caperone, and, using the Microsoft Publisher desktop publishing program, a tutorial in layout for the novice brother who is my co-editor.

It occurred to me that I have not yet posted a link to the newsletter. Go here if you want to read it.

This evening: spiritual reading during prayerful silence. Perhaps one or two more letters tonight and tomorrow during hermitage time. Someone has to keep the Post Office alive. 

Weather

Hoping the fresh breezes that flew in yesterday afternoon remain with us.

Reconciliation

Lectio Divina

Sunday: The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.
But there are some of you who do not believe.

John 6:63-64

Monday: You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men.
You do not enter yourselves,
nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.

Matthew 23:13

Library

Continuing Resurrection and Priscilla and Aquila.

Log

Yesterday: Eucharist at San Lorenzo Friary with the community. Calls to family made successfully except to my sister, but I hope we will catch up this week.

This morning: beginning two weeks of class sessions on the subject of discernment. This afternoon: some preparatory work on the October issue of The Caperone. Also, receiving the sacrament of reconciliation. A Capuchin priest in residence at Old Mission Santa Ines comes to San Lorenzo Friary every other Monday for an hour in the afternoon. This is very generous of him. How fortunate are we to have access to the sacrament of reconciliation on a regular basis.

Weather

Clear and cool yesterday. Much the same today.

Calls

Lectio Divina

Now let them stop worshiping other gods and honoring the relics of their kings, and I will live among them forever.

Ezekiel 43:9 (New Living Translation)

Library

Continuing Resurrection and Priscilla and Aquila.

Log 

This morning and afternoon: house chores, mainly finishing production on the September issue of The Caperone. This evening: looking forward to a quiet night of reading and studying, followed by Mass in the morning here at San Lorenzo Friary.  

This weekend: calls home to my brother and mother, as well as my sister, who is three weeks from giving birth to her second child. Hoping eventually to connect with a post-novice brother from the New York/New England province for a conversation about Boston-area ministries to immigrants and prisoners. (We've been playing tag over telephone and e-mail.) Maybe one or two handwritten letters, as well.

Weather

Unsettled after a stormy night.

Assignment

Lectio Divina

All your works give you thanks, LORD

and your faithful bless you.

 

Psalm 145:10

 

Library

 

Continuing Resurrection and Priscilla and Aquila.

 

Log

 

This morning: program announcements during class. I have received my ministry assignment: Catholic Charities of Santa Barbara County. I will be volunteering at the community service center and thrift store in Santa Maria. Later in the day: a conference with the formator on The Caperone, and some more work on the newsletter. Faith sharing in the evening.

 

Weather

 

An early chill, the first to be felt here, but the warmth is expected to return later.

Hiking

Lectio Divina

You shall live in the land I gave your ancestors;
you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

Ezekiel 36:28

Library

Continuing Tolstoy, Resurrection. Continuing Priscilla and Aquila with the novice brothers. Looking forward to continuing the pamphlets published by the Franciscan Institute on the Franciscan intellectual tradition.

Log

This morning and afternoon: Accompanied three of my novice brothers on an eight-mile hike up a narrow wooded trail leading from a Boy Scouts camp to the top of a hill overlooking Cachuma Lake. Walking one of the trails of the Grand Canyon was my first hiking experience, but today was the real deal: no tourists, no trash on the ground. The terrain was rocky! The trail also vanished in some places near the peak of the hill. My feet are beat, but not blistered except for one toe. It's my hips, which felt the stress on the way up, and my knees, which felt it on the way down, that will be achy tomorrow. But for now, I feel healthy and proud to have made the hike.

Weather

Mild in the morning. Warm and sunny in the afternoon, with the faintest of breezes. Mild in the evening.

Philosophy and Theology

Lectio Divina

'Take what is yours and go.
What if I wish to give this last one the same as you?
Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money?
Are you envious because I am generous?'

Matthew 20:14-15

Library

My spiritual director is looking after my intellectual development as a Franciscan by introducing me to the philosophical and theological heritage of our tradition. He has given me several pamphlets in the Franciscan Heritage Series, an initiative of the Commission on the Franciscan Intellectual Tradition. Today, during "hermitage time," I read the first volume in this series, by Franciscan Fr. Kenan Osborne, titled The Franciscan Intellectual Tradition: Tracing Its Origins and Identifying Its Central Components (Saint Bonaventure, N.Y.: The Franciscan Institute, 2003). How blessed am I to have the freedom now to explore this tradition and be built up in mind and spirit.

Beginning Resurrection, the final great novel by Leo Tolstoy (New York: The Heritage Press, 1963). This beautiful harcover edition is illustrated with wood engravings by Fritz Eichenberg, whose "Christ of the Breadlines" and many other works are known to readers of The Catholic Worker.

Continuing the lighter reading of Priscilla and Aquila in the evening with my novice brothers.

Log

Today: continuing lessons on liturgy, with a focus on Liturgy of the Hours, the place of music in Catholic liturgical practice, and learning a new musical setting for the Mass. This afternoon, the aforementioned hermitage time and the joy of expanding my mind and spirit in the Franciscan way.

Weather

Comfortable all throughout the day; a most nurturing climate.

Reading Aloud

Lectio Divina

Jesus looked at them and said, “For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”

Matthew 19:26

Library

For communal recreation in the evening, a couple of the novice brothers are joining me in reading a work of biblical fiction:

Henderson, Lois, and Smith, Harold Ivan. Priscilla and Aquila: A Novel. Carmel, N.Y.: Guideposts, 1985.

Once upon a time, before film, radio, television, and the Internet, people used to entertain themselves by reading to each other the popular literature of the day and reciting poetry and verse. People would pay well to hear actors perform the classics, and authors, too, would get in on the act -- indeed, many a writer supplemented their publishing royalties with money earned from speaking tours. Reading aloud to one another is a dormant art. I am attempting to revive it among the novice brothers. So far, three of us have read two chapters of Priscilla and Aquila together, and we're hooked!

Log

This morning: continuing lessons on the liturgy, with the focus remaining on the Liturgy of the Hours.

This afternoon: a lunchtime presentation on the option of ministry at Old Mission Santa Ines by the Capuchin priest brother who is pastor there. This presentation concludes our discernment of the ministry options; now we will express our ministry preferences in writing to the formators. This is due tomorrow. The formators will then select a ministry for each novice. We will be informed of their decision on Friday.

After lunch, spiritual direction at Old Mission Santa Barbara. If there is time when I return to San Lorenzo this afternoon, I will return to work on The Caperone.

Weather

Clear and calm after unexpected storms the previous day.

One Year

Lectio Divina

Sunday: “How can this man give us [his] flesh to eat?”

John 6:52

Monday: He went away sad, for he had many possessions.

Matthew 19:22

Log

I did not post yesterday, because now I take a complete sabbath from the Internet on the Sabbath. Otherwise, I would have marked the first anniversary of From a Brother, which debuted on Aug. 19, 2011. Thank you, faithful readers, for continuing to follow the story God is spinning with my soul!

Yesterday: Mass at Our Lady of Sorrows, a Jesuit-run parish in Santa Barbara. Following coffee, donuts, and conversation with the parishioners, headed to Old Mission Santa Ines for the annual fiesta that is the major fundraiser for the historic mission. A bright, almost hot afternoon, popcorn and tri-tip sandwiches, and covers of Beatles and Buffalo Springfield tunes. Had a good time with the brothers and even won at the ring toss. Two of our novice brothers were caught by the public eye of the Santa Barbara News-Press, and subscribers can see what the photographer saw of them on today's front page.

This morning: resuming our lessons on liturgy. This afternoon: continuing production of The Caperone following a morning with my co-editor and the formator who is our editorial supervisor. No choral practice this evening ... sigh. We will opt for prayerful silence instead of musical silence.

Weather

Cool and clear.

Redesigning

Lectio Divina

Though she is a harlot at times, she is our Mother.

Dorothy Day, "On Pilgrimage," Catholic Worker, January 1967. She is speaking about the Church. Her quotation helps me come (partly) to grips with the very troubling Ezekiel 16, which we heard on Friday.

Log

Friday: Morning and afternoon at Old Mission Santa Ines. Attended the Virtus safe environment training, mandated for all volunteers working with children and young people in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Got fingerprinted. This is the third time I am becoming certified to work with vulnerable persons in a volunteer capacity with the Church. The first time was in 2004 in the Diocese of Rockville Centre when I became a confirmation class instructor at Our Lady of Grace Parish in West Babylon, N.Y. The second time was last fall to be eligible to volunteer in the Diocese of Brooklyn. The training has been updated in recent years to address the phenomenon of Internet predators. It's a decent training, and it helps all who volunteer in Catholic parishes, schools, and institutions to be aware. However, without adequate protocol and mechanisms of accountability for Church leaders who are empowered to respond to communications from their watchful faithful, all this training is for naught. Where is the training for bishops and upper-ranked clergy? The training to teach them act on allegations of abuse with alacrity? To cooperate with civil authorities? The greater scandal lies in covering up abuse, not in letting facts, such as can be ascertained, be known to a candid and jaded world. The greater scandal lies in not acting quickly and forcefully enough.

Friday evening: a memorial for Capuchin Fr. Fintan Whelan of the Province of Our Lady of Angels, who died the Friday before, Aug. 10, at the age of 81. A social and meal followed the final prayers of commending Brother Fintan's soul to his Creator.

Today: House jobs and work projects. With Microsoft Publisher now installed on a dedicated terminal and a template at hand, beginning to redesign The Caperone on the fly. We go to press next Saturday. We'll get there, on deadline or not!

Weather

Windy, very warm, and dry.

At Home

Library

Finished Day, On Pilgrimage. Finishing Osborne, Sacramental Theology.

Log

It's Thursday, which means we have unstructured personal time from mid-morning until late afternoon, when we convene in chapel for evening prayer and meditation. Many welcome the opportunity to go off site (to "leave the ranch," as I put it) and recreate in small groups. Some go shopping. Some go to the movies. Some go to the beach. Some walk the downtown of the nearest cities and towns. I have chosen to stay at home.

This morning: served at Mass and read the antiphons at morning prayer. Then, a leisurely breakfast over the Santa Barbara News-Press and the Los Angeles Times crossword. Also, reading and laundry (both the habit and civilian wear). This afternoon, more reading, maybe more correspondence, and perhaps a jog. All the while soaking in the quiet of the friary and grounds and letting God reveal to me the ways I can live a life of penance, the ways I can preach the Word of God, the ways I can become, like Jesus, bread from heaven to nourish the life of a famished world.

Weather

Clear and mild. A good day for leisure, but also a good day for laboring in the fields.

Hermitage Time

Lectio Divina

The woman herself fled into the desert
where she had a place prepared by God.

Revelation 12:6

Library

Continuing Day, On Pilgrimage, and Osborne, Sacramental Theology.

Log

Today I was prayer leader for the solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, an observance celebrated by both the Eastern and Western churches. We sang more Marian hymns today than many Protestant Christians have ever sung, much less heard, in their entire lives. We sang more Marian hymns than this Catholic himself ever knew!

My education into the cult of Mary, and its place in Catholic spirituality and religiosity, continues apace with every feast and solemnity dedicated to her. I recommend the book on Mary by Megan McKenna that I read recently. I am increasingly interested in learning what Catholic women theologians and spiritual writers have to say about Mary to the world today. What does it mean to call Mary the Mother of God? The Virgin Mother? The God-bearer, or in Greek theotokos? This and a hundred other honorific titles that speak to her role in the mystery of our redemption -- our liberation and salvation. The doctrine concerning her person begs for interpretation. What does it mean to say she was conceived without the taint of original sin? What does it mean to say she was taken up body and soul into heaven at the end of her life and spared the corruption of death? How do such teachings affect the way we are to live as followers of Jesus in this generation?

This morning: more on liturgy, with a discussion of the state of the reformed liturgy nearly 50 years after the first seminal Second Vatican Council document, the Constitution on Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium), plus a tutorial in chapel on how to lead a service of Eucharistic adoration, popularly known as the "holy hour."

This afternoon: prayerful silence all around the friary from 1 to 5 o'clock, from the end of the lunch hour until we gather again in chapel for the office of readings and evening prayer. This period we have called "hermitage time," and we have it every Wednesday. Today during hermitage time I had my regular check-in with my formation advisor, and then I wrote three letters slowly, mindfully, almost prayerfully. I am glad I did this, but the afternoon went very quickly. I hope to "time out" a little more next week, perhaps by reading and doing mental prayer instead.

This evening: resuming kitchen cleanup duties, begun this morning. I'll be on breakfast, lunch, and dinner until the evening meal on Sunday. Next Monday and Tuesday I will help the kitchen manager set up for lunch and dinner.

Weather

Stable but occasionally temperamental in scattered areas.

10,000

Lectio Divina

If someone who has worldly means sees a brother in need and refuses him compassion, how can the love of God remain in him?

1 John 3:17

Library

Continuing Day, On Pilgrimage, and Osborne, Sacramental Theology.

Log

Just surpassed 10,000 page views for the blog. Not a great count in the galactic scheme of things cyberspatial, but it's all about mustard seeds, I remind myself as we near the first anniversary of the public diary.

This morning: more instruction on liturgy, with a focus on the development of the liturgical calendar and the principles for reform of divine worship outlined in Sacrosanctum Concilium, the first document of the Second Vatican Council.

This afternoon, more editing of The Caperone, and maybe some exercise. This evening, we will watch a video presentation about our ministry options, courtesy of last year's novice class.

Weather

Mild in the morning, but hot in the afternoon and evening.

Liturgy

Lectio Divina

Saturday and Sunday:

The angel of the LORD came back a second time, touched Elijah, and ordered,
"Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!"

1 Kings 19:7

I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."

John 6:51

Monday:

Praise the name of the LORD,
for his name alone is exalted;
His majesty is above earth and heaven.

Psalm 148:13

Library

Continuing Day, On Pilgrimage, and Osborne, Sacramental Theology.

Log

Sunday: Mass at Old Mission Santa Ines. Telephone calls to my mother and brother. Celebrated another novice brother's birthday!

This morning: lessons on liturgy. For the next two weeks, the next six class sessions, we will be studying the history, practice, and theology of worship in the Catholic Church, especially the Liturgy of the Hours and Eucharist, and we will turn our attention to the quality of our worship in this particular Capuchin fraternity.

This afternoon: editing The Caperone.

This evening, choral practice. Later this week, beginning Wednesday and for the next five days, I resume liturgical and kitchen duties.

Weather

Cooler and clear.

Editing

Library

Continuing Day, On Pilgrimage. Her words sear my conscience. The Catholic Worker movement shows the Church the spirit of Saint Francis and Saint Clare (whose feast day is today).

Beginning a new book:

Osborne, Kenan. Sacramental Theology: A General Introduction. Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 1988.

Soon to introduce some fiction into my bibliophiacal diet.

Log

The schola debuted this morning at our Mass for Saint Clare, singing the responsorial psalm after the first reading from the Hebrew Bible, and the acclamation, or Alleluia, before the Gospel reading. A good start, and a word of affirmation from Fr. Regis Armstrong, the presider, at the conclusion of the liturgy. (Brother Regis gave me a personal compliment for my tenor afterward, at breakfast, to my great delight.) I think we will get much better before the year is through.

Six hours of chores, from mid-morning to late afternoon. Four hours on The Caperone, in meetings with my supervisor and my co-editor, and writing and editing copy. Two hours on manual labor, sweeping the walkways and straightening up the exercise shed.

This evening: reading and resting. Some brothers are watching a short film produced by one of our novice brothers, who earned his Master of Fine Arts at Ohio University School of Film this June. (I saw his film with several of the brothers earlier this summer in Kansas.) Others will watch the Perseid meteor showers from our awesome vantage point in the valley. Sounds inviting.

Weather

Outside, in the valley, it's a heat wave; inside the soul, it's mild and fair at the moment after a two days of unseasonal highs and lows.

Ministries

Lectio Divina

Every Friday evening, during the hour allotted usually for prayerful silence, we gather in chapel for a service of faith sharing and night prayer. At these gatherings we will offer reflections on the Sunday Gospel. Therefore, instead of reading, meditating on, and praying over the lectionary readings of the day, I am studying the Sunday Gospel, which is John 6:41-51.

Library

Continuing Day, On Pilgrimage. Finishing McKenna, Mary.

Log

This morning and afternoon: presentations on a few of the ministries we will be performing this year. We have already visited the ministry at the University of California-Santa Barbara, which is a university parish. Today we will be greeting representatives from a Santa Barbara resource center for disabled persons; a retirement community in Solvang; and Catholic Charities of Santa Barbara County, covering Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, and Lompoc. These are not all the options available to us; we will have at least two more presentations in the next two weeks, and we will see a video made by last year's novice class in testimony to these ministry assignments. We have been told there may be the possibility of prison ministry in Lompoc with one of the Capuchin priests who resides at Old Mission Santa Ines, but bureaucratic complexities (or barriers, as one may see it) make this unlikely. Hoping against hope, however, that this option may become available to us.

This evening, the aforementioned faith sharing in chapel.

Weather

Continuing heat with dry air.

At the Movies

Lectio Divina

No longer will they have need to teach their friends and relatives
how to know the LORD.
All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD.

Jeremiah 31:34

Library

Continuing Day, On Pilgrimage, and McKenna, Mary.

Log

This morning and afternoon: an excursion to Santa Maria to see The Dark Knight Rises with one of the formators and three of the novice brothers. The movie is very violent, which is not necessarily to its discredit, but it sanitizes the violence, which is to its discredit. The movie has many layers, narratively and thematically. It is awash in symbolism. Should films like these survive for the ages, many centuries from now our cultural anthropologists will marvel at how seriously our society took the archetype of the superhero. They will study how we constructed and deconstructed mythical persons like Batman and Superman to understand ourselves and our world. And they will do well to examine the constant re-invention of these characters in every generation.

Weather

Mostly clear, and very warm.

Day of Recollection

Lectio Divina

Jesus said in reply,
"I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
But the woman came and did him homage, saying, "Lord, help me."

Matthew 15:24-25

Library

Continuing Day, On Pilgrimage, and McKenna, Mary.

Log

Today was our first day of recollection of the year, guided by Saint Bonaventure through Bro. Ignatius Feaver of the Central Canada province. Our computers were turned off the last 24 hours! I am becoming enlightened enough to see this detachment from our machines as a sabbath.

Today was my little cave experience ... three and a half hours in the chapel and many more in my bedroom resting, reading, and reflecting. Coming out of the seclusion, it feels weird talking to people. Small wonder Francis, who went into seclusion at the beginning of his conversion, had only one trusted person waiting for him outside the cave at the end of the day. The way he looked, the look in his eyes, the words coming out of his mouth ... they would have surely astonished, intimidated, and even alarmed all but his closest companions.

A challenging day, looking outward at a creation that is too good for us, looking inward at my impoverished self, and upward at the God who is our riches to sufficiency. I am so far from living voluntary poverty, from living the sacrifical love that judges and saves us. How I want to yearn for love, to fall in love, to be in love. Do I really know what desire is? Do I feel passion? Will I ever feel joy? And if I do, or if I will, then how will I live?

I look forward to the next day of recollection and another opportunity to see my soul fully exposed before God, and to dare, in humility and utter honesty, to look at God's face.

Thanks for your prayers. May God help me to become holier: not holier than thou, but holier than me. May God help the Capuchins, through their good example of voluntary poverty, show the world more boldly who Francis is, who Jesus is, and who their God and ours is....

Weather

Overcast in the morning and into the afternoon, clearing up in the evening. Temperatures lukewarm but expected to rise. Swift winds descending.

Spiritual Direction

Lectio Divina

I will invite him to approach me, says the Lord, for who would dare to come unless invited?

Jeremiah 30:21 (New Living Translation)

Library

Continuing Day, On Pilgrimage, and McKenna, Mary.

Log

This morning, continuing our workshop and practicum on prayer and contemplation with Brother Ignatius. This afternoon, initial meeting for spiritual direction at Old Mission Santa Barbara. Many thanks to the Franciscan friars stationed there for providing direction to me and four of my novice brothers. This evening, we begin our day of recollection. For the next 24 hours, we will maintain prayerful silence at all times except for meals, common prayer in chapel, and conferences. Brothers may choose to opt out of meals all together or take their meals in silence in the smaller dining room for friars in residence.

Weather

Partly cloudy, and slightly damp, with a cool front coming in.

Prayer and Contemplation

Lectio Divina

Sunday: The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

John 6:33 (New Living Translation)

Monday: Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them. 

Mark 9:8 

Library

Continuing Day, On Pilgrimage, and McKenna, Mary.

Log

Sunday: Mass at Old Mission Santa Barbara. The main church and side chapel were teeming with people to overflowing. Communion must have taken at least 15 minutes. Reading in the afternoon, plus writing and conceptualizing of The Caperone. Celebration of a novice brother's birthday in the evening, followed by holy hour and evening prayer.

This morning: Bro. Ignatius Feaver begins his presentations on prayer and contemplation. We will have another session with him this afternoon and again on Tuesday morning in preparation for our day of recollection, which begins Tuesday evening.

My spiritual director, a Franciscan friar stationed at Old Mission Santa Barbara, has confirmed our first meeting, which will be tomorrow at two.

Weather

Brisk and bright.

Every Word

Lectio Divina

The Lord gave me every word that I have spoken.

Jeremiah 26:12  (New Living Translation)

Library

Continuing Day, On Pilgrimage, and McKenna, Mary.

Log

This morning and afternoon: meeting with my novice brother to plan our first issue of The Caperone, followed by house chores.

Bro. Ignatius Feaver, a friar from the province of Central Canada, arrived last night. To help our discernment, he is here to lead presentations on prayer and contemplation on Monday and Tuesday, and to guide us on a day of recollection, which we will have next Wednesday.

Weather

Patchy fog and cool, with an outlook of sun.

Spiritual Direction

Lectio Divina 

Whatever I command you, tell them, and hold nothing back.

Jeremiah 26:2

Library

Day, Dorothy. On Pilgrimage: The Sixties. New York: Curtis, 1972.

McKenna, Megan. Mary: Shadow of Grace. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1995.


Log

This morning: concluding orientation with a group conversation about how to curb Internet usage and use personal time in constructive, positive ways. Also received the names of our spiritual directors. Now the novices are in the process of scheduling first meetings for spiritual direction.

This afternoon: anticipating reading and a brisk walk. May join in a group prayer activity, like the rosary or Stations of the Cross.

Weather

Cooler but clear.

Breakfast in Buellton

Two new mini-features for the blog, which I will call "Library" and "Weather." The first tells you what I am reading currently, as provided by our novice library. By this I mean spiritual and theological reading, as well as anything of general interest, like literature, history, politics, arts and humanities. I am excluding the Catholic periodicals I subscribe to, as well as assigned reading, which I will note occasionally in the Log. I am also leaving out Scripture, which will always be part of my reading! The second tells you, with meteorological metaphors, how I am feeling.


Lectio Divina

Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter,
so are you in my hand, house of Israel.

Jeremiah 18:6

Library

Stanton, Sue. Great Women of Faith: Inspiration for Action. Illus. by Charlie Craig. Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 2003.

Valentine, Mary Hester. The Post-Conciliar Nun. New York: Hawthorn, 1968. 

Log

On Thursdays, we have personal time from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. We are permitted to go off site for group recreation.

This morning: breakfast at Ellen's Pancake House in Buellton with my fellow Province of St. Mary novice brothers. We were treated by our wise and witty elder Capuchin brother, Fr. Regis Armstrong, who is on faculty at the Catholic University of America and is a Franciscan scholar. He is living at Old Mission Santa Ines for the summer and mentoring one of our province's friars, who is making a transition into formation ministry and soon to be working with our postulants. (He will be moving to St. Michael Friary in Brooklyn in two weeks.) Also joining us for breakfast was another Province of St. Mary Capuchin "on loan" to the California province serving the Latino community at the mission parish. It was like a mini-chapter of the Province of St. Mary!

This afternoon: reading, rest, and jogging on the treadmill in our exercise room. Also washed my habit for the first time since receiving it almost two weeks ago. 

Weather

Mostly sunny and warm, with a light breeze.

Beach

Log

This morning and afternoon: a picnic and recreation at Refugio State Beach in Goleta, 20 miles west of Santa Barbara, a part of the California State Parks. The weather, hot and sunny in the valley, was cool and cloudy at the ocean, to our delight. We walked the shore in one direction and the cliffs in the other. Many of the brothers played football and volleyball when they weren't wading or swimming. Those less inclined to strenuous exercise opted for ladder golf or bean bag toss! The air was fresh, the views from the shore and cliffs were pleasing, and conversation was light and cheerful. A great day for our nascent fraternity.

This evening: personal time, with night prayer in private. Going to confer with one of the formators shortly about The Caperone.

Lectio Divina

If you repent, so that I restore you,
in my presence you shall stand.

Jeremiah 15:19