One Year

Lectio Divina

... to the penitent ... a way back....

Sirach 17:24

Library

Whether or not I finish books like Brown, The Ecumenical Revolution, or Mumford, The City in History, is an open question!

Log

One year ago today, and fifty-two weeks ago yesterday, I touched down in Hays, Kansas, at the end of a very long day of travel (and a short but harrowing airplane ride from Denver through turbulence, thunder, and lightning). Thus began the interprovincial postulancy program leading into the novitiate here in Santa Ynez.

To say our year of religious life has been intense is naked understatement. Keep in mind that since that evening touchdown one year ago, this formation class of twenty novices (it was once twenty-four) has been together 24 hours a day, every single day. We have prayed together, eaten together, worked together, ministered together, played together. Everything, everything has been done in common, all the time. Where else but in the military or in prison or in certain boarding schools do groups of people remain constantly in the presence of one another? Not even families, married couples, or life partners spend this much time together! When I consider this, I marvel at how well we relate to each other. And how we have grown.

To celebrate this is by no means to invite complacency. I concluded my blog entry of May 28, 2012, with these words: "Spirit of Christ, call me here; plant me firmly on this ground; make me really present to you and to my brothers." Many things have changed, but some things do not. I am still making the same prayer to the spirit of God, the spirit of Christ, Spirit-Sophia. Let us strive to live the Gospel better as a religious family.

Today, several of the brothers are having a picnic. They are going to Paradise Road on the way to Lake Cachuma by the Santa Ynez River. Others will be keeping quiet at San Lorenzo, with a few preparing the obligatory Memorial Day cookout. I will be remaining here for a quiet day of Caperoning. One article to edit, one article to write.

Yes, today is Memorial Day. To my fellow citizens: as you remember the generations of U.S. service members, please also pray for all the civilians, innocent children, women, and men of other nations, who have died in the wars our nation fought in their countries. They were never our enemies, even if their nations' leaders were aggressors. Let us see other people as Christ, and see no enemies.


Weather

Temperate and clear, with mighty winds on the way. This land is beautiful.