Traffic, the Heat, and life in General

Chris and I have started school and begun to sync into a rhythm so I thought I would give you a little update on how life is going.  Our primary goal so far has been trying to manage the traffic.  The traffic here in Guadalajara is about the same as in Rome, if not a little worse.  I know many folks are slightly concerned for our safety while in Mexico, I assure you all that drug lords and roving bands of thieves, while exotic are very low on the list of ways we could die here in Mexico.  Walking to school everyday however, is a daily leap of faith.  However I promise you all, that Chris and I take great caution crossing the streets.  It is not that the volume of cars is greater than say Chicago or New York, rather it's just that the number of traffic lights is far less and the practice of weaving through traffic is much more common, which makes crossing a street slightly tenuous.  There is a 3 lane "glorietta" or traffic circle on the way to school and it amazing to see cars every day make it from the innermost lane to turning out of the circle in a matter of 10 or so feet.  However to the credit of the drivers, I have only seen one accident since I have been here and it was just a small fender bender.

Unlike the States, May is the hottest month of the year in Mexico and all of you know how much I love the heat.  The average high has been in the mid 90's but thanks be to God, the lows are in the low 50's.  The mornings are fantastic and the walk to mass and then school is very pleasant.  The walk back in the afternoon and then again in the evenings, however, are quite the uncomfortable trip.  However I am told that the summer rains are coming soon and that when they do, things get more bearable.

Now that I have sorta mentioned our schedule I should probably give you all a clearer picture of what life looks like down here in Guadalajara.  Chris and I live with separate host families about 20 minutes from each other with the school sort of in between us.  Mon - Fri we meet at the Church of St. Rita (more on that later), which is sort of in between us (but closer to Chris) at 8AM for mass, which usually begins around 8:05 - 8:10.  Remarkably despite the usual delay, daily mass is always over by 8:30 at which point we make the 10 minute walk to school, which begins at 9.  The good folks at the language school have graciously allowed us to get there a bit early so that Chris and I can pray Morning Prayer together and they also let us stay a few minutes late so we can pray evening prayer as well.  From 9 until 1, with a half hour break at 11 we have class (each person has a private tutor) where we work on grammar, vocabulary, tenses, conjugations, etc.  Then everyone returns to their host family for lunch, which is the main meal of the day here, which generally starts around 2:30/3, this of course leaves time to take a little siesta as well!  At 4 we return to school where there is a 2 hour session with another teacher.  The afternoon session is a bit more laid back and is focused more on conversation.  There is no real formal agenda, it is meant really just to get you speaking in Spanish.   After class and Evening Prayer we head home, or to another nearby Church which conveniently has Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament  at this time.  After I get back there is time to study and do homework, do some reading, and maybe update this blog.  Dinner is usually pretty light (a sandwich or something similar) and pretty late, usually around 9:30  Chris and I have been warned a couple of times by a few different people that going out later at night (past 10ish or so) isn't the best of ideas and those who know either of us fairly well, know that the two of us have no real problem with that.

Saturdays and Sundays we are off, so today Chris and I made use of our free time in search of a luxury we had been missing all week: Air Conditioning.  Luckily there is a massive (and fairly high end) mall close to us with a movie theater, which provided 3 hours of air conditioned bliss.  The movie itself: Robin Hood, was pretty good, but as Chris put it, "for 46 pesos ($4.60) I'd be willing to sit through anything, the air conditioning alone is worth it."  But before the movie we made it to mass at noon at our usual Church, St. Rita's.  What we overlooked was that today is the feast day of St. Rita.  A church's feast day is a fact that often passes without much notice in most American parishes, but not here.  What we thought would be a half hour mass was actually a 70 minute mass with a 20 minute homily and some sort of special blessing, on the forehead of each person.  Given the fact that the church was packed, this special blessing alone took 10 minutes.  I did want to make a couple of quick observations about mass today, not critiques just observations, which might help folks understand the nature of the Church in Mexico.  The actual Eucharistic Prayer took no more than 4 minutes and was fairly well lost in the 70 minute mass and while everyone went up to get the special "St Rita Blessing" about only half of the church went up to receive communion, which is still only given under one species and on the tongue.  There was also a priest hearing confessions during Mass and it was fairly common for folks to get up from Mass, go to confession and return to the mass 20 or so minutes later.  There is definitely a difference in attitude and piety in the Mexican Catholic experience.

Well that is about all for now.  I hope that everyone has a blessed Pentecost tomorrow.  I am headed with my host family to their local parish, while Chris is going with his host family to the diocesan Ordination, where 31 men are being Ordained to the Priesthood tomorrow by the Cardinal Archbishop.  Please pray for these men as they enter Christ's Holy Service.

En Guadalajara

Well today was my first day in Guadalajara. My flight down here was as smooth as could be (time wise, the actual flight was fairly turbulent) and I got to the airport a little before 10PM. After a quick trip through customs I found my ride and got to my host family's house around 10:45. I live with an older couple named Sergio and Carmen and they are extremely hospitable.

Chris and I purposely decided to start classes tomorrow so that we should have a bit of a chance today to explore a bit and at least to get to know the local neighborhood. We found where our school was, some local eateries, the Wal-Mart, some local parishes, and eventually the mall. We kept our adventures relatively short because it is pretty hot out (lower to mid 90's) and after awhile just walking around, especially in jeans (the usual wear down here) got a bit uncomfortable, though the mall was air conditioned and provided a nice little respite.

Probably the most notable thing today was check out the local churches. Guadalajara is a very Catholic city and for the couple of churches we saw, they both had mass every hour in the morning from 6 to 8, then at noon, and a couple more in the evening, during the week and from the noon mass that Chris and I attended, they are pretty full.

That's all for now, the rest of the day has been spent unpacking and settling in. School starts tomorrow so that should present a fair bit to talk about. I apologize; there will probably be a minimal amount of pictures on the blog for the next few weeks because the cord that connects my camera to my computer is sitting safely on my desk in South Bend.

While I wait, some eloquence

I am currently sitting at Atlanta-Hartsfield Airport waiting for my flight to Guadalajara.  I've been here for a couple of hours already and still have about 45 minutes left to boarding.   While I wait I thought I would share with you the video of Dana Gioia's Laetare Address at this year's commencement.  A poet by profession, his remarks were very good.  While this year's commencement lacked the drama of last year's both the Laetare Address and the Commencement Address were excellent.  They are both worth the time to watch.  Adios for now!

Off to Guadalajara

Well friends, after a couple of days back at Moreau to finish sorting and packing up my things and moving into my new 3rd floor room (a place for me to store my stuff and sleep when I visit Moreau from Phoenix next year) I am off again to Guadalajara, Mexico to begin Spanish Language studies.  Please keep Chris Rehagen (my partner in crime over the next 6 weeks) and me in your prayers as we both immerse ourselves into the Spanish language and Mexican culture.  For now though, I will leave you with this parting tribute to my home for the next 6 weeks.

Congrats to the Class of 2010

On this campus, along with many others across the US, yesterday was Commencement Day here at Notre Dame.  I wanted to take a moment and congratulate all those who graduated this year, especially the 3rd year M. Divers, Paul, Anthony, Tim, Matt, and Fr. Andrew, all whom I have been privileged to spend part of my academic career with.

Many folks got to see this in person, but if you haven't, Brian Williams gave a fantastic Commencement address here at Notre Dame, if you have the time, check it out.  It is well worth it.

Habits, Chant, and a Power Outage

 Many thanks to all of you who aided me with your prayers during my week of retreat.  It was a great retreat, a chance for me to just slow down and talk with God at length and review the year.  My average day looked about like this up at 5AM in my habit and in the Church at 5:30 for Vigils and Lauds (the Office of Readings and Morning Prayer), breakfast (in silence) a little bit of quiet time and mass at 7:30.  After mass I put civvies back on and spent the morning reading/walking/praying/journaling, etc or a combination of all, midday prayer at noon followed by lunch (the only meal with conversation) and my afternoon looked pretty much like my mornings.  Put the habit back on for Vespers (Evening Prayer) at 5PM a half hour of Lectio (holy reading) dinner at 6 (in silence, but with table reading) followed by a half hour of recreation, Compline (Night Prayer) at 7PM and then on went the pj's some recreational reading (LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring) and then bed.

Here are a couple of highlights from the week, in no particular order, with some photos interspersed:

1) Having Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip.  be the table reading for the week.  For those unfamiliar with the practice, in monasteries dinner is in silence, but a passage from a book (usually spiritual or intellectually edifying) is read aloud for the monks to listen to.  This book might have been much more humorous than originally anticipated.

2) Catching up with an old friend.  A ND classmate of mine, Tim Wymore, entered the monastery a few months ago and is now known as Novice Timothy.  We had a few classes together (we were both Poli Sci) and he was on the Rome Pilgrimage our junior year, when I was in Belgium and thus joined the group in Rome for a few days.  It was great just to see Tim again and to catch up a bit on how life was going for each of us as we try to answer God's call in our lives.

2) Power outage...in the middle of mass, smack in the middle of the first reading to be precise.  This was because of a pretty intense storm so the Church was pretty dark for the rest of Mass.  I have to admit, it was wickedly awesome, it was like being in the middle ages (except for the flashlight that was used to help the presider read the Sacramentary).









3) Prayer - this is a given, but here I want to touch specifically on common prayer in the monastery.  While all priests and religious say the Liturgy of the Hours, the Church's prayer, 5 times a day, they are often said in private, alone, we in Holy Cross are blessed to say Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer in common as a community, but the other 3 "hours" or moments of prayer are left for us to do on our own, at our own time.  The monks at St. Meinrad, however, pray all 5 hours in common every day, plus mass.  The Psalms for Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Night Prayer are all chanted, while the Office of Readings and Midday Prayer are recited.  To add to the fun, I got to join the monks in their choir stalls for prayer, which was simply amazing.  For this humble liturgy nerd, it was a great way to pray the office while on retreat.


That's all for now.  I am spending Monday packing up for Mexico and moving the rest of my stuff into storage.  Here is a link to the rest of my photos from St. Meinrad.

On Retreat

Things have finally quieted down here in the Bend, papers are all turned in, final exams taken, and Moreau has for the most part cleared out.  There really is not much left to do but pack up and get ready for the summer.

I wanted to let you know that these pages will be quiet for the next week or so as I head to St. Meinrad's Archabbey, in St. Meinrad, IN for my annual personal retreat.  St. Meinrad's Archabbey is a monastery of Benedictine monks of the Swiss-American congregation in the southern part of Indiana (about a 6 hour drive) and they have graciously allowed me to join then for the comming week to get in some solid prayer time (and R&R as well) for the next week. 

Just a note on "retreats," for many "retreats" are those things you did in high school (if you went to a Catholic one) or for CCD with cheesy ice breakers, corny skits and forced talk about God.  If you did retreats in college, there were still probably cheesy ice breakers, but lots of growing closer to God, staying up late, affirmation sessions, praise and worship music, hearing people's faith stories, etc.  Which begs the question, what is a "personal retreat" and why go to a monestary?  For me an annual personal retreat (which all Holy Cross religious are obliged to take) is a time to step back and reconnect with God.  Our lives are often extremely busy with ministry and/or studies and though we certainly try to do our best to pray on a daily basis and reflect on how we are doing, we need to at some time each year take a step back, stop the presses, and just be with God.  A retreat is quiet time free from work or study, to more deeply examine how our year has gone, to ask, how have I grown closer to God? or maybe even, in what ways have I distanced myself from God?  Retreat is a precious time where I can dedicate myself more intensely for a short period to prayer, self reflection, and spiritual growth.

So for the next week I will join the monk's of St. Meinrad's in their monastic schedule [common prayer at 5:30 (vigils & lauds), 7:30 (mass), noon (daytime prayer), 5:00 (vespers), and 7:00 (compline)].  I choose to make my annual retreat at a monastery because its rythm of prayer keeps me honest and really helps me spend the entire day in contact with God.  During the other times of the day I will do some reading (spiritual and recreational), journaling, private prayer, and just get some rest.  Hopefully this week of retreat will help me slow down a bit after the hectic end to the semester and get me in a good place before taking off for Mexico.

As always, your prayers while I am on retreat are most appreciated and I promise that I will be spending time praying for each and every one of you as well.

God Bless!

Rev. Kev.at Taco Bell...Update

Those who have been on these pages in recent days know that my former Director at Old College, Rev. Kevin Russeau, C.S.C. has taken up four shifts at two local Taco Bells this week in order to raise money for the Holy Cross College scholarship fund.  Here is a little update from WNDU on how his first day went:



Video: www.wndu.com

Summer Plans

Many in the past few weeks have asked me what my plans for this summer are.  I admit its a pretty full summer with a fair bit of moving around so its perfectly understandable that folks forget in a matter of minutes so for the record here is the rundown of what my summer will look like.  If you are anywhere around these locales during these dates, free free to let me know, I'd love a chance to catch up:

 May 5 - May 15:
Annual Retreat, St. Meinrad's Archabbey, St. Meinrad, IN

May 15 - May 18:
Notre Dame

May 18 - July 2:
Language School, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

July 2 - July 6:
Notre Dame

July 6 - July 14:
New York

July 14 on:
Pastoral Year, Goodyear, AZ

 

It's going to be a jammed packed summer but will also be an awesome summer and luckily this blog now allows me to stay in contact with you all!

Thanks to Some Great Classmates

As some of you know we Holy Cross seminarians are blessed to be joined here at Notre Dame by lay students and religious of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit in the Master of Divinity program.  During my first two years in the program I have been blessed to be joined by a great group of classmates and it is with a bit of sadness that I depart them to take my pastoral year next year.  I wanted to take a moment to thank them all for being such great classmates over the past two years.  They have taught me innumerable things about ministry in the Church as well as what it means to be a minister.  To Tom, Emily, Margaret, Antonio, Dan, Bouf, Jess, Patrica, Rachel, and Alex, it has been a great couple of years.  Thanks!