Emmaus: the Ministry Center

Sill Davis, Director of Ministry Center

I spent a lot of time working at the Ministry Center. This was a special place. It was in the basement and it felt like you were at a friend’s home. It had sofas, a dinning room area, a kitchen and an area to do laundry. Additionally there was the pantry and my favorite, the chapel.

Often times the place erupted in song, the guys singing hymns. It was beautiful. Sometimes the guys’ issues came with them and the issues would have to be dealt with. There was the aroma of home cooking. This included the guys making fried chicken, from scratch, peach cobbler, great salads, and spicy veggies.

There was always the sound of guys interacting with staff. This included everything from looking for mail, to doing chores to working on daily goals. The goals were often important: following up with doctors or the court, finding out about housing, preparing for the GED or calling family.

The center was staffed by the interns from Kiao Community and volunteers. It was directed by two very capable folks, Sill Davis the director and Lennette Reynolds the assistant director. Sill saw the guys one-to-one. He worked with other agencies and with the staff. He was a steady guide in the place that often found itself responding the chaos of our guys’ lives. Lennete often redirected the guys and supported them and at times mothered them. She was also directly responsible for the prison outreach program.

These two folks were always busy. They always knew what other workers were up to and how to support them. Together they modeled the head of a family. They modeled their faith and they modeled unconditional love. They were great to work with and I appreciate their guidance and support.


Lennette Reynolds, Assistant Director of the Ministry Center

Drum Roll Please

Well, it is not important. It doesn't change a thing. The world turns, important issues demand our response. Still, 15,000, I just got my 15,000th hit. I started the blog two years ago as a whim. I never knew if I would continue past the first month. It has become a sort of therapy/hobby for me. So, 15,000, I like it. I don't need to notice again for another 5,000 hits. But today I notice, yipee!!!

The Faces of Emmaus Ministries

This is why I know the coming year for Emmaus Ministries will be a good year. As John readies for sabbatical he chose Jonathan Hancock to be acting director. As you will see, he is the right man person for the job. He has commitment to Emmaus. He knows the issues. He has pastoral training. However, what comes out clearly is his commitment, his passion for the well-being of the staff of Emmaus. You want a business or mission to succeed you value its primary assets. In this case those assets are the staff.


Jonathan Hancock Associate Executive Director of Emmaus Ministries

One of those staff members that is so highly valued is Doug Van Ramshorst. He is the director of Outreach. His personal style, his professionalism and his comfort with diversity makes him a valuable member of the team. I loved working with Doug.

I will introduce more staff members in the days to come.


Doug and Emmaus Ministries Outreach

Thoughts on Emmaus Ministry

Well, I am done writing about Collegium 2009. It was wonderful and I hope to hear from other participants or as they are now known as, Collegium Fellows. In the coming days and weeks I will get caught up on talking about Emmaus Ministry in Chicago.

Now I did a lot of blogging about my training experience at Emmaus. However, I did not have the video ready. I am still hoping that the photos I took can be recovered. However, even without the photos there is enough to talk about.

I felt a real connection between Emmaus Ministry in Chicago and Saint John’s University and Collegium. Sure the experiences were very different. However, the experience of getting to know God in our limited capacity, of struggling to be humble, of recognizing we are all made in the image of God connected both places.

My fondness for Emmaus is not just working with the guys, it is working with the staff. This was an ecumenical staff that got it. They got that it was important to recognize all we as Christians of various traditions have in common. They got that we are to go out into all the world. They got they we are all broken and yet all worth loving.

This ministry owes its mission, roots and energy to its founder, Deacon John Green. He shared his family with us. He gave direction and support. John will be taking a sabbatical for a year. However, because of his commitment to this ministry Emmaus will be left in good hands. It will be a good year.


Deacon John Green Talking About Emmaus Ministry

I never knew which aspect of Emmaus I loved more. There was the Ministry Center which was open to our guys daily. At the Center the guys could get their mail, take showers, do laundry and have a home cooked meal. They worked on goals, they did chores and made a contribution. It was a great place.


The Ministry Center of Emmaus Ministry

There was outreach in which we went to the streets from 10 PM to 3 AM letting guys know about Emmaus. It was a supportive, respectful ministry. The guys knew we were there to help and not preach at them.

There was Kiao Community on the third floor. The community consisted of interns who made a year commitment to the ministry. I lived with Kiao for a month and it was a great experience I will never forget.

So, this is what the videos will be about in the coming days. Hopefully it will also include photos be even without I will love remembering my friend and brothers and sisters in Chicago.

Peace and all Good,
Carl

Collegium on Faith and Intellectual Life: Day Nine

Well, it was finally over. We all got up early and made our journeys to different locals around the nation. It was a wonderful week. I hope to participate in Collegium in the future. I am sure the "Spirit of Collegium" will be alive and well on our campus.

So, on to a simple journey from Minneapolis to Fort Wayne Indiana, or so I thought! I got up at 4:30 and was at the airport early. I was bumped from United (too full because of the Cubs and White Sox game) to Continental. Two hours later they got behind schedule because of problems in Jersey and I was sent back to United. They sent me to American. I arrived in Chicago a few minutes after my connecting flight took off. I then boarded a plane at 6:00 PM and was taken off it at 6:01. I spent a night in a hotel. Finally, Saturday morning I set foot at Fort Wayne International Airport. I felt like doing a JPII and bending down and kissing the tarmac! Home, I was finally home!

Collegium on Faith and Intellectual Life: Day Eight

Social

This was a bitter-sweet day. We had a great week and we all wanted to go home. Yet we did not want to leave one another and we certainly did not want to leave this beautiful campus and monastery.

Being the last full day did not mean being a slow day. We had our second Disciplinary Group. We had two Small Group sessions. All of them focused on the practical. That included saying good bye and deciding how we could continue this journey at our own institutions and how to make it useful. We also talked about how to maintain balance in our lives. I am a psychologist who focuses on disaster mental health, this is important to me. My students would say “self-care” is my mantra. It also fits in with our Benedictine setting.

Our final prayer group before Eucharist was our “Sending Forth” ceremony. Each Small Group went to the front of the chapel. The mentor then privately gave them a message, prayer or blessing and lit a candle they each held. Then the larger group raised their hands and said:

God,
Let the effect of your blessing
Remain with your faithful people
Top give them new life and strength of spirit,
So that the power of your love
May enable them to accomplish what is right and good
Amen

It was a beautiful ceremony. We then had our final Mass celebrated by one of the monks.

Afterwards we had a social at the Monastery yards between the church and the Great Hall. That was followed by a wonderful banquet in the Great Hall. It was a time of good food, good wine, toasts and a chance to hear Parker talk about his wife, the sacrifices all our loved ones made so we could be here and then to hear him sing!

That however was not the end of the evening. After the banquet there was a bonfire. We all went to bed tired, after talking, laughing and gazing at the star-filled sky, it was time to sleep and then go home!


Parker, “The Ring of Fire” in the Great Hall

Episcopalian House of Prayer

Collegium on Faith and Intellectual Life: Day Seven

This was a day of preparing to launch while consolidating what we have gained. However, it was not a day of saying we learned it all! In fact we had a guest speaker. Christine Firer-Hinze from Fordham spoke on Catholic Social Thought. This was a timely conversation because she addressed economics and workers rights. This included a history of the Catholic Church’s teaching from the industrial age to Vatican II. She also introduced us to work of MSGR. John A. Ryan. Many of us had never heard of him and yet he was on of the most influential proponents of Catholic Social Thought in the first half of the 20th century.



The talk gave us new concepts to add to our Small Group discussions. The talk was important in terms of broadening our understanding of what it meant to be Catholic



So our Small Groups addressed how our Catholic institutions could be shaped in light of all our reading. Not a minor discussion! Our Small Group had definitely bonded. Members were spending time with one another in between meetings. We knew one anothers sense of humor. It was a good group.



Afterward the members had the evening off. Some went into Minneapolis to eat at a nice restaurant, walk the streets and see the sights. Some went to Mall of America. One of our Small Group members, Janet, had discovered the Episcopalian House of Prayer. It was a meditation center and retreat. Four of us walked over there.

The place was wonderful. The architecture appeared very Japanese . The geust rooms were simple, the common rooms beautiful and full of color. The meditation room was great. It was round with Zen pillows, a circle for candles and a prayer pole in the center. There were Christian icons. The four windows were diamond shaped and you could see all of the lush green trees and shrubbery when you looked out the windows.

We changed into meditation robes. We joined eight other folks. We entered the room and sat in silence. The leader lead us in chants. He had a number o f different chimes and instruments to guide us. We meditated for an hour. This included a slow, mediation walk around the room. Afterward we toured the building.

Thank you Janet for such a special night!


Our Small Group Class Room

Collegium: Prayer and Contemplation

To say that Collegium was far more than reading and discussing the changing Catholic culture in America would be an understatement. Sure, we explored how we maintain our Catholic identity and what that meant. We explored our own journeys and what worked for others. We discussed the changes in Catholic academic culture following Vatican II. However, we did not simply stay in our heads, this was not simply a cerebral week. We prayed, reflected and listened and for that we had guidance.

We have been blessed by great leadership. This was true for both Mission-Values and Planning through Tom Landy, and in making sure EVERYTHING was in order thanks to Joyce Gawlick. We had great Small Group leaders and our retreat leaders helped blend the intellectual with the practiced spiritual.

However, the one group that kept all of us focused everyday were the Ministry Leaders. Megan Fox-Kelly and Marty Kelly were our spiritual directors. They did their jobs with authority. They were sensitive, creative and fun. The provided us with guided worship in the morning and evening, they taught us styles of prayer. They organized Eucharist.



Some of our lessons and techniques included:

Praying with Scripture
Centering Prayer
“Rummaging for God”
Remembrance and Spirituality
Imagination and Prayer

The sessions often flowed seamlessly into the next activity. The Sending Forth ceremony was a wonderful integration of the Small Groups and the larger Collegium of 2009.



Place becomes important. We are at a Benedictine Monastery so of course place should be important. We have so many places here that touch us. There are multiple chapels, many in the Saint John Abbey Church. However, there is also the Emmaus Chapel that we use and love. There is the chapel at the College of Saint Benedict that rises up in all it’s white splendor in contrast to the strong cement walls of St. John Abbey Church. There is the chapel across the lake we all walk to individually. There are statues, the grotto and we all can describe our own personal favorite places to listen and pause. There is the Great Hall and there are gardens.

So, among all of the formal learning, all the laughing and joking and all the budding friendships there was prayer.

CSB/SJU: A Catholic and Benedictine Tradition

CSB/SJU: A Catholic and Benedictine Tradition

Every Job is an Important Job

Our visit to the College of Saint Benedict was great. It was fascinating to see how these two very different schools with different cultures interacted. They had a shared curriculum. They had shared Benedictine values. Both had monasteries. However, they were also very different. One school was in town, the other in the woods. One was male, the other female. One very modern architecture, the other traditional

We took a bus to get from one campus to the other. Our bus driver was John Doman. One of our members asked him how he liked his job. I remember his answer, "I can't believe I get paid to do this." He loved his job.

John told us he took the job to fill some time. Before he knew it he fell in love with spending time with young folks. he started giving quizzes on the bus, trivia tests. The winner would get a DumDum sucker. The students would compete for the prize and become energetic. I though perhaps he exaggerated. Then he told us that as time went by his students graduated. They would then call him and ask him to drive for their weddings and reactions, but only if he promised to play the trivia games while driving!

It was great meeting John. It was a clear reminder that what is important is relationship. And now I discovered a brief video clip of John, enjoy.

Bus driver offers trivial pursuit aboard campus shuttle

Our Brothers and Sisters

The campus was full of life. Not just students and professors or monks, sisters and the occasional friar. Life was everywhere to be found. When I spoke with Cathi on the phone she could hear all of the birds singing. As you walked by the shore you could see fish swimming near the shore.


Deer on the Trail in the Morning

In the morning and the early evening you could see deer eating grasses and watching you. There were squirrel, chipmunks, every variety of bird and there were turtles, boy was there turtles.


Sally the Turtle

At times it was difficult to get from one place to another because our brothers and sisters just had to be spoken to and so we did. And of course they listened and sometimes talked back to us.



This Benedictine Abbey and campus was a wonderful place to be Franciscan!

The Trails

By the Shores of Lake Sag

One of the best parts of being at Collegium this year was walking the trails. They were everywhere.. Trees, swamps, gardens, it was a world of green. It was also a world of shade and sun light dancing against the foliage.












The Grotto

Between the trees, the ferns, the lakes and the sky it was hard to focus on the tasks we were assigned. Lucky for us it was cold and rains the first part of the week!








Lily of the Mohawk

The Little Chapel on the Lake

One of our favorite hikes was to the other side of Lake Sag. There we would enter the Chapel of Mary, Star of the Lake or the Stella Maris Chapel on Lake Sagatagan. The chapel is directly across from the Grotto. To get there you have to hike and hike and hike! The trails are beautiful. You could also take a canoe there, it has a dock.

The chapel is simple. No seats just stain glass windows and a statue. However, the windows are of fish and water, there is also a rose window with a large star. The statue is of Mary about five months pregnant.



I was able to get to the chapel three times while I was there. Each time was an adventure. Each time was different. I hope to visit the chapel again in the future.






Chapel and Monastery Cemetery

Collegium on Faith and Intellectual Life: Day Six

Today was a day of retreat. It was great. We had to choose between Benedictine, Franciscan, Jesuit spiritualities or Christian Completive Prayer and finally Family Prayer. I choose the Benedictine approach and could not have been happier. Because of that choose I was able to see and touch the Saint John Bible.

This was a great day for a variety of reasons. We all broke into new groups and interacted with different folks. We stopped acting like graduate students and acted like we were actually at a monastery!

I loved learning about the charism of place and time, of balance between labor and prayer and between listening and then acting.

Our spiritual class was in the chapel in Saint John Abbey Church. Afterward we had Mass and we all moved back to a different chapel in the back. During the homily we heard about St. Saint Peregrine the Martyr. St. Peregrine was a 12 year old boy in Rome during the reign of the Emperor Commodus. This is the same Emperor we have all seen in the movie The Gladiator. In the year 192 the Emperor demanded his subjects worship him as the demigod Hercules. Peregrine was one of four young men who refused to worship the Emperor. Young Peregrine was tortured. He was thrown in the dungeon. He was placed on the rack, he was whipped. Finally he was flogged to death with leaded whips. The young martyr’s relics have been venerated ever since.

So why the homily on this young man, as inspiring as it was? Because his remains did not stay in Rome. In fact, his remains were right in front of us. This was the first full relic I had ever seen. I saw many others but they were mainly parts or covered. Not so with Peregrine. Here was a skeleton with cloth and the red material to show he was a martyr. Now I am not a fan of relics, they kind of weird me out. Still, here I was in Minnesota being connected with the early Church, with a true martyr and with the Emperor Commodus.



I pay attention to modern martyrs. Sadly there ware far too many of them. The 20th century has been the century of martyrs.

So today I learned a Benedictine method of prayer. I saw and touched the Saint John Bible and I saw and spent time with St. Peregrine. All of this while being with my fellow travelers in Collegium. This was a day I would always remember.

Saint John's Univesity: Around Campus

The campus was wonderful. It was full of wonderful lines, curves, bricks, stone and statues. There were gardens everywhere. The campus smelled of blossoms.



Each building had its own secrets to tell you. Handmade bricks, the Saint john Bible, the Liturgical Press, pottery, pendulums. Each turn lead to a different vista and another reason to smile.





This campus was surrounded by trees, lakes, birds, deer, turtles and the memories of the First Americans. This was a special place and time.







Saint John’s University Campus





Outside of the Great Hall


There were visitors throughout the week. There were local and regional conferences. There were young college students. There were monks and sisters. And yet, despite all of this activity this was a quiet place




Inside the Great Hall


Between the trails, the apartments, the classroom buildings and the many, many chapels there was God. God was waiting to be discovered, to be listened to and to be with.

My Small Group

There were seven Small Groups. These were folks from different schools and different disciplines. Each group was unique. All of the groups had great members and great leaders. I however, was really, really lucky. My Small Group consisted of the most intelligent, funniest and most attractive of all of the Small Groups. Any member of Collegium may send me an article, photo or video to post and I will gladly do that. However, do not send me a letter questioning the objectivity of the above statement. I would toss it out faster than a Democrat’s vote gets tossed out in Florida! (OK, I still have issues about that.)



Our members were:
Sheila Candelario, Ph,.D, Fairfield University
Bill R. Wilkes, CPA, Our Lady of the Lake College
Iskandar A. Arifin, Ph.D candidate, University of Connecticut
Tim M. Trygstad, Ph.D., The College of St. Scholastica
Craig J. Rivera, Ph.D., Niagra University
Maeve M. O’Donovan, Ph.D., College of Notre Dame of Maryland
Kristin Anne Fieseler, MFA, DeSales University
Brian J. Els, Ph.D., University of Portland
Janet Maher, MFA, Loyola College in Maryland



This was a diverse group. It included performance and visual arts, the sciences, social and behavioral science, history, philosophy, languages, journalism and administration. Sheila was recognized as one of the 50 most influential Latina Women in New York City, 2004. Isaknder was from Indonesia, a Catholic from the largest Islamic nation in the world.. Bill was a Southern gentleman.



This was a group that challenged the readings, bonded quickly and was just plain fun. Their personal styles were all very different. Some were very emotive which was a challenge for this stoic Norwegian-American. Some read everything, others skimmed. All contributed making Collegium 2009 an excellent experience. Yep, they were the best.

Saint John Abbey Church

Saint John’s Abbey Church


Inside Saint John’s Abbey Church

College of Saint Benedict Church

These are photos taken by Collegium members at the church. All you photographers, feel free to comment and take credit for your keen eye and sense of image. In the meantime, thanks for sharing!

Collegium on Faith and Intellectual Life: Day Five

This was a great day full of stimulating experiences. We of course started with prayer and as usual we learned a new prayer technique.

We had our first of two Discipline Groups. I lead this group. I was surprised at how comfortable I was. I guess it is just clear that everyone wants this to be a successful experience and so my defenses are down. Our group is a “dance”. We cannot be Polly-Anna-ish” or we won’t address any real issues in our schools. Neither can this turn into a gripe session. Within those parameters the group identified areas of concern and how to authentically address Catholic identity. I felt like what I was, a group-facilitator. I kept folks on task, I made sure people had time to talk and I touched base with those who were quiet. Now, in all fairness I was able to do all of this because I had the assurance that Karen was in the group with me and would take over in the event the group unraveled. It was a good group.

Small Group was also good and it was different. We switched from our heavy articles on Vatican II and how Catholic identity is or is not part of campus life to Jesus in art. We all read The Illustrated Jesus by Pelikan. Group spent time talking about which images of Jesus fit their idea of Jesus. Our group walked around the building looking at art and responding to it. Our group also started with a reflection, in this case a brief video called Face of Jesus that fit in with the topic.


Face of Jesus

In the afternoon we took a bus over to the College of Saint Benedict. The two colleges share on academic program. They are separated by six miles. The place was beautiful. I loved the gardens, cemetery, statues and the buildings. First we had a talk on dealing with evil. That was certainly a sobering conversation. Our group expanded it to include pain and suffering. After the conversation we all walked over to the chapel for Eucharist.

Now, it is called a chapel but it is a beautiful church. It is white with sky lights, four sections of seating, kind of church in the round! The sisters recently celebrated 150 years in Minnesota. They lit candles for each decade and read the names of the sisters who had died. I was told that while this was happening an eagle circle the church twice.



When a sister dies the casket lies beneath the skylights in the room outside the church. The window acts as a mirror so when the sisters circle the casket and look up it looks as if they are seeing all the saints. What is clear from all of this is that the atmosphere is so different from Saint James Abbey Church. There is far more emphasis on relationship. This is a warm, inviting place while St. John’s gets one in touch with the vastness of God.



After Mass many of our members walked around the gardens and cemetery. We then had a reception in a building that had once been the library. Finally we had an eloquent banquet. The food, the wine and the company were great. The setting was beautiful, full of original wood work, chandeliers, stain glass and mirrors.

Afterward we went back to St. John’s and enjoyed open mic and one another’s company. It was a good day.

The Saint John Bible

Today was our Day of Retreat. I attended the Benedictine Retreat. I did a lot of things today, all of them extraordinary. However, right now I only want to talk about one thing. I saw, I touched the Saint John’s Bible. After learning how to do Visio Divina, a modification of Lectio Divina I decided to see the exhibit on the Saint John’s Bible one more time. This is the first hand written Bible in over 500 years.

I went into the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library and asked to see the exhibit. My friends were going to see the related film. I told the guide I had already seen it and just wanted to look at the pages displayed. After about ten minutes I started to think perhaps there was a different movie about the Bible they were watching. I asked and I was right. So I went to watch that movie. It made all of the difference in the world.



When the movie was over the director of the program had a question for us. A number of pages with their illuminations had returned from an exhibit. They were in special humidity controlled cases. They needed to be turned every day. He wanted to know if we wanted to go with him to the locked secured room to see and touch the Bible? What a question! Of course we all went.

The room housed art pieces from every century and every part of the world. Madonnas, Buddha’s, African Art and classical sculpture were everywhere. The cases that held the pages of the Saint John’s Bible were huge. It takes 20 hours to put the pages in the cases and one hour to take them out. However, they have to adjust to the humidity and that takes eight weeks.




We learned so much. We touched the pages. They were vellum or cows skin. We touched them so we could tell the difference between the outside skin (it had hair) and the inside (it was smooth). We saw the veins in the skin. Some of the artist Incorporated the veining into their art. One artist used the veins in his painting of leaves. We learned that the thickest part of the skin was the skin against the cows spin. This was the part traditional sewed together to bind the book. That is why it is called the spine of the book. It takes two years to prepare the skins.



The art was fantastic. It incorporated Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic and Greek whenever appropriate. It spanned the centuries and reflected this time. Adam and Eve were African. God was represented in gold but never truly pictured. However, the gold that was God was always polished. This was so it would be a mirror because we are made in the image of God and the reader can see him or herself in the reflection.

Donald Jackson is the chief scribe. He is also the scribe for the Queen of England. He started this project and teamed up with Saint John’s University. So the scribes are in Wales but the home for the Bible will be in Collegeville Minnesota.

Jackson has artists from around the world making illuminations, these are illustration with gold. It will take twelve years and over four million dollars to complete this project. It should be done in 2012.



There are no drawing for Psalms. Instead the monks sang. The singing was recorded and the graphs of the music were painted/embedded into the script.



Another page had a foundation of blessing from all different languages and traditions and then the blessing are painted over. However, the blessing can be seen through the picture. It is to emphasize our pre-Christian past and are many traditions. The Book of Wisdom has no gold, it is considered a feminine book. So the gold is replaced with silver.

The Bible uses a Protestant translation of the Catholic Bible to increase ecumenical interaction. Themes of diversity, ecology, science, even the attack of the World Trade Center are pictured beautifully and provocatively in this Bible.



The materials used are also interesting. Gold is so thin that if you rub it the gold becomes powder in your hand. Minerals are often mixed with fixatives. An example would be mixing lapis lazuli with egg whites or egg yolk. The black ink consisted of candle stick smoke from the 1870s mixed with fixatives at that time.

There was a special knife for cutting quills and turning them into writing utensils. That is where we get the term “pen knife”. Many of the paints were over 150 years old. Still this was also balanced with the use of computers. The computer where never used in printing but rather in the planning of a page. This removed much of the guess work.

Finally, the vellum was forgiving. If an error was made it could be rubbed off and covered over. Still, this is a human document. That means that there are pages where you will see the corrections of lines forgotten written on the side of the text.

In early hand written manuscripts the benefactors would have their names written in the book. This is not appropriate for the Bible. So instead the insects of Northern Minnesota grace some of the pages. At other times the scribe working on a particularly difficult page will write commentary outside of the columns. The bible is a massive project. It will be over 1100 pages and will fill seven volumes, each weighing over 35 pounds.

I touched it, I gazed at it, I loved it. Yep, it was a great day.

Saint John's Abbey Church

Collegium on Faith and Intellectual Life: Day Four

We had a slower start this morning. People could sleep in, a little. Breakfast was at 7:30 but our first group event was not until 10:30. That “event” was Mass with the Monks.

The Abbey Church of Saint John’s is something else. It was designed by Hungarian architect Marcel Breuer. The church is the central building on campus and can be seen before entering the campus. In a sea of trees, lakes and traditional campus buildings rises this concrete and modernistic structure. The outside consists of a free standing and massive “bell banner”. This connects to a sloping church. Inside the church is cavernous. The sanctuary has the seats for the monks and victors as well as the throne. The crucifix faces the monks or the general audience as the service demands. This is a stark church built of concrete. However, the wall facing the alter looks like a concrete bee hive. However, each cell of the bee hive is filled with vibrant stain glass. The seats are heavy, straight and without any padding, for the seats or kneelers. This is a powerful edifice. It demands one focus on God. It also lacks any hint of the feminine and I look forward to visiting St. Benedicts!

The church has a number of chapels on the lower level. I love these smaller spaces. I also look forward to visiting the Saint Peregrine the Martyr chapel. St. Peregrine Emperor Commodus, in 192 (this is the Emperor from the movie Gladiator) declared a day in which he would be honored as a demigod. Peregrine, a young boy at the time, along with three teenagers spoke out publicly about this. A senator was converted by their testimony. He was then killed and the emperor wanted to know where his wealth had gone. The four boys were then tortured. And they were tortured, whips, fire to their burning bodies and yet they remained silent.

The young men being burned had a vision of an angle whipping away the flames and the boys sang about this vision while being tortured. The result was one of the torturers left to be baptized. The emperor finally had them flogged to death with leaden scourges. Their bodies were recovered and became relics, objects of adoration and inspiration.

The body of St. Peregrine was enshrined in a number of different locations over the centuries. He was moved to Saint John’s University in 1927. While I am not a fan of relics and do not feel comfortable around the remains of the dead I do look forward to spending time with this martyr.

The mass was moving. The procession was special. All of these monks processed to the alter in twos. They bowed before the alter and then faced one another and bowed to each other and then stepped backwards before going to their seats. This deep respect for one another moved everyone I talked to.

The rest of the day was productive as well. After a good lunch we began our Small Groups. During the first session we watched a DVDE which was a lecture by Re. Michael Himes on “Finding God in All Things”. It talked about the sacramental way of life that marks Catholicism. After break we then discussed our readings. This was powerful because we addressed the many pressure faculty face at Catholic Universities. Issues of the role of women in the church, the churches stance on homosexuality and the use of power permeated the discussion. Our group is intelligent, articulate, and respectful and I love us!

We had our Prayer/Spirituality meeting at Emmaus Hall Chapel. I love all of the different spaces this campus has. The focus was on introducing us to Contemplative/Centering Prayer.

After dinner we heard two talks by our mentors. It was about their faith journeys. There were no rose colored lenses used here! Life is heard and God is good. So in both talks, which were very different, there was a sense that life has suffering and life has more. They were very well received.

Finally we ended the evening with a social. It was another good day.

The First Sunday of June

One month ago, along with Erin Cooper, I made my final profession and became a Secular Franciscan. This was a very happy occasion for me. It was the end of a journey that was longer than I could have imagined, far longer than my simply coming to the University of Saint Francis. It was also clearly just a beginning.

I have a great community. It is a warm and inviting home. They are meeting today. I however, one month after final profession, will not be there. Now I know I have a really good excuse, I am at Collegium. Still, my heart is in Fort Wayne today with my brothers and sisters of the Holy Family Fraternity. When I look at the monks in black I will be thinking about and praying for my brothers and sisters in brown.

Peace and all Good

Collegium on Faith and Intellectual Life: Day Three

This was the first day we were in full gear. We were busy from morning to night. It was good.

I got up early and spent some time alone. I then went to pray with the monks, I love Morning Prayers. I think of when our fraternity prays the Hours. We are too fast! There should be more space between the two sides so we can really hear each other. However, we are not monks.

Afterwards we had our planning meeting and working breakfast. We then went immediately into our Small Groups. One of the mentors has to leave and so we all got an additional member to our group. It simply was not a problem. I suspect that was due to Tom Landy’s assessment of who would fit best into which Small Group.

Our first two hours were introductions. This included introductions to the running’s of Small Groups, the campus and Collegium. However, it also was introduction of each member. I have a rich, varied group. My folks are from different parts of the country and the world. They have varied religious experiences. One is an administrator, there are folks in finance, the sciences, philosophy, dance and the visual arts. We have a historian and a professor of Criminal Justice. One member is from Indonesia and another from Puerto Rico. This is a great group.

We meet in the Quadrangle. This is the oldest building on campus. You enter it from the Great Hall which was the original church on campus. All of the walls are made of old hand-made brick. The floor and ceilings are wood. The ceilings are high, the windows are tall. The courtyard has a fountain and a lot of ivy. The building is masculine, beautiful and a little stark. It reminds me of the architecture of Galena Illinois.

All of the Small Groups them met in the Centenary Room. Tom Landy gave a lecture on the disciplines of wonder and suspicion. He talks about the roles of wonder/awe and critique in our disciplines and lives. The talk was very well received. In fact it became the cornerstone of our Small Group discussion. This is a week of discernment for folks, to try to find ways to integrate various aspects of their lives and see if their discipline is their vocation. Tom’s lecture was a great way to begin that journey.

The Small Groups processed the talk. We also began the work of critiquing our readings. Today’s readings placed the Catholic Intellectual life in a historical context. Our group is not shy but they are respectful of one another.

Afterwards we all met in the lower church of the Saint John’s Abbey Church. We had our first formal training in spiritual traditions and techniques. That was followed by prayer and reflection and finally Common Worship.

During dinner collegiums members sat at tales that reflected their disciplines. This was just one more way of making connections and helping with integration.

Finally we all went to the Art Center Auditorium and watched Babette’s Feast. This is a great film that addresses sacramental living and various perspectives on our senses. The discussion afterwards was lively. Since sacramental living is one of the aspects of Catholicism that marks it as “Catholic” this was an important way to end the end and prepare of for tomorrow.

Finally, work was done and the mentors met for fellowship and laughs. It was a good day.

Collegium on Faith and Intellectual Life: Day Two

Today was a busy day but we did not always follow “the plan”. First I attended Morning Prayers with the monks. I had never experienced this before. You do not sit in the auditorium seats. You sit up with the monks. There are four books to read from. The responses are chanted very, very slow. This is to make sure you can listen, you can hear and comprehend one another. It is after all a community service.

I was surprised that among the monks my voice actually sounded nice, that was a first! Afterwards we had Mass and then I went to our working breakfast. Now that is the way to start the day.

Our last mentor was having transportation problems. The result was our planning meeting was postponed an hour. That meant I had time to explore. Rodger Narloch, a mentor and a professor of psychology here at St. John’s took Maura Tyrrell, another mentor, and me on a tour of the lake. We walked these wonderful trails with hills and shoreline. Maura is a biologist so we were always learning something new. Finally we arrived at the chapel. It is a little chapel next to the lake. Inside is a statue of Mary. However, she appears to be about five months pregnant. It is a depiction of her I had never seen before. The chapel just seemed magical. The stain glass windows were of lakes and fish. There was a cool breeze inside the chapel. However, he had to get back so after a few minutes of quiet it was time for a vigorous walk back to Sexton common.

The rest of the day was one of preparation.

Collegiums members arrived. We had a banquet for them. I had walleye and it was wonderful. Afterwards we all had community prayer in the lower church. Tomorrow begins the business and excitement that is collegium.

Collegium on Faith and Intellectual Life: Day One

Today was a day of travel. I got up early, Cathi had me at the airport by 7:00. Then I flew from Fort Wayne to Chicago and then onto Minneapolis. My luggage arrived an hour after I did but, hey, at least it got there!

The ride up to St. John’s University took about an hour and forty-five minutes. We clearly left the urban sprawl.

The campus is something else. There are three lakes. There are 3200 acres of trees, buildings, statues and wildlife. Cathi could hear all the birds singing when she talked to me on the phone.

I met all five of the six mentors I will be working with. The last one arrives tomorrow morning. We are staying in these very nice apartments.

At six we went into town for dinner. We ate at a Mediterranean restaurant. The restaurant had chandeliers, statues, pillars and arcs and draperies. We were in our own room. Most of the folks had grouper with shrimp and pomegranate sauce. I had a Moroccan dish that made my nostrils burn from the inside out. My face was on fire. Four hours later I could still taste it. It was a spicy lamb and beef stew. Now I can say I have tasted Moroccan food, time to move on!

I spent the remainder of the evening reading materials for collegiums and exploring the campus. This will be a great week.