Good on ya

Good on ya. I have no idea what this means but many people say it as a salutation. It sounds complimentary though. The accent is wonderful and most of the words and phrases makes sense. There is one guy here named Guy who has a very strong British Indian accent. It is quite an odd mixture around the other dialects. He speaks quite loudly, but slowly so everything is very manageable. The Aussie dialect is slightly different from the Kiwis.

The past few days I have remained around Canisius College so I can get into a bit of a rhythm in my schedule. We are listening to deeper aspects of our stories this week. We are an international group so there are always surprising aspects of people's stories. We have a man from Austria, one from Slovenia, a guy from the Czech Republic, another from Cambodia, one from China, two from Korea, an Aussie, a Californian, a Marylander, and me, from New England.

February 2nd, the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, is the day the Province celebrates vows. This ceremony was moving as there were about 45 Jesuits in attendance plus family and friends of the vovendi - those who were taking vows. The service was quite simple, but elegant, and there was a very warm spirit throughout the prayer. Kieran Gill and Robert Morris are the new scholastics. Mark Pelletier, Justin Glyn, and Andy Nguyen are now second year novices. Three men who were entering the Society the next day came to the vows to witness them. I was delighted to see the Society grow in another part of the world. Australia's Assistancy contains New Zealand, Timor, and some smaller island nations. In the Asian provinces, just as in Africa, the provinces continue to grow. Anyways, the whole program was moving. We had a nice haustus (celebration) that lingered on late into the evening

Joe Sobb is the Rector of Canisius College. He is certainly the right man for the job. He is hospitable, kind, gentle, nicely directive and he has an exuberance for life. He is a lot of fun. His assistant, Kevin Huddy, does a whole lot of under-appreciated work in the background, but his spirit is just as bouyant and his charity is remarkable.

I am trying to do some reading. George Anderson has a book called With Christ in Prison. I'm moving through that well enough, but I'm captivated by J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. Salinger died this week and I wanted to pay tribute to him. I recall really liking Franny and Zooey better than Catcher in the Rye, but this book is available. I'm supposed to be doing more reading as preparation for our week of sex and intimacy, but I'm celibate so that will have to wait.

Tomorrow, I will go to an Art Museum in Sydney and then I will go see Invictus. I also want to see the Hurt Locker as Sandra Bullock may get an Oscar. The weekend will be low key as I say Mass on Sunday at a local parish and will then visit friends of Jeremy Clarke for lunch and an afternoon visit.

All is good. All is well. I'm very happy.