This past weekend I traveled to Belfast, Maine to direct a retreat and make a few days of prayer. I typically lead St. Brendan the Navigator parish on a Lenten or Advent retreat. I love the choice of the parish name, especially as all the towns are on Maine's coastal waterways.
The trip north was fun. To break up the four hour drive, I met a friend in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for lunch. We ate at the Library restaurant near the downtown area, which is furnished with many old books and has the feel of an English smoking room.
I called on a friend in Portland before stopping at LL Bean's in Freeport. From there, I met former Cathedral choir members who live in Bath. They are in the process of selling their house because they just bought another one. Each sale was done with great rapidity. They are excited because the town of Bath is finally getting their first seafood restaurant. One would expect there would be half a dozen, but this is the first one in the area. It was great to see them and to catch up on the many events of their lives.
The retreat was great fun. It was on "being open to God" and "healing painful memories." Twenty-six parishioners attended. They were very silent and took advantage of the great opportunity for prayer. I enjoy being with them as they evolve through the dynamic changes of the Portland diocese.
On the return trip, I caught up with a friend who was a colleague at Cheverus. She is now a mom of two young children and enjoys being a parent to them. She and her husband are enjoying their new house. I'm delighted I had a chance to catch up on their lives. It makes me so happy that people are doing well with their choices in life.
Now, we are beginning another retreat. This retreat will canvas three great days - St. Patrick's, Laetare Sunday, and St. Joseph's. This is a powerful three days. Besides that, spring temperatures are expected in the area. All is good.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Questions for the General #4: Refugees
Associate Professor Marie Joyce is an academic and clinical psychologist, and a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society. She is an Honorary Fellow in the Quality of Life and Social Justice Research Centre at Australian Catholic University in Melbourne. With Father Michael Smith SJ and others, she was a founding member of the Refugee Tertiary Education Committee (RTEC) which works to advocate for refugees to bring free tertiary education to overseas camp-based refugees. Marie is a Director of the Board of the Lighthouse Foundation which cares for homeless young people in Victoria using a therapeutic model of care. She is also a member of the Colloquium on Violence and Religion (COV&R) and a member of the Australian Girard Seminar (AGS). Marie was a Consultant to the Provincials of the Society of Jesus, and the Jesuit Province Consult from 1994-2002. Marie and Gerry Joyce entertained Fr Nicolás and Fr Raper for dinner at their home in Melbourne on Fr Nicolás’ last visit to Australia.
Marie’s question: Since 2000, the group in Melbourne known as the Refugee Tertiary Education Committee (RTEC), in collaboration with universities in Australia and overseas, has been working to bring free higher education online to camp-based Burmese refugees on the Thai-Burma border. A major issue for many refugees to confront is the matter of transitional justice in the post-conflict context when they are able to return to their countries, for example to Burma/Myanmar. How can RTEC and the universities advance and expand this educational work to foster peace-building and reconciliation in post-conflict settings?
I have to say that the first time I heard about an online tertiary education project was here in Australia when I visited Australian Catholic University, and some of the priests here were involved. Since then I have admired very much what has happened and the number of refugees supported by this program, so I think it is an excellent initiative, a magnificent initiative. My hope is that the number of countries that are going to use this is going to increase.
I am very positive about the project. At the same time I think that this is a very specialised kind of project that requires a lot of expertise and thinking and reflection. I am sure that you have thought about this much more than I have and, therefore, I feel unable to say more than the admiration I have felt. I know that Jesuit Refugee Service is very keen on continuing this kind of service and we have in the Society now what they call Jesuit Commons which is a way of continuing with these kinds of projects and offering them to different parts of the world. I hope that this will continue because the possibilities are enormous.
The questions of transitional justice, and then reconciliation and peace, in these educational environments are obviously primary concerns, and they are being reflected upon by the different institutions and networks. Not only JRS, but the universities are also thinking about creating a network on precisely these topics. The Jesuits in Africa consider that this is one of the priorities that they have to bring forth. Because on the one hand they have a great need to cover all the conflicts that have occurred in Africa, and on the other hand they feel that they can help other provinces in the world with their experience of reconciliation.
When we had the meeting in Mexico of Jesuit universities the idea and the concern for creating meaningful networks was strongly raised, and I know that it's being followed up. There is going to be a meeting in Boston to apply the same visions and the same perspectives. So my hope is that this is coming to fruition, but the specifics require professional thinking, and I think you're more equipped than I am.
Fr General fielded questions from six people at his address on 25 January. In this edition of Province Express, we feature the second three questions. The other three questions were featured in the last edition.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Questions for the General #1: Education
Adam Lewis is the Director of Co-Curriculum at Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview and will become the Director of Students this year. He spent eight years working at Clongowes Wood College in Ireland and prior to moving to Riverview he completed an MA in Developmental and Educational Psychology at the Society’s Boston College in the USA.
Adam’s Question: A significant component of Jesuit Education is the pursuit of excellence. In contemporary society, ‘excellence’ or ‘success’ or ‘achievement’ seems to be measured increasingly by material or superficial outcomes, such as exam scores and statistics or a physical result on a sporting scoreboard. While these are important, surely an overemphasis on the ‘product’ diminishes the importance of the ‘process’ of education, where the real learning occurs in our context in terms of the education of the whole person. I feel this is a real challenge in our schools, that is, to be counter-cultural to an extent and draw our students back to the ‘process’. How do we do this in a society that is placing increased pressure on the ‘product’ over the ‘process’, when it comes to education?
I think this is a very relevant question. This will be, to my mind, an ongoing challenge to us.
My impression is that this will never be solved fully, because part of the process of education is that an education is successful when it's freely received, so education is a dialogue. It is not the work of the teacher, it's a dialogue, and therefore the receptivity of the student and their ability to digest and make it part of their lives is going to be always a part of education. Therefore it's going to be always an open question how much of what we give is digested, accepted and incorporated into a new frame of mind or a new spiritual framework.
Even so, the question at the end is, what can we do to encourage or to improve on this matter? I would say the first thing is to deepen the sense that excellence has nothing to do with social, financial or professional success, it's an excellence in humanity. It's forming better human beings; people with a heart, with compassion, with understanding; people who can understand our society without bias, without ideological impositions; people who can be attentive, responsible, understanding, et cetera. It is an effort of the whole Christian institution to help young men and women grow with this openness and this understanding. Whenever this excellence is put in terms of immediate results, we are being unfaithful to our message, so we are not giving the totality of the person, we are giving only one part.
I remember I studied with De La Salle Brothers and Jesuits in my last three years, and that in the old times in order to stimulate the students to keep trying and to study hard there were some prizes set up, and the prizes were very much in the line of what you seem to criticise. The prizes were now we would say childish. I got a couple of them but they were childish, because they centred us on ourselves, and they were prizes about results, about performance, exactly what you were saying. Maybe if we as a school or as an educator or as an institution, we have some form of encouragement for serious study, maybe we could set up also prizes for process. If we want to underline process, maybe we should celebrate service. How do we grow together with others? How do we play? How do we exchange?
From my class of 99 students, 19 joined the Jesuits. It was a special year - that was not the norm. But I have asked myself several times why, and I think that for three years in a row we got very good Jesuits to accompany us, and in the last year one of the ways of accompaniment was precisely that when we were preparing for a test the Jesuit would ask those who were doing well to help those who were not doing well. So when a student came to him to ask a question he would say, ‘Go to so-and-so and he will help you’, and he encouraged that. So we were all helping each other, and I think that created a sense that this was something worth continuing for life. I think maybe we can encourage service, and I would say I would include failure in the process as a normal event.
I feel that the majority of humanity experiences failure in life. Failure of communication with children, failure in marriage, failure in their job, failure in promotions that don't happen, et cetera. So failure is very much part of life for the majority of humanity. There should be a way of incorporating failure also in celebrations, and I say we should celebrate failure for the kingdom of God, when someone really goes so much out of himself that in a sense he doesn't respond to expectations of others, but thanks to this sacrifice in a sense others do much better. This I think is a very good way of channelling the energies and the talents that God has given us.
When I went to Japan to study theology, I thought well sometimes we think ‘I have to perform’, but sometimes performing less myself but helping Japanese seminarians to move ahead is much better for the kingdom of God than if I am a star. Stars are very good for looking at, but not for life. If I help others, maybe I don't get the same results, but together we get better results in other ways. Ten plus four plus six is only 20, but eight plus eight plus eight is 24, so that's more.
This kind of encouragement, or these kinds of symbolic gestures where we evaluate the part of process that we want to encourage, would be a way of supporting students. We need something visual, something that we can bring home and be proud of. But knowing that at the end it is going to be about the freedom with which the person accepts these values or not. Particularly I would value teamwork rather than individual performance. I think this is something where schools can be very good, to create teams of people who know how to work together, how to help others who are not doing so well, et cetera.
Fr General fielded questions from six people at his address on 25 January. In this edition of Province Express, we feature the first three questions. The other three questions will be featured in the next edition.
Adam’s Question: A significant component of Jesuit Education is the pursuit of excellence. In contemporary society, ‘excellence’ or ‘success’ or ‘achievement’ seems to be measured increasingly by material or superficial outcomes, such as exam scores and statistics or a physical result on a sporting scoreboard. While these are important, surely an overemphasis on the ‘product’ diminishes the importance of the ‘process’ of education, where the real learning occurs in our context in terms of the education of the whole person. I feel this is a real challenge in our schools, that is, to be counter-cultural to an extent and draw our students back to the ‘process’. How do we do this in a society that is placing increased pressure on the ‘product’ over the ‘process’, when it comes to education? I think this is a very relevant question. This will be, to my mind, an ongoing challenge to us.
My impression is that this will never be solved fully, because part of the process of education is that an education is successful when it's freely received, so education is a dialogue. It is not the work of the teacher, it's a dialogue, and therefore the receptivity of the student and their ability to digest and make it part of their lives is going to be always a part of education. Therefore it's going to be always an open question how much of what we give is digested, accepted and incorporated into a new frame of mind or a new spiritual framework.
Even so, the question at the end is, what can we do to encourage or to improve on this matter? I would say the first thing is to deepen the sense that excellence has nothing to do with social, financial or professional success, it's an excellence in humanity. It's forming better human beings; people with a heart, with compassion, with understanding; people who can understand our society without bias, without ideological impositions; people who can be attentive, responsible, understanding, et cetera. It is an effort of the whole Christian institution to help young men and women grow with this openness and this understanding. Whenever this excellence is put in terms of immediate results, we are being unfaithful to our message, so we are not giving the totality of the person, we are giving only one part.
I remember I studied with De La Salle Brothers and Jesuits in my last three years, and that in the old times in order to stimulate the students to keep trying and to study hard there were some prizes set up, and the prizes were very much in the line of what you seem to criticise. The prizes were now we would say childish. I got a couple of them but they were childish, because they centred us on ourselves, and they were prizes about results, about performance, exactly what you were saying. Maybe if we as a school or as an educator or as an institution, we have some form of encouragement for serious study, maybe we could set up also prizes for process. If we want to underline process, maybe we should celebrate service. How do we grow together with others? How do we play? How do we exchange?
From my class of 99 students, 19 joined the Jesuits. It was a special year - that was not the norm. But I have asked myself several times why, and I think that for three years in a row we got very good Jesuits to accompany us, and in the last year one of the ways of accompaniment was precisely that when we were preparing for a test the Jesuit would ask those who were doing well to help those who were not doing well. So when a student came to him to ask a question he would say, ‘Go to so-and-so and he will help you’, and he encouraged that. So we were all helping each other, and I think that created a sense that this was something worth continuing for life. I think maybe we can encourage service, and I would say I would include failure in the process as a normal event.I feel that the majority of humanity experiences failure in life. Failure of communication with children, failure in marriage, failure in their job, failure in promotions that don't happen, et cetera. So failure is very much part of life for the majority of humanity. There should be a way of incorporating failure also in celebrations, and I say we should celebrate failure for the kingdom of God, when someone really goes so much out of himself that in a sense he doesn't respond to expectations of others, but thanks to this sacrifice in a sense others do much better. This I think is a very good way of channelling the energies and the talents that God has given us.
When I went to Japan to study theology, I thought well sometimes we think ‘I have to perform’, but sometimes performing less myself but helping Japanese seminarians to move ahead is much better for the kingdom of God than if I am a star. Stars are very good for looking at, but not for life. If I help others, maybe I don't get the same results, but together we get better results in other ways. Ten plus four plus six is only 20, but eight plus eight plus eight is 24, so that's more.
This kind of encouragement, or these kinds of symbolic gestures where we evaluate the part of process that we want to encourage, would be a way of supporting students. We need something visual, something that we can bring home and be proud of. But knowing that at the end it is going to be about the freedom with which the person accepts these values or not. Particularly I would value teamwork rather than individual performance. I think this is something where schools can be very good, to create teams of people who know how to work together, how to help others who are not doing so well, et cetera.
Fr General fielded questions from six people at his address on 25 January. In this edition of Province Express, we feature the first three questions. The other three questions will be featured in the next edition.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
A Night of Honors
On Saturday night, the Chorus North Shore performed its commemorative concert at Our Lady of Hope church in Ipswich. Sunday's concert will be at St. Ann Church (Holy Family parish) in Gloucester.
The concert series commemorates 80 years of Choral Music on Boston's North Shore and 50 Years of Conducting by Sonja Dahlgren Pryor.
The chorus began in 1931 as the Community Carol Choir based in Rockport, Massachusetts. The next year it was renamed the Rockport Community Chorus. It changed its name again in 1983 (Rockport Community Chorus of the North Shore) to reflect the more diversified group of musicians from the North Shore. Finally, it was called Chorus North Shore in 1995.
To honor Sonja (Sunny), the chorus sang songs from her first year as conductor (Rose Marie, The Desert Song, and a French Military Marching Song), and three American patriotic songs. The next song was part narration, part collection of African-American spiritual songs fused into an 18-minute piece called God's Trombones. The second half of the show was a composite Mass with Beethoven's (86) Kyrie, Misa Criolla, Shubert's Credo, Sanctus from Verdi's Requiem, the Agnus Dei from Faure's Requiem, Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus, Virgil Thomson's My Shepherd will supply my Need, and William Dawson's Soon Ah Will Be Done.
Pre-concert activities featured notable representatives from the Commonwealth's government. Federal House Democrat John Tierney from the Sixth Congressional District was the first to present a citation to Sunny for her 50 years of service to music on the North Shore. Senate Republican from the First Essex and Middlesex District, Bruce Tarr, gave a charming presentation to Sunny. House Republican, Bradford Hill, from the Fourth Essex District, recalled the time he was one of Sunny's students in the Hamilton school system before giving a citation first to the Chorus North Shore and then to Sunny for their notable achievements. The chair of the Ipswich Board of Selectman, himself a singer, gave the final citation to Sunny.
Everyone enjoyed their night. One more concert and then we begin preparations for Verdi's Requiem on June 2nd. Please come.
The concert series commemorates 80 years of Choral Music on Boston's North Shore and 50 Years of Conducting by Sonja Dahlgren Pryor.
The chorus began in 1931 as the Community Carol Choir based in Rockport, Massachusetts. The next year it was renamed the Rockport Community Chorus. It changed its name again in 1983 (Rockport Community Chorus of the North Shore) to reflect the more diversified group of musicians from the North Shore. Finally, it was called Chorus North Shore in 1995.
To honor Sonja (Sunny), the chorus sang songs from her first year as conductor (Rose Marie, The Desert Song, and a French Military Marching Song), and three American patriotic songs. The next song was part narration, part collection of African-American spiritual songs fused into an 18-minute piece called God's Trombones. The second half of the show was a composite Mass with Beethoven's (86) Kyrie, Misa Criolla, Shubert's Credo, Sanctus from Verdi's Requiem, the Agnus Dei from Faure's Requiem, Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus, Virgil Thomson's My Shepherd will supply my Need, and William Dawson's Soon Ah Will Be Done.
Pre-concert activities featured notable representatives from the Commonwealth's government. Federal House Democrat John Tierney from the Sixth Congressional District was the first to present a citation to Sunny for her 50 years of service to music on the North Shore. Senate Republican from the First Essex and Middlesex District, Bruce Tarr, gave a charming presentation to Sunny. House Republican, Bradford Hill, from the Fourth Essex District, recalled the time he was one of Sunny's students in the Hamilton school system before giving a citation first to the Chorus North Shore and then to Sunny for their notable achievements. The chair of the Ipswich Board of Selectman, himself a singer, gave the final citation to Sunny.
Everyone enjoyed their night. One more concert and then we begin preparations for Verdi's Requiem on June 2nd. Please come.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Photos: The Massive Leap Day Storm
We have been waiting all winter long for a good snowstorm. February was one of the least snowiest on record, but with Leap Day adding a day to the month, this month's record fell. However, cumulatively, I have to imagine a record is being set for the three winter months of December, January, and February. Even November had no or little snow. The Leap Day storm was to bring 6-10 inches of snow to the area. These photos show the amount we received.
To see photos of the Snowfall from the Leap Day Storm in Massachusetts, please click on the link below:
Pics of Leap Day Storm
Pics of Leap Day Storm
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Questions for the General #3: Youth
Chris Chan attended St. Aloysius College in Sydney, graduating in 2009. He is about to start his third year of a Bachelor of Medical Science degree at Sydney University. He works as a swim instructor, as well as a counsellor at a kid's holiday camp, and he has a keen interest in swimming. He is a volunteer on the St Vincent de Paul Society’s ‘Night Patrol’ feeding program for the homeless on the streets of Sydney. While at St Aloysius College he participated in the Philippines Immersion Program and has since been back to the Philippines to do volunteer work.
Chris’ question: What advice would you give to a young person trying to discern their career or occupational path, who has an interest in serving the poor, but does not necessarily want to dedicate their entire life to this service?
This is a very good question, and I guess it's quite common. Many people who want to do something meaningful with the poor are called to them, and yet they don't see themselves as involved for life in this kind of service.
I would say I don't think I have an answer to these people, a definite answer, but I would say let the Spirit guide you. Let the Spirit guide you, and do not anticipate too much.
I told myself when I was elected General – and General is for life in the Society - I said, ‘Let's live it one day at a time’. And it works. So one day at a time is always possible.
In the early Church the poor were called the vicars of Christ. Before they called the Pope Vicar of Christ they called the poor Vicars of Christ, and the Pope was Vicar of Peter. The poor are always there for us, inviting us.
If we come in touch with the poor we should come in touch deeply. Make friends with them, not use them for our own growth, or not use them for our own - let's say - moral sense of, say, ‘I'm doing something,’ but truly make friends with them. Enter into their lives, give them the dignity of feeling that they are lovable and they are worth all the attention that we give them, and then decide in the middle of that. Because making friends with the poor changes very much our relationship, and that gives us new elements for the sermon.
Ask, how is the Spirit guiding you? And the key question would be, what is it that touches your heart? Because where you feel that your heart has been touched there is an invitation to do something about it.
I think if we go to the poor because we have to go, if I were poor I would not be very happy. But if we go to the poor because we have made friends and there is something in my heart that leads me there then I have the energy and I have the joy and I have the spirit to communicate with them. I would say it is a question of allowing yourself to be led by the Spirit. This is one aspect.
The other aspect, I would say if you have a real concern for the poor but you have a professional career, make sure that your profession is open to the poor. So find space, room, emotional and professional, so that the poor are part of your work. Then it's not just one time a week where you go and volunteer because otherwise you feel less, but it's your whole orientation that includes the poor, therefore you are doing something for society where the poor need attention.
I know people - psychologists, lawyers - who have a percentage of their clients who are poor, whom they will serve pro bono, without charging, or others who charge only according to the capability of the person. They always charge something because that helps to appreciate the service being done. If it's totally gratis people think that there's no value. But they adapt it to the capability of the other person.There are many ways to include the poor among the beneficiaries of your professional service, and find different initiatives.
Even among Jesuits, there is a tendency to divide ministries into sectors. It makes sense but it's not totally adequate, and now we are discovering that there are areas of our mission that are dimensions of us, that no matter what we do they have to be there. Service of the poor is one of them, or promotion of justice, or the service of faith, defending of faith, or cooperation with others. These are dimensions that no matter where we are, no matter what we do, we have to incorporate.
So if we think like this, that the poor are not just one section of society that I can look at or avoid looking, but that they are part of my society, and if I want to serve this society I have to include that, otherwise our society will not be a healthy society, if this is the perspective with which we incorporate our service of the poor then many things can be done, and the profession itself gets a new colour. This time we can paint it red.
Fr General fielded questions from six people at his address on 25 January. In this edition of Province Express, we feature the first three questions. The other three questions will be featured in the next edition.
Chris’ question: What advice would you give to a young person trying to discern their career or occupational path, who has an interest in serving the poor, but does not necessarily want to dedicate their entire life to this service?This is a very good question, and I guess it's quite common. Many people who want to do something meaningful with the poor are called to them, and yet they don't see themselves as involved for life in this kind of service.
I would say I don't think I have an answer to these people, a definite answer, but I would say let the Spirit guide you. Let the Spirit guide you, and do not anticipate too much.
I told myself when I was elected General – and General is for life in the Society - I said, ‘Let's live it one day at a time’. And it works. So one day at a time is always possible.
In the early Church the poor were called the vicars of Christ. Before they called the Pope Vicar of Christ they called the poor Vicars of Christ, and the Pope was Vicar of Peter. The poor are always there for us, inviting us.
If we come in touch with the poor we should come in touch deeply. Make friends with them, not use them for our own growth, or not use them for our own - let's say - moral sense of, say, ‘I'm doing something,’ but truly make friends with them. Enter into their lives, give them the dignity of feeling that they are lovable and they are worth all the attention that we give them, and then decide in the middle of that. Because making friends with the poor changes very much our relationship, and that gives us new elements for the sermon.
Ask, how is the Spirit guiding you? And the key question would be, what is it that touches your heart? Because where you feel that your heart has been touched there is an invitation to do something about it.
I think if we go to the poor because we have to go, if I were poor I would not be very happy. But if we go to the poor because we have made friends and there is something in my heart that leads me there then I have the energy and I have the joy and I have the spirit to communicate with them. I would say it is a question of allowing yourself to be led by the Spirit. This is one aspect. The other aspect, I would say if you have a real concern for the poor but you have a professional career, make sure that your profession is open to the poor. So find space, room, emotional and professional, so that the poor are part of your work. Then it's not just one time a week where you go and volunteer because otherwise you feel less, but it's your whole orientation that includes the poor, therefore you are doing something for society where the poor need attention.
I know people - psychologists, lawyers - who have a percentage of their clients who are poor, whom they will serve pro bono, without charging, or others who charge only according to the capability of the person. They always charge something because that helps to appreciate the service being done. If it's totally gratis people think that there's no value. But they adapt it to the capability of the other person.There are many ways to include the poor among the beneficiaries of your professional service, and find different initiatives.
Even among Jesuits, there is a tendency to divide ministries into sectors. It makes sense but it's not totally adequate, and now we are discovering that there are areas of our mission that are dimensions of us, that no matter what we do they have to be there. Service of the poor is one of them, or promotion of justice, or the service of faith, defending of faith, or cooperation with others. These are dimensions that no matter where we are, no matter what we do, we have to incorporate.
So if we think like this, that the poor are not just one section of society that I can look at or avoid looking, but that they are part of my society, and if I want to serve this society I have to include that, otherwise our society will not be a healthy society, if this is the perspective with which we incorporate our service of the poor then many things can be done, and the profession itself gets a new colour. This time we can paint it red.
Fr General fielded questions from six people at his address on 25 January. In this edition of Province Express, we feature the first three questions. The other three questions will be featured in the next edition.
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