Well, it’s be a LONG time since the last update. School has been REALLY killing my free time. I could literally write a book on just the things that happen on the average day. A couple of weeks ago, they installed the new abbot for the monks (yes its called an installation – but they don’t use InstallShield) J. For the Benedictine monks, the abbot is on the same level as a bishop. He’s the ‘big cheese’ of the abbey for them. The monks had been without an abbot for the better part of a year, and they had picked a really good guy; but they hadn’t done the official ceremony for months – even though he was doing the job. The reason for all the difficulty is because the ceremony is almost exactly the same as one in which they choose and ordain a bishop. In other words, every bishop, arch-bishop and religious community abbot was here from all over the western United States. Arranging a gathering with that many potentates is a pretty difficult task. It was a wonderful ceremony, and there was standing room only. In fact, the seminarians all got stuck up in the choir loft. The main part of the church was half full of priests and the alter area was packed with bishops and abbots. Abbots wear the miter (the little pointy hat) and robes of a bishop, but instead of little red caps, they wear black ones. So, during the ceremony, they vested him with new robes, gave him a new hat (always the sign of promotion in the church), a shepherds staff and a ring. The arch-bishop of Portland did the blessing and it was really, really cool. I got a picture of about 20 bishops/archbishops and abbots. I was told this was probably the largest collection of church leaders in Oregon’s history. I could believe it. Two weeks ago we had a chili cook-off and salsa contest. All the seminarians and deacons finally got to battle it out to who had the best chili. So, for the better part of the afternoon, people made up their concoctions. The Hispanic guys from Mexico and all parts Latin America went nuts. One guy had 4 different kinds of salsa. Needless to say, they were all really different. It’s amazing how different the meaning of salsa is depending on what Latin American country you’re from. For the most part, none of them were ridiculously hot – but they all definitely warmed the stomach and drew some sweat. The chilis were definitely the highlight. They had lots of really, really great chili in every variety you could think of. Killian, the guy from Ireland that I live next to, even made one. In the end on of the non-Hispanic deacons won (can you believe it). But it was really fun time. I talked with all the Hispanic guys about which chili was closest to what they were used to. One of the really big guys from Mexico said that he couldn’t eat chill – it was too spicy. His mom used to make some for him without spices and then put all the spices in for the rest of the family. Weird huh? One of the Samoan seminarians was ordained to the deaconate this last weekend. He is what they call a transitional deacon; which means that he is on his way to being a priest. He’ll probably be ordained to the priesthood next year, but back in Samoa. The ordination was really moving ceremony – much the same way a wedding is and has a number of similarities. Anyway, we learned a lot about Samoan culture from this one. Samoan’s are a very, very friendly group of people. They are very loyal and dedicated to their friends and families. A fairly large number of his family and friends showed up for the ceremony. There were bright flower wreaths everywhere, including colorful hand-made leas on all the celebrating priests. The women and men were all dressed in really bright clothing, and the men all wore lavalavas. A lavalava is a skirt-sized cloth that wears a lot like a dress or skirt. For formal occasions they were black or dark ones, for festive times they were really bright floral print ones. What’s funny is that all the Samoan men are about 6-6’10”, weight 250+ pounds and wear these lavalavas. Nobody DARES say anything, and nobody wants to because it’s really cool. In fact, one of our college seminarians had one of the guys make him one. The Samoans all laughed at him because they made it for someone their own stature, but he’s about 6’1 and about 150 pounds. So, it was a tad baggy. They encouraged him to eat more so it’d fit right. J During the ceremony, all the other Samoan guys got together up in the back of the church and sang Micha-ele (name of the guy ordained) a couple really moving Samoan songs. It was really touching because you could tell that they really were happy for him, and were really singing with their hearts. It’s so great to see these linebacker sized guys bursting with joy and singing really heartfelt songs. I remember thinking we could all learn something about this kind of community togetherness. After the ceremony, Micha-ele was mobbed by his visitors who absolutely covered him with leas of flowers, candy, and beads. He had so many on that you could barely see his head. What was even more interesting was the party afterwards. Warning, you might want to skip this paragraph if you don’t want to hear about butchering animals. The other Samoan guys had gone down to town and haggled with a local farmer. They had bought a pig from him, and the night before I saw them struggling with something in the back of a truck. Well, it turns out they had bought this pig, field dressed him in the back of this truck, and then hung him up in a tree for the night. The really early the morning of the ordination, they put the dressed pig into a big fire pit, covered him up and let him roast. Anyway, they pulled the pig back out and had a HUGE feast afterwards. It was really interesting; and pretty darn good. The women walked around handing out poy (drink) and all sorts of interesting foods we’d never had before. In all it was really cool. The field education is going well. I’m still teaching the Kindergartners on Sunday mornings. I knew it was going to have lots of fun the first day when one of the little boys comes up to me standing up real tall, pulls on my pants leg, looks up and says, “Hey mister, I’m ZACK. You’re name’s Matt isn’t it.” In a VERY matter of fact sort of way and a big smile. It was way hilarious and I had to do everything to keep from laughing. He’s elected himself as my ‘helper’ each week. It’s really, really cool. There are so many great kids in the class and they’re all so wonderful. We’re going through the creation stories in the bible and each week they’re adding little animals, trees, flowers, clouds and all kinds of stuff they see outside to this big banner. So far nobody’s eaten the paste (yet). They’ll be hanging it up in church here when their done. They’re all so excited and it’s so fun to help them work on it. It’s made me reflect a lot on when I was a kindergartener and all the old memories I had. Ah, those were the days. For those of you who aren’t out here, I got to go to the sing-a-long version of the Sound of Music with a bunch of friends. Yes, the old classic ‘hills are alive’ film. We got a little bag of stuff to use during the film as we sang along. Sort of Rocky Horror picture showy; but much cleaner. People showed up dressed as their favorite characters and everybody had a blast singing along and shouting encouraging things like “USE THE CURTAINS!” I was battling a cold at the time, and ended up losing my voice the next day; but it was WAY worth it. Classes continue; and are starting to settle into a nice balance. I had my first round of tests last week, which is why this update was a little delayed. I did very well. The classes are turning out to be very interesting. We’re progressing through philosophy starting with the ancients, and by the time I finish pre-theology in 2 years, we’ll have run the entire philosophical gamut to the present. One of the most interesting classes has turned out to be one I almost didn’t take – philosophy of the human person. We’re going through a lot of more modern thoughts on the nature of humanity and what it means to be a ‘human’ person. Lots of really, really interesting stuff on the meaning of art, music and religion in the context of our humanity. Ever wondered why we make art and not play in the mud all day? I didn’t until I took this class; now I’m more captivated. The academics are going well, but the real fireworks are coming from my confessor, my spiritual direction and formation direction. I meet with three different guys every two weeks or so – all individually. Each focuses on a different aspect of your personal growth (as each name implies). Two are strictly confidential discussions (internal forum) and the formation direction is not (external forum). In fact, we pick who we want and the administration doesn’t even know who we chose. The discussions are absolutely amazing. We usually just start chatting about whatever’s been going on in over the last week or so. They have this AMAZING ability to pick out really key insights about you from just the simple descriptions you give about what’s been going on. Often times, I’ll come with questions or things that I’ve thought about during reflection times. We periodically have afternoons of silence and prayer. When you’ve got nothing else to think about (can’t study, can’t talk, can’t run off the hill, etc) you turn towards yourself and that’s when the really interesting stuff starts happening. One really key element they are working on in first year guys is self-disclosure and openness. Can you articulate what’s going on in your life, your feelings towards things, your impressions, your past, your struggles or difficulties? Sounds easy, but this is actually the real kicker. The directors all make it very clear that it is vitally important to disclose all parts of your life – no matter how silly or embarrassing they might seem. My director (a WONDERFUL guy) told me that the sure-fire way to find yourself leaving the seminary is to not disclose stuff going on in your life. This environment places BIG stress on self-awareness and if you’re hiding things, the environment will become unbearable and you’ll want to walk out the door quicker than you can blink an eye. It’s very hard because you are really pressed on a daily basis to be maturing and becoming more self-aware. If something difficult comes up that you’d rather not work on at that moment; it quickly grows and becomes a stumbling block. It’s like living life in fast-forward. It’s really, really awesome for growth, but really hard to face your limitations on the other hand. The goal is to become aware of and recognize those weaknesses. Recognizing and acting on those that can be changed, and how to live with the ones that can’t. It seems like I’ve learned more about myself in the last 2 months than I have in the last 2 years of my life. What makes this environment really amazing is that you can talk to experts on any part of your life you have a question about. From the deeply spiritual, to the theological, to the practical, to the licensed psychologist – who by the way is REALLY great to just sit and pick his brain on all sorts of topics and experiences – all free of charge. I find myself bouncing different facets of all sorts of questions off different people. It’s almost like being in a mall and bouncing ideas of one expert after another. All this comes under the umbrella of directors that will send you to different people to work on different questions. It’s really, really awesome; but very challenging. More challenging than anything I’ve done before. They make strong demands on progress in these areas and continually challenge you in each area they see emerging. I wish everyone could have the opportunity to go through this sort of challenge in their daily lives. I’ll give you an excerpt from an ‘assignment’ I had: - make an honest assessment of
your strengths and weaknesses (not educational, but personally – what
situations/people do you find difficult, what sorts of activities/people
do you do well with, etc) As you can see, these questions require you to be able to read yourself accurately. This is a struggle in itself and requires lots of help most of the time. If you’re more curious in this realm, please email me. I can expand on this. I can also give you some of my other assignments. The questions are REALLY, REALLY great no matter what you’re doing in life. There ones you’ll likely ask yourself the rest of your life. I had a hard drive go out on my laptop about a week ago; but it was covered under warranty and I saved everything before it died. They shipped me a new one and it was really nice to be able to do some techy-computer stuff for a day. J This is plenty long for now. Lots of other stuff has been going on; but I’ll keep it to this for right now. We’re about to have a big music festival up here where choirs will be visiting from all over and singing things like the requiem mass and the like. I hope you are all well. Please email me with how you are doing. I really appreciated how many of you have written back, come to visit, and let me know how things are going. It really lifts my heart and is a joy to see and hear from you. I keep you all in my prayers. Matt |