Thought I'd post a quick message from here in St. Paul, Minnesota. Everything is going well. There are 10 men in my first year novice class; there are 11 men in the second year novice class; and 3 ordained superiors in the house. It's a slow process getting to know everyone, learning the norms of the house, and acclimating to a new city, but it is interesting. The best way to describe this place is a three story college dormitory, substituting all the debauchery with holiness. There are common areas for reading or television, a chapel, laundry facilities, recreation room, music room, work shop, a classroom, and kitchen and dining to accommodate the twenty-four people that live here.
Along with communal daily mass and prayer periods we've been taking short classes on the history of religious orders and have just started a class session on homiletics. On Monday and Thursday we've begun Spanish classes and on Wednesday we spend the morning in a Spanish immersion experiment. I will be volunteering at "El Centro", a center for Latino people of the Twin Cities area who need help adjusting to American culture. They provide a number of services such as day care for mothers who are taking classes at the center, senior citizen day care, mental health, job search and training, and also English as a second language classes (which is where I come in). I'll be helping people of varying English proficiencies with their situational language needs. Such as, the words necessary to buy and use a bus ticket, or conversational requirements to calling and scheduling a doctor's appointment, or beginning to learn and understand the English words associated with working in hotels, which as we've all seen is staffed by many Latinos.
The first year men as of last Saturday have graduated from first probation so I can now officially refer to myself as a novice. There was a nice in house ceremony where we were presented with a St. Ignatius medal and a copy of the book Jesuit Constitutions and Complementary Norms (The historical writings of the Society from inception until present day).
Hope this message finds everyone well.
I'll keep everyone notified of the highlights as they come, so stay tuned.
Love,
Rich
Rich - so good to hear from you! I was just thinking of you yesterday. Your comment, "substituting all the debauchery with holiness" made me laugh. Thanks for keeping us posted, the work you are doing with the Latinos is awesome.
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