Thursday, October 30, 2008

Middle of My Work Day

Well, well, well... Thursday's usually the busiest day and it's almost half over. I always know that it's almost half over and that I'm going to have a great weekend when I get to this point of Thursday and my reflection paper from class is written and printed.

This week Anne Hennessey from the Orange congregation (but she lives in the San Fransisco area) joined us. Her expertise that was shared with us was on 17th century France and Jean Pierre Medaille. She helped us understand the atmosphere at the time a little more because since we don't know much biographical information about Medaille, we need to gain understanding about him from the culture itself. I always enjoy learning about the class systems and the inter-relatedness of all the royalty from the countries in Europe. Everyone was fighting for power and land and they all married each other's relatives to make alliances with each other. It just boggles my mind. The part that really gets me excited is when the women take charge like Elizabeth in England or Anne of Austria or even Marie de Medici. Such tough, confident women! Anyway, I think the thing that I'm left reflecting on is the charism of reconciliation that was so much needed back then because of the cloud of death and depravity that was over France and how much we're in need of those reconciling attitudes today because our American society is in the same boat these days... everyone living in fear and so many living from paycheck to paycheck. It give me a lot to think about and strikes me with the need to pray for courage to have the attitude with the people I encounter while I'm out here.

We've been watching the World Series every night out here and that came to a celebratory end last night. We have two novices from Philly here so it gave us some incentive to watch, in addition to the love for the game itself. Now that those parties are over with, we're looking forward to a Halloween party tomorrow night after our prayer day. Karen and I rented some scary Halloween movies to watch that night after dinner so we can all be scared and have nightmares together!!! EKKK!! Also, so many people from the wonderful Congregation of St Joseph graciously contributed to our festivities with care packages and decorations!!I think we'll have a great evening!

We'll be going to the LA Carondelet center after touring LA on Sunday. Lynn Levo (Albany) will be at our ICN gathering on Monday and she'll be presenting at the LA center for us. She'll be talking about friendship with the ICN folks and will come back to Orange with us to speak about Intimacy and Sexuality on Tuesday and Wednesday. But before that, there's the need to celebrate the birth of Ann Letourneau on Monday night with pizza, prayer and other goodies! Happy Birthday ANN!!

So I guess it's safe to say that I'm in good space and looking forward to this next week. Picture will be posted soon.
Love to all and thanks for the prayers (and care packages to those who sent them!)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

BOOOOOOO!

Ok, I got that out of my system....Happy Halloween, hope the party is fun and wonderful...

I also get charged when I read, hear, and/or experience women who have made a difference, despite great obstacles, in history and in the hardy Appalachian women I meet daily in rural WV.

Just finished a book by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, entitled Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History. Laurel Ulrich is a Pulitzer Prize Historian who researches and writes about these tough chics.....the title also makes a cool T-Shirt.

Thanks for sharing.... Barbk

Anonymous said...

Hi there, Jenn!
I'm just catching up with you and your blog. So glad the reflection paper came together. Really appreciated being able to see it in process!
So...you've had Halloween, and birthday (give Ann a birthday hug from me, por favor). And...now I'm sure you're celebrating the election results!!!!! YES!!!!
Sorry I couldn't send you decorations or goodies, I don't think you would have appreciated red beans, rice and bananas very much!
Keep on bloggin'. It's good for all of us!
Love, Jeanne