4/17 - 4/24 new and improved — shorter entries!!
4/17
Saturday morning I picked up Daniel Justin, a novice from the Wisconsin province. I got lost in downtown Houston, but at least I didn’t run into the Metro, like everyone else in the city (and apparently the New Orleanders that live around upper Canal Street). Daniel is on his pilgrimage: five weeks kicked out of the novitiate with $35 and a one-way bus ticket. His ticket was to Houston. He’d heard a lot about the Houston Catholic Worker House and it turned out to be a nice place to stay on his way to the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe outside of Mexico City.
At night, we three novices joined the Strake community for an auction fundraiser exactly like those of SLUH called Cashbah. The meal cost $160 a head and they raise approx. $300k. The nicest hotel room I’d ever seen was rented out for the President, Fr. Daniel Leihart, S.J. I liked seeing the kids and their families that loved them and Strake so much. It filled me with Hope. Jimmi took the MCAT and Sean came home drunk.
4/18
Sunday: Spanish Mass at crowded St. Esteban. Played 6.5 hours of volleyball. Drove a black fundamentalist to an hour of power. Did 2 hours of email, mainly just deleting, should have prioritized my time better since I had to pray late at night.
4/19
Monday: Mass at the seminary at 11:30. Fr. Rafael recognized me and invited me to lunch. I found more peace in ten minutes in the spacious yard than I find in a week here at the Casa. I then went to pick up Daniel from Strake.
Earlier that day I had tutored Mark and Louise’s grandson John for an hour and a half. I learned a lot about myself and ADHD. I really feel called to work with youth, and with psychology, too.
4/20
Tuesday: Slept through food distribution. I finally prayed directly about leaving the society to be with Dad. I realize that I’d been scared to pray on it earlier. Afraid that I wouldn’t get God’s answer, but that of my excitement’s. I recounted to Arthur later that I think I had just procrastinated, and caused extra, unneccessary suffering, especially since I got the same answer. Of course, we can’t play historical what if? Later, drove to Strake to return Daniel. I called Fr. Thibideaux, interrupting his class. He was more generous than imaginable and he gave me the password to get to the internet, something that 1) would not seem worth my time in front of a class and 2) certainly I would never say outloud in front of a group of teenagers. I wrote down that I should send him a thank you note. I have not done that yet.
I called Fr. Mike Dooley S.J. and emailed Fr. Master Billy Huete S.J. Aren’t I the good novice? I brought up Dad’s road trip at the end of May.
Arthur and I went to a Mass celebrating the end of the retreat season at Strake. In addition to Kairos, some students were selected to do the 9th annotation. I was impressed by this fact, their maturity of response and Fr. Thibideaux’s sermon. Arthur and I then went to see “Big Fish.” I highly recommend the movie to all readers of this journal. It was extremely similar to my own story, yet didn’t move beyond just a few tears.
4/21
Wednesday: set up for Mass on time. At basketball I ended the night by dribbling through Catherine’s legs and making a lay-up, thus declaring my retirement. Talked with Abel, said he was willing to go to rehab!!!
4/22
Thursday: Went to the greatest Cardinal’s baseball game ever! Completely forgot that Billy and Mike were coming into town. Ran into girl from Loyola Soccer.
4/23
Friday: Random lunch at the women’s house with faculty and few students from U. Houston. The Guatemalan consolate was there. One loud fellow played the Marimba, “as which the world should be, beautiful, universal, soothing, happy.” They claim 22 mayan languages in Guatemala.
4/24
Saturday: slept until 4pm. How embarrassing! got up called Dad, Arthur and Mac.