ADVENT IN A CITY OF CONTRASTS

It will be 75 degrees today, and is sunny now, though rain is forecast later.  The Saints play Detroit at the Super Dome and folks are hopeful of another win.  Roses bloom in our yard  around the statue of the Blessed Mother erected in memory of a pastor 100 years ago.  Roses in December are but one contrast.  This is a city of sharp contrasts.

This Sunday, December 04, 2011 the Times Picayune had an article, [with lots of pictures] by Nell Nolan on debutantes!  There are still debutantes and it is serious business.  MAKING THEIR CURTSIES, on the front page of the Living Section, chronicled the event in detail:

“As the members processed, they did so to different favorite songs as played by the Jimmy Maxwell Orchestra. Each one carried a round bouquet of anna roses, pink majolica spray roses, and pink wax flowers. Their fathers had boutonnieres of single white akito roses.

Almost immediately after the presentation, the ballroom became a dance floor. In the flanking rooms, tables had been set up for the families of the debutantes and their guests. Compliments were duly accorded to the parents of the presentees on the grace and loveliness of their daughters by the formally clad assembly.” 

On the same day, the front page of the Metro Section had an article: MAN SHOT DEAD IN 9^TH WARD IDENTIFIED.  In an article on the editorial page on November 27, Jarvis DeBerry had noted:

The murder rate in New Orleans is 10 times the national rate, and it's been that way for years. So we measure quite poorly against everybody else.  . . . But that's not all. New Orleans also measures poorly against itself. Leave aside 1999, the best year of Richard Pennington's Police Department, when our much larger city recorded 158 homicides; we're measuring poorly against the New Orleans of 2010. There were 175 homicides in New Orleans last year, and this year we had 175 before Thanksgiving.  

WDSU News on December 4 noted:

 

The murder rate in New Orleans sits at 183 for 2011 -- already more cases than last year's total of 175.

This calls to mind a quote of John Heagle in A CONTEMPORARY MEDITATION ON HOPE: "In an age which offers a variety of escapes from the human condition, Christians are more than ever a sign of contradiction.  They continue to believe that the search for God must begin with the acceptance of the human.  They believe this because it is in the stable of humanity that God has come in search of us.”

"The Long Loneliness" Fritz Eichenberg

Here at 4219 Constance we had a good first week of Advent.  John visited schools: the Academy of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans, St. Charles Catholic in LaPlace, Pope John Paul II in Slidell and Holy Cross in New Orleans as part of his coaching work with the Center for School Leadership, Charles was at Lantern Light [with more than 200 guests seeking lunch at times] and Bob at Operation Helping Hands. 

 

Br. Bob and Sr. Renee Rose at the reception after Taize prayer.

On Wednesday evening, we had thirty or so guests for Taize prayer and a reception followed.  

On Thursday, John was at Smilie’s Restaurant in Harahan for the annual Parkinson’s Holiday Dinner.  The group includes people with Parkinson’s and their caregivers—usually spouses.  They meet every other month to exchange information and to hear speakers on topics related to the disease.  This being New Orleans, they have to have a party, too!  Sr. Mary Daniel, OP who facilitated the Brothers living arrangements in the autumn of 2007 for the months before they could move into 4219, introduced John to the meetings since she also has Parkinson’s.

Saturday the kitchen sink got a new faucet due to Bob’s skills, and John put Christmas lights on the balcony.  Charles got to a simulcast of an opera—a baroque Handel work: “Rodelinda”.  The preview read: “And you thought your family was dysfunctional!”  

This week we have a dinner here Wednesday for the Presentation Sisters who Charles ministers with and on Saturday we will host the “Newcomers” group of religious who gather every few months—we are all folks who came here after Katrina.  These gatherings help us “network” as we continue to research opportunities for volunteers to give service.

The front gate to the Blessed Pauline Center with a plaque commemorating the 100 years of the Sisters  of Christian Charity at this site.  Blessed Pauline von Mallinckrodt, their founder, stayed here twice.

 During this week we will celebrate St. Nicholas on the 6^th, the Immaculate Conception on December 8^th and the memory of Thomas Merton on December 10^th.   The homilist at Merton’s funeral noted: “When a monk enters a monastery, what is asked of him is ‘Are you truly seeking God?’  The question isn’t ‘Have you found God?’  The question is: ‘Is he seeking God?’  …It’s not philosophical—it’s existential. …Contemplation isn’t satisfaction—it’s search.”  God bless you on your search this Advent! 

THANKSGIVING IN NOLA 2011

We celebrated Thanksgiving after a flurry of travel in November.  Charles was in the Jacksonville, Florida area November 9 to 15 to visit family and attend a Christian Brother province meeting.  Brothers from Canada and the United States represented their communities at the meeting to discuss current issues and reflect on ways to deepen community life.  Charles’ reflection and commentary gave us a good sense of what happened and food for thought.

 

Bob was in Philadelphia from the 14^th to the 18^th at a gathering of the Catholic Volunteer Network.  He reconnected with people he met when participating in college visits in the past, and got new ideas for recruitment for the future.  

John was at Guadalupe Regional Middle School in Brownsville, Texas from the 21^st to 23^rd, facilitating a faculty retreat on Tuesday.  The theme was: “Making Jesus Real;” reflecting on the Second Coming in our own daily lives, in the life of school communities, and the importance of an awareness of that and attention to it.  While there, Matt Wilsey, an ACE volunteer [from Phonecia, NY]  in his second year at GRMS, invited John, Br. Tony Quinn, and Br. Arthur Williams to dinner at the ACE volunteers house where they were joined by another ACE volunteer and her fiancée as well as two Marist Brothers.  It was a wonderful experience of hospitality and good fellowship that the ACE volunteers initiated.

We celebrated Thanksgiving Day with Mass at St. Gabriel the Archangel Church in Pontchartrain Park and in the afternoon went to dinner at the Presentation Sisters home in the Lakeview area of New Orleans, just west of City Park.  Sisters from the Congregation of St. Joseph, Holy Faith and Notre Dame [Toledo, Ohio] communities as well as Dominicans and Presentations from different federations outnumbered the Brothers ten-to-one!  Everyone brought something—we contributed wine and our unfailing charm.  The food was wonderful, the hospitality warm and the conversation far-reaching and meaningful.  We told our stories, but also renewed our network of relationships, so important for most of us who came here since Hurricane Katrina and still strive to help the recovery. 

Sr. Mary Lou Specha, PBVM

We recently learned that Sr. Mary Lou Specha, PBVM, the Executive Director of Café Reconcile, where Br. Joe worked for three years, has decided to resign her post this coming summer.  Our relationship to Café Reconcile has been a constant since we came here, and we will work with Sr. Mary Lou to continue that important connection to this unique and prophetic work.

This coming week we return to our regular ministries—John is visiting schools this week including the Academy of the Sacred Heart on St. Charles Avenue, [Cokie Roberts is an alumna], St. Charles Catholic in Lacombe, Pope John Paul II in Slidell, and Holy Cross in Lakeview in New Orleans.  These visits are related to the Discovery Walks program sponsored by the School Leadership Center here in New Orleans.  Charles will be at Lantern Light Ministries and Bob at Operation Helping Hands, [OHH].  OHH continues to downsize and just last week another staff member left.  Catholic Charities, the host agency, is continuing other cutbacks, releasing a dozen employees recently.  However, we are making contacts with Presbyterian and Lutheran community groups, as well as the Community Center of St. Bernard which is a well-organized and wide ranging program.  We hear that Vancouver College has made a contact with Camp Restore, a fine Lutheran sponsored program that Iona College worked with last year.

On Wednesday, we again host a Taize prayer service at 7:30 PM.  We were delighted with almost 40 participants last time and have hopes!

REFLECTIONS ON NAIROBI, # 2

“The Way to the Future” gathering in Karen, a prosperous suburb of Nairobi, was an opportunity, for me, to face the future!  As I reflect on the experience, several insights are relevant for me.  

View of the Little Sisters of St. Joseph Retreat Center, Karen, Kenya

The 2008 Congregation Chapter in Munnar, India encouraged the Brothers “to engage with people at the margins.”  Often that has been a hoped for by-product of what I did in administration in schools, in diocesan or in national offices.  As I look back, there is one thing I realize quite clearly—I was replaced by very good people in all those roles and many exceeded my best efforts, both in administration and concern for the marginalized. 

As one paper noted, “The Christian Brothers have been dedicated to helping people free themselves from poverty via the escape route of education.”  It goes on: “But as time has gone by, the general provision of education has increasingly been embraced by society at large.”    I can remember moving from school to school using terminology like: “We took over the school,” but I recall it with some embarrassment.  I believe we tried to be collaborative and inclusive, but sometimes I fear it was more like: “Here is our solution—what is your problem?”  That time is gone, that way of operating no longer sustainable. 

Our large meeting space at the retreat house.  Can you find me?

  Sustainability is an issue we cannot ignore.  In the developed world, our primary task is to ensure the continuance, as best we can, of the ethos of Catholic education. I have always been involved with schools.  These days, as a coach with the School Leadership Center of New Orleans program called “Discovery Walks,” I work with six principals on school improvement.   I believe we have much to offer our successors in the field of Catholic education from our experiences, but the time for handing over is past—now we are called to be fraternal supports to those who have the responsibility for the educational institutions we enjoyed for so many years.  Then we can use whatever continuing good will we have to support and encourage their involvement with people at the margins.  

New membership in the developed world will serve our mission to those on the margins if they are in touch with their gifts, the charism of Edmund, with the needs of the people we are called to serve, and if they are supported in whatever they choose to do by lively and life-giving communities.  Some will be educators, but that is no more a requirement for acceptance or membership.  And they will collaboratively discern where they can best serve with the congregation and the people who are calling for them. 

Chris Meehl, [Australia], Jenni Barrett, [Ireland], Joash Sigu, [Kenya], self, StephenChewe, [Zambia]

The experience in Karen with our African brothers echoed what happened here in New Orleans.  We explored the needs that arose from our conversations with people here.  After listening and some experimentation, Joe Fragala settled into Café Reconcile, serving the most marginalized youth in society—and those who sought to help them—with his experience in guidance, and at Karibu in Kenya.    Charles Avendano supports and gives life to Lantern Light with the Presentation Sisters, serving their homeless “guests.”  And Bob Koppes does the financials, and works with the rebuilding efforts of Operation Helping Hands to serve the poor homeless get back into houses.   Even my work with the Office of Catholic Schools and the School Leadership Center are responses to their requests.  Then the community mission continues to be to volunteers and being ‘brother’ to many in New Orleans.  Unburdened of an institutional commitment, we are free and always seeking ways to serve.

11.11.11 A VETERAN'S DAY BIRTHDAY

I was born in Philadelphia, Pa. at Germantown General Hospital on Armistice Day, November 11, 1946.  This year, when I typed in: “65 is the new . . .” Google produced entries that began with 55 and went down to 40!  So it appears there is no rest for the ‘wicked’—or is it ‘weary’? 

Fittingly, I am the son of veterans, my Dad a radar man on the “Chester T. O’Brien” a destroyer escort in the Pacific and my Mother in the Naval Reserves in WW II.  I am the brother of two veterans, Patricia, a Captain in the Army Nurse Corps and Mary, a Lieutenant in the Women’s Army Corps.   I am named after my Dad’s brother Cpl. John Anthony Casey, who died on Iwo Jima on April 4^th, 1945.  He was 23 when he died, a machine gunner with the 25^th Marines, Fourth Marine Division.  So Veterans Day occupies a prominent place in my consciousness, especially as we hear so much about returning service men and women.  A cousin on my Mother’s side, Michael Atzert, is on active duty in a war zone; his parents, my cousin Mary Margaret and her husband Walter are also veterans, as is Jim Coyle, a cousin of my generation who served in Vietnam.  [My brother Bill, nine years younger than I, grew up with siblings at one time or another in some sort of uniform.  He resisted the urge to don one.]

On November 11, 2011 I led Morning Prayer and we listened to the hymn “I Vow To Thee My Country” and then I read from the last letter that my namesake, Jack Casey wrote to his Mother before his death.  In it he said: “Aboard this ship we are fortunate in having a Catholic Chaplain, and I am thus afforded the opportunity of going to daily Mass.  So far this week I went to Confession and Communion, and I intend receiving tomorrow.  Naturally I remember you all in my prayers at home, and I know you do likewise.  And don’t think I don’t need your prayers, as at this particular time they are most helpful.  And in your intentions, just ask God as I do, that I may be, in all conflicts, a good Christian, and a good Marine, and Mom Casey’s boy.”  The entire letter is a beautiful reflection on duty, service, family and Faith—Jack’s high school graduation photograph was an icon, always on my Dad’s dresser and Dad wore his high school ring until he died.

Br. Bob and I then listened to the hymn again and after a time of reflection prayed for our family members and friends who were veterans or who are serving, as well as birthdays and other intentions—then we went out to the second floor balcony and put the flag out.

I spent the morning visiting a school that is part of the “Discovery Walk” program of the School Leadership Center here in New Orleans.  I worked with two schools last year—it was a pilot for the Archdiocese and I was most impressed with the process—now there are more than 30 Archdiocesan schools involved—I agreed to take on two more—then another and on 11/11/11 agreed to take on number 6—one that I really want to work with.  So the day was a happy one for me.

I spoke to my siblings on the phone and spoke to some others when I remembered to turn it back on after several hours visiting classrooms and being in conference with administrators.  And we did the New Orleans thing at night--we went out to dinner!

Bob in back of John, Sr. Jackie and Sr. Monica--post dessert!

Bob and I [Br. Charles was at a province meeting in Florida] invited Sr. Monica Gundler, SC and Sr. Jackie Schmitz, CSJ to dinner at Dante’s Kitchen to celebrate my 65^th.    After a wonderful meal Bob said: “And it was great having Jackie and Monica—not only was the food great, we had fun too!”  Ditto.  [He could not have meant that dinner with me would be a bit tedious--but perhaps. . .]  All in all, 11/11/11 turned out to be a very good day.

VISITATION, INSPIRATION, CELEBRATION!

Recently we had a 'trifecta' of activity in the community.  We had visitation from our congregation leadership, during a retreat weekend at a rectory in New Orleans East and while on retreat celebrated Br. Charles Avendano's 86th birthday!  

Br. Peter Dowling, CFC, [pictured at left], is a member of the Congregation Leadership Team and came to visit with us from Friday, October 28 through Tuesday, November 1st.  While here Peter shared with us his experiences traveling around the world, including spending time at the recent "Way  To The Future" conference in Kenya that John also attended.  Peter came to us after facilitating a retreat for school leadership in the West.  While here he participated in our long planned retreat where we were discussing our way to the future facilitated by Sr. Monica Gundler, SC.  On Monday, Peter spent time with Br. Charles at Lantern Light Ministries, had lunch at Cafe Reconcile, visited Br. Bob at Operation Helping Hands, and visited Allison Maraldo at the house she is renovating in the city.

Bob, Charles, Sr. Monica Gundler, SC and John

On Friday, Peter joined Bob, Charles and John at the Resurrection of Our Lord Rectory in New Orleans East and after dinner viewed the movie "Of Gods and Men" about eight Trappist monks who lived and died in Algeria in the 1990's.  It is a moving exploration of brotherhood, community, discernment and service.  It was an unforgettable experience.  On Saturday, Sr. Monica came and facilitated our discussion of both the film and Br. Philip Pinto's inspiring meditation on the future of religious life, "Out of Darkness, Colour Breaks."  We used these to reflect on our own way forward.

Bob, Sr. Monica. John, Charles, Molly, Peter and Allison at "East of Italy"

That evening we were joined by Molly Sherry and Allison Maraldo for dinner at a Vietnamese-Italian restaurant, East of Italy, near Lake Pontchartrain, for Charles' birthday dinner.

Br. Peter Dowling and John visiting Charles at Lantern Light Ministries on Monday.

Br. Bob at his desk at Operation Helping Hands--sorting and paying bills.