Dear Friends,
I am still alive; I am sure that you are relieved. I have been at home with my family, as I said I would be. It has been a very busy time. Much of it has been spent just catching up with friends and family and enjoying the simple pleasures of life, like swinging in the backyard and checking on my mother’s newly planted vegetable garden. This visit does not feel as surreal as my Christmas visit did, but in some ways it is harder to think that I must leave again. It is as if I am only just beginning to realize that I am seriously doing this… !
Obviously I am making a bigger commitment to this life and preparing for the novitiate during this coming year of postulancy. The home visit has really given me the time to consider if I really feel called to this and if I sincerely desire to continue, and I do. With the help of the Sisters I hope to grow a lot more as a Salesian, and as a woman. I know that my faith has deepened, but not in ways that I expected. My experience of God has become more personal and merciful, and I think that reality has changed the way that I interact with others.
In about a week and a half I will be headed back to New Jersey to work at the summer camp. I look forward to being with the young people, although I am a little apprehensive about camp – I have never been to a camp before! I am sure that I will be fine, though. I know the camp and the Sisters there are amazing.
One of the readers of this blog and my friend, Fr CM Paul, recently received the honor of the prestigious John Barrett Award for the BEST REPORTER of the South Asia Religious News 2007-2008. The full story is on one of my favorite websites, Don Bosco India.
Amazingly, Father Paul achieved this award all while pursuing his doctoral studies in Social Communications. Congratulations, Father!
Please take a moment to read about our brothers and sisters in Myanmar. The Salesian archbishop, Charles Bo, wrote of the situation, “We are a nation in mourning. 2.3 million of our people have a new name: refugees and homeless. At this very moment, when you are reading this report, thousands who survived nature’s gory violence, will be lining up in some remote villages, waiting for food and aid. The dead are also waiting for a decent burial - Yes! On the top of the trees, floating in waters and in the bushes and roadside, the spirit of our people is waiting for eternal rest.” Let us continue to keep them in prayer and if we are able, financially support the relief effort. (source and more information)
In addition to being home, I have been busy on the computer… a little bit. I scanned the booklet which I wrote on Blessed Bro Artemides Zatti. You can find the PDF download here or on my download tab. There is also a link to a “plan of life” which a Salesian Brother wrote back in the 1930s. His name was Vincent Nassetta. He was a missionary from Italy to the US, and worked as a shoemaker. Although some of what he wrote gives a different perspective to Salesianity, what has remained the same is the obligation which every Salesian has for sanctity. It can be found here on the download tab, as well.
Meanwhile, I just spent almost 5 hours this week trying to figure out with the Dell technicians WHY my internal wireless card is not functioning properly after I got my laptop back from repairs for the monitor. UGH. It always happens that when I send my laptop in for one thing, it comes back with another thing wrong. I cannot stand it. The issue is still not resolved. I have opened up the laptop and manually reinstalled the card, I have updated drivers, restored my PC… everything short of reinstalling my OS, which I am reluctant to do because I would lose files and programs. I should have never sent it in. Let this be a lesson to anyone considering the purchase of a new laptop… buy something else, just not a Dell. It was going well for a while with this one, but yet again we are starting this pattern of sending it in for one thing and another thing coming back malfunctioning… and it makes no sense, since I had not sent my hard drive in with the laptop. Dell insists that its not the card itself since I am able to get some minor connection (either “No Signal” or “Low Signal”, even though other laptops near me get “Excellent”) so I have no idea. Why does this always happen when I am traveling?
Oh well. End of rant. Pray for my laptop!
One more thing - Brother Mathew John won a 2nd prize in the Multimedia Film Category of the 23rd International Catholic Film and Multimedia Festival concluded at Niepokalanow, Warsaw, 1 June 2008. Congrats to Bro. Mathew! His film can be seen here. There are other Salesians among those who received awards, so read up and read some more! Our Indian Salesian Brothers are doing amazing things.
