An Awesome Week and a Happy New Year

Christmas Greetings and a joyous Christmas Season to all of you!  It’s been an amazing and challenging week for me.  Spending Christmas in another culture is very different and it’s easy to get “homesick” when one does not eat, drink, and perform the many rituals that each culture becomes accustomed to doing.  With all that said, it has been very good for me here.

 

Christmas Day we were able to sleep in a bit and celebrated Christmas Day Mass together.  The majority of the Mass we celebrated in French, but there were some recognizable hymns that I could at least participate in singing by humming the melody.  We followed the Mass with a great social and a festive dinner.  The remainder of the day was free and we just rested during the day and then gathered again in the evening for more sharing, talking, singing and dancing.  Dancing is in the DNA here….so you know I feel at home here!

Novitiate entrance

Grotto at the Novitiate

Novitiate Chapel

Novitiate

Brothers playing volleyball

The next day, Dec 26^th, the Feast of Stephen, I celebrated the Mass in English.  I had the Brothers saying Amen and turning to the person next to them and saying things.  The Brothers were very happy…I received several invitations to go to some of their countries and give them a retreat.  That affirmation made me very happy.  We spent the remainder of the day in sessions and learning from one another’s culture.

On Dec. 27^th we took a field trip to the new capital of Ivory Coast, Yamoussoukro. We went to visit the Basilica that was built there to replicate what we find at St. Peter’s in the Vatican.  We boarded a bus at 6:30am and proceeded to travel a little over 2 hours to the capital city.  As we were leaving the outskirts of Abidjan and also entering the city of Yamoussoukro one could not help but see the poverty of the country.  What we would call “shanty” towns were everywhere.  People would gather in impromptu markets selling wares and whatever else in order to make enough money to put a little food on the table.  In Ivory Coast, people are constantly walking…the walk in the streets, the walk in the villages, the walk on the highways, carrying whatever the need with them in sacks or balancing items on their heads.  It really does make me appreciate all that I have….and a little ashamed that sometimes I am not grateful for what is placed before me at the dinner table.  I tell you all of this because when we drove up to the Basilica, the contrast of the poverty of the country and the opulence of the Basilica was extraordinary.  No one knows exactly how much money it cost to build the Basilica but the materials were of the finest quality from all the important places in Europe.  Besides its grandiose size, it just really seems out of place in the middle of Africa! We celebrated Mass at the Basilica and I concelebrated with some of the other Marianist priests….yes it was beautiful, but it just did not sit right with me.  We received a tour after Mass where we the history of the place was explained…our tour guide was excellent and was quite a character!  After Mass and the tour we all ate at a local restaurant and enjoyed one another’s company.  After lunch we traveled to another building built by the same “late” president.  This building was just as grandiose as the Basilica and looked like it was hardly used at all.  Again, for me, if the building was necessary to conduct business I would be okay with investing money in a building that functions to meet the needs of the people and the government, but it clearly looked like this building was underutilized and was a monument to a man who liked big things!

Basilica of Our Lady of Peace

Yes, this is in Africa!

The columns show how big this place is!

The Sanctuary of the Basilica

Stained Glass at the Enhance.  Unlike St. Peter's, this place is filled with stain glass in all the windows... really quite beautiful

A wooden carving of the Pieta

 

December 28^th was the day that both my Provincial, Marty, and I presented at the program.  We were informed of the topic of the presentation prior to arriving in Abidjan and so I spent a good few days gathering material, creating a presentation, making copies of handouts and producing reflection questions for the Brothers to use for personal reflection and discussion.  So, I arrived ready to go….and then we found out that we were not given the full topic for presentation! So, the few days prior to our presentation, during my free time, I re-organized one of my presentations and then created a different presentation for my last presentation.  Yes, when teaching, one must always be ready with Plan B!  Well despite the miscommunication, the presentations went very well and they were very well received….we may even expand our presentations into a weekend meeting and take our presentations on the road!  So, the reason for my attending the program was a success and it was well worth the sacrifice. 

On December 29^th we had a day of retreat.  It was a quiet day, and a day especially for the 10 Brothers who will profess Perpetual Vows on December 30^th, to get ready for the reality of this important celebration.  The Brothers are from Togo, the Congo, Ivory Coast, Kenya and Malawi.  In the morning of the retreat, the electricity and water stopped working.  Both water and electricity was finally restored about 5 hours later…this is a common occurrence in Africa…again, this reality teaches one patience and to always be flexible.  To be prepared for this to happen again, I filled a bucket with water in the event that the electricity goes out before I had to shower again in the morning….I am getting a little accustomed to tepid showers, but I am looking forward to a nice hot shower when I return to the US!

Well the day finally arrived…the last day of the program and the perpetual vows of 10 of our Brothers.  The ceremony was held in the Shrine of our Lady of Africa that the Marianists have administered for many years.  We all packed our bags, boarded vans and busses and made our way closer to the city of Abidjan.  The trip took about 45 minutes through a great deal of traffic.  Well, let me say, the Mexicans have nothing on the Africans when it comes to driving…it’s difficult to figure out what the laws are and who has the right of way? Once again….Hail Mary, full of grace….

We arrived at the Shrine a few minutes early and had some time to look around.  There is a devotional area outside of the Church that it dedicated to silence and prayer.  It was amazing how many people were there at 9:30 in the morning.  This was a place of quiet and refuge in the midst of a crowded and noisy city…again, the contrast here in Africa always amazes me.

Shrine of Our Lady of Africa

Garden and Statue to Our Lady of Africa

Sanctuary of the Church

Marianists who worked at the Shrine during the past years

Well, the ceremony was ready to begin very close to 10am.  All of the Marianist brothers and priests, and the brothers preparing to profess final vows processed into the Church to a song of great joy….the choir and the people sang and clapped to the music. I really liked this part of the ritual.  Usually in the US, only those professing vows process in to the Church and usually the members of the community are scattered throughout the Church.  I really liked that we were all together, really together to celebrate this important day for the life of our brothers and for the life of the larger Marianist community.  There were many other religious brothers and sisters from other communities there.  All the people sang, danced and clapped.  Several sisters let out in a high pitch shrill similar to what we would know from Native American Indians.  It is a sign of reverence and great joy…one can’t help but smile hearing the shrill of joy in the celebration of the Mass…again, we can learn a lot in the US from our African brothers and sisters.

The men professed their vows in English and in French.  After each professed vows and received their gold ring, a sign of perpetual commitment, they had to sign the book that registers this occasion and the choir sang and the people clapped and sang….what a sign of joy and welcome to the witness of these men.  The congregation would just stand up and sing and dance spontaneously as the Spirit moved them….so if you know me, you know that this is my kind of Church!  The Brothers were part of the procession of the Offertory and they processed in to the Church carrying candles, incense, flowers, an altar cloth and the bread and wine.  They actually danced in to the Church…it was beautiful! More singing, more dancing, more shrilling, more joy, so much so that the Mass lasted 3 hours!!!!! Yes, it was longer than the Easter Vigil, and believe me, it was hot as hell in there!!!! But….the joy carried us to the end.  After Communion one of the Brothers from Togo came up to the ambo and read some reflections and words of gratitude.  At several points in his speech, he had the community saying Amen…all the brothers in the program looked at me….so I guess I did have some influence in Africa! After the Mass we celebrated outside in the backyard of the local community.  There must have been close to 300 people at this celebration.  The food and drink was plenty.  The newly finally professed brothers (10 men representing 7 countries in Africa) cut the cake and popped the corks of champagne. Needless to say, the music continued and so did the dancing.  I was forced to get up and dance myself and show the Africans that white men can dance….I think I will appear  on YouTube somewhere in Africa! Those who were leaving on the 30^th were taken to one of our communities closer to the airport to rest and get refreshed before our flight back to the US.  This time, I was quite happy to have a cool shower….my clothes were very wet! 

All I can say is, what a wonderful trip.  It was a great week, filled with many joyous moments and many surprises.  It was a week of brotherhood, of challenges, of humility, of joy, of learning, of influencing and being influenced, of giving and of receiving.  I am hoping that this is not my last trip to Africa, but the first of many more to come.  What a way to prepare for a new year! The trip back to the US was long and arduous as well. I flew from Abidjan to Paris (6.5 hours), Paris to Atlanta (9.5 hours), Atlanta to Saint Louis (1.5 hours) with time in between for customs, immigration and the like.  Once again, it will take time for my body to recover! Wishing all of you a joyous, healthy, and prosperous New Year.  And let the Church say….Amen!