Marathon

The postulants and pre-novices of the men and women all left this morning between 9:00 and 10:00. Then Joe Nguyen arrived from Watsonville to work on his MA project. I joined him in the library, and we worked steadily from 10:00 am to 9:00 pm, with only a brief break for dinner, which we had at Ristorante Raphael on Center Street.

The project is mainly finished. There are a lot of things that need fine-tuning, but if Joe can get hand it in before the end of next week, he stands a chance of having the work approved and of graduating in May.

Actually, I like what he's coming up with, complicated as it is… but I have to admit that I've been very close to the process, and I don't see the errors any more. I'm hoping that the other two professors will be constructive in that area. On the other hand, I've learned so much about the Vietnamese culture, especially the religious culture, by working with him through this. When he finishes I would like to see his work distributed among the Salesians of the province so that they can come to understand the reality that the Vietnamese immigrants and their children face in terms of their faith development.

But at this point there are still some hurdles to jump for Joe and his MA Project. I keep my fingers crossed for him.

Almost raining

The Intersession period comes to an end today, and there is a certain buzz of activity as students try to complete their registrations for the new semester. The GTU Library, which has been empty for much of the month, was very busy and noisy this afternoon, as was the GTU bookstore.

In terms of the Salesian intersession program, Mary Greenan completed teaching the "Mother Mazzarello" course today. With that, the prenovices and postulants making their last visit to the classrooms of Salesian High School Richmond. After that experience, the Salesian Sisters invited their postulants to go to San Francisco for a day of sight-seeing and visiting of the Salesian parishes as well… On this side of the Bay we have had thick mist and drizzling… Who knows what kind of day it will have been in the City.

In any case, people are about ready for the new semester to begin. It has been a long inter-semester break, and many students and professors that I know are antsy to get the new term underway.

That will all start on Monday.

Saga of the garage door continues on the feast of St Francis de Sales

Today the final chapter of the garage door. A technician from Madden Doors arrived at 8:30 in the morning to install the new garage door for the Arch Street Building. He was all alone and had to assemble the sections and mount them. He worked at this until about 2:30 in the afternoon. But now the door is finally finished, and more sturdy than the previous door. Also, at the top panel there are three opaque windows that allow light to come into the garage. It makes the area less of a cave.

So three cheers for Madden Doors. For the first time in nearly a month we are able to close off the area and secure the house.

In the afternoon, the group of Salesian Sisters' postulants and SDB prenovices came to DSPT for a look around. I did the tour-guide job, and brought them through all the nooks and crannies of our new school. They had a lot of questions, and I think that they are beginning to have an inkling that our work at Don Bosco Hall has a larger contest. And it was fun. I mean, I learned how to be a "tour guide" at the Catacombs when I was 25. I guess I love that role.

Well, okay, let's not talk about the catacombs now… Bringing this Salesian sister group through the theology school was an opportunity to let them understand that there are other ways of doing formation than the little in-house courses.

Memories of Januaries past

This morning I had a conversation with a high-school classmate of mine, Vic Suarez, who is now vice-principal of our alma mater, St Francis School in Watsonville. He told me that the kids are beginning a week of celebrations for the feast of Don Bosco, and that the day will culminate with a mass with Bishop Sylvester Ryan, the outgoing bishop of Monterey, and Bishop Garcia, the new bishop.

Well, the conversation brought back memories of those precious days when we were students St Francis. I always loved January best… that is after the semester exams, which terrified me.

Yes, exams! When we'd walk out of the exams Vic Suarez (who was a 4.0 student) would begin asking me how I answered this or that question… I'd break out in a cold sweat because I could never remember any of the questions that he used to bring up. Years later, when I read Harry Potter and would see Hermione asking Ron Weasley and Harry Potter about "how did you answer the question about…", it reminded me of our high school exams, Vic Suarez, cold sweat and all.

After exam week we'd have a week-long retreat. I absolutely loved it. A whole week with great preachers (in 1963 Fr Joseph Costanzo came from San Francisco; in 1964 Fr Arthur Brainard came from Richmond). These dynamic Salesians totally inspired me then. But I also remember the retreats as an opportunity to spend some intimate time with a great spiritual book from our musty library collection. During my freshman year I read the life of John XXIII (A Man Named John, by Alden Hatch) and still have great visual and sensory memories of sitting under the red woods on the slope leading down to Kelly Lake to read that book in the afternoons.

And after the retreat, with the souvenir card, we had the three-day feast of Francis de Sales and John Bosco, from 29 to 31 January. In 1966 many Salesians came for the three days -- priests and brothers. I can still see in my memory the concelebration with 22 priests. I was so amazed by that, and thought the church was really moving forward! Roger Luna had composed a special mass, and I remember Vic Tousignant was the thurifer… Why do I remember Vic Tousignant being the thurifer that year? I don't know, but incense just seemed to sum up the solemnity of that wonderful feastday in my teenage mind, I suppose. Well, I also remember all the melodies and antiphons that Fr Roger taught us.

The feast of Don Bosco would feature an afternoon banquet, and all the students were expected to dress formally in suit and tie. The food that day was always tremendous: Italian style (but being Italian, I didn't even recognize that this was special until my classmates ooed and awed over the Lasagne and the Rosemary Chicken, and the gelato for dessert. Finally, we would end the feast with an "academia" in the evening: an entertainment prepared by the students that featured musical, poetic, comic and artistic presentations.

Photo: Feast of St John Bosco, 31 January 1966, at St Francis Watsonville

January and the Salesian feasts! That was always a wonderful time for me as a kid in the 1960s. I hope that the young people in our schools and parishes are having a similarly wonderful experience in 2007!

Intersession and guests

The postulants of the Salesian Sisters arrived this afternoon, joining the prenovices of the Salesians who have been here in Berkeley for one week already. The young people will be participating in a course on the figure and spirituality of St Mary Mazzarello, taught by Sr Mary Greenan. Somehow linked with this course will be the experience of visiting classes and students at Salesian High School in Richmond.

Now, I am not sure how the course on Mother Mazzarello relates to doing vocation talks in the high school, but in point of fact Sr Mary Greenan must teach classes all week long in Richmond, and so it is easier for her to host the course there in the Salesian Residence. Of course she is eager to let the Sisters' postulants experience the high school, and so all this has been put together. However it will work out, I'm sure that our guests will enjoy the experience and benefit from it, as I hope will the students at Salesian.

New movie of Don Bosco now in English

Tonight I discovered that the DVD version of "Don Bosco" is coming out in English. I've seen the made-for-TV film in Italian. It came out as a mini-series in September 2004. It is absolutely excellent. I have the copy in Italian that I brought over last year and have been waiting to hear if it would come out in English (since it was actually filmed in English). Now I have preordered a copy from Ignatius Press here in San Francisco and am looking forward to its arrival.

From what I have seen in the blurb at Ignatius Press, the DVD has the Italian and English soundtracks, with subtitles in English or Spanish. Like I say, the Italian version is excellent, excellent. It is far better than the 1988 movie of Don Bosco with Ben Gazzara. Flavio Insinna does an excellent job as a very believable Don Bosco. The kids are believable too: Michele Rua, Giovanni Cagliero, Giuseppe Buzzetti are all portrayed in ways that mirror what we know of their actual characters as kids (each went on to do great things as adults in the Salesian cause). There are also some characters of boys that sum up troubled youth: "Bruno" is a character of this type, and done with exceptional delicacy. And Domenico Savio also shows up to interact with Don Bosco and the other (older) boys. Don Cafasso and Mamma Margaret both play significant roles in the story, as does the Marchesa Barolo. And there are hard issues to deal with as well: the Archbishop of Turin's attempts to curtail the Salesian work, and the antagonism of the Italian government.

Finally, let me say that I found this film "Don Bosco" not only excellent but totally moving, and normally I am very critical of attempts to portray Don Bosco in the popular media.

Remembering involvements

Several years ago I had a lot of contact with the Cooperator units and other groups of the Salesian Family. In fact, from 2003 to 2005, I served as coordinator of the Salesian Family Groups in California. The experience was exhilarating, if truth be told. The upshot was that I learned much about the workings of many of the groups. This experience has helped me in my teaching at Berkeley, but also in these workshops such as SLIM, that we celebrated this weekend in Bellflower.

SMS 2007

On Friday I flew down from the Bay Area to LAX again, this time to help facilitate a weekend of ongoing formation for adults from Salesian parishes and youth centers. The weekend (called SMS) began this morning and continues all day tomorrow and until early afternoon on Monday, 15 January. My task today was to be part of group discussions; tomorrow I'll give the main presentations of the morning and the early afternoon.

(Judy Alvarez and Al Vu animate a group discussion period of the afternoon program)

SMS is another acronym for our alphabet soup of programs out of Don Bosco Hall and the Youth Ministry folks of the province. It means "Salesian Ministry Seminar". We started SMS in 2005 but last year it did not get off the ground (or so I am told). This year we have 30 participants. Facilitating the weekend are Judy Alvarez, Mel Trinidad, Al Vu, Gael Sullivan and myself. I'll try to post more on this tomorrow.

Student services and such

Am at DSPT today, catching up on things. A few people are around, but it is rather peaceful too. A couple of my students will come in to go over their study plans and such. One of the students is working on his language requirements (Italian) while the other is working on his research readiness with an eye toward choosing a theme for his MA thesis. Both are first-year MA students and among the younger, lay students of DSPT. It is good to see them so ready for their theology studies.

More planning meetings this afternoon in Richmond for ongoing formation among the laity of the Salesian province. Tomorrow I make another trip to southern California for a formation weekend for parish leaders. That too is exciting. The requests for formative experiences becomes more intense with each passing year! I never thought I would be doing this sort of ongoing, adult education. No, I'm the kid who could not read aloud in class: how did I ever settle into education as a career??? It is amazing, really.

Teacher retreat

Spent the day at Salesian High School Richmond, where the faculties and staffs of Salesian High School and St Francis High School (Watsonville) came together for a day of retreat and sharing. I was asked to give the main input and to facilitate the day together with members of the administration of Salesian High.

About 80 people participated. The day seemed to have gone well. There was a lot of enthusiasm on the part of the teachers. The group from Watsonville brought new vitality, and the crowd from Salesian brought a sense of belonging.

Oh, the theme that I was asked to present to the teachers and staff? The roots of Salesian spirituality in St Francis de Sales and Don Bosco.

The second semester begins for both schools tomorrow.

We home

Yesterday we said our goodbyes to Sal and Andrea and Little Landon Lee at 9:00 in the morning, and then mom and I went to Savio for Sunday Mass. I was asked to preach, which I did. This was an easy task in that the liturgy was of the Epiphany, and what else have we been thinking about all weekend???

Met Mario and Diane after mass with Mom and Diane's mom Alice Armijo, and went to breakfast at Carrows.

During breakfast I caught up on the news about Mario and Diane's children: John starts a new job today; Angela has a promotion from Parks and Rec of Bellflower and is doing well in school, although she cannot give her time completely to this because of the need to care for her baby Luke; Teresa is three-units short of getting a qualification as a physician's assistant. So, with Carrow's usual amazing omelets, we had a quiet and happy visit.

After all that, I brought Mom back home and then got back in the car and started the drive back up the Interstate 5 to Berkeley, getting back safely… that was last night.

This week there are a few things to do, like a retreat for teachers in Richmond, and meeting with students at DSPT. Onward we go into 2007.

Epiphany

Epiphany!

According to the liturgical calendar, the feast will be celebrated on 7 January this year. According to the Nuzzo Family, we celebrate it on the first Saturday of the New Year so that we can all get together. So today, 6 January 2007, we are celebrating the 12th Day of Christmas together: the descendants of Salvatore Nuzzo and Maria Zito.

In days gone-by our family always gathered on Christmas Eve, first at the house of my grandparents Salvatore and Maria, and then, from 1960 to 1989, at the house of my parents John and Concetta (Nuzzo) Boenzi. There was always a great turnout on Christmas Eve, and we always celebrated by preparing the traditional, meatless meal.

But after the death of the grandparents, the families gathered more locally on Christmas Eve. Paula Nuzzo Radosevich gathered the Nuzzo branch at her house; Rose (Cookie) Kasal Harris gathered the Kasal branch at hers; Mario and Diane Boenzi gathered the Boenzi branch at there home in Cerritos. And the Gray Family had moved to Reno, and celebrated in their own way… we all but lost touch with them, really.

Still, all the cousins missed the gathering. At Cookie's instigation, we resolved to meet once a year and celebrated anything together, and that carried us through the summer of 1990, after Papa Salvatore's death, until 2001. But there was something about the holiday season that we didn't want to miss, so in 2002, the gathering day has been Epiphany at the home of Paula (Nuzzo) and Ken Radosevich in Temecula…

This is how the Nuzzo extended family in California has come to make Epiphany central to our life as family. Paula did all she could to research the customs, and bakes the King Cake… Paula and Ken also irritate all their Anglo neighbors by keeping up all their Christmas decorations till now… but then, everyone in the family still has their homes decorated in Christmas theme till now, so Paula? Let your Anglo neighbors feel as uncomfortable as they want. It is Epiphany! It is still Christmas!

And so, for the Nuzzo Clan, Epiphany has become a great day for family: lots of fun, lots of chaos, lots of time together. The day goes quickly since there are so many people to visit with, stories to recap, and all the catching up that goes into it.

We are just back from the celebration now, and uploading our photos before going off to sleep… but then, the neighbors are having a wild party here, and we may not get to sleep any time soon.

Epiphany photos

Somehow the Epiphany parties always have a ritual commemoration of my grandfather, Salvatore Nuzzo. It was the year of his death (1990) that we started to gather as cousins… and somewhere along the years cousin Bill Kasal decided that the way to remember his grandfather was by passing out cigars and making Manhattans.


Cousins-in-law Big Bill Kasal and Ken Radosevich savor a good Havan Cigar brought over from Russia by Duane Harris… Cigars are always to be smoked at the Epiphany party since Bill's grandfather Salvatore Nuzzo was an ardent cigar-smoker till he was 93. At 94 he lost his taste for cigars, but that's another story.

Epiphany photos

Andrea Boenzi with Michele Nuzzo (at left) in the living room of the Radosevich home… a bit away from the roaring crowd. The two take some time to get better acquainted halfway through the evening. The two second cousins really don't have a chance to see much of each other outside of Epiphany since Andrea lives in Tucson with her son Landon, and Michele lives on the West side of Los Angeles where she also works as a professional writer and editor.

Of all the Nuzzo Clan, Michele is the one who still lives close to the place where the family first arrived in California: Los Angeles.


Here (at right) are Curtis Henderson and wife Maria Kasal at the Epiphany party. Their older children Danielle and Jeffrey were not able to attend, but young son Michael was present and enjoying himself with his cousins.

In the photo on the left, hostess Paula Nuzzo Radosevich together with her cousin Tina Kasal McMillian and her sister Donna Nuzzo Meehan discuss scouting, raising children and puppies, and all other important issues that go into Epiphany conversations.

Arrival from Tucson

This evening Sal and his daughter Andrea with her son Landon arrived, by car, from Tucson. They have come to my mom's house for the same purpose as I have: to celebrate the last days of Christmas. Tomorrow we go to Temecula together for the cousin reunion.

Driving in the driving rain

Although I'd planned an early departure, it was pouring rain this morning in Berkeley… I checked the forecasts on Accuweather, which showed the rain to be confined to the northern part of the state, and so I started south on I-5. Instead, the rain followed right through. It got so bad at the Grapevine that I nearly pulled into a motel. That was at 3:45. I filled the tank with gas and the sky seemed to break open, so I continued south. Big mistake. It took me three hours to do the last 90 miles.

But all was not loss. The news today was interesting. The swearing in of Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House was the main attraction on KCSB and then on KNX (Los Angeles) radio news. Here we are: the first woman Speaker in US History, who is also the first Californian as Speaker, and the first Italian-American. All those elements came into play today in the news, as well as her being a mother and a grandmother: "from the kitchen to the congress," she said. Evviva, Signora Pelosi!

Do I want to drive to L.A. again? As I was making my way through the darkness and the rain, I thought that it is better to fly if only to avoid the L.A. traffic. A trip from the airport to Bellflower on the Green Line of the light rail train is so much easier, and so much faster.

Okay, this sounds like a great resolution for the new year! I'm sure United Airlines will be happy too.

Getting back to work… almost

(Image of Bro Tom Mass and Fr Joseph Nguyen-Duc-Thinh at St Francis, Watsonville)

Yesterday afternoon one of my students, Joseph Nguyen, arrived from Watsonville with the first three chapters of his thesis. The two of us spent over an hour going over the details of these chapters in the evening after supper. He is at a good stage, and he and I are both hopeful that he'll be able to hand in his work by the middle of the month.

Meanwhile, yesterday I also completed correcting all the research papers for the Church History course that I taught during the Fall Semester at GTU for the DSPT. Today I went back to my office at the school and registered my grades after going through all the papers one more time. The procedure took me nearly three hours, but I'm happy that I've been thorough in the correction. Hopefully it will be of some use to the students, even if they have already completed the course. Anyway, grades are due in two days, so I've ended with plenty of time.

After lunch I was able to bring Fr Rafael Borges around the GTU and for a visit to DSPT. Rafale is on the pastoral team of the Salesian Regional Ongoing Formation Center (CRFP) of Quito. I've known Rafael for 9 years, and have met him on different occasions at Salesian meetings of the Interamerica Region. I also had the opportunity to spend a good deal of time with him during the month I stayed in his home province of Venezuela (July 2001). Now he is interested in renewing contact between CRFP Quito and ISS Berkeley. Happily, I was able to introduce him to Michael Sweeney, president of DSPT, as well as to Scott Connolly and Pete McLeod who both work on the administration and planning core of the school. The visit was quick, friendly… and now we are planning a more intense visit and exchange next July.

Interesting stuff for the first day back at work, eh?

World Day of Peace

Why I set my alarm for 7:00 am on New Year's day is still making me wonder!!! Well, that is two hours later than my usual rising, so I must have thought I was going to have a long sleep when I was setting my clock yesterday (last year).

Providentially, the 7:00 news started with the voice of Benedict XVI, who wished a happy new year and peace to everyone (in English). He said that peace begins with a "sacred respect for every person and the firm repudiation of war and violence".

Well, on that note I rose to say Happy New Year to 2007.

At the 9:00 am community mass I was the principal celebrant. We used Christmas carols and psalms to begin the communal worship and prayer. I was struck by how the prescribed readings are truly about Peace on this first day of the year. I mean, these reading have been set since 1970, but it was the first time that they ever struck me so clearly. And so after mass I tried to find the pope's discourse for this morning. I found excerpts online, and will check the Vatican website later in the week when the full text will be posted. For now I note that Benedict XVI spoke about peace in this way today:

Today, there is a lot of talk about human rights but often it is forgotten that these need a stable foundation, not a relative one, not one subject to opinion. And this cannot be anything but the dignity of the person. Respect for this dignity starts with the recognition and the protection of the right to live and to freely profess one's own religion.

[Photo of Peace pole at the house of our neighbor,
the Pacific School of Religion
at the
Graduate Theological Union]