Class discussions and computer issues solved

Yesterday’s class began with the worrisome sign that the cord of the computer had become too hot and begun to melt. That was on my mind from the time I woke up today, but only to work out a strategy for purchasing that same part as soon as possible. However, for today's classes, I did not need any electronic resources. This was to be an interactive day in our class.

English-speaking Asia-Asian Pacific Group

There was no need to use Power Point this morning in my Youth Spirituality course. Today was the day we had already set aside for group work on chapter two of the text by Jacques Schepens, who taught the course for 20 years before I took it up last year.

Polish-speaking Euro-Africa Group

In the beginning of the term I had expressed my hope that the students would work in groups according to the languages in which they felt most comfortable speaking. The last time we did this, some went to the Italian speaking groups because they wanted to improve their command of this language. The result was that they could not speak, and the Italians themselves were inhibited from sharing because they had to accommodate those who struggled with the tongue.

English-speaking Africa-Asia Group

After that experiment in free organization, I decided to become quite direct both yesterday and today. The point of the group discussion is that everyone have a chance to speak and to listen, I stressed. Even if people are of the same language, the variety of experience because of country of origin and apostolate mean that there will still be an opportunity to see how others work in other parts of the world.

Arabic-speaking Group (Egypt, Lebanon, Syria)

Now this little but insistent introduction had its effect. When I sent them go into groups, they did divide by languages. Two Brazilians and two Congolese joined with Italians, but that was fine since they all have been in Italy for some time and command the language very well. For the rest, we ended up with one Spanish-speaking group, two English-speaking groups, two Italian-speaking groups, one Polish group and one Arabic-speaking group. And did they ever talk! Wow! The discussions were very animated!

Italian-speaking Group (Italy-East Asian Pacific)

The class broke into seven groups today. As I say, the discussions seemed quite lively. The topic comes from the second chapter of Fr Jacques Schepens presentation on youth spirituality. That chapter, which he calls Spirituality in the Context of the Christian Religion. This is an interesting chapter, considering that he spends most of this unit on the search for God in a secularized, post-modern environment. Specifically, he examines some of the major literary and philosophical figures of the 20th century… figures such as Simone Weil (1909-1943) and Etty Hillesum (1914-1943), neither of whom entered the Church but who came to know God intimately as the Transcendent, or as vertical transcendence. The unit goes on to look at the search for transcendence (horizontal transcendence) but philosophers such as Albert Camus, Luc Ferry and André Comte-Sponville. While these and other search for Transcendence (if not meaning) in life, they also open the door to new ways of thinking of the Sacred. They are at home with Religiosity without the Church, or even of Religiosity without God. Where does that leave the Church? Where does that leave Christian educators?

Italian-speaking Group (Brazil, Congo, Ivory Coast, Romania, Italy)

The groups all grappled with these and similar issues. As the groups discussed, I went from group to group to listen in… and sometimes even to share my thoughts, when asked by the group to do so. I had no problem joining in or at least listening to those groups speaking Italian, Spanish or English. With the Polish group and the Arabic-speaking group, I simply listened to catch the expression in the voices, and watched the expression on the face of each speaker. While I did not spend a long time with each group, I saw enough to realize that each and every person participating today had read with discernment, and was ready to pronounce their considered opinion on the issues at hand.

Spanish-speaking Group (Spain & Latin America)

When the time came to cease discussion and give some feedback to the wider group, there were some who went on discussing. It was as if I was cutting them short. They got over it, and shared their impressions of the process. All seemed quite happy to go through this sharing with others. Some affirmed that these were topics that demanded a deep participation, and others noted that hearing the impressions of other readers, who may have come from a different part of the globe, was quite stimulating.

As soon as the bell rang, I was ready to dismiss the students… but a few wanted to speak with me as we left the classroom… so much so that I had to hurry to a meeting of the professors of the Spirituality Institute. We were having our monthly meeting today during the last morning class period. The entire length of the meeting was dedicated to approving (or not) thesis proposals. We have more students than professors to follow them up… but that is a chapter for another day.

A quick bite to eat, and then headed down to city center, to find the Mac store. I brought along the ruined power pack, plugged in my iPod, and caught the 90 bus for Stazione Termini. From there I walked to St Mary Major, where I found via Merulana… and then walked down the street in search of the Macstore, which is called Futura Grafica (Future Graphics).

This was the store where I purchased that last powerpack when in May 2007 I had a similar problem. When I showed the burned powerpack to the Macstore employees, they did not seem surprised. Within 30 seconds they pulled a new one from the shelf. In my conversation with them, I discovered that this is a common problem.

Well, this is the fifth time that I have had a problem with my present laptop… Damage to the hard disk has been covered by the guarantee, but as of August, the extended guarantee has run out. I need to make plans to get a new laptop in the coming year. With this in mind, I browsed through the computers on display at Futura Grafica. I purchased an upgrade of the Operating System for my desktop (Mac Leopard). A new OS is planned for 2009 (snow leopard), but no one knows when that will become available.

That's it, then. I spent 30 minutes in a different world, that of computers and technology… with my mind on things besides theology and culture. Then I started back home, anxious to catch the 90 bus before nightfall. That put me back on via Merulana, toward S. Maria Maggiore… There she was: right at the center of things. The sight of this church was enough to bring me back out of MacWorld and into Roma Caput Mundi. The trip home was relaxing and happy… It was not so bad after all that my powerpack burned the cord, because I had a little outing to a beautiful part of the city.

Santa Maria Maggiore, seen from the via Merulana