Exam week over and O Antiphons sung

Exam week at GTU was slated to be 11-15 December… It is the week when all the students have to get their papers completed if they do not have written or oral examinations as requirements for the end of their courses. In some cases, professors require both. Many classes do not meet during that week. Since I have not been giving examinations but requiring a paper and a class presentation, I usually do hold class during the final week of the semester.

It seems to me that all the class presentations went well in Church History. The Francis de Sales course also went very well, as the participation of the students was greater than I had ever experienced while teaching at DSPT and ISS. It reminds me of the great participation that I experienced last year while teaching at the UPS. In fact, I used the same style of presentation this year as I did in Rome last year, and it seems to have worked very well. But more of that later.

This week I need to complete the correction of the research papers even as our community at Don Bosco Hall spends most of the time decorating and preparing for the holiday. I really haven't completed the Fall Semester work, however, and I've tried to make that understood at the house. Even so, I participated in the house meeting this morning at 9.00 before going over to DSPT at 10.00 and downloading the research papers that my Church History students sent to me over the weekend as e-mail attachments.

Now to work.

Meanwhile, the liturgy keeps moving us to think of the coming feast of Christmas. I presided at the Eucharist this morning and we sing the second «O Antiphon» at Evening Prayer tonight: O Adonai!

O sacred Lord of ancient Israel,
who showed yourself to Moses in the burning bush,
who gave him the holy law on Sinai mountain:
come, stretch out your mighty hand to set us free.

Birthday celebrating the duke

Duke (Le Van Duoc) turned 26 on 8 December, but with all the celebrations for the Immaculate Conception and for the closing of term, we didn't have a chance to celebrate him. Tonight, then, we had a birthday party for him.

Duke first starting coming around to Don Bosco Hall 8 years ago, when he was a senior in high school and a member of the Vietnamese youth group at St Anthony's parish in Oakland. When he began university, on scholarship at Cal Berkeley, he began to drop by more often, since our house is a block north of the University. He told us tonight how one of the young Salesians invited him to come for mass and dinner on December 8th that year. He had no idea that was a feast day, and was surprised by the party that we held that night… he never told us that it was also his birthday, because his family never celebrated Duke's birthday (they only celebrated his younger sisters and brother's birthdays). Still, it was the first time that he ever celebrated on his birthday, and was inspired to learn that he shared the day with the Immaculate Virgin Mary.

During his sophomore year at Cal he moved in with us at Don Bosco Hall… and we celebrated his birthday every year. "This is the place," he said tonight, "where I first celebrated my birthday, and I am grateful that it is with you that I can continue to celebrate year after year."

This may be his last birthday with us. Last month he finally landed a full-time and solid job, working in the computer support services of the University of California. He got his first good paycheck on the 30th of November. With this he will be able to pay of his family's debts within the next year, and start to put money aside to assure that his three younger siblings can go to college. He may not stay with us much longer. But Duke is a gentle presence, and we are happy that he can call Don Bosco Hall his home. He's welcome to stay with us as long as he wants to really.

Happy birthday, Duke!

Things calming down

The last two months have been particularly busy for me, and this is because I have been teaching on weekdays and traveling on weekends to do workshops and retreats and other presentations on Salesian themes… It has been challenging but very enjoyable too as I have had a chance to share with a lot of people -- mainly religious and young adults -- on the Salesian spirit and mentality. And I learn from all these encounters as well.

Naturally, it has meant that when I'm back in Berkeley I have to work doubly to catch up on all the normal commitments, from class preparation to laundry! Now finally the journeys are over and I think I can try to pull things together for the final week of the Fall Term at both the ISS and the DSPT.

On the horizon now are publications: Aldo writes that Arthur’s three-volume historical survey, Don Bosco Builder, has received an enthusiastic reception at Salesian headquarters, at the UPS, and at the University press (the LAS). Locally, Tom Prendiville and Ralph Murphy are in the final stages of editing the 14th volume of the Journal of Salesian Studies. I've got an article in this next issue, so I'm excited about this.

Rainy days and Mondays

It is raining in Berkeley - and from what I can see through my accuweather widget, it is also raining in Rome. And it is the same temperature: 14°. How interesting is that?

We had the end of semester celebration at DSPT, with the Mass for the feast of the Immaculate Conception, and the dinner party afterwards. Eleven Salesians participated: almost as many as all the Dominicans present… and it was a nice gathering. That's thanks to Scott Connolly, who knows how to bring people together.

Now there is one more week to the semester. I need to think of how I'm going to approach the next semester, with taking 6 weeks in Rome somehow along the way. Maybe I'm taking on too many things and I'll have to cut back somewhere. Hmm… this will take some thought.

But tonight, as I get ready for sleep, I can hear the rain pounding on the aluminum windowsill and I know that Rome and Berkeley are at one, if not in thought, at least in climatic conditions on this 8th December.

Ending first semester with prenovices

Got back from Bellflower tonight: the last of six classes in church history that I taught to the Salesian Sisters postulants and the Salesian prenovinces. Mary Greenan taught seven eight classes in the series.

The travel up and down the coast has been a bit much twice a month… but it has been interesting being able to interact with those in initial formation. After class today we had a very open and deep conversation.

But more on this later.

The Fall Semester here in Bekeley is coming to a quick close. My students in church history are already giving their class presentations, and we are wrapping things up in the course on Francis de Sales as well. I have a sense that both courses have been going well. Thank God!

Advent is here

Phone calls to Edmonton, a lot of memories.

It is a little odd that I continue to write this blog about being in Rome when, in fact, I'm now back in Berkeley. Yet, I am still attached to the theology faculty at the UPS and I definitely will be returning to Rome in March and May to teach a six-week course. How will this all work out? I confess that I am confused about it, but at this point it seems important for me and for the community in Berkeley to keep the Roman connection vital.

Meet me in St Louis, Louis

Okay, so here I am again, at the Visitation Monastery in St Louis. I'm here to do a retreat with the sisters as they prepare for the annual renewal of the vows. The renewal takes place on the feast of the Presentation every year.

To come here I had to cancel one of my classes with the Church history group… but I had agreed to help the sisters with this last Spring. They had called it a weekend, and of course I didn't realize that it was a weekend that extended into Monday. Even so, it seems to have gone well.

I've also learned more about the girls who frequent the school of the Visitation here, and of their projects for outreach into the community. Some of the older sisters who no longer teach are most active with these girls in these volunteer projects. The young people seem most responsive; the sisters are most hopeful that the best Christian values are transmitted through these experiences among the poor and needy of St Louis.

Well, it is Sunday afternoon. I have one more conference and a homily tomorrow morning, and I had better get my ideas together for this.

Ian Murdoch's proposal

On Saturday night Ian Murdoch arrived from Washington DC. I had a long conversation with him during an afternoon walk to Peets Coffee shop.

Bart to the airport

This morning Aldo Giraudo completed the last details with Arthur for the publication of his study on Don Bosco. At noon I accompanied Aldo to the San Francisco airport by way of the Bart. We got there at 13.35, checked him in and had some lunch. He was very encouraged that Arthur's writings will be a major contribution for Salesian studies and formation.

Along the route to SFO we spoke of my possible transfer to Rome. My concern has always been that provision be made to keep the ISS in Berkeley in a position to develop. However, I honestly wonder if I have anything else to contribute here. It may well be time for me to go, and let the Salesians of Calfornia provide the ISS with new instructors. What is absolutely necessary is that the Salesians here provide a support staff. Mary Greenan and I have been doing all aspects of program development and hospitality. We (or I) cannot keep doing all the house and business aspects and still deepen the study and reflection pieces.

Well, I was left with these thoughts once Aldo went through security and into the departure lounge of the international terminal. I headed back to Berkeley on the Bart. When I got home, Mary Greenan was cooking dinner, because our cook Marilu could not make it to work today. Point demonstrated: how does Mary prepare materials and deepen the programs if it is she who has to make the beds and cook the dinners too.

The California province of the Salesians needs to move from lip-service to real support of the ISS and Don Bosco Hall. Unless they do, then I will definitely make plans to move to Roma.

BTW, the dinner was excellent: pizza!

Long week - mission accomplished

Aldo completed a long week with Arthur putting his writing in order and preparing it for publication.

Arthur's research has been ongoing since 1981, when he was part of a team of three Salesians who left Don Bosco Hall to go to Rome to study Salesian Spirituality at the Salesian Pontifical University. The other two Salesians, Tomás Juárez and John Itzaina, had been designated as members of the formation team for the theology students of the San Francisco province; Arthur had been teaching Sacred Scripture since 1953, and since 1975 attempting to complete his doctorate in Sacred Scripture with the Jesuits at Berkeley. However, the Salesian general council was attempting to take initial formation in the direction of more-in-depth grounding in Salesian spirit and praxis. Thus, when Arthur, Tom and John left Berkeley in 1981 to go to Rome, Don Bosco Hall was temporarily closed and our theology students farmed out to the Eastern USA province.

Upon Arthur's return from Rome in 1983, he began to put together a plan for ongoing formation in Salesian fundamentals. He designed the program that would become the basis for the Institute of Salesian Studies (ISS), and this began at Don Bosco Hall in 1984. Since that time Arthur has done serious research into the life and works of the Founder (Don Bosco), and has taught core courses at the ISS. The content of what has been 21 years of Arthur's teaching forms the corpus of the work that Aldo Giraudo is now working to have published.

"No one else in the Salesian world has developed so systematic a presentation of Don Bosco's life and work as has Arthur Lenti," Aldo told me today. "We need to get this into print and spread around to English-speaking Salesians. We also need to think of how to translate this work into the major languages used in the Salesian world."

I was very encouraged my Aldo's enthusiastic report, as was Mary Greenan and Tom Prendiville. And Aldo has been hard at it all week, helping Arthur to put his writings into a publishable form. We celebrated the accomplishments of this very busy week by going out for an American dinner at Pyramid's Brewery: Aldo, Mary Greenan and I.

Aldo and Arthur and the Publishers

Aldo Giraudo has been working with Arthur Lenti pretty non-stop since Saturday morning… well, that is after Thien Nguyen and I intervened on Arthur's IMac, which had gone on the blink. I was able to extract all of Arthur's files, which I saved and backed up, and then Thien reformatted the hard disk. The computer then began to merrily purr away, and we reloaded all his working documents.

That took up most of Saturday morning.

With the computer in shape again, Arthur and Aldo went to work. They ordered the outlay of the material; put system to the titles and subtitles; disposed of the graphics. Arthur is jubilant, and Aldo is convinced that the first four volumes of Arthur's work can go to print in the Spring of 2007. Thanks to Aldo, the funding is also in place: €20,000 from the Salesian Mission Procure in Torino. It is all very exciting.

This afternoon, while Arthur was correcting some student papers, I brought Aldo to see the GTU and particularly DSPT. He was very impressed. Now he has a better idea of our context, and will be able to speak up for us a little more assuredly, knowing our context and situation.

Aldo's arrival

Although I checked the internet for the arrival of British Airways flight 287 from London to San Francisco, and the airline website listed the flight as "on time"… well, it was not really the case.

As I have been doing lately, I dropped the car at the BART parking lot in North Berkeley, and took the light rail BART to the San Francisco Airport. I arrived at 15.45 for the 16.12 scheduled arrival, only to discover that the flight would be 50 minutes late. No matter. I had my IPOD (best investment in ages) and was happy to listen to podcasts on the subject of Harry Potter while I waited for Aldo's arrival. He finally showed up at 17.40. We made the easy walk to the BART station at the SFO International Terminal, and by 17.50 we were on a train heading for Berkeley;

The conversation was very interesting, and I was happy to be speaking Italian. Aldo caught me up on all the initiatives and politics of the UPS, of the Formation Department at the Salesian Generalate, and on individual friends of ours. My questions about the ISS of Berkeley and the Spirituality Faculty of the University remain the same as ever. I don't think there is a clear "better" or "worse" in all this. If I go back to Rome it will depend on my own decision, and not particular need.

We arrived back at Don Bosco Hall at 20.00. I warmed up a little supper and we continued our conversation. Then we paid a visit to Arthur Lenti, who was very happy to see Aldo… but Arthur's IMac was giving him problems, so Tho Bui was working on it as Aldo and Arthur discussed their work schedule for the next few days. The exciting thing is that Aldo has secured €20,000 to publish the first four volumes of Arthur's opus. This is a first!

Birthday busyness

Have just got back from the dentist: gift to myself was having my teeth cleaned. In a few minutes I will be off to the San Francisco airport to pick up Aldo Giraudo, a Salesian professor from the UPS who will spend some days with us helping to put Arthur Lenti's writings in order.

The big event of this week has been the planning for the 2007 National Salesian Conference.

At our meetings, the organizing committee (headed by John Graden OSFS and Joanne Kinney) expressed the desire to have some Don Bosco Salesians on next summer’s program. Mary Greenan is being invited to give a keynote; Joe Caporaso (Salesian Cooperators, New Jersey) and Al Vu (SDBs California) are being asked to give workshops.

To me this is very exciting. The organizing committee is really making a positive effort to include Don Bosco’s side of Salesian Spirituality. Until now there has been more efforts to bring in Jane de Chantal and Francis de Sales, almost in an historical way. However, since I have been connected with this group (starting in 1998), they have been more and more fascinated with the Don Bosco approach. This is good. I mean, it is a "National Salesian Conference", but the Don Bosco people are never part of it. If we don't start participating in the efforts to articulate Salesian spirituality and pastoral practice, mainline Catholicism in the USA may take the name Salesian away from us.

So I'm also very happy that Mary Greenan and Joe Caporaso immediately said “yes” to the invitation. We will have to figure out how to attract some Cooperators and SDBs and FMAs to the conference, even if the 2007 event is in St Paul in Minnesota and therefore far from our usual populations. However, I believe that participation will be helpful to our people as well as to the larger group of people who participate in the Annual National Salesian Conference (approximately 300 people, of whom 90% are laity).

Between Seminar and Conference

The Salesian Scholars Seminar concluded this morning very nicely at breakfast, and we were able to say our goodbyes. Most of the group took off for the airport or by car during the morning. Now there is a group of us who are staying on, and a couple of more people will arrive this afternoon as we start the planning phase for next summer's National Salesian Conference. This set of meetings will go forward until Tuesday noon.

Stella in the rain

Arrived on Wednesday afternoon in good weather. It then has proceeded to rain ever since. However, we have had some interesting discussions in the first two days of our Salesian Scholars Seminar.

Yesterday we spent the whole day with Agnes presenting material on 16th and 17th century emblem books. While I've had the Gambart Emblem book for a few months now, I must say that I did not appreciate the import of the Emblem in the early decades of publishing. My ideas are starting to change as I understand the concept much better. But I'll need some tome to absorb the wealth of materials received and the very good discussions the scholars pursued afterwards.

This morning we had the papers of Jill and Trisch. Both wrote on the missionary years of Francis de Sales in the Chablais. I have found both exceptional. Our discussions were very excited too, although I took issue with the representation of Francis as trying to just uphold the institutional church. I make my reference to him as a missionary in the Jesuit tradition of Italy and not as an agent of the crown.

This afternoon we'll have the papers of Sandy, on the image of Jacob's ladder, and Paula on Francis's use of classical images taken from Pliny. Good stuff.

It is not easy for me to go online, so I will just make a quick post and revamp this later as a have an opportunity.

Salesian Scholars Seminar

Tomorrow, early, I depart for the Salesian Scholars Seminar in Stella-Niagara, and am looking forward to living between the 17th and 19th centuries for a few days.

As is the practice, each of the scholars has a paper to write and to present. The dates were set two years ago, and the theme was set 12 months ago… but as usual, it took me a long time to get my ideas in line with the theme (Images in Francis de Sales). I've been working on this during the last month, between all the other things I have going right now. Yesterday I finished the paper and sent it off to Joanne Kinney, the coordinator of the event. Joanne mailed it out electronically to all the other scholars today. And tomorrow night we begin.

Well, that's me again. I usually arrive, but always at the last minute. It used to get me into a lot of trouble when I was in college… but later I noticed that most people from Bellflower are basically this way. Still, it would have been easier on the nerves if I'd have finished the paper a month ago.

Today I've taught my class, met a couple of students in dialogue (mainly spiritual rather than academic), participated in the school mass at DSPT, lunched with Hector Cortes (another of my students), walked my 40 minutes, and now have to clean up my quarters before the big trip tomorrow. So why am I wasting time blogging all this???

Minneapolis conference

Arrived yesterday in Minneapolis and gave a presentation to the folks in the neighborhood about Salesian Spirituality in terms of Francis de Sales sense of "home" and family. Today am doing a replica in St Paul, but in the form of a retreat day. Hmm… last night went well; today is a different story.

Bit of family background: coming to America

My cousin Frank sent an e-mail about family members serving in the U.S. Military… and I was reminded of conversations that I had with my mother's father on his experience in the U.S. army during World War I.

Yes, my grandfather Salvatore Nuzzo was drafted into the US military in 1917, and served in a company of soldiers that was made up entirely of Italians. Very few of the boys in his company spoke English. As they were disembarking in France to go to the Front, the American commanders had them all stand at attention and swore them all in as American citizens. Papa told me that they read out the oath to them in English (which hardly any of them understood as they were all fresh immigrants), and then their Italian commanders instructed them to say "I do swear". Only later did someone explain to him that he had just become a U.S. citizen.

Today it is difficult for people to get visas to immigrate to the U.S.A., and once they arrive, it is difficult to work their way through the process of attaining American citizenship. It strikes me that my grandfather, Salvatore Nuzzo, was in the country less than two years when he became a citizen. What is more, he took the oath of citizenship, not on American soil, but on board a U.S. ship in a French port.

But of course the great tragedy for my grandfather at the end of the First World War was the the Spanish Influenza raged through Europe in 1918, and so my grandfather's mother and grandmother both died during the epidemic. Salvatore Nuzzo's plans had been to return home in Acerra, but after World War I and the Spanish Influenza, there was nobody home in Acerra to return to. But now he was an American citizen, so he made his life in America.

When my "Papa" explained all this to me, I found it fascinating, but also very compelling.

Rainy day schedule

Last night after I returned from southern California it began to sprinkle… and then I woke up a few time from the sound of rain on the window. This morning I walked to DSPT in the rain (so I didn't wear a suit for the first time this year).

After a 90 minute class on "Jansenism", I did the Catholic thing and had coffee and donuts in the school lobby with a few of the students. This is against my eating program, but one donut in three months is okay, I expect. The class in Jansenism went well -- there were a lot of questions today, and so my illusions of getting through the whole two-day lecture in one did not materialize. I remain one lecture behind my planned calendar, but I'm still two weeks ahead of where I normally am this point of the semester. I'm sure I'll have ways to make up the one lecture in the future.

So, yesterday I was talking about Constantine and St Athanasius; today I was talking about Angélique and Antoine Arnauld and the Jansenists at Port Royal; tomorrow I'll be speaking about Francis de Sales. For that, I'll leave early in the morning to go to Minnesota for a presentation on Salesian pastoral and spiritual teachings…

Hmm, how will that go? Time to get prepared.

Quick trip to Bellflower

Left the house at 4:30 this morning to catch a flight from Oakland to LAX… then took the light rail metro train (Greenline) to Lakewood Station at the border of Downey and Bellflower… The Salesian Sisters were to meet me, but became confused on how to get to the metro station, so I walked the mile to St Dominic Savio Parish. Good thing I've been keeping in shape. It took me only ten minutes to walk the distance.

From 9.30 to 13.00 I taught three lessons in early Church History to a group of young adults from the Salesian Sisters and the Salesians who are discerning a religious vocation…

This is the second time I've gone to Bellflower on a Wednesday to do this, and I am alternating with Mary Greenan on this project. Today the class went very well, but the time was tight for me. Immediately after the class I asked two of the young women to give me a lift to the metro station, where I took the train to LAX for the return trip to Oakland via San Francisco. At 18.40 I was walking up the hill to Don Bosco Hall… and tomorrow it is back to the regular classes.

The young people appreciate the courses we are offering them, but this commute is going to be a killer, especially in view of all the other commitments I have locally. Oh well, it is just for a semester.