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The main impetus for this report (and for the reports prepared for the other six growth poles) is a request received from the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration. The request came within the context of on-going preparations for the 2014-2020 programming period, with energy efficiency being one the major themes of the Europe 2020 strategy, and a critical priority for all EU member countries. Within Romania, local authorities that will want to access energy efficiency funds under the 2014-2020 Regional Operational Program will need to first prepare energy efficiency strategies. The TRACE tool is specifically targeted at local authorities, and is a good instrument for drafting such strategies after the 1989 Revolution; Romania began its transition from a centralized system to a market-run economy. Today the country is a member of the European Union (EU) and NATO. After more than a decade of economic restructuring and political change, the country has taken significant steps to catch up with the economic performance of more developed EU countries. Although radical reforms brought about significant changes, the standard of living of Romanians is still behind the EU average. Cluj-Napoca (Cluj) is one of cities where such disparities are less pronounced, as the region is more developed and prosperous than most regions in the country. Cluj has developed quite well in the past few years, and it has become one of the most flourishing cities in the country, having a good growing potential. At present, the city is an important economic center, home to several local brands that have become famous nationwide as well as in Europe. Moreover, Cluj is known today as the 'capital' of the IT sector in the country, due to an aggressive expansion of this field in recent years.

This study on Bangladesh was undertaken to analyze the gender dimensions of climate change and the role of institutions in reducing gender gaps. The study was carried out in 20 sites covering 600 households, from March 2010 to May 2011, using both qualitative and quantitative instruments. This note is organized into five sections. The next section gives an overview of climate change and the gender and institutional context in Bangladesh. The third section presents the key study findings and is divided into three subsections: site- and household-specific vulnerabilities; analysis of gender dimensions of climate change using the household data and four propositions; and description of institutional challenges and gaps in supporting the resilience of women and men. Section four provides examples of adaptation programs in Bangladesh, and section five provides recommendations for enhancing gender-responsive adaptive capacity in Bangladesh.

Lærere er svært viktige for barns oppdragelse og sosialisering inn i samfunnet. De underviser og bedømmer våre fremtidige samfunnsborgere, og lærernes kompetanse, evner og ferdigheter har en klar effekt på barns skoleprestasjoner. Det har også vist seg at andre aspekter ved læreres undervisning, slik som læreres adferd, oppførsel og tro på egne ferdigheter har stor betydning for elevenes resultater. Nyutdannede lærere er ikke nødvendigvis sosialisert eller innordnet i skolens og profesjonens tradisjoner og vaner, men må likevel opprettholde profesjonelle standarder for lærerarbeid. Å rette oppmerksomheten mot nyutdannede lærere gir derfor en mulighet til å peke på hva som er spesielt for lærerprofesjonen. Gjennom mange år har lærere og lærerutdanning blitt viet mye oppmerksomhet, og lærerutdanning har blitt reformert og endret i mange land i den hensikt å bedre lærernes prestasjoner. At norske elever har prestert under gjennomsnittet og dårligere enn forventet på internasjonale sammenligninger, har gjort at oppmerksomheten mot lærernes kvalitet og kompetanse har blitt enda større. For lærerne sin del blir overgangen fra studier til arbeidsliv ofte gjenstand for kritikk. Forskning har vist at nyutdannede lærere er lite tilpasningsdyktige og regelstyrte i sin undervisning. Overgangen beskrives som vanskelig, til og med som et sjokk. Forskningsspørsmålet i denne avhandlingen er: Hva kjennetegner nyutdannede læreres tanker, handlinger, mestring og deres kunnskapsforståelse? Avhandlingen består av et innledende essay og fire artikler. Det teoretiske rammeverket i prosjektet er hentet fra profesjonssosiologiske teorier og det man med en samlebetegnelse kan kalle læringsteori. De profesjonssosiologiske tilnærmingene gir mulighet for sammenligninger på tvers av profesjoner. Felles for de profesjonssosiologiske tilnærmingene er at de ser profesjoner som kunnskapsbaserte yrker som utøver spesifikke oppgaver i det moderne samfunn. På bakgrunn av sine kunnskaper og vilje til å arbeide til fellesskapets beste er profesjonene gitt en stor grad av autonomi i sitt arbeid. Dette gjelder både den individuelle profesjonsutøver og profesjonen som helhet. Spørsmålet om hvordan profesjonsutøverne blir tilstrekkelig kvalifiserte for sitt arbeid er lite diskutert i profesjonssosiologien. Dette er derimot et kjernespørsmål i teorier om læring. Mange har diskutert forholdet mellom teori og praksis, overføring og rekontekstualisering av kunnskap, og forholdet mellom lærerutdanning og klasseromarbeidet. Mange av de læringsteoretiske tilnærmingene og den tidligere forskningen på lærere har mangler: metodologisk har de sjelden et design som gjør det mulig å kunne diskutere spørsmål omkring validitet og generaliserbarhet; de er sjelden longitudinelle og kan derfor ikke si noe om konkrete sammenhenger mellom lærerutdanning og arbeid i skolen; og de kan ofte karakteriseres som forskning på lærerutdanning fra innsiden av lærerutdanningen. I fire artikler går jeg derfor i dybden på fire mer konkrete forskningsspørsmål: 1. Hvordan opplever nyutdannede lærere sin autonomi, service‐orientering og profesjonskunnskap, og hva kan dette fortelle om lærerprofesjonen? 2. Hva kjennetegner nyutdannede læreres strategier for læring i arbeidslivet? 3. Hvordan vurderer nyutdannede lærere sin mestring, og hvordan er mestring relatert til samarbeid og støtte i arbeidslivet? 4. Hva vurderer nyutdannede lærere som viktig kunnskap for å lykkes som lærer, og hvordan vurderer de normative sider av lærerarbeidet? I alle de fire artiklene brukes begrepene fra profesjonssosiologien (kunnskap, autonomi og vilje til å jobbe til samfunnets beste) som analytiske begreper, og operasjonaliseres på forskjellige måter. Læringsteori og tidligere forskning på lærere brukes til å utvikle det analytiske rammeverket videre og diskutere funnene. Den metodiske fremgangsmåten er hovedsakelig bruk av forskjellige spørreskjemaundersøkelser. I artikkel 1 og 2 brukes StudData, som følger studenter fra ulike profesjonsutdanninger fra starten av utdanningen, gjennom utdanningen og ut i arbeidslivet. Dette gjør det mulig å koble utdanning og arbeidsliv empirisk. Nyutdannede lærere sammenlignes med nyutdannede sykepleiere (artikkel 1) og leger (artikkel 2). Sammenligningen gjør det mulig å diskutere de spesifikke trekkene ved lærerprofesjonen. I artikkel 3 og 4 brukes LU‐data, en spørreskjemaundersøkelse av lærerutdannere og lærere ved praksisskoler i lærerutdanningen. Lærerutdannere, nyutdannede lærere og erfarne lærere har blitt stilt de samme spørsmålene, og dette gjør det mulig å sammenligne gruppene. I tillegg er det benyttet data fra intervjuer og observasjoner i skolen i artikkel 3. Artikkel 1 heter Aspects of professionalism. Collective nursing–personalized teaching? I denne artikkelen diskuteres service‐orientering og profesjonskunnskap som grunnlaget for profesjonsutøvernes autonomi. Den empiriske undersøkelsen sammenligner sykepleier‐ og lærerprofesjonens autonomi, service‐orientering og profesjonskunnskap. Både lærere og sykepleiere kan beskrives som svært orienterte mot å hjelpe andre under studiene, og de får også i stor grad utløp for dette i sitt arbeid som nyutdannede. Nyutdannede lærere oppgir å ha mer kontroll over eget arbeid enn sykepleiere. Det argumenteres for at dette til en viss grad kan sees som uttrykk for forskjellen mellom skoler og sykehus som arbeidsplasser, men at svaret også kan finnes i utviklingen av sykepleie og læreryrket som profesjoner. Opplevelsen av en høy grad av autonomi hos den individuelle lærer kan også sees som et uttrykk for individualiseringen av lærerarbeidet, som er et trekk ved organiseringen av skolen som har blitt påpekt jevnlig i undersøkelser av læreres arbeid. Lærere holdes individuelt ansvarlig for sin egen faglige utvikling, og bruker i liten grad kollegaer som faglig støtte. Dette har man forsøkt å endre gjennom reformer og andre tiltak, men norske og internasjonale undersøkelser viser fortsatt at lærersamarbeid ofte foregår på en faglig lite forpliktende måte. I artikkelen kommer dette også til uttrykk i diskusjonen omkring kunnskap hos nyutdannede lærere og sykepleiere. I starten av utdanningen ser lærere fagkunnskap som lite viktig for profesjonsutøvelsen, og enda færre anser det som viktig mot slutten av utdanningen. Flere av sykepleiestudentene anser fagkunnskap som viktig i starten, og enda flere anser det som viktig mot slutten av studiene. Det diskuteres i artikkelen hvorvidt dette kan sies å gjenspeile en generell holdning til fagkunnskap i de to yrkene, og hvorvidt dette også kommer til uttrykk i artikkelens siste funn: mangelen på oppfølging av nyutdannede lærere i arbeidslivet. Mer enn 50 % av lærerne sier at de ikke har mottatt noen form for oppfølging som nyutdannede i skolen, mens kun 25 % av sykepleierne oppgir det samme. Lærere, i motsetning til sykepleiere, har heller ikke et lovpålagt krav om faglig utvikling og oppdatering. Forskning har også vist at lærernes profesjonsorganisasjoner har hatt en strategi der praksisbasert og personlig kunnskap har blitt vektlagt, i tillegg til å sikre en høy grad av autonomi over eget arbeid. Strategien har vært tilbakeskuende, i det at oppmerksomheten har vært rettet mot å gjenreise læreryrkets tidligere status og innflytelse. Artikkel 2 heter Teachers' learning activities in the workplace: How does education matter? Spørsmålet som undersøkes er hvilken rolle nyutdannede selv kan spille i sin egen profesjonelle utvikling, og hvor mye arbeidsplassfaktorer betyr. Tidligere forskning på læreres arbeidslivslæring har ikke kommet frem til klare resultater på hvilke faktorer som har betydning, og det undersøkes hvorvidt dette kan skyldes at individuell læringsorientering og utbytte fra lærerutdanningen har vært utelatt. Individuell læringsorientering kan også sees som noe lærerutdanningen kan være med på å påvirke og utvikle. Nyutdannede læreres læringsaktiviteter (hva de gjør når de trenger mer kunnskap for å løse krevende situasjoner) sammenlignes med nyutdannede legers. Betydningen av opplevde krav, kontroll og støtte fra kollegaer og ledelse på jobben sammenlignes med betydningen av studiestrategier under utdanningen og opplevd utbytte av utdanningen. Nyutdannede lærere er jevnt over mindre aktive enn nyutdannede leger, noe som kan tenkes å være uttrykk for både trekk ved arbeidet og arbeidets organisering, samt også en svakere kunnskapsorientering i lærerprofesjonen, slik det diskuteres i artikkel 1. Ved å ta inn studiestrategier i analysene blir modellene sterkt forbedret, noe som peker på at lærerutdanning kan spille en viktig rolle i å danne fremtidige lærere som er aktive kunnskapssøkere i sitt eget arbeid. Artikkel 3 heter Novice teachers and how they cope. Nyutdannede læreres møte med arbeidet som lærer i skolen beskrives ofte som en vanskelig opplevelse, og til og med som et sjokk. I artikkelen sammenlignes nyutdannede og erfarne læreres mestring av yrket ved hjelp av kvantitative og kvalitative data. En teoretisk modell for mestring av læreryrket utvikles og testes i artikkelen, og resultatene viser, i motsetning til hva man kunne forvente fra tidligere forskning, at nyutdannede og erfarne læreres mestring ikke skiller seg mye fra hverandre, og beskrivelsen av et sjokk støttes ikke. De detaljerte analysene viser at støtte fra kollegaer er viktig for både nyutdannede og erfarne, men viktigst for nyutdannede. Samarbeid med kollegaer, derimot, påvirket nyutdannede læreres mestring negativt, men erfarne læreres mestring positivt. I de kvalitative datakildene fremkom det at dette kunne være et resultat av nyutdannede læreres manglende evne til å uttrykke sine egne profesjonelle behov, og at dette gjør det stressende og vanskelig å involvere seg med kollegaer på en faglig forpliktende måte. Skoleledelsen var også viktigere for erfarne læreres mestring enn nyutdannedes. Samarbeid som ikke var faglig krevende eller forpliktende var mest vanlig. I artikkelens siste del drøftes det at når forholdet mellom utdanning og arbeidsliv ikke diskuteres skapes det forventninger om at nyutdannede skal være i stand til å gjøre det samme som sine erfarne kollegaer fra første stund. Dette kan også se ut til å være en forventning nyutdannede lærere i skolen møter. Artikkel 4 heter The valuation of knowledge and normative reflection in teacher qualification. A comparison of teacher educators, novice and experienced teachers. Lærerutdanningen beskrives ofte som i utakt med kravene som stilles i skolen. Nyutdannede og erfarne læreres vurdering av hva som er viktig kompetanse for lærere sammenlignes i artikkelen med lærerutdanneres vurdering. Læreres beslutninger er også formet av deres normative vurderinger. Gruppenes syn på et av de viktigste normative dilemmaene i skolen, inklusjon av elever med særskilte behov i ordinær undervisning, sammenlignes derfor også. Resultatene viser at lærerutdannerne hadde et noe mer positivt syn på inklusjon, men alle tre gruppene fremholdt at både fagkunnskap og praktiske ferdigheter var svært viktige for å være en god lærer. Det var altså få indikasjoner på utakt mellom lærere i skolen og lærerutdannere på disse spørsmålene, selv om noen forskjeller ble funnet. Nyutdannede lærere var noe likere sine erfarne kollegaer enn lærerutdannerne, noe som kan tyde på at de nyutdannede raskt er sosialisert inn i skolekulturen, eller at de aldri har vært like sine lærerutdannere. Lærerne i skolen var noe mer praktisk orientert og opptatt av å holde kontroll enn lærerutdannerne, som på sin side i større grad vektla å kunne begrunne sine valg og vurderinger, og læreplananalyse. Til tross for disse forskjellene er hovedinntrykket at beskrivelsen av lærerutdannerne som i utakt med den virkelige verden i skolen må nyanseres. Et viktigere spørsmål er hvorvidt lærerutdanningen bør være i takt med kravene i skolen på alle områder? I artikkelen diskuteres det om lærerutdanningen kan ha en viktig rolle ved å vektlegge områder og tema som lett blir skjøvet til side i en hektisk skolehverdag, og om endringer og reformer i skolen og lærerutdanning skjer på bakgrunn av forskningsutviklingen eller andre initiativ. Jeg argumenterer for at det viktige spørsmålet ikke er hvor store forskjellene mellom utdanning og arbeidsliv er, men hvilke forskjeller som er passende og hvilke som ikke er det. I alle fire artiklene diskuteres det om idealene som møter nyutdannede lærere er realistiske. Ideen om at en nyutdannet skal kunne gjøre alt det en erfaren lærer kan gjøre kan knyttes til et tradisjonelt bilde av læreren: Kunnskap sees som det eneste formålet med utdanningen, og moral og normative vurderinger knyttes til tradisjonelle forestillinger om dyd og kall. Hvis dette er forventningene nyutdannede møtes med, er det lett å finne bekreftelse på at lærerutdanningen er utilstrekkelig eller ute av takt. Dersom andre læreridealer gjøres gjeldende, vil også nye perspektiver på forholdet mellom utdanning og arbeidsliv, og på kvalifisering av lærere, bli mulige. De profesjonssosiologiske kjernebegrepene gir et rammeverk som gjør det mulig med komparative studier av profesjoner og dermed få frem de spesifikke trekkene ved læreryrket. I avhandlingen trekkes det frem at læreryrket kan se ut til å ha en svak kunnskapsorientering, og dette er igjen med på å undergrave de nyutdannede lærernes mulighet til å utføre sitt profesjonelle arbeid på et tilfredsstillende vis. De profesjonssosiologiske begrepene blir nyttige analytiske verktøy i studiet av lærerkvalifisering og lærerprofesjonen. Samtidig har profesjonssosiologien også sine klare begrensninger, fremfor alt i at forholdet mellom utdanning og arbeidsliv i liten grad er gjenstand for diskusjon. Læringsteorier utfordrer og kritiserer dette, og diskuterer hvordan ferdigheter for profesjonell yrkesutøvelse utvikler seg i forskjellige kontekster til forskjellige tider. I avhandlingen kan artikkel 2 trekkes frem som et spesielt tydelig, empirisk, eksempel på dette. Det longitudinelle designet gjør det mulig å undersøke den spesifikke påvirkningen fra lærerutdanningen, samtidig som arbeidsplassens betingelser for læring tas hensyn til. ; Teachers are among the main agents of socialisation and upbringing. They are the ones who teach, judge and evaluate the future citizens of our society, and their competence, abilities and skills affect the outcome and experience of an individual's education. Their behaviour and belief in their own abilities influences student performance. To learn more about how the teaching profession and teachers organize and develops their work, the spotlight is thrown at novice teachers. Novices are more clearly exposed to the specific characteristics of the organization and profession, as they are new and not necessarily socialized or aligned with the habits of the profession and organization, at the same time as they have to uphold professional standards. Research has indicated that novice teachers tend to adopt inflexible, rule‐based ways of teaching so as to cope with the uncertainty of their work. The meeting with work in schools is often characterised as troublesome or even as a shock. The main empirical research question in this thesis is: How do novice teachers think, act, cope and perceive knowledge? The thesis consists of an introductory essay and four papers. How novice teachers think, act, cope and perceive knowledge is seen as expressions of professionalism, and how professionalism is accommodated in teaching. Sociological approaches to professions and professionalism provide a comparative framework, and have in common the understanding that professions are knowledge‐based occupations that perform specific tasks in modern societies. Professionalism is seen as a normative‐value system, where professionals are granted autonomy to perform their work (individually and collectively) as they are competent performers with a will to use their competence for the common good. Professionalism is at the same time also an ideological tool, providing professions with opportunity to develop and strengthen their position (professionalism from within), but also using the arguments of professional standards and accountability to steer professions in certain directions in line with broader political trends and reforms (professionalism from above). Qualification (the development and acquisition of professional knowledge, skills and values, and the relationship between education and work in terms of preparing for specific tasks) is rarely discussed in sociological traditions. This is a key omission, given that education and professional knowledge is seen as the important vehicle for upholding a status as professions. In theories of professional learning, in which most research on teachers finds its theoretical framework, the nature of knowledge and learning is more frequently questioned, and different theoretical positions and metaphors have been used to frame the problems that novice teachers face. Some have referred to this issue as an encounter with the difference between theory and practice. Others have referred to the problems of transferring knowledge, or recontextualising knowledge, from teacher education to the classroom. Research has also suggested that teaching as a profession lacks a knowledge base that can support teachers in their work and provide teachers with the necessary tools. Although much research has been undertaken on novice teachers, and the research‐based knowledge has accumulated steadily, it has it has been pointed out that there is a need to address challenges in terms of validity and generalisability, and to approach teaching as a research subject with new theories and methodologies not inherent to teacher education. The main empirical research question of this thesis is analysed through four papers, addressing four more specific research questions: 1. How do novice teachers report on their self‐assessed levels of autonomy, service orientation and professional knowledge, and what can this tell us about characteristics of the teaching profession? 2. What characterises novice teachers' professional development strategies? 3. How do novice teachers' assess their own coping, and how is coping related to collaboration and support? 4. What do novice teachers perceive as important knowledge and how do they value the normative aspects of teachers' work? In paper 1 and 2, StudData is used, a survey following teacher students from the end of their education and into their first few years of work. This makes it possible to examine novices' situation and experiences, while also empirically linking together the education and the subsequent working career of the respondents. Teaching is compared to nursing (paper 1) and medicine (paper 2) in order to point out the specific characteristics of teaching as a profession. In paper 3 and 4 TeData is used, a survey of teacher educators and teachers in school. Teacher educators, novice teachers and experienced teachers are compared, making it possible to point out any differences or similarities between the groups. Interviews and observational data are also included in paper 3. Paper 1 is called Aspects of professionalism. Collective nursing—personalised teaching? The results showed that both teachers and nurses can be described as service‐oriented or other‐oriented during their studies, and both groups find opportunities to realise these other‐oriented values in their work. The results also showed that teachers have more control over their own work (i.e., technical autonomy) than do nurses. The paper argued that this result could be explained in part by the differences in work organisations (mostly hospitals versus schools) and in the development of teaching and nursing as independent professions. High technical autonomy could also be interpreted as being in line with the individualism that is typical in teaching, i.e. the teacher is held individually responsible for his or her own professional development, and seldom seeks advice from colleagues. This is partly due to the legacy of teacher work, which traditionally has been undertaken by one teacher in one classroom, reinforced by the architecture of schools. Although efforts have been made to change the way teacher work is organised, it is again and again pointed out that collaborative teacher work, however fruitful, is rare and often not undertaken in a binding way. Finally, the concept of professional knowledge, or expertise, in teaching and nursing was also discussed. Previous research has shown that teachers beginning their education place a low value on formal knowledge, and the percentage of students who value formal knowledge actually decreases during education. By contrast, nursing students placed a high value on theoretical knowledge at the start of their studies, and even more nurses deemed it important at the end of their studies. The paper suggested that this disparity reflects a general difference in the understanding of professional competence in teaching and nursing. This difference was also manifest in a systemic lack of follow‐up and professional training programmes for novice teachers. More than 50% of the teachers reported having received no systematic training during their first three years, whereas only 25% of the nurses reported the same. Unlike nursing, teaching has no statutory provision for CPD. The professional association of teachers has chosen a professional development strategy that emphasises practicebased and personal knowledge, as well as individual autonomy and individual decision making, and a restorative strategy that focuses on reinstating lost power and influence. Paper 2 is called Teachers' learning activities in the workplace: How does education matter? and focused on questions of professional knowledge and development. Novice teachers' role in their own professional development was examined and compared with workplace characteristics. How are variables describing autonomy and collegiality (support) related to what is referred to as knowledge strategies, i.e. what novices do when in need of additional knowledge to handle situations at work? Ambiguities and a lack of conclusive results in a specific line of research on teachers' learning are addressed. The models used by others were developed further, mainly by the inclusion of educational outcomes and study strategies during education. Novice teachers were shown to be overall less active than novice physicians in seeking out new knowledge, suggesting a difference in the professional knowledge culture. The inclusion of study strategies in the analyses of workplace learning substantially improved the explanation of workplace learning behaviour, also in the knowledge‐weak teaching profession. This points out a role for teacher education in terms of preparing teachers as knowledge seekers, and it also emphasises the effect of individual knowledge orientation that goes beyond professional boundaries. Paper 3 is called Novice teachers and how they cope. A novice teacher's first encounters with working as a teacher are often referred to as a shock or as a particularly troublesome experience. In this paper, novice teachers' ability to cope with their work was compared with that of more experienced teachers, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. A model for coping with teaching (measured as perceived self‐efficacy and teacher certainty) was developed. The most striking finding, contrary to common reports of a shock among novices, is that novice teachers do not differ much from their experienced colleagues in self‐efficacy, and have only slightly lower certainty. These small differences do not support an interpretation that novice teachers have extra low levels of coping, which is assumed to be implicit in the description of a shock. It may very well be that novice teachers experience the transition from education to work as stressful in the initial phases, but the effect seems to diminish rather fast. Collegial support, an important coping tool for experienced teachers, was found to be even more so for novice teachers. Collaboration with colleagues was found to decrease coping in novices but had a more positive effect among experienced teachers. The observations and interviews suggested that this might be because of the novices' lack of ability to express themselves professionally, which makes interaction with colleagues stressful. Superiors at the school seemed to become more important for coping as teachers gained experience. Lower commitment forms of teacher collaboration were also more common than forms demanding more involvement (such as deliberation on the consequences of teaching instead of just organising and sharing the workload). Newer contributions in learning theory have theoretically discussed and analysed the potential troubles when individuals cross the boundaries between the different contexts of education and work. The metaphor of a shock seems to rest on expectations that novice professionals should be able to perform their work as well as their more experienced colleagues, and neglect the fact that these troubles are an inherent part of the transition from education to work. They also implicitly suggest that problems are due to a teacher education that did not prepare them sufficiently. The responsibility of schools for introducing novices in an appropriate way should not be neglected, and the findings indicate that colleagues are an important factor in these processes. Again, as supported by the findings in paper 1, novice teachers seem to receive less attention than novices in other professions. Paper 4 is called The valuation of knowledge and normative reflection in teacher qualification, and is a comparison of teacher educators, novice and experienced teachers. As teachers' professional practice also is dependent upon normative judgement, the views of teacher educators and teachers on one of the important normative dilemmas in teaching — the inclusion or exclusion in classes of students with learning challenges — was compared, along with their understanding of what kind of knowledge and skills are important for working as a teacher. Surprisingly, and again contrary to common reports and beliefs, also within research on teaching, the differences between the groups on their understanding of what constitutes important knowledge in teaching were very small. The description of teacher education as being "out of step" with the real world of teaching should be nuanced. Furthermore, the often‐discussed tension between an academic discipline orientation and a practical occupational orientation was examined at an individual level, and the findings indicated that both teacher educators and teachers in schools saw both parts of the professional knowledge base as important. The clearest difference found was that teacher educators generally had a more positive view on inclusion than did novice teachers and experienced teachers. School teachers were somewhat more practically oriented and more concerned with keeping control in the classroom than were teacher educators, whereas teacher educators emphasised being able to give reasons for choices, actions and curriculum analyses. The discussion was framed by pointing out the tension between ideals and goals for teacher education set from the outside (such as the introduction of the Qualifications Frameworks) and the integrative purpose of teacher education in terms of developing academic knowledge, practical skills and ethical/normative judgment in the students. It was argued that the goals for teacher education should be set with such integration as a goal, not on transferability, compatibility, measurability and transparency primarily. Thus, the paper highlights an area where a battle between professionalism from within and professionalism from above might take place in the future, by pointing out the importance of setting the right goal for teacher education. ; Doctoral thesis without published articles

Abstract: Organizational and Work Psychology (POT) today faces great research and intervention challenges, given the current conditions in which work activities and the management of people are being developed in organizations, and since the world of work has been strongly affected in the last three decades as a result of the transformations that have been taking place in the management of organizations. The socio-economic and cultural political dynamics that we live in today demand a continuous change based on these changes. In this sense, organizational change has been associated with unexpected adaptation processes that arise to respond to the demands of the context. At present, the survival of organizations depends on the ability to project in the long term and not only on their ability to adapt, this implies on the part of organizations a management change that allows anticipating changes in the environment in such a way that long-term value is generated over the competition (Sandoval, 2014). In response to a series of phenomena such as the globalization of the economy, increasing competition and the emergence of new information technology, transport, and communications, among other factors, the use of strategies such as mergers between organizations has increased. Alliances, creation of networks, reduction of organizational macrostructures and outsourcing or subcontracting of the workforce, as mechanisms to achieve greater competitiveness in the market, aspects that have generated a dynamic of permanent change in the functioning of organizations in the world whole ( Lynch, & Mors , 2018). These changes are reflected in the impact they have on the climate of the organizations. The way workers understand the organization's climate depends on several aspects. G onzales , Pedraza and Sanchez (2015), identified that the work environment is important in understanding the relationship between employees and superiors, and that this relationship will be mediated by values, rules established by the organization at the individual level and group, and performance, these aspects that can generate satisfaction in the organization and in the collaborators. The organizational climate is important in understanding the organizational characteristics that impact on the behavior of individuals at work, as well as the attitudes of people towards organizations (Yoo, Huang & Lee, 2012). The organizational climate encompasses the structure, processes of the organization, as well as the management of compensation, employee behavior, performance expectations and growth opportunities. However, the organizational climate is the result of the interaction between the components of the company, such as structure, systems, culture, the behavior of the leader and the psychological needs of the employees ( Benjamin et al., 2013) . Organizational change and climate are framed in the psychosocial factors of organizations, which has a wide spectrum, they become an important issue for occupational health. The current situation that organizations and the labor market are going through generate important problems for organizations, therefore it is important to understand and deal with them properly. The new work arrangements involve short-term contracts. Additionally, the global market is becoming more competitive as a result, generates increasing pressure on the part of employees to be able to increase productivity and respond to the needs of the environment, forging as a result a report by employees of high levels of stress increasing risk of physical and psychological illness. The imminence of change in different spheres of the organization displaces workers, generating various reactions that affect the work-family balance, their performance and their perception of the organizational climate ( Connelly & Gallagher, 2004) Gil - Monte (2012) argues that technical changes, such as socioeconomic, demographic, political, economic, among others, have increased psychosocial risks . Some of the causes of these risks are: a) organizational changes are caused by internal factors (new processes, technology, workplace) or external (social, political, economic), b) new forms of hiring, c) little job stability , d) aging of the population, e) increase in workload, e) emotional demands at work, f) work-family imbalance . The author concludes that psychosocial risks have always been present, but what has been modified is the social perception of them , this is reflected in the increase of this type of risks in organizations, therefore it becomes a problem the which must be addressed in a timely manner by the managers of the organizations. Currently, with the public health threat generated by (COVID-19), several economic sectors are affected such as tourism, health, education, among others, which must develop new strategies and rethink new ways to be able to reach the population and reactivate its economy ( Wen , et al, 2020). These strategies create challenges that involve promoting new forms of work and assuming an increase in the demands of public and private sector employees that can have negative consequences for them ( Mañas, Estreder , Martinez -Tur, Díaz-Fúnez, & Pecino -Medina 2020). Similarly, in the face of these significant events such as the global pandemic, organizations must have the ability to develop tactics that allow them to adapt to change ( Beech , et al, 2020). In this order of ideas, in the face of adverse situations that arise due to the pandemic that affect the world economically, socially and politically, people who are part of organizations must be able to adapt to changes, which makes them more resilient ( Jiang , Jiang , Sun ,, & Li 2020). The resilience helps people overcome stress, which allows them to maintain an acceptable state of life or work ( Cope, Jones, & Hendricks, 2016). This implies that individuals must establish a balance between their work and family roles, which would not be possible to generate situations of emotional exhaustion as a psychological response to work stressors and in turn affect the performance of workers (Karatepe, 2013). As a result of the various changes that organizations have had to undertake such as the replacement of the workforce by younger generations, multicultural work, labor shortages, demographic challenges, the workplace has become a very demanding space. Additionally, people are expected to perform much more efficiently at work and at home ( Ilies , Schwind , Johnson, DeRue , & Ilgen , 2007). These changes have led to symptoms of stress in people in organizations that can affect them in their personal, family and work daily life (Biron, Cooper & Bond, 2009). These situations have generated research related to the different conditions of the human being in which sometimes they survive and thrive in the face of adversity. The study of positive human behavior gave rise to positive psychology (Seligman 199 8 ) and positive organizational behavior ( Luthans & Youssef , 2007). This paradigm shift from the study of negative to positive organizational behavior leads to new theories that propose that resilience is a flexible resource that anyone can learn and foster (Norman, Luthans & Luthans , 2005). Work is important for people, as it has many benefits for them (Henry, 2004). It helps them establish their identity, provides a possibility of social interaction beyond the purely work, encourages commitment, provides meaning, provides the possibility of having status and income. It is an activity that provides people with resources to live, in the same way, the family is an important part of people's daily lives that influences their sense of well-being ( Edwards & Rothbard, 2000). Ryan & Deci (2001), consider that the concept of work can be expanded and include aspects related to personal growth and well-being of people. For Voydanoff (2005), work and family are two important domains in people's lives and therefore can cause conflicts with each other (Allen, et al, 2000). However, these two elements can become synergistic and complement each other, the positive side of this interaction (work - family) can improve the well-being of the family unit (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006). According to Rahim (2011), he considers that effectively balancing work and family is important in organizations. The demands of the environment lead organizations to increase productivity, therefore, there is a greater demand for workers 'time and a reduction in workers' time with their families. Haar & Bardoel (2008) highlights that many changes have been generated that affect this work-family relationship, the composition of the workforce has changed, the number of women in the workplace has increased, families with two incomes, increased in the number of single parents. Greenhaus & Buetell (1985) argue that the work-family conflict occurs when the roles in which the pressures of work and family domains are not compatible. Wang, et to the, (2004), believe that regardless of the term that is used to describe the work - family conflict, this is mainly caused by excessive labor demands, which affect family negative results. For the current labor market, productivity is critical, managers aim to achieve maximum work performance by involving employees in this particular dynamic, it seeks that workers are willing to contribute in the organization beyond what is required by formal requirements. of work. In this logic the collaborators are caught between the demands of the family and those of the employer. The result of these multiple roles is the work-family conflict due to the incongruity between both areas, because the demands of one make it difficult to meet the demands of the other ( Rabenu , Tziner , & Gil, 2017). Liu, et al, (2019) highlight that the work-family balance is a perception that occurs simultaneously in two senses: low work-family conflict and high work-family enrichment, which implies that experiences are included among the roles both positive and negative. These positive or negative aspects are related to job performance. Pandey (2019) highlights the multidimensional nature of performance, classifying it in two aspects: a) resources: individual, work, organizational, social, b) stressors: individual, work, where the author points out that affective stressors such as burnout is an important variable that exhausts resources and decreases work performance, family, according to the author the variables at the family level are an inhibitor of work performance when they act as stressors. In this vein, the work-family conflict is an important variable that generates interference between the demands of these two domains with each other. Gragnano, Simbula, & Miglioretti (2020), highlight the fact that workers are aware of the importance of health to achieve a work-life balance, they showed that this balance is as important as the family domain, therefore, the researchers they must consider the health domain in the family domain when inquiring about work-life balance. Karatepe & Tenkiskus (2006) state that work-family conflict and emotional exhaustion are critical variables that have adverse effects on results. Yavas, Babacus & Karatepe (2008), consider the difficulties that front-line employees must balance the demands of their multiple roles can affect performance and as a consequence, employees can make the decision and leave the organizations. Wright & Cropanzano (1998), point out that an indicator of low work performance is emotional exhaustion, considered as a chronic state both physical and emotional, which is the product of overwork and continuous stress. Emotional exhaustion manifests itself in employees in a general loss of feeling of concern, trust, and interest (Maslach, 1982). Schaufeli & Greenglass (2001) consider that emotional exhaustion occurs when employees experience an emotional demand in a work situation over a long period of time. Studies carried out in the public sector contribute to understanding the manifestation of feelings of emotional exhaustion. The health professionals are under high pressure due to the long working days producing sleep disorders, professional responsibility which should provide a high-quality service with no margin for error. In the same way, their work implies a high emotional load given the nature of the work, this makes health professionals more vulnerable to emotional exhaustion (Babyar, 2017). According to Gerard (2018), it is necessary to take into account factors such as financial results, return on capital, which justifies success in health care organizations, which goes beyond the quality of care or the nature of activity. The structure of public health organizations is usually not very flexible, which makes the operation of these entities more difficult and therefore the work of the professionals who work in it, generating loss of energy and feelings of emotional exhaustion. Cropanzano, Rupp & Byrne (2003) argue that emotional exhaustion has a detrimental effect on the employee's job performance, which subsequently affects the productivity of the organization. The study carried out by Wang, et al (2019) shows the relationship between work-family conflict (WFC), family-work conflict (FWC), emotional exhaustion and performance. The results show that WFC is positively related to emotional exhaustion. Organizational care was also found to reduce WFC's influences on emotional exhaustion. In conclusion, it is important to highlight that all the variables that have been considered to carry out this study are related to each other. On the one hand, in a broad framework is organizational change, which influences the behavior and perception of people in the organization affecting the organizational climate. On the other hand, but in the same direction are the psychosocial factors that are also affected by changes in organizations and that would involve factors such as work-family balance, performance, emotional exhaustion. However, it should be highlighted that the way people in organizations face these aspects, will generate greater resilience and adaptation for the people in the organization. Resumen: La Psicología Organizacional y del Trabajo (POT) enfrenta hoy grandes desafíos de investigación e intervención, dadas las condiciones actuales en que se desarrollan las actividades de trabajo y de gestión de las personas en las organizaciones, ya que el mundo del trabajo se ha visto fuertemente afectado en las últimas tres décadas como resultado de las transformaciones que han estado ocurriendo en la gestión de las organizaciones. La dinámica política socioeconómica y cultural que se vive en la actualidad demanda un continuo cambio en función de estas. En este sentido el cambio organizacional ha estado asociado a procesos de adaptación inesperados que surgen para responder a las demandas del contexto. En la actualidad la supervivencia de las organizaciones depende de la capacidad de proyectarse a largo plazo y no solo de su capacidad de adaptación, esto implica por parte de las organizaciones una gestión del cambio que permita anticiparse a los cambios del ambiente de tal forma que se genere un valor a largo plazo sobre la competencia (Sandoval, 2014). Como respuesta a una serie de fenómenos como la globalización de la economía, la competencia cada vez más creciente y la emergencia de nuevas tecnologías de informática, transporte y comunicaciones, entre otros factores, se han incrementado el uso de estrategias como las fusiones entre organizaciones, alianzas, creación de redes, reducción de las macroestructuras organizativas y externalización o subcontratación de la fuerza de trabajo, como mecanismos para alcanzar una mayor competitividad en el mercado, aspectos que han generado una dinámica de cambio permanente en el funcionamiento de las organizaciones en el mundo entero (Lynch, & Mors, 2018). Estos cambios se ven reflejados en el impacto que tienen en el clima de las organizaciones. La forma como entienden los trabajadores el clima de la organización depende de varios aspectos. Gonzales, Pedraza y Sánchez (2015), identificaron que el ambiente laboral es importante en la comprensión de la relación entre empleados y superiores, ya que dicha relación va a estar mediada por los valores, las reglas establecidas por la organización a nivel individual y grupal, y el desempeño, estos aspectos que pueden generar satisfacción en la organización y en los colaboradores. El clima organizacional es importante en la comprensión de las características organizacionales impactan sobre la conducta de los individuos en el trabajo, así como las actitudes de las personas respecto a organizaciones (Yoo, Huang & Lee, 2012). El clima organizacional abarca la estructura, procesos de la organización, así como la gestión de la remuneración, el comportamiento del empleado, expectativa de rendimiento y oportunidades de crecimiento. No obstante, el clima organizacional es el resultado de la interacción entre los componentes de la empresa, tales como estructura, sistemas, la cultura, la conducta del líder y las necesidades psicológicas de los empleados (Benjamin et al., 2013). El cambio organizacional y el clima se enmarcan en los factores psicosociales de las organizaciones, los cuales tiene un amplio espectro, se convierten en un tema importante para la salud laboral. La situación actual por la que atraviesan las organizaciones y el mercado de trabajo generan problemas importantes para las organizaciones por lo tanto es importante entenderlos y afrontarlos de manera adecuada. Las nuevas modalidades de trabajo implican contratos a corto plazo. Adicionalmente el mercado global cada vez es más competitivo genera como resultado por parte de los empleados una creciente presión para poder aumentar la productividad y responder a las necesidades del entorno, forjando como resultado reporte por parte de los empleados de altos niveles de estrés incrementando el riesgo de enfermedad física y psicológica. La inminencia del cambio en diferentes esferas de la organización se desplaza a los trabajadores generando diversas reacciones que afectan el balance trabajo-familia, su desempeño y su percepción del clima organizacional (Connelly & Gallagher, 2004) Gil - Monte (2012) argumenta que los cambios técnicos, como los socioeconómicos, demográficos, políticos, económicos entre otros, han incrementado los riesgos psicosociales. Algunas de las causas de estos riesgos son: a) cambios organizacionales provocados por factores internos (nuevos procesos, tecnología, lugar de trabajo) o externos (sociales, políticos, económicos), b) nuevas formas de contratación, c) poca estabilidad laboral, d) envejecimiento de la población, e) incremento en la carga laboral, e) exigencias emocionales en el trabajo, f) desequilibrio trabajo – familia. El autor concluye que los riesgos psicosociales siempre han estado presentes, pero lo que se ha modificado es la percepción social que hay sobre ellos, esto se ve reflejado en el incremento de este tipo de riesgos en las organizaciones por tanto se convierte en un problema el cual se debe atender de manera oportuna por parte de los directivos de las organizaciones. En la actualidad con la amenaza de salud pública generada por el (COVID-19) se ven afectados varios sectores económicos como el turismo, la salud, la educación, entre otros, los cuales deben desarrollar nuevas estrategias y replantear nuevas formas para poder llegar a la población y reactivar su economía (Wen, et al, 2020). Estas estrategias crean retos que implican promover nuevas formas de trabajo y asumir un incremento en las demandas de los empleados del sector público y privado que pueden tener consecuencias negativas para éstos (Mañas, Estreder, Martinez-Tur, Díaz-Fúnez, & Pecino-Medina 2020). De igual forma, ante estos eventos significativos como la pandemia mundial las organizaciones deben tener la capacidad para desarrollar tácticas que le permitan adaptarse al cambio (Beech, et al, 2020). En este orden de ideas, ante las situaciones adversas que se presentan debido a la pandemia que afectan al mundo en lo económico, social y político, las personas que hacen parte de las organizaciones deben ser capaces de adaptase a los cambios lo cual los hace más resilientes (Jiang, Jiang, Sun,, & Li 2020). La capacidad de recuperación ayuda a las personas a superar las tensiones, lo cual permite mantener un estado de vida o un trabajo aceptable (Cope, Jones, & Hendricks, 2016). Esto implica que los individuos deben establecer un equilibrio entre sus roles laborales y los familiares, que no ser posible generarían situaciones de agotamiento emocional como una respuesta psicológica a los estresores laborales y a su vez afecta el desempeño de los trabajadores (Karatepe, 2013). Resultado de los diversos cambios que han debido asumir las organizaciones como el reemplazo de la fuerza laboral por generaciones más jóvenes, multiculturalidad de trabajo, escasez en la mano de obra, desafíos demográficos, el lugar de trabajo se ha convertido en un espacio muy exigente. Adicionalmente se espera que las personas de desempeñen de forma mucho más eficiente en el trabajo y en el hogar (Ilies, Schwind, Johnson, DeRue, & Ilgen, 2007). Estos cambios han propiciado en las personas que se encuentran en las organizaciones síntomas de estrés que pueden las pueden afectar en su cotidianida personal, familiar y laboral (Biron, Cooper & Bond, 2009). Estas situaciones han generado investigaciones relacionadas con las diferentes condiciones del ser humano en las que en algunas oportunidades sobreviven y prosperan ante la adversidad. El estudio del comportamiento humano positivo dio origen a la psicología positiva (Seligman 1998) y el comportamiento organizacional positivo (Luthans & Youssef, 2007). Este cambio de paradigma del estudio del comportamiento organizacional negativo al positivo deriva nuevas teorías que proponen que la resiliencia es un recurso flexible que cualquier persona puede aprender y fomentar (Norman, Luthans & Luthans, 2005). El trabajo es importante para las personas, ya que tiene muchos beneficios para éstas (Henry, 2004). Las ayuda a establecer su identidad, brinda una posibilidad de interacción social más allá de los netamente laboral, fomenta compromiso, brinda un significado, proporciona la posibilidad de tener estatus e ingresos. Es una actividad facilita a las personas recursos para vivir, de igual forma, la familia es una parte importante de la cotidianidad de las personas que influye en la sensación de bienestar de estas (Edwards & Rothbard, 2000). Ryan & Deci (2001), consideran que el concepto de trabajo se puede ampliar e incluyen aspectos relacionados con el crecimiento personal y el bienestar de las personas. Para Voydanoff (2005), el trabajo como la familia son dos dominios importantes en la vida de las personas y por tanto pueden llegar a causar conflictos entre sí (Allen, et al, 2000). Sin embargo, estos dos elementos pueden llegar a ser sinérgicos y complementarse, el lado positivo de esta interacción (trabajo – familia) puede mejorar el bienestar de la unidad familiar (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006). Según Rahim (2011) considera que equilibrar efectivamente el trabajo y la familia es importante en las organizaciones. Las demandas del ambiente conllevan a que las organizaciones aumenten la productividad, por lo tanto, hay una mayor demanda de tiempo de los trabajadores y una reducción el tiempo de los trabajadores con sus familias. Haar & Bardoel (2008) resalta que se han generado muchos cambios que afectan esta relación trabajo – familia, la composición de la fuerza laborar ha cambiado, se ha incrementado el número de mujeres en el lugar de trabajo, las familias con dos ingresos, aumento en el número de padres/madres solteras. Greenhaus & Buetell (1985), argumentan que el conflicto trabajo – familia se presenta cuando los roles en el que las presiones del trabajo y los dominios familiares no son compatibles. Wang, et al, (2004), consideran que independientemente del término que se utilice para describir el conflicto trabajo – familia, éste es causado principalmente por las excesivas demandas laborales, las cuales repercuten en resultados familiares negativos. Para el actual mercado laboral la productividad es crítica, los gerentes tienen como meta alcanzar el máximo rendimiento laboral involucrando a los empleados en esta particular dinámica, se busca que los trabajadores estén dispuestos a contribuir en la organización más allá de lo que exigen los requisitos formales de trabajo. En esta lógica los colaboradores se encuentran atrapados entre las demandas de la familia y las del empleador. El resultado de estos roles múltiples es el conflicto trabajo – familia debido a la incongruencia entre ambas áreas, debido a que las demandas de uno dificultan el cumplimiento de las demandas del otro (Rabenu, Tziner, & Gil, 2017). Liu, et al, (2019) resaltan que el equilibrio trabajo – familia es una percepción que se presenta de manera simultánea en dos sentidos: bajo conflicto trabajo - familia y alto enriquecimiento trabajo – familia, lo cual implica que se incluyen experiencias entre los roles tanto positivos como negativos. Es tos aspectos positivos o negativos tiene una relación con el desempeño laboral. Pandey (2019) destaca naturaleza multidimensional del desempeño clasificándola en dos aspectos: a) recursos: individuales, laborales, organizacionales, sociales, b) estresores: individuales, laborales en donde el autor señala que estresores afectivos como el agotamiento es una variable importante que agota los recursos y decrementa el rendimiento laboral, familiares, según el autor las variables a nivel familiar son un inhibidor del desempeño laboral cuando actúan como estresores. En este orden de ideas el conflicto trabajo familia es una variable importante que genera interferencia entre las demandas de estos dos dominios entre sí. Gragnano, Simbula, & Miglioretti (2020), resaltan el hecho de que los trabajadores son conscientes de la importancia de la salud para lograr un equilibrio trabajo-vida, demostraron que este equilibro es tan importante como el dominio familiar, por tanto, los investigadores deben considerar el dominio de la salud en el dominio familiar cuando se indaga el equilibrio trabajo – vida. Karatepe & Tenkiskus (2006), afirman que el conflicto trabajo – familia y el agotamiento emocional son variables críticas que tienen efectos adversos en los resultados. Yavas, Babacus & Karatepe (2008), consideran las dificultades que tienen los empleados de primera línea para equilibrar las demandas de sus múltiples roles pueden afectar el desempeño y como consecuencia los empleados pueden tomar la decisión e irse de las organizaciones. Wright & Cropanzano (1998), señalan que un indicador dé bajo desempeño laboral es el agotamiento emocional, considerado como un estado crónico tanto físico como emocional, el cual es producto del exceso de trabajo y el estrés continuo. El agotamiento emocional se manifiesta en los empleados en una perdida general de sentimiento de preocupación, confianza e interés (Maslach, 1982). Schaufeli & Greenglass (2001) consideran que el agotamiento emocional ocurre cuando los empleados experimentan una exigencia emocional ante una situación laboral en un período de tiempo prolongado. Estudios realizados en el sector público, contribuyen a entender la manifestación de sentimientos de agotamiento emocional. Los profesionales de la salud se encuentran bajo altos niveles de presión debido a las largas jornadas laborales que producen trastornos del sueño, la responsabilidad profesional en donde deben proporcionar un servicio de alta calidad sin margen de error. De igual forma, su trabajo implica alta carga emocional dada la naturaleza del trabajo, esto hace que los profesionales en la salud sean más vulnerables al agotamiento emocional (Babyar, 2017). De acuerdo con Gerard (2018), es necesario tener en cuenta factores como los resultados financieros, el rendimiento del capital, lo cual justifica el éxito en las organizaciones de atención médica, lo cual va vas allá de la calidad en la atención o la naturaleza de actividad. La estructura de las organizaciones de salud pública suele ser poco flexible lo cual hace más difícil el funcionamiento de estas entidades y por tanto el trabajo de los profesionales que laboran en ella generando perdida de energía y sentimientos de agotamiento emocional. Cropanzano, Rupp & Byrne (2003) argumentan que el agotamiento emocional tiene un efecto perjudicial en el desempeño laboral del empleado, lo cual repercute posteriormente en la productividad de la organización. El estudio realizado por Wang, et al (2019) muestran la relación entre el conflicto trabajo – familia (WFC), el conflicto familia – trabajo (FWC), el agotamiento emocional y el desempeño. Los resultados muestran que WFC se relaciona positivamente con el agotamiento emocional. También se encontró que el cuidado de la organización reduce las influencias de WFC en el agotamiento emocional. En conclusión, es importante resaltar que todas las variables que se han considerado para realizar este estudio se relacionan entre sí. Por un lado, en un marco amplio se encuentra el cambio organizacional, el cual influye en el comportamiento y la percepción de las personas en la organización afectando el clima organizacional. Por otro lado, pero en la misma dirección se encuentran los factores psicosociales que también se ven afectados por los cambios en las organizaciones y que involucrarían factores como el balance trabajo – familia, el desempeño, el agotamiento emocional. Sin embargo, se debe rescatar que la forma como las personas en las organizaciones afronten estos aspectos, va a generar una mayor capacidad de resiliencia y adaptación de las personas en la organización.

Transcript of an oral history interview with Mark M. Kisiel, conducted by Joseph Cates on 23 January 2017, as part of the Norwich Voices oral history project of the Sullivan Museum and History Center. Mark Kisiel graduated from Norwich University in 1959; the bulk of his interview focuses on his experiences as a student at Norwich University, his continuing relationship with the university after graduation, and his business career. ; 1 Mark Kisiel, Class of 1959, Oral History Interview January 23rd, 2017 Home of Mark Kisiel, Falmouth, Massachusetts Interviewed by Joseph Cates JOSEPH CATES: Press record and we'll get started MARK KISIEL: Sure. Mm hmm. JC: This is Joseph Cates. Today is January 23rd, 2017. I'm interviewing Mark Kisiel. This interview is taking place at his home in Falmouth, Massachusetts. This interview is sponsored by the Sullivan Museum and History Center and is part of the Norwich Voices Oral History Project. First, tell me your full name. MK: Mark McDonald Kisiel. JC: Okay. When and where were you born? MK: I was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, January 8th, 1938. JC: What Norwich class are you? MK: I'm the class of '59, sometimes referred to as the magnificent class of 1959. JC: Tell me why it's called the magnificent class. MK: Well, it's quite unusual. We have come together through our reunion years and bonded to a point where, at our 50th reunion, we had ninety-eight percent participation in class giving. Our gift was the largest gift ever made for a reunion class in Norwich University. It exceeded twelve million dollars. JC: Oh, wow! Tell me about where you grew up and what you did as a child. MK: I grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts and my parents moved to Longmeadow, Massachusetts when I was in high school, Longmeadow being a suburb of Springfield. My father was a doctor, an orthopedic surgeon in Springfield. My mother was an elementary school teacher as well. I went to public schools through tenth grade. And then, in my junior and senior year in high school, I attended a Jesuit prep school in Lenox, Massachusetts named Cranwell School. Unfortunately, Cranwell School no longer is in existence. However, the property's been turned in to a resort and it's regarded as a first-class resort in the Berkshires. JC: Okay. What made you decide to choose Norwich? MK: I would say I chose Norwich probably by default. I'll tell you why I say that. Going to a Jesuit prep school back in the fifties, the Jesuits wanted you, every student to continue on 2 with a Jesuit-exposed education. I succinctly remember being interviewed by the headmaster of the school, Father Burke, and he said to me, and I remember these words distinctly. He said to me, "Mark, you could go to Holy Cross, Georgetown, or Boston College." Then, he said to me, "You're not smart enough to Notre Dame." I said to him, politely, "Father, I wanted to go to Dartmouth." And, he said to me, "You're not going to Dartmouth." In those days, if you didn't have a recommendation from the headmaster or principal of your high school, there was no way you could get in to any supposedly highly regarded institution. By coincidence, our next-door neighbor in Springfield has gone to Norwich and his parents highly recommended that I take a look at Norwich, which I did, obviously. Applied and was accepted and entered in the fall of 1955 as a young, at that time, seventeen-year old high school graduate. JC: What was it like, that first day at Norwich? MK: I will tell you. It was scary. I had no idea of what I was getting into. It was exceedingly strict. In fact, I felt like I was probably, one could argue, in jail. We didn't make a move, left or right, walk down the hallway in the dorm, walk outside, so forth, without being under scrutiny of upperclassmen who had cadet rank at the time. I remember walking, I believe the tradition still lasts to this day, which is good. You had to walk, basically in a gutter, on the side of the road, or in the streets of campus. JC: Yeah. It's still tradition. What was your major? MK: I majored in English. JC: Okay. Why'd you choose English? MK: I can't really answer that as I think it was probably a default major. A couple classmates of mine selected English as a major, so I kind of went along with them. One of our professors, we used to refer to him as Judge Newbrow, was an English teacher. He was quite a character. I'm glad I selected English as a major. Although, it didn't really contribute to my business career but maybe indirectly it did. JC: Who were your roommates and where did you live on campus? MK: I live, principally I believe, I lived, two of my four years were in Hawkins Hall. I think I might have lived one semester maybe in Alumni Hall but the majority of my time I was in Hawkins Hall. JC: Okay. And who were your roommates? MK: A gentleman named Gary Bergeron was a classmate and was my principal roommate for the majority of my time at Norwich. JC: Okay. Were you a member of a fraternity? 3 MK: Yes. I was. I was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and I was happy to have been elected. I was the vice president of that fraternity for about a year and a half. Ed O'Brien, who you just interviewed, you told me, was also a fraternity brother of mine. He was president when I was vice president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. JC: Okay. Can you tell me about the fraternity? MK: At that time, fraternities were, I believe we had five or six national chapters represented at Norwich. Fraternities were a large part of our social and almost every day of life at Norwich. It was a wonderful outlet for not having to be in uniform because you could be in civilian clothes when you went to the fraternity. It proved to be a large part of my life. I love the, I believe we had probably about sixty or seventy members in our fraternity. I recall, freshman year, we didn't have any freshmen. They were all, we were all sophomore, junior, and seniors members of the fraternity. It was a great outlet for the struggles and rigors of everyday life on the hill, being in uniform. JC: Well, how did you feel when they did away with the fraternities? MK: Quite honestly, I was very disappointed. I felt that they had provided a great social outlet. Every Saturday night, one of the fraternities always had a party and it brought our class together and I felt integrated the whole student body. As I mentioned, you weren't eligible to become a member until your sophomore year. So, we had in our fraternity at Sigma Alpha Epsilon, obviously sophomore, juniors, and seniors. It was a great bonding opportunity. Someone leaves a message on Kisiel's answering machine. JC: They always want to keep in touch with you, don't they? MK: Right. JC: Did you play any sports when you were at Norwich? MK: I did not play any varsity sports. Played intramural sports, intramural hockey principally, but I did not play any, I was not good enough an athlete to play on a varsity team. JC: What activity did you participate in? MK: Well, in addition to being a member of SAE fraternity, I was, let me think. I belonged to the Newman Club. You know, I really can't remember what other clubs I belonged to at the time. JC: What did you do to relax? MK: I would say the greatest outlet was being able to go to the fraternity house which I said, I went to every day after class. It was a great way to commingle with classmates, fraternity 4 brothers and so forth. At the time, I had a girlfriend at Skidmore College and I used to go down to Saratoga Springs, New York quite a bit. That was a great social outlet for me. Obviously, I participated in the parties we had at the fraternity house. Attended the regimental balls and those winter carnival activities, which were a lot of fun. Despite the rigors of military life on campus, I would say that, for the most part, all of our classmates and Corps members enjoyed a very good social life as well. JC: Do you remember any particular songs from your days at Norwich? MK: Well, in addition to our alma mater "Norwich Forever" song, right, every fraternity had their own song and ours was "Come Sing to Sigma Alpha Epsilon." I'm not a good singer so I won't continue those words. JC: Okay. Who were the instructors that were most influential to you? MK: I would say, I had another English professor. His name was Peter Dow Webster. He was also quite a character and I think played a strong influence on my gaining maturity. Also, Loring Hart was in our history department, I believe. He became a subsequent president of Norwich. I would say he had a strong influence on my maturing years there. JC: Okay. What were your favorite and least favorite classes? MK: I'd say some of my, and as I mentioned, I became an English major I think by default, but Peter Dow Webster was kind of a different guy. I don't whether he loved when you wrote stories that involved commingling of sexual activities or whatever. He would thrive on that and wanted you to go further in your thoughts and whatever. He was a fun professor. I would say on the least favorite, I remember taking a, I think I took a chemistry course. That was a challenge. Although my father was a doctor, I didn't inherit those talents and abilities to understand the tables and so forth of chemistry. JC: What do you remember about being a rook? MK: I would say we had, which I don't believe occurs any longer, there was a lot of hazing. I remember doing squats up against the wall with an M-1 rifle across my extended hands. My arms would be parallel to the floor, on which an M-1 rifle was rested across my wrists. You had to be in a full squat with your back against the wall in the corridor of our Hawkins Hall. Being there just and a drill instructor would be yelling at you not to give up, not to give up. Stay there. Hold it. Tight, tight, right, and so forth. That was a challenge. Also, for the least infraction of any rules, you got charged with what they call tours. I don't if they call them still. They probably do. They call them tours today. I marched a lot of tours around the parade ground. In those days, the parade ground was exceedingly barren. All the trees that you see there today were not there when I was a freshman. It was just one barren, open landscape, from one end of the campus to the other. JC: I was going to ask did you ever get into any trouble and what for? 5 MK: Oh, I got in trouble. Yeah. I got in trouble. Probably the most serious thing I got in trouble for was after, between junior and senior, we went to summer camp and I was going to get a commission in armor. So, we went to Fort Knox, Kentucky and one night we were out, several of my fraternity brothers and I were out. We were out too late. Upon our return back to our barracks, we told a story of what happened and it really was not a correct story. As a result, found out that we told the story of what happened. I was scheduled to be a company commander my senior year. After that, I was busted and I was back to a private. Upon return to campus, there were three of us that were involved in this situation. In fact, we were out with one of our military science Norwich professors. One could say we covered his butt because he told us what to do, which was not the right thing to do. Anyway, he since, I understand, long passed away so anyway. That was probably the most difficult thing of being involved with having a problem. JC: Speaking of summer camp, Ed told me to ask you what happened on the way down to summer camp. MK: So, we left, Gary Bergeron, my roommate, Ed O'Brien, and I left right here in Cape Cod. My parents had a house in South Yarmouth. So, we started our trip to Fort Knox, Kentucky first having a party at my parents' house here in South Yarmouth. Had some women over for the duration of a night and so forth. Then, we set off the next day and we drove not straight to Fort Knox. We drove down to, I think it was Fayetteville, North Carolina where we visited the home of a gal that I had been dating, seeing a little bit. I think she went to Endicott Junior College at the time. We arrived at this unbelievable plantation and Bergeron and O'Brien were, they looked awful. I looked awful. We'd been driving for two days and were met by the butler for the family who opened my doors. I pulled in underneath the portico of this unbelievable Southern plantation. Then, we were greeted by her parents and we stayed for two days. We never saw them again after that brief greeting. The three of us stayed in a converted slave shack that had been turned into a guest house. I'm sure that on our departure her father was very happy to see us go and probably hoped to never see us again. I had a 1950 Oldsmobile convertible. Everybody was, at that time, probably still do today, used to call their cars different things. My car was called "The Green Seducer." Laughs. Anyway, I don't know if you want to publish that. Fun times! JC: Ed also said to ask you, "Whatever happened to the hearses?" MK: Well, one of our fraternity brothers had a beautiful hearse. It was a 1938 Packard hearse. It was in perfect condition. Ed O'Brien, Gary Bergeron, and I owned a '36 LaSalle hearse. We bought for, I don't know. I don't think we paid a hundred dollars for it. Occasionally, we used to drive it down to Saratoga Springs, New York. It was a standard shift vehicle and had a clutch that used to slip all the time. And so, going up and down the hills of Vermont sometimes it would barely make the hill even though you might have had a sixty mile an hour head start to try to get up the hill. At graduation, we ended up selling the hearse, and I don't think we got more than a hundred bucks back for it, to a 6 couple of our junior fraternity brothers. Whatever happened to it after we sold it, I don't know. JC: Ed said he couldn't remember what happened to it either. MK: I don't know what happened to it. Yeah. JC: What do you think was the hardest part of attending Norwich? MK: I would say the rules and regulations which kept you somewhat, I'd say, confined to campus, certainly in freshman year, very difficult. I remember going home at Thanksgiving time. My head had pretty much been still shaved off and seeing some of my other friends who went to more civilian colleges. I'm thinking to myself, "What am I doing at a place like Norwich?" In the end, it all worked out very, very well for me. I was very pleased to stick it out. To this day, I'm very proud of the institution and what it's did for me in my life. The qualities and so forth, the development of good character and responsibility, all those things that Norwich teaches you, I think I embodied to this day. JC: What did the motto "I Will Try" mean to you as a student? MK: Well, I would say "Never Give Up" and that's what it means. If you believe in something, persevere to its end. I think "I Will Try," it's a great motto. One that means to you "Never Give Up." JC: Has that changed since you've gotten older, what you thought of "I Will Try"? MK: No. In fact, my wife says I'm too persistent a lot on a lot of things and if I believe in something that is right and can be accomplished, to this day. I'm known in my family as the last to give up. So, "I Will Try" has been embedded in my whole life, my business life, my personal life, and so forth. JC: Okay. What does Partridge's idea of citizen soldier mean to you? MK: Well, I think that it embodies the spirit of really what being an American is, that you behave in a way that you show that you're proud of your country and that you're willing to defend its freedoms. I think being both a citizen in private life and being a soldier, the combination of developing talents in those two respected areas and merging them together provides for being a better person. JC: Do you remember any funny stories about life or people at Norwich that you can tell? MK: One of our fraternity brothers, and sadly, he passed away just about a year and a half ago, Pierson Mapes, was an unbelievable class clown and a great friend of mine right up to the day that he passed away. He was a guy that had developed a tremendous amount of respect among the administration at Norwich. He was the kind of person who, because of his personality and size, he was about six-foot five, he could get away with absolute 7 murder. Even to this day, he was famous for blowing his bugle at all kinds of different events. He blew his bugle at our fiftieth reunion. I don't want to pursue any more on the stories and whatever. JC: I understand. What did you do after graduation? MK: The year I graduated, 1959, the U.S. government was offering six-month only active duty opportunities and then, seven-and-a-half-year commitment in the Reserves. I knew that I didn't want to pursue, as a career, being in the Army. So, I elected to take the, after graduation and being commissioned second lieutenant, I elected to do the six-month tour. I think the reason being they offered me the six-month tour, there were tremendous number of second lieutenants graduating from ROTC programs around the country. We had too many second lieutenants. So, they offered this reduced commitment prior to the, I think it was classes of '58, '59, and '60 probably offered that. This is pre-Vietnam era. I took advantage of that. Went to Fort Knox for six months and then, returned back to Springfield, Massachusetts. Actually, at that time, it was Longmeadow. Started to look, figure out what I was going to do for work and had a couple interviews with some small companies in Springfield. Then, by coincidence, the brother-in-law of the gentleman who had gone to Norwich that recommended my parents said I should look at Norwich, he was with a real estate firm in Boston. He was leaving that firm called Cabot, Cabot, Forbes and moving to a firm called Perini Construction. So, I interviewed with him and he said to me, he said, "Mark, if you wanted to go up to Toronto, Canada, you can go up there and go to work for this guy. We just bought a big piece of land outside of Toronto." In fact, almost bought the whole town, all the vacant land in the town, and were going to develop a big industrial park, planned a shopping center, residential development and so forth. I thought, "Wow, great opportunity. Why not?" He said, "I'll pay you five thousand dollars a year. So, you go up there and meet up with just two other people in the office and give it a shot." I didn't have any attachments. I was fortunate. My parents had given me a brand-new Pontiac convertible, 1959 Pontiac convertible. So, I had a nice car. I got in the car. Drove from Springfield to Toronto, Canada, where I spent a couple years up there. And then, returned to the Boston area. Stayed with Perini for another six months or so and then moved on with other real estate opportunities, commercial real estate opportunities in Boston. JC: Okay. How did your training at Norwich prepare you for life? MK: Well, I'd say "I Will Try" is a strong backbone to developing a character. I would say the importance of honesty, importance of hard work, importance of respecting others' opinions and thoughts, and helping others. All those things, I would say that are Norwich values probably contributed to my well-being. JC: Do you think your professional life would have been different had you not been a Norwich graduate? MK: You know, I really don't know whether that might have been different. To be honest with you, I've been very lucky and I think having the opportunity to go to work with the Perini 8 Group in Toronto was lucky. Whether or not that would have been any different, I don't know. JC: Has being a Norwich graduate opened doors for you that might not have otherwise been opened? MK: I don't think so but you never know. I've enjoyed obviously being, still remain connected to the University. I've got friends all over the United States who are, one way or another, connected to Norwich. Been exposed to probably of things that I normally wouldn't have gotten exposed to. Who knows? JC: Do you think Norwich graduates have a special bond that other military and civilian institutions lack? MK: I would say yes. Definitely would say yes because of a lot of friends that I have, none of them, aside from my wife, my wife also went to Skidmore as well. She has remained very involved in Skidmore activities. But my other male friends, they don't have the commitment to their alumni organizations or actually with their classmates. I've got a number of friends that went to Harvard. They are basically uninvolved with Harvard even at their reunions. Don't even attend their reunions. I think I attend every five years certainly and more often than that occasionally, reunions since I graduated. The class is unique and as I mentioned earlier, on our fiftieth, we had ninety-eight percent participation. Our class has really bonded close together which is great to this day. Back when we were students, you know, we all belonged to different, the majority of us belonged to different fraternities but yet, since graduation, we've really bonded as a class. JC: Have you been involved with Norwich since you graduated? MK: I have. I was fortunate to be asked to become a member of board of trustees. It's now about, I believe, fifteen years ago when that occurred. I was on the board of trustees for twelve years, a wonderful experience. Probably one of the best experiences in life that I had. Loved being a member of the board and being intricate in its involvement. I was chair of the development committee for, I think, five years when I was a board member. I got tapped to be the co-chair of the capital campaign that's currently underway and realigned my responsibilities, at the moment, where I'm a vice-chair of the capital campaign with Joel Kobert taking over as being chair of the capital campaign, rightfully so. JC: Okay. Do you stay in touch with your classmates a lot? MK: I do. I do. We, I would say, there isn't a month that goes by that where some communication from one of our classmates and so forth. As I mentioned, we're a very close class. After a five-year reunion, a year doesn't go by when we're not starting to organize for our next five-year reunion. That's already underway right now for our sixtieth, which is coming up in 2019, the two hundredth anniversary of the school. Coughs. Excuse me. 9 JC: What advice would you give a rook today about surviving and thriving at Norwich? MK: Let me get a glass of water. Would you like a coffee or anything? JC: I'm fine. MK: Oh, you're fine. Want some water? JC: I'm fine. MK: Okay. JC: Thank you, though. MK: My wife and I have had this cough going for a couple weeks. JC: Oh, goodness! MK: We thought we were on the tail end of it and I think it's coming back. So, Joe, what was your last question? JC: What advice would you give a rook about how to survive and thrive at Norwich? MK: Stick to it! Absolutely, stick to it. The rewards will be significant and you will never regret being, just stick it out. I know it's difficult but it's short-lived. When you're undergoing the experience, I'm sure you think, "Wow! When is this ever going to get over?" But perseverance, just stick to it and you'll never regret having done that. It will make you a better person in the long run. JC: Did you have any relatives that attended Norwich? MK: I did not. JC: What would you say your proudest moment at Norwich would be? MK: I would say that our collective effort to raise the perception, the worldwide perception of Norwich and how it stands in the global economy, building it up, the expansion of the campus, the expansion of the student body. I'm very proud of where the school stands in academia today. I think that's occurred as a direct result of President Schneider's leadership. We've come a long, long way in the last twenty-three or twenty-four years so I'm very proud of where we are today. JC: Can you tell me a little bit more about being a trustee? MK: Well, I also served on the investment committee. Being a trustee, it's a great responsibility because a trustee is charged with contributing and directing the future of 10 the institution. We're responsible for its well-being. Taking that responsibility is a very, very serious matter. I was very pleased to serve with, I believe, at the time, we had approximately twenty-seven, twenty-eight trustees and all with varying degrees of talent and all with a commitment to further the well-being of Norwich. It was a great experience working with them. I'm proud of the talents that are on the board, certainly when I was on. I know, to this day, the commitment that they all have. Everybody is pulling in the same direction. I was very proud to be asked and to serve on the board of trustees. JC: Is there anything else you'd like to add or something we haven't talked about that we should? MK: No. Joe, I'd say that again to emphasize the school has made tremendous strides under President Schneider's leadership and holds great promise for continuing. I know he's planning on retiring in 2020. I'm sure we will have a great cadre of potential individuals who will succeed him and continue on the legacy that he's established. Can't believe the school's been around for two hundred years and I think it's got great promise going forward for the next two hundred years. JC: All right. If there's nothing else? MK: That's it. JC: I'll press stop. Thank you very much. MK: Okay. All right, Joe. End of recording.

Sylvester Daniels, photo taken at his home on October 28, 2013 ; The New Zion Community Advocates worked with community members age 80 years and older to have contributed to the history of Ogden city. The interviews looked at the legacy of the interviewees through armed services, work, social life, church, NAACP and educational systems in an environment where their culture was not predominant. This program has received funding from the Utah Humanities Council and the Utah Division of State history. ; The following is an oral history interview with Bettye B. Gillespie conducted on January 22, 2014 by Forrest C. Crawford. ; 21p.; 29cm.; 2 bound transcripts; 4 file folders. 1 sound disc: digital; 4 3/4 in. ; Oral History Program Bettye B. Gillespie Interviewed by Forrest C. Crawford 22 January 2014 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Bettye B. Gillespie Interviewed by Forrest C. Crawford 22 January 2014 Copyright © 2014 by Weber State University, Stewart Library Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. Archival copies are placed in Special Collections. The Stewart Library also houses the original recording so researchers can gain a sense of the interviewee's voice and intonations. Project Description The New Zion Community Advocates worked with community members age 80 years and older to have contributed to the history of Ogden city. The interviews looked at the legacy of the interviewees through armed services, work, social life, church, NAACP and educational systems in an environment where their culture was not predominant. This program has received funding from the Utah Humanities Council and the Utah Division of State history. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management Special Collections All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the Stewart Library of Weber State University. No part of the manuscript may be published without the written permission of the University Librarian. Requests for permission to publish should be addressed to the Administration Office, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah, 84408. The request should include identification of the specific item and identification of the user. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Gillespie, Bettye B., an oral history by Forrest C. Crawford, 22 January 2014, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, Special Collections, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Bettye Gillespie, photo taken at her home on January 22, 2014 Abstract: The following is an oral history interview with Bettye B. Gillespie conducted on January 22, 2014 by Forrest C. Crawford. FC: What we're doing, Bettye, is this. I've got a series of questions that I'll go through. Some of them will be follow-up questions. Feel comfortable to respond to these questions on whatever level you want. The whole objective is not just to capture all of your NAACP activist work, but to really catch a broader, deeper picture of who you are, your work and legacy in the community. So, that's my goal and it might take a little more than an hour. What we're trying to do is work through these questions, some of which might overlap a little, but we'll see how it goes. The point is that you answer whatever you feel comfortable answering. BG: O.K. FC: I think we're ready to get going – more on your life. The good thing about it, Bettye, is that in the past, Weber State has not had these kinds of histories on the local African American community members and we're really pushing to make sure we have some of that kind of history reflected in our Special Collections. I think I might have mentioned to you that we did Joe McQueen. Funny, he had different experiences than you relative to 25th Street. But then he was a jazz saxophone player. He doesn't mind telling you that he's 94 years old. BG: I remember Joe McQueen. I haven't seen him for years, but I've seen articles about him in the newspaper. As I recall the path of lower 25th Street ended (and still does) as it intercepted Wall Avenue on approach to Ogden's Union Station. The Davis Hotel and 1 Restaurant near the corner of 25th Street and Wall Avenue was owned by a gracious, widowed, "Negro" woman. I believe Mrs. Davis operated both of those facilities. As a child, I had no reason, nor was allowed to go anywhere on lower 25th Street. Billy Weakley, husband of Annabelle Weakley, owned the Porters and Waiters Club on lower 25th Street which was primarily patronized by the Black employees of the Union Pacific Railroad. My family's home was on Lincoln Avenue near 28th Street across the street from the St. Anne's Center. FC: O.K. Let's get started. My name is Dr. Forrest Crawford. I'm a professor at Weber State University and I'm here on this day, January 22, 2014 in the home of Bettye Gillespie to do an oral interview for the purpose of preserving for posterity the life and legacy of Bettye Gillespie. This is part of a variety of ongoing projects where Weber State University for many years has attempted to preserve the history of many of its patriarchs and matriarchs, and we want to make sure that Weber State does a good job of not only selecting those voices, but also making sure that those voices are representative of our diverse community, including the African American community. To that end, I am here to try to explore some questions with Bettye, and as a result, we will try to get a much wider and deeper picture of who she is, the work she has done, and the life she lives. And I might also say as a sideline, that Bettye's husband, Jim, who is no longer living, was president of the Ogden Branch of the NAACP for 33 years. FC: Those two individuals were my personal mentors when I came to this community as a student-transfer from Oklahoma to play football at Weber State. So, they were two of the first people I met when I arrived in Utah. So, it's really an honor for me to be here and it's almost like a full circle kind of experience for me and, I'm very excited about it 2 Thank you, Bettye, for giving us the privilege of filming you and, in particular, allowing me to explore these questions with you. FC: The first question is "Tell me you name." (I already know your name). What are you doing these days, what are you doing now? BG: Well, I can't say I'm doing a lot. I have done some work at Weber State and the Black Scholars United gave me a nice award and scarf; and I spoke on the occasion of a memorial honoring the life and times of Rosa Parks. I also received an award from the Weber State Alumni Association for community service. I remember when Weber State moved from 25th Street to the campus where it is now located. There were just a few buildings. The ones I remember were the Union Building and the Browning Center and the classrooms. FC: This is interesting. You earned a B.A. from the University of Utah in Political Science, and M.A. degree in Human Resource Management and received a Merit of Honor award from the Alumni Association from the University of Utah. You served two terms on the University of Utah, Board of Trustees. Since a lot of your work and legacy have been at the University of Utah, you have also been engaged in a number of activities in the Ogden area. So, the question I have is what important lessons have you learned in life to date, and if you had 25 youths sitting in front of you, what couple of things would you say are most important that they should know about. BG: My mother was from Dallas, TX and my father was from Ft. Worth, TX. When they married, they moved to Ft. Worth where the Berliner family lived. Berliner is my maiden name. A friend of my Dad's, who lived in Ogden, while visiting Ft. Worth told my Dad of the many jobs available out here, how pretty the mountains were, how nice the people 3 were and talked him into moving out here. I had heard of Utah, but I had never heard of Ogden and thought we were moving to Oregon. The first school I went to was Central Jr. High. I was 13 years old. As I recall, there were only two Black boys and I was the only Black girl attending Central at that time. I remember going to a little store across the street from Central - 25th and Monroe. The store owner and the two Black boys had some kind of incident and the store owner would not serve me and I could not understand why. I immediately went to the school principal and told him that the owner would not serve me because of some problems he'd had with the two Black boys. My principal, an imposing man, grabbed me by the arm, took me over to the store and asked "Why is it that you're not serving her because of something somebody else did?" The man explained what it was that the boys had done. The principal said that he would not allow any of the Central kids to shop at that store. Since that store sold candy, ice cream and that sort of thing he said, "Oh, no, no, no, I'll serve her, I'll serve her." As you can see I am little, always have been. He served me. This was one of the first things that happened to me after we moved from Texas. I didn't expect it. That fall, I went to Ogden High School, still only 13 years old. I turned 14 that December. One of the first things I learned was to "Hang in there." My friends were the Kinseys, Velma and Shirley. Did you know the Kinseys? FC: I remember the name. BG: Ogden High School has a large population and I believe there were about nine Black kids in attendance, five girls and four boys. I was in Ogden High's most prominent class at that time. My classmates became doctors, lawyers, dentists, business owners, 4 college professors, and one congressman. Since I was only 15 years old, I was the youngest graduate at that time – that was my "Claim to Fame." FC: Do you have an opportunity to go to any of the class reunions and that kind of thing? BG: Before my husband died, we went to all the class reunions. We quit going after my husband became ill. FC: That's interesting. Bettye, when you think of Ogden and all the time you've lived here, how has Ogden changed over the years? What are some of the things that stand out in your mind that convince you that Ogden is really evolving into a different place now? Share with us how Ogden has changed over the years. BG: When Marshall White was alive, I was a part of the Youth NAACP. We had many problems. Blacks were not allowed to swim in Ogden's public parks swimming pools. Some restaurants would not serve Blacks, nor would lunch counters, places of entertainment and some hotels. We went to the Ogden City Council meeting about Lorin Farr Park's swimming pool and some council members denied discrimination. As a result, I went home to get my swimming suit. NAACP members said I could not go out there by myself. They assigned Marion Carter and Frank Satterwhite to go with me. We were all denied. The press became involved and the incident appeared in the newspaper. Guess who said we could come and swim in their swimming pool? Weber State. FC: I remember reading about that. BG: Weber State was still on 25th Street. 5 FC: Interesting. Beautiful. You know, as you were talking about that, I remembered that in a previous interview you did with Weber State you had a chance to talk a little about the time when you and Jim moved into your home in Riverdale and there were some incidents there. Can you speak briefly on that? It had something to with someone who had thrown tar on your home. BG: We bought a home in the upper part of Riverdale, on the ledge, just a block or so away from Washington Terrace. We were just driving around and I saw a house for sale that I liked. We bought the home. Before we moved in, someone threw a bucket of tar through a large window. It caused quite a stir. The FBI, local law enforcement officers, the news media, became involved. Marshall White, President of the Ogden NAACP, was still living. My husband was the First Vice President. Since we had not moved in, we did not lose anything. But some of the neighbors decided to clean up the glass from the broken window and the tar. An elderly woman brought her grandson over, a Hispanic family from nearby Washington Terrace came. The man was a carpenter and he knew how to do a number of things. He did whatever needed to be done. The Laymen's League from Ogden's Congregational Church came out and encircled the block, joined by the Washington Terrace Methodist Church and the Young Democrats. Ogden's Episcopal Church did not have a priest at that time, but the Vicar came. A number of other individuals came, including one who sat on our porch with a rifle. We had two small children. The Stake President of the area's Mormon wards assigned his two big sons to "look out for the little Gillespie girls." Our house was on a corner with a very large yard and lots of playground equipment. We became everybody's best friend. Guess who moved across the street from us? 6 FC: The Rod Julander Family. BG: Rod was a Political Science professor at Weber State. I was a Political Science student at the University of Utah. We became good friends and solved all the world's problems almost "every day." FC: As you became more and more familiar with the greater Ogden area, who were the most outstanding characters of that time? Were there any large personalities that stood out in the community? BG: Marshall White. He was an Ogden Police Officer. He may have been the only Black policeman in the state of Utah. It was not long after we moved into Riverdale, Marshall White was shot and killed in the line of duty. My husband, Jim, became president of the Ogden Branch of NAACP. FC: Were there leaders among the non-minority who often times found themselves in collaboration and partnership with the minority community? BG: Yes. One of our lawyers was Attorney Ira, who was our consultant. Jim Kirkham was with us for 40 years and passed away just a few months ago. FC: What was life like for you? I know we talked about it a little bit, but did you feel like you had a fulfilling childhood? Did you have a nickname? BG: I was an only child. I had one white and one Japanese best friend in addition to the Kinseys, and lots of boyfriends. My mother was very protective and strict and she didn't know about my boyfriends. My other best friends were Hazel Johnson McEwen, who passed away last year and Ruby Lewis Coppadge who lives in Dover, DE. I did not 7 have a nickname. In high school, I told my gym teacher that I wanted to be in the Pep Club and since I was qualified, I got in. There was a group of boys, all of whom wore green T-shirts who stood around in the hall, meddled and made snide remarks to me. One of them was running for student body president, 14 years old and five feet tall. I stood before my very large Pep Club and gave a speech on behalf of another boy who was a much better candidate, who not only won, but also became a U.S. Congressman. The green shirt boys always hung out in the hall not too far from the girl's restroom. My gym teacher reported it to the principal. He put a stop to it. Would you believe that one of the boys ended up teaching law in one of Utah's most prestigious Law Schools? Whenever we went to a class reunion, he would always immediately run up to my husband and say "Jim, please don't let Bettye tell anyone I belonged to that green shirt gang in high school." We ended up being friends. FC: Life places all kinds of twists and turns, it's interesting. When and how did you meet Jim? BG: Well, it was quite a while. On "Game Day", we wore our orange and black uniforms. They were so cute. At that time, I had long hair. Jimmy and his military group did not know many people here. So they would attend Ogden High's basketball and football games. He saw me and wanted to know who the little girl with the long hair and the big eyes was. One of the students who knew me told him to "forget about it." "Her mother is not going to let her go anywhere with you. Her mother is really strict." After I graduated from high school, I went to Washington, D.C. where my Dad's only sister lived. I attended Howard University for two years. My father was ill and I came home 8 from time to time. I can't remember exactly when I met Jimmy, but as I recall long-time residents, Ray and Wilma Freeman introduced him to me. FC: You had three beautiful children, now all college graduates. They were actively involved in the community. They have come to be leaders in their own right and my suspicion is that this kind of shaping and influence really had an impact on their lives. The question that I have is, when you think about it in retrospect, all of them are now grown and out. How has being a parent changed you as an individual? Did it change you at all? BG: Well, it certainly influenced me. As with most mothers, I was involved in many things. I was secretary of the PTA, attended all kinds of activities and served on many committees. Our oldest daughter, Shauna, went to Sacred Heart Academy because she had no one to play with. She was only about four years old, but we told the nuns how smart she was. She knew her address and telephone number and would talk to anybody. (True) They let her in. When we took her over there, she immediately marched into the Priest's dining area to help him eat his breakfast. Everywhere she went, she took over. FC: It holds true today, huh? BG: Shauna went to kindergarten and first grade in the Ogden School District. We discovered that her first grade teacher, Mrs. Piper, was also her pediatrician's first grade teacher. When we moved to Riverdale, we had only two children, Shauna and Deon. Kendall arrived two years later. They attended school in the Weber County School 9 District. They were well behaved, honor roll students with warm personalities and far too many friends. They participated in both the school choir and orchestra – Shauna, soprano and first violin, Deon – alto and viola. Kendall was every teacher's dream – honor roll, sweet personality, too many friends, Pep Club and toyed with the clarinet and ukulele. Teachers sent her post cards from their vacation sites. For their good grades and behavior, they were rewarded with a little black Scottish terrier, "Raven", who was a member of our family for 14 years. Shauna graduated from the University of Utah in three years and taught Head Start. She is currently a Conservator Investigator for the California Superior Court in San Francisco, CA. To our surprise, Deon received scholarship offers from MIT and Georgia Tech (high math scores). She chose to go the University of Utah, majored in Broadcast Journalism, worked for KTVX and KSL for a short period of time and KUSA in Denver, CO. She is currently a writer for the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver. After graduation, Kendall decided to go to Weber State University where she majored in Fashion Merchandising. She worked in the Ogden City Mall until she moved to California. She is currently a beauty consultant, promoter and distributor for Mary Kaye Cosmetics. Since their dad was still president of the NAACP, Ogden Branch, we took them to both Regional and National NAACP conventions. Deon and Shauna served on the National NAACP Youth Board and had an opportunity to attend meetings in New York City, NY. They both rode the subway despite my counsel and to my dismay. 10 FC: I think it's that fighting spirit that really, as a result of the way that you raised them was really a part of their upbringing, as they were growing up and in a lot of ways they couldn't help but to be the type of people that they are today, you know, so and I think that's wonderful and really a tribute to, you know, the very solid grounding that you gave them as parents. What about you? Let's see. You worked as Director of Equal Employment Opportunity at Hill Air Force Base. Is that right? BG: Yes. FC: For how long? BG: Twenty years. FC: For twenty years? For that long? BG: Yes. When the air force did some realignments, I received a collateral job of staffing for selective organizations. Not to worry, I received an additional staff of people who were already organized and trained. I remained the only Equal Opportunity Officer at Hill Air Force Base and the only woman Equal Opportunity Officer in the Air Force Logistic Command, our headquarters. The air force bases in our Command were located at Oklahoma City, OK; San Antonio, TX; Macon, GA; Sacramento, CA and San Bernardino, CA. We lost San Bernardino and some of our smaller bases to reorganizations. FC: I can recall in my early involvement in the NAACP, the presence of a lot of military men and women who were members of the NAACP here. I think it was because of the link between EEO, Hill Air Force Base and the Ogden Branch of NAACP and how Jim and others outreached to military personnel to become a part of the Ogden community and 11 so it makes sense to me now as I look at the bigger picture. It's wonderful that you and Jim were right in the middle of all that and helped make the NAACP the organization it is today. BG: My husband was the Equal Employment Opportunity Officer at the Defense Depot Ogden (Army). FC: Defense Depot, I remember that. BG: They had 1,400 civilians at that installation and we have 16,000 at Hill. His major job, his EEO job and his collateral job as Blood Drive Coordinator for the American Red Cross kept him plenty busy. FC: Wow! That's amazing. BG: The Social Action Office and The Judge Advocate Office had the responsibility of assuring equality among military personnel. Occasionally, a military wife would come to my office. FC: When you think about your life, when you think about your legacy, what would you say was the proudest of your life? BG: There were so many proud moments. When my children graduated from high school and college. When my EEO Office was declared the most distinguished office in the U.S. Air Force and many more - The Martin Luther King Commission, the University of Utah-Board of Trustees, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and many others. FC: There was a woman's organization you were involved, I am trying to remember the name. 12 BG: I was involved in many women's organizations – Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, YCC (formerly YWCA) and League of Women Voters. I don't know where I got the energy from, but I also taught Sunday school, third grade. I recently saw one of my third graders who is now 6'4". I also served on the Utah Merit Council (Civil Service Board), the National Endowment for the Humanities, Utah's Comprehensive Health Board, the Federal Executive Association, not all at the same time. I was president of the Ogden Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority for two terms and Director of the Youth NAACP. I also served one term as president of the Habitat for Humanity (local). FC: Teacher, counselor, trainer, mother, oh, you name it, as you say, and you've kind of done it all. It makes me think because over the years, you've had a significant number of awards and accolades bestowed upon you. As you said earlier, Weber State just acknowledged you with an award through its Alumni Association and there have been many other awards. Would you care to share some of those awards that you have received over the years? BG: Yes, if I can remember. I received the YCC award, the Juneteenth Legacy of Freedom Award, Utah State Martin Luther King, Jr. Award, Minority Bar association, Habitat for Humanity, Delta Sigma Theta Women Make a Difference statue, NAACP Rosa Parks Award, University of Utah Merit of Honor award and a Mother and Child Wall Plaque constructed and presented by a talented co-worker. FC: It's truly amazing. As we conclude this, are there other thoughts you would like to share? I recall that you were in Washington D.C. during the signing of the Civil Rights Bill of 1964. 13 BG: We were at an NAACP Convention when an NAACP lawyer interrupted the session to announce that the Civil Rights Bill had passed and been signed. On a lighter note, the NAACP held a convention in Jackson, MS. George Romney, Governor of Michigan and Mitt's father was the only governor in the nation to come. We knew him from his many visits here in Utah. As we approached the Convention Center, his limousine pulled up. There were hugs, kisses and even a few tears as he explained to the Detroit delegation, "These are my friends from Utah." My husband, Jimmy, was from Oktibbeha County, Starkville, MS. He was one of 14 children, five girls and nine boys. His youngest brother was killed in a one car rollover in the only car in that town. Jimmy took us to the place where his family's farm was located. Their saw mill, sawdust, woodchips were still there. They also had a country store – long gone and a small burial area. He said that there was no noise pollution in that town and folks chopping wood could be heard miles away. FC: That's a great story, Bettye. I appreciate the time you have given me to interview you. I think that your legacy clearly outlines that the importance of family, the importance of faith, the importance of education and the importance of being involved in the community and activism. But I also think that it's a legacy of perseverance and having dignity throughout that perseverance and I think that's why you are a living legacy today. It is that you are a testament, really, to that living legacy, and I'm just hoping that I can shape my life to be at least a little bit the way that you've shaped yours. 14

Betty J. Ott ; The Weber and Davis County Communities Oral History Collection include interviews of citizens from several different walks of life. These interviews were conducted by Stewart Library personnel, WeberState University faculty and students, and other members of the community. The histories cover various topics and chronicle the personal everyday life experiences and other recollections regarding the history of the Weber and Davis County areas. ; 13p.; 29cm.; 2 bound transcripts; 4 file folders. 1 sound disc: digital; 4 3/4 in. ; i Oral History Program Betty J. Ott Interviewed by Rebecca Ory Hernandez 7 November 2011 ii Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Betty J. Ott Interviewed by Rebecca Ory Hernandez 7 November 2011 Copyright © 2012 by Weber State University, Stewart Library iii Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. Archival copies are placed in Special Collections. The Stewart Library also houses the original recording so researchers can gain a sense of the interviewee's voice and intonations. Project Description The Weber and Davis County Communities Oral History Collection includes interviews of citizens from several different walks of life. These interviews were conducted by Stewart Library personnel, Weber State University faculty and students, and other members of the community. The histories date back to the early settlement of North Ogden, and cover various topics including the History of Fort Buenaventura, city government affairs, controversial issues, Latinos in Ogden, personal everyday life experiences and other recollections regarding the history of the Weber and Davis County areas. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the Stewart Library of Weber State University. No part of the manuscript may be published without the written permission of the University Librarian. Requests for permission to publish should be addressed to the Administration Office, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah, 84408. The request should include identification of the specific item and identification of the user. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Betty J. Ott, an oral history by Rebecca Ory Hernandez, 7 November 2011, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. Layton and Betty Ott Portrait,1952 Layton and Betty Ott Portrait, 1990 Ott Family Portrait, 1994 Back Row: Corinne Jensen, Debora Blade, Stephen Ott, Patricia Godfrey, Norma Meyers Front Row: Vickie Schwurack, Betty Ott, Layton Ott, Lorie Roe 1 Abstract: The following is an oral history interview with Betty J. Ott. Betty (b.1932) and her husband, the late Layton P. Ott (1930-2004), who generously named the Weber State University's Ott Planetarium. The oral history focuses on Layton's work in science and his love of astronomy and physics. The interview was conducted on November 7, 2011 by Rebecca Ory Hernandez in order to gather Betty and Layton's experiences with Weber State University, including philanthropy. The Ott's important gift to Weber State University assures that the Ott Planetarium continues to do quality production and also allows resources to continue the outreach programs and field trips that the Ott Planetarium staff is so great at implementing. Over 22,000 children go through the Ott Planetarium annually. The Ott Planetarium has received NASA awards as well as local and regional recognition due to their generous support. ROH: Today is November 10, 2011. We are in the home of Mrs. Betty Ott in St. George, Utah. Present are Rebecca Ory Hernandez from Weber State and Betty. We're going to talk a little about Betty's history and her husband's history. We'll also talk about their connection to Weber State University. Let's start with your name. BO: I was born Betty Byrd on November 25, 1932, in Phillips County, Arkansas. My mother was Mary Magdalene Brantly. My dad was Marvin Martin Byrd. I was the third of their eight children. We lived on a big farm. My dad raised lots of cotton and lots of corn. I attended school in West Helena, Arkansas. I graduated top in my class in 1950. Then I moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, where I was a 2 secretary for a company that sold feed to cattle. It was called Thibault Milling Company. I met my husband while he was an LDS missionary. I met him and his companion one day and my folks did not want me to have anything to do with the LDS Church. I was getting a lot of problems, so I moved to Little Rock so I could do what I wanted to do. There was an attorney who was a member of the Church there. He took me to meet the people at the Thibault Milling Company and they hired me to work for them as a secretary. I was there for about a year and a half. Layton was in Arkansas to start with and he got transferred to Oklahoma, where he spent the rest of his time. ROH: Where was Layton from? BO: He was from a little town called Tropic, Utah. It's by Bryce Canyon. His dad raised cattle and his mother taught elementary school. His mother had lived in Ogden, but when she graduated, she went to Weber when it was Weber Academy. It only took two years, at that time, to become a teacher; then the State sent her down to a little place in Garfield County to teach. That was the Ott-family area down there and that's how she met Layton's dad. Layton was born in West Point; they lived there for a time. He had a brother and a sister. I thought Layton was really wonderful, so I corresponded with him while he was in Oklahoma. He wrote me a letter and said, "Would you marry me after my mission?" And we did. When we got married, we lived in Provo for a while. He was going to BYU and we didn't have jobs. We moved to Salt Lake and he went to the University of Utah. 3 ROH: What year did you get married? BO: In 1952. ROH: Where did you marry? BO: In the Logan Temple. I had a job working for a finance company while he was doing every kind of odd job he could in order to keep us afloat. He went to the U for a year, and then he got drafted into the Army. He was trained in Fort Ord, California, but when he finished training, he got sent to Petersburg, Virginia. He taught classes for the military there. ROH: Where were you at that time? BO: I was with him—not during the Basic Training, but after that I got to go with him. In November 1953, we had our first daughter, Deborah. ROH: Where was she born? BO: When he first got drafted into the Army, I stayed here in St. George because I didn't have another place to go. So I had Deborah here in St. George. When he finished with his military service, we came back to Salt Lake and he finished his Bachelor's degree. He graduated top in his group and he was offered two scholarships. He took the one in Los Angeles. We moved there and he got his Master's degree from UCLA. We had a son while he was in the military and our second daughter was born at the UCLA Medical Center. Then we moved back to Utah and he went to the University of Utah for his doctoral work. He got hired at the University [of Utah] and taught in the Business Department for about seventeen years. He loved it and he loved the young people. He actually got an 4 award from the University of Utah students, who voted him as one of the best professors in that department. ROH: Was his Master's in business? BO: Yes, it was an MBA. After he'd been at the U for about seventeen years, he said, "I need to do something different." It was about this time that he met President Miller, who was Weber's president. Weber wanted to get a planetarium, but financially it wasn't there. Layton helped them by donating a lot of things—he donated land so they could sell it, he also donated a coin collection…I don't remember everything. But he helped them so they could get the planetarium. ROH: What is the connection between his work in business and the planetarium? BO: He had a telescope and he loved to take the children out at night and show them. When Weber wanted to get a planetarium, it hit Layton just right. ROH: He was passionate about stars and astronomy. BO: He was, really. ROH: Do you know if he always had that hobby? Even as a young person? BO: I'm not sure. The only thing I remember was that when he was in Boy Scouts, they could get a merit badge for astronomy. Maybe that's where it started. ROH: How involved were you in that process of donating and helping Weber get a planetarium? BO: I was tending children all that time. It was a neat thing for me because I was supportive of him and what he did and when it was dedicated, I got invited to come. That was good. ROH: It must have been a happy day when we had the planetarium grand opening. 5 BO: It was beautiful. Then, after Layton passed away—it was in 2005 or 2006—we gave the money to Weber to get a new telescope and new chairs and things. ROH: When did Layton pass away? BO: It was in 2004. ROH: Did he stay connected to Weber all those years after meeting President Miller? BO: He did. He had a passion for helping Weber get what they needed. We spent a lot of time there. We got acquainted with most of the presidents of the college. He was really happy when it was made a university, too. Actually, President Naduald was the president of Weber and now he's the president of Dixie. He's a very nice person. ROH: How have you stayed involved with the planetarium since Layton's been gone? BO: Every year, Dr. Ostile and Lisa would come down to visit me and I continually give money to take care of things. We've done that every year. I don't know how it happened, but I know Layton had a desire to really help people and the planetarium. I think it was two years ago that we agreed to donate a certain amount to Weber for ten years. My son is involved in that. ROH: I wanted to ask if all of your children have been involved. BO: Mainly my son. One of the professors there had taken a leave of absence and my son graduated with a Master's degree from BYU, so they called him and asked him if he'd be willing to substitute. It was an accounting class. For some reason, we have just always stayed close to Weber. It meant a lot for Lisa and Dr. Ostlie to take the time to come down to visit. ROH: Have you been able to go to any of the shows in the planetarium? 6 BO: Yes. All of my family came into town and they had a special showing when they got all the new equipment in. The kids loved it. Dr. Ostlie and the proctors were so kind. They said, "Anytime there's kids trying to get merit badges or something, bring them here and we'll do a show for them." They are very kind. My son was a bishop in Kaysville and they would take kids up to see a show. The boys would get a merit badge for it. Weber has been very kind to me and to our family. I can't think of any other way to say it. ROH: That's perfect. Has this project that you've helped with caused you to have a greater interest in astronomy? BO: I love it, but I don't have a telescope or anything. I love to sit out at night in the summer and see the stars and the moon and think, "We've got a beautiful world." Layton would take the kids outside with a telescope and find the Big Dipper and things like that and he'd tell the kids all about it. ROH: Have your children become more inquisitive about astronomy because of this? BO: I would say so, but not in a large way. Lots of grandsons have enjoyed going to Weber to see the shows. It was nice for the kids. ROH: Is there anything you'd like us to know about Layton? BO: Oh my goodness, it would take all day to tell you all the wonderful things about Layton. When he gave up teaching at the University of Utah, he had two partners in Salt Lake that asked him if the three of them could start a developing businesses together—shopping centers in the Salt Lake area and those sorts of things. Their big project was the Layton Hills Mall. He did a lot of developing. One of his partners was sent to Armenia to build a cement plant—they had an 7 enormous earthquake there that destroyed a lot. After about six years of being over there, he got burned and came home and passed away at the University of Utah's Medical Center. But these three really were the best partnership you could ever ask for. They were just completely in accord. Layton was the one that made sure the financial part of it was okay. David Horn was the builder. Then Paul and Bob Mendenhall were the two that got the companies into the mall. They were together probably ten or so years. ROH: How did they know one another? BO: Through church. ROH: Was he working in the business world at the same time that he was teaching? BO: No. When he first quit teaching at the U, he bought a business from a company in Tooele. It was called Vista International. For several years, that company made pieces that fit on the back of a truck—now they're just called campers, I think. They really expanded that quite a bit. ROH: Did your family go camping? BO: The people who were building these campers said to him one day, "We have built a camper just for you. You need to come and see it." They'd put carpet and all these various things in it…it was really pretty. We took the children and went to Yellowstone—by then, we had six of our children. We stayed one night—we stayed in the hotel and the kids stayed in the trailer. Layton took it back and told the guy, "Sell it, I don't need it." It was not for him. He did not like to camp. Even as an Eagle Scout, he didn't want to go into the wilderness and set up a tent. [Laughter] 8 ROH: How long did he teach? BO: About seventeen years. And that camper business was the first thing that he went into. Doing strip malls and things came later. ROH: You've mentioned a few of your children. Would you tell us who they are and the years they were born? BO: Deborah Kay was born November 11, 1953. Steven Layton was born July 11, 1955. Laurie was born June 24, 1957; she's the one who was born at UCLA. Then Vicki Lynn was born August 15, 1958. Then we decided, "Wow, we've got to slow this down!" [Laughter] So we waited six years and then had Corinne; she was born on March 16, 1964. Patricia was born March 14, 1966. She and her husband Darin are very involved in Weber State. ROH: Did she go to Weber? BO: She and her husband graduated from Weber. Trisha got her Bachelor's and Darin got his Master's. Then, our youngest child is Norma Jean; she was born May 28, 1970. Norma graduated from BYU Hawaii. She met a guy over there and when she came home for Christmas she said, "I've met someone and I want to get married." That's when we decided to move to St. George. We wanted to get out of the cold weather; plus, Layton's mother lived there and she was not in good health, so we were coming down a lot for her sake. ROH: Had she moved from Tropic to St. George? BO: Yes, she had actually moved to St. George quite a few years earlier because she taught first grade at the school here. ROH: Would talk a little about your son's involvement in Weber State? 9 BO: He takes care of all the financial things between us and Weber. Weber knows his phone number and address. He could tell you so much more than I could. His dad idolized him and they did everything together. He's actually the CFO of Living Scriptures in Ogden. At one point, he quit and they hired another guy, then the boss called and said, "Steve, we've got to have you back." I think he works three days a week there. He has golfed with Dr. Ostlie and Lisa. Plus, his daughter Melanie is going to Weber right now. She wants to get a degree where she can…you know how when someone writes a book and you get it reviewed by someone? That's what she's going to school for. She wants to be able to do reviews of things. ROH: Do you go back to Weber State on occasion? BO: I get invited, but it's so far away! [Laughter] ROH: I know. I was wondering if there are things that you attend sometimes or if you go to campus to see the planetarium. BO: I think the last time I saw the planetarium was when they did the remodeling and dedication and all the family was there. I'm kind of a person who doesn't do social things. ROH: Tell me a little about what you do here in St. George. BO: I really enjoy it here. I've been working at the temple as an ordinance worker. I got released just recently, so now I go over to do my work. It's a beautiful thing and the work is beautiful. Around 1999, Layton said, "Let's take the children and go traveling with them." So in 1999, we did a cruise and went to Russia. The next year, we did a cruise and went to New England and Canada. The year after, we 10 did a cruise to Alaska. Then he started taking all the grandkids, too. It was a job. Then, in 2003, he took the children on a Caribbean cruise around Thanksgiving time and he passed away the following January. ROH: How did he pass away? BO: In 1973…he had a cousin who was Chief of Police in Salt Lake. He had been in the military and he trained people what to do with the enemy or bombs and things. We went with them for a month and in that period of time, Layton picked up salmonella. Normally, that's only dysentery and you get rid of it. But the doctor assumed that Layton had an ulcer and it got in his ulcer. He was in the hospital all summer long and it was so bad that we assumed we were going to lose him. Well, it affected his liver the worst, but it affected all of his vital organs. He had a number of operations. They did a surgery on him that worked, but you never get rid of the salmonella virus. When we came here, we found a doctor who works with livers as his specialty. About two years before Layton passed away, the doctor said, "Layton, I've done all I can do for you. I'll give you two years." Layton lived two more years and a month. Of course, I didn't know about that. Layton didn't tell me. He told my son and my son told me after Layton passed away. ROH: I guess he didn't want to worry you. BO: That's what Steve said. ROH: I'm very sorry. You said that Layton did some military duty, did he ever go overseas? BO: No. He was at Fort Lee teaching classes for the military. Then he got sent to a place in California; for some reason they had not kept the books that had to do 11 with the NCO Club. There were a lot of things about it that were a mess and they were trying to close it. I can't remember the name of the base. ROH: Which branch of the military? BO: The Army. His job was to construct a set of books that looked legal. It passed and so he worked there until about the last of August. They gave him an early release so he could go back to school. He went back and got his Bachelor's degree. ROH: So he wasn't in the military very long. BO: About two years. ROH: Did he have anything to say about that time in the military? Based on the rest of his life, that's a really small period of time. BO: There were several guys from Utah that had all gotten drafted at the same time and gone to Basic Training together. One of them had a car there and on the way back, they had a wreck. Layton's back was broken in the accident. From February through the end of April he was in the hospital trying to get it fixed. In May, they sent him to Fort Lee, Virginia. Because he had a bad back, he never had to do KP or guard duty or anything like that, so that was a good thing. But anyway, he did so many wonderful things. ROH: What did the two of you enjoy doing together as far as family traditions? BO: I think the most we ever did was go to movies together. We were stay-at-home kind of people. If we did do things, we had all the kids with us. Friday night was his day with all the kids and me. Every Friday night, they got to go out to dinner and chose where they wanted to eat. Then we'd come home and play games. He 12 thought his kids were the only kids in the world, I think. [Laughter] We were both very active in the Church so we did a lot of things church-wise. But he worked long hours when he quit teaching, and he felt like any time he had, he had to spend it with the family. So that was what we did. When we went on vacation, they all went with us. Except when we went to Asia. ROH: When did you go to Asia? BO: In 1973, that was when he picked up salmonella. ROH: Were you with him? BO: Yes. The four of us had to be tested, but he was the only one who had gotten it. ROH: Do you recall where you were based? BO: We weren't really based anywhere. In Salt Lake, there was a sort of international police chief convention [International Association of Chiefs of Police Convention]. The first country we went to was Japan; they wanted him to come in and talk to their police department and say, "If this happens…this is what you can do." We went all over. We were in the Philippines and Singapore and Thailand. That was quite an experience. When we were in Thailand, they invited us to see some beautiful dance shows. We enjoyed Thai food. We got entertained as if we were VIPs. ROH: Layton was never a policeman though? BO: Layton wasn't, but Layton's cousin, Earl was a policeman. Earl and his wife asked us if we'd go with them. We had a wonderful time in Japan. We got to see them diving for pearls and various things. ROH: That sounds exciting. I've never seen pearl diving. 13 BO: Yes. They have to be in a certain place and a certain depth of water, so we were taken out to a place where we could see them diving for the pearls. ROH: Okay. So neither you nor Layton attended Weber State. BO: Just his mother. She knew President Miller and I think that was what started her interest. President Miller was from West Point, I believe, and that's where Layton's mother grew up. ROH: Next week, I have an appointment to talk to the five daughters of President Miller. BO: Oh, he was such a kind, good man. President Nadauld was, too. When we moved down here, we were trying to help him to keep some programs going, too. Layton was really a lover of education and he wanted all of his kids to be well-educated. I have twenty grandchildren and fourteen great-grandchildren. The oldest just turned twenty and he's going to Honduras to serve a mission for the Church. Trisha's son is in Norway. My daughter Corinne's third daughter is in the Singapore Mission in the Malaysian Islands. ROH: Three of your grandchildren on missions at the same time? BO: Yes. Other than that, I've got grandkids who have done wonderful things. Everybody does. ROH: Thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it.

Interview with Elsie Puputti of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Topics include: Elsie Puputti was born in Finland, June 26, 1932. He father died when she was very young and her mother struggled to raise her and her siblings on their small farm. Memories of how poor the conditions were in Finland and what it was like during the war. Mrs Puputti's mother had been born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts and eventually was able to return with three of her daughters January 6, 1949. Arriving in New York harbor and her first memories of the U.S., how things compared to Finland. The help her aunt was to her family when they first arrived. She worked as a maid until she was married in 1951. She went to night school to learn more English. Going to church, social activities, and how she met her husband. Customs she missed from Finland and traditions she kept. How Mrs. Puputti started her store. Her children and their interests. How her life in the U.S. compares to what it would have been like in ; 1 INTERVIEWER: Mrs. Puputti, where were you born? MRS. PUPUTTI: I was born in Finland. INTERVIEWER: In what? MRS. PUPUTTI: [Unintelligible - 00:00:06]. INTERVIEWER: And when was that? MRS. PUPUTTI: 1932. INTERVIEWER: What month? MRS. PUPUTTI: June 26. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Could you briefly describe what your earlier years were like there, like what was your family like? MRS. PUPUTTI: Uh, well, we had a very small home. We were -- my father died when I was very young. I was only three years old. My mother took care of us, six of us. And everything was quite poor, I think. Very much, we didn't have very much of anything, you know? My mother was born here in Fitchburg. And after my father had died, she tried to struggle on. We had a little piece of land. And, and she wanted to -- she figured when we get a little bit older she wants to come back to Fitchburg, try to see if she can make a little better life for us here. INTERVIEWER: Did she, did you live on a farm, like? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah. INTERVIEWER: Yeah? So she had to the farm work and all of you helped? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah. INTERVIEWER: Small farm? MRS. PUPUTTI: Very small, yeah. INTERVIEWER: Uh, what kind of uh education did you or your brothers and sisters have? MRS. PUPUTTI: Well, we all went to like a grammar school or like [unintelligible - 00:01:22] that type of a school. INTERVIEWER: Mm-hmm. MRS. PUPUTTI: Then two years after that, that's how extensive my education.2 INTERVIEWER: Because after that you usually have to pay for your education, and a lot of people couldn't go then. So you can remember times were sort of poor or anything like that? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah. We had sometimes very rough times. Most of the time we always had food, except right after my father died. That was the hardest time. But then after that we always managed to have food. And then we had relatives here. My aunts, they used to send us packages. In the wartime we could get clothes and things like that. To me, a lot of times we were almost better off than some of the other families [unintelligible - 00:02:12] they had bigger houses and more land. INTERVIEWER: You were happy as a child, I think? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yes. I can't remember being really miserable. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember any important events that happened? Like you said you were there during the war. Can you remember anything about the occupation and the revolutions? MRS. PUPUTTI: Well, where we lived, we weren't really touched that much, except that I remember when we did receive lot of… what do you call [unintelligible - 00:02:43] other people that move to our…? INTERVIEWER: Refugees? MRS. PUPUTTI: Refugees. Yeah. We took care of some of them and tried to get them housing and helping like that. I was… I can't remember. I must have been about -- I don't even know how old I was, maybe 12 years old. Could be that I'm wrong with my… INTERVIEWER: Yeah. Do you remember any bombings or anything like that? MRS. PUPUTTI: No, we didn't have bombings in where we lived. Not even close. We saw the planes go over, but that's all. INTERVIEWER: Why did you decide to come to this country? Or your mother made the decision, right? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yes. I was young. I was 16, 15, 16 years old. She just wanted to come here. We were young. Three girls, my oldest sister and my 3 younger sister. And she just decided to take us with her because we weren't married or anything. She wanted to, you know, keep us together. INTERVIEWER: So she left some of the children in Finland? MRS. PUPUTTI: She left two of the older girls. My brother died in the war. That was the one of the hardest part for me. He was my only brother. He died. But there was five girls, and two of them were married, so they stayed. INTERVIEWER: So this was something that your mother had planned for quite a while, right? She had always hoped that when she figured you were older to come over here? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah. INTERVIEWER: How did the others feel about the choice to come over here? Did your relatives say they thought it was a good idea, or did they tell you not to? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah. Those days it was very hard to get here. That was 1949. Very few people got in. And I remember my mother got in the US because she was born here and she got her citizen papers back. And that was the only reason we were able to make it here. And like I said, we had waited for I think it was about two years for our papers to come through. So it is something that she -- remember, see, she was 13 years old when she left, so she remembers what it was like here. Because we were very, very excited. I was. My older sister wasn't. She had boyfriends, so I guess she wanted to stay. But I was very excited, and my younger sister was very excited. INTERVIEWER: When did you leave? Do you know what date it was? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah. We came here January 6, 1949. So it took us about 11 days to… INTERVIEWER: Eleven days to -- and did you come over by boat? MRS. PUPUTTI: By boat, yeah. 4 INTERVIEWER: What was that like? MRS. PUPUTTI: Well, I was very sick. INTERVIEWER: Were most of the family sick? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yes. INTERVIEWER: Yeah. MRS. PUPUTTI: Very sick. But it was very exciting because I had never been in a huge ship. INTERVIEWER: Was it a nice boat? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah. INTERVIEWER: Were you all crowded, or…? MRS. PUPUTTI: No, we had a nice room. We had… the name of the boat was Stockholm. That's a Swedish line. It's one of those big ocean liners. There isn't too many left like that. INTERVIEWER: So aside from being sick, it was a comfortable, pleasant ride. MRS. PUPUTTI: Oh, yes. It was very nice. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember if it cost very much? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah, I think my ticket was $120, because I remember my aunt had paid for it and, you know, here. And after I started working, that was the first thing I did was to pay my ticket. INTERVIEWER: So your relatives here in Fitchburg helped pay for all of you to come over [unintelligible - 00:06:26] because that would be difficult for your mother to raise that much money for all of you. Once you were on the way, did you have any second thoughts about coming, or were you just -- like you said, you were excited, really? MRS. PUPUTTI: No, we were very apprehensive. Very, very -- you know, looking forward and thinking about what it's gonna be like. INTERVIEWER: What place did you enter this country? Do you remember? MRS. PUPUTTI: New York. INTERVIEWER: Was it Ellis Island, or… MRS. PUPUTTI: No, not anymore.5 INTERVIEWER: Just New York harbor? MRS. PUPUTTI: Just like any other tourist. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember what the first thing was that you saw in this country? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah. To me, the most striking thing was when I saw the Black people the first time. Then I see some nuns, and I had never seen that. That to me was -- you know, I keep my eye on them quite a while. Then I had picture of the city much different. I had thought it was so beautiful, but there's nothing that can describe. But then it was quite dirty, and I was disappointed, actually. But then… INTERVIEWER: The buildings were tall though. MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah. That was something exciting, but… INTERVIEWER: And the Statue of Liberty, things like that. MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah. But still, it was so different that it always stays in my mind. INTERVIEWER: So you felt a little disappointed but still happy? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah, still very excited. INTERVIEWER: Was there any type of welcome for you? MRS. PUPUTTI: Nothing big. My aunt came to pick us up. We came from New York to Fitchburg in a bus. INTERVIEWER: Was that the first time you've ever been in a bus? MRS. PUPUTTI: No. INTERVIEWER: No. MRS. PUPUTTI: We had buses in Finland. INTERVIEWER: Yeah. Was there any kind of confusion, like did you have a communication problem finding your aunt? MRS. PUPUTTI: No. INTERVIEWER: No, she was right there. MRS. PUPUTTI: Yes. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Did you speak any English at all? MRS. PUPUTTI: No.6 INTERVIEWER: Or any of your family? MRS. PUPUTTI: No. My mother did, few words. She had… INTERVIEWER: She had spoken… MRS. PUPUTTI: But she had forgotten. INTERVIEWER: Forgotten? Yeah. Did you have to go through any formalities here, or were they in Finland that you had to…? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah. Only that they'd check your papers. INTERVIEWER: No physicals? MRS. PUPUTTI: No. INTERVIEWER: At least in Finland you probably had to. MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah, we had to go through all the -- we had to get the shots and everything. It was very, very strict. You had to get all kinds of papers. But here they just checked them and… INTERVIEWER: Did you notice any differences when you were traveling from New York to Fitchburg? Did you notice any differences compared to Finland? Like was the land flatter? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah. Actually, the roads first, that was something that I had never seen, huge roads. INTERVIEWER: Yeah. MRS. PUPUTTI: Highways. And then the scenery, everything was so much cleaner. The woods are so thick with the underbrush. Things like that. We had clean woods. I mean, you can see. INTERVIEWER: Oh yeah, clear. MRS. PUPUTTI: And then the hills, we had no flat. INTERVIEWER: How about the climate? Did you notice any difference in the temperature? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah, it's… INTERVIEWER: Well, you came in January, so it was pretty… MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah, it was about the same. It was cold here as well. INTERVIEWER: Did you find any differences between like the winters in Finland and how it is around here? Some people say they're more 7 unpredictable. Like in Finland, you get constant snow, whereas here you can get a blizzard. MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah, in Finland you never get two feet at one time. No. INTERVIEWER: Yeah. MRS. PUPUTTI: So that is different, and the air is dryer. INTERVIEWER: Yeah. Did you meet any American people along the way, or mostly you were just traveling with your aunt? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah. I can't remember. No. INTERVIEWER: Were you pretty much excited still, or were you disappointed at the changes in scenery? Was it still exciting? MRS. PUPUTTI: When we got here, it was very nice. Houses were so big, but not to me, because we're used to it now. But going along the Mechanic Street, and all that Elm Street, High Street apartments, there were these [unintelligible - 00:10:37] and things that look so, so different. I had never pictured nothing like that. INTERVIEWER: Were you disappointed, or you liked it? MRS. PUPUTTI: No, I think it was very unusual. Something about it, I can't put it into words, but it was exciting, somehow so different. INTERVIEWER: Did you and your mother and the other girls, did they stay with your aunt then? MRS. PUPUTTI: No, she had gotten us apartment already. We were our own family right away. INTERVIEWER: And did she get a job somewhere? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah. We got jobs, all of us. My youngest sister, Lisa, went to school, but the others, we had to go to work. INTERVIEWER: What did your mother get for a job? MRS. PUPUTTI: We mostly did the housework [unintelligible - 00:11:18] but you have to do [unintelligible - 00:11:21] so did I. INTERVIEWER: Did you do housework for other people? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yes. INTERVIEWER: And your other sister too?8 MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah. I was like a maid for [unintelligible - 00:11:30] different things until I got married and I quit. INTERVIEWER: When did you get married? MRS. PUPUTTI: Two years later, '51. I met my husband here. He had come from Finland too. INTERVIEWER: Did you ever get a chance to go back to school or to learn English in school? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah, I did go to night school. That's how we [unintelligible - 00:11:50] learn to speak clearly. INTERVIEWER: Otherwise you picked it up? MRS. PUPUTTI: But then you just picked it up on the way. INTERVIEWER: I'm surprised how well the people do that I interviewed when they say they just had like a short time in night school and they just picked it up. It's hard to believe you can do so well. Did you look for a neighborhood that had mostly people of your own nationality, like Finnish people? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah. That's not so much that we looked for it, just that… INTERVIEWER: They were all there. MRS. PUPUTTI: … they were right there. INTERVIEWER: Were they friendly? Were the neighbors friendly? MRS. PUPUTTI: Oh, yes. We never had any problems with them. INTERVIEWER: Did it take much time for you to become involved in the church or social activities in this area? MRS. PUPUTTI: Not in the church. We were not immediately, because my mother is very religious and we all are. So we naturally started with the church that -- it was right in the neighborhood, too, the Messiah Lutheran Church. It's just been with us ever since. INTERVIEWER: So you got into church activities and events like that? How about social activities, like dances or picnics?9 MRS. PUPUTTI: A little bit. They used to have like a [unintelligible - 00:12:58] society. They used to have dances those days, but they don't have that much anymore, like [unintelligible - 00:13:02]. INTERVIEWER: Right. Did you use to go? MRS. PUPUTTI: It used to be a little bit [unintelligible - 00:13:08] like they had shows, we used to act and things like that. INTERVIEWER: Yeah. You took part in it? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah, a little bit, but nothing too much. That was one thing that I was -- we were very, very lonesome Christian girls. Very lonesome. We missed our old friends and… INTERVIEWER: Boyfriends and things? Is that how you met your husband, through one of these? MRS. PUPUTTI: No. It was quite interesting. I had met one older gentleman here in evening classes in high school, and he used to tell me about this very interesting boy he used to know and he used to live with in Sweden. And he says if he ever gets here, I would very much like you two to meet. So when my husband came here, first time this gentleman introduced us. And actually, he brought him to my home. That's where I met him very first time, in my own home. So somehow I just end up right away. He was so different, so refreshing coming from [unintelligible - 00:14:12]. INTERVIEWER: Must have been nice he could tell you about [unintelligible - 00:14:15]. What were some of the things that you missed most about Finland, like food or any customs? Did your mother still cook Finnish food? MRS. PUPUTTI: Oh, yeah. Yes. It's not so much that I -- I don't know if I missed anything like that so much, any of the foods or customs or anything like that, just that there's a certain kind of atmosphere, a certain kind of feeling for everybody where they have been or something long years, but not any particular thing.10 INTERVIEWER: Just miss the whole thing. Yeah. Did you keep up any customs? Did your mother practice customs? MRS. PUPUTTI: I suppose so, if you really start to think about it. Like Christmastime, we always had the kinkkus. INTERVIEWER: What's that? MRS. PUPUTTI: That's pork. Fresh pork we cook, [unintelligible - 00:15:14] fish and things like that. INTERVIEWER: You still kept that? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah, we still keep that up. Easter time we used to have special foods we're used to making. Not so much anymore. INTERVIEWER: How about holidays? Did you still have any? [Unintelligible - 00:15:26] maybe all the Finnish people practiced holidays? Could you ever get hold of anything like Finnish books, things like that? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yes, we did. Let's see. Oh, I suppose [unintelligible - 00:15:43] well, I have to think of it. I can't remember. INTERVIEWER: You could still read Finnish books? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yes. But I can't remember how we got them, but I know there was some. INTERVIEWER: Okay. What were some of things you enjoyed most about your new life? Anything special? Any more conveniences or better pay? MRS. PUPUTTI: Well, yeah. The food was so nice. That was one thing that was very good. And then the cars, you know, started coming out that we had never had a chance to drive like we did here. Well, everything was faster and a bigger scale than what I was used to. INTERVIEWER: Did you like that? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yes. Yes, it's something that we'd pursue. Let me think. What would be some other things that would be nice? INTERVIEWER: Would you have had a chance to have your own shop? How did you get involved in this?11 MRS. PUPUTTI: Oh, I know I wouldn't have had the chance to have this own shop like this that I have here. Well, see, one thing though Finland's been always very up to date on fashion, and the quality is superb. My brother-in-law in Finland has a big clothing store, and we used to get these for Christmas and we used to visit them. Like in 1969, the whole family, we went over, and just to see that store. It just inspired me to think that, "Why couldn't we have something like that in Fitchburg with all the Finnish people here?" So it would really be something special for them. So I had dreamed about it, but I didn't really think that I'll ever do it. But then one time a couple years ago, after I was talking with my sister, she got so excited that, "Go ahead, do it," that I go to my brother-in-law and see what he thinks if he could give me the factories and people to send me some things, you know. It's hard for you to get started and then you still have some factories send you some things and they don't know anything about you. But he was good help with me that way that he got them to send me some things, and then that's how it started. It's two years now and they keep sending us. And it's so nice because it's so different. Everything is so well-made. People seem to like -- like I said, steady customers. INTERVIEWER: Yeah. MRS. PUPUTTI: Continual. INTERVIEWER: Yeah. I meant to ask you, did you ever have any children after you got married? MRS. PUPUTTI: Oh, yeah. I have a daughter and a son. Daughter is 20 and my son is 18. INTERVIEWER: What do they do? MRS. PUPUTTI: She sells right here. She is going to Graham Junior College for this retailing and merchandising, and the boy is going to Worcester Tech. My husband has a small machine shop, so we have two small businesses in Fitchburg.12 INTERVIEWER: Cool. MRS. PUPUTTI: Our son is interested in that life. He wants to be engineer. INTERVIEWER: Keep in the family. MRS. PUPUTTI: It's not that we push him, but it's what he enjoys. INTERVIEWER: No, it's his choice. Were you able to understand the local newspapers and magazines and radio and things like that? MRS. PUPUTTI: First, right away when we came, there was a Finnish program on the air that time. And actually, we were interviewed. INTERVIEWER: Oh, yeah? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah. Because it was so unusual for new people to come, immigrants to come from Finland at that time. And there was [unintelligible - 00:19:48] the Finnish newspaper we used to read… INTERVIEWER: So you could keep up with the news? MRS. PUPUTTI: [Unintelligible - 00:19:52] anymore after you get used to the English one. And things like that. And we used to -- like in the church we could hear Finnish language all these years. INTERVIEWER: Yeah. MRS. PUPUTTI: We still have Finnish services. INTERVIEWER: So do you speak at home? MRS. PUPUTTI: Not anymore. INTERVIEWER: Do you speak it with your husband, possibly? MRS. PUPUTTI: No. INTERVIEWER: No. MRS. PUPUTTI: Very seldom anymore. It's not that we don't want to. It's just INTERVIEWER: It's that you're so used to… MRS. PUPUTTI: … that we're so used to. And I remember first we wanted to learn English, so we purposely said that we're not going to speak in Finnish so we could learn it, and then it became a habit. INTERVIEWER: So the children never picked up Finnish? MRS. PUPUTTI: Oh, they did.13 INTERVIEWER: Oh, they did? MRS. PUPUTTI: They did. And they still understand almost all of it. And they can even speak quite a bit. INTERVIEWER: That's good. I think it's good to keep it in the family if you can. How about political preference? Do you have any, and how'd you choose? MRS. PUPUTTI: I'm strictly independent. I used to vote when I feel the man deserves it. INTERVIEWER: Yeah. Okay. Did you ever take any active parts? Did you ever campaign for anybody? MRS. PUPUTTI: No, not really. INTERVIEWER: After you had lived here for a while, do you ever write back to people in Finland and tell them to come over, encourage them? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yes. As a matter of fact, I did. Nine years ago I got my sister's family here. I was responsible for it. It was eight people. That was one of the biggest families that had come from all time. And they were interviewed on the boat, and they was taking pictures and everything because it was unusual. Large families like that doesn't usually get up all and just leave. INTERVIEWER: Did they stay in Fitchburg? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yes, they're still here. INTERVIEWER: They enjoyed it? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yeah. The oldest boy went through air course, and he's living in Alaska now. INTERVIEWER: Oh. So they're happy that you gave them that advice? Would you ever consider going back to Finland to live? MRS. PUPUTTI: No, I don't think so. I love to go there, you know, and stay for a while. Unless when I'm really old, I don't know. INTERVIEWER: After you retire or something?14 MRS. PUPUTTI: See, we feel it's home here in Fitchburg. We have a home in Rindge Road, and we've been there for 15 years. The children were born there. It would be too hard now to… INTERVIEWER: This is where your roots are now. Yeah. MRS. PUPUTTI: … cut everything and… INTERVIEWER: You have gone back to Finland though? MRS. PUPUTTI: We have, yes. INTERVIEWER: How many times? MRS. PUPUTTI: Quite a few times. First time we went 1969, then I've gone twice after that. INTERVIEWER: Did you notice the changes that are happening over there? MRS. PUPUTTI: Oh, yes. And we do have to say that Finland goes much faster than we do here in Fitchburg, much faster. INTERVIEWER: They caught up to United States standards and all. MRS. PUPUTTI: Oh yes. And the housing and everything is -- they are building much more than we are here, much more. INTERVIEWER: Do you feel that generally life has worked out better for you here than it would have in Finland? MRS. PUPUTTI: Yes, I really think so. I feel maybe -- like I said, my husband and I, we took the chances on business here. I feel a lot American people, they probably wouldn't have dared to try to do what we do. But because we came here, we didn't have anything… INTERVIEWER: You couldn't lose anything. MRS. PUPUTTI: So we feel that even if we have something little bit now, we came with nothing. That's what my husband says, he came with $20, and if he leaves with $20 that's fine. INTERVIEWER: Wow. Do you feel your children have a better chance in this country than they would've in Finland? Or do you think now it's different, maybe?15 MRS. PUPUTTI: Well, they probably do. But right now over there if you're ambitious you can go almost as far over there as you can here. I feel that in our case it was better here. INTERVIEWER: Of any plans that you made when you came here, is there any you haven't achieved yet that you regret? Or have you really accomplished more than you probably ever expected? MRS. PUPUTTI: Well, see, I never thought of going into business while I was at home and taking care of the children when they were smaller. So to me, this is something that I didn't even think of doing until the last minute. I think I've done better than I've really expected. INTERVIEWER: That's good. What is the most important advantage you feel that you have as a citizen of this country? MRS. PUPUTTI: Well, even things are much rougher now here than they were when I first came. I remember how we used to keep the doors open, now we have to lock everything up. All that was much nicer then, but I still think that Americans have more freedom than any other country in the whole world. Even if Finland is free, but there's still some certain logical things about -- well, I suppose from Russia because they're so close. I feel that people don't appreciate that feeling; they abuse it. That makes me awful upset sometimes, you know. They should go someplace to live where, really, you can't speak that clear. Yeah, you cannot blast the president in any place. You can't really do that. INTERVIEWER: Yeah, that's true. Many times you hear people say they long for the good old days. When you think back at what the good old days was supposed to be for you, which would you rather have, the good old days or now? MRS. PUPUTTI: I think I'd rather have now. I think it's a saying, "the good old days." I can't say that I have anything in -- my life was anything so terrible that I want to take back. But I still like the present. I still feel that we're going ahead. It doesn't mean that I value the 16 money or want to be something rich or something like that so much. It's just that unless you can pay your bills and be comfortable and happy in your everyday life, that's the [unintelligible - 00:26:02]. INTERVIEWER: So you feel you've lived a good life? MRS. PUPUTTI: I think so. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Thank you./AT/jf/ah/es

The Great Depression in Weber County, Utah, is an Oral History Project by Mack S. Taft for completion of his Master's Thesis at Utah State University during the summer of 1969. The interviews address the Great Depression through the eyes of individuals in several different occupations including: Bankers, Laborers, Railroad Workers, Attorneys, Farmers, Educators, Businessmen, Community and Church Leaders, Housewives, Children and Physicians. All of these individuals lived in Weber County from 1929 to 1941. The interviews were based on what they remembered about the depression, how they felt about those events and how it affected their life then and now. ; This is an oral history interview with Herbert Barnes. Mr. Barnes recalls working in a CC Camp during the Depression, the closure of the Ogden State Bank, and recreation during those years. He also talks about his experiences with peers in the CC camp, and the need to move from one job to another after he left it. ; 18p.; 29cm.; 2 bound transcripts; 4 file folders. 1 sound disc: digital; 4 3/4 in. ; Oral History Program Herbert Barnes Interviewed by Mack S. Taft circa 1960s Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Herbert Barnes Interviewed by Mack S. Taft circa 1960s Copyright © 2016 by Weber State University, Stewart Library iii Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. The working files, original recording, and archival copies are housed in the University Archives. Project Description The Great Depression in Weber County, Utah, is an Oral History Project by Mack S. Taft for completion of his Master's Thesis at Utah State University during the summer of 1969. The forty-five interviews address the Great Depression through the eyes of individuals in several different occupations including: Bankers, Laborers, Railroad Workers, Attorneys, Farmers, Educators, Businessmen, Community and Church Leaders, Housewives, Children and Physicians. All of these individuals lived in Weber County from 1929 to 1941. The interviews were based on what they remembered about the depression, how they felt about those events and how it affected their life then and now. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management This work is the property of the Weber State University, Stewart Library Oral History Program. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Barnes, Herbert, an oral history by Mack S. Taft, circa 1960s, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. 1 Abstract: This is an oral history interview with Herbert Barnes. Mr. Barnes recalls working in a CC Camp during the Depression, the closure of the Ogden State Bank, and recreation during those years. He also talks about his experiences with peers in the CC camp, and the need to move from one job to another after he left it. The interviewer is Mack Taft. MT: Where did you live during the Depression years? HB: Well, I was living in Hooper at that time. The first that I remember of the Depression as being called such was when the Ogden State Bank was closed. That was the first talk that I remember much about. But I do remember this - that at the time it closed, I had a few dollars in there, and I lost the most of it. I think I only got $3 or $4 out of it, but I thought that I had sustained a very great loss. From that time on, I was conscious of the Depression. MT: What type of work did you do during the Depression years? HB: Well, at the beginning of it, I was rather small. As I remember in 1929, I was still in the grade school and just working with my two uncles - one, Leslie Powers, where I lived, and the other, George Powers. I worked for them in the summer months. During the winter I was, of course, in school. I would do chores both morning and night for either a neighbor or a relative or someone else. MT: During the latter part of the Depression, I understand you went into the CC Camp. Is that correct? HB: Well, I got out of school in 1936, and I looked all around for a job and couldn't find anything that would pay any kind of wages at all, or anything that was work, so that you could even say that you were working. So I had a chance to go into 2 the camp as a local man, and the place that I went first was down at Milford, Utah. I was only there for a short time, and then they transferred me back to Bountiful, from which place I could work in Salt Lake. I went to school there and learned drafting and photography and the things that they had us do. The things that we were doing at that time was working in the State Land Office, and the Federal Land Office, and working plats and things like they do in the county office. We learned how to make these plats so that they could be used in court and so that they would be of service to the Land Management Division. They called it at that time the Division of Grazing. MT: That big project that they had on Bountiful Peak, could you tell me anything about that? HB: Well, I really don't know very much about what the camps were doing in general. I went there once, but our work was entirely in the State Land Office and the Federal Land Office in Salt Lake City. Now, the majority of the boys that were in that camp belonged to a different division entirely. Part of them worked out at Woods Cross Bird Refuge, and a number of others did flood control work on the mountain. There was some planting of trees and brush, but I never was out on any of their projects to see what they had done. I know what the boys were doing at the time that I was there, but we were working when they were working, and during off-times, we went other places. MT: What seemed to give you the most difficulty during the Depression years, clothing or food? 3 HB: Well, neither one was a terrific job, although nobody had any money to spend. Most people didn't have money for luxuries during those days, but since your neighbor didn't have them, you didn't worry much about them either. The main mode of travel during that time had changed to the automobile, but kids didn't have the automobile to run with. The older people had the automobile, and the kids were allowed to drive a little in the daytime, but that was before the driver's license was in effect. So we didn't have to worry about being picked up by the local Highway Patrol. If you could sit behind the wheel and steer it down the road and stop it when you needed to, that's all that was asked. When the driver's license first came out, there were only about two or three questions that they asked. One of them was, do you know how to drive a car? The other was, have you got twenty-five cents to pay for the license? They did expect you, I believe, to be about fifteen or sixteen years old, but they weren't very strict with it at all. As far as I know, I never had to show a driver's license until around the year 1939 or 1940. Nobody ever cared. In fact, if you could find a job for $1,100, it was wonderful. Now, as a kid, I worked mostly in the summers for $1 a week, and my board and usually most of the dollar went into .22 shells, and a few luxuries at the store like candy. Money didn't mean a whole lot because the other kids didn't have any. If the other kids would have had money to spend to go to the shows and go places, it would have meant more. But at that time, if we did get any money we could spare, of course it went into groceries and clothes and the places that it had to go. But everybody had a deal worked out so that they could make a living one way or another. 4 Wages were very, very low. But at the same time, the merchandise that you needed to live on didn't cost much either. MT: What do you remember about the celebrations? HB: Oh, they were a big thing as far as the town was concerned. Usually they'd start between four and five in the morning with the brass band being driven around the town in a wagon, and their tones would carry further in the air. As they drove past the houses, they would wake everybody up, and sometimes they would yell from the wagon to get up and get going. "Let's see you at the celebration in a little while." And then things would usually get going at about 8:30 or 9:00. By 9:00 or shortly after, they would have the program starting, and it would go until noon. At the same time that was going, they would have the kids in their games and things out behind the grandstand. Of course they always had these little places where they sold root beer and Cokes and candy bars. Usually about thirty cents a day was what we spent at one of those places in a day. We spent half our money in the morning, and the other half in the afternoon. That would go then about as far as fifty cents does now. Then in the afternoon, they would have a baseball game and horse races, and they just had a real celebration. Then at night, they had a dance, and they had something to do until the last one home at night was just really dragging, I'll tell you. It was a day back then, and the park was loaded. It seemed like sometimes you'd have to hunt for hours for the one you were looking for, because everyone in the country was there. MT: Did they have regular dances there? 5 HB: Yes, they did, usually on Saturday night. That was a big night, and usually the dances were pretty good. I remember that, at the time, I didn't get in on too many of them, but dances were a big thing back in those years. Another thing that was big, was the plays that the town put on. They would have plays two, three, and four times a month, and the casts would all come from the town there, and would put on those plays. You would get into the play on your budget ticket that you got from the ward. Those budget tickets would cost the family anywhere from $3 to $5, and later on it got up to $10. When it got up to $10, people thought that it was pretty high. But during most of those rough years, the budget ticket for the family was only $3 to $5, and that was for the year and would get you into everything. Of course, the need for money wasn't as great then as it is now because the prices were not the same. As I remember, the Depression wasn't really over until the World War broke. From about 1936 on, it began to get just a little brighter, a little more pick-up in the economy, but it never got into swing until World War II came along. With the war calling for help and for merchandise, the economy picked up. But I would say that it was a good ten or eleven years that the old Depression hung on pretty solid. MT: What did you feel were good results of the Depression? HB: Well, a number of things. People had to learn how to economize. In the early 1920s, money was just a little more plentiful than it was later, and people made some pretty good money in a number of things after World War I. They were beginning to enjoy quite a number of little luxuries, and things were beginning to open up pretty good until the squeeze of 1929, and that affected everybody. A 6 number of people lost their homes and everything that they had, and money became so tight that if anybody had any, they would think twice before they let it go. There wasn't much money spent for quite a number of years. There were a lot of homes lost, a number of businesses lost, and the economy just tightened up to a point that if people had any money, well, they kept it. Those that didn't have it, it was sometimes hard to tell them from the ones that did because nobody was spending much or going many places. As I remember, a vacation then didn't mean that you were going far, and you didn't have very many of them. The automobiles of those days wouldn't take them to California and back in three days like they do now. They went more then on the train. But the train fare then was much cheaper than it is now. Of course the air service hadn't come in yet. If an airplane flew over, everybody would fly out the door to see which way it was going and how big it was. I remember when the radios first came to town. One of the first ones I had a chance to see was over at Thomas Lowe's. We went over there one afternoon and sat very quietly for about two hours and listened to the radio. I guess within the next six to eight months, we had one at our house too, but the radio then was only $25 to $30. That's quite different than it is now, and they didn't have the number of stations that they do now either. Along from about six in the morning, there was cowboy music, the Sons of the Pioneers, and a lot of other cowboy music. It was very popular then when the radio first came out. That was one of the main kinds of music there was on there. We hadn't come into all this jive and rock and this kind of stuff. 7 MT: What other programs did you listen to on the radio at that time? HB: Oh, Amos and Andy was a big one. I can't remember anything hardly about the first radio without Amos and Andy. They were the big ones, and the others I don't remember quite as well now. Maybe if someone mentioned the name, I would remember that too. But right at the minute, it seems that Amos and Andy were the big ones. The Hit Parade was also a big thing. As I remember that, it started along about 1934 or 1935, and by the time it got up to 1937 and 1938, that was quite a big thing. The Hit Parade usually went up about 10 songs, and later it went up to about 20 or more. But they had lots of things that are still played today that used to be on the Hit Parade. About everybody listened to that in the evening. MT: What are some of the big bands that you remember back at that time? HB: Well, I really don't remember any. I know them well enough when I hear them, but I've never been musically inclined enough to remember them. Dorsey is one we used to hear a lot. MT: What about the White City Ballroom? Did you ever go over there? HB: Oh yes. That was the main place for the Ogden area. That was a place that was usually always crowded, but anyway, those were some pretty good dances, too. They would dwarf Hooper's dance a long ways, even though Hooper was good dances. But the ballroom covered the whole intermountain area, and it was always loaded. MT: What about shoe repair? Did most of the places have shoe repair of their own? 8 HB: Well, as far as shoe repair is concerned, you could go into places like Kress's and Woolworth's and so on, and you could buy a pair of rubber soles and glue to put them on with for fifteen or twenty-five cents. You could buy the heels, and a lot of us at that time had a shoe last, and we learned to put the heels on them. We'd glue these soles on them, and that would take care of the minor jobs. You could buy these scout shoes for boys for $1, and I wouldn't say they're good by the standards of today. I don't think they had any arches in them, and I guess a lot of people got their feet ruined by them. But I'll tell you, the leather in them would wear like mule hide. They were tough. And there were repair shops all over, but they didn't charge today's prices. You could go in and get a pair of shoes fixed for $1 or $1.50, and I mean they were fixed. Today, you could buy a new pair of shoes for what it costs to get them repaired. MT: What did you learn in the CC Camps that has been beneficial to you and has stayed with you? HB: Well, I was one of three from this state that were in the camp that I was in. Most of the boys were from out of state. They were from Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Louisiana, and a few from Ohio and Illinois, in that area. But most of the boys in that camp were the hillbillies of Kentucky, West Virginia, and Tennessee. They were downright mean, and they could play the harmonica, banjo, and guitar like I've never heard since, and do all kinds of dancing. I'm talking about the step dances and the stomps, and the kinds where you get up on the stage and entertain. But when I say mean, they would fight with their fists and knives and brass knuckles and clubs, and they didn't mind smuggling in guns and trying 9 them, too. I've seen them get mad and battered and cut, and I've seen boys from that group go into the penitentiary. I wouldn't be surprised if they still might be there. They went in for murder and rape and everything under the sun. Most of those boys were illiterate. They couldn't read, they couldn't write, but you couldn't cheat them on money. They knew everything down to the cent no matter how much you were talking about. They couldn't write their names. They had to put an X and have someone else sign under it. They didn't know anything, and they didn't want to know anything, but they could scrap. And they didn't mind a practical joke. If it got to be past a joke, that was just that much more fun. If they could get your goat, why they'd take that and your hide too. At night they might come in at midnight and give your bed a flip, and you'd land on your face on the floor and the bed on top of you. To them, that was a joke. MT: Are you still profiting from some of the things that you learned there? HB: Well, yes. I had experiences there that I will never forget. I could maybe go into a few of them. I learned a lot about drafting and photography, and the way the government operates as far as the land management is concerned. I learned how to read plats and know what they're talking about when they mention townships and meridians and all of these things, although I have not had much to do with them for years. It was a good basis and a good thing to learn. Even though I was with these boys from out of state, I didn't let that bother me. I had a lot of evenings to spend, and so I decided that since I had time to waste, I might as well profit by it if I could. 10 So about this time, Alida went on a mission. I wanted to go, so I tried to figure out a way to get enough money to go. I couldn't make enough to save. My mother wasn't working at a job that would bring enough money that she could keep me there, and there wasn't a relative with money enough, and the ward claimed that they were too poor. There was just no way that I could go on a mission. So I started work with the boys in the camp down there, and I converted three of the boys from the camp into the [LDS] Church. I know where two of them are today; one of them is a bishop back in Illinois, and the other is on the high council up in Canada. The other one I saw about five years after I brought him into the church, and I've never seen him since. But I was able to work with these boys long enough and often enough that I brought them in, and there were a good many others that I think I softened their hides. I was able to baptize some of them myself. MT: Is there anything else that you can think of that might be of interest? HB: Well, they had to have these camps to keep the young people off the streets, to keep them out of trouble. There was too many young people on the road; they were hitchhiking and were traveling all over, and there was no work at home, whether it was in California or Utah, in Minnesota or New York, or anywhere. There just wasn't any work anywhere. President Roosevelt decided that something had to be done, that crime was on the increase, and that all these people out of work and no money to pay them. They decided they didn't want just the WPA projects out of it. They wanted to teach the boys, to give them some military training - not with a gun, they didn't 11 do that. But they had to get up at 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning and shave and take a shower and clean up, and they had to get out to roll call and go to breakfast. They had to make their beds and be out in the truck to go to work at 7:30 or 8:00. They came back at noon if they were close enough, and then they came back at 4:30. They would have about an hour to do what they wanted to do or needed to do before supper. Then after supper, if they could get leave to go off the post, they could go wherever they wanted to go. Or if they stayed on the post, there were libraries and all kinds of training sessions. Of course there were a lot of them that had to take turns on KP, and they learned to peel potatoes by the sack. In the group that I was in, there were about 30-40 men, and they had to be fed three times a day. A lot of them learned to be cooks and learned to do other things. A lot of them found their life's work from their camps. Some of them learned to be auto mechanics, truck drivers, and tractor drivers, and they learned to survey and just all kinds of things. And a good many of those boys were not only off the streets for a period of time from one to three years, but they did have a chance to earn from $30 a month to $45 a month, gaining the training, and they had a chance to be moved around the country, sometimes two and three times while they were in these camps. They were put out of the area in which they lived so that they did see a new part of the country. It was a good experience for many of them. It at least got them off the streets and out of their folks' hair, and gave them something to do for a period of time. If they wanted to re-enlist, why, they could stay in for sometimes quite a 12 number of years. I guess quite a number of them were in three, four, five, and six years. Some of them couldn't get out fast enough, and some of them didn't want to leave. The training in there was almost as strict as it was in the military except that we never had to carry a gun. We had to take calisthenics, and they had to jump to the whistle and command of the lieutenants, captains, and majors, and all this kind of thing. On Sunday, they held a Protestant and Mormon service. Now in my camp, they were mostly all Catholics; there were very few Protestants, and no Mormons, only just four or five of us. Of course on weekends, I would take quite a number of the boys, and we would go into Ogden. I would see that they went to church with me. If they were coming to my place to stay for the weekend, they went to church with me. MT: As you look back now, what changes do you think might have been in your life, education-wise, and this kind of thing, if the Depression had not come along? HB: Well, this I don't know. I was really disappointed that I didn't get a chance to go on a mission. Now as I look back on it, that's where my mission was. I probably did much more good in that camp as a missionary than I ever would have done - well, I can't say that. But education-wise, why I don't know if I would have had a chance to go to college or not, or even if I would have wanted to. Jobs were hard to find, and I worked quite a number of good jobs after I got out of the camp. I worked for the Weber Central Dairy. I worked for the Amalgamated Sugar Company, and I worked for little short jobs here and there. But you couldn't get a steady job and stay with it. The institutions were not in a position at that time to hire very many people. All they wanted was to get them 13 over a short rush period. I worked for the California Pack, and just seasonal and short periods, and then the job was done. Then you'd get out and hustle another job. You'd maybe get a few days or weeks or a month, but nothing that you could call a steady job that you could stay with. If you could get a steady job, you were one of the lucky people for quite a few years. The thing that I wanted to do at that time was to be an auto mechanic, but then I'm about as far from that as I can get. I hardly know which end of the car has the motor on it any more.

Issue 52.5 of the Review for Religious, September/October 1993. ; . Contempora~ Living ¯ VOLUME 52 ~ NUMBER5 Review for Religious (ISSN 0034-639X) is published bi-monthly at Saint Louis University by the Jesuits of the Missouri Province. Editorial Office: 3601 Lindell Boulevard ¯ St. Louis, Missouri 63108-3393. Telephone: 314-535-3048 ¯ FAX: 314-535-0601 Manuscripts, books for review, and correspondence with the editor: Review for Religious ¯ 3601 Lindell Boulevard ° St. Louis, Missouri 63108-3393. Correspondence about the Canonical Counsel department: Elizabeth McDonough OP ¯ 5001 Eastern Avenue ¯ P.O. Box 29260 V~Tashington, D.C. 20017. POSTMASTER Send address changes to Review for Religious ¯ P.O. Box 6070 ¯ Duluth, MN 55806. Second-class postage paid at St. Louis, Missouri, and additional mailing offices. SUBSCRIPTION Ra\TES Single copy $5 includes surface mailing costs. One-year subscription $15 plus mailing costs. Two-year subscription $28 plusmailing costs. See inside back cover for more subscription information and mailing costs. ©1993 Review for Religious review fr°e[ ig oi us Editor Associate Editors Canonical Counsel Editor Assistant Editors Advisory Board David L. Fleming SJ Philip C. Fischer SJ Michael G. Harter SJ Elizabeth McDonough OP Jean Read Mary Ann Foppe Joann Wolski Conn PhD Mary Margaret Johanning SSND Iris Ann Ledden SSND Edmundo Rodriguez SJ Sefin Sammon FMS Suzanne Zuercher OSB Christian Heritages and Contemporary Living SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 1993' * VOLUME 52 ¯ NUMBER 5 contents 646 feature Charisms and Religious Life Elizabeth McDonough OP underscores the importance of understanding charism and living it out in religious life. 66O living heritages Vincent de Paul's Charism in Today's Church Gerard H. Luttenberger CM presents Vincent de Paul's vision of the service of the poor and the search for God in a gospel context. 684 A Franciscan Discernment Experience--Part Two Joan Mueller OSF relates how one Franciscan woman witnessed to the discernment of God's will. 691 Ritual Leave-Taking Edward Foley OFMCap proposes the need and a way of response for a ritual reincorporation of retiring religious leaders. living with challenge 702 Christians and Their Passions James D. Whitehead and Eyelyn Eaton Whitehead encourage a befriending of our passions in order to live a full Christian life. 712 The Reality, Fact, and Fantasy of Incest Suzanne Zuercher OSB encourages spiritual directors to deal with the reality of incest issues even when a large measure of fantasy could be involved. 71.9 Dying--and See, We Are Alive Michael FitzPatrick OFM enters us into his experience of living with advanced prostate cancer. 642 Review for Religious 731 735 741 living sacramentally If Grain Could Talk Virginia Marie OCD presents an imaginative approach to our being grains of wheat. At the Heart of the Eucharist Joseph Allen Tetlow SJ suggests in parable form some focuses for Eucharist which receive less liturgical attention. Beyond Seven Sacraments Elizabeth Normanly SDSH reflects on the sacred reality that lies just under the surface of everyday experience. living consecrated life 745 Religious Vocations: New Signs of the Times Albert DiIanni SM focuses on the values important to young peo-ple as they consider a religious-life vocation. 764 Multiculturalism in Religious Life TodaY Catherine M. Harmer MMS explores how cultural and social minorities might be better integrated in religious congregations. 773 Religious Life---Mystery or Mistake? Annette M. Pelletier IHM draws attention to a link between the mystery of the human fascination with th~ Holy and the embodi-ment of that attraction in consecrated life. departments 644 Prisms 780 Canonical Counsel: Conciliar and Postconciliar Documents on Consecrated Life 787 Book Reviews S~pteraber-October 199~ 643 prisms Deadlines are a part of human living. There are deadlines for renewing driver's licenses. There are deadlines for research reports and for term papers in school. There are deadlines in the printing schedules of journals like this one. November 1, 1993, is the deadline for responses to the exploratory questions raised in the "lineamenta" called "Consecrated Life in the Church and the World"--the document intended to encourage reflec-tion and to solicit information and suggestions for use in the ninth ordinary general session of the Synod of Bishops. Although the Vatican Synod Secretariat has set a clear deadline for the responses it has invited, men and women religious have no deadline on the responsibility to con-tinue the study, reflection, and dialogue among themselves and with their local church people, clergy, and bishop so that we take advantage of this specially graced time for the whole t].ody of Christ. Of major importance in this ongoing discussion is the appreciation for the mystery of the church in its complexity of laity, clergy, and religious and in its hierarchical and charismatic elements. One hopes that a number of the bishops participating in the synod are conversant with the three-volume Council Daybook of Vatican II, which shows that the 1960s church included widely varying theologies of consecrated life. Where religious life fits within the church, God's people, was not a quickly or easily resolved question for the bishops as they formulated the council documents. Neither were there easily-agreed-upon theological understandings of the evangelical counsels and the elements of the life called reli-gious through the ages. Since few bishops who were in the debates and discussions leading to the Vatican II decrees 644 Review for Religious. remain active, there is no easy way to make use of those debates and discussions in efforts to move beyond the limitations and com-promises of the then-new Vatican II thinking. But we should not simply lament that the bishops who will participate in the synod have limited experience and acquaintance with these specialized topics; we should become aware that our own continuing familiarity with the documents and decrees of Vatican II and subsequent documents may be, at best, spotty or even nonexistent. We need to take to heart the sentiment expressed by T. S. Eliot in "Burnt Norton": What might have been and what has been Point to one end, which is always present. How can we make present to ourselves and for our times the richness of the Spirit's gift of consecrated life--to us religious and to the church? As I announced in the January-February issue of this year, Review for Religious for its own contribution to our synod preparation features an article in each issue which suggests a significant theological approach for this age of ours. We hope that all these articles provide material for further personal reflec-tion and community discussion. In addition, Elizabeth McDonough OP in our regular Canonical Counsel department recalls for us a number of the recent ecclesial documents that are relevant to informed dialogue on the topic of consecrated life. We may need to face the question, for example, whether charisms, even corporate ohes, can be timebound. Might whole religious groups, because their charism is incarnated, have a tem-porary lifetime? Should we spell out chastity, poverty, and obe-dience as vows essential to religious life when as vows they have not specifically marked the consecration of a number of religious groups? We might ponder whether evangelical counsels in their nonspecificity say more about what marks religious life. Since both lay persons and the clergy share in religious life, is the lev-eling quality of this identity in the church vital for internal reli-gious- life administration? Any number of questions can and should be raised and seen in the light of tradition and new theological understanding. Whatever the results of the October 1994 synod, our own ongoing preparations as religious and as church promise, beyond any wintery deadline, a springtime of redeeming grace. D~ivid L. Fleming sJ September-October 1993 645 feature ELIZABETH MCDONOUGH Charisms and Religious Life Before Vatican Cou_ncil II, charism was certainly not a fre-quent topic of conversation in Catholic circles, and dis-cussion of the charisma of religious life was relatively nonexistent. Nor does any conciliar document actually employ the word charism in reference to religious life as such, even though various discussions of council partici-pant~ specifically included charism as central to conse-crated life in the church. To be sure, Vatican II documents clearly recognize the charismatic nature of the diversity of gifts of religious life, just as they clearly affirm the pat-rimony or heritage of institutes--that is, their own proper character and functions--as important for the good of the whole church (Perfectae Caritatis, §1 and §8). The council also stressed the need for faithful retention of the spirit and aims of each founder and foundress, as well as for fidelity to each institute's sound traditions (Perfectae Caritatis, §2b). Charisms: Postconciliar Development Pope Paul VI was the first to use the word charisms officially in relation to religious life--in his 1971 apostolic exhortation on the renewal and adaptation of religious institutes after the council (Evange/ica Testificatio, §11). This and other documents during Paul VI's papacy referred Elizabeth McDonough OPis well known to our readers since she serves as the canon law editor. Her address can be found on the inside front cover. 646 Review for Religious to charism as providing a constancy of orientation while allowing for internal growth and change (Evangelica Testificatio, §12). Charism was also presented as the experience of the Spirit by founders and foundresses which was then transmitted to their fol-lowers for continual development in harmony with their role in the ¯ church (Mutuae Relationes, §1 i). In addition, during this time a direct connection was affirmed between the obligation of superi-ors to protect their institute's specific charism and the right of the institute, to maintain an appropriate autonomy'of life and gov-ernment (Mutuae Relationes, § 13). Subsequentl~ the word charism appeared among the norms concerning consecrated life during various stages of the revision process of the Code of Canon Law. In the final version of the Code promulgated in 1983, however, these references were replaced by conciliar terms and phrases mentioning the spiritual patrimony or nature or character or sound traditions of an insti-tute (see, for example, cc. 577, 578, and 631). Some writers sug-gest that the nub of difficulties for religious in the church today is the distifiction, or even the supposed contradiction, between the hierarchical and the charismatic.1 Nevertheless, Pope John Paul II, in a letter directed to the bishops of the United States in 1983, exhorted them to encourage and assist: religious in living faith-fully according to their charism. Shortly thereafter he issued an apostolic exhortation addressed to religious in which he viewed charisms as gifts approved by the church for the good of the church and of the world and as fortifying and fostering religious com-munities in both their life and their apostolic service (Redemption# Donum, §15). More recently the 1990 Vatican Directives on Formation in Religious Institutes reemphasized the importance of their particular charisms to the life and development of the vari-ous religious communities (Potissimum Institutioni, § 16). While it is quite clear that the Second Vatican Council treated consecrated lifeforms more as dynamic, living i'ealities than as static entities defined by legislation, it is also clear that Vatican II attempted to articulate certain theological understandings and practical boundaries within which the various gifts of consecrated life should continue to exist and function. These conciliar positions treated consecrated life as an integral part of the life and holiness of the church itself and saw certain evangelical counsels as peren-nially significant in all historical manifestations of consecrated lifeforms (Lumen Gentium, §44). More than a quarter century of September-October 1993 647 McDonougb ¯ Charisms and Religious Life discussion on the charism or charisms of religious life, however, has still left the notion theoretically elusive and practically debated. The question still arises: What, if anything, can be reasonably articulated and plausibly understood with regard to a charism of religious life? Charisms: Meaning and Expression Any genuine charism of religious life is a pure gift of God for the good of the church. Accordingly, a religious-life charism can generally be described as a window on the gospel, a framed vision of people following Jesus that attracts others to do so in a similar way. They encounter in the charism of great religious founders and foundresses--the Benedictine charism, the Dominican charism, the Franciscan charism, the Mercy charism, the Daughters of Charity charism, and so forth--a phenomenon both intellec-tually and affectively compelling. Indeed, both history and our own background witness to the fact that people often respond to genuine religious charisms at great personal cost and by over-coming a variety of formidable obstacles. Moreover, charisms attract people to engage in an overall task together rather than only or primarily as free agents in independent endeavors. A charism of religious life can be recognized as a lived and living reality. It is a ~eed planted in fertile ground that takes root and grows and multiplies abundantly. It becomes a strong plant that can be transplanted to other climates, other cultures, and other eras. A genuine charism of religious life can also transcend ethnic differences, social and economic classes, and the several generations alive at a giyen time. It enables people .to say, "Yes, we who have such diverse origins and experiences can live together constructively in a consciously Christian manner." A genuine charism of religious life can transcend economic theories, politi-cal preferences, and personal prejudices. Indeed, a genuine charism of religious life has the potential to transform people's lives no matter who or where they are. Charisms are expressed in an entire way of life, a compre-hensive culture, not merely in various norms and particular prac-tices. They are deeply rooted in healthy spirituality. They exhibit sound and supple structures. Genuine charisms have customary practices that are formative of the chosen lifestyle. They also make valuable, constructive ecclesial contributions; for charisms of reli- 648 Review for Religious. gious life do not exist--indeed, cannot exist--merely for their own sake or merely for the sake of those who embrace them. As an indication of this, note that, according to a recent three-year soci-ological study in the United States, membership in a particular community primarily for affiliative belonging rather than for "the mis-sion of the church and the extension of the charism" needs to be addressed by religious institutes if they hope to survive.2 Another significant element of genuine religious charisms is that they live only in people, not in documents. The charisms are gifts to people, and they captivate and transform the recipients. However enamored many religious may be with popular refounding, reweaving, and re-creat-ing trends, there is actually no future for any institute that did not begin with--or has not been successfully grafted onto--a genuine religious-life charism. No amount of well-disposed and concerted effort can create a charism of reli-gious life. Whatever sociological or anthropological sleight of hand well-intentioned people might employ, it simply cannot be done. Historically speaking, in the United States a good number of religious communities (especially of women) seem to have been founded to perform a particular spiritual or corporal work of mercy at times when there were tremendous practical needs and when American bishops actively sought a willing and capable, if not always large, work force. Some groups that were eventually rec-ognized as religious institutes responded to these needs with valiant efforts and heroic virtue. Some others, however, may have begun and responded somewhat superficially, without the deep rooting of a genuine religious-life charism. For a number of them, the Vatican II mandate to return to the gospel and to the spirit of the founder or foundress resulted in their being confronted with salvaging an historically borrowed and circumstantially time-bound way of life that was not founded in a genuine charism and, consequently, was not well sustained by a deep and relevant spirituality. For others, A religious-life charism can generally be described as a window on the gospel, a framed vision of people, following Jesus that attracts others to do so in a similar way. September-October 1993 649 McDonougb * Cbarisms and Religious Lift the conciliar mandate resulted in their being confronted with prac-tices that seemed to have little or no connection with the original charism of their founder or foundress. For still others, the conciliar mandate to return to the original charism seems to have resulted more in selective borrowing of rhetoric to justify desired alter-ations than in a clearer awareness of the original heritage with a view to embracing its authentic beauty and, often, its concomi-tant demands. In regard to the latter, for example, after the council a num-ber of institutes of women claiming Dominican roots readily opted for contemporary participation in the order's preaching heritage, but just as readily deemphasized the order's original heritage of common life, liturgical prayer, and assiduous study of sacred truth. Similarly, after the council, followers of the Mercy charism quickly and rightly reemphasized Catherine McAuley's concern for women, but simultaneously transformed her notion of Mercy communi-ties as separate institutes in the various dioceses into one of uni-fied national organizations espousing global causes--a quantum leap from the "amalgamation" that produced the Mercy Union in the United States in the early 20th century. Or again, at least some postconciliar followers of Francis promptly translated his incar-national theology into a diffuse ecospirituality while managing not to do anything very concrete and practical for Francis's Lady Poverty. Thus, at least in some instances, the Vatican II mandate that religious return to the roots of their charism seems to have stirred up speculation about what a founder or foundress would do if he or she were now alive, with actions sometimes resulting that were contrary to, or at best not very inclusive of, what the founder or foundress consciously espoused and actually did. Charisms: Basic Presumptions Regarding charism, there are certain rather obvious theoret-ical presumptions--and certain practical assessments directly related to them--which might strike some readers as simplistic, but which warrant articulation. The presumptions are threefold. First, either a religious community has a charism or it does not. If a community does not have a charism, it is not going to survive. Second, if a community has a charism, the members understand it or they do not. If a community has a charism but the members do not understand it, the community is not going to survive. Third, 650 Review for Religious ¯ . if a community has a charism and understands it, the members can either strive to live it or they can decline to do so. If a com-munity has a charism and more or less understands it but the mem-bers decline to live it, then that community is not going to survive. More pointedly: if any community lands on the negative side of any of the above disjunctive assertions, then it probably does not merit survival. But note again: this assessment is not directly concerned with the foibles and failures of human endeavors; it is concerned with the importance of the charisms of consecrated life as such. Precisely because charisms are gifts of the Spirit to and for the church, they are too precio~as to be left indefinitely in the trust of people who are heedless of a charism's inherent value or unmindful of their personal responsibility to embrace and live its practical consequences. If members of a community cannot articulate clearly its fun-damental spirituality, if they are functionally unaware of its sound traditions, if they cannot realistically recall or do not meaning-fully practice its formative customs, if they cannot understand its internal workings in keeping with who they are as religious, then the community probably does not have a charism. Although the full meaning of a charism can never be completely specified, any charism has at least some identifiable characteristics and some external lineaments for practical recognition. If members of a com- .munity 'have not a clue what these might be, then--more likely than not--the community simply does not have a charism. And, as disconcerting as the statement may be for the adherents of some contemporary trends, it bears noting again that no one can actu-ally refound or reweave or re-create a charism of religious life. In fact, in contrast to the pelagianism of prevailing literature in this regard, I would suggest that---rather than refounding or reweav-ing or re-creating a charism--if anything, people receive it and respond to it. All that having been said, what then does a charism actually do to the receiver, to you and me and the many other plain human beings who receive it? Expressed in the subjective way that each religious probably has experienced it at some time or another, a vocation to live within a certain religious charism is an over-whelming sense that something quite beyond clear description has dropped into one's life (or into one's hands or into one's heart or into one's head) and evoked a spontaneous personal response such as "Oh, my God, if I take this seriously, it could transform me September-October 1993 651 McDonougb ¯ Cbarisms and Religious Life drastically for the rest of my life." However differently one who has experienced the call to live a religious-life charism might express it, or in whatever circumstances one might have experienced it, this dropped-into-your-lif~ gift--stirs awareness and promises transformation both drastic and continuous. In fact, if received and responded to, radical transformation is precisely what a charism has the potential of accomplishing as a person becomes publicly, consciously, perpetually committed to following Jesus more closely in this fashion and with these people and for this pur-pose- whether after the manner of Benedict or Francis or Dominic or Angela Merici or Ignatius Loyola or Louise de Marillac or Catherine McAuley or other such leaders. Although charisms live only in people, not in writings, nev-ertheless rules, constitutions, and other fundamental documents of a religious institute are important because they schematically and historiographically suggest a lifeform and purpose about which the church confidently says to individuals, "If you follow this form of gospel life, you will not be led astray from your true end." That is the assurance given to religious in recognized lifeforms through the ecclesial approval of specific charisms. The documents of any religious institute, however, are at most merely the best possible articulation of the lived understanding of the institute's charism through its generations of existence. Documents can do no more than suggest the cumulative richness of the lived experience and self-understanding of a community with a charism, for only peo-ple actually embody it. In fact, it can be hypothesized that, if all the documents of a community with a genuine charism were destroyed but its members were to survive, others would still be able to grasp the full import of the charism through the living members. In contrast, if all the members of a religious institute that has a gen-uine charism were to cease to exist but the documents were to survive, others would not be able to grasp the import of the charism or would be able to understand it only superficially. More point-edly: charisms exist, not in dead letters, but in living persons who themselves are formed and informed by the original charism both lived and written down. Charisms: Living Example As an example of a charism being lived, I would suggest' St. Dominic, with his passionate concern for the Truth--not in the 652 Review for Religious abstract, but in the person of Jesus, the Word of God--and with his unmitigated compassion for people, all of whom God loves in his beloved Son. That is to say, perhaps people cannot truly be Dominicans if they claim passionate concern for the truth while disdaining people, especially people who disagree with them--which at times seems a Dominican penchant. Those who embrace the Dominican charism in any age may have no other option--if they wish to continue in existence--but to ardently desire, dili-gently pursue, and freely share the Truth who is Jesus. Moreover, this desire and pursuit and sharing must be accomplished in the manner of Dominic amid the great collective wit-ness of his followers through the cen-turies. This witness includes fearless, respectful encounter with the people in the areas where the gospel needs to be preached. Such evangelization is fun- Radical transformation is precisely what a charism has the potential of accomplishing as a person becomes publicly, consciously, perpetually committed to following Jesus. damental to Dominican apostolic life: compassionately meeting people where they are and being for them channels of God's truth. On one occasion Dominic, on a journey to assist a local bishop in arranging a courtly marriage, met an innkeeper who was "wretchedly deluded" by the then prevalent Albigensian heresy. Dominic was moved to pity--not anger or disdain, but pity--and fervendy began to exhort the innkeeper, zealously discoursing with him through the night with such compelling wisdom that he was moved by God's grace to embrace the faith. There we have, per-haps, a Dominican paradigm for confronting the wretched delu-sion and incredible confusion of any era. As Dominicans we are obliged to be moved to pity, to plead emotionally, and to exhort fervendy--not merely with abstract propositions--so that the grace of God can be operative in others' lives. As Dominicans we must both believe and embody the truths we speak---so that the way we handle the attractiveness of truth is itself attractive. Dominicans must speak, not merely with their own wisdom or their own spirit, but with God's. Note, too, the circumstances of Dominic's encounter with the innkeeper. His sojourn at the inn occurred during his travel for the September-October 1993 653 McDonougb ¯ Cbarisms and Religious Life purpose of helping to arrange a wedding, a wedding that, for rea-sons quite beyond the control of the bishop and himself, did not come to pass. There may be a further message here for Dominicans, namely, that we should be willing to be surprised by, to respond to, and to work hard at tasks God sets for us by sud-denly rearranging the apostolic endeavors we ourselves had planned. Indeed, the specifically Dominican way of evangeliza-tion today might well involve pity, exhortation, and argumentation in the face of delusion, with an eye to people's eventual conversion in graced ways that are not of our doing and are not even the out-come of the kind of apostolic project we have dreamed of crafting. Let us return now to the matter of religious-life charisms as such. In this age in which people are incredibly confused about numerous personal, communal, national, and global problems; in the midst of great diversity of religious belief; after the break-down and fragmentation of many traditions; in the context of eco-nomic upheaval~ and political disagreement--in all this the living witness of any genuine religious-life charism matters. It announces uniquely, with specific and recognizable characteristics, that "fol-lowing Jesus" still has meaning precisely as a commitment to some-thing beyond whatever pragmatic tasks each religious is involved with here and now. This is not to suggest that the charism of a religious institute flourishes wherever any isolated member may be doing with dedication something worthwhile. Rather, the causal-ity is just the reverse: transcendent awareness and inner conviction and commitment manifest themselves to others only through the lived and living reality of the total charism, which is a grace received and, as such, not an energetic project of one's creative imagination. Charisms: Basic Sources What qualifies and practices, then, can religious look for in the experience and response of a founder or foundress to enable them to live their religious charism constructively today? The sugges-tions derived from basic sources include firm spiritual founda-tions; sound intellectual knowledge; tested advancement in virtue (perhaps reflective of the terribly old-fashioned notion that habits of doing good are significant); getting along honestly and chari-tably with others; responding to the graces presented in one's par-ticular calling; and constant reliance on God in all endeavors. The 654 Review for Religious way of life religious embrace is supposed to provide spirituality, customs of prayer, practical living arrangements, and opportuni-ties for ecclesial service. These things, these qualities, these prac-tices are desperately needed today as always for the sake of ecclesial service. God did not dabble with becoming human in Christ Jesus, nor did the recipients of founding charisms dabble with the gifts entrusted to them. Religious today who have embraced any charism of religious life in the likeness of great, sainted founders and foundresses simply cannot allow themselves the luxury of dabbling with the gift. If there is a certain urgency about what religious are about in the church and in the modern or postmodern world, there is also the possibility that religious can betray this urgency and bury their charisms just as, in the gospel parable, some buried the talents given them. If religious do this, the charisms will be given to others, for they are sim-ply too important to the vitality of the church for God to allow them tb be wasted. We religious can betray "and bury our charisms in intellectual arrogance. We can betray and bury our charisms in the comfortable patterns of recent and not so recent complacency. We can betray and bury our charisms in rampant individualism. We can betray and bury our charisms in personal or communal refusal to engage others in honest relationship. We can betray and bury our charisms by perpetuating a politically advantageous or per-sonally comfortable status quo. We can betray and bury our charisms by fashionable tinkering with fundamentals. We can betray and bury our charisms in person.al preferences and unre-flective compromise. We can betray and bury our charisms to the detriment of the transcendent realities to which we have been called and for which these gifts have been entrusted to us. And perhaps we not only can do these things, but actually have done them, for a variety of worthwhile or not so worthwhile reasons. Regarding the charisms of religious life, it is difficult to over- Religious today who have embraced any charism of religious life in the likeness of great, sainted founders and foundresses simply cannot allow themselves the luxury of dabbling with the gift. September-October 1993 655 McDonough * Charisms and Religious Life estimate the importance of initial and ongoing formation. Human beings as they are, religious are always beginners in something, but initial formation is especially crucial. Introducing people to a religious institute's specific charism, it makes or breaks the char-acter of that cqmmunity. Formation provides spiritual founda-tions; it imparts intellectual knowledge; it encourages progress in virtue; it provides opportunity for enhancing relational abilities; it implants or improves specific skills for ministry; it conveys the importance of humble reliance on God; it fosters a willingness to have everything disrupted for the sake of the Truth who is Jesus. Sound initial and ongoing formation is indispensable to the char-acter of the institute as such and, of course, indispensable for each member as well. All members should become increasingly imbued with the founder's or foundress's initial gospel insight. Formation in consecrated life requires a certain comprehensive submission to the heritage of a particular community precisely so that one can grow into it. In other words, it involves a conscious and practical surrender to the community's time-tested and effi-cacious ways of bringing the novice into its specific charism. It involves a lifelong endeavor to live according to this charism, and one's initiation into this life must necessarily include assiduous study of the charism's roots while experiencing its lived reality. And, if anything is clear from the gospel and from the great sainted founders and foundresses of religious institutes, it is that ministry requires prayer, a continuing relationship with the person of Jesus. This cannot be feigned, and it is the source of one's Christian identity within a religious community's own charism. As a matter of course, initial and ongoing formation provide encounters with our countless limitations. Our supposed matu-rity is challenged, as are our all-too-easily-acquired attitudes of superiority and complacency. Initial and continuing formation does this for us within our common life, which is relentlessly con-frontational. To be sure, confrontation is not common life's pri-mary purpose, but--as many religious have noticed--it has that characteristic nevertheless. Formation and confrontation remind us of our responsibility, our response-ability, regarding the charis-matic gift we have received. Common life continually reminds us of the smallness in each of us that has not the ability or the humil-ity- or the willingness to be bothered--to address some particu-lar smallness in oneself or in another. The old-fashion~d term for this is pusillanimity, the opposite of magnanimity, greatheartedness. 656 Review for Religious Charisms: Ongoing Personal Response How we live together and why we live together--indeed, if we live together at all these days--is not insignificant for reli-gious. We can respond to these questions in three basic ways: com-pliance, identification, and internalization. Compliance is an ¯ appropriate response to things with which one agrees, or acquiesces in because they are not worth contesting (daily schedules, maga-zine subscriptions). Identification is an appropriate response to things which connect us in some external way with a province or a congregation (attire, social customs). Internalization is an appro-priate response of making the elements of a particular charism one's own (one's understanding of the vows and one's practical ways of living them). Practical experience tells all of us religious that initial and also later experiences of fervor in religious life readily wane. What happens? Perhaps, at some time during the years, little by little, without our noticing it, we replace various appropriate responses of compliance, identification, and internalization with inappro-priate ones. In short, we get them mixed up. Some religious seem to prefer being identified more by their external attire (conve-niently donned and doffed) than by their interior spirituality (dif-ficult to acquire, but then probably difficult to conceal). Some religious seem to prefer being judged more by compliance to a schedule (objectively measurable) than by unselfish concern for those among whom they minister (difficult to assess). Probably all of us get these responses mixed up sometimes, some more, some less. And, unless I am quite mistaken, with rare exceptions we all learn eventually how to compromise, how to work the system for some personal advantage. Later on we may just forget our ear-lier enthusiasm for the life because we have become quite weary of it. We may find ourselves living our religious life from plateau to comfortable plateau, staying on each one as long as possible. Why? Perhaps--in wretched delusion, if you will--we some-how think we can "arrive" at being a religious in the context of the charism we have embraced. We settle into a place, consciously or unconsciously, and then no longer let the charism bother us in our complacent niche. For some, the "arrival" may have been when they once received the habit. For others, arrival meant first or perpetual profession or acquiring a particular academic degree or community responsibility. For still others, arrival may occur when they are recognized as professionally successful or feel personally September-October 1993 657 McDonougb ¯ Cbarisms and Religious Life renewed. In clerical communities the reception of orders might signify arrival for some. Whatever the point of one's arrival might be, we are inclined then to think, "Aha, now I have arrived. Now I do not have to hold the precious gift of the charism in my heart and say, every day, 'Dear God, if I ~ake this seriously, it can trans-form me drastically for the rest of my life, beginning today.' I do not have to do that anymore because I have arrived." Perhaps most religious at one time or another are tempted to think that they have, indeed, reached some acceptable point of arrival along the way of life they once set off on. The problem with such an "arrival" i~ that now we prefer to see the charism as inadequate ratheF than ourselves, for it asks us to do something that our complacency finds distasteful. Indeed, once we feel we have arrived, we fall prey to the temptation of having recourse to our charism merely as a storehouse of rhetoric to justify our doing what we have already comfortably settled upon doing, not what God might ask of us on the breath of our charism. It is at our own point of "arrival" that we religious need oth-ers to jolt us, jolt us out of our complacency. If we are lucky, they will. This is one of the reasons why we need common life, with its prayer, formative customs, and each other. We need every gener-ational cohort, every race, every national heritage, every ethnic grouping, every province, every viable local community. We espe-cially need ongoing encounter with each and all of those who have genuinely committed themselves to the practical manifestations of the charism and are willing to be captured and recaptured by it while striving faithfully to live it. Together we need to prevent our religious-life charism from being indiscriminately assimilated into the dominant trends of any culture, even as we strive to bring it to bear creatively on the problems of every culture. While we religious must admit that each of us pronounces vows in the first person singular and will one day answer to God for our living of them in the first person singular, any religious should also be able to say that he or she does not have to engage in this lifelong com-mitment alone. While each religious alone can become the person he or she is called to be, no religious is called to do this in rugged isolation. In short and in sum, any religious community either has a charism or does not; the members either understand it or they do not; and they either strive to live it or they do not. The future of religious life belongs neither to those who fondly reminisce about 658 Review for Religious yesteryear nor to those who self-prophetically dream about the next millennium. It belongs, rather, to those who here and now, simply and conscientiously, together live their response to the charism that captured them, to the God who has promised to transform them into the likeness of Christ. Notes ~ David J. Nygren and Miriam D. Ukeritis, "The Religious Life Futures Project: Executive Summary," Review for Religious 52 (1993): 13. 2 Ibid, 48. A Stop on Tour The occupants of the tour bus have all Been boning up on the saints: they circulate Little Lives snippeted for easy reference, easily Codified with the cathedral cities we visit. And here, in another cathedral square, obedient to the drone of tour guide, with pigeons overhead We ring the barrier where another stake Claimed its saint. Not Joan the toast Of the Dauphin in his cups, but like Joan The toast of the fire when it hiccups explosively, Fracturing the elemen.ts of wood, fracturing hers. Did she choose what to wear to be burned? Undressed quick enough by the faggots" fingers, She is scandalously handled in her nakedness By their probing thumbs, raped by fire. The fierce wounds she screams to, destroy The nerve endings, uncover bone. You would Have thought the cry of the burning to be i~tenser; The whine of flames is higher. Not yet char Underfoot, sainted, shrined, a Little Life Snippeted, her smoke ascends. Dizzily, then as now, The pigeons circle the cathedral spires. Picking Our cobbled way, we move onward with the tour. Nancy G. Westerfield September-October 1993 6$9 GERARD H. LUTTENBERGER Vincent de Paul's Charism in Today's Church living heritages St. Vincent de Paul (1581-1660) is well known as "Father of the Poor" and "Light of the Clergy," more by the for-mer title than by the latter. He founded a men's and also a women's community: the Congregation of the Mission and the Daughters of Charity. Both communities are, by constitution, oriented toward ministering to the poor. It is this ministry that, at least in contemporary thinking, ori-ents the spiritualities of their members. Priests of the Mission are "to follow Christ, evangelizing the poor.''1 Daughters of Charity are "given to God for the service of the poor.''2 All members of each community are to live simply, like the poor, and to consider the poor as their "lords and masters.''3 The call to dedicated and active concern for the poor rings clearly in contemporary church teaching and cur-rent spiritual theology. The church at Medellfn under-scored the fact that "action for justice is constitutive of the gospel." It speaks of Jesus' preferential option for the poor. The fourth chapter of Luke clearly speaks of Jesus being anointed in order to proclaim good news to the poor. And the Acts of the Apostles (see, for example, 2:42-47) indicates that the early church continued with like con-cerns. Gerard H. Luttenberger CM teaches at Immaculate Conception Seminary in Huntington, New York. His address is The Vincentian Community; 104 Anstice Street; Oyster Bay, New York 11771. 660 Review for Religious It is clear, however, that neither continued proclamation of the call for justice nor individual concrete effort directed toward the corporal and spiritual betterment of the poor is sufficient to mobilize and sustain the church in this endeavor. Deafness afflicts some; disappointment, discouragement, and burnout debilitate others; the lessening of spiritual energy and vision constitutes a threat to all who labor for justice. In the face of today's challenges for greater justice, the church needs a spirituality that shares the dynamic vision of Christ and promotes with active love the human and Christian betterment of all. The church needs a deepened communion with God in the labor of love, a labor that is ener-getic yet peaceful. This article deals with the service of the poor and the search for God in a Christian and gospel context. More specifically, it deals with the ways Vincent de Paul lived these gospel mandates by drawing on a more original and deeper life, which he had ifi Christ and in God. Christlike vision and life were gifts which God and God's Word, Jesus, gave him in the flow of his prayer, dis-cernment, and active ministry. This vision served to inspire mis-sionaries then and serves to inspire apostles in the church today. This essay, then, presents Vincent de Paul as a model for, and a challenge to, all who aspire to minister to the poor in the con-temporary church. At the same time it provides a critical analysis of the spirituality that motivated and sustained his energetic labor. The method will be rather direct and simple. Vincent's own words (letters, conferences, the Common Rule of the Congregation of the Mission) will be used, along with the record of his interaction with others (his own directors, persons he served, priests he worked with) and an account of the events of his life and decisions he made. Spiritual Adolescence: Vincent's Teachers Vincent de Paul, like us all, was a child 0f his time. He under-stood God and the ways of holiness in the light of the spirituality of "the French School.''4 This spirituality was characterized by a quest for a deepened mysticism, a dedication to searching out and aligning oneself with the will of God, an emphasis upon faith in contrast with reason, and in some circles a renewal in apostolic service.~ Vincent de Paul was touched by these movements, par-ticularly through Benedict of.Canfield, Francis de Sales, Pierre de B~rulle, and Andr~ Duval. September-October 1993 661 Luttenberger * V~ncent de Paul's Cbarism Today Benedict of Canfield (1562-1619), an English Capuchin who took refuge in France after his conversion from Puritanism, had a decided effect upon his God-seeking contemporaries through his much-read work Rbgle de perfection riduite au seul point de la volonti divine.6 Its theme, that Christian perfection is achieved as one becomes, in the words of Henri Bremond, "almost wholly absorbed into God and his absolute will,''7 and its directives regarding the ways of uniting oneself to that will (emptying oneself in active obe-dience to God's law.and in self-denial) provided a starting point for the reflections of many spiritual-minded persons, among whom was Pierre de B~rulle. It was in the company and through the guidance of B~rulle that Vincent himself absorbed Canfield's doctrine. Francis de Sales (1657-1622), the well-known bishop of Geneva, became acquainted with Vincent when the former vis-ited Paris in 1618-1619. De Sales came to respect Vincent so much that he entrusted to him the direction of a group of Visitation nuns, a community he himself had established. Francis de Sales's spiritual way focused on God's will, which he experienced deeply as love, salvific love.8 The will of God is sav-ing love for de Sales. This clear and warm thought affected one's understanding of God and of God's relationship to humankind. Fear of God necessarily gave way to utter confidence in God's saving love. This saving love became the final rubric for Vincent's understanding of the mystery of God, the person of Jesus, and the relationship of both God and Jesus to the world. Pierre de B~rulle (1575-1629), a highly spiritual man as well as a statesman and diplomat, served Vincent as a spiritual counselor during Vincent's early life and ministry.9 For B~rulle, God's will was perfectly expressed in the incarnation of Jesus. Btrulle was struck deeply by the richness of God's life and will as revealed in Jesus. Contemplation of the mysteries of Jesus' life, as well as of the very being and person of the incarnate Son of God, was for him a clear way of losing oneself and of being drawn into communion with God and God's will. Christians, therefore, would achieve holiness by binding themselves to God in and through Jesus, by reliving his "conditions" or mysteries. (B~rulle was powerfully influenced by having made the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and by the teaching of Teresa of Avila, which had reached France by way of the Spanish Carmelites.) The self-abandonment of searching for and subjecting oneself to the will of God, therefore, became more concrete and more explicitly Christian in Btrulle than it had been 662 Review for Religious in Canfield; but the will of God remained central for understanding the life of Jesus, the way of Christian holiness, and the mystery of God.10 Leaving the contribution of Andrd Duval for later, we might sum up the influences of Vincent's teachers in this fashion: 1. It is God, in God's salvific will, who guides us and all his-tory to God's Self as its end. In adhering to God's will and allowing God to work God's saving love among us, we will attain holiness and happiness. We will know the joy of being perfectly one with God, who is our only master (Canfield). 2. In seeking to align ourselves with God's salvific will, we are invited to perfect ourselves in love (de Sales). (Vincent ulti-mately developed this line of thought into a spirituality of action, stating that this love is not to be merely an affective love; rather, it is to be an effective love.'1) 3. God has sent the Son, who shows us the way to the Father, all the while revealing to us the Father's love. Jesus came "to act and to teach," to be himself one who lives in perfect union with the divine will and one who teaches us how to do the same (B~rulle). These three sets of ideas were important in Vincent's spiri-tual and ministerial development. They contributed to his quest to meet God in an active life of service. A brief sketch of that life and ministry will offer insight into the ways in which Vincent used and also developed these resources; it will illustrate how central and effective these perspectives were in the development of a person united to God in active ministry. Young Adulthood: God's Will and the Discovery of Grace Born in a small village of France in 1581, Vincent de Paul was ordained in 1599 at eighteen years of age.~2 Though the Council of Trent'had stipulated twenty-four ~s the minimum age for ordi-nation, Vincent's early ordination was not singular in late-16th-century France. Priesthood provided a comfortable career for young men of his time, and he was not an exception to such aspi-rations. He hoped for a benefice out of which he would be able to provide for his family's needs. Apparently he had little success until, through the influence of Bdrulle, his spiritual director, he obtained a position at the parish of Clichy in 1611, when he was thirty years old. He found the people poor but docile, alive in faith, and eager for God's word. It September-October 1993 663 Luttenberger ¯ Vincent de Paul's Cbaris~n Today was a significant moment of conversion for him; he realized that his ambition for a "good benefice," for a life of comfort, had been a block to his happiness and his ministry. He came to know that he could be happy laboring for poor and simple people. I was a country vicar [he later recalled]. I had people who were so good and obedient in doing whatever I asked them that, when I told them they ought to go to confession the first Sunday of the month, they never failed. They came and confessed, and I saw from day to day the good they did their souls. This gave me such consolation, and I was so pleased about it, that I used to say to myself: "My God! How happy you are to have such good people! I don't think the pope is as happy as a vicar with people of such good heart." 13 Vincent's stay in Clichy, however, was short-lived; in 1613 Bdrulle advised him to surrender the parish to an administrator and take up the task of being tutor for the family of Philippe de Gondi, a wealthy count. Vincent was obedient to his spiritual director; such obedience had become his way of life. It flowed from the spiritual doctrine that he had been absorbing from B~rulle and several other serious priests who gathered frequently to dis-cuss spirituality and the. plight of France. Vincent's tasks at the Gondi household included, not only teaching the children, but ministering to the poor who lived and worked on the Gondi estates. He learned firsthand the religious plight of these people. One problem concerned confession. Many peasants feared confessing their sins to local priests who knew them well. The problem was compounded by the fact that some priests were so ignorant that they did not even know the words of absolution.'4 Hence, people would allow years to pass without seeking to be unburdened of their sins. Vincent soon began coun-seling a general confession as a remedy. In 1617 Mme. de Gondi, during a sojourn at her ancestral castle at Folleville, visited a sick man at Gannes, a few miles dis-tant. She recommended that he make a general confession to Vincent. The sick man was so relieved after confessing that he told her that he would have been damned had he not had this spir-itual opportunity. Mme. de Gondi was so distressed that she urged Vincent to preach on confession the following day. The result was that his words stirred the entire parish of Folleville to repentance and he had to call in the Jesuits from Amiens to help him hear the people's confessions and to catechize them.'S 664 Review for Religious What does this brief sketch tell us of Vincent's spirituality? It serves to I~ring into relief the major dynamics out of which his more mature spirituality and his effectiveness in ministry devel-oped. Attentiveness and responsiveness to God's will in all its man-ifestations appear to have been paramount for him, and fidelity to his spiritual director helped him develop these dispositions and align himself with God. This spiritual pattern filled him with life, energy, and zeal for the spir-itual growth of others. It enabled him to "move with God" in ministry. And it led him to a deepened sense of the spiritual, a sense of God's presence, power, and graciousness greater than he seems to have expected. For what exhilarated Vincent in Clichy was the effectiveness and power of God's sav-ing love among his parishioners. What uplifted him on the Gondi estates was his perception of God working con-version among persons whom others thought to be too insignifi-cant and too resistant to God's love for their ministerial concern. One could say he was filled with an awareness that God was truly alive in a little country village and among the forgotten people of a vast country estate. A second dynamic, deeply characteristic of Vincent's way, also emerges from this sketch: his spirit was inclined toward action. He moved quickly when he was convinced that God had made known the divine will. He responded without hesitation when he realized people needed the ministry of a confessor; he sought help when the number of penitents was too great for one person. He was a man of action. These two dynamisms emerged in definite circumstances. If we are to understand Vincent, it is of singular importance to note that his early experiences of God in union with his active min-istry took place among the poor, the most neglected. Focused upon everyday needs that drew most of their energy and atten-tion, they stood as a challenge to any priest hoping to bring them God's word and love. Already aware, at least in principle, of the limitlessness and inclusivity of God's love, Vincent became con- He was filled with an awareness that God was truly alive in a little country village and among the forgoften people of a vast country estate. Septentber-October 1993 665 Luttenberger ¯ Vincent de Paul's Charism Today vinced ,that priests must be willing to endure these people's inat-tentiveness and resistance and must rely heavily upon God, and only then should try actively to mediate God's care. Such an approach to ministry proved fruitful, not only for the poor, but also for him. A word needs be said about the unity of these two dynamisms. While fidelity to the divine will remained central for Vincent, he seems to have begun to experience the union of two distinct aspects of that.divine will: (1) The will of God that he wished to be one with and obedient to was at the same time (2) a will alive and active, leading others to accept God's love. In surrendering him-self to ministry foi" the poor, Vincent immediately found himself deeply one with and a mediator of that will. The two dynamisms of his spirituality were in fact truly one. Middle Years: Mysticism in Action In the early days of his ministry, Vincent, under God's inspi-ration, drew the outlines of a way to God and a way of serving others. We will trace three ways in which that outline developed in subsequent years as his spirituality gradually deepened, broad-ened, and became fine tuned. 1. The Founding of the Congregation of the Mission Shortly after the.powerful experience at Folleville, Vincent left the Gondi household at B~rulle's suggestion and obtained a parish in Ch~tillon-les-Dombes, far from Paris in the southeast of France. Very upset, Mme. de Gondi sent Vincent letters from many persons of rank, including her husband's brother Henri de ¯ Gondi, who was bishop of Paris, and B~rulle himself. The latter did not ask Vincent to return; he did, however, describe the lady's dis-tress and asked him to consider returning. In December 1617, after consulting with B~rulle, Vincent came to an agreement with the lady that he would remain as chaplain to her household until her death. He preached missions throughout her lands and at times called upon the assistance of other priests. This did not end Mme. de Gondi's worries, however. What would happen after her death? She persuaded her chaplain to seek the services of a religious community which might commit some members to this work, in perpetuum. No community would agree. So she, together with her husband and Jean Francois de Gondi, ~trchbishop of Paris (who had succeeded his brother Henri), urged 666 Review for Religious Vincent himself to select several priests to labor with him in this task. For their labors they would receive 45,000 francs and a place to live (the Coll~ge des Bons-Enfants, which the archbishop him-self provided). On 17 April 1625 Vincent signed a contract pledg-ing to establish within a year a community of six priests to preach these much needed missions, six priests who, going from village to village at the expense of their common purse, would devote themselves purely and entire.ly to the salvation of poor people, to preach, to instruct, to exhort, and to catechize these poor country folk and to incline them to make a good general confession of their whole past life, and without taking recompense in any manner what-ever, in order to distribute freely the gifts they have so lib-erally received from the hand of God?6 The expansion of Vincent's apostolic labor to include a con-gregation of collaborators reveals the development of the dynamic that had governed his earlier life. Responsiveness to God's will was still his focus as he carefully came to the decision to accede to Mme. de Gondi's request. But of special value at this point are the elements of the discernment process that led him to this deci-sion. First among these elements must stand his awareness of need, the need of the spiritually neglected people of the Gondi estates. Further, the concurrence of the Gondis' own sense of urgency and the negative responses of the other religious orders led Vincent to entertain the possibility that God wished him to respond to this need. But he was also cautious. Although he had strong desires to respond affirmatively, his conviction was that God would not be found in strong, ardent movements. He expressed that conviction sometime later (1642) in ~ letter to Bernard Codoing, a priest of the congregation: The spirit of God proceeds directly and always humbly. Remember that you and I are subject to a thousand outbursts of nature, and recall what I told you about finding myself, in the early stages of the project of the Mission, with it con-stantly on my mind. That made me wonder whether the affair sprang from nature or from the evil spirit, and I purposely made a retreat in Soisson so that God might be pleased to remove from my mind the pleasure and eagerness I was expe-riencing in this matter. God was pleased to answer my prayer in such a manner that, by his mercy, he took them both away September-October 1993 667 Luttenberger ¯ V~ncent de Paul~s Charism Today and allowed me to be in the opposite dispositions. I think that, if God is granting some blessing to the Mission and I am less a subject of scandal to it, I attribute it after God to this fact. I wish to remain in this practice of neither concluding nor undertaking anything while I am caught up in these ardent hopes at the prospect of great benefits?7 One of the criteria, therefore, which Vincent employed to dis-cern the will of God and to arrive at firm decisions in life and minist~ was the experience of a spirit of inner peace in the face of proposed undertakings. And prayer, even periods of lengthy prayer and retreat, became the avenue by which he arrived at (or was given) such dispositions (and, with them, knowledge of God's will). Finally, before making his commitment to the Mission, Vincent sought counsel, this time not from B~rulle (from whom he had separated himself)~ but from another priest and professor at the Sorbonne, Andr~ Duval. The counsel he received is reported sim-ply and directly by Duval's biographer: On hearing him speak of the spiritual necessities, in partic-ular of the need for religious instruction in the rural parishes, of the hunger for the word of God in the people, of the ben-efit produced by these instructions, and of the blessing which they would receive, the venerable Andr~ pronounced these words: "The servant knowing the will of God and doing nothing will be flogged greatly." These words were scarce.ly uttered than Vincent de Paul felt himself interiorly moved and drawn by grace, and con-sidered them as an order from the divine will, which, having made known to him the needs of the poor, called him to go throughout t.he country. It was necessary to announce the Word of God, to preach, to catechize, to hear confessions, to administer the sacrament of penance, to allay discords, and, in a general way, to offer to the people living in the coun-tryside all kinds of spiritual services, without being a burden to anyone, without inconveniencing either the people or the priests, but rather bringing them help, and that with their assent and with the permission and the mandate of the bish-ops. As a result, he decided to give himself effectually to this work . It was only with this last element, the approbation of another person whom he judged objective and wise, that Vincent felt assured that he had attained God's will through prayer and dis-cernment. The way was complex; the outcome was sure. Vincent's fidelity to this process produced two profound effects 668 Review for Religious upon his spirituality. First, his experience of ministry, and partic-ularly his ministry in behalf of the poor, became filled with the experience of God. He knew God's presence in his resolves and in his actions; he found God alive in the persons whom he served. His labor of discernment and his responsiveness in service constituted his way of coming into, and living in, union with the God who was drawing all into communion through Christ. For Vincent, ministry itself became the expression of what might well be called a "mysticism in action." Second, this process drew Vincent close to Christ. Though Vincent left us no explicit record from before 1625 of his move-ments toward and with the Lord, his words written shortly after this time indicate the prominence of the life and example of Christ in his discernment and ministry. It was through Christ that he learned total reliance upon God's will. And it was in Christ that he found himself alive to God and alive for others.19 In this latter vein he wrote to one of his first priest confreres, Antoine Portail, urging him to humility as.he gave a series of missions: Keep in mind that we live in Jesus Christ through the death of Jesus Christ and that we must die in Jesus Christ through the life of Jesus Christ, and that our life must be hidden in Jesus Christ and full of Jesus Christ, and in order to die as Jesus Christ we must live as Jesus Christ. Now, once these foundations have been laid, let us surrender to contempt, to shame, to ignominy, and let us disclaim the honors people pay to us, the good reputation and the applause they give us, and let us do nothing that has not that end in view.2° For Vincent it was in Christ that faithfulness to God and self-less love of others found their unity. Discernment of God's will and responsiveness in service were framed by devotion to Christ and the mysteries of his life. Vincent was drawn, not simply to mysticism in action, but rather to a Christian mysticism in action-- to an experience of God through and in Christ. in an active life of faithfulness and service. 2. Commitment to Ministering to the Clergy Active and programmatic labor for the spiritual well-being of the clergy soon followed as a focal concern of the saint. It had become clear to him that much of the spiritual impoverishment of the people of the country had its roots in the impoverishment of the clergy. He had discussed this much earlier (before going to Clichy) with people who had grouped together out of concern for September-October 1993 669 Luttenberger ¯ Vincent de Paul's Charism Today the spiritual renewal of France, among whom were B~rulle and Fathers Jacques Olier (founder of the Sulpicians) and Adrien Bourdoise (founder of a community, the priests of Saint-Nicolas-du- Chardonnet). Later Mme. de Gondi spoke with him about it. And finally he experienced its effects firsthand at Folleville and Ch~tillon.2t It was through the instrumentality of bishops that Vincent actually began ministering to the clergy. In July 162 8 Augustine Potiers, bishop of Beauvais, got the idea that a retreat for ordinands that would include instruction on the duties of their state in life might be helpful. He asked Vincent to draw up a program for the retreat and to conduct it for his candidates that very September in Beauvais. Vincent responded and the effort met with success. In February 1631, Jean Francois de Gondi, the same arch-bishop of Paris who in 1625 had sponsored Vincent's establishing a small community of priests to conduct missions for the poor people of the Gondi estates, decreed that all his ordinands would have to make a two-week retreat before their ordination. He asked Father Bourdoise to conduct the exercises, but the priest refused. He then asked Vincent to conduct them. He too objected, stat-ing that the goal of his community was to preach country mis-sions. The archbishop finally obtained the services of a doctor from the Sorbonne, but the next year, after uniting the Priory of Saint-Lazare with the congregation, he imposed upon Vincent's community the obligation of conducting these retreats. In 1639 he required all ordinands residing in Paris (not only those belong-ing to his diocese) to make these exercises. Soon, at the recom-mendation of Bishop Potiers, other dioceses adjacent to Paris began sending their candidates to these retreats, the success of which was quite pleasing to Vincent. One can notice some interesting modifications in Vincent's approach at this time to discerning God's will. He saw the needs of the clergy and connected them with the distress of the poor people. He also saw that others who might respond to these needs had refused, a fact that would raise the question whether God wished Vincent himself to meet these needs. Finally, he was being invited by ecclesiastical authority (which he respected in discern-ing God's will) to respond to these needs by a means which, early on in Beauvais, had proven effective. Yet he resisted. Why? It is possible to argue that he himself was not yet free enough from human and even selfish limits to hand himself over to God's 670 Review for Religious will in all things. It is possible that his love for the poor and the missions crowded out other possibilities for responding to God's will. But neither of these possibilities seems to have been the case. What seems to have been holding Vincent back was his fidelity to the contract he had made with Mme. de Gondi in 1625. By it the community was bound to conduct missions for the country people, a time-consuming task. Ministering to the clergy would usurp some of the time that Vincent had already pledged (by contract and therefore in justice) to these mis-sions. That had appeared to him then as God's will and he had bound himself and the community to that for life. The fact that he could care for the spiritual needs of the people even more effectively by securing for them good priests did not seem, at least in the first instance, to stir him. It took the command of the arch-bishop to move him and his community into ministry for the clergy. Only this command offered him suf-ficient certitude that he was standing before God's will in taking up this new endeavor. Later on, however, he viewed this ministry as clearly being given by God. Development in his thought and convictions fol-lowed upon the expansion of the ministry itself. After the success of the retreats, he recognized the need for offering ongoing sup-port to the newly ordained. Thus, in 1633 he developed the pro-gram known as the Tuesday Conferences, a weekly meeting of diocesan clergy with a member of the community for prayer and reflection. And in 1636 he opened the doors of the Coll~ge des Bons-Enfants to young men who felt called to the priesthood. (This first house was for children, a minor seminary; in 1642, however, Vincent focused more on older candidates, supplying a program for major seminarians, an approach to formation which he had come to judge would be in the long run more effective.)22 The change in Vincent's view seems to have come, in part at least, by the reflections he had with his friend Father Bourdoise in the early 1630s. The latter had stated, "To give a mission is like giving a poor starving man a meal, but to set up a seminary is to aim at feeding him all his life.''z3 Vincent himself saw work for 'To give a mission is like giving a poor starving man a meal, but to set up a seminary is to aim at feeding him all his life.' September-October 1993 671 Luttenberger ¯ Vincent de Paul's Charism Today the clergy and the establishment of seminaries as a necessary com-plement of the congregation's work on the missions. Later Vincent regarded work for the clergy as equal to the con-gregation's call to evangelize the poor;24 he counseled his priests never to refuse to minister to the clergy on the pretext of giving missions to the poor;2s and, in the Common Rules of the institute, he listed formation of the clergy as one of the three purposes of the community.26 His retrospective understanding of his and the con-gregation's involvement in this ministry led him to tell his confreres: So, in the beginning, the company focused its energies only on itself and on the poor. At certain times of the year, it with-drew into its own houses, and at others it went forth to instruct the poor country people. God permitted nothing else to happen among us. But in the fullness of time he called us to contribute toward the formation of good priests, to give good pastors to parishes, and to teach them what they should know and doff7 Vincent's taking on the formation of the clergy as a God-given calling to him and the congregation offers a further insight into his spirituality: his way to God and way of ministering, always wed-ded to one another, were marked by a readiness to expand as well as by a fidelity to original intuitions and callings. There always remained possibilities for further invitations from the Lord; there was always the need for ongoing discernment. Having appreci-ated God's saving love as absolutely inclusive, Vincent was also compelled to include all suitable and necessary means of fostering the advance of that love. For him this was the only way of allow-ing the richness of God's wisdom and love to reach deeply into him and to reach others adequately through him. Having earlier experienced God in ministering to the poor, he came to experience that same God in greater depth and in more far-reaching ways as he entered ministry to and formation of the clergy. 3. Collaboration with Women: The Daughters of Charity Vincent was not a foreigner to the gifts of women in ministry. Early on, in 1617, while at Ch~tillon-les-Dombes, he became con-cerned about a family whose children and servants had fallen ill. For some reason the family found itself without even basic needs. In a sermon Vincent recommended the family to his congrega-tion and found his people more than ready to respond. As a mat-ter of fact, he discovered that a number of well-to-do women were eager to extend their charity to the needy. He provided them with 672 Review for Religious some guidelines, and the group became known as the Confraternity of Charity and served as a model for many similar groups that he established in villages where he gave missions. Soon, however, he discovered that peasant girls assisted these needy persons, especially in menial tasks, better than the well-to-do women did. They nursed the sick poor, instructed youngsters, and cared for orphans, refugees, the aged--in a word, the most abandoned. They too needed guidance, however, so that they would persevere in their ministry. The question soon posed itself: Where would he find capable mentors and guides for these devoted women? Toward the end of 1624 or early in 1625, a woman named Louise de Marillac sought spiritual direction from Vincent. She was a woman qf tender conscience, deep faith, and generous spirit. She lived a disciplined life of prayer while providing care for her sickly husband and difficult son. Before her marriage she had entertained thoughts of entering the convent, but had been dis-suaded by her spiritual director, who judged that she could not withstand the rigor of religious life. Vincent's early impressions of Louise were of her as an earnest, but dependent and scrupulous, woman. She often found herself troubled if he were not available to her for guidance. Concerns about the state of her soul, worries about her family, and recurring desires to enter a religious community after her husband's death (21 December 1625) were making her anxious and fretful. In her Vincent saw a person in need of judicious spiritual care, but also one quite gifted by God. Vincent's relationship with Louise and his advice to her are marked with the same spiritual convictions that we have noted in his own approach to God and to ministry: He counseled that she wait for God and not anticipate God's designs. But, more signif-icantly, it is in his letters to her that we read, for the first time, of his manner of relating to Christ and of how he saw the spiritual dynamics he lived by exemplified in Christ's life. He guided her to seek to live in Christ, encouraging her to model her life by the example and attitudes of Christ, in all moments and turns of events. For example, when, on the day after her husband's death, she con-fided to Vincent that she wished to serve God more freely, he told her not to make plans for the future until she had spent much time in prayer and reflection. He held her from what he regarded as premature commitments with the following counsel: September-October 1993 673 Luttenberger ¯ Vincent de Paul's Charism Today Always ho~ior the inactivity and the unknown condition of the Son of God. That is your center and what he asks of you for the present and for the future, forever. If His Divine Majesty does not let you know, in a way that cafinot be mistaken, that he wants something else of you, do not think about or let your mind become engrossed in that other matter. Leave it to me; I shall think about it enough for both of us.28 Given the fact that Louise was persistent, Vincent often found himself reiterating such counsei. On another occasion he wrote: Oh! what great hidden treasures there are in holy providence and how marvelously our Lord is honored bythose who fol-low it and do not try to go ahead of it. I recently heard one of the great men of the kingdom say that he had learned this truth through his own experience. He had never undertaken anything on his own except four things. Instead of their work-ing out well for him, they had turned out to his detriment. Is it not true that you wish, as is quite reasonable, that your servant not undertake anything without you and your order? And if that is reasonable from one man to another, how much more so from the Creator to the creature!29 Nevertheless, Vincent saw the need of helpers, active women helpers, who would visit the Confraternities of Charity in various villages to sustain them spiritually in their efforts. And Louise felt herself strongly moved in prayer toward direct service of the poor. On 6 May 1629 Vincent sent her to the Confraternity of Charity serving in Montmirail, recognizing, among other things, that the contemplative life would be fraught with dangers for her, while a life of active service best responded to the gifts God was giving her. His conviction that this decision was of God shines through his let-ter to her before her departure: I am sending you the letters and the report that you need for your journey. Go, therefore, Mademoiselle, go in the name of our Lord. I pray that his divine goodness may acc9mpany you, be your consolation along the way,., your strength in your toil, and, finally, that he may bring you back in perfect health and filled with good works.3° The journey of Vincent and Louise, however, was still to be made, with remarkable benefit for the church. Vincent had real-ized much earlier that a community of women who would sup-port one another in common faith, common life, and common dedication to the service of the most neglected would have advan- 674 Review for Religious tages like those of a community of priests. Perseverance in full-time Christian ministry suffered many threats without such support. Louise, too, desired community, her initial desires for religious life never having died. But once again Vincent moved with great caution, even slowness, in counseling and pursuing this develop-ment. His delay came partly from his awareness that the only way for women to live community life in his day involved being cloistered. For women to live an active community life in service of the poor would be regarded (particularly by the Holy See) as a radical inno-vation. Vincent necessarily had some fear that cloister would be imposed upon the women who would seek approval for the reli-gious community which he and Louise desired. The greater reason for his delay, however, was his desire to be assured that the plan to live their aspirations in community orig-inated in God. Resisting the urgency which Louise felt, he coun-seled: You belong to our Lord and his holy mother. Cling to them and to the state in which they have placed you until they make it clear that they wish something else of you.3~ And later he wrote to her: I beg you once and for all not to give it a thought until our Lord makes it evident that he wishes it, and at present he is giving indications to the contrary. We want a number of good things with a desire that seems to be of God, and yet it is not always from him . You are trying to become the ser-vant of those poor young women, and God wants you to be his own, and perhaps of more people than you would be in that way. And even if you were only his, is it not enough for God that your heart is honoring the tranquillity of our Lord's? Then it will be fit and ready to serve him. The king-dom of God is peace in the Holy Spirit; he will reign in you if your heart is at peace. So, be at peace, Mademoiselle, and you will honor in a sovereign way the God of peace and love.32 After all the hesitation, the searching and prayer, Vincent finally became assured that the movement toward ~ommunity was of God. He wrote to Louise in August or September around the year 1633: I think your good angel did what you told me . Four or five days ago, he communicated with mine concerning the char-ity of your young women. It is true; he has prompted me to Septentber-October 1993 675 Luttenberger ¯ Vincent de Paul's Charism Today recall it often, and I gave that good work serious thought. We shall talk about it, God willing, on Friday or Saturday, if you do not write to me sooner.33 And shortly thereafter, on 29 November 1633, the company of the Daughters of Charity was established. These developments clearly underscore Vincent's consistency in the way he understood God, understood himself and others, and attempted to respond to God. Resting in, seeking light from, and moving with God's spirit--moving in harmony with the man-ifest will of God--remained the way of Vincent and provided him with the energy he so clearly reveals in his labor for the kingdom of God. And finding inspiration and support in Jesus and in his way of life not only guided Vincent's development, but also was a con-tinued theme in his counseling of others. These developments, moreover, reveal in Vincent a humility and truth by which he recognized that the designs of God are far greater than one person or even one congregation can fathom or implement. Hence, he was unafraid to take up a multiplicity of works and to collaborate with a variety of persons in order to bring his inspiration into reality.34 In his journey with Louise de Marillac, one sees particularly his recognition that the gifts of women are needed for the building of God's kingdom.3s Only by blending his work and that of the congregation with the work and talents of his feminine counterparts would God's overflowing love spread through the world.36 The fostering of God's active, saving will among all persons demands many works, many talents, and many persons of varied gifts. Sharing of the gifts and collaboration in the vision would be the rule. The movements of God and God's will, clearly and prayerfully discerned, would be the energy. And the life of the church, the inclusion of the poor within its company, fully alive in God's Spirit, and the spiritual vitality of the church's ministers and servants would be the fruit. Final Years: Mature Reflections and Legacy Though Vincent's life and ministry' continued for nearly two and a half decades beyond the establishment of the Congregation of the Mission, beyond the first involvements in ministry to the clergy, and beyond the early solidification of the women's com-munity, the Daughters of Charity, the basic lines of his spiritual-ity had, with these events, already been drawn. During his final 676 Review for Religious years, he was able to articulate his vision with precision and clar-ity, providing disciples living then and others yet to come with the lines of a way to God and a life in Jesus that had proven ben-eficial for himself. Prayerful discernment of and fidelity to the will of God remained in first place in Vincent's final years as they had been throughout his life. Speaking to his "little company," he reminded them: The. most perfect man will be the one whose will is most conformed to that of God. Perfection consists in so uniting our will to God's that his and ours are, strictly speaking, but one and the same will and nonwill; and he who most excels on this point will be the most perfect.37 And a short time later he told his congregation: We know that our works are worthless if they are not living and animated by God's will. This is the advice of the gospel, which causes us to do everything for the sake of pleasing him. We must greatly praise his Infinite Majesty for the grace he has given to the company of undertaking this all-holy and ever sanctifying practice [of the will of God]. Yes, from the beginning we have all desired to enter into this way of the perfect, which is to honor our Lord in all our works.3s Given this experience and these convictions, he summed up his mind and counsel for all future generations in the Common Rule of the Congregation of the Mission: A sure way for a Christian to grow rapidly in holiness is a conscientious effort to carry out God's will in all circum-stances and at all times . It is in this way that we can imi-tate Christ, the Lord . He tells us this himself: "I always do what pleases the Father.''39 Harmony with God's will wa~ still, in Vincent's mind, of pri-mary import. Holiness and fruitfulness in ministry depended upon it. Ministry, evangelization, and .service of the needy were of spe-cial significance to him precisely because they fostered that will. The teaching of Benedict of Canfield was, to the end, in evidence in his explicit spiritual understanding. Second, Vincent left all a legacy of action, particularly active and effective concern for the poor. In an oft-quoted counsel to his priests, he exhorted them and us: Love God, my brothers, let us love God, but let it be with the strength of our arms and the sweat of our brow. For very September-October 1993 677 Luttenberger ¯ I~ncent de Paul's Charism Today often such acts of love of God, of complaisance, of kindness, and other similar affections and interior experiences of a lov-ing heart, although very good and very desirable, are never-theless very suspect when a person is not led to the practice of effective love. "In that," says our Lord, "my Father is glo-rified because you give account of much fruit." And this is why we must be very careful, for there are very many who, having a well-composed exterior and an interior filled with great love of God, stop there; and when it comes to action and they find themselves in occasions of doing something, they stop short. They flatter themselves with their inflamed imaginations; they are contented with some pleasant con-ve'rsations which they have with God in prayer; they even speak like angels; but, apart from that, when it is a question of working for God, of suffering, of mortifying oneself, of instructing the poor, of searching out the wandering flock, of loving one who lacks something, of receiving kindly illness or some other misfortune, alas! there is no longer anyone there, courage deserts them. No, no, let us not delude ourselves: Our whole task consists in working.4° In this strong conviction, one sees the long-standing influ-ence of Francis de Sales. Responsiveness to God's will, for Vincent, did not mean abstract contemplation. It meant listening to God in order to serve God's designs for the good of humankind, espe-cially the most deprived. Finally, however, it was the life, words, and example of Jesus that formed the context of Vincent's action as well as his search for God's will. It was the way of Jesus, and living in Jesus' Spirit, that offered Vincent the ideal and the power to unify this responsive-ness to God and this outpouring of ministerial love in a life filled with God. Only toward the end of his life do we find developed reflection on the powerful way living in the Spirit of Jesus had fashioned the spirituality of the saint. In a conference he exhorted his confreres: We must put on the Spirit of Jesus Christ. O Savior! O Gentlemen! There you have a grand undertaking, to put on the spirit of Jesus Christ! This means that in order to become perfect and to assist people effectively, to be of good use to ecclesiastics, we must labor to imitate the perfection of Jesus Christ and strive to attain it. It also means that of ourselves we can do nothing. We must be filled and animated by this spirit of Jesus Christ!41 And that there be no doubt regarding his understanding of this undertaking, he continued: 678 Review for Religious What is this spirit of our Lord? It is a spirit of perfect char-ity, filled with a marvelous esteem for the Divinity and with an infinite desire to honor him worthily. It is a knowledge of the greatness of his Father, which admires and extols it unceasingly. He has so high an esteem of it that he paid him homage with everything that was within his sacred person and which came forth from it; he attributed everything to him; he was unwilling to say that his teaching was his own teaching, but referred it to his Father: "My teaching is not mine, but that of the Father who sent me.". And his love, what was it? . . . Could there be any greater witness of love than by dying out of love in the way that he died? . . . His humiliations were but love, his work but love, his sufferings but love, his prayers but love, and all his interior and exterior operations were but reiterated acts of love . There you have a description of our Lord's spirit, with which we must be clothed; it is, in a word, having always a great esteem and a great love for God.42 Hence, the mature Vincent placed the following of Jesus as the fundamental goal of the congregation and as the basic theme running through the Common Rule of the institute. Sacred Scripture tells us that our Lord Jesus Christ, sent into the world to save mankind, began to do and to teach. He did the first when he perfectly reduced to practice every kind of virtue; and the .second when he preached the gospel to the poor and gave his Apostles and disciples the knowledge nee-essary for guiding people . Therefore, the end of the con-gregations is: (1) to strive for one's own perfection by exerting every effort to practice the virtues which the sovereign Master has been pleased to teach us both by word and example . 43 The counsel of Pierre de BSrulle, the constant call to live one's life immersed in the mysteries, of Christ, was woven throughout Vincent's life and permeated his teachings and counsel. He left no ambiguity for his followers about the basic ways of under-standing God and living in God's presence. Christ was that way of understanding; Christ was the way of life. The rule of Benedict of Canfield, the spiritual insights of Francis de Sales, and the spiritual doctrine of B~rulle had been lived and distilled so as to provide a guide and a source of inspi-ration to Vincent and to all who would make the journey of seek-ing and responding to the divine will that Vincent knew to be actively pursuing and transforming all persons, especially the poor. This he believed was the revelation of God in Jesus, and it was September-October 1993 679 Luttenberger ¯ Vincent de Paul's Charism Today the privilege of the Christian to walk with Jesus in experiencing and mediating that same salvific love. As a res~ult, Vincent described himself and his mission as one with the Lucan Jesus: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; to proclaim good news to the poor, he has sent me.''44 His life's task, and the charism he has left us, was and is one of discerning that Spirit in prayer and community so as to mediate it effectively as servants of God's kingdom, especially among the poor. His prayer and discernment, his life and min-istry, were deeply characterized by patience and caution, on the one hand, and by selflessness and courage, on the other. Both sets of virtues were necessary to lead Vincent to be confident that he knew God and God's will in his decisions and in his labors. Both were needful for him to experience God--Christ--and God's unfolding salvific initiative in his own day. In being faithful to these gifts, he found himself faithful to God's will, to walking in Christ, and to mediating God's love, particularly to the poor. In being faithful to these gifts Vincent's own way of making the spiritual journey--he became a true mystic, living out what is rightly called a mysticism in action. And in showing us these gifts and this journey, Vincent de Paul also shows us a charism, a gift of the Spirit, which seeks expression in the church of today. Notes ~ Constitutions and Statutes of the Congregation of the Mission, 1984, article I. 2 Constitutions and Statutes of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, 1983, article 2:1. 3 Conferences to the Daughters of Charity, 14 June 1643 and 11 November 1657; Extract of a Conference to the Congregation of the Mission, January 1657, St. Vincent de Paul. Correspondance. Entretiens. Documents (hereafter SVDP), ed. Pierre Coste (Paris: J. Gabalda, 1920- 1925), 9:119, 10:332, 11:393. The first three volumes of this compila-tion have been translated into English by a team of sisters and priests, members of the Daughters of Charity and of the Congregation of the Mission. This English translation (hereafter ET) bears the title Saint Vincent de Paul. Correspondence, Conferences, Documents (Brooklyn: New City Press, 1985-). 4 For a recent analysis of this spirituality, see the introduction by William M. Thompson to Bdrulle and the French Schook Selected Writings, ed. William M. Thompson, trans. Lowell M. Glendon SS (Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1989), pp. 32-76. See also Michael Buckley, "Seventeenth Century French Spirituality: Three Figures," in Christian Spirituality, III: 680 Review for Religious Post-Reformation and Modern, ed. Louis Dupr~ and Don E. Saliers (New York: Crossroad, 1989), pp. 28-32. s Buckley, pp. 28-32. 6 On this work and its influence, see Bucldey, pp. 29-30, and Luigi Mezzadri CM and Luigi Nuovo CM, "The Directors of St. Vincent," ed. and trans. John W. Carven CM, Vincentian Heritage 6 (1985): 173-175. 7 A Literary History of Religious Thought in France, trans. K.L. Montgomery (New York: Macmillan, 1930), 2:219. s Buckley, pp. 32-41. 9 For the influence of Pierre de Bdrulle upon Vincent de Paul, see Bremond, 3:193-222. ,0 Buckley, pp. 42-53; Mezzadri, pp. 177-178. ~ See below, note 40. ~2 The historical material is taken from Pierre Coste, The Life and Works of Saint Vincent de Paul (hereafter LW), 3 vols., trans. Joseph Leonard CM (Westminster, Maryland: Newman Press, 1952). ,3 Conference on the Practice of Asking Permission, 27 July 1653, SVDP, 9:646. 14 Mme. de Gondi told Vincent (whom she had enlisted as her spirio tual director), that when she was young she herself had had such a painful experience. ~s Conference on the Observance of the Rules, 17 May 1658, SVDP, 12:8; Extract of a Conference on the Mission Preached at Folleville in 1617, ibid, 11:4. _ ~6 Contract of the foundation of the Congregation of the Mission, 17 April 1625, SVDP, 13:198. 17 De Paul to Codoing, 1 April 1642, SVDP, 2:246-247 (ET, 2:278). ~s Cited in Mezzadri, p. 176. ~9 See the letters of Vincent written during the years 1626 to 1633 to Louise de Marillac, cited in section three below. 2o Letter dated 1 May 1635, SVDP, 1:295 (ET, 1:276). In a similar, but less lyrical, manner, he counseled Jean Barreau, a brother of the con-gregation who, for some reason.unknown to u~,.had been imprisoned: "It is with great sorrow that I learned of your present state, which is a sub-ject of affliction for the whole company, but of great merit for you before God, since you suffer even though innocent . Our Lord, having descended from heaven to earth for the redemption of men, was also imprisoned by them. How blessed are you, Monsieur, to be treated the same way! . . . The more our actions and our sufferings resemble those of Jesus in this life, the more they are pleasing to God." Letter to Jean Barreau, 16 September 1650, SVDP, 4:81. 2~ A parishioner of Chfitillon recounted that Vincent's predecessors in that parish had kept women of ill repute and had frequented bars and gambling houses (Report of Charles Demion on the Sojourn of Saint Vincent at Ch~tillon-les-Domb.es, SVDP, 13:50). September-October 1993 681 Luttenberger ¯ Vincent de Paul's Charism Today 22 Letter to Bernard Codoing, in Rome, 13 May 1644, SVDP, 2:459 (ET, 2:505-506). See also SVDP, 2:152-154, 188 (ET, 2:171-173,214). 23 Citation taken from Coste, LVV, 1:259. 24 Letter to Louis Rivet, priest of the congregation, missioned in Saintes, 19 December 1655, SVDP, 5:489. 2s In a letter to a priest of the Mission, Luc Plunket, missioned at Saint-Meen, Vincent cautioned: "Do you not know, Monsieur, that we are equally obliged to form good ecclesiastics as to instruct the country peo-ple? And that a priest of the Mission who will work at one but not the other is only half a missioner, because he is sent to do both?" 21 May 1659, SVDP, 7:561. See also the conference of 6 December 1658, SVDP, 12:85. 26 1:3. Vincent composed these written regulations for the congrega-tion only after some thirty years had passed since the company had been established. 27 Conference gi~)en on 6 December 1658, SVDP, 12:84. 28 SVDP, 1:62 (ET, 1:54). See also LV¢', 1:204. 29 SVDP, 1:68-69 (ET, 1:60). See also LW, 1:204. 3o SVDP, 1:73 (ET, 1:64-65). See also Lgr, 1:207. 31 SVDP 1:79 (ET, 1:71). See also L/4z, 1:227. 32 SVDP 1:113 (ET, 1:111). See also LI.V, 1:227-228. 33 SVDP, 1:218 (ET, 1:216). See also LW, 1:230. 34 Though the works detailed thus far are the most well known of Vincent's endeavors, his energy and docility to the invitations of God led him to undertake and sponsor many others. These included labor in for-eign missions, aid to provinces devastated by war and famine, retreats for the laity, care of orphans and of the aged, participation in the coun-cil charged with the appointment of bishops, and the defense of the church against Jansenism. 3s Toward the end of his life, Vincent continued to affirm the impor-tance of collaboration with women in ministry. In a conference con-cerning the goals of the congreg~ition, he counseled his priests and brothers: "Was not he [the Son of God] pleased that women should be among his companions? Yes. Did he not direct them to perfection and to the assistance of the poor? Yes. If then our Lord has done this, he who did so much for our instruction, are we not persuaded that we are doing well in imitating him in this? . . . You know that even then [in the Apostolic era] there were deaconesses who did wonders in the church of God, . . . and thus God was served equally by both sexes; and shall we think that it does not belong to the Congregation of the Mission to procure that our Lord be honored and served by both?" Conference, 6 December 1658, SVDP, 12:86-87. 36 Though Vincent's labor for the establishment of the Daughters of Charity has been the principal focus of this section, he also entered into collaboration with other groups of women in various works of ministry in 682 Review for Religious the church, including the Visitation nuns and the Ladies of Charity of the H6tel Dieu, to mention a few. 37 SVDP, 11:318. 38 Conference on Conformity to the Will of God, 7 March 1659, SVDP, 12:154. 39 Common Rule of the Congregation of the Mission, 2:3. 40 Extract of a conference concerning the love of God, undated, SVDP, 11:40-41. 41 Conference on the Members and the Works of the Congregation, 13 December 1658, SVDP, 12:107-108. 42 Ibid, 108-109. 43 Common Rule, 1:1. ~ Luke 4:18. See SV'DP, 12:3-5, 79-81, 84-87, which are among many places where St. Vincent cited this gospel text. The Next Day The next day he sought her out. How to comfort a criminal's mother? He sensed her pain. Why did the temple priests want him killed? Had he really raised that man to life? She saw him scratching at the splinters in his hands, took them tenderly in hers and worked them free. The silences between their words grew longer. Here was home, yet time to leave. She touched a budding leaf. Thank you, Simon--her voice a whisper in his ear. Please come again. You've questions in your eyes that need to know. Yes, come tomorrow. Louise Finn CND September-October 1993 683 JOAN MUELLER A Franciscan Discernment ExperiencemPart Two MdY assignment was to teach graduate courses in spiritual irection during the coming school year and also in the following summer. In these courses I wanted to offer students an opportunity to explore discernment within the context of various charisms. Hoping to find reading material that might guide the study of discernment in the Franciscan tradition, I searched through various periodicals.~ In the 1984 volume of Review for Religious, I found "A Model of Discernment: The Experience of a Franciscan.''2 In the article Margaret Halaska OSF describes the process of discernment she used in making the transition out of community leadership and into a new form of ministry. The process involved personal prayer along with discussion and pondering with thirty people who knew her well. From these thirty, ten came to an evening of reflection that helped her refine her understanding of call. The result was not an outline of future ministry goals, but rather the next step, a year's renewal that would give her space to reflect on the path the Lord was choosing for her. The haunting leitmotif in her article is "personal poverty": "One of the elements of Franciscan discernment is the recognition of one's personal poverty and the' awareness that individuals are Part One of this article, by Margaret Halaska OSF, appeared in Review for Religious in 1984. Joan Mueller OSF teaches in the Christian Spirituality Program at Creighton University and is assistant professor of systematic theology at St. Francis Seminary; 3257 South Lake Drive; St. Francis, Wisconsin 53235. 684 Review for Religious inserted into a total world--one that is larger than oneself.''3 And again, "Recognition of personal poverty is one Franciscan princi-ple necessary for discernment. For me, this was very acute''4 (empha-sis mine). I cannot remember reading anything previous to this that res-onated so deeply within me that I needed to meet the author. While reading the articles, I felt as though I were listening to my own heart. When I looked at the author's profile, I found that Margaret belonged to the community whose motherhouse was across the street from where I worked. It was a strange and won-derful coincidence. One of my friends belonging to this community came the fol-lowing Saturday for supper. I told her of my excitement at read-ing the work of one of her sisters and begged her to provide me with an introduction. My friend started to cry. She told me that Margaret had been in administration with her, that they had been best friends, and that not long after her year of discernment she was found to have a brain tumor. It was evident that my friend was still grieving deeply. I assumed Margaret was dead and felt terrible disappointment. I asked when she had died, only to learn that she was still alive. She was in a nursing home in the city. I found her on the psy-chiatric floor of the nursing home sitting on the side of her bed. Her neck seemed paralyzed, so I sat on the floor to enable her to see me. I immediately told her my excitement about her article. We had a wonderful conversation. I promised to come back---and kept going to see her three, four, five times a week for the next year. Our visits were in some sense mundane. I would come from work and help her eat supper. Then I would help her wash up, brush her teeth, and go to bed. The mundane took a lot of time. Meals were usually a two-hour project. Helping her to brush her own teeth could take over a half hour. After Margaret was in bed, we would pray together. She would struggle to formulate a few words of prayer and then would be content to rest in God. One evening as she was preparing for bed, a eucharistic minister came in with Communion for both Margaret and me. Margaret wanted some time to pray, so we postponed getting her into bed. After receiving Communion we sat next to each other for a half hour in silence. I then opened my eyes and said, "Margaret, are you sleeping?" She said, "No, are you?" I said, "No." After another half hour of silence, we had the same September-October 1993 685 Mueller ¯ A Franciscan Discernment Experience conversation. After another half hour I said, "Margaret, you need to go to bed." Margaret's prayer was so simple. She tried to pray for every-one by name, but found that the world was too big. God gave her a solution to this dilemma: Mary. Margaret understood that it was Mary's role to stand before Jesus and tell him everything that Margaret needed--for the world and for herself. Prayer for Margaret was simply watching Mary and Jesus in this exchange. As her illness progressed, her voice became weaker. We communi-cated more and more through our eyes and through everyday tasks. I learned that feeding and washing hands were ways of listening to her heart. Her heart became more and more transparent. Once, when coming home after an evening with friends, I was reflecting upon my day. In contemplating the evening's interac-tion, I recognized that my contribution to the conversation was pri-marily about Margaret. I saw myself mirrored in the newly converted Francis, who went about the town of Assisi claiming that he had fallen in love with a most beautiful lady, Lady Poverty.s I also realized that, as with Francis, my excitement about this strange Lady was a mystery to my friends. This did not daunt my enthusiasm. I began to contemplate what was drawing me to Margaret's bedside day after day. It Was her poverty. The next day I simply told her, "I feel as though I have found Lady Poverty." She smiled. My experience was confirmed. Margaret's brain did not measure time very well. At first I thought this was a deficiency. As I listened, however, and got more in touch with her world, I realized that this sense of eternity was part of her beauty. With Margaret there was no past, present, or future. Rather, everything was a relationship. If we parted with a disagreement, what needed to be pondered and prayed about after-wards was the still-present feeling that all was not well between us, not who said what yesterday. What was important was the sister-hood between us. St. Clare would have agreed with this way of using time.6 Margaret talked to her food. The doctor gave her psychiatric medication for this habit. As she let me listen more and more to her heart, however, I too learned how to talk to my food. Margaret had been interested in the relationship between Native American spirituality and Franciscan spirituality. She learned from Native Americans how to listen to the movement of the Spirit in all of cre-ation. She saw all creation as enspirited. I invited a sympathetic 686 Review for Religious . nurse to see the mystery. Eventually Margaret was taken off the medication. As her sickness progressed and I helped feed her, we both understood the Spirit of the food. Margaret taught me how to see. For her, colors portrayed the deepest mysteries of life. She often expressed her heart simply in terms of color. Most of her last days were either purple (symbol-izing sorrow tinged with joy) or orange (joy tinged with sorrow). There were also four black days. The black days started on Christmas day. Margaret did not respond. Her eyes were a blank stare. I thought she was dying. Four days later one of the nurses pulled me aside to tell me that Margaret's condition was probably caused by depression, not by something directly physical. The nurse wanted me to try something. I went back into the room, closed the door, took Margaret's arm--the only extremity that was still working--and started to exercise it. I started growling and talking about how unfair life was. Her eyes made immediate contact. Life did seem unfair. She was only sixty years old. She was talented and bril-liant. She was so full of energy for the mis-sion. She was dying. The next day Margaret was radiant. She told me that she understood what the black days were about. She whispered, "They were about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." She said this over and over as if she was contemplating the mystery. I understood that she had been purified in the darkness for Trinitarian communion. I rejoiced and I wept. During the last days Margaret loved to be with those of us who loved her. She did not want to go back to the hospital. God asked of her even this wish. She died in the emergency room. I remembered the story of how Clare and her sisters wept at the death of Francis. Now I understand their tears.7 After Margaret's death a sister in her community gave me a copy of the manuscripts of her poems and essays. In one she recounts that during her year of renewal she had a dream in which she came upon a farmhouse. At the door was Lady Poverty. She Most of her last days were either purple (symbolizing sorrow tinged with joy) or orange (joy tinged with sorrow). September-October 1993 687 Mueller ¯ A Franciscan Discernment Experience realized in her dream that she truly loved and desired this Lady. At the same time another image, a beggar woman with crippled feet, hounded her prayer. She knew that God was inviting her to become this beggar woman; she resisted, hoping the beggar woman would go away. Finally in faith she said yes to the mystery. 688 Margaret's Story and Franciscan Discernment The discernment process that Margaret recounted in her arti-cle began in dialogue with others, in prayer, and in truthful assess-ment of her own gifts and the call of her heart. The discernment ended with an invitation to "live in a wigwam." This meant that Margaret was to spend her sabbatical time as a pilgrim exploring her call to personal poverty, to Native American spirituality, and to her love of the Franciscan charism. Practically, this translated into "a month's experience in a Franciscan Life Institute; extended time in Assisi; and ~xtended time on an Indian reservation.''8 This year of renewal was only the first fruit of Margaret's dis-cernment process. Her call was to personal poverty. None of those she discerned with were to take her into the depths of this mystery. Rather, she was introduced to the beggar woman with crooked feet. During her sickness Margaret became this beggar woman, dependent upon the thoughtfulness or thoughtlessness of others. As her illness progressed, she became crippled like the beggar woman of her prayer. Her legs and feet contracted so badly that they could not be straightened even after she died. Margaret's yes, her responsive determination to continually discern the will of God in her life, did not lead as she expected to a new form of ministry. Though this was a deep disappointment for her, heryes led her to surrenderat deeper and deeper levels every-thing of her heart that was not purely love. As I write, I expect to return to Creighton University for the summer and to teach discernment again. My students and I will explore the richness.gf discernment in the Catholic spiritual tra-dition and then concentrate on St. Ignatius of Loyola's Rules for Discernment. Without these I would not have been able to enter into Margaret's mystery. I have, however, learned from her that, after following the rules and the processes, one must simply sur-render to the Mystery. And so the Franciscan will not be surprised to find poverty the guide here. As Ignatius suggests in his third way of humility, surrendering Review for Religious to the mystery of the will of God invites one to choose poverty.9 This choice implies powerlessness, disrespect, abuse, joy, and free-dom. I took Ignatius on faith before I met Margaret. Now I have seen with my own eyes. As Margaret embraced the mystery of becoming the beggar woman, she became more and more grate-ful. She saw everything as an undeserved gift of God. Two squirrels playing outside gave her great delight. For her, all creation was a means by which she could praise God with gratitude and simple joy. It was Lady Poverty who brought her this grace.~° The mystery of discernment, the mystery of surrendering to the will of God, is both frightening and awesome. It is indeed "a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb 10:31). Yet, as I watched Margaret suffer day after day, I saw that the glory of her spirit far surpassed her suffering. I learned through her that God cannot be.outdone in generosity. Margaret radically said yes to the will of God in her life. She understood discernment. After her careful searching for the will of God both in prayer and in dialogue with others, God invited her to become the beggar woman. In this invitation into personal poverty, Margaret discovered the will of God. Perhaps our discernment theory has emphasized active dis-cernment and not adequately explored the mystery of passive dis-cernment, something that cannot be easily categorized. One can watch it happening in another with grateful awe--and then be unable to exp!ain it to those who do not have the experience. The Franciscan tradition teaches, not by theologizing the mystery, but by telling stories about people who lived the mystery of saying yes radically to the will of God. In this tradition I offer the witness of Margaret for edification and imitation. One afternoon I asked: "Margaret, what does poverty mean to you?" She replied, "Poverty is a celebration!" I said, "Margaret, get real. For you poverty means this brain tumor. It means that you are living in a psych ward. It means that many of your friends do not understand you and have abandoned you." She looked on me with love and responded, "No, Joan, you are wrong. All that is hurt, but poverty is a celebration." " Margaret became this beggar woman, dependent upon the thoughtfulness or thoughtlessness of others. September-October 1993 689 Mueller ¯ A Franciscan Discernment Experience Notes ~ See, for example, Anthony M. Carrozzo OFM, "Francis of Assisi at the Crossroads: Elements of a Franciscan Process of Discernment," Review for Religious (July-August 1982)~ 551-556, and Evaristo Acosta Maestre OFMCap, "El Discernimiento de Espfritus y su Aplicaci6n segfin San Francisco de Asfs," Laurentianum 25 (1984): 415-448. 2 Margaret Halaska, "A Model of Discernment: The Experience of a Franciscan," Review for Religious (March-April 1984): 259-263. 3 Ibid, 260. 4 Ibid, 261. s "Legend of the Three Companions [3:7]," in St. Francis of Assisi: Omnibus of Sources, ed. Marion Habig (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1973), pp. 869-897. St. Clare, too, speaks of how she and her sisters bound themselves to Lady Poverty. See "The Testament [37]," in Clare of Assisi: Early Documents, ed. Regis Armstrong, OFMCap (New York: Paulist Press, 1988), p. 57. 6 Clare advocated that her sisters understand themselves as exchang-ing the things of time for the things of eternity. See "The First Letter to Blessed Agnes [30]," in Clare of Assisi: Early Documents, p. 37. One's mind will be transformed in the mirror of eternity. See "The Third Letter to Blessed Agnes [12-13]" in Clare ofAssisi, p. 44. 7 See "I Celano [116-17]," in St. Francis of Assisi: Omnibus of Sources, pp. 330-332. 8 Margaret Halaska, "A Model of Discernment," p. 263. 9 Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, § 167. 10 Gratitude, joy, and praise of God are fruits of poverty chosen or accepted. See "Sacrum Commercium [58]," in Francis of Assisi: Omnibus of Sources, p. 1590. 690 Review for Religious EDWARD FOLEY Ritual Leave-Taking Almost fifteen years ago the liturgical commission of my province developed a very effective--even moving--ritual for installing the new provincial leadership at our triennial assem-bly. With slight modifications this basic ritual is resurrected every three years as we hand over direction of the province to a recently elected provincial, vicar provincial, and three councilors. Like presidential inaugurations, such rituals of beginning often gener-ate a sense of optimism and trust among the participants and pro-vide strong affirmation for those assuming office. Our rituals for taking leave of elected representatives, be they civil or religious, are usually much less effective--if they exist at all.1 Outgoing United States presidents do stage various farewell events which allow the departing commander-in-chief to offer a valedictory address and mark his closing days in the White House. The real departure ceremony for retiring U.S. presidents, however, is the inau-guration of their successor. This poignant ritual requires the retiring president to be seen and not heard--ironically marking his own tran-sition to private citizenship by serving as the most honored of wit-nesses to his successor's elevation to constitutional powers. The understated poignancy of such presidential leave-taking almost appears rich when compared with the dearth of rituals to mark the transition of leadership in so many of our religious com-munities. In few other arenas of ecclesiastical life do we ritually cel-ebrate transitions in leadership so rarely as in religious life. Retiring pastors and bishops are usually feted with multiple cele- Edward Foley OFMCap is agsociate professor of liturgy and music at the Catholic Theological Union. His address is 5401 South Cornell Avenue; Chicago, Illinois 60615 o5698. S~ptember-October 1993 691 Foley ¯ Ritual Leave-Taking brations marking their contributions to a local church and artic-ulating the gratitude of at least some of the people of God. Those who die in office are afforded the even more elaborate ritual leave-taking provided by the Order of Christian Funerals. Religious lead-ers who leave office at the commencement of a chapter or with the election of their successors, however, are often simply suc-ceeded or replaced. Seldom are they ritually honored or, more importantly, reincorporated into the community. The absence of such ritual leave-taking is more than a lapse in ritual etiquette. It is a lamentable, even detrimental, omission. The discernment of new leadership is often a moment of hope and goodwill within a religious community. This is especially true if, as in my own province, this process occurs within a gathering of all the members, all of them direct constituents. The psycho-logical lift of a fresh beginning, the affirmation by a large portion of the electorate, and the guiding promise of the Holy Spirit all contribute to a sense of optimism or relief which ordinarily allows the newly elected to be installed with an authentic sense of festivity. Given the very real, sometimes devastating problems facing major superiors today, however, such goodwill is often difficult to maintain. The financial (rises, all-consuming personnel problems, and special pressures arising from the incidents of public scandal that increasingly plague many religious communities contribute to an almost inevitable estrangement between religious leaders and the communities that called them to office. The strain that arises from the realignment of ministry priorities, fulfilling per-sonnel requests, and addressing issues of personal discipline takes an enormous toll on our leaders. Ironically, leadership that can begin with an affirming elec-tion often devolves into a position of devaluation. Those who pre-viously epitomized the center of the community are often marginalized or even shunned. Affirmation is increasingly replaced by criticism. An ordinary consequence of this process is burnout and alienation. Thus, our leaders are frequently absolved of their office with extended sabbaticals or with attenuated processes of return that sometimes take years. It is lamentable that communities like my own do not possess an adequate ritual vocabulary for marking the transition from lead-ership. This ritual lacuna prevents us from corporately acknowl-edging both the joy and the pain, the gratitude and the regret, associated with the ministry of leadership in contemporary reli- 692 Review for Religious gious life. Furthermore, our inability to ritualize such moments might even be viewed as a corporate sin of omission: rather than seizing a critical moment to welcome retiring leaders back into the heart of the community, our lack of action may actually allow or even encourage them to assume a life at the margins. The stress here on corporate ritual rather than individual ges-ture is quite intentional. While the kindness and support of vari-ous individuals in a religious community is essential if retiring religious leaders are to be effectively reincorporated into their communities, personal gestures of support from even a large number of individuals are insufficient. A religious community is more than an aggregate of individuals, and the call to leadership, while voiced by individuals, is ultimately from the whole body. Our leaders are responsible to and for all the members. Just as the beginning of leadership requires corporate affirma-tion, so should leave-taking be marked with a corporate response. The power of ritual should not be underestimated in these transitions. It is an ancient teaching of the church--and a recent maxim in some social sciences-- that rituals both express and create reality, or belief. It is not simply the election but especially the inauguration that creates a president; and it is not so much the electoral defeat as much as the inauguration of a suc-cessor that creates an ex-president. Similarly, it is not only the discernment but also the installation, consecration, or other order-ing ritual that in a real sense establishes one as a leader in our religious communities. Our current lack of rituals de facto cre-ates ex-leaders. The development of appropriate rituals of transi-tion could instead reincorporate these retiring ministers and, in the process, affirm, forgive, and welcome them. Ritually choreographing such an event is difficult. Varieties of personalities, corporate fatigue or even hostility toward the retiring leadership, and a minefield of unexpressed feelings on both sides complicate matters. No two leaders and no two transi-tions in leadership, even within the same community, are identi-cal. Consequently, it is necessary to develop a ritual pattern that is Just as the beginning of leadership requires corporate affirmation, so should leave-taking be marked with a corporate response. Septe~nber-October 199~ 693 Foley ¯ Ritual Leave-Taking open to adaptation as the occasion demands. On the other hand, developing a ritual pattern is important. Such a pattern, evoked year after year, discernment after discernment, announces that rit-uals of reincorporation are not simply designed for leaders that we happen to like or feel sorry for. Rather, they are. designed for the welfare of the community and the health of the church. The following is proposed as a model for ritualizing the rein-corporation of retiring religious leaders into the community that called them to office. It presumes significant adaptation in the light of concrete circumstances and needs. The context for the outline and commentary that follow is the opening liturgy at the triennial gathering of my own province, during which a new provincial, vicar provincial, and council are to be elected. The Ritual Context The ritual context for this model is Vespers. While other prayer patterns of the church might also provide an appropriate context for the reincorporation of retiring superiors, Vespers is particularly suited to this end for many reasons. First of all, unlike Eucharist, Vespers does not require any ordained clergy. Consequently, it is one of the official liturgies of the church that can be enacted by any group of women or men, lay or ordained, without recourse to presbyters, who may or may not be present within thee community. Second, while Vespers has certain minis-terial requirements and presumptions, the leadership can easily be cast in a more communitarian and less hierarchical fashion--as befits the worship 6f a religious community. In my own province, for example, instead of relying upon a former provincial, senior friar, or ordained brother to preside, it could be possible to call upon the youngest professed member of the province to assume this ministry. Thus the ministry models the moment: recalling that leadership is not a presumption of power, but an act of service and minority. Apart from the ministerial structure of Vespers, the traditional images and themes of evening prayer recommend its usage for this ritual reincorporation. For example, Vespers traditionally occurs at dusk, with the setting of the sun. Thus it is an ending rit-ual and provides an appropriate context for acknowledging the end of one's service in leadership. On the other hand, Vespers does more than announce the end of the day; it also anticipates the 694 Review for Religious presence of Christ through the night, a presence ultimately revealed at dawn. The images of hope and expectation, as well as the metaphoric parallel of the dawning of new leadership in a community, are obvious. Evening Prayer has a strong sense of thanksgiving, well epit-omized in the opening thanksgiving for the light and in the Magnificat. This thematic could easily be exploited to give thanks to God for calling people to leadership and for expressing grati-t- ude to those who have heard the call and answered with a willing heart. Yet, while there is a natural inclination toward thanksgiving at Vespers, the thematic elas-ticity provided by the various psalms, prayers, and readings allows for more than unabashed gratitude. The call to forgive-ness, the promise of eternal life, sacrifi-cial images, words of rededication--these and many other prayer instincts have a natural resonance in Eve.ning Prayer. Finally, Vespers lends itself to the rit-ual reincorporation of the retiring lead-ers of our communities because--at least in the West--it has a relatively simple yet flexible structure. Thus Evening Player can ritually tolerate the inclusion of a modest amount of other ritual activity--like gestures of reincor-poration-- without overwhelming or being overwhelmed by them. More specifically, Vespers is capable of allowing the inclusion of rituals like the renewal of vows, the sign of peace, and other acts of reconciliation and blessing and yet still clearly be Vespers. The central adaptation that I would propose for this ritual in my own province would be the additio

 I am not sure that the past month's headaches and insomnia are due to the challenges of thinking about the Israel-Palestine conflict, but I am going to use that as my intro to this effort to think through this stuff.Usual caveats apply: I am not a political theorist or moral philosopher, I am not an expert on the conflict itself.  Oh, and I was raised Jewish and the education I got at Hebrew school did not adequately present the realities of the past.  I did take one Mideast politics course in college, and I did spend one week on an amazing and amazingly depressing tour of Israel and Palestine with a bunch of other academics four years ago.One of the conversations that disturbed me most this past week was when a rabbi I met on that trip     responded to my criticisms of Israel's attack upon the hospital.  He asked what is the right way to attack a group using a hospital as a shield (and as a trap), and my answer was simplistic: don't.  I get that he and some of my relatives feel as if there are unfair standards being applied to Israel.  And I absolutely get that anti-semitism is on the rise in the US, Canada, and Europe, although I wonder how much of this pro-Palestinian and how much of this opportunist far right folks using this moment (something to discuss another day).  But Israel is fucking up in a major way here, and I want to think through why I think that, and why it is legitimate to criticize Israel at this moment of crisis.  Oh, and one more caveat: Hamas is more evil.  It is bad to target the civilians of the adversary, but it is even worse to deliberately endanger one's own civilians.  Netanyahu has indirectly engaged Israelis by empowering Hamas and by diverting troops to protect expansionist (irredentist!) settlers, leaving communities close to Gaza essentially unguarded.  So, even as I criticize Israel, I am not apologizing for or supporting Hamas.  I want Hamas to be defeated, but in the right way.  More on that below.So, I am starting with first principles:Everyone is deserving of self-determination: Jews, Palestinians, Ukrainians, Taiwanese (oops), Quebecois, etc.  Violence is bad, so it should only be used proportionately.Just because someone did something in the past, such as mass bombing of cities, does not legitimate folks using the same strategy today.  The bible speaks of laws of war that we generally find abhorrent--there has been progress in our moral stances and also in our strategic understanding.  The best way to provide people with self-determination is democracy.  It is better, in my humble opinion, that infinite secession where every group has its own state, because the act of secession or partition will probably increase the grievances of some groups that are left behind. Quebec's separatism had a very small burst of violence largely because Quebecois could and did exert power via voting to get damn near everything they wanted. Not everything, but all the stuff that might have been worth fighting for.One state from sea to river with all Palestinians and all Jews sharing one state with heaps of religious and other rights .... would be cool, but, well, Jews want a Jewish state since bad things have happened in democracies where other groups have more votes.  Alternatively, a single state where Jews have rights and Palestinians don't is inherently problematic and wrong--the apartheid label feels icky but when you run a massive open-air prison with no end in sight, it is hard to think of it in any other way.  I have believed for quite some time that Israeli Jews faced a choice--Israel could remain a theocratic state or it remain a democracy, but not both.  Some of my relatives have said that the Arab countries should welcome the Palestinians.  The thing is: the Palestinians think they are a people, the Arab countries think the Palestinians are a people, and since nationalism is intersubjective, Jews can't wish away Palestinian identity.  However, Netanyahu can use the Israeli military to destroy many symbols that resonate with Palestinian identity, and that gets us to the g word.Threatening a second nabka, which would expel the Palestinians from the occupied territories would be ethnic cleansing.  If the Palestinians were to win and push the Jews out, that too would be ethnic cleansing.  And it would not be legitimate even if one considers all Jews to be settlers-colonizers.  We can't unwind history with heaps of bloodshed and call it justice.  Anyhow, I try to avoid using the word genocide because it is very fraught.  In the past, did Canadians practice genocide against its Indigenous peoples. Yeah.  Now?  I'd say no, as state policies are not aimed at reducing or eliminating these peoples, even if bad policies continue and are harmful.  But I can see why some folks may argue this and I probably need more info to take a clearer stance.Is Israel engaged in genocide right now?  It is using lots of violence to reduce the population of Palestinians in Gaza.  It is not proportionate, and it is not well aimed at achieving military objectives, two of the requirements for the just use of force. Israel is making Gaza uninhabitable. While Israel has not been all that strategic/deliberate--this is mostly about revenge since 10/7--the way force has been used is suggestive--to solve the Gaza problem by getting rid of the residents.  That has some echoes, doesn't it?So, the hospital: Hamas had some stuff based at the hospital?  Does that make it either a legitimate (morally speaking) or sound (strategically speaking) target?  No.  Most of the folks at the hospital had limited agency--they neither voted for Hamas nor had power to remove Hamas, nor much ability to leave.  So, one should not target many vulnerable civilians if the aim is to kill a few Palestinian leaders.  With that specific campaign over, we are learning that the Israelis never had the best intelligence about the threat posed by those in the hospital, which is now a trend--Israeli intelligence failure.  Would it be legitimate and smart to hit the hospital if it had a ticking weapon of mass destruction?  Sure.  Anything short of that?  Not so much.  The Hamas use of human shields is ... a TRAP!  And the Israelis walked right into it.  War is, as they say, politics by other means, and so the Israelis lost big time on the world stage by attacking a hospital  Their strategic communications about all of this has been awful.  International support matters for both sides, and Israel surrendered whatever moral authority and international support it gained on October 7th, much like the US gave up all of the goodwill from 9/11 by attacking Iraq.  Jews are upset because Hamas is not getting as much criticism, and that is for a few reasons.  One is that countries are siding with the Arab world due to strategy or convenience or cheap oil or whatever.  Another is that Hamas being evil is baked in.  It has been held to a lower standard because it is a terrorist group.  Palestinians in Europe and North America support Hamas and cheer on Israeli defeats, including, alas, the attacks on kids.  Jews in Israel and elsewhere are cheering on violence against Palestinians.  Both are wrong--both because the people of both sides deserve human dignity and because the attacks are not going to achieve anything.  We hold Israel to a higher standard because it is a democracy and it is the more powerful side, which means, yes, it has more responsibility.One of the ingredients of just war is whether an attack is actually going to accomplish something.  If you repeatedly use violence with little expectation of changing the situation, that is morally problematic--revenge, for instance, is not a legitimate justification for the use of violence. If some violence can avert more violence and end a conflict, then it is more just (and more sound from a tactical or strategic standpoint).  Ukraine has a morally superior position for continuing the war because Russia has abused those who have been on their side of the lines.  Violence, targeted at Russian troops and Russian military assets, is legitimate and also strategically sound.  Russian attacks on Ukrainian hospitals and other civilian locations is not.  And no, I am not saying Russia and Israel are morally equivalent... but I am saying that Israel's actions are positioning Israel closer to Russia.  And who would want that?  During the insurgencies of the 2000's, scholars and American military folks came to the same conclusion, more or less: that the best way to win (or at least not lose) a counter-insurgency effort is to minimize civilian casualties.  These casualties would undermine the war effort--not just by creating more insurgents--the family and friends of those killed-but also by undermining the legitimacy of the Irag and Afghan governments.  So, a policy of "courageous restraint" was enunciated, although I am not sure how well it was observed.  The basic idea is that if you want to attack a certain military leader or target, and there  are a bunch of kids or other non-combatants present, you wait for a better time.  Indeed, our rules of engagement for air attacks often lead to hitting targets at night when buildings are not as occupied.The point here is that there are ways to deal with a hospital that may have some "bad guys" in it.  Leveling it is not one of them.   Which leads to the question of a cease-fire.  I don't always support cease-fires (I am clearly not a pacifist), as it make give one side a big advantage.  In the case of Russia-Ukraine, a ceasefire with Russia on Ukrainian land would be bad because it would allow Russian to continue to abuse the Ukrainians and it would potentially create a semi-frozen conflict that limits Ukraine's ability to free its territory and enable Russia to fuck with Ukraine in a variety of ways.  In this case?  I think with so many civilians in harm's way, and with a cease-fire perhaps giving time for Israelis to think about what they are doing (like following Netanyahu), it might lead to a better, more humane outcome.  Would Hamas benefit from a cease-fire?  Probably, but so would Israel.  This all has avoided the big questions: what should Israel's objectives be?  Because you can't have a strategy unless you know what the goal is. If the objective is a one-state Israel with the occupied territories full of folks having no rights and no access to power, then buckle up for unending conflict.  Eradicating Hamas should not be an end to itself because removing one organization from the territories will not change the fundamental challenge of two peoples living in this area between river and sea. Removing the Palestinians from Gaza might be the objective now, and, if so, that is horrifying.Until October 7th, Israel focused on tactics to perpetuate the status quo: deterrence by punishment.  Or to put in pop culture terms, the strategy that Sean Connery told Kevin Costner in the Untouchables: they came with a knife, you come with a gun.  They send your guy to the hospital, you send their guy to the morgue.  I will always remember a conversation I had with a retired Israeli special ops general while our group was at the Golan Heights.  He was being critical of Obama for not hitting harder than the US got hit by various attacks.  That Israel's tactic was always to escalate a bit, to hit harder than have been hit.  And I basically asked: how has that worked to end the threat to Israel and stop the violence.  Maybe it was kind of working for Israel, but that ended on October 7th, when Hamas decided it was not just willing to take Israel's punishment for an attack that was far more aggressive and damaging to Israelis than previous ones, but actually eager for that punishment.  Deterrence only works if the costs of punishment are both credible and greater than the costs of the status quo.  To Hamas, they apparently felt the Abraham Accords and other moves were more threatening than getting shellacked by Israel.  Maybe their own domestic political game needed as much distraction as Netanyahu did/has.  Anyhow, it was a limited strategy since it was mostly kicking the can down the road and had episodes of violence priced in.  It may still be working with Hezbollah, but mostly because Hezbollah is in no shape to get into a war with Israel with Lebanon being such a mess (I am guessing here).  But the days of deterring Hamas are gone, so what now?Eradicating Hamas?  Not so easy.  Israel should be doing cost/benefit calculations of the various ways to attack Hamas, which would, yes, mean not attacking hospitals.  I think Israel's old strategy was and is the best option: after the Munich Olympics, Israel went out and targeted each person responsible for that attack and, as far as I recall, killed most of them.  Israel can do the same here with Hamas's leadership--they might miss a few, but better to miss a few awful Hamas leaders than to kill a lot of civilians.  This, of course, requires patience, which Netanyahu does not and cannot have, given the precarity of his political position.And this gets to the one of the key problems: Israelis have voted for various far right parties that have trapped Israel into more and more dangerous paths.  Making Israel more theocratic may be good for the Orthodox, but it is bad for the economy and for the political system.  Destroying the possibility of a two-state solution not only angers Palestinians but reduces bargaining options and exit strategies.  Putting corrupt, awful Netanyahu back into power again and again undermines Israel's democracy, its legitimacy, its military, and its security.  And ultimately its future.I am so angry and frustrated not because this is a hard situation, but because it didn't have to be this bad, it didn't have to be this way.  Netanyahu and the parties backing him have made things worse.  My anger towards Hamas is baked in--never democratic, always autocratic, always determined to wipe Israel from the map.  I never had any hope for that organization.  I had some hope for the Palestinian Authority until I visited Israel and got a better understanding of its limits.  But I had some hope that Israel would see the trap so visibly set in front of it and not hop into it so enthusiastically.  It is hard to kill one's way through a counter-insurgency, it is both wrong and counter-productive to kill so many civilians along the way.  As a scholar who used to study ethnic conflict, I understand that it is hard to end these kinds of disputes.  But I also understand that conflicts end, that violence is not inevitable--that it is a choice.  And as a scholar of civil-military relations, I am so glad I never studied Israel.I am not sure if any of this is coherent, but I am just trying to think through this situation.  Do I feel any better now that I have spewed my thoughts here?  Not really.   

Plekhanov/Labriola As a bit of an experiment, coupling my interest in André Tosel and my work on translation, I have decided to try my hand at a few translations of the former when I get the time. These are totally unauthorized, and rough drafts posted for edification and entertainment purposes only. I started on this piece because it is short, and because it works on an area that I need to learn more about, the history of Marxist-Spinozism before Matheron or Althusser. However, the more I worked on this piece, the more I thought that this split between Plekhanov and Labriola, still exists, in the divide between neo-enlightenment Spinozists and what some might call post-modern, but I prefer to call Marxist Spinozists. The Marxist Uses of Spinoza: Lessons of Method The history of the role of Spinoza's thought in the formation and the development of the work of Marx remains to be written, as is that of the history of the diverse Marxist usage (from different Marxisms) of Spinozist philosophical elements. This double history would reveal the work of Marx, and its contradictions, as much it would open up the work of Spinoza himself. Marxisms have reflected their aporias and their hopes onto Spinoza without necessarily truly thinking them through. In other words this is a domain of misunderstandings and equivocations. In order to undertake this history it would be useful to draw some lessons from the encounter of Marx and Marxist thought with Spinoza. First remark. The encounters of Spinoza by Marxists are discontinuous and contradictory. This discontinuity is initially characterized by the lack of a definitive encounter between Marx himself and Spinoza. Marx is formed through the reading of Spinoza, of the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, and the correspondence. Not to learn the lessons of materialism, but an ethico-political lesson. Spinoza is considered as philosopher of freedom and autonomy, modern incarnation of Prometheus and continuation of Epicurus, all at once. Marx, in is progression from Kantian-Fichtean idealism to the speculative communism of the 1844 Manuscripts, develops three theses which are the practical theses of philosophical materialism, without the epistemological and ontological theses of this materialist tradition.  Thesis One: Philosophy has a fundamental interest in the liberty of humanity, understood as autonomy and as the end of all heteronomies. Thesis Two: Philosophy is critical of all transcendental authorities of all principle of domination which justify and represent their domination through this principle.  Thesis Three: Philosophy is eminently a science, knowledge, but knowledge of life, of the simple life of spirit of bodies rendered by their power. All particular sciences and knowledge must be thought from the point of view of science of life and its forms, as forms of life.  When Marx elaborates the materialist conception of history he revolutionizes materialism but he does this without ever connecting it to the spinozist theory of nature, of the relations of extension and thought, of bodies and mind. He integrates and modifies the strong ontological and epistemological thesis of materialism, but these theses are taken more from Hobbes and other materialists of the eighteenth century than from Spinoza.
Let us state these theses which are capable of a Spinozist formulation, without however assuming such a formulation.  Thesis Four: Nature is the original reality and it is organized as matter at different objective levels. Thought cannot be separated from matter. Thesis Five: Nature in its diverse senses is intelligible. It emerges only from itself, excluding all creation. The human order is not a kingdom within a kingdom and susceptible of being understood.  Thesis Six: All knowledge presupposes the reality of its object outside of thought. The appropriation by the knowledge of its own object of knowledge presupposes the reference to a real object. It is necessary to pay attention to the debates in Marxism of the Second International in order to see how the question of "Spinoza precursor of Marxist materialism appears." Emerging in the years of the crisis of revisionism the debate engages above all the German and Russian theorists of social democracy: Bernstein, Kautsky, and Plekhanov. It is in part based on the Anti-Dühring of Friedrich Engels and puts into play the complex questions of the relationship between the materialist theory of history with the sciences of nature with the political problem of the alliance of the intellectual groups in the perspective of socialist transition. This debate between 1896-1900 is inscribed in a theoretical problematic, such of Marxist orthodoxy that will find a new actualization with the problems proper to Soviet philosophy between 1917 and 1931, when it is a matter of specifying what would be called "Marxism-Leninism." If the question of materialism assumes the continuity between the Spinoza of the Second International and that of the Third, nothing would be more erroneous than to let oneself be taken in by the apparent continuity of an imaginary history of philosophy. These occurrences are in effect specific, they constitute theoretical and political conjunctures which must be grasped in a way that takes into account the strategic dimensions of the class struggle whether or not it is led by Marxist parties, the problem of alliances, that of the intellectual division of labor. Marxist philosophy, as it is officially constituted, is part of the practice of parties, and the reference to Spinoza is overdetermined by the political and theoretical stakes that have to be elucidated in each specific situation. Here we touch on the second lesson of method: it is necessary to historically specify the conjunctures where Spinoza intervenes and where and how there is a specific usage of this prestigious and troubling reference. This method makes it possible to determine what falls under ideological legitimation, and what is inserted at the level of the practical politics of the party, of the state, of the level of specialized intellectuals. Spinoza does not only appear only in the emergence of Marxist orthodoxy. He intervenes, in a subterranean manner, in the elaboration of theorists where the considerable theoretical importance has never been associated with an actual political importance. This can be found in the crisis over revisionism in the last century, such that Antonio Labriola in his Essays on the Materialist Conception of History (1895-1898) attests to the presence of a different Spinoza than that of his contemporary Plekhanov and a fortiori than that which was celebrated in Soviet Philosophy in 1927 and 1932.
Spinoza intervenes as a critic of the same orthodoxy which returns as elements of an older materialism in another theoretical configuration that has solicited different aspects of his philosophy: no longer the parallelism between extension and thought, not a determinist ontology but the mode considered to be at once conceptual and experimental, the same geometrico-genetic method, in that it now excludes the guarantees of teleological philosophies of history. A contradictory intervention which is not without analogies to another occurrence, the most recent, that of Spinoza in the work of Louis Althusser which can be considered as a systematic deconstruction of the Marxist orthodoxy of the Second and Third International. Between Labriola (1898) and Althusser (1965), if we except the Soviet Spinoza, there is little except Ernst Bloch's remarks that no one has yet taken into account for a history of materialism oriented in the direction of a utopian ontology. This appearance of a Spinoza critical of stated and intended Marxist orthodoxies gives a third lesson of method: the diverse contradictory Marxist uses of Spinoza are situated between two poles, the first is that of an orthodoxy elaborated by the intellectuals of the social democratic and communist parties at the end of an a party/state conception of a finalist world and at the other is from thinkers situated in a problematic relation to the party, who look in Spinoza for other ways to make sense of the world and other practices then the becoming state of the worker parties. This opposition can appear to be schematic. It can be developed into provisional and schematic path of investigation. Such an investigation takes one central question: What is it in the philosophy of Spinoza that authorizes these discontinuous usages, determined by their conjunctures, and perhaps violently opposed?  Confronting therefore these different usages of Spinoza that can be considered historically significant in the course of history, that is to say in terms of their specific conjunctures. This can be seen with the orthodox use of Spinoza by Plekhanov and the critical usage of Spinoza by Labriola at the heart of the second international. Plekhanov gave himself the task of elaborating the originality of Marx's philosophy and defending it in the face of revisionists who, with Bernstein, contest the self-sufficiency of Marx's philosophy, dividing into an evolutionary sociology and a Kantian inspired ethics. For Plekhanov there is very much a Marxist philosophy. It is inscribed in the materialist current which it revitalizes by giving it a historical dialectical dimension. Spinoza is the direct ancestor of Marx in that it is through the monism of the former that one can unify the science of nature and the science of history of the latter. Marx has revitalized substance as historical-social matter, metabolism of humanity with nature, and has inherited his realist theory of knowledge, thought is nothing other than a moment or function of matter. There is a Spinozism of Marx that is the realization of historical Spinozism as a the affirmation of the materialist conception of the world, one predicated on the knowability of matter in terms of its organization at diverse levels. Only this conception of the world can give the workers' movement its organization and which would permit it to avoid the disorganization that revisionism introduces, neo-Kantian idealism cannot organize the class struggle without harmful compromises.  Spinoza is one part of orthodox Marxism returned to during this period. This Spinoza can authorize the theses of Friedrich Engels, in some sense simplifying the complexity of the Anti-Dühring. Concerned to think together the development of the sciences of nature, the materialist conception of history, and developing a philosophy capable of correct reflection and the movement of the specialization of sciences and the political struggle of classes (alliance with the intellectual stratum), Engles had proposed the idea of a materialist dialectic that oscillates between an ontological conception and a methodological conception of this dialectic. These two conceptions are apparently unified in the idea of "the science of the general laws of motion, both of the external world and of human thought — two sets of laws which are identical in substance, but differ in their expression in so far as the human mind can apply them consciously, while in nature and human history (at least up to now), these laws assert themselves unconsciously, in the form of external necessity, in the midst of an endless series of seeming accidents." This parallelism between (laws of) movement of the external world and (the laws of) thought has a Spinozist connotation which reinforces the idea of liberty as the comprehension of necessary laws. However, it remains above all intended to make possible a representation of the dialectic under materialism, without examining its own difficulties. Plekhanov is not interested in these difficulties in elaborating a general materialist conception that Marx completes and fulfills through the mediation of Hegel. Antonio Labriola, who wrote "Origin and Nature of the Passions According to Spinoza's Ethics" at a young age (1866), refuses this ontologization or methodolization of the dialectic in order to develop the idea of a philosophy of praxis as a philosophy immanent to a new conception of history, reflecting the constitution of history as a complex unifying ground and surface. In this sense, the Plekhanov project, apparently Spinozist, of thinking the continuity of nature and society at the heart of a substantial and homogenous causality loses its sense. The process of social life must be desubstantialized at with it the philosophy that is presented as a hyperphilosophy or super science organized as "theosophic or metaphysic of the totality of the world, as if by an act of a transcendent knowledge we can arrive at a vision of substance and all of the phenomena and processes under it." Antonino Labriola as much as he refuses to make man an 'kingdom in a kingdom' refuses the naturalization of history and the transformation of Marxism into a naturalist ontology where social practice becomes a species of being in general. Labriola denounces a matter found on things as a form of metaphysical superstition. Spinoza is evoked as a hero in the struggle against the imagination and ignorance that resurfaces in Marxist orthodoxy under the form of universal materialism. It is necessary above all to think of the diverse levels of the "animation" of matter, and therefore the specificity of the "artificial terrain" which constitutes practice. What Spinoza knew how to do for the theory of passions must be done for praxis: each one, the relations of affects and and those that constitute praxis, are not ruled by a subject and for this reason must be studied through a genetic method. Labriola speaks of a genetic method that also defines the method of Marx in Capital. The genetic method takes its distance from the dialectic and its teleological philosophy of history and established guarantees.  For Labriola the turn to Spinoza is less about the strengthening of a materialist monism than it is about the possibility of reinterpreting Marx's Capital as a geometry of capitalist social being. The geometrical method is an instrument of internal purification destined to eliminate the finalism of productive causes and biological predetermination from Marxist orthodoxy. The philosophy of praxis manifests the basic critical and formal tendency of monism: everything is conceivable as a the causal genesis of a complex totality. The materialist dialectic is neither a universal method nor a logic of being, but constitutes the critical movement internal to knowledge which acts on the practice of philosophy and makes it a "conceptual form of explication" parallel to contemporary science. The reference to Spinoza intervenes in the critique of a Marxist orthodoxy which is supposed to include in a dogmatic manner Spinoza's own materialism. Marx and Spinoza are considered as two practitioners of philosophy who refuse the closure of knowledge in favor of the immanent self-reflection of knowledge. The lesson of Spinoza is not to find the unity of knowledge under a principle but to demystify the fetishes which substitute imaginary principles for the movement of practice.  One could develop a similar analysis of the confrontation of the Soviet Spinoza of the Third International to the Spinoza of Louis Althusser.  The Soviet Spinoza is an impoverished and petrified version of the Spinoza of Plekhanov. With respect to Althusser, Spinoza's critique is referenced constantly and augmented, infinitely better elaborated than in Labriola, since it acts this time not as a critique of metaphysical fetishism, even materialist, but of the metaphysics of the juridical subject characteristic of occidental rationalism.  The contributions of R. Zapata and J.-P. Cottent have clarified these points, but it seems opportune to underly the paradox of this history: it is possible to tie together the diverse uses of Spinoza, one against the other. If Spinoza is enrolled in the constitution of a "conception of the world" which intends to complete a current of philosophy and which cannot at any time criticize its presuppositions, it is also possible, as with Althusser, to think the structure of ideological interpellation that constitutes the ideological subject and invalidates philosophy considered as a theory of knowledge. If Spinoza makes possible a conception of the world in which the State Party is supposed to be the subject of history accomplishing its ultimate ends, it also makes it possible for Althusser to try to reconstruct Marxist theory on the ruins of the triple myth of origin, subject, and the end. The Labriolian critique of imaginatio and ignorantia is radically interiorized in the destruction of Marxisms of the Second and Third International. The recourse to structural causality supposed to have been developed in the theory of modes and substance serves as an incomplete program to develop the theoretical revolution of Marx.  However, it goes further still: there are two Spinoza's in Althusser himself. The Spinoza critical of any theory of knowledge ultimately occludes the Spinoza of structural causality: the denunciation of the triple myth of origin, subject, and end is lead to the liquidation of the rational modernism present in Marx. However the pars destruens always prevails over the pars construens. The idea of structural causality (such that of substance as the absent cause over the modes and affects) is accompanied with the affirmation of an unknown radicality of Marxist science, but the critique of the metaphysics of subjectivity in the teleology of Marxism that accompanies it announces the crises of Marxist liberation in the last interventions of Althusser. Everything comes to pass as if Althusser deconstructs a dogmatic Spinoza in the name of another Spinoza, more secret and more enigmatic. Spinoza is always divided from Spinozism which claims to define himOriginally published in Bloch, Olivier, Editor,  Spinoza au XXe siècle, Paris, PUF, 1993. 

Arviointi, mikäli sen kaikkia mahdollisuuksia hyödynnettäisiin, olisi tärkeä työkalu avustamaan julkista sekä yksityissektoria ja kansalaisyhteiskuntaa inhimillisen hyvinvoinnin lisäämiseksi. Valitettavasti, vaikka tehtyjen arviointien määrä on maailmanlaajuisesti lisääntymässä, näiden arviointien alhainen hyödyntämisaste on samoin kasvamassa. Tästä esimerkkinä on kehitystyö, jossa lukemattomat tuotetut ja oppimislähteenä käytettäväksi oletetut arviointiraportit kuitenkin todellisuudessa makaavat koskemattomina. Tämä toteutumaton "käyttö" on todellista ajan ja rajallisten julkisten varojen tuhlausta. Arviointien hyödyllisyyden määrittäminen tiukasti näiden julkaistujen arviointiraporttien käyttöön perustuvaksi, mikä useimmiten on tilanne, laiminlyö ja vähentää muiden käytettävissä olevien arviointielementtien, kuten arviointitoimeksiannon tai arviointiprosessin hyödyntämistä ja käyttöä, mikä yhä enemmän supistaa arvioinnin kokonaisvaikuttavuutta. Tämän tansanialaisessa ammattikoulussa, Mwanza Home Craft Centressä (MHCC), toteutetun arviointikokeilun tarkoitus oli hyödyntää arviointia, etenkin sen arviointiprosessia, arviointivaikutusten osoittamiseksi. Kokeiluni, joka toteutettiin suomalaisin kehitystyövaroin käynnistetyssä kansalaisjärjestöhankkeessa, tehtiin kehityshankkeesta rinnan hankkeen edetessä, oli vastakohta kehnosti hyödynnetyille ulkopuolisten arvioitsijoiden vallitsevaa tilivelvollisuus- ja kontrollitarkoitusta varten tekemille, menneeseen fokusoituneille ja kovia tutkimusmenetelmiä käyttäville kehitysarvioinneille, jotka sulkevat paikalliset ulkopuolelle ja ovat heille vieraita, ja siksi saavat vähäistä paikallista arviointivaikuttavuutta aikaan. Noissa arvioinneissa on suosittu hallitsevaa länsimaista ja Eurooppa-keskeistä positivistista tulokulmaa, rahoittajakeskeistä arviointiparadigmaa ja hegemonista kieltä, joka saa alkunsa uudesta julkishallinnon johtamisliikkeestä. Sen sijaan, kokeiluni oli mikrokuvaus ja reflektio hankkeen rahoittajan sponsoroimasta, paikallis- ja asianomaiskeskeisestä, oppimis- ja tulevaisuussuuntautuneesta, paikallisesti hyödynnetystä ja vaikuttaneesta kehitysarvioinnista. Arviointikokeilu koostui kahdesta komponentista. Arviointiosuudessa tutkittiin ammatillisen koulutuksen sosio-ekonomisia vaikutuksia. Arviointitutkimusosiossa fokusoitiin arvioinnin prosessikäyttöön ja arvioinnin vaikuttavuuteen. Ammattikouluhankkeessa kaikkien asianomaisten arviointioppimista pyrittiin tukemaan arvioinnin aikana arviointiprosessia hyödyntäen. Yksilöllisiä, interpersoonallisia ja kollektiivisia arviointivaikutuksia tavoiteltiin henkilökohtaisen ja organisaation osallistumisen, saadun arviointikokemuksen ja valmennuksen sekä dialogin kautta. Mandaattini oli integroida, "arviointimassoja", tarkoittaen avun vastaanottajia, paikallisten arviointivaikutusten aikaansaamiseksi, ja tarkastella arvioinnissa suhdetta valtaan heidän näkökulmastaan. Yleisesti ottaen heillä on vähemmän valtaa ja ääntä nykyisessä kehitysarvioinnissa kuin vahvemmilla, "eliitillä", avun rahoittajilla. Asetin hypoteesikseni, että jokainen tutkimus ja arviointitutkimus on tulokulmasidonnaista, mikä vaikuttaa arvioinnin käytettävyyteen, ja siten myös arvioinnin vaikutuksiin, vaikutustyyppeihin, -tasoon, -ryhmiin, ja vaikuttavuuden kestoon. Tässä tutkimuksessa painotettiin sellaisia arvioinninkäytössä ja arvioinnin vaikuttavuudessa keskeisessä roolissa olevia elementtejä, kuten arviointiparadigmaa, arviointimallia ja metodologiaa, arvioijan asemaa ja näkökulmaa, arvioinnin käyttäjien asemaa, arviointitarkoitusta, arvioinnin aikakehikkoa, ja arviointietiikkaa. Tässä tutkimuksessa käytettiin toimintatutkimuksellisesti suuntautunutta strategiaa. Tutkimusaineisto koottiin kahden Tansanian kenttämatkan aikana useita aineistonkeruumenetelmiä hyödyntäen. Arvioinnin vaikutuksia ja arvioinnin prosessikäyttöä tutkittiin aineistosta, joka saatiin ammattikoulutustapauksen kahdesta MHCC:n henkilöstölle ja komiteanjäsenille organisoidusta seminaarista ja työpajasta, samoin kuin henkilöstön jäsenten teemahaastatteluista ja komitean, henkilöstön antamasta kirjallisesta arviointipalautteesta ja yhdestä 11 hengen ryhmähaastattelusta. Lisäksi, ammatillisen koulutuksen sosio-ekonomisia vaikutuksia kerättiin 115 opiskelijan kirjallisen kertomuksen ja taustalomakkeen sekä 11 opiskelijan ja 20 muun arvioijan teemahaastattelun avulla. Kirjallinen aineisto koodattiin käyttäen teoriavetoista (tai -suuntautunutta) laadullista sisällönanalyysiä, johon pohjautuen johtopäätökset tehtiin. MHCC:n arviointikokeilu osoitti, että valittu arvioinnin tulokulma ja paradigma erilaisten arviointifaktorissa olevien elementtien hyödyntämisen kautta vaikutti arvioinnin käyttöön ja arvioinnin vaikutuksiin. Kokeilu sai aikaan vaikuttavuutta; arviointia automaattisesti hyödynnettiin jo arvioitaessa sen prosessikäytön vuoksi. Arviointiprosessiin osallistuneiden henkilöiden ja heidän instituutioidensa omakohtaisia arviointikokemuksia ei voinut vain "jättää hyllylle". Heidän yksilöllinen, henkilöiden välinen ja kollektiivinen arviointioppiminen arvioidessa kiistatta myötävaikutti, ei vain välittömiin vaan myös pidempiaikaisiin kognitiivisiin, affektiivisiin, sosiaalisiin, toiminnallisiin, jopa taloudellisiin ja kulttuurillisiin muutoksiin kehitysintervention eri tasoilla, jopa ammattioppilaitoksen ulkopuolella. Tämän tutkimusten löydösten perusteella, päättelin, että prosessuaalinen arvioinnin käyttö oli vahva työkalu ja MHCC:n muutosprosessien kiihdyttäjä, etenkin niille arvioinnin asianomaisille, jotka omaksuivat arvioivaa mieltä. Tämä ajattelutavan muutos, valistuminen ("mwanga"), mahdollisti siirtymisen jälki- ja menneisyysorientoituneesta historiaa tarkastelleesta ajattelusta tulevaisuussuuntautuneeseen omaehtoiseen kehittämistoimintaan. Tämä tutkimusaineisto antanee ymmärtää, että arviointiprosessilla ja -tuloksilla samanaikaisesti hyödynnettynä arvioivan oppimisen lähteinä oli pitkäaikaisia vaikutuksia – ehkä pidempiaikaisia kuin vain arviointituloksia yksin hyödynnettäessä voitaisiin aikaansaada. Nämä vaikutukset saattoivat muodostua MHCC:n reflektion, nopeamman ympäristöön reagoinnin ja jatkuvan sopeuttamisen elinehdoiksi. Tämä selitti, kuinka ammattikoulutusinstituutio MHCC on ollut kykenevä jatkuvasti uudistumaan ja muuttamaan toimintojaan tarvittaessa, huomioiden taloutensa ja ympäröivän yhteiskunnan vaatimukset sekä olemaan taloudellisesti itsensä kannattava yli 20 vuotta (mikä on ainutlaatuista koulutussektorilla maailmalaajuisestikin, puhumattakaan kehitysmaista, kuten Tansaniasta). Lisäksi, kokeilun ansiosta saatiin uutta tietoa arviointikohteesta, MHCC:stä opiskelijoineen, sen arviointikäytänteistä ja oppilaitosta ympäröivästä todellisuudesta. Ammattikoulun nimi muutettiin, uusia osastoja, kuten ajoneuvo, sähkö, sekä hotellinjohto ja turismi, lanseerattiin, ja uusia iltakursseja käynnistettiin, metallityön lisäkoulutusta, sekä tietokone- ja englannin kielen kursseja aloitettiin. Tämän tutkimuksen yleisenä yhteenvetona totean, että kansalaisjärjestöjen rooli on edelleen tärkeä ammatillisen koulutuksen järjestäjänä Tansanian kehityshankkeissa neljästä syystä. Ensiksi, koska maan koulutuksen yleistaso on dramaattisesti huonontunut. Toiseksi, koska riittävät ammattikoulutusmahdollisuudet puuttuvat. Kolmanneksi, koska ammattikoulutus on yleisesti ottaen hyödyllistä: se näytti vaikuttaneen ei vain yksilön köyhyyden vähentämiseen vaan laajemminkin yhteiskuntaan. Kuitenkin, tutkimustulokset esittivät yllättävän todisteen, mikä on vastakkaista länsimaalaiselle suoraviivaiselle ajattelulle ja oletukselle ammattitaidon ja ammatillisen koulutuksen valtavasta taloudellisesta voimasta ja hyödystä saajalleen; ei edes kokoaikatyö köyhyyden vähentämis- ja automaattisesti elintasoa nostavana keinona toiminut. Kaikesta huolimatta, minkä ammattiin opiskelleiden elämää koskeva aineisto todistaa, niiden, jotka kokivat positiivisia, merkittäviä, kestäviä taloudellisia, sosiaalisia ja henkilökohtaisia koulutusvaikutuksia MHCC:n koulutushankkeen vuoksi, nämä ammatillisen koulutuksen sosio-ekonomiset materiaaliset ja immateriaaliset positiiviset, tuotteliaat vaikutusketjut näyttivät ulottuneen myös laajennettuun perheeseen, ikätovereihin, yhteisöjen jäseniin ja tansanialaiseen yhteiskuntaan merkittävin seurannaisvaikutuksin. Esimerkkinä mainittakoon valmistuneiden opiskelijoiden sukulaisilleen, ikätovereilleen ja yhteisöjensä jäsenilleen tarjoama "epävirallinen, yksityinen oppisopimuskoulutusjärjestelmä"; jonka kautta yksi MHCC:stä valmistunut on epävirallisesti kouluttanut yli 50 henkilöä. Tosin, näitä sosio-ekonomisia koulutusvaikutuksia olisi voitu tehostaa resursoimalla ja tekemällä säännöllisesti arviointeja sekä syöttämällä niiden tuloksia edelleen ammattioppilaitoksen palvelujen parantamiseksi (esim. työvälineet tai yrittäjyyskurssit ammattiin valmistuneille). Neljänneksi, tutkimus osoitti, että kehitysmaissa työpaikat olivat tarjolla pääasiassa informaalilla sektorilla ja itsenäisenä ammatinharjoittajana työskenteleminen oli useimmille valmistuneille ainoa työllistymisvaihtoehto. Näin ollen, kansalaisjärjestöjen toteuttama ammattikoulutus oppilaitoksen kannattavuudelle välttämättömine tulonhankkimisprojekteineen (jotka yleensä puuttuvat valtion omistamista ammattioppilaitoksista) voi toimia erinomaisena yrittäjyyshenkeä vahvistavana oppimisympäristönä. Tutkimuslöytöjä voitaneen soveltaa seuraavasti. Ensiksi, huolestuttava arviointien käyttämättömyys ja/tai tehoton käyttö tulee tiedostaa. Toiseksi, arvioinnin teettäjien, käynnistäjien, rahoittajien ja avunantajien tulee saada lisätietoa merkittävistä arvioinnin positiiviseen käyttöön ja vaikuttavuuteen tai sitä estävistä kontekstuaalisista, arviointi- ja inhimillisistä faktoreista elementteineen. Esimerkiksi, sellaisia kontekstuaalisia tekijöitä, jotka liittyvät taloudellisiin ja poliittisiin rajoitteisiin ja arviointisysteemeihin ja jotka negatiivisesti vaikuttavat arviointien hyödyntämiseen ja vaikutuksiin, tulee paljastaa. Kolmanneksi, arviointien puutteellista hyödyntämistä vastaan tulee hyökätä muun muassa arviointiprosessia käyttämällä. Neljänneksi, jokaisessa arviointipolitiikassa ja -suunnitelmassa jo arvioinnin toimeksiantovaiheessa tulee edellyttää konkreettisia toimia arviointien hyödyntämiseksi. Jokaiselta julkisin varoin tuotetulta arvioinnilta tulee vaatia arvioinninkäyttösuunnitelma tavoiteltavine arviointivaikutuksineen ennen arvioinnin toimeenpano vaihetta. Viidenneksi, arviointikäyttö tulee uudelleen käsitteellistää arviointipolitiikkojen ja -suunnitelmien sanastossa. Kaikki tarjolla olevat arvioinnin käytön keskeiset elementit — arvioinnin toimeksianto, arviointiprosessi (eikä ainoastaan arviointilöydökset) — tulee maksimaalisesti valjastaa kaikilla arvioinnin tasoilla, myös kansalaisjärjestöissä, rajallisten evaluointiresurssien vuoksi, tuodakseen maksimaalisen arvon arviointikohteelle, sen asianomaisille ja arvioinnin käyttäjille. Kuudenneksi, arviointien hyödyntämistä tulee ohjeistaa, kannustaa ja rahoittaa. Arvioinnin käynnistäjien ja rahoittajien tulisi palkita arvioinnin asianomaisia ja heidän organisaatiotaan, mikäli arviointia hyödynnetään ja se saa aikaan vaikuttavuutta. Seitsemänneksi, arvioinnin vaikuttavuus/vaikutus -termit tarvitsevat selkeyttämistä, ei ainoastaan viitaten vain arvioinnin positiivisiin seurauksiin, vaan myös sen negatiivisiin, tahattomiin vaikutuksiin, joihin täytyy myös puuttua. ; Evaluation, if utilised to its full potential, would be an important tool for helping governments, the private sector and civil society to increase human well-being. Unfortunately, though the number of evaluations conducted is increasing worldwide, a low rate of utilisation of these evaluations is increasing as well. An example of this is the development field, where countless evaluation reports are produced and assumed to be used as sources of learning, when in reality they lie untouched. This non-actualised "use" is a real waste of time and of limited public funds. The usefulness of evaluations, when strictly determined based on the use of the published evaluation reports (as is the case most of the time), neglects the usefulness and reduces the utilisation of other evaluation elements available, such as evaluation commissioning or evaluation process, which further reduce the overall impact of the evaluation. This evaluation experiment, conducted in the Tanzanian vocational education and training (VET) centre, Mwanza Home Craft Centre (MHCC), was designed to utilise the evaluation, especially its process, to show evaluation impacts. My experiment, conducted upon the development intervention of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) established by Finnish funds, was performed concurrently alongside and from within the development intervention, in contrast to the poorly utilised development evaluations conducted for dominating accountability and control purposes by external evaluators using a past-focussed orientation combined with hard evaluation methods, all of which were exclusive and unfamiliar to the locals and thus, had minor local evaluation impact. In those evaluations the donorcentred standpoint, overarching evaluation paradigm and hegemonic language, having their origin in the New Public Management movement were favoured. Instead, I devised a micro explanation of, and provided reflections about, the donorsponsored, local- and stakeholder-centred, learning- and future-oriented, and locally utilised development evaluation with impacts. The evaluation experiment consisted of two components. In the evaluation section, the socio-economic impacts of VET were studied. In the research on evaluation section the focus was put on the process use of evaluation and evaluation impacts. In the VET project, all the stakeholders' evaluative learning was targeted to be supported with the assistance of the process use of evaluation while evaluating. It was aimed at individual, interpersonal and collective evaluation impacts through personal and organisational involvement, evaluative experience and training received, as well as dialogue. My mandate was to integrate into the evaluation process, evaluation "masses," that is, the aid recipients, to generate stronger local evaluation impacts, and to look at the relation to power in evaluation from their standpoint. Generally speaking, they have less power and voice in the current development evaluations than do "the elite," the financial donors. I hypothesised that every research and evaluation research is standpoint-bound, which has influence on evaluation usability, and then, on evaluation impacts, their types, levels, user groups, and duration. In this research, emphasis was placed on those elements playing key roles in evaluation use and evaluation impact, such as the evaluation paradigm, evaluation design and methodology; the evaluator's location and standpoint; the position of the evaluation users; the evaluation purpose; the evaluation time-frame; and evaluation ethics. In this research, the action research-oriented strategy was used. The research data was generated during two Tanzanian field trips by utilising various data generation methods. Evaluation impacts and process use of evaluation were studied through the data received from the VET case, its two seminars and workshops organised for the MHCC staff and committee members, as well as from thematic interviews of some staff persons and written evaluative feedback given by the committee, staff members and an 11-participant group interview. Again, socio-economic VET impacts were collected through the data of 115 former students' written stories and background questionnaires, as well as of 11 former students' and 20 other evaluees' thematic interviews. The written data of the evaluation experiment was coded by using the theory-driven (or theory-directed) qualitative content analysis, on which the conclusions were based and drawn. The evaluation experiment at MHCC indicated that the chosen evaluation standpoint and paradigm, through the utilisation of various elements existing in the evaluation factor, affected evaluation use and evaluation impacts. The experiment contributed to impact; the evaluation was automatically brought into utilisation while evaluating due to its process use. The first-hand evaluative experience of the participants and of their institutions involved in the evaluation process could not "just be left on the shelf." Their individual, interpersonal and collective evaluative learning, while evaluating, inevitably contributed not only to immediate but also to long-term cognitive, affective, social, behavioural, even economic, and cultural changes at various levels of the development intervention, even outside the VET centre. Based on findings of this research, I suggested that the processual use of evaluation was a powerful tool and an accelerator of MHCC's change processes, even for those stakeholders whose evaluative minds were made up. This change in the pattern of thought, enlightenment ("mwanga"), enabled a shift in focus from the post- and past-oriented, history observing thinking, to the future-directed independent line of development action. This research data might imply that evaluation process, with its findings utilised simultaneously as evaluative learning sources, had long-term effects — maybe longer than the findings use alone can generate. These impacts could become the lifeblood at MHCC for reflection, quicker reactivity to the environment and on-going adaptation. This presented an explanation for how the VET institution MHCC could have been capable of being renewed continuously and transforming its activities, as needed, regarding its economy and the demands of surrounding society, as well as being self-supporting for over 20 years (which is unique in the educational sector worldwide, let alone in the developing countries, like Tanzania). In addition, with the experiment, the new knowledge was received about the evaluand, MHCC and its students, its evaluation practices, and MHCC's surrounding reality. Again, the VET centre's name was changed, new departments such as motor vehicle, electricity, as well as hotel management and tourism were launched, and new evening courses, further education and training in welding and fabrication, as well as computer and English language courses, were started. As the general conclusion of this research I state that NGOs still have an important role as VET providers of Tanzanian development interventions, for four reasons. First, because the country's general education level has dramatically deteriorated. Second, because of a lack of sufficient VET opportunities. Third, because in general VET was beneficial: it seemed to have had impacts not only on an individual's poverty reduction, but even more widely on the society. However, this data also provided surprising evidence that, in direct contradiction to Western linear thinking and assumptions about the enormous economic power and benefit of vocational skills for its acquirer gained in VET, even full-time employment did not function as a tool for alleviating poverty and automatically raising the person's living standards. Nevertheless, as was evidenced by the lives of these VET trainees, who experienced positive, significant, sustainable economic, social, and personal education impacts due to the development project MHCC, these material and immaterial socio-economic impact chains were positive and productive and seemed to have had very far-reaching and significant ramifications for the lives of extended families, peers, community members, and the Tanzanian society. A case in point was the informal "private apprenticeship training system" offered by the former students to their relatives, peers and community members; through which one MHCC graduate has unofficially "trained" over 50 persons. Indeed, these socio-economic impacts of education could have been intensified by resourcing and carrying out evaluations frequently as well as by feeding their results forward for the VET institution's service improvements (e.g., equipment or entrepreneurial courses for VET graduates). Fourth, the research indicated that jobs in the developing countries were offered in the informal sector and self-employment was, for the majority of graduates, the sole option to be employed. Hence, NGO-implemented VET, with their essential income-generating projects for the institution's sustainability (generally lacking from government-owned VET centres), could operate as an excellent learning environment, strengthening the entrepreneurial spirit. The research findings might have the following applications. First, the worrying trend towards evaluation non-use and/or deficient use is worth acknowledging. Second, evaluation commissioners, initiators, funders, and donors need to gain further knowledge about significant positive or prohibitive contextual, evaluation and human factors (with their related elements) that lie behind evaluation utilisation and impact. For instance, those contextual factors which are related to financial and political constraints and evaluation systems and which negatively affect evaluation utilisation and impacts must be revealed. Third, an attack against the inadequate use of evaluations could be launched among others with processual evaluation use. Fourth, in every evaluation policy and plan in an evaluation commissioning phase, concrete actions need to be made necessary for evaluation utilisation. A written plan on evaluation use with evaluation impacts intended should be demanded to be produced from every evaluation conducted with public funds before the evaluation commissioning phase. Fifth, evaluation use in the vocabulary of evaluation policies and plans should be reconceptualised. All the available key elements of the evaluation use — the evaluation commissioning, evaluation process (not solely evaluation findings) — should be maximally harnessed at all the evaluation levels, also in NGOs, due to the scarcity of funding opportunities available for evaluations, to bring maximal value to a target of the evaluation, its stakeholders and evaluation users. Sixth, evaluation utilisation should be instructed, encouraged and funded. Evaluation stakeholders and their organisations should be rewarded by evaluation commissioners and funders, if the evaluation is used and it contributes to impacts. Seventh, terms such as evaluation impact/impacts need to be clarified, to refer not only to positive evaluation consequences but also to negative, unintended impacts, which must also be tackled.

According to the main objectives of the study, the following conclusions could be presented: 1. The drastic decrease in arable land use in the transition to a free market economy continued until EU CAP was implemented in Estonia. The regional differences in land use changes in the 1990s were determined mainly by local bio-physical disadvantages such as soil quality. The higher decrease rate of arable land use in 1992– 2001 occurred in the regions with low soil fertility. A decrease in soil fertility by one quality point brings about a 2.5% increase in the proportion of abandoned land. The loss of subsidies at the beginning of the transition period highlighted the importance of pedo-climatic conditions in the formation of the profitability of agricultural production but the EU agricultural policy has again relieved the impact of bio-physical diversity on the competitiveness of agriculture. 2. Plant nutrient balances of Estonian arable soils were analysed in the long-term (1939–2003) with uniform methodology. This approach enabled the evaluation of some aspects of sustainability of agricultural land use and soil management through transition from the Soviet era to the open market economy. The application of both mineral and organic fertilisers started to increase in the 1960s and peaked in the 1980s. The increase in fertilisation was not followed proportionately by yield increase and this resulted in positive NPK balances of arable soils in the 1970–1980s, which has significantly improved the nutrient supply of arable soils. The quantities of plant nutrients N, K and P applied to the fields exceeded the amounts removed through crop harvesting by a factor of 2–2.3 (N), 1.9–2.2 (K) and 3–3.5 (P). The amounts of lactate soluble P and K increased by 1.1 and 0.7 mg kg-1 soil per year, respectively. 3. In the 1990s the use of fertilisers has decreased by significant factors: N by six; P by twenty; K by thirty and organic fertilisers by four. The total balances of K and P of arable soils have become negative as a consequence of inadequate fertilisation. Active balance, which enables the estimation of the degree to which formation of the yield occurs at the expense of soil resources, shows that at present the 58 59 largest deficiency is regarding P (68%) and K (57%) followed by N (34%). Thus, at present, crop production takes place largely at the expense of the soil nutrient reserves created by farmers in the 1970–1980s. The use of mineral fertilisers is less intensive in the regions with low soil quality. Decrease in soil fertility reduces the amount of mineral fertilisers used by 2.85 kg NPK per one soil quality point. As nutrient deficiency is highest for forage crops, the depletion of soil P and K may become critical, especially in organic systems where grasslands are dominant. Agri-environmental policy should more consider soil degradation due to the negative plant nutrient balances of arable soils in Estonia. 4. At present only 40–50% of the yield potential of cereals is realised in actual farming conditions. The high yield gap indicates the ineffective use of pedo-climatic resources and this causes agricultural self-sufficiency at the national level to deteriorate. Low realisation of yield potential of cereals is partly due to the insufficient use of fertilisers, as the actual yield level is limited by low input of plant nutrients to the soil. It must, therefore, be considered that the yield formation of cere - als is largely determined by the pedo-climatic conditions (50–60%), and that fertilisers are a lesser influence. In the case of oilseed rape the utilisation of the yield potential is 60–65%, which is induced by more intensive fertilisation compared to cereals. To narrow the yield gap in a profitable and environmentally friendly way, the field-specific fertiliser and other input optimisation is required. 5. A positive effect of the collapse of Estonian agriculture has been a reduction of the pressure on the environment whereas a negative effect to the several aspects of sustainable agriculture has emerged (i) in soil degradation which is due to insufficient investments into maintaining soil fertility, (ii) in ineffective use of pedo-climatic resources, (iii) in low profitability and competitiveness of the agri - culture sector, and (iv) in decreased national food supply. To achieve more sustainable agriculture the optimisation of agricultural land use and soil management should be based on the scientific knowl - edge and from this necessary precondition to develop a spatial agro-economic DSS. 6. The agronomic models for spring barley and potato, based on the regression analysis of numerous field experiments, were developed to assess the impact of soil and climate conditions on the effective - ness of fertilisers. The effectiveness of fertilisation depends, to a large extent on, besides soil properties, meteorological conditions. The variance of the average effectiveness, even of quite small rates, of mineral fertilisers (N60, P26 and K50) is very high. Higher efficiency is guaranteed in the case of balanced fertilisation but the optimum combination of nutrients depends on the relative prices of fertilisers and yield. The developed models enable the estimation of the pedo-climatic and economic risks in fertilisation optimisation. Improved agronomic models operating in spatial and temporal scale are forming a basis for knowledge-based DSS. 7. Data handling and presentation in the agricultural decision making process was for the first time in Estonia embedded to fieldspecific GIS and its application possibilities were analysed in the example of Kullamaa rural municipality. A field-specific database was compiled and agro-economic models were applied to provide information for decision makers. Economically effective N norm for barley is, in most of the study area, from 50 to 60 kg N ha-1 but on a quarter of arable land in the study area it is uneconomical to apply N to barley. Field-specific fertiliser optimisation compared to uniform fertiliser application can help farmers to avoid economic losses and simultaneously increase effectiveness of fertilisation and low yields. The simulated barley yield for the study area is, with the use of economically optimised amounts of NPK fertilisers, 2.6 Mg ha-1, which is by 1.1 Mg ha-1 higher compared to the actual cereal yield in the region. Composed thematic maps enable the clear presentation of spatial variability in the profitability of barley production from field to region scale. Farmers can use spatial profitability data with other criteria for crop rotation planning and for strategic decisions but presented DSS does not make decisions, but rather contributes knowledge that can be used in the decision making process. The ben - efit of this DSS is that information from different sources is collected, processed and integrated into a unified system which makes decision making more effective. This also makes existing soil information more easily available and self-explanatory for stakeholders. 8. Despite the fact that this study presents spatial agro-economic DSS on the example of just one rural municipality and a single crop, its importance is more extensive. Up-scaling the modelling results 60 61 from field-level also enables its application in regional planning and in macro-economic analysis. In this study the methodology for the functioning of the DSS was developed which is further applicable nationwide. There is an increasing demand for the planning of abandoned agricultural land in Estonia and a developed DSS can be expanded for the cultivation of bioenergetic crops or for afforestation of abandoned land. 9. Further improvement of DSS should focus on the development of agronomic models for various crops and economic models should be continuously adjusted according the changes in socio-economic conditions. The database of digital soil map should be definitely appended with quantitative parameters, which would provide prerequisites for its more extensive applications such as related production activities to environmental impact. The extensification of Estonian agriculture during the transition period has reduced the negative impact on the environment but at the same time this has caused a decline in the fertility of agricultural land, and this diminishes the competitiveness of Estonian agriculture. Analysed spatial DSS serves as a basis for effective resource management in modern agriculture and can be used as a tool in knowledge-based decision making processes to achieve economic, social and environmental targets of sustainable agriculture. The improvement of the current DSS and usage expansion from pilot areas to nationwide coverage of Estonia are essential for these purposes. This study creates possibilities not only for field-specific agro-economic analysis but also contributes a framework for further expansion of the capabilities of GIS-based DSS in various branches of the rural economy. ; Eesti põllumajandus ja sellega seonduv maakasutus on viimastel aastakümnetel agrotehnoloogia arengust, sotsiaalmajanduslikest ja poliitilistest teguritest tulenevalt läbi teinud mitmeid olulisi muutusi. Pärast Eesti taasiseseisvumist, 1990ndate alguses, toimus põllumajandustootmise drastiline langus – teraviljatoodang vähenes kümne aastaga 1,6, lihatoodang 2,8 ja piima tootmine 1,8 korda. Post-sotsialistlikest Ida- ja Kesk-Euroopa riikidest oli Eestis põllumajandustootmise langus kõige suurem. Aastatel 1990–2005 vähenes põllumajanduse osatähtsus sisemajanduse koguproduktist 12,7%lt 2,4%ni ning põllumajanduslik tööhõive 16,6%lt 3,9%ni. Sellised suuremahulised muutused on tõstatanud vajaduse põllumajandusliku maakasutuse ja tootmissisendite teaduspõhiseks optimeerimiseks. Erinevate maakasutusviiside rakendamisel tuleb arvestada, et see oleks jätkusuutlik nii ökoloogilises, sotsiaalses kui ka majanduslikus mõttes. Kuna ülemikuperioodil sotsialistlikust ajastust Euroopa Liitu Eesti põllumajanduse konkurentsivõime ja jätkusuutlikkus oluliselt kahanes, siis tõstatub küsimus, mil määral oleks võimalik asukohapõhise agromajandusliku nõuandesüsteemi rakendamisega optimeerida maakasutust ja tootmissisendeid, suurendada põllukultuuride saagikust ning põllumajandustootmise tasuvust ilma tootmistegevuse negatiivsete mõjudeta ümbritsevale keskkonnale. Seega käesoleva töö eesmärgiks oli: 1. hinnata agroökoloogilistest aspektidest muutusi Eesti maakasutuses, muldade väetamises ja taimetoiteelementide bilanssides 2. uurida põllukultuuride saagipotentsiaali realiseerumist 3. analüüsida mineraalväetiste efektiivsust sõltuvalt mullastik-klimaatilistest tingimustest 4. uurida looduslike ja majanduslike riskifaktorite mõju taimekasvatuse tootmistulemustele ja leida lahendeid nende riskide leevendamiseks 5. koostada ajas ja ruumis muutuvad agromajanduslikud mudelid ning analüüsida nende rakendatavust väetamise ja maakasutuse optimeerimiseks odra näitel 6. arendada välja asukohapõhise agromajandusliku nõuandesüsteemi ühtne raamistik, mis loob eeldused jätkusuutliku põllumajanduse eesmärkide saavutamiseks. Käesoleva uurimistöö käigus võeti kokku Eesti agraarteaduses senitehtu ning selle põhjal koostatud agromajanduslikud mudelid seostati ühtsesse geoinfosüsteemi. Agromajanduslike mudelite ja asukohapõhise nõuandesüsteemi väljatöötamiseks vajalikud lähteandmete allikaks olid arvukad dissertatsioonid, teaduspublikatsioonid ja -aruanded, riiklike sordivõrdluskatsete, agrometeopunktide, loomade jõudluskontrolli, loodus- ja keskkonnakaitse, Statistikaameti, Maa-ameti, Põllumajanduse Registrite ja Informatsiooni Ameti, põllumajanduslike testettevõtete raamatupidamise (FADN), agrokeemiateenistuse jt asutuste andmebaasid. Töös püstitaud eesmärkidest lähtuvalt saab teha järgmised järeldused: 1. Taasiseseisvumisjärgsel perioodil toimunud suur langus Eesti põllumajanduslikus maakasutuses jätkus kuni EL ühtse põllumajanduspoliitika rakendumiseni. Põllumajandusliku maakasutuse muutused olid 1990ndatel põhjustatud sotsiaal-majanduslikest reformidest, kuid regionaalsed erinevused seonduvad eelkõige piirkonna looduslike tingimustega. Suurem põllumaa kahanemine aastatel 1992–2001 toimus madala mullaviljakusega piirkondades. Valla haritava maa boniteedi kahanedes ühe hindepunkti võrra vähenes selle valla põllumajanduslik maakasutus 2,5% võrra. Seega, mullastik-klimaatilised tingimused osutusid Eesti üleminekuperioodil põllumajandustootmise tasuvuse kujundamisel määravaks, sest põllumajandustoetused olid ebapiisavad. EL põllumajanduspoliitika rakendamisega on aga looduslike erisuste mõjud maakasutusele ja põllumajanduse konkurentsivõimele leevendunud. 2. Ühtsel metoodikal põhinev haritava maa taimetoiteelementide bilansside analüüs (1939–2003) võimaldas hinnata põllumajandusliku maakasutuse jätkusuutlikkuse mõningaid aspekte üleminekul sotsialistikust ajastust vabaturumajandusele. Mineraal- ja orgaaniliste väetiste kasutamine Eestis hakkas oluliselt suurenema 1960ndatel ja saavutas kõrgeima taseme 1980ndatel aastatel. Väetiste suurem kasutamine ei taganud aga proportsionaalset saagikuse tõusu. Eesti taasiseseisvumiseelsel perioodil, mil toimus põllumajanduse arvestatav riiklik subsideerimine, suurenesid mulda viidavate taimetoiteelementide kogused keskmiselt 4,5 kg N, 2,8 kg K ja 0,6 kg P hektari kohta aastas. Samal ajal taimede poolt kasutatud ja saagiga eemaldatud toitainete kogused suurenesid aastas keskmiselt 1,3 kg N, 1 kg K ja 0,2 kg P hektari kohta. Seega mulda viidavad taimetoitainete kogused ületasid taimede poolt kasutatavaid koguseid lämmastiku osas 2–2,3 korda, kaaliumi puhul 1,9–2,2 korda 8 4 85 ning fosforit viidi mulda 3–3,5 korda rohkem. Märkimisväärsest positiivsest taimetoiteelementide bilansist tulenevalt suurenes sel perioodil muldade laktaatlahustuva fosfori- ja kaaliumisisaldus aastas vastavalt 1,1 ja 0,7 mg kg mulla kohta. 3. Eesti taasiseseisvumisjärgsel perioodil, 1990ndatel aastatel, vähenes lämmastikväetiste kasutamine kuni 6 korda, fosforväetiste kasu - tamine 20 korda, kaaliumväetiste kasutamine 30 korda ja orgaan - iliste väetiste kasutamine 4 korda. Tulenevalt ebapiisavast väetiste kasutusest muutus põllumuldade kaaliumi ja fosfori üldbilanss negatiivseks ning lämmastikku viidi väetistega mulda kogustes, mis eemaldati põllult saakidega. Taimetoiteelementide aktiivbilansist lähtuvalt on praegu kõige suurem defitsiit fosfori (68%) ja kaaliumi (57%) osas, kuid puudujääk on ka lämmastiku osas (34%). Tai - medele omastatava muldaviidud toiteelementide ja mullast saagiga eemaldatavate koguste vahe on negatiivne – -24,5 kg N, -6,5 kg P ja -26,2 kg K ha-1. Järelikult toimub praegune taimekasvatus - toodangu formeerumine peamiselt 1970–1980ndate suurtootmises loodud mullavarude arvelt. Mineraalväetiste kasutamine on väiksem madala mullaviljakusega piirkondades. Mullaviljakuse vähenedes ühe hindepunkti võrra kahaneb kasutatav mineraalväetiste NPK kogus 2,85 kg ha-1. Kõige suurem toiteelementide puudujääk esineb söödakultuuride osas. Fosfori ja kaaliumi mullarvarude ammen - dumine võib muutuda saagikust limiteerivaks faktoriks eelkõige suure rohumaade osatähtsusega mahepõllumajanduses. Põllumajan - dus- ja keskkonnapoliitika peaks aga edaspidi suuremat tähelepanu pöörama negatiivsest toiteelementide bilansist tuleneva muldade degradeerumise vältimisele. 4. Tänapäeval moodustab Eesti keskmine teravilja saagikus kõigest 40–50% reaalselt võimalikust saagipotentsiaalist. Suur tootmis - saagikuste ja saagipotentsiaali erinevus viitab ebaefektiivsele mul - lastik-klimaatiliste ressursside kasutusele. Madal saagipotentsiaali realiseerumine on seletatav ebapiisava väetiste kasutumisega, kuid samas tuleb arvestada, et saagikus tootmises sõltub 50-60% ulatuses mullastik-klimaatiliste tingimustest ning väetamise osa saagikuse kujunemisel on oluliselt väiksem. Rapsi mõnevõrra intensiivsem väetamine võrreldes teraviljadega on taganud parema saagipotentsiaali realiseerumise – riigi keskmine rapsi saagikus moodustab 60–65% sordivõrdluskatsete saagitasemest. 5. Põllumajanduse drastiline langus 1990ndatel aastatel vähendas negatiivset mõju ümbritsevale keskkonnale, kuid samaegselt on tõstatunud mitmed jätkusuutlikkust ohustavad probleemid: (a) põl - lumuldade degradeerumine tulenevalt ebapiisavatest sisenditest mul - laviljakuse säilitamiseks, (b) ebaefektiivne mullastik-klimaatiliste ressursside kasutus, (c) põllumajandussektori madal konkurentsivõime ja tasuvus, (d) kahanenud toiduga isevarustatus. Nende probleemide lahendamiseks ja oluliselt jätkusuutlikuma põllumajanduse saavuta - miseks peab põllumajandustootmise ning maakasutuse optimeeri - mine toimima teaduspõhiselt, millest tuleneb vajadus asukohapõhise agromajandusliku nõuandesüsteemi väljaarendamiseks. 6. Arvukate põldkatsete tulemustel põhineva regressioonanalüüsi abil koostatud odra ja kartuli agronoomilised mudelid võimaldavad hinnata mullastiku ja ilma mõju väetiste efektiivsusele ja väetiste kasutamise agromajanduslikke riske. Väetiste efektiivsus sõltub lisaks mulla omadustele ja väetistarbele suuresti ka klimaatilistest tingimustest, isegi mõõdukate väetisannuste kasutamisel on nende efektiivsus väga varieeruv. Kõrgem väetamise efektiivsus ja tulukus saavutatakse tasakaalustatud väetisnormide korral, kuid majan - duslikult põhjendatud taimetoiteelementide vahekord väetises on sõltuv väetise ja saagi hinnasuhtest. Hetke väetise ja odra hindade juures peab näiteks lämmastikväetise efektiivsus olema üle 7,4 kg kg-1 N-1, et katta väetamisele tehtud kulutused. Ajas ja ruumis to - imivad mudelid võimaldavad hinnata looduslikke ja majanduslikke riske väetamise optimeerimises ning panevad aluse teaduspõhise nõuandesüsteemi väljaarendamiseks. 7. Teaduspõhine nõuandesüsteem ühildati antud töö raames esmakordselt põllupõhise geoinfosüsteemiga ja selle rakendamise võimalusi analüüsiti Kullamaa valla näitel. Koostati põllumassiivide andmebaas ja rakendati agromajanduslikke mudeleid pakkumaks täiendavat informatsiooni odrakasvatuse ja väetamise põllupõhiseks optimeerimiseks. Majanduslikult efektiivsed mineraalse lämmastiku normid odrale jäid enamikel uurimisala põldudel vahemikku 50–60 kg N ha-1, kuid samas neljandikul põllumaast ei ole lämmastikväe - tiste kasutamine kui ka odrakasvatus tasuv. Põllupõhine väetiste optimeerime võimaldab põllumajandustootjatel vältida rahalist kahju, suurendada väetamise efektiivsust ja saagikust. Majandus - likult efektiivsete väetisnormide kasutamine vastavalt muldade 86 87 väetustarbele tagaks uurimisalal odra keskmiseks arvutuslikuks saagikuseks 2,6 Mg ha-1, mis on 1,1 Mg ha-1 võrra suurem antud piirkonna tegelikust teravilja saagikusest viimasel kümnendil. Koostatud teemakaardid võimaldavad selgelt visualiseerida odrakasvatuse tasuvuse ruumilist varieeruvust nii üksikute põldude tasandil kui ka regionaalselt. Põllumajandustootjad saavad kasutada põllupõhiseid tasuvusarvutusi koos täiendavate kriteeriumitega näiteks külvikordade planeerimiseks ja strateegiliste valikute tegemiseks, kuid antud nõuandesüsteem ei tee otsuseid iseenesest, vaid pakub pigem teaduspõhist lisainformatsiooni otsustusprotsessi tõhustamiseks. Erinevatest allikatest pärineva andmete integreerimine ühtsesse süsteemi suurendab informatsiooni väärtust, kättesaadavust ja teadustulemuste rakendatavust saavutamaks jätkusuutliku põllumajanduse eesmärke. 8. Hoolimata sellest, et antud uurimistöö esitleb asukohapõhise agromajandusliku nõuandesüsteemi võimalusi ainult ühe valla ja kultuuri näitel, on selle tähtsus oluliselt laiaulatuslikum. Põllu tasandilt modelleerimistulemuste üldistamine võimaldab arendatavat nõuandesüsteemi rakendada nii regionaalplaneerimises kui ka makromajanduslikus analüüsis. Käesolev töö käigus arendati välja põllupõhise agromajandusliku nõuandesüsteemi toimimise metoodika, mis on edaspidi rakendatav üle kogu Eesti. Praegu on tõstatunud vajadus leida rakendus põllumajanduslikust kasutusest välja langenud maadele. Antud nõuandesüsteemi ongi võimalik edasi arendada nii endiste põllumaade metsastamise kui ka neil bioenergeetiliste kultuuride kasvatamise seisukohalt, bioenergeetika arengukavade koostamiseks kui ka bioenergia tootmisprotsessi optimeerimiseks. 9. Esitletud nõuandesüsteemi arendamiseks tuleb teadusuuringutele tuginevalt pidevalt täiustada erinevate põllu- ja rohumaakultuuride agronoomilisi mudeleid ning vastavalt sotsiaalmajanduslikule olukorrale on vaja kohandada ka majanduslikke mudeleid. Digitaalse mullastikukaardi andmebaasi tuleb kindlasti täiendada kvantitatiivsete parameetritega, mis looks eeldused selle laialdasemaks kasutuseks nagu näiteks ilmastikukahjude hindamiseks põllumajanduses, kuid ka tootmisega seonduvate mõjude hindamiseks keskkonnale. Eesti põllumajandustootmise ekstensiivistumine üleminekuperioodil on vähendanud negatiivset mõju keskkonnale, kuid samas on põhjustanud muldade produktsioonivõime langust, mis omakorda vähendab Eesti põllumajanduse konkurentsivõimet. Järjepidev ekstensiivne maaviljelus ja ebaefektiivne ressursside kasutamine kahandab veelgi Eesti riigi põllumajandussaadustega isevarustatust. Arendatav asukohapõhine agromajanduslik nõuandesüsteem loob eeldused looduslike ja majanduslike ressursside efektiivseks ja optimaalseks kasutamiseks põllumajanduses ja on üheks vahendiks teaduspõhises otsustusprotsessis saavutamaks jätkusuutliku põllumajanduse majanduslikke, sotsiaalseid ja keskkonnakaitselisi eesmärke. Selleks on hädavajalik antud nõuandesüsteemi järjepidev arendamine ja laiendamine pilootalalt üle kogu Eesti. Antud uurimistöö ei loo võimalusi mitte ainult põllupõhiseks agromajanduslikuks analüüsiks ja tootmistegevuse planeerimiseks, vaid see võiks olla üheks osaks kogu Eesti loodusressursside kasutamist ja majandamist hõlmavast asukohapõhisest nõuandesüsteemist.

Issue 63.3 of the Review for Religious, 2004. ; Communal Discernment . Heritages Prayer Vocation QUARTERLY 63.3 2004 Revlew for Rel~igious helps people respond'and be faithful to Goit~s universal call to holiness "by making available to ~be~° tbe spiritua! legiicie~s tbat flow from the cbarisms of Catbolic,~consecrated life. Review for Religious (ISSN 0034-639X) is published quarterly at Saint Louis University by the Jesuits of the Missouri Province. Editorial Office: 3601 Lindell Boulevard ¯ St. Louis, Missouri 63108-3393 Telephone: 314-977-7363 ° Fax: 314-977-7362 E-Mail: review@slu.edu ¯ ~reb site: www.reviewforreligious.org Manuscripts, books for review, and correspondence with the editor: Review for Religious ¯ 3601 Lindell Boulevard ¯ St. Louis, MO 63108-3393 Correspondence about the Canonical Counsel department: Elizabeth McDonough OP ¯ St. Joseph's Provincial House 333 South Seton Avenue ¯ Emmitsburg, Maryland 21727 POSTMASTER Send address changes to Review for Religious ¯ P.O. Box 6070 ¯ Duluth, MN 55806. Periodical postage paid at St. Louis, Missouri, and additional mailing offices. See inside back cover for information on subscription rates. ©2004 Review for Religious Permission is herewith granted to copy any material (articles, poems, reviews) contained in this issue of Review for Religious for personal or internal use, or for the personal or internal use of specific library clients within the limits outlined in Sections 107 and/or 108 of the United States Copyright Law. All copies made under this permission must bear notice of the source, date, and copyright owner on the first page. This permission is NOT extended to copying for commercial distribu-tion, advertising, institutional promotion, or for the creation of new collective works or anthologies. Such permission will only be considered on written application to the Editor, Review for Religious. 0 for religious LIIV~NG OUR CATHOLIC LEGACIES Editor Associate Editor Canonical Counsel Column Scripture Column Editorial Staff Vdebmaster Advisory Board David L. Fleming SJ Philip C. Fischer SJ Elizabeth McDonough OP Eugene Hensell OSB Mary Ann" Foppe Tracy Gramm Judy Sharp Clare Boehme~ ASC Steve Erspamer SM Kathleen Hughes RSCJ Ernest E. Larkin OCarm Louis and Angela Menard Bishop Terry Steib SVD Miriam D. Ukerids CSJ QUARTERLY 63.3 2004 contents 230 communal discernment Election and Communal Discernment: Goals, Myths, and Gifts Ted Dunn clarifies some of the reasons for using communal discernment as a method for electing leadership. 244 249 heritages Frances Siedliska's Mystical Life Barbara Sudol CSFN enters us into the mystical prayer experiences that marked the life of Frances Siedliska, foundress of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth. Is Even More Good Coming from Nazareth? A. Paul Dominic SJ gives witness to the new form of religious life represented in the Little Brothers of Jesus. 263 274 prayer Not for the Faint of Heart: Journaling into Honest Prayer Ren~e Nienaber SND shares her experience of journaling in prayer that brings both focus and perspective in our relationship with God arid with others. A Hidden Treasure of the Ignatian Exercises J. Thomas Hamel sJ describes experiences in the life and writings of St. Ignatius Loyola which give an insight into prayer as "looking." Review for Religious Fidelity and Commitment: Letter to a Young Marist Brother Sefin Sammon FMS as superior general writes a letter to his brothers below age forty about nurturing the commitment to their vocation. 305. Vocations and Vocation Discernment Charles J. Jackson sJ describes vocation in terms of the initial call people experience and their ongoing responsiveness to God's action in their life, and then uses this description to explain vocation discernment in terms of preconditions and repeated process. 316 Why One Younger Religious Stays Terri Emslie PBVM reflects on her own growth in religious life in the face of personal gaps and the gaps of others within the same congregation. 228 Prisms 323 Canonical Counsel: Religious Institutes as Juridi~ Persons in Reconfiguration 329 Book Reviews 63.3 2004 prisms Everyone receives the divine call to be holy. For God is the One who calls us all to "be holy as I am holy." The Vatican II docu-ments re-emphasized this universal vocation to holiness. In our Catholic tradition, vocation tends to remain a word restricted to the calls of priests and bishops and women and men vowed in the consecrated lifeform. But everyone is being called by God to grow in holiness, that is, in his or her relationship with God. And everyone is called by God to a way of living out this holiness. To learn God's idea of this way of living, we need to pray, especially to listen to God. We need to reflect with the word of God. We need to take in the opinions and advice of others, especially friends and those who know us well. In other words, we need to be in a process of discern-ment if we are to attune ourselves to the way that God seems to be drawing us to fulfill our basic vocation to holiness. As one recent writer notes, there is no lack of vocations in the church. Rather there seems Review fbr Religious to be a lack of awareness among church members of the twofold call: to holiness and to a particular ~ay that God has in mind--for us to respond to. If all Catholics took seriously the personal calling from God, we would find ourselves in a church and a world in which the kingdom of heaven was being made the more visible. We would have a church that was alive with people in the tradi-tional ~service roles. Listening for and responding to God's call is the necessary foundation for a continuing Pentecost experience in our day. Closer to home, there have been a few different "call-ings" among the Review for Religious advisory board members. Brother Adrian Gaudin SC left the board some months ago when he found it necessary to cut back on his commitments. Sister Raymond Marie Gerard FSP has been assigned to new work in the Roman headquarters of the Daughters of St. Paul. Bishop Carlos Sevilla SJ has completed his six-year term. Brother Steve Erspamer SM, artist and liturgical design consultant, brings his expertise to our journal world. Sister Kathleen Hughes RSCJ, currently provincial of the United States province, offers her liturgical and theological wisdom. Bishop Terry Steib SVD, bishop of Memphis, Tennessee, contributes his experience of religious life, along with his ecclesial vision as bishop. As editor, I acknowledge my debt of gratitude to our three retiring board members. At the same time, I wel-come with great pride the three new members who bring such wonderful gifts in their counsel for Review for Religious. David L. Fleming sJ 63.3 2004 communal TED DUNN Election and Communal Discernment: Goals, Myths, and Gifts discernment For fifteen years my wife, Beth Lipsmeyer, and I have, as facilitators, been privileged to accom-pany many communities through communal dis-cernment leading to the election of leadership teams. We have discovered that there are not only wide-ranging views on what communal dis-cernment is, but also varied expectations regard-ing what it will achieve. In other words; beyond the election, What does communal discernment offer communities and what does the "commu-nal" part mean? On this topic there are myths, commonly held beliefs that no longer apply. In addition, while increasing numbers of commu-nities are using communal discernment, many of them focus so much one the outcome (the election) that they fail to see the gifts they are receiving along the way. I offer here some reflections on what I con-sider the worthwhile goals, common myths, and Ted Duma is a clinical psychologist. He and his wife operate Comprehensive Consulting Services; 6217 Mid Rivers Mall Drive, Suite 294; St. Charles, Missouri 63304. Review for Religious subtle gifts of communal discernment. There is, of course, no one right way to understand communal dis-cernment; every community defines its own objectives and ways of using it. With this article I invite your reflec-tions. I hope communities will dialogue among them-selves about how to get the most from the communal discernment they use in their elections. Goals of Discernment Like flipping a coin or agreeing that the majority rules, discernment is, after all is said and done, just another way to make decisions. Unlike flipping a coin, however, there is nothing random or quick about it. Discernment is intentional and requires a great deal of time if it is to be done well. Unlike a simple, democratic vote, in discernment it is the Spirit, not the majority, that rules. In communal discernment it is deepening partnership, rather than well-conducted campaigning, that ensures integrity and brings persuasion. The communal discernment we are discussing seeks the election of the best leaders. It is, however, about more than just choosing leaders. Another goal is to engage you in the drama of a deeper story, your collec-tive story, as it continues to unfold. In communal dis-cernment, bonds of partnership are formed and re-formed, woven together with your charism and your traditions and with questions of who you are called to become. Communal discernment offers all members the opportunity to influence how your leadership should function, to shape the team's values and style of working. A third goal .of communal discernment is to shape the nature of the partnership between elected leadership and membership. I would like to elaborate on this, for it appears central to the yearning of many communities. Communal discernment can create new ways for leadership and membership to be together. This includes 63.3 2004 Dunn ¯ Election and Communal Discernment sharing the same vision. To do this, to have the same vision living inside each member, they all must have some degree of ownership of it. Looking toward the future, they must, as partners, share in some detail how they envision it and what they hope to contribute to it. Communal discernment invites this kind of heartfelt talking and listening, such fostering of shared hope. Communities yearn to be able to share one another's gifts more fully, to affirm one another more fully, to feel more deeply the possibilities and power inherent in their being together in one community, no matter what their individual positions or ministries. Communities appear to be struggling for a deeper kind of partnership laced together by their personal commitments to, and their emotional investment in, their collective future. They want to become freer by having greater personal respon-sibility. This kind of partnership does not just happen. It may be a promise of faith, but it is formed by experience, tested by challenges, and re-formed through expressions of care, the anguish of confrontation, and the hard work of reconciliation. In communal discernment, opportu-nities abound to shape the partnerships you aspire to achieve. Communal discernment enables you to reflect, both personally and collectively, upon where your com-munity seems to be heading, what your vision of the future is, what your communal needs are, and what indi-vidual and collective gifts you possess to work with. Ideally, communal discernment will affirm and assist each and every one of you in your search for clarity and wisdom as you together appreciate your collective truth through a new kind of partnership. Thus, along with (1) choosing your leadership, com-munal discernment also enables your communities (2) to discover the values and style of leadership you want for yourselves and (3) to build the kind of partnership Review for Religious between elected leadership and membership that will enhance your preferred future. Myths of Discernment What follows are seven myths that I commonly hear expressed in our work across communities. While I have my opinions about these myths, I do not have definitive "answers" about them. My purpose in mentioning these, however, is to evoke conversation among you about what you believe. Eliciting your own understanding of your attitudes and belief about these seven so-called myths may help you to appreciate the terrain through which you will make your way during any future communal discernment efforts. Myth 1: Discernment is primarily between me and my God. Traditionally this has been true. Discernment has traditionally emphasized one's deeply personal and prayerful search for God's will. In recent years, however, communities have developed and emphasized the inter-play of personal and communal prayer. Beyond individ-ual prayer, communities are stretching the boundaries of personal discernment to include conversations as a way to hear what the Spirit is saying. In communal discernment, open dialogue pools the wisdom of your personal efforts so that together you can discover God's intentions. Personal and communal prayer, personal and shared reflection and dialogue, are increasingly the norm for the discernment used in elec-tions. Discernment is no longer just a private matter between you and your God. It is between you and your God, but also with and among all your fellow members bringing their God-given inspirations and longings and wisdom. Myth 2: Leaders are elected to represent what I want and believe. In a democracy, leaders are elected to "repre-sent" their constituency. People cast their votes for the 63.3 2004 Dunn ¯ Election and Communal Discernment In discernment the emphasis is on the process, not on the outcome, the election itself. candidates they believe will best represent them and speak up for their interests. These politicians are elected, in part, as conduits for the voices of their constituents. In discernment the emphasis is on the process, not on the outcome, the election itself. In fact, in the process there must be "detachment" from the outcome. This is necessary for people to hear what God may be asking, to hear the truth as it unfolds. Detachment from the outcome is meant to aid in listen-ing honestly to what is really being revealed rather than to what you already know, or expect to hear, or want or do not want to hear. In other words, if what someone tells you, or asks you to look at, seems to assail the out-come you prefer, you might stop your ears from hearing it. Setting aside your preferred outcome helps you to listen more honestly. If communal discernment has been done carefully, the subsequent voting expresses the wisdom of an enlightened group, not contentious efforts to put one's own candidate into the office. The power of individuals to enlighten, to forge partnerships, to stir vision, to cooperate in one another's future, is not limited to vot-ing. Your community's power in discernment is limited only by your difficulties in listening, your inhibitions about speaking, or your complicated efforts to get oth-ers to'speak for you. Discernment invites all of.y6u to give full voice to your most authentic truth. In a dis-cerned election, voting is only one of many oppor(-uni-ties (perhaps the least influential of all) to have your voice heard. Leaders called forth in this way are not so much elected to represent what you believe and to speak Review for Religious for you, but rather are affirmed to partner with all mem-bers in forwarding the movement of your community's mission. Myth 3: Discernment is primarily for those who are endorsed. From my perspective, and in our preferred approach to facilitating, communal discernment involves everyone in the community from beginning to end, not just those endorsed. Everyone goes through each phase of communal discernment, and everyone is invited to participate in processes along the way. Individual and communal prayer takes place throughout, Individual and shared reflections take place throughout.The interplay between personal and communal discernment is a dance that begins.with the preparations for endorsements and concludes with the election. While sometimes separate and sometimes together, all members (not just those endorsed) are engaged in discernment, and any process that is done separately needs to reconnect with the whole so that. there truly is a communal discernment. Our approach to communal discernment encourages the pooling of wisdom from past leadership and from those endorsed, from supportive,~ collaborative, .and deliberative members. Everyone is invited to submit endorsements, and these are the basis of invitations to the first discernment gathering, such as a discernment weekend. Those who attend come with the wider com-munity's blessings, input, prayers, and concerns, includ-ing expressions of desires and critical issues. Afterwards these persons bring to the community, at the "discern-ment assembly," their presumed group enlightenment. They share what they have found helpful and pertinent, and in turn they listen carefully to the wider commu-nity's wisdom--so'that all have a better basis for their continuing discernment. No matter how many phases or gatherings there are, the emphasis in communal discernment is to bring t 63.3 2004 Dunn ¯ Election and Communal Discernment together into unity the fruits of every individual or group discernment. Open dialogue, sharing discoveries along the way, and making decisions (such as to withdraw from the process) only in the context of the whole--all of these bolster trust in the overall discernment and in one another. Myth 4: Those with fewer endorsements are not serious contenders. Those with one, five, or fifty endorsements are of equal voice and value to the communal discern-ment. Each person endorsed, regardless of numbers, has been validly called. All are asked to consider themselves potential leaders and to discern with the Holy Spirit and the community. The Spirit is present to all, whether endorsed or not, and not more or less present according to the number of endorsements. It is a mistake to think of endorsements as a straw vote or, worse yet, as a reflection of the number of friends you have that believe in you. Endorsements are signs that people believe that you may have the quali-ties needed at this time in this leadership position. Numbers are not as important as what the endorsements invite you to explore. Those with the most endorsements may not be elected, and those with :one endorsement could be. We facilitated an election wherein a sister with one endorsement was ultimately elected after discern-ment had its deep effect on both her and the commuo nity. Endorsements are a departure point for conversation, an invitation to dialogue, and not a straw vote or a test of popularity. Do not expect numbers to satisfy your discernment questions, about either your faith or your future. Myth Y: Discernment means logically weighing pros and cons. Discernment, at its heart, is about searching for what God intends. While reason and logic are impor-tant, they are not of preeminent value. In discernment the irrational is not irreverent. Irrational processes of Re~iew for Religious cognition, such as our intuitions and our hearts' desires, are very much pa.rt of what leads us to God. We are made of head and heart, body and soul, mind and spirit. All of these are real. All are valid. Perhaps we can learn and appreciate better what God intends by allowing our-selves to be more fully ourselves, to embrace our human-ness in all its dimensions. That reason and our intuition, or logic and our feel-ings, may sometimes conflict is not itself a problem. Nor are we called to ignore one in favor of the other. Each of these different kinds of infor-mation needs to be understood in its own right. The invitation here is for deeper integration, not muting one in favor of another. What you think is right may conflict with how you feel. What you know may conflict with what you intuit. What you should do may conflict with what you want to do. Conflicting emo-tions and reasoning and intuitions .are signs that your dis-cernment is not as complete as it could be. The journey of faith often invites us to explore pos-sibilities beyond the boundaries of what reason and logic would dictate. Discernment is, in its essencE, a faith jour-ney, and, because there is a communal dimension to this, you are invited to make this journey with one another. Pros and cons are important to look at, and so is spiritual growth. Filtering the qualities needed for leadership is important, and so are opportunities for reconciliation. Assessing your future needs is important, and so too is the struggle to reinvest in community when your past wounds would urge you otherwise. Reason is important, and so is grace. Myth 6: Tbe election is where my voice really matters. Some may think that all this discernment talk is nice, What you think is right may conflict with how you feel. 63.3 2004 Dunn ¯ Election and Communal Discernment but in the end "I'I1 get my vote, and that's all that counts anyway." This is perhaps the biggest myth of all. In years past, when some were chosen to be delegates at chap-ters or senates, votes were the ultimate expression of the voices that mattered. If you were not chosen,, your del-egates carried your voice. If you were a delegate, your voice, expressed through voting, had the same weight as that of other delegates. Your vote expressed not only your own desire, but also spoke for those members not in attendance. The delegates were .often seen as privi-leged, and indeed they were, for only their voice was the one counted in the end. Whether through Robert's Rules or other rules, the voices heard at the time of election were confined to carefully laid-out rules of procedure. Votes equaled voice, and this voice was .the power of a privileged few. Most communities have moved to,open chapters or senates, whereall of you are invited to choose your own mode of participation .(supportive, collaborative, delib-erative). Everyone is offered the privilege of voting and, more important, the privilege of discernment. Your abil-ity to affect the shaping of your future, and to deter-mine the leaders to help you do so, is entirely~ dependent upon your personal choosing. You can be of little influ-ence if you choose minimal .participation:or have a great deal of influence if you involve yourself more deeply. Your voice matters at every step of the discernment, not just during the few hours you spend casting ballots. Your votes will be counted in the end, but, during the months that precede the voting; itis your discerning voices that count the most. In communal discernment the ones who shape the ultimate outcome are the ones who dialogue along the way, who listen and share, who invest in this faith journey and in one another. Myth 7: Discernment is mainly about cbtosing the most qualified. From our perspective, focusing upon the most Review for Religious qualified is as flawed an approach to discernment as its countercorollary, that you should elect only those per-sons who see eye-to-eye and can get along well. I believe that it is important for team members to have differ-ences and be able to work with them, that process is as important as outcome, that tasks are as important as rela-tionships, and that the ability to work as a team is as important as any team's constellation of gifts and tal-ents. You could elect the best and brightest, but, if they cannot get along, if they cannot gel into a cohesive work-ing unit, you will not see the best of what they have to offer. Likewise, if you elect those that get along with-out regard for the differing gifts and talents needed, you will not get a leadership adequate to your needs. From our experience of working with a variety of teams, the composite of its members' talent is effective only to the degree that the "team" functions as a team. In other words, the talent will have its desired proper effect only if there is also a commitment to. stay in the struggle: not give up on one another or the tasks at hand, deal with conflict rather than avoid it, work through dif-ferences honestly and directly, do the hard work of repairing trust when it is broken (mend wounds and clar-ify misunderstandings), speak out of principle and com-passion, and so on. Discernment can assist communities in electing indi-viduals who have the flair and the desire or willingness to work as team members, but teams are not elected. Rather, the individuals elected form themselves into a team. It is, however, incumbent upon those electing to look at more than the composite of talents, at more than the rtsum~s. How homogeneous or different the team members are in their styles, beliefs, and abilities is impor-tant only insofar as the composite captures what you have collectively claimed is important. No one person has all of these gifts, but as a whole the team you elect 63.3 2004 Dunn ¯ Election and Communal Discernment should resemble what the community has discerned to be necessary both in mixture of talents and in preferred style of working together. Gifts of Discernment: Wisdom, Relationship, and Light At any given time some of you can see farther and better than others. Some of you are around the curve and up the hill before others. At another time someone else may have the greater vantage point and see what is on or over the horizon. On journeys everyone has a unique perspective to offer. Some can see what has been, others can see what is, and still others can see what is probably ahead. All of you play a part in understanding and discerning the collective truth. One sign of a discerning group is that it allows for its communal "truth" to be born from the womb of the whole. The truth that r~diates from everyone, if shared by all through open dialogue in the Spirit, can become a wisdom that is beyond the sum of all the contributions. When imbued with the Spirit, communal discernment can transcend individual wisdom and thereby bring a deeper understanding of God's intentions. I would like to offer a quotation (source unknown) that expresses what I consider the heart of communal discernment: "I sought my God and God abandoned me; I sought my soul and it eluded me; I sought my brother and sister--and found all three." This is very much the essence of discernment. It is a spiritual group pilgrimage inspired by our strong human desire for relationship and our search for love and understanding. It is persohal, but it is also spiritual and relational. Communal dis, cernment involves private and shared prayer, private and shared reflection, private and shared understandings of how the Spirit is experienced within each of you and among all of you. You choose this journey in search of Review for Religious God's will in order to decide personal and shared direc-tions. You commit yourselves to this soul-searching, truth-telling pilgrimage out of your yearning to be closer to God and one another. Communal discernment is, without question, an invi-tation to walk intimately with one another. Communal discernment is not a side-by-side experience wherein you share fruit that you found by yourself in prayer. It is an ever deepening conversation about your faith and your experience of one another along the way. You are invited to share not only good things you have found, but also your labor: you are to share in giv-ing birth. It is an awesome invitation to meet God in another human being and to discover who that stranger is on the road to Emmaus. We human beings often seek God when we are dis-turbed, when we are displaced from our comfort zone of the known, the familiar, and the safe. It is because of our poverty, our powerlessness, because of becoming aware of our fractured selves, that we. seek the healing, understanding presence of God and one another. The gift of our disturbance is that our passions are unearthed, the status quo is challenged, and what we have always known is no longer enough. We yearn for, and are fright-ened by, God's invitation to enter the mystery of our humanness. Yet our faith tells us that new life is found here, in the struggle, in this privileged place where Jesus lives. This place, where we meet Jesus in one another, is a profound gift of discernment. Communal discernment also offers the gift of light. It challenges you to recognize how you can fool yourself When imbued with the Spirit, communal discernment can transcend individual wisdom. 241 . 63.3 2004 Dunn * Election and Communal Discernment in order to get what you want and camouflage it as being "of God." It challenges you to catch how you hide from yourself and eclipse a deeper truth. This is where you are invited to reckon with your hidden payoffs for keep-ing your.own goodnes~ under wraps. This is where you can ask yourselves questions like ".What does grace enable me to be?" and "What on earth is holding me back from claiming this?" This is where your loyalties to the way things have always been, to the relationships that have given you life, come face-to-face with your fidelity to the truth you keep getting more awareness of. This is where current realities insist upon new wineskins and new patterns of being and relating. This is where your growing edges encroach upon the status quo of relationships, causing you to look anew at what you have hidden from one ~nother and kept from the people you love. Discernment is an attitude of listening, listening to the intimate whispers of God through prayer and through your conversations. It is a quiet process of attun-ing yourself to God's voice, giving special attention to urgings toward new life. Listen for the yes that radiates from within. Listen to fugitive t.ruths, and do not turn away-from newborn insights, so that all of you together manage to hear and see more truth. Listen to everyone as if you are listening for the first time, without conjur-ing up the cries of your old wounds .or letting the white noise of a hundred thumbnail reputations blur your attentiveness. Listen to God's urgings toward a future just beyond your grasp, but. reachable if you let go and give yourself to it. The paradox of discernment is that once you have adapted and become adjusted, once you have privately prayed, sifted, and sorted, you must again "let go" and be influenced by the Spirit working within and among you. You must be willing to take in new information, feel new Review for Religious feelings, and again be influenced by one another. You must seek the gift of interior freedom, of spiritual indif-ference, as to the outcome. Ideally, you will find a way to hold all personal agendas and desires, all hopes and wishes, all values and passions, in an attitude of openness. Ideally, you will experience being deeply rooted yet hold-ing on to things lightly. In this kind of freedom, God's intentions and those of all of you are together. This is neither blind Obedience nor stern self-denial. Rather, it is a transcending of self with eyes wide open as together you follow, or keep trying to follow, God's lead on this journey of faith. God is ceaselessly inviting us into the mystery of relationships, the mystery, of our humanness, the mystery of our life in Christ. ' Late August Blooms are bur, ning themselves out in backyard gardens. During evening's lengthenihg gloom the whirring chhnt of Iocu's.ts ebbs "and rises. '. ." Musk of squash and pumpkin n~w replaces headier,scents ofMayand June. You tooare seasoned, pausing between ripeness and the threadbare husks of winter. But within you the blueflame of chicory along country roads burns like a votive candle before the God of harvests. Patricia Schnapp RSM 63.3 2004 BARBARA SUDOL Frances Siedliska's Mystical Life heritages Frahces Siedliska was born on 12 November 1842 in Roszkowa Wola, near.Warsaw, Poland, of aristocratic parents, Adolph Siedliski and Cecilia Morawska Siedliski, and died in Rome on 21 November 1902. Her parents were wealthy landowners in the village of Zdzary, where their manor was situated. She had one sibling, a brother, Adam. In her early life Frances displayed intelligence, a love for beauty and music, and an elegance and maturity beyond her years. She also had a quick temper and a tenacious stubbornness, often matching her father in a clash of wills; In 1875, at the age of thirty-one, she would found the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth,~ but in her childhood, religion was all but absent in the Siedliski home. Her parents, like other contemporary Polish aristocratic families, were indifferent to reli-gion. Materialism, rampant worldwide, and positivism discarded all that was supernatural, including religion. The nobility, identifying Barbara Sudol CSFN writes from 61-03 56th Avenue; Maspeth, New York 11373. Review for Reli~ous ,Catholicism with Polish patriotism, became the defending wall of the church, yet it did not know the church, did not understand it, and did not give wimess to it by their lives. (Strzalkowska, 16) Such an irreligious familial atmosphere had its effect on Frances's spiritual life. She walked in the darkness of religious ignorance until a Capuchin friar, Father Leander Lendzian, prepared her for her first Holy Communion, on 1 May 1855. He opened Frances's soul to religion and a growing spiritual life, notwithstanding much pressure from Adolphe Siedliski, who desired his daughter to live a more worldly life and enter into a mar-riage befitting her social station. But such a life was not to be for Frances. Her love of God grew throughout her life until her death in 1902 at the age of sixty. Her auto-biography, journals, letters, and other extensive writings to her sisters and to various members of the clergy give testimony to this love. Early in her religious life, Frances experienced the spiritual passivity of mysticism, a passivity that would enable her to give more and more of herself to God. She writes: In his mercy Jesus continued gifting me with ever deep-ening prayer., so that at times nothing else mattered, only., sometimes he takes away from me the ability to meditate, to have any feelings, and directs me to an immediate experience and acceptance of his holy truth. Then he suspends my faculties and . . . fills my soul according to his divine pleasure. (Strzalkowska, 58) Always she looked to God for her consolation and support, even in the midst of great difficulties, for with her emotional and mental suffering came physical suf-fering. Her health was flail, but, remaining in close union with God, she never permitted it to stop her from ardu-ous travel and time-consuming correspondence. As a foundress she went through all the rigor, heartache, legal-ism, and deprivation that are part of the early days of any 63.3 2004 Sudol * Frances Siedliska's Mystical Life foundation, all the while progressing on .the mystical way and entering more fully in(o deep prayer and union With God. In her diary she writes: "I knelt at Your fee~, and you drew my soul to yourself. It s~emed to me that I had left my body and was .moving toward you, my Love." She continues: "Later I fell into a deep stillness. My spiritual faculties were absorbed into a glorious intuition of God, of my Lord Jesus. At that time no word, no feeling, seemed appropriate or timely. I nee'ded to be drawn by and submerged in the love of my God" (Strzalkowska, 64). But there was even more.,Before,the end of her life, Frances was given the grace of espousal with God. In her diary she writes: ¯ I was at Mass at St. Claude's . My soul remained near Jesu~s in a spirit of elation. After Communion I experienced a strong desire which I expressed to.him , present within me. I asked Jesus to espouse my soul forever . Yet, as i pondered what it means to be a spouse of God, and as I looked at myself, I had not the courage ~o ask Jesus for this great grace. Instead, I humbled myself and abased myself while in my heart I sensed this message: "What I am doing for you now consider as an espousal, for I am espousing you to myself, uniting your soul to mine." (Strzalko.wska, 66) She wrote, kneeling, the constitutions and statutes that her congregation would ~idopt as their way of life, and she kriew the joy as well as the disappointment that comes with living in community. At her death she left two hundred and ninety-one sisters on both sides of the Atlantic, and a total of seventy-two youthful novices and postulants who would find in Nazareth their incentive to scale the heights she had envisioned; she was relinquishing without misgi ~vings twenty-nine ¯.houses .of Nazareth, centers of apostolic services in Europe and the United'States. (De Chantal, 128) In Frances Siedliska there was the delicate combina-tion of deep prayer life and vigorous-activity. Her coop- Review for Religious eration with God's grace was a daily undertaking, a con-scious decision to refuse Godnothing. For her generosity God gave her everything, including the heavy burden of the cross. "In .the mystical life, one passes from one layer to the next in an inner or downward journey to the core of the personality where dwells the great mystery called God--God who cannot be known .directly, cannot be seen, and who dwells in thick darkness" (Johnston, 127). If she experienced the dark night of the senses through her continual death to self in her relationships, journeys, and hardships in establishing the congregation, she also entered into the dark night of the soul, particularly in 1892, when she was fifty years old. Father Anthony Lechert, who had been her spiritual director and also a director for her Nazareth community, was removed from that position by his re.ligious superiors as a result of calumnious reports about him and his dealings with her and her sisters. In Frances Siedliska there was the delicate combination of deep prayer life and vigorous activity. 1892 marked the beginning of the mys.tic passion of Mother Siedliska; it would perdure another ten years and end with her death . Her physical suffering was accompanied by prolonged and oppressive moral suffering which, as the consequence of the event~ of 1892, she was compelled to bear and which she accepted in fullest conformity to the divine will. (Ricciardi, 244) Frances entered into her personfil dark night of the soul while continuing an indefatigable active life as foundress of her growing congregation. "Some circum-stances, particularly those surrounding the difficulties 63.3 2004 Sudol ¯ Frances Siedliska's Mystical Life of 1892 and the years following, including problems that affected the American foundation, placed Mother Siedliska in the crucible of calumny, a victim of treach-ery and lack of understanding" (Ricciardi, 379). Witnesses gave written testimony to the fact that Frances remained steadfast in her devotion to God and to the congregation, offering forgiveness to those who had injured her reputation and even personally doing good to them. To live a mystical life is no easy task, but the path of mysticism begins in a progression of steps. Only rarely are people given the grace of apophatic mysticism, as Frances Siedliska was. By her great love she gave her-self completely to God. Her greatest legacy to her reli-gious community was her belief in love: God's Love and her own love for each person. She understood the gospel imperative to love and knew well how difficult loving is in practice. God had already given himself to her as her Good Shepherd, her Rock, and her Lord. Note ' Actually Frances Siedliska founded the congregation when she sought and obtained on 1 October 1873 Pope Pius IX's approval and blessing to begin the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Fa~mily of Nazareth. In Rome in 1875 she opened the first permanent convent of the congregation. Works Cited De Chantal, Sister M., CSFN. Out of Nazareth. New York: Exposition Press, 1974. Johnston, William. The Inner Eye of Love: Mysticism and Religion. San Francisco: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1978. Ricciardi, Antonio. Hi~ Will Alone: The Life of Mother Mary of Jesus the Good Shepherd. Trans. Regis N. Barwig. Oshkosh, Wisconsin: Castle-Pierce Press, 1971. Strzalkowska, Sister M. Inez, CSFN. For Me to Live Is Christ. Trans. Sister Mary Paul Krasowski CSFN. Pittsburgh: Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, 1995. Review for Religious A. PAUL DOMINIC Is Even More Good Coming from Nazareth? On what would be one of my happiest days as a Jesuit, I went to a religious house in a village, at that time the only house of its kind in India. (That was about thirty-five years ago, when I was a student of the-ology. Today there are only two such houses in India.) The house, unlike other religious houses I had lived in or seen, was in no way different from the other houses in the village street. It belonged to the Little Brothers of Jesus. Three of them, two from France and one from Belgium, were living like the villagers in almost every respect except that they worked with the leprosy patients, prayed together regularly as Christians in an Indian way, and, unlike Indian males especially of those days, cooked their own meals. Welcomed into their little tiled house of four small rooms--including a kitchen, a chapel, find a storeroom for medicines used in their paramedical work--I felt much at home and that religious life itself was at home there in close contact with the people around. I saw the brothers being all things to all people, learning the cus- A. Paul Dominic SJ writes again from Missionaries of the Poor; Fatima Nagar; Warangal 506 004; India. 63.3 2004 Dominic ¯ Is Even More Good Coming~/~om Nazareth? toms and beliefs of ~eir Hindu neighbors, joining their celebrations, speaking their Tamil language though amusingly with a French lilt, preparing and enjoying the local variety of quite spicy food, lending an ear to the varied tales of the young and old, lending a measure of rice occasionally, or just giving away a handful of chilies when a neighbor ~ent her child asking for some, and so on--ahd I felt a new thrill regarding religious life, at once Christian and Indian! The people of Alampoondi, the village in which the brothers had settled, witnessed all that, but they had no idea of their identity except as foreigners and Christians. With their little knowledge of church matters, they could not of course have any idea of the newcomers' being members of a religious congregation, the Litde .Brothers of Jesus. Did even knowledgeable Christians know of their existence? Like myself, hardly any of my theology companions had heard about their surprising way of life, although the Little Brothers, admittedly few in number, were keeping.up a quiet and unassuming but distinct presence on all the continents. A New Charism of Living and Working The Little Brothers' charism, as I learned from the brothers in India, is to live as Jesus lived at Nazareth, unknown and unheralded but unfailingly helpful in lit-tle ways. Who would want such a charism? ~About the Little Brothers who have taken to it eagerly and seri-ously, an outsider like me can say that they have shown themselves faithful to it. The first Little Brothers who came and settled in India have not given up hope of their continuing presence although they have attracted less than a half dozen Indian followers despite the consid-erable numbers of religious vocations here. In October 1933 Ren~ Voillaume and a few of his friends, all of them newly ordained, left their native Review for Religious France and went to E1-Abiodh-Sidi-Cheik in the Algerian Sahai'a and started living the Nazarene charism as a group. VoiHaume served as their elected prior from the beginning till 1965. On 13 May 2003 he died .at the age of ninety-seven. His death, if I am not mistaken, did not get much attention in the Christian. press or even among members of religious orders and congregations, let alone in the secular world. Maybe it could not have been different, but I incline to think that it was what it should hav.e been, given his and his brothers' choice to live in today's world like Jesus at Nazareth, in hidden mystery amid plain or harsh earthly reality. He died just as he had lived, with no splash of publicity for having accomplished some widely recognized good, though of course God knows all he did in the Nazareth-like places where he and his brothers lived. I came to know of his death by chance, but at the very' place where I first felt the spell of his humble charism. Here I would like to present an account of it as a loving tribute to Voillaume, and I hope a true one. The Original Recipient of This Charism ¯ The inspiration for Voillaume and his companions was an aristocrat named Charles de Foucauld (1858- 1). Though born in a devout Catholic family .and educated in Jesuit schools,Foucauld turned his back on Christianity at sixteen and entered military service only to quit it because of his undisciplined and even disso-lute ways. Later, around 1880, he went on an expedition to unexplored parts of Morocco and returned to pub-lish his findings in a book that won him fame. Still he was restless, least suspecting that the human heart is restless until it rests in God. In late October 1886 he found himself converted, in the confessional though he had gone there without wanting to confess. Once he was converted he knew the raison d'etre of his existence: to 63.3 2004 Dominic ¯ Is Even More Good Coming from Nazareth? live for God and only for God. He came to discover the person of Jesus as God's incarnate Son. He entered and left the Trappists and then became a priest, only to feel a compelling urge to be like Jesus not only inwardly but even outwardly. Out of love he wanted to reproduce in himself the life of Jesus at Nazareth, hidden, humble, hardworking, and helpful to others. In a letter he describes himself thus: The ,gospel proved to me that the "the first com-mandment" was for me to love God with all my heart, and that I must put everything within that love; and, as everybody knows, one of the effects of love is imitation. ¯ . . I did not feel at all made for imitating him in his public life and his preaching; I consequently knew I must imitate the hidden life of the poor and humble workman of Nazareth.~ As he delved into the hidden treasure of Nazareth, he found that he could not keep it private: his newfound pearl of vision was not for himself alone. He hoped that it would become a pattern of life for others too. But, however much he wanted to have companions to live with him, he was not to have even one up to the day he died tragically. Even his tragedy was not perceived as greatness. He died as the two French soldiers visiting him did, victims caught in a tribal conflict, shot in the head by a frightened Tuareg youth. What could the worth of his life be? But his story, told only briefly here, got circulated in his native France. Surprising stories began to be told of men and women, young and old, married and unmarried, from different walks of life, who sought to live in the spirit of Jesus the Nazarene somewhat as Foucauld did. Such was his influ-ence within a decade after his death that at least one col-lege removed a biography of Foucauld from its library for fear that too many young people might be drawn to his unusual example. Review for Religious The Nazareth Brand of Religious Life Among those who could not deny his impact on their life, Voillaume and his four friends may be ranked first. They were the first to attempt as a group to live their lives according to Foucauld's vision, and their attempt has stood the test of the times. Their fraternity (as they liked to call their group) centered their life on Jesus' way of living at Nazareth. Voillaume has reflected on this and spoken of Nazareth as a complete form of reli-gious life. Following Foucauld, he discerned in Nazareth a type of religious life undreamt-of before and, I am afraid, largely unknown even now. Religious life modeled on Nazareth is distinct, he pointed out, from the hidden life of many a traditional novitiate. It is unlike the lives of Carthusians or enclosed Carmelites, and it is also dif-ferent from the lives that ded-icated lay people lead in the footsteps of Jesus, the work-man at Nazareth. These three versions of Nazareth do not go beyond certain aspects. Voillaume's version diverges from them in discovering something new, even though it is at one with all the earlier forms of religious life inas-much as it does not swerve from the spiritual reality of freely promising to God, with the public approval of the church, to live in chastity, poverty, and obedience. Instead of following the Jesus of the public life, the Little Brothers follow the Jesus of the hidden life. They renounce a distinct habit, large or isolated buildings of their own, and large enterprises or projects. They choose to live like the ordinary worker that Jesus was: poor and humble and unavoidably involved with and even depen-dent on others. They live in an aura of prayer, much Their fraternity centered their life on Jesus' way of livin, g at Nazareth. 63.3 2004 Dominic * Is Even More Good Coming from Nazareth? prayer, so as to grow in favor with God and their fellow human beings as Jesus, did in ,Nazareth.2 Some of this may seem to ignore things indispensable to religious life. But are they? Or are they just means for0a particular way of living the three vows? And can one: not conceive of a~true religious life that makes less use of traditional means and ye~ proves to be a sure road to the ex;angelical perfection of the joyous embrace of the three vows? In this spirit Voillaume says: Such a road has been opened up for us by Father de Foucauld. It lies in sharing the lot of the workers and the other poor, with all the consequences involved, and being a living presence of Christ among them) Voillaume explains this new spirit and style of religious life: Less attention is paid to sheltering oneself off from risks by means of separations, or to being helped by observances superimposed upon one's daily occupa-tions, than to ordering one's entire life into a single moy.ement of charity for Christ and or_tier people, and learning to use the very difficulties attendant Upon such a life as so many mean~ to self-dispossession and the very concrete realization of one's profession of the . three vows? A Name of Prideand Humility . The Nazareth-based form of religious life described above may be further appreciated by reflecting-on the name that Voillaume and his companiong; following Foucauld; gave to their group: Little Brothers of Jesus. No one can. mistake where .their love was. Their love was not .for ~an unusual, heroic, rele~cant ideal surpass-ing the old, but for Jesus; and so they gave their hearts, their.very selves, to the person of Jesus. By their name they.made a claim on Jesus;~ ofbelonging to himand his belonging to them. (In this they have measured up'to the holy ambition of the,original b'and of Jesuits,. and Review for Religious may have stolen a march on some of my brother Jesuits.) The brothers' loyal love is not a romantic thing. They have found him whom they love in persevering faith, in their common Eucharist, in the Gospels, and in their neighborhood,s In their very love for Jesus, they turn to people and attend to their urgent, unfilled needs such as their need for justice. They are. wise enough not to be misled: they know the lurking temptation of sincere Christian apostles to think, in Voillaume's words, "that one does not have the time to look towards Jesus and love him as he should be loved: for himself." He coun-sels his Little Brothers that they have their set task right there: It is to act as the "regard" of men today upon Jesus, to be in Jesus' presence the "standing delegates" of the forgetful crowd, carrying to him in their place their adoration, their needs, their complaints, and their faults.6 Are they here inspired by Jesus' approval of Mary of Bethany "wasting" costly ointment on him? By their name Little Brothers of Jesus, they mean to express how their love of Jesus marks their way of loving others, including one another. Voillaume can say to his brothers: If we are to be of any "use" at all in the world,' it will be for having been faithful enough to allow a bit of Christ's immense love for men to appear through our.hearts and our comportment . If we are really united with our Lord, if we keep our eyes trained upon.Jesus living and working at Nazareth, then, like Father de Foucauld, we shall be able to remain open to people's solicita-tions. 7 So, as brothers of Jesus, they become brothers of all according to the revelation that all people are to be con-sidered brothers and sisters and not titled personages (Mr 23:8-10). Abhorring all superiority, they behave as 63.3 2004 Dominic * Is Even More Good Coming from Nazaretb? brothers who imitate Jesus in his redeeming love. Inspired thus, they contact specially the poorest just as they are and because of what they are, persons bereft of all power. In doing this they are aware of God calling each one by.name in the intimacy of lovefl and so they too aim at reaching out to individuals as if each one were the only soul to be loved in the world. They do not cal-culate their mission success in terms of administering and applying approved techniques and technologies. If in their love they feel the urge to give Jesus to people and help people find their lofiged-for kingdom of God, it is in the unglamorous way of being the salt of the earth or the world's ordinary daylight.9 Voillaume challenges his brothers: So long as our love has not reached the point where it has made us truly capable of showing them that the kingdom of Jesus is for them, and that it has even begun to be present in their midst through us, we shall not have met the demands of Jesus' love upon us. The kingdom must be able to appear to them through us in all its realness: th~ patience, the peace, the force of Christ, and also Christ's demands for justice--all this enveloped, as it were, in love and void of all hatred (even when it is right to fight),l° Another challenge, even a greater one, facing the Little Brothers is love among themselves. Though this challenge may appear common to all religious, the Little Brothers are not quite the same. Modeling their very lives on the homely life of Nazareth can foster mutual friendship in a supernatural way. Voillaume says: It is our Lord's friendship that has gathered us together, and the human features of friendship, visible in ourselves, are something we must labor to produce. It is our duty gradually to become true friends, even though it may seem that by nature we are not self-evidently made for each other.~l Review for Religious This is something that I am afraid may often slip the attention of religious of every kind. The brothers choose to be litde. They choose to live within littleness, the mystery of littleness. It is a part of their learned ignorance (docta ignorantia). I have been amazed by their fund of knowledge and grasp of what is going on among religious and in church circles and in the world at large. Is it because they are little and thus open to learn? Being little, they also surely strive to keep grow-ing in their love of Jesus and of their fellow human beings. The proof is that they embrace the hard way of the poverty of little people. Knowing, however, that such a life and such a mission are impossible for humanity's lit-tleness, they look to God, for whom everything is pos-sible (Mt 19:23-26). Their way of mission is so different from the usual apostolates that it may not even seem to be mission work. In traditional Christian circles, eyebrows are surely raised at the Little Brothers. Failing to understand what they intend by their style of life, their poverty and their appar-ent unproductiveness, many Christians, including ecclesi-astics, may consider them useless for the church. But, following their own vocation, the Litde Brothers opt to be unprofitable servants in the eyes of people who do not-- but to my mind should--know better. They know that, if they are to instill the beatitudes in people's hearts, no activ-ity that takes them out from among the poor, the mourn-ful, the hungry, and so forth would be in keeping with the little way marked out by Jesus for them.~2 Their name, Little Brothers, expresses Jesus' humble and soaring spirit. A Mission Common and Yet Uncommon For a further understanding of the Little Brothers' charism, reflect that their mission is to be, in little ways, hands of Jesus in touching the lives of his least brothers and sisters. Though the Little Brothers share with other 63.3 2004 Dominic ¯ Is Even More Good Coming from Nazareth? religious congregations one and the same mission from Christ, the way they discharge it is unique,13 as indeed it should be in the case of every charism. A simplistic and falsifying view must be avoided here. Voillaume is very insistent on this. He points out that well-meaning peo-ple could give a wrong picture of the Little Brothers' mission with a "wooden and detestable definition" such as this: "The Petits Fr~res are not engaged in this activ-ity or that; they must not be involved in anything, but simply give an example."14 As Voillaume envisages it, the Little Brothers' life is to be far different: They will be poor in all things except God, and be of little apparent use, sharing the weariness of those who labor, their sole purpose being the proclamation of the Savior's gospel. They will submit their thoughts and deeds to the divine friendship in order that they may make known to those around them the infinite mystery of that friendship towards men, hidden from all eternity, but revealed to us in the heart of Christ.~s Their lives are, then, obviously bound up with two vibrant movements closely combined: being or becom-ing oneself enriched with God and also enriching others, particularly the masses of poor laboring people. Their twinned vocation may be expressed as contemplation of God and comforting their neighbors by their presence. These two elements, invisible and visible, which consti-tute the life of the Little Brothers, are commonly viewed as mutually exclusive. People contrast the contempla-tive and active vocations, or else see them as combined, but with prominence given to action for the good of the neighbor. The Little Brothers give equal importance to contemplation and their neighbors' good, but their con-templation is not like that of the cloistered,16 and the help they give their neighbors is far from the various well-defined goals of apostolic communities. Some brothers have lived as regular members in a Revie*v for Religious kibbutz in Israel. They shared and enjoyed the life and work there as much as the others did. Living poorly, they appeared happily settled, though unmarried. They impressed others as lov-ing, and they surprised them by praying regu-larly and unashamedly. The young Israelis were intrigued enough to ask what made them live like that. They were told that, if they were really eager to know, they had better contact some of the many religious in Tel Aviv. But they would not; they said, "No, we don't want to hear from others; we are not interested in their codes or customs. What we want is to understand your life from your own telling.'"7 One of the Little Brothers was a prisoner among prisoners, though known to the authorities to be inno-cent of any crime. He had sought and found admittance to a prison, and lived there sharing the life of the con-victs and offering them his unsought presence and friendship. Surely the prisoners needed to be instructed and converted, but the lone brother was not there to serve as a chaplain, nor did he mean to function as a social worker helping them to find money for their needs or to establish contact with their family or to do some-thing of the kind. What he wanted was to love them as a friend, standing by them and sharing with them all the physical and mental hardships of imprisonment though he himself did not deserve them2s In such circumstances the brothers are not concerned with expla!ning them-selves to people, but with so doing things with them or Their twinned vocation may be expressed as contemplation of God and comforting their neighbors by their presence. 63.3 2004 Dominic * Is Even More Good Coming from Nazaretb? for them that they cannot avoid being aware of God's nearness in some slight way at least. The Little Brothers' particular grace and genius in this matter may be expressed in one word, presence, total pres-ence to God and total presence to the poor people around, a presence that cannot but be humble. It may be called unpretentious prophetic presence, that is, the presence of a prophet drawn by God to himself and sent to people and sent by their plight back to God. It is reminiscent of Jesus' long years at Nazareth: ever turned toward God and toward the needy people near at hand. Whatever Jesus' double stance might have looked like, one thing is certain: he would have been burning with zeal for God's mission among these burdened people. His zeal showed itself in the temple at the dawn of his adulthood and would have continued during his adult years at Nazareth. There, how-ever, it could ordinarily find expression only in his daily commonplace contacts with people, and could only be fully exercised fully in the realm of the Spirit. In the Spirit he was attuned to Abba, his Father, and to his Father's mys-terious mission of compassion for the human race. At the same time he was intimate with the people in and around Nazareth, in a way that was both human and divine. That is to say, he looked upon and loved and desired the good of everyone he met, in accord with his Father's love and desire.19 This was, then, contemplative attention to God and to people needing redemption. It was a contempla-tion of God's compassion and of people's condition in the light of God's personal care for them. Such contempla-tion can occur only with the constant activity of God him-self in life's present moments. Such a life is one of intercession for people, and the people may perceive it as such. The Little Brothers learn to do as Jesus did. Voillaume explains: In our time this awareness has become more vivid than ever, and it has reached the point when many have Review for Religious come to feel that they must give concrete expression to this permanent commission to pray in the name of mankind by really sharing the circumstances of men's lives. This new way of imitating the life of Jesus of Nazareth, this summons to be united with that Man- God who was also one of the workmen of his native village, is in fact a development in the nature of prayer itself. Our own vocation has followed this course.2° One of his Little Brothers put it more simply and sharply, to the delight of Voillaume: "We are the voice of the poor, their liturgy.''2~ Each Group in Its Place For those who are still wondering about the import of this vocation, Voillaume has said: The Brotherhood's position in the church is very hum-ble, and their way of life must not be interpreted as a criticism or a failure to appreciate the other forms of the apostolate which the church approves. At the same time, the apostolate of the Petits Fr~res seems to meet a new need for the evangelization of the world which it is well we should realize)~ In saying this he shows the healthy tension of a man who appreciates the continuing value of traditional approaches in the present, and yet cannot deny the new demands that our changed times make. I think this is what Brother Michael, his successor as prior general in the 1990s, meant by what he wrote to me in a letter: "Ren6 Voillaume has been given an unusual charism: he trans-mitted the message of Nazareth life against his own feel-ings!" So it seems the inheritors of that charism have to live experiencing in themselves the attraction and tension of bipolar ideals. More could be said, but let Ren6 Voillaume have the last word: The ideal of life of the Petits Fr~res through its twofold requirement of contemplation and of pres- 63.3 2004 Dominic ¯ Is Even More Good Coming from Na~aretb? ence among men, and also through the nature of the means envisaged for carrying it out, constitutes indeed a new and original form of religious life.23 Notes I Ren6 Voillaume, Seeds of the Desert (London: Burns and Oates, n.d.), p. 24 n.2. ~ Seeds, p. 12. 3 Seeds, p. 53. 4 Seeds, pp. 53-54. s See Seeds, p. 70. 6 Seeds, p. 7 I. 7 Seeds, pp. 72-73. s See Brothers of Men (Denville, New Jersey: Dimension Books, 1966), p. 142. 9 See Seeds, pp. 74-77. to Seeds, p. 76. ii Brothers, p. 52. lz See Seeds, p. 80, and Brothers, p. 23. 13 See Ren6 Voillaume, Follow Me (London: Darton, Longman, and Todd, 1978), p. 64. 14 Brothers, p. 195. is Brothers, p. 134. 16 See Seeds, pp. 60, 63, 65. 17 Ren~ Voillaume, Faith and Contemplation (London: Darton, Longman, and Todd, 1974), p. 111. is See Brothers, pp. 145-146. 19 See Follow, p. 141. 2o Brothers, pp. 90-91. 21 Brothers, p. 91. 22 Brothers, p. 138. ~ Brothers, p. 122. Review for Religious RENI~E NIENABER Not for the Faint of Heart: Journaling into Honest Prayer Within a short time, three of my closest rela-tives died. A fourth death was imminent. With too much heaviness to hold any longer, I had to find a way to deal with my grief and anger. Journaling became my path into honest prayer. At one breakthrough I wrote to God in letters big enough to read through my tears: !'Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Slowly my response came, not with the earth opening to devour me, but with a deep, endur-ing peace. God had answered my fierce words with comforting silence. Anyone who prays with raw candor is in good company. Such honesty with God charac-terizes some of our famous ancestors in the faith, who impolitely told God when they had had enough. Jacob, Jeremiah, Jonah, and Job wres-tled with God. There is modeling for honest Ren6e Nienaber SND writes again from St. Mary of the Assumption Parish; 121 West Main Street; Alexandria, Kentucky 41001. 63.3 2004 Nienaber ¯ Not for the Faint of Heart prayer in the Lament psalms: the psalmist gives God a piece of his mind! The prophets likewise were never afraid to speak to God from their gut. Even Jesus in Gethsemane begged that the cup of suffering be taken away, and he cried out on the cross, feeling forsaken. In more recent centuries the complaint of Teresa of Avila, doctor of the church, was "If this is how you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few." Tevye, the strug-gling father in the play and movie Fiddler on the Roof, asks God in frustration, "Would it spoil some vast, eter-nal plan if I were a wealthy man?" We too can speak to God with such holy boldness. Spirituality deals with all aspects of life, not just the pious parts. Our jealous Lover wants all of us with no doors locked. Honest Journaling--and Us and God Many people are afraid to pray with honesty, think-ing that God will love us only if we are polite. Early training taught some of us to leave our problems at the door of the church. Rather, prayer needs to be a come-as- we-are experience. Spirituality is not just for the pious, but also for us who get wounded in the battles of every-day life and need somewhere to go with our pain. True prayer is about gathering up all of the stuff of our lives and offering it to God. The spiritual life challenges us to be not just holy but real: true to ourselves in all sorts of inner weather. Honesty, the essence of the eighth com-mandment, is essential for every relationship, including the divine/human one. To improve human relationships, sometimes people have to sit down and thrash things out. Similarly, at times we need to bring to God even the parts we would prefer to suppress. God does not want marionettes but real people with real emotions. The One who knocks on our door wants entrance into the whole truth of our lives. Some people, however, fear that they will be struck dead if they bring Review for Religious their frustration or anger to God. Rather, we might pic-ture God with strong, anthropomorphic shoulders--big enough to embrace us even when we feel far below par. We do not have to be on our good behavior with God in order to be loved. We speak about God as all-wise, about Jesus as "the way, the truth, and the life," and about the Spirit as our indwelling guide. This God wants to communicate that wisdom and truth to us from within our very beings. Jesus even seeks us out in our messiness, as he did the disciples on the way to Emmaus. He asks us, "What are you discussing as you go your way?" (Lk 24:17). Why Write This Type of Prayer? Why write in order to be honest with God? History has many examples of peo-ple who journaled in order to get in touch with their inner depths. Some in the last century were Pope John xxIII, Dag Hammarskj61d, and Anne Frank. Writing helped them clarify their sometimes confused and scattered thoughts, and it can help us. Journaling can provide both focus and per-spective. Putting pen to paper without editing can bring clarity that we would never achieve in our conscious mind alone. Some people will say they "can't write." But unedited journaling is not for anyone else to see. Spelling, punc-tuation, grammar, handwriting--none of these count. To many, writing honest prayer might still seem impos-sible, and people seldom try something if they expect to fail. But I hope readers will learn from the examples If we are afraid to be angry with God, at least writing is a silent outlet. 63.3 2004 Nienaber ¯ Not for the Faint of Heart below that the prayer of honest journaling can open wide a door to both themselves and God. If we are afraid to be angry with God, at least writ-ing is a silent outlet. Some polite people, when they dare to confront, prefer to write a note rather than to yell. Writing also helps people listen to the divine. This prayer communicates both ways. Especially when we are trou-bled, we need to be still and wait upon the Lord, as the psalmist says, asking for divine insight that we might not otherwise receive, If the wisdom from God is in writing, or between the lines, we have a better chance that it will touch our lives more than a fleeting inspiration does. Examples of Honest Journaling Following are ten samples excerpted from twenty years of honest journaling. Names have been omitted and some situations adapted to preserve anonymity. The summary titles, numbered 1 to 10, were of course added afterwards. My candid words addressed prayerfully to God are in roman type, and what seem to be God's can-did responses are in italic type. 1. God wants to reveal not only our sin but also the divine hesed (steadfast love or loving kindness). What do you want me to learn through this contin-ual frustration with A? Sbe presses a lot of buttons in you that are still deep, dark recesses of sinfulness: anger, resentment, negativity, revenge, self-pity, barred. Wow! That's pretty ugly! Much uglier than what she. did to me. I guess I thank you for letting me see this dark side. What good is it to see these faults? The more you're aware, the less power they'll bare over you. ~ls you become.more bumble and less reactive, the more connected you will be witb people and freer from this gravity. It's pretty ugly, yet you love me. You pick me up and kiss my wounds. You love me in my sinfulness. You allow Review for Religious me to journey to a deeper level of self-knowledge and awareness of being clothed in your grace, your love, your mercy, your truth (albeit painfully). 2. God wants to help us get through a problem, not bail us out. Is there something you want to say to me? Are you back to that feeling of being le~ out? Toujours--well, just more often than I wish, and B was the perfect catalyst for it. Ab, B, the lady you love to bate. She is so perfect, so superior, and so sure of how to do things better. She really tapped into a lot of your stuff I know. Help me sort through my stuff. Help you through? I will, but not by taking it away. This will keep you bumble-that quality you admire in otber people. This will always be your Achilles' bed. Will you love me just the same if1 help you through it rather than remove it? What a silly question. Will I still love you? Is there any other way to life? 3. God promises to help us forgive. God, I need your help to forgive her again. I hope I can last through this year. I will be with you. Remember my love, shown through the surprise ice cream and your notes from C. I appreciate any kindness you send my way because I'm feeling pretty crummy. Much is going well for you. I know. Thanks. But every day I have to forgive her. You are growing. And I am suffering. I know. I am with you. Remember that I'm not just remote, way out there, but very close in the workings of every day. I'm not sure. I'll try to cooperate with you. For now, help me forgive her once more. You are all I have. 7- 63.3 2004 Nienaber ¯ Not for the Faint of Heart That's not such a bad place to be. 4. God wants to calm our anger. #olo\&~÷~÷. I don~t want to find another note from D. Help me to look at this objectively and not come down too hard on her. But I am angry at having to deal with this again. Enough is enough. O.K. Your turn to speak. I'm calling you, my dear, to ever greater depths of love. I'm asking you to have your heart stretched to embrace the weak and vulnerable. I'm inviting you to have my heart towards her. Will you accept? ~Vill you be the bigger person? Will you keep the lines of communication open? Will you be a channel of my love towards her-please? She so needs human love. Will you please help me? How can I tell you no? Yet my anger is so close to the surface with her. I will belpyou. I will be withyou. Unlessyou meet her at her stage of growth, however stunted, you'll never be my pres-ence to her. You'll be the foe, and shb will regress again. This is PROGRESS??? God, save me! I will, I am, I have been. Think of her as a work in progress. You can help or hinder that progress. 5. God wants to answer our questions. Why won't the song "Carry Your Candle" leave my mind even though it's the middle of the night? You're feeling overwhelmed after your meeting with E. You realize once more that you're not part of the "in group." YOu know~that you've bitten off more than you can chew. That's all true, but what about the song? You might be wishing that you could hide some of your light under a bushel basket. You want me to bring my light not just to E but also to F? You never let up, do you? Sometimes. But you know about the hothouse effect, right? I'm trying to get a beautiful, well-formed, and well-pruned plant. Are you up .to the challenge? Only with your grace, my dear, only with your grace. Review for Religious 6. God calls us to the truth about ourselves. You're letting me see my sinfulness. A lot of anger arises in me, now more quickly and verbally. Maybe it has always been there and is just now getting a chance to be seen because of my buttons being pushed. It's not pretty, and I repent. Partly I'm sorry because my mask of niceness is coming off. Partly I'm sorry because I'm going to have to go and talk with G. The fact is, my dear, that the fault is not all in her. She's pressing your buttons. This is not all black and white. Thank you for letting me see my own sinfulness and for letting me see my need for a Savior. I too have a somewhat hardened and peevish heart. Thank you for this important lesson. Doing so many holy things, I think my nose is pretty clean. Lord, I need your amazing grace. 7. God always gives the ultimate promise. I'll put it bluntly: I'm worried about my meeting with H. We know how strong-headed she can be. You saw how she treated me in our last encounter. I don't want to be gobbled up. It's not Thanksgiving; it's Christmas. I'm surprised at how weak-kneed I still can get just think-ing about it. I don't want to challenge anyone too seri-ously. HELP! I'll never get stronger unless I face this kind of thing. May I talk now? I will give you the words you need and the courage you desire. You don't need to or want to come off like J with no feeling. If you appear weak, that's O.K. You're doing what I call you to. You need only to be faithful. Don't forget the insight and power you've recqived from me in prayer, especially in this written form. I am your God, beside you and within you. As you know well, 1 WILL BE WITH YOU ALWAYS.t 8. God sends us the light we need. I am getting sick from the black hole that is sucking out my life. So much negativity! It's beginning to affect my stomach. I didn't know if the time was ripe to say 63.3 2004 Nienaber ¯ Not for the Faint of Heart anything or not. So, once again, I swallowed my words. Dear God, speak to me. I will if you'll give me a chance and listen. Be still and know that I am God. Your God and her God. You're not going to change bet much. Maybe you can think of bet as a sick person who needs compassion. Maybe she is the lost lamb that needs to be picked up in your embrace. Maybe even she is the prodigal who needs to be welcomed with open arms. She is your responsibility to pray for. What are you doing about it? You're right. I do pray that she might find a few ounces of happiness. Help her to see your goodness in herself. And help me to treat her with a little more of the Spirit of Jesus - not just write about it. Help me to find any rays of light in the darkness. Let me .look more with your compassionate eyes, not my increasingly hard-ened eyes and face and mouth. The light is coming into the darkness. VVatcb for tbe first streaks! 9. God helps us to see more reality.than we're aware of. Why am I still so upset that it shows in my eyes? It reminds you of Mother's Day fifty years ago and the arguing, never reconciled, just stuffed. No one should ruin an important day like this for others. I hate that stupid trick called "I was only kid-ding." Doesn't she know that's a lie? She wasn't really lying. She was kidding herself, not quite aware of her motivation. I have really internalized this. Is it also about me? Yes, you hate not being the good guy. You dislike being one of the sources of controversy. You hate having "lost it" in a way you would never have done had you been fully in control. You dislike that you have to go and apologize again. You're right, as Usual. 10. God comforts.us in our disappointments. Dear God, you seem to be the only constant in my life. My family, friends, and fellow parishioners disap- Review for Religious point me. I don't want to get too Jesus-and-me-ish, but you're the only one I can really rely on. This is a self-pitying but true statement: I give out so much and receive propor-tionately so little in return. My dear child, lay your bead against me, and let go of another birthday that could never reach your expectations. I am not just bigb in the heavens but very real and very near. I am inside you, guiding you, encouraging you, shoring you up, opening new paths, loving you unconditionally, giving you loyal friends, reminding you of your v~ortb, sending people to delight you. I will always be faithful My family, friends, and fellow parishioners disappoint me. Observations, Benefits, and Suggestions One common thread throughout the above ten exam-ples is God's promise "I will be with you always"-even (or especially) in difficult situations. Jesus Christ is our Savior not just through his death and resurrection, but also in everyday situations where we need healing and hope. As with our forebears in ancient and modem times, God chooses to be present with saving grace through a whole spectrum of love: from comfort to confrontation. Some people wonder if this kind of dialogue with God comes just from an overactive imagination. If we are truly open to God, the answers we get are Truth try-ing to intersect with our confusion or our suffering. We have a God of communication. How else would the patri-archs and prophets have heard God's voice? How else would apostles and martyrs, foundresses and laypersons, have known God's will? Of course, we can be mistaken in our listening. Discernment is always needed. Many of us were trained to start the day with the Morning Offering. In it we offer to God not only our 63.3 2004 Nienaber ¯ Not for the Faint of Heart prayers, works, and joys, but also our sufferings. Do we offer them to God? Life sometimes deals us a bad hand of cards, and some people easily say that God does it for a reason. If this is true, maybe the reason is so that we will not live on the surface, but take the risk of going deeply into prayer and into the mind of God. Only the truth sets us free. Thus, praying through our sufferings can give more peace, insight, and freedom than we have ever known. Honest prayer can lead us more deeply into the paschal mystery. Once we face and embrace our dark-ness, we can be more open to the light, the resurrections within us. St. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 6:4-10 that he does not regret his struggles. He embraces both sides of the mystery of Jesus in his own body: "punished, but not put to death; sorrowful, though we are always rejoic-ing; poor, yet we enrich many." Praying honestly can help us, like Paul, to hold in reverence both the light and darkness of our life. Once people have had a few experiences of getting insight from God in difficult situations, they are encour-aged to continue as the need arises. In case pray-ers would like to journal in this way but do not know how to get started, the following suggestions are offered: God, what can I learn from this anger? What can this loneliness teach me? What do you want to say to me in my insomnia? How might I have handled my frustration differ-ently? How can I deal with this feeling of jealousy? Why do I have to put up with all of this #o~o&-'.':~÷? Why am I so afraid? I really resent J because. I am sensing a deep loneliness because. I am feeling out of relationship with. I am in touch with one of my deepest wounds. Review for Religious Liturgical-minded people often use the readings of the day for their inspiration in prayer. Sometimes, how-ever, the events of our lives need to supersede those read-ings. In such cases, the text of our lives becomes the stuff of our prayer. It is unfair not to deal with our anger and frustration. The ten examples given above involve real issues which, if not dealt with in a healthy way, will spurt outwards or inwards in unhealthy ways. Our caring God wants to help us with such issues as our frustration, for-giveness, anger, disappointments, loneliness. God wants to give light, truth, and insights that are both consoling and challenging, if only we accede. With Peter we can ask, "Lord, to whom shall we go?" (Jn 6:68). In the Monastery Gardens Like the order, they have shrunk From golden reaches of summer sweetcorn Swelling the ear for hungering novices, Have shrunk from pumpkin-puddled swatches Of green and gold serpentining to half An acre of tomatoes all to be stored Against monastic winters. Borders of pines And windbreaks now do not enclose a pleasant Land of hefty cabbages and prickled okra; What is left is gardened for subsistence By stooping backs, gnarled hands, a cane Or two supporting a search for what then Had been Father Leo's prized asparagus. A fox Like Satan circumambulates the margins Where once the chickens found their forage. Not an Eden, never an Eden, but at evening Still walks a Presence serenely pleased to be At home in limitless gardens of the stars, Or gardens shrunken to an order's humbled knees. Nancy G. Westerfield 63.3 2004 J. THOMAS HAMEL A Hidden Treasure of the Ignatian Exercises p~ayer is about getting involved with God by hook by crook and is well worth the effort. Whether by rolling up their sleeves or getting on their knees, by waiting quietly or singing loudly, people manage to find a way of getting involved with God. But what if prayer is not primarily any of these activities? What if prayer is primarily a matter of looking? St. Bernard has a striking response to this question. In his sixty-ninth sermon on the Song of Songs he says: I must bring this sermon to an end, but I will say one thing to the spiritual among you, a strange thing, but true. The soul that looks on God sees him as though she alone were lboked on by him. It is in this confi-dence that she says he is concerned for her, and she for him, and she sees noflaing but herself and him. How good you are, Lord, to the soul who seeks you. You come to meet her, you embrace her, you acknowledge yourself to be her bridegroom, you who are the Lord, God blessed forever above all things.1 ~ J. Thomas Hamel SJ continues to reside at College of the Holy Cross; ¯ , ~ , 1 College Street; Worcester. Massachusetts 01610. Review for Religio~ts Echoes of this passage from St. Bernard are found in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, devoted as he is to the activity of seeing2 For Ignatius the actual begin-ning of prayer has everything to do with looking rather than listening. Along with his own "modesty" or "cus-tody" of the eyes in dealing with others, he seems to exult unrestrainedly in being looked at by God. In his Exercises Ignatius says, "For the space of an Our Father, with mind and heart raised up, consider how God ourLord looks at me" (§75).2 The "vulgate" Latin text adds a nuance: "Picture my Lord Jesus as present and looking at what I am on the point of doing."3 Getting involved with God turns around to mean God getting involved with the one who comes to pray. Ignatian spirituality has much to do with seeking and finding, with looking and listening, with self-offering and receiving. But the precise first step is not so much looking as being looked at, not so much seeing as being seen, being locked in the gaze of God, For Ignatius, prayer begins with the gift of God's attentiveness to me, keeping me in sight, and so a kind of hidden dynamic is at work in the rest of my prayer, including the colloquy: "Imagining Christ our Lord before me on the cross, make a colloquy" (§53). Seeing our Lord on the cross gradually becomes a larger picture. Under Christ's gaze one's whole past comes into focus, and so does what one is doing for Christ here and now, and also his awareness of what one will do. The Redeemer and Savior can con-template one's past, present, and future. In the following Weeks of the Spiritual Exercises, one is invited to be contemplative of the present and future of our eternal Lord's earthly journey. Does contemplation begin in the eyes? During his recuperation in the Loyola family castle after the battle of Pamplona, Ignatius would spend hours imagining what he would do in the service of a certain lady. Had she 63.3 2004 Hamel * A Hidden Treasure of the Ignatian F_.vercises one day looked at him--whoever she was? On another occasion Ignatius "saw clearly a likeness of our Lady with the Holy Child Jesus, at the sight of which he received a very extraordinary consolation."4 Did this extraordinary consolation include the gaze of Mother and Child on him? In Manresa he was mesmerized by the dazzling sight of a serpent: "Somehow it seemed to him that it had the shape of a serpent, and it had many things which shone like eyes, though they weren't eyes. He used to take much delight and be consoled by seeing this thing."s In addition Ignatius would speak of his "interior eyes." He saw with his interior eyes "some things like white:rays which were coming from above. ¯ . He saw clearly with his understanding how Jesus Christ our Lord was present in that most holy sacra-ment. Often, and for a long time, as he was in prayer, he used to see with his interior eyes the humanity of Christ. ¯. Were he to say twenty or forty times, he wouldn't be so bold as to judge that this was a lie . Our Lady too he has seen in a similar form, without distinguishing the parts."6 From such sublime visions, it is typical of Ignatius to bring himself back to earth. "At this time God was dealing with him in the same way as a schoolteacher deals with a child, teaching him . His clear judgment [is] that God was dealing with him in this way.''7 What kind of teachei- other than God allows one to see with one's interior eyes? From schoolboy to errant knight "full of shame and confusion" was not a giant step for Ignatius. In the First Week of the Exercises, Ignatius can readily suppose a person of his culture would feel the disgrace of "being looked upon by his king and all in the court" with disdain, if not repugnance (§74). An even, deeper experience of the hatefulness of sin comes about as a gift of the Father and Son and of our Lady (§~63-64). To receive this gift Review for Religious is to be looked upon by each of them, one after the other. The cosmic gaze of the risen Jesus introduces the Second Week. Everyone and everything is present to the eternal Lord of all. "From the place where he dwells, he gazes on all the inhabitants of the world" (Ps 33:13-14). Before each disciple the eternal Lord pauses, looks, then calls. Whoever responds will be seated at his table, be dressed in clothes similar to his, and be seen with him in the night watches. Such imagery of being a knight beloved of his king personalizes the dream of serving an ideal leader and kingmto be fulfilled only in the company of the shepherd king, the risen Lord of all. Those who respond with full-hearted affection see themselves belong-ing to the world in altogether new ways: interreligious dia-logues, speaking new languages, adapting to new cul-tures, discovering sisters and brothers worldwide. They may also translate Iguatius's much-loved-knight imagery into their own experience, like sharing the food of their Lord--which is doing the will of the Father who sent him, being clothed with his virtues (§93). Prayer from then on occurs in one's own journey and in Christ's. A friendship grows, reverence deepens. Service no longer knows of "shoulds," but is the deed of love welling up from silence and verbal exchange, from spiritual insight, and from special moments of feeling that one is under God's loving gaze. To visit Nazareth, find one's way to Bethlehem, come to the River Jordan, ascend Mount Tabor, enter Jerusalem--wherever, with all that looking in wonder and being looked at, who is to find words or have need of words? Does one need words when con- Service no longer knows of "shoulds," but is the deed of love welling up from silence and verbal exchange. 63.3 2004 Hamel ¯ A Hidden Treasure of the Ignatian F~cercise$ templating the Infant lying in the manger and looking back at you? It would not be difficult to imagine that, when Jesus is leaving Nazareth and you with him, our Lady would be looking at you as well. When present with Jesus in the waters of the Jordan, would not you too be looked at by the Father? (§273). When speaking to his beloved dis-ciples about the beatitudes, how striking that Jesus exhorts them to use their talents, letting their "light shine before people so that they may see your good deeds and gl6rify your Father" (§278). Would you too be caught in that smile of his? On Mount Tabor Christ our Lord became transfigured, and his face shone like the sun and his clothing like snow (§284). Did Peter, James, and John know who was looking at them? When the woman who showed "great love" heard Jesus saying "Your faith has saved you, go in peace," was she not being looked at with love? (§282). St. Peter denied him, but later, after Jesus looked at him, went outside and wept bitterly (§292). Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged; they struck him blows in the face (§295). Were his eyes closed against the blows? And when on the cross he commended St. John to his mother and his mother to St. John, what kind of look was he giving them at that moment? (§297). In his first appearance on the day of the resurrection, the very silence of the .Gospels already suggests that Jesus' and Mary's wordless looking at each other was enough. "The way friends are accustomed to console one another" is often a matter of exchanging heartfelt looks (§224). Ignatius stresses that the risen Jesus appeared many times to the disciples and spoke with them (§311). How often were those "words" simply looks? Even at table eating, Ignatius contemplates. "While eating one should imagine that one is seeing Christ our Lord eating with his apostles, considering the way he Review for Religious drinks, the way he looks around, and the way he talks" (§214). Is there any end to the breadth and lerigth and height of when Christ our Lord looks at you contem-plating all his mysteries? All the seeking and finding, the asking and receiving, all the knowing and loving blend into being looked upon, gazed upon, endlessly, so it seems, in a d!scipleship of friend to friend. Is it merely a coincidence that in Igna~ius's Exercises the final mystery to be contemplated presents Jesus' dis-ciples still looking? "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus who has been taken from you will come in the same way as you saw him go to heaven" (§312, Acts 1:11). Were the angels subtly inviting the disciples to find their risen Lord look-ing at them in and through his sisters and brothers? Ignatius's long-standing desire to be placed with the Son surely reflects repeated visions of being looked at by the Lord. To be placed with the Son is to be under his gaze forever. This school of contemplation, if it may be so called, takes place on the run. One is being taught while on a journey. In the full thirty-day Exercises, the introduc-tory exercise of prayer is repeated four or five times daily. Before a word is exchanged, the Teacher is simply look-ing, and thereby teaching contemplation, teaching peo-ple to see what the Lord sees, to see ourselves as the Lord sees us, to see others as the Lord sees them. Then, when somewhere along the journey our Lord looks upon us, that look is a reflection of ourselves, like an imitation in reverse. What we see is Christ our Lord being where we find ourselves, aware of what is going on in us and making it known to us. The journey is not quite the same any more; we are in new territory with the Lord. Ignatius alludes to this kind of experience when he recalls the surreptitious visit he made to the Mount of Olives: 63.3 2004 Hamel ¯ A Hidden Treasure of the Igr~ti~ Exercises When they found out in the monastery that he had gone off like this without a guide, the friars took vig-orous s~teps to look for him. So, as he was coming down from the Mount of Olives, he came upon a Christian of the cincture, who was a servant in the monastery. He had a big staff, and with a show of great anger was gesturing as if really to give it to him, and coming up to him he grabbed him roughly by the arm. He let himself be taken readily, but the good man never let him go. And, as he went along this path in this fashion, grabbed by the Christian of the cincture, he had great consolation from our Lord, in that it seemed to him he was seeing Christ always over him. And, until he arrived at the monastery, this lasted all the time in great abundance,s Although this was not by any means the first time Ignatius saw Christ our Lord, it is worth noting how his language catches a different, if not new, experience. Ignatius does not say Christ appeared to him, but he sees Christ "always over him," as if hovering over him, as though walking with him down the path from Bethphage into Jerusalem. It is also worth noting how Ignatius names the consolation. His consolation occurs in what he sees: "seeing Christ always over him." Was Ignatius see-ing Christ in his passion along the Via Dolorosa, but reflecting his own experience of being bound and led into Jerusalem? This had been the city of his dreams, but, after the Franciscan superior told him he had to leave it, it became the place of his own passion. In Ignatius's Spiritual Diary we are let in on similar experiences. As if a new mutuality is being revealed, Jesus accompanies Ignatius before the Father. On Monday, 2 5 February, the feast of St. Matthias, Ignatius is celebrat-ing Mass alone: I entered into the Mass with great devotion, warmth, and tears, at times losing the power of speech. During the prayers to the Father, it seemed that Jesus was presenting them, or accompanied those that I was say- Review for Religious ing, before the Father; and I felt or saw in a way that cannot be explained in those terms? Two days later, on the first day of Lent, Ignatius was in the chapel praying. He writes: I entered the chapel and while praying felt, or to put it more exactly, I saw, not by natural power, the Blessed Trinity and also Jesus who was representing me, or placing me before the Trinity or acting as medi-ator close to the Blessed Trinity, that I might com-municate in that intellectual vision. On feeling and seeing in this way I was covered in tears and love but with Jesus as the object; and toward the Blessed Trinity, a respect of submission more like a reverential love than anything else. Later I felt in a similar way that Jesus was performing the same task when I thought of praying to the Father, for it seemed and I could feel within me that he was doing everything before the Father and the Blessed Trinity.1° Jesus, the Mediator par excellence, so identifies with Ignatius that, in presenting Ignatius to the Father, it seems that Jesus is presenting himself to the Father. On the other hand, when Ignatius humbles himself before the Blessed Trinity, not out of fear but with a reverential love, it seems that he has entered into the very senti-ments of Jesus himself. What happened to Moses springs to mind: he talked to God face to face (Ex 33:11). In the beginning, however, "Moses hid his face from God, for he was afraid to look at God" (Ex 3:6). The sight of the burning bush was only a beginning, but a journey begun leads to other beginnings. Seeing and being seen are wondrous beginnings in themselves, but others follow: not only sight but also sound, not only sound but also silence. Memories long buried may come into view; new and hardly namable feelings may arise. Contemplation is a new and mostly unspoken language that may come more and more into play on the journey. To see in this way the language spoken by our Savior's eyes--to learn 63.3 2004 Hamel * A Hidden Treasure of the lgnatian Exercises it and respond in it--is to be seen by the Father, to see him as he is, and to become like him. Perhaps this would be the ultimate grace, the hidden treasure, of the Spiritual Exercises. Notes i Bernard of Clairvaux, "On the Song of Songs," Vol. 4, trans. Irene Edmonds (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1980), p. 35. 2 St. Ignatius of Loyola: Personal Writings, trans. Joseph A. Munitiz and Philip Endean (London: Penguin Books, 1996), p. 300. 3 A new translation from the "vulgate" Latin text, The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, trans. Pierre Wolff (Liguori, Missouri: Triumph, 1997), p. 25, §75. 4 Personal Writings, Reminiscences, p. 16 (=Autobiography, § 10). s Reminiscences, p. 21 (=Autobiography, §19). 6 Reminiscences, p. 26 (=Autobiography, §29). 7 Reminiscences, p. 25 (=Autobiography, §27). s Reminiscences, p. 35 (=Autobiography, §48). 9 Personal Writings, p. 86 (=Spiritual Diary, §24). 1o Personal Writings, p. 87 (=Spiritual Diary, §26). Review for Religious SEAN SAMMON Fidelity and Commitment: Letter to a Young Marist Brother Dear Zebulun, After our general chapter I decided to write to our young brothers. You number more than eight hundred, and I was eager to get in touch with you to offer a word of encouragement. Zebulun, you and our other young brothers give me and many more older brothers great hope that a new day is dawning for our Marist life and mission throughout the world. So many of you tell me how eager you are to embrace and live fully the five calls found in our general chapter message. "Center your lives in Jesus," the delegates wrote, "for upon this foundation our life is built. Be sowers of hope: by means of new and renewed initiatives in evangelization, education, and solidarity, draw closer to the poorest and most marginalized of young people. Join efforts Se~in Sammon FMS, now superior general of the Marist Brothers, wrote for us in 1992 and 1993. His address is Fratelli Maristi delle Scuole; C.P. 10250; 00144 Roma, Italy. 63.3 2004 Sammon ¯ Fidelity and Commitment with our lay parmers to clarify more fully their identity and ours and to collaborate more closely in mission, spirituality, formation. Build communities where forgiveness is a habit and reconciliation no stranger. Do all things in Mary's way." A challenging agenda, but one that many of you appear eager to implement! You have come to religious life during a turbulent period in its history. The world in which you grew up is also very different from the one in which many of us began our Marist life. We look to benefit from your experience with young people and your understanding of their joys and preoccupations. We are eager to hear from you what young people need from us who are cormnitted to sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with them. Never cease to challenge us with your hopes and dreams, and do not hesitate to share with us your fears and concerns as well. I write as your brother, recalling my own years as a young brother and remembering the energy and the distracting preoccupations that often marked those years~ I remember a sense of adventure, but also sometimes feeling that a word of encouragement or some clarifying light would have been very welcome indeed. Today I seek to cast some light on fidelity and commitment. If this seems an unusual topic with which to begin, it is nevertheless one that has come from conversations with young brothers. It is a topic on the minds of a good many of them. With this letter I attempt to respond to their questions and concerns--but without forgetting my chief purpose: getting in contact with you and bringing some encouragement. Why This Concern with Fidelity. and Commitment? During my visit with a group of young brothers in Bolivia, I was asked: "Why do you think so many young Review for Religious brothers are leaving our congregation?" The question was direct and needed an answer, for it represented the mind of many in the room. I offered a few words in response, but I knew my reply was not adequate. So the question stayed with me. It remains with me still. Some may insist that responsibility for leaving the institute lies with the various individuals, but that explanation is too facile for me. Over the years some dear friends of mine have left. Good and honest men, on fire with a love of Jesus Christ and a desire to make a difference in the lives of poor kids, they have decided to steer their life in a different direction from our Marist brotherhood. Each time I found myself asking: "For what reasons is he leaving?" and "What makes me stay?" Others may think and say that those who request dispensation from their vows do so because they have grown lukewarm and found themselves unable to cope with the disappointments that are the part of any life commitment lived well. Here again the explanation seems too facile. After all, haven't most of us from time to time thought about leaving? Aren't we all sometimes lukewarm? If we are human, we all experience occasional problems with one or several of these important dimensions of our lives: relationships, sexuality, faith, cormnunity life, our ministry, and even the priorities that the members of our province may establish. Zebulun, I believe that you and I will find an answer to the question put to me in Bolivia if we can deepen our Fidelity helps us remain true to what we have pledged despite the contradictory values that we might encounter on life's journey. -2-85- 63.3 2004 Sammon ¯ Fidelity and Commitment understanding of the nature of fidelity. After all, isn't it the virtue that helps people like us overcome feelings of staleness that sometimes threaten our life commitments? Fidelity helps us remain true to what we have pledged despite the contradictory values that we might encounter on life's journey. God is faithful to us. Keeping that fact in mind, let us take a look at that time in life when the dream that God has in mind for each of us began to take shape. Can you remember the earliest time when people asked you what you were going to do with your life? Whatever our responses were, they were influenced by our experiences, our culture, our personality and natural gifts, the expectations that others had for us, and of course God. The word vocation sometimes describes our response to this very same question: we feel called. Before Vatican Council 17, however, vocation was commonly used only for people who entered a seminary or a religious congregation. Thankfully, the present-day understanding of vocation is much broader. Everyone is called by God to something and therefore has a vocation. A religious vocation is one type Of vocation, but all who respond to God,s dream for them are living out a vocation. God's Dream for Me and the Mystery of Election At the center of your vocation and mine lies the mystery of "election." The second chapter of our Marist Constitutions and Statutes says it well: God called you and me by name. God led us into the desert and spoke to our hearts. God sent us out on mission. Simply put, God has a dream for each of us and is eager to share it and lead us into it. But he uses very human means to get the message across. Our awareness of God's dream for ourselves can often be traced back to our answer to the question with which we began this section: What am I going to do with my life? Review for Religious Our answer usually began as a fluid vision of the kind of person I am, of who I was becoming in the world. Often enough I modeled myself after adults I admired. When I think back to my own teenage years, I remember that the brothers who taught me in secondary school made quite an impression on me. I wanted to be like them. They were effective in their ministry and obviously enjoyed working with young people. Most of all, they were happy--happy, not in the sense of hilarity, but happy because of their deep sense of purpose, their dedication. So strong was the impression that these brothers made on me that I went to the juniorate at age fifteen. God got his message across to me through a group of---as I later realized---all-too-human men nevertheless doing something that would be worth the gift of my life. Over timeI learned that my early-adolescent dream, too, contained illusions of its own. Maybe you had the same experience. Sometimes I thought of myself as larger than life. During the years since, I have often wondered whether-I considered this inflated view of myself necessary for doing all the things I believed others expected me to do. Eventually I learned another important lesson: The reasons that brought me to religious life are not the reasons that kept me from leaving. That's right. As your vocation or mine matures, we understand the deeper reasons behind our choice to be a brother. We understand ourselves and our way of life as Marist brothers better than when we were first attracted to it. God leads us to a deeper experience of his love for each of us. A vocation, consequently, is not a once-and-for-all call that comes sometime during adolescence. Rather, it is a daily and lifelong conversation with God. For you and me to be faithful to our vocation as Marist brothers, then, we will have to do a great, deal more than refresh our 63.3 2004 Sammon * Fidelity and Commitment memories of an invitation that came early in life. Instead, we will need to practice what Marcellin Champagnat called the presence of God. God's Dream and. the Rich Young Man Before moving on, let us look at another question. What happens if I fail to follow God's dream for me? After all, this dream of God's is something freely offered; I do not have to accept it. Permit me to respond with a story. Several years ago, during the course of a workshop at the English College in Rome, I met a young man there whom I will call Stephen. This Roman seminary prepares priests for all the dioceses of Great Britain, and Stephen was a third-year student. Before entering the college and formation for priesthood, he had been a successful businessman. During breakfast one morning I asked him what had brought him to the seminary. His response was disarming: "I don't think I have a vocation to ;priesthood, but apparendy God does!" He said that with the passage of time he was just beginning to feel at home with that notion. In its early days a religious vocation is not always welcomed with joy! So God's dream for you and for me is freely offered and can be accepted or put aside. In putting it aside, however, we run a risk. Though we may live a life that is happy and fulfilling, and envied by others, at some deep level .we may sense that an important part of our life is missing. All three synoptic Gospels tell of a rich young man who came to Jesus and asked what he had to do to possess eternal life. Jesus said, "Keep the commandments." The man said he had always kept them. Jesus, looking beyond this young man's lifelong conscientiousness, saw what his practice of religion could be: something much better than keeping his heart to himself and taking pride in observing the Law and avoiding mistakes. And so, looking on him with love, Review for Religious Jesus said: "There is still one thing you lack. Sell everything that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." The rich young man was faced now with having to choose one of two life directions. One would include God's dream for him, and the other would not. We know the end of the story well. This rich young man failed to accept the Lord's invitation, and he went away sad. Zebulun, I wonder if you sometimes feel like this rich young man, as I do. As life unfolds, we discover that every commitment lived well demands sacrifice, allowing others to have a claim over our time, talents, and energies. The Lord invites us to take up certain tasks, not because we want to, but because our presence and efforts are necessary. Some of us are perennially slow learners, and so it is only on arriving at the end of our thirties that we discover and admit that we have long been straying from what God has had in mind for us. At that point we face a choice much like the rich young man's. Midlife provides the opportunity, once again, to move our life more in the direction of God's dream for us. Our twentieth general chapter, with its theme of vitality, offered us a similar opportunity. Those who participated in that gathering and our lay consultants did not produce an elaborate pastoral plan, nor send us a message that included many details. No, their final communiqu6 was very simple. What it asked of us today as.Marist brothers is a revolution of the heart. Simply put, we must fall in love with God, once again. Vocations and Risk and Times of Change In making any permanent commitment, you and I must surrender ourselves to someone who is beyond our control. Every vocation, therefore, has an element of risk; 63.3 2004 Sammon ¯ Fidelity and Commitment it is a leap into the unknown. We are called upon to take a chance with our lives, to take a risk, to go beyond the information we have on hand. Some people prefer to wait until they have all the information necessary to make the best possible decision, but this course of action has its own danger. If you or I wait to be absolutely sure of ourselves before taking action, then we will be dead before we do anything meaningful. So let us keep our vocations alive and lively by taking risks again, and again, and again. Most of us admit to having "second thoughts" from time to time about the important commitments we have made in life. My own questions and doubts occurred during my late twenties and then again in my early forties. I mentioned earlier that I went to the juniorate at age fifteen. Ten to fifteen years later I was asking myself whether I chose too soon. I had the notion that waiting several more years before making a definitive choice about my life would have spared me the burden I felt at age twenty-eight. The truth of the matter, however, is that none of us escapes consequences. Had I delayed making a life commitment, I would have suffered a different set of consequences. God saw fit to invite me to make a move at fifteen; he invites others at eighteen, or twenty-two, or thirty. Some people point out that the doubts we all experience about our vocation often occur during times of transition. In people's lives, periods of change and turmoil alternate with stable periods. The latter run about six or seven years and are often marked by productivity and a sense of well-being. People have their sights set on the future, on building a life for themselves. In contrast, transitions are times when people look back and have second thoughts. These periods may last four or five years and may begin with an ending. Many brothers feel it deeply and at length when a parent dies, Review for Religious or when they leave one ministry for another, or move from one community to another. Or they may fall in love, fail at a task, have a spiritual awakening, become involved in a renewal program or advanced study, or turn a certain age. No matter what precipitates them, changes do occur and bring some kind of ending to what has gone before. Most of us believe that new beginnings take place quickly. Life's transitions, however, manage to surprise us by bringing an extended period of uncertainty during which we feel "up in the air" or "lost at sea." About all we are sure of is that we cannot go back to the world we once knew. Eventually transitions comes to a close when new beginnings get well underway. We cannot, however, speed them up. They happen in their own good time. Renewal programs, counseling and spiritual direction, and talking with community members, friends, and confidants can help us reap greater benefit from any time of transition. Frank discussion about our situa-tlon with a person or persons whom we trust is one of the best ways to profit from a period of transition, but these conversations will not make the transition happen faster. Well used, though, periods of transition will reward us. Times of transition are times of grace. These are the desert experiences during which God speaks to our hearts. They are marked by some common feelings. We find ourselves disillusioned, or disengaged from our community or other people. The roles that we fill in life often do not make much sense anymore. Though these periods may frighten and disturb us, leave us resdess and uncertain, they are times of purification, of deepening our understanding, of opportunity to rework our life Times of transition are times of grace. 63.3 2004 Sammon ¯ Fidelity and Commitment commitments and come to love them more deeply. Single people, married people, priests, and men and women religious all go through times of transition. We need not be alarmed when they come, but we should handle them intelligently, and seek advice in doing so. One Person's Story Here is an example of one person's life transition. Several years ago, while I was visiting a province, a young brother whom I will call Michael came to speak with me. He was heavy of heart and told of being in love with a young woman, a religious sister whom he had met while taking some classes. He was heavy of heart because he felt divided between loving this young woman and having an equal love for our Marist brotherhood and mission. He asked me for my reaction to his situation. I said, "Michael, it sounds like Christmas morning!" Looking surprised, he asked what I meant. I said that the relationship he described sounded wonderful, but that, as he probably realized, he faced some difficult decisions. He could not live for any length of time divided between this new relationship and his love of Marist life and mission. Eventually he would have to answer a question that all of us face in life: On whom or what do I set my heart? This spiritual question lies within every life transition. None of us can live for long with a divided heart. Eventually we must decide where we stand in life and what we hold dear. These major life commitments, then, become over time the touchstone for many of the other important decisions we must make in life. And what about this young brother today, several years later? Michael took his life situation in hand, as did the young sister. Both began to meet with spiritual directors, and he met with a counselor as well--and he began talking more honestly with the members of his community. Eventually Michael and his friend realized Review for Religious that the relationship they shared was an important source of support to their respective vocations. Today he finds his commitment to our congregation and mission stronger and deeper than in the past, and the young sister has a similar experience. Over time both realized that their community-life commitments and the values they hold dear are a steady compass helping them make the right choices in life. This young brother showed a great deal of courage. He could have avoided discussing his relationship, or deceived himself by minimizing its importance in his life. Instead, he accepted the grace that God gave him and found himself growing more aware of God's dream for him and accepting all that that dream required of him. Commitments and Freedom What is a commitment? To begin with, every. commitment involves a call. By one means or another, Jesus Christ gets our attention and invites us into a loving relationship with him. The mystery of election obviously plays an important role in the process. The relationship that we have with Jesus is the foundation upon which our religious vocations are built. Every commitment calls for a choice. And you and I both know that the choices we make in life help to define us. If your provincial asks you to decide between preparing to be a formator or working on a master's degree in mathematics, you quickly realize that the choice you make will affect the structure of your life at least for the immediate future, and probably also during the years to come. Finally, every commitment involves a promise. A promise is a particular kind of choice because it describes something that we intend to do in the future. For example, when you and I made our commitment in our Marist brotherhood to be poor, chaste, and obedient, we 63.3 2004 Sammon ¯ Fidelity and Commitment Freedom refers to our capacity to be self-determining. were not merely making a prediction about our future or reporting on our present state of mind. We were stating a firm intention and binding ourselves to a future course of action. So what is the advantage of making any type of commitment? To make a promise is the surest way for any of us to determine the direction of our life rather than to have it set for us. At first glance, freedom and commitment appear incompatible. Many of us have been led to believe that our happiness in life is related directly to the number of options that we have available. And conventional wisdom insists that to increase our freedom we need only increase our capacity for having our own way. This line of argument is aimed at convincing us that any life commitment is best put off, because it will only limit us, rein us in, make us less free. Life experience, though, reveals the flaw in this thinking. Zebulun, I think you and I both realize that a failure to commit ourselves does not ensure greater freedom. Freedom, after all, refers to our capacity to be self-determining. In promising to live out a particular way of life or to be a partner in a lifelong relationship, people choose freely to grow in one direction and not in another. Yes, it is important to be an adolescent for a while, to explore and experience different options for living, but it is equally important not to be an adolescent for a lifetime. All of us continue to explore throughout the course of life, but those among us who are perpetually adolescent use exploration to avoid ever making a gift of our lives, In the end we do not live life, we dabble in it. In making a commitment, then, we do not surrender freedom--most often we enhance it. Any of us, in Review for Religious committing ourselves fully to our life as brothers, will likely find that our potential for spiritual, apostolic, and emotional growth is enhanced. We become more focused and have greater intimacy with God and with others. By trying to keep all our options open, by refusing to make choices and commitments, we would eventually lose our freedom. Over time our life would be determined by forces beyond our control. What about Permanent Commitments? Most of us do not have much of a problem with the idea of commitments. Some of us, however, have a problem with the notion of permanence. I would suggest, though, that there is an intrinsic connection between "forever" and some life commitments. Every day all over the world people express their love for each other through marriage vows, saying "until death do us part." They do not just pledge themselves to persevere as long as all goes well, but rather they aspire to remain together no matter what obstacles stand in their way. Never mistake "forever" with stagnation or a lack of growth. The notion of "temporary commitment" makes me uncomfortable. It apparently comes from the tawdry "everything is disposable" attitude in contemporary culture, and, besides, the words temporary and commitment somehow do not seem to go together. If you or I want to give five years of our lives to a project, why call that gift of rime and talent a commitment. Wouldn't some word like agreement or arrangement better convey what we mean? What justifies a permanent commitment? Something quite simple: no better soil for human gro~vtb has yet been found. A permanent commitment, though, must always be judged by the fruit it bears. If any of us becomes bored, indifferent, and resentful in his permanent commitment, people wonder what it contributes to the 63.3 2004 Sammon * Fidelity and Commitment vitality of the group. They know that making our vows does not signal the journey's end. Rather it heralds a journey well begun. Perseverance is not necessarily a good measure of fidelity. Haven't some of us lived and worked with brothers who appeared so unhappy in our way of life and ministry that we had to ask 6urselves why he stays. Surely God did not plan for him to be so miserable in our way of life and our ministry to poor children and young people! Today, however, we face a phenomenon more visible than in the past and best described as the "breaking of commitments." You and I have known brothers, good men, who early in the course of their lives committed themselves generously to God and to others and who, over time, strove to live out faithfully the commitment they made. Then, as the years passed and their relationships with God, themselves, and others unfolded, these very same men came. to question the promises they had made in good faith so many years ago. Is Perseverance Always a Sign of Fidelity? In the enthusiasm that marked their early years of Marist life, they had made vows intending them to be permanent. With the passage of time, however, they found that, no matter how hard they tried, they could not live them out fully. During times of life transition--and for a number of us these changes occur when we are about thirty years old and then again during our early forties--many seek an answer to this question: Is it fidelity when someone clings to a vowed commitment and rigidly perseveres without facing honestly the .dull performance and lack of life that appear to be its fruit? ¯ Fidelity is at times exercised in change as well as in stability. For most of us~ our commitment to Jesus as Marist brothers reflects~ the deepest currents in our lives and significant aspects of our.personality. To some of our Review for Religious brothers, however, time reveals that more than anything else their commitment merely serves their need for security or provides a place to be of service to people. For a few other brothers, there is a growing realization that important elements of their commitment have died. For these last groups, the task at midlife is not simply to understand more fully the "mixed motives" that draw them to one vocation or another. Rather, it is to see that they have been living their life on a deficient grasp of some important truths or that their once cherished dream is in pieces. Moments of profound sadness, loss, and confusion accompany their growing awareness that sometimes fidelity to God, to oneself, and to others may be exercised in acknowledging that somehow a com-mitment has died or should be treated that way. We must, however, not use this line of reasoning to put aside a life commitment too easily. Whenever any of us are confronted with serious questions and doubts about our commitment as brothers, we must do no less than commit ourselves to a careful d