Not everything goes as planned...

It has been very interesting to have these few days with the Augustinian students.  They are all pre-novices which means that once they have completed their studies in the area of philosophy they will proceed to the novitiate which is a one year period of refection and discernment with a strong emphasis on prayer and community living.  This year, for the first time, the novitiate will be in Panama and there will be students from Panama itself, and from the other countries in the region that have students at this stage - this novitiate will eventually cater for students from Haita, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, and, possibly, even Mexico.  The rest of the countries in South America will have a common novitiate which will be in Peru.

After novitiate the students that I am staying with at the moment will go to Spain where they will study theology.  They could, of course, study theology perfectly well in Panama but the powers that

Escorial Monastery

be prefer that they go to Spain.  Of course, there is a certain logic to this.  These students are members of the Vicariate Panama.  A Vicariate means that it is an area that is not independent and that relies on a larger group of friars which is a Province.  The Vicariate of Panama is part of the Escorial Province (one of the four Spanish Provinces of Augustinians) and so, sending the students to the Escorial monastery (Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo del Escorial) close to Madrid means that they will at least have some awareness of the wider Province to which they also belong.

My plan for today Saturday was that I was going to be brought to see the old city of Panama.  However, not everything works out and it appears there has been a misunderstanding - apparently that will happen next week.  It's a pity because now I will head back to the Diocesan Seminary where there isn't really anything to do until Monday morning when I have class.  The other disadvantage is that the seminary is used by all sorts of groups at the weekend which means that I am largely confined to my room.  If I had realised that the tourist visit was to be next week I could have organised myself differently, but I have to return to the seminary because I have two masses in the morning in the same Barrio I was in last week - Santa Librada.

I include photos of some of the Augustinian students so that you can begin to get  look at what they people at least look like.  Obviously, these are all male - there are also women in Panama but so far I haven't got photos of them.

Olmedo