Retreat with the Augustinian Pre-Novices

There has been a lot going on over the last few days. I was asked, on Thursday, to give a retreat to the Augustinian pre-novices on Saturday and Sunday. As you can imagine, that required getting the head down to prepare something to say to them. There are 16 pre-novices here, 5 of whom have applied to go to the novitiate this year. The Augustinians are the biggest religious order here and get by far the highest number of applications to join. It is not surprising, therefore, that the bishops of the two largest dioceses in the country (Panama City and Colón) are Augustinians.

The pre-novices are a very impressive group of young men. Very articulate and seem very capable. And, which is terribly important, they seem to be happy, and to get on well with each other and with the professed communit.

The pre-novitiate is in the north  of the city and is set in what, until recently, was a rural setting. The friars still have a sizeable garden which they use to provide their own fruit and vegetables - this is not something to take lightly, in the seminary where I stay we rarely see a vegetable and, when they do appear, they are normally peppers or onions, nothing like the variety we would typically have in Ireland. Obviously, this has implications for health - like it or not, vegetables are good for you!

What is not good for you, however, are mosquitoes, and the Augustinian pre-novitiate has plenty of them! I was bitten well over 30 times. In fact, having taken too much sun (not something that is easily avoided here) and the insect bites, I wasn't feeling terribly well when I got back to the seminary I stay in. I'm hoping this will pass as there is also some sort of a virus doing the rounds in the seminary which is hitting lots of people and causing fever, diarrahoea and that sort of thing. Not what I would like to be dealing with when travelling.

On my return I found some people looking for a priest to preside at a service of  Renewal of Vows for 36 married couples. The priest that was to join them had backed out at the last minute and they were under pressure. I was able to help them out but I sort of crashed for a while when I got back.

In the evening I had to give a talk to the seminarians. Each week one of the formators (they consider me to be a formator here) gives a talk on Sunday evening which  is a reflection on the readings that will be heard at mass during the coming week. I was glad that I had gotten ready towards the end of last week as I wouldn't have had time over the weekend.

The Radio, traditional dancing, and St. Paul... and a scrape

I had a very enjoyable, and very varied weekend. On Friday night the seminarians held a night to

Seminarians

mark the month of May as the month of Mary. Each diocese put on something - some of them sang, some of them danced, and one of them in particular had a song composed that reminded me of the music of the Spanish Tunas, university groups from the middle ages that went from house to house singing to their sweethearts - it was really something.

 The Diocese of Chitre, an area known for its folk brought some traditional dancers. The men wear simple white shirts, a hat known as a pintado, and a small bag known as a chacara. This is still an outfit that is seen quite often here at formal events. The women wear long dresses known as polleras (literally chicken dresses - the long skirts would have been used long ago to shoo chickens from the house etc). They also use very elaborate head dresses which are highly symbolic. The head pieces were originally made from a combination of pearls and whitened fish bones - nowadays they are made from plastic, unless you want to spend an absolute fortune and have one made of pearls.

On Saturday I spent the day preparing for some talks I am due to give next weekend, and then, in the

evening, I went with a group of seminarians to Radio Maria, the Catholic radio station. This is part of an international organisation which operates also in Ireland. However, I don't think that in Ireland it has anything like the listenership that it has in Panama. Each week the seminarians do a one-hour slot which involves a biblical reflection (normally on the following day's gospel) and then a discussion on some topic. On Saturday we were talking about power - it actually turned in to quite an interesting conversation.

On Sunday morning I went to St. Rita's Parish to help with masses there and then, at lunch time, I was invited by a friend of mine who is Panamanian, from a Chinese background. We went to the old colonial part of the city and had a great chat and a chance to catch up on all the news, as well as sharing ideas for various activities.

When Claudina left me home I went with a group of seminarians to see the new film on the life of St. Paul. I have to say that I enjoyed it very much - I hadn't really expected to! After the film we went to get something to eat and then, after a very enjoyable evening, we managed to jam the minibus against the roof of the garage. This seems to be something that happens from time to time and they were able to free it before too much damage was done - other than to the driver's ego!

Fiesta and a History Lesson

Can't figure out how to rotate these pictures

Every parish here, and every chapel, has to have its Fiesta. This is a combination of a relgious
celebration and all sorts of other things that people can get involved in.Some of these fiestas are very eleborate affairs, and some are much simpler - that very often depends on the type of area you are in, because that can determine the amount of money available to spend on the whole operation.

Last night I was in a parish called Pueblo Nuevo to take part in their fiesta. The lead-up to the big day is marked by a novena - in this case, in honour of Our Lady Help of Christians. I was asked to say the mass last night and to preach. Pueblo Nuevo is an interesting parish here in many ways.

Firstly, it is one of the oldest churches in the diocese (despite the fact that its name means, in English, New Town). The altar piece that you can see in the photo is 101 years old and is the original one from this colonial period church. Other things that give the age of the church away are the statues that are to be found in it which are all of a very high quality and have none of the garishness that is to be found, very often, in other, more modern churches.

It is very unusual here to have such an old building that is not in the city centre. This is for two reasons. Firstly, the climate here is so severe that things don't generally last that long. In fact, if the altar piece had been made of wood it would probably have rotted by now, or been eaten by termites. The second reason that its survival is unusual is due to the phenomenon that is, unfortunately, common in many parts of the world - very often parish communities want to have more modern buildings and better facilities and, when they see other parishes building brighter, more spacious, and more striking buildings, they often want an "upgrade".

That makes it interesting to ask why the church in Pueblo Nuevo survived in its original form. My guess is that the answer to this question is actually quite easy to ascertain - poverty. Pueblo Nuevo is what is called here a "Barrio Popular". The thing about a barrio (neighbourhood) that is Popular, is that it is not popular, in the English sense of the word. Barrio Popular means a sort of local authority area which, unfortunately, tends to be almost exclusively inhabited by the poor, the unemployed, and people facing many challenges. These people, simply put, have greater needs for their scarce resources than the building of churches. And, unsurprisingly, these people have a great spirit. As seems to be reflected all over the world, people who have been through a lot and who have to cope with difficult and often precarious situations, are very often open, resourceful, and creative people - with a great sense of humour. Sometimes, in wealthier areas, people can find it hard to let their hair down or they can put themselves under pressure by having high expectations.

Presentation - Image of Mary Help of Christians with a Panamanian twist

The parish priest, Fr. Israel, invited me to join them for the evening and we had a lovely time. Some of the seminarians came and made up a choir and we had a very lively celebration. The generosity of these people is really amazing and they even gave me a presentation at the end of the mass and then, as is considered to be quite normal here, we had a meal with the organising committee.

These occasions are very important for maintaining the sense of community in an area. In fact, in poorer areas, they are probably particularly important (even though they are certainly more modest affairs than those in wealthier areas) because they encourage people to take a break from a daily grind that can be very grinding and to celebrate who they are and what they have achieved.

Permanent Deacons

One of the things that is very evident in the Panamanian church is the very active presence of a large number of permanent deacons. Archbishop McGrath - a North American bishop of Irish descent who was bishop of Panama City around the time of the Second Vatican Council returned from the council as an enthusiastic implementer of many of the decisions of the council. One of the first things he did was to establish the permanent diaconate in his diocese - what began as something small and uncertain has become a major element of the local church here.

Most parishes have a permanent deacon. These are men, normally married, who present themselves for formation and ordination to the diaconate, they are accepted into a formation programme by the diocese and proceed to be ordained as deacons to serve in the various parishes of the diocese. These are all men who already have a full-time job - their service as deacons is something extra that they take on to serve their community. Many of these are teachers or professionals, but the diaconate is by no means restricted to such people - there are also many who are mechanics, plumbers, electricians, farmers, bus drivers and, as you can gather, from all sorts of backgrounds, social groups, and educational situations.

Last Sunday I found myself in a parish for two masses. At one of the masses I had two deacons and, I have to say, it was overkill - we were falling over each other. However, in many cases the deacons are very effective and lead their communities in services such as weddings, funerals, baptisms, Sunday and weekday services, catechesis, administration, and, of course, visiting the sick and burying the dead.

I have heard some criticism from some of the priests regarding some of the deacons but, as far as I can see, there is the same variety of willingness to work and ability among the deacons as is to be found among the priests. Although one things seems certain - for the permanent diaconate to work properly, the deacons need to be given space to develop their ministry. If the deacons only work where there is already a very active priest, the deacon will have difficulty finding a space to be anything other than a helper: if the deacon finds himself in a situation where there is often no priest available, he has much better chance of developing a ministry that is more meaningful not only for himself, but also for his community.

As dioceses in Ireland are beginning to explore the permanent diaconate as one of the ways to address the fall in the number of priests available for ministry, they could do a lot worse than look at the experience of the Panamanian church. I wonder, however, if they would be willing to accept that the Panamanian church has much to teach - I am of the opinion that it has.

It ain't half hot Mum...

I haven't been keeping the blog up to date over the last few days as there was an awful lot going on. I was asked to give a retreat to the seminarians at the end of last week so, as you can imagine, that required preparation. I have been preparing for another workshop on the theme of vocation, I have also been helping a number of students with their written work and have had quite a few callers for confession - I suppose it's more appealing to go to confession to someone who is not always around the place. I was busy with masses in a parish over the weekend.

Of course, all of this was made quite a bit heavier by the fact that we had electrical problems here in the seminary. A man came in to repair something, which he did, but, after he had left we realised that quite a few of the rooms had been left without power and that the air conditioning had stopped working in many of the rooms. Unfortunately this happened at the same time as both the temperature and the humidity had risen significantly. We are just coming in to the rainy season here so high temperatures and humidity is not surprising, but it is not easy to keep going without the help of the air conditioning. It is almost 8.30am as I write this blog and already it is 32 degrees and 82% humidity. I have three hours of class later, finishing at 1.15pm - by that time I expect that both temperature and humidity will have risen as we will then be at the hottest part of the day.

It is quite extraordinary to experience the effects of the air conditioning breaking down. First of all breathing becomes a bit of a chore - it's a little bit like when you open the oven door and the heat takes your breath away. Everything begins to feel a bit sticky and, even if you have showered carefully, it is almost as if there is a film of dampness over everything - clothes in the wardrobe become damp, paper becomes damp too, making it difficult to write, and sleeping becomes very difficult. But one of the most frustrating aspects of this situation is the way in which insects of all sorts of shapes and sizes begin to infiltrate themselves in to your living space. Mosquitoes, cockroaches, flies, fruit flies, various type of ant, beetles, and spiders all appear as if out of nowhere. In fairness, all of the ones that I saw here this weekend were small, but I have seen, in the past, insects that are really quite big - sometimes as big as the tablet one would put in to the washing machine.

We are now back to normal and the air conditioning is back on - thank God!!! I do notice, however, that I now prefer to have it set at 25 degrees, rather than the 18 degrees that I favoured when I first got here. A certain amount of acclimatisation is inevitable I suppose.

Hot and heavy

As the rainy season draws in not only is there an increase in rain, there is also a significant rise in the temperature. Well, as many people helpfully point out, it is not really the that the temperature has rise hugely, it is more that the humidity is more noticeable - in fact, it feels as if it has gone through the roof.

At certain times of the day, particularly just before it rains, it almost feels like you can't breathe - it litrally takes your breath away. If it weren't for air conditioning I don't think I would sleep at all.
This isn't just something that bothers the visitor to Panama, the locals suffer from it too, although not to the same degree.

This morning we had mass in smaller groups than usual. The group that I was with had the option of a large and spacious room with air conditioning, or a small room with no air conditioning, and, you've guessed it, they went for the smaller room. I thought mass would never end and, even though it was only 6.45am, I felt like I should be heading back to bed.

The only solution is to keep hydrated, to use a body moisturiser, and to realise that nobody is really interested in your complaints.

It certainly isn''t pretty...

One very noticeable thing about modern languages is the extent to which they borrow words from other languages. Sometimes this is done because the native speakers of a language feel that they don't have a word to express something that is very useful - for example, until very recently, Spanish had no verb "to become". This obviously meant that certain things were difficult to express. They have since adopted and adapted the Italian verb "diventare", meaning, "to become".

There are some other words that would be useful in Spanish but that I have never been able to find - one example that I come across regularly is the word "compromise". In Spanish they do have a word "compromiso" but this means "commitment" - in fact, it can be amusing to hear English speakers using "compromiso" in a sentence when they just presume that it means "compromise": you hear things like, "We made a commitment about our plans" when, what they wanted to say was, "we compromised on our plan".

There are many examples of words being transferred to other languages directly. Their meaning is often changed, as, indeed, is their spelling.

One example that has become very common here in Panama is the English word "pretty". Sometimes this maintains the English spelling but, more often than not, it is spelled phonetically, according to Spanish language pronunciation and becomes "priti", "prity" or some other variation. However, and if you don't spot this, "priti" doesn't mean "pretty" in the normal English sense of the word. In fact, the English meaning of the word seems strange to the Panamanian young people and they find it hilarious that we use the word differently - many of them, in fact, seem to be convinced that we have got it wrong in English, and that we are using a Spanish word - it's curious how quickly culture develops.

Back to "priti" - here is means what the English word "cool" has come to mean; ie, something that is good, fashionable, desirable etc. Thus, it is not unusual to here the lads here speaking about a meal being pretty, even a lecture being pretty, or, to my surprise, even myself being referred to as pretty: when I heard that I realised it was time to explain what the word means here.

So, it seems, that, at least in Panama, priti ain't pretty.