Spiritual Direction and other growing things...

I didn't get the chance to post anything yesterday. I ended up with a queue of students looking for help with one thing and another. The face that I am not a normal resident of the seminary means that I am sort of neutral when it comes to things like spiritual direction and/ or counselling. The seminarians are well catered for in this regard but, like all of us, they like to talk to someone different every once in a while. It certainly opens a window into another culture when people confide in you.

This is actually something that the staff in the seminary encourage as it gives the students another perspective that they otherwise wouldn't have. It's nice to be able to be useful in this way, but the other side is that it all takes time and yesterday it took a lot - it was also a very hot day!!! I was in bed by 9pm after it all.

I know I speak a lot about the heat but it really is a constant here - it is also very humid. One advantage of this, however, is that it means that plants grow at a tremendous rate and the flowers can be beautiful. I include a few pictures of some of the flowers in the garden of the seminary - it's interesting to note that the only attention these plants need is to be cut back and tidied up every once in a while - otherwise they just grow and grow.

Food Parcels

Those of you who read the post yesterday will be aware of the damage that was done by the heavy rains here during a storm that lasted all afternoon. You will also be aware that people do not receive a lot of help to deal with these problems. It was very encouraging to see today how the seminarians organised themselves to provide meals for a large number of people - I didn't get the exact number but there were certainly over 100 meals provided. This was the same food that we got in the seminary - in fact, it was taken from the food that would have been eaten in the seminary; it was a very simple and very important example of what sharing means.
After supper they brought the food to a childrens hospital and also to the homes of people affected by the landslide.
What was also very encouraging was to see the matter of factness of the gesture - this is something that they are very used to doing, and regard as something absolutely normal. It is not common to see this type of spontaneous generosity from large institutions who always have their rules and their norms and their meetings so that everything, with its pros and cons can be discussed.
The pictures show some of the seminarians and the kitchen staff preparing the individual containers of hot food to be distributed.

A Day of Very Heavy Rain

Today was without doubt the hottest day since I got here. During the second half of the morning it

Heavy Rain

was getting more and more difficult to concentrate during lectures - and then, at lunch time, it began to rain, and rain and rain. This wasn't rain like we might get in Ireland, this was more like being under a shower. A sign of how hot it had been was that after the first shower you could see steam rising from the hot ground. Of course, the very heavy rain cooled things down significantly (to about 26 degrees) and that was very welcome.

The heavy rain has caused chaos in the city - as a matter of fact, there has been a minor landslide immediately behind the seminary and a sizeable piece of land has slid down and hit some homes - nothing has been knocked down but some houses have been surrounded by mud. These same people were hit recently by something similar - that time much more damage was done and some people lost much of their possessions.

There is no real help for these people from the government. Families do what they can; parishes try to help, but it is really quite a bleak situation. The students from the seminary help out in this area on a regular basis and will be involved in trying to help with the clean up.

Miguel Studying away

I spent the afternoon helping one of the students to prepare a presentation for another teacher. This proved to involve a bit more than I expected as he was really having difficulty getting a handle on what was expected of him. I'm not sure that he is much better off now, but at least he has something ready to present.





 Finally, I am able to include some pictures. These are just some snaps of the rain and of the chapel of the seminary together with one or two pictures of some of the seminarians, including one of the Korean students who is here - more about them in a later post.

Weekend activities

I haven't been able to post over the weekend - I was away from the seminary, staying in the Augustinian parish of Los Angeles (Our Lady of the Angels) here in Panama City. It was nice to be able to spend some time with the community who are 5 in number - two work in that parish, two work in another one (one of those also works full time for the diocese as the Episcopal Vicar for Pastoral Activities), and the fifth member is a student, studying philosophy here at the seminary.

I also have to apologise for not having any photos up on the blog this time - I left home without my charger for the camera and only this afternoon have I been able to get one out here. It's an interesting thing about Panama, that while its stores are certainly much better stocked than in other South American countries, they still, often, don't have what you are looking for (if it's something specific - like my charger). I hope to begin with photos from tomorrow - watch this space (I still don't know if the charger works!!!).

Life in the Augustinian parish was very busy over the weekend: on Friday they had two funerals. One of these was a mass with the ashes of the deceased present; the other was a mass for someone who had already been buried. Apparently, it is not unusual here to have a funeral mass without the deceased due to the fact that funerals take place very quickly after the death - due to the heat.

On Saturday they had their normal masses and also the celebration of the parish confirmations - 65 young people were confirmed by one of the Auxiliary Bishops. I was very struck to learn that each one of those 65, with their parents had been at all the meetings leading up to confirmation. This is a requirement that is strictly enforced here - it made me think of Ireland where it can be difficult to get the parents to come to even one meeting sometimes.

On Sunday morning I said the 8am mass in the parish of Santa Maria la Antigua (literally, St. Mary, the ancient - or, if you're from Dublin, I suppose it could be St. Mary the oul wan!!!). Our Lady, under this title is the patron of Panama and it is an image that is much revered by the people here. The original image, apparently, was brought by the Spaniards from Europe when Panama was still only a small settlement and has accompanied its inhabitants now for several centuries.

A large congregation (mostly women) were at mass and they were all very willing to participate - singing, dancing during the gloria, contributing during the homily - it was a celebration that uplifted me greatly.

Mass here takes at least an hour - and can take almost two. It all depends on the singing and on the homily. I have heard homilies here that have lasted more than an hour - I have to say that I consider that to be completely over the top but people here seem to be used to it. Perhaps it's a cultural thing.

Anyway, after a very hot and humid day I am off to bed - I have class again tomorrow and also, this week, I am the main celebrant at the 6am mass so I need my beauty sleep.
Goodnight

Feeding the five thousand... a story of insects

I didn't post anything yesterday - it was a busy day and since I had no internet connection in my room I had to wait to use the library. The seminarians had a talk there last night so while I was waiting for it to finish I ended up being bitten so much by mosquitos that I surrendered - I felt like I was feeding the five thousand.
Panama is not normally too bad for mosquitos. They have a really good fumigation programme in the city but last night proved for me that it is not as extensive as is sometimes claimed.
Of course, like practically all of Central and South America, it is pretty fair to say that almost every inch of this country is alive. There are so many different insects, flying and crawling things that it must be quite a list when they are all put together.
When I arrived here last Sunday night, as I was getting ready for bed a large (about the size of the old 10p coin) cockroach ran across the floor. Luckily I was wearing shoes so I stood on it - not a great idea: when a cockroach is crushed it gives off a rotten smell so I was stuck with that until the morning. I suppose you could regard that as the revenge of the cockroach - but the revenge bit doesn't end there!!! When I went down on Monday morning to concelebrate at Mass I took an alb from the press - lovely and clean and all that. However, what I hadn't noticed when I took it out of the press was that somewhere, concealed in its folds, a cockroach was hiding - I didn't notice him until he ran down my face during the gospel reading: I can tell you, that's one way to make sure you are awake in the morning!!!
In the afternoon I came across a centipede that was about four inches long and as thick as my index finger - really a very beautiful looking thing although you wouldn't want to find it in your bed - they can give quite a nasty bite!
This evening when we went for our supper the table was just covered in ants. Someone had obviously been having coffee or something and had spilled sugar. It only takes a couple of minutes for ants to find sugar - no matter how far away from them it seems to be.
In Europe we tend to get very upset about these insects and creepy crawlies but people here are much more sanguine about them - they are just part of life. Anway, there are so many of them that if you were to be bothered by them at all you couldn't do anything and, the reality is, they are generally perfectly harmless.
Anyway, that's enough for tonight. I will be going tomorrow to spend the weekend at the Augustinian parish in Panama City so that will be a nice chance to catch up with the friars - it will also be a nice chance to have a shower with hot water. The seminary does have a solar water heating system but really it's not very effective and the water is more "not cold" than "hot".

A Very Full and Hot Day

Today began, as usual, at 5 am. Meditation begins at 5.30, followed by Mass at 6 so you have to be up at 5 to get all the showering etc out of the way - once Mass is over the day begins in earnest. It's not just in the seminary that the day begins early - Panamanians generally get up very early in the morning (sometimes as early as 2 or 3 am), partly to avoid the heat of the day which is very oppressive, but also to avoid the very heavy traffic that is a constant here in the city. "Tranque" (pronounced: trankay) is one of the most frequently-used words here in Panama City and it means "traffic jam". The city is only about the size of Dublin but it can take anything from 4 to 6 hours to cross it due to the traffic

I had lectures today with those in their 2nd and 3rd year of theology - all went well but, as the morning progresses, it gets harder as the heat increases. Today was particularly hot and humid and we had quite a spectacular thunder storm about midday - rain so heavy that it was difficult to see through it. The heavy rain is so normal here that everywhere there are huge concrete gulleys to take away the rainwater - however, these are often blocked by fly-tippers who snarl them up with household rubbish and this causes continual and heavy flooding all over the city.

I had a meeting today with the Pastoral Vicar of the Diocese here - Fr. Miguel Angel Keller is an Augustinian and has worked in this position for a number of years with the Archbishop (Jose Domingo Ulloa, also an Augustinian) - I was asked to take on some lecturing on behalf of the Diocese so that will involve me probably with the Permanent Deacons and maybe even some of the clergy - nothing has been finalised yet but it is certainly something I am interested in.

Last night the seminarians concluded their "Bible Month" which is a month of activities based on the Bible in which the goal is to increase people's awareness of what is actually in the Bible and how to read it - something like this would be great in Ireland, it seems to me!!! This month of activities takes place in parishes, religious houses, schools and colleges all over the country and creates a real buzz with everyone involved in similar things. I missed it this year but hopefully there will be other opportunities to get involved in it.

It is now almost 8pm and it has cooled down to 28 degrees so I am off to bed - it has been a long day and tomorrow will be similar so I will have to keep up with my beauty sleep.
Hasta Mañana

2015 - Arriving Back to Panama

For those of you who are visiting this blog for the first time, welcome! For those who followed it in the past, welcome back! This is a blog which I will be keeping over the next two months which will follow the life in Seminario Mayor San Pedro, Ciudad de Panama (St. Peter's Major Seminary, Panama City). I am here because I have been asked to help out the teaching staff here by taking on some of the courses. This year I will be teaching two courses in the seminary and will be involved in some other things along the way... but more of that later.

I arrived last night after a long journey. I left Limerick after the 8.30 mass and got the bus to Dublin on Saturday morning. I was going to spend the night in John's Lane because I would have to be in the airport for 4am. Everything was planned out: I would get up at 3; shower, dress, and finish packing; have breakfast; and get a taxi to the airport. However, things were not to be that simple.

Heading to bed at 10pm I realised that I had forgotten to bring with me part of my CPAP maching (for Sleep Apnoea) - this was not something I could take lightly or ignore. There was no way around this; I absolutely had to get the piece or else my whole trip would be very difficult. Unfortunately, the piece was in my room in Limerick. I had to phone Denis Ryan - ever helpful - and he said that he would meet me halfway.  And so it was... at 11.15pm I was at the hotel at exit 17 on the M7 and Denis screeched to a halt with the necessary in hand... Thank you Denis!!! Then it was back to Dublin where I arrived at half past midnight. After all the panic and excitement I wasn't tired so I just sat looking at TV until, at around 2.30am I gave up and got up and ready to travel.  Why does all this matter? Well, it just meant that I had no sleep at all before I travelled which made the journey very long indeed.

After a short flight to Amsterdam I had a 4 hour wait before the 11 hour flight directly to Panama City where I was met at the airport by the rector of the Seminary, Fr. Santiago Benitez. Then it was off to the Seminary itself and a chance to meet up with some of the people I had met last year before heading to bed - for 10 hours!

This morning I had my first lecture. I will have 8 hours lecturing a week. There will also be other things do be done. While it doesn't seem like a lot, I will have to spend a lot of the rest of the time preparing classes - I had spent 8 months preparing to teach a course on the Trinity when, just a month before I was due to come here, they changed their minds and asked me to teach Eschatology. This means that I have had a chance to prepare very little so time is likely to be very full over the next two months.

Which is why I will wrap up now... I have two hours of eschatology tomorrow so I have to get my thoughts together...