AUTUMN 2013 BEGINS: Rain, Saints and Crocs

Vincent, Caitlyn and Kyle

Kyle Fischler, a volunteer [with Caitlyn DeCastro and Vincent Fiedler-Ross] beginning at Christmas time in 2008, completed his Masters Degree in Social Work at Loyola Chicago this year and returned home...to Colorado.  And the rains came.  He is staying with his Mother and assures us he is on high ground.  A selection from his e-mail is included at the end of this blog.

This year, Lauren is settling into her new school, with new responsibilities for some demanding 4th Graders!  Erika and Travis are working at Lantern Light; despite the renovations to the kitchen area they are serving as many as 187 lunches on some days; plus a morning snack if there is extra food, and tending to the needs of the guests and the staff.  Charles works on mailings.

Bob’s work with St. Joe’s Parish on Tulane Avenue includes helping out with parking for Saints home games—the rental of parking spaces is the major fundraiser for the parish.  He gets home once the lot is full and can watch the games.  The Saints have won their first three games—the last time this happened they went to the Super Bowl.  Just saying . . . 

On Thursday evening, the Mission/Development Committee of the House of Charity met here, John is on that committee.

John, Lauren and Travis

Saturday began with a tropical downpour that threatened to wash out a fundraiser for Parkinson’s; it was called “For One Day, Parkinson’s Is A Walk In The Park’ [Audubon Park.]  Lauren and Travis braved the rain and drove over with John [“I’m only going ‘cause I have it!] who figured he could always hang out in the Pavilion with the food while the younger folk walked.  However, the rain let up and all could walk.  Jessica McKeown [Americorps] and Emily Stebert [an Americorps alum] , were good enough to come and join in and walk.  The uncertain weather meant there were a lot of folks who preregistered and sent in their donations but did not walk—those who came were in great good spirits.  John made a contact for a program, ‘LSVT Big’, that he is hoping to get into which helps people with neurologically based movement disorders.

Erika did an overnight trip to the New York Metropolitan area; the rest watched the Saints on Sunday and were treated to turkey clubs, and organic, gluten free bean dip—a feast authored by Travis with a little help from his friends.  A raft of chocolate cupcakes was a perfect follow-up.  John Petrullo started the tradition of Sunday night community dinner and thanks to the volunteers we are remaining loyal to the tradition—hey, it involves food!  And one learns so much as the conversation flows freely around the table.  New worlds open—like a great swamp filled with strange beasts—or shoes, in this case.

CROCS:  More than you ever wanted to know. . . 

Dinner conversation on Sunday night at one point centered around ‘crocs’, a form of footwear recommended by the Sisters at Lantern Light for both comfort and protection while working in the kitchen.  It appeared that Erika’s fashion consultant, [see Lauren]  felt that, despite safety, support and good sense, ‘the look’ was not acceptable.   Who knew?  [Br. Bob:  “Pass the bean dip.”]

Monday morning, one was treated to a view of ‘crocs cap toe’ in black, evidently a more fashionable alternative with good support.  These revelations enrich one's appreciation for the complexity of the world of women’s fashion which for most has been foreign territory all these years. 

FROM KYLE FISCHLER

Hi Brother John!

Sorry for my delay. I've been working on, what else?, construction projects
at my mom's house, which has been keeping me busy. Thank you for the
concern. Most of the flooding hit the inner mountain towns that were in the
valleys, like Estes Park (my family's vacation spot). Boulder got hit
pretty hard but the Denver area and Wheat Ridge were largely spared. There
were some road closures but nothing serious. Also, unfortunately, the
prairie towns lining the rivers got hit too when flooding crested and
covered the fields. First forest fires, now flooding and mudslides. Unusual
because Colorado growing up was always "immune" to disasters...though I
supposed everywhere has something. Both my brother's house and my mom's
house are fine, thank God. I feel horrible for all those folks in the
mountains and the farmers who lost their cattle, crops, and houses.
Luckily, Colorado has a great response time for stuff like this and people
are out in full force helping each other out, which is lovely to see. It
reminds me of the book "A Paradise Built in Hell" which is about how people
tend to be their best during disasters and actually get along more than
usual to work as a team...that it is engrained in us to help in a crisis.
Anyway, things are drying out here pretty well. On the bright side, it's
been about as green as I've ever seen it due to all the rain.

BLOG 09.23.13 

OUTING TO LAURA

Laura Plantation

Laura Plantation is a Creole plantation; two families owned it until it became a house museum; both families spoke French until 1916 when the Louisiana legislature outlawed French as an official language.  Creole plantations like Laura were working farms, owners had homes in the French Quarter where they traveled for the 'Season' and where they fulfilled their social obligations.  Plantation houses like Laura were predominant, built with Sengalese technology, brightly painted and arranged according to French custom--no white, center-hall, pillared mansions so beloved of Hollywood.  Those were built by 'les Americains.'

TJ and Elizabeth du Parc

The indigenous Indian culture, that of West Africa and the Caribbean and  French and Spanish culture formed the way of life that is unique to this part of the world.

Looking towards levee; Laura is on the West Bank of the Mississippi

A visit to Laura is a corrective where one can learn also about the terrible consequences when the French "Code Noir" was replaced by American law after the Louisiana Purchase.

Travis, Charles, Erika, John, Lauren and Bob

 After the tour we drove to another plantation, Oak Alley.  Oak Alley looks as if it were waiting for a casting director; a number of movies have been filmed there.  We go there, after Laura, for lunch!!  These plantations are an hour away, so lunch is a welcome break.

Oak Alley is a gentler look at the antebellum South; they do have a nice restaurant so we head there.

'Sometimes I sits and thinks, sometimes I just sits.'

After lunch some explore Oak Alley's grounds and some find a comfortable bench.

MIDDLE SEPTEMBER 2013

Renovations at Lantern Light Ministries at the Rebuild Center where Erika and Br. Charles work with the Presentation Sisters has complicated the delivery of meals to guests since the kitchen is out of commission and will be for weeks.  In addition, construction of new roads and services in the immediate neighborhood has included frequent interruptions to the water supply.  Add unseasonable heat and the question:  “How did your day go?,” seldom elicits much more than a groan.  

So it came as a happy change that on Saturday the 14^th we all piled into the van and visited Laura Plantation which has the most realistic and honest depiction of life on a Creole plantation.  We followed it up with lunch at a neighboring venue which has a great and reasonable restaurant.  The hour long drive gives newcomers a good sense of the watery landscape that surrounds the city on all sides. 

TJ and Lauren in a tree.  It seemed a good idea at the time.

John hosted a meeting of the House of Charities’ advancement committee in the Map Room on the 12^th and on the 15^th we all went to the House of Charity [an extended stay home for groups associated with the Daughters and Sisters of Charity who come to do mission work for a week or so and wish to include prayer and reflection during their time in New Orleans].  Sr. Renee Rose is moving to a new house in New Orleans so it was a modified going away enlivened by an all too typical heart attack inducing Saints game—which they won!  Oh, the drama!

On Monday morning, September 16, John attended the dedication of the new multipurpose building at Resurrection of Our Lord Parish and School which was named after Father MichaelJoseph Vinh Ngoc Nguyen who died before this dream of his was completed. 

In August we welcomed a group of Ursuline students for an evening.  They brought the food; we cooked and served it and they had a movie about the Sisters’ communities and their response to Hurricane Katrina and a short reflection.  We have done this for several years and appreciate having a UK Connection.  PICTURES FOLLOW!  [All photographs courtesy of Erika Enlund]

Br. Charles and Sr. Carolyn Marie Brockland OSU  -  both from NOLA

Ursuline UK  in the Blessed Pauline Room on August  28th

 Sr. Kathleen Colmer, OSU who heads up the UK contingent

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WE BEGIN

Erika Enlund has begun at Lantern Ministries; they have had water problems for the last several days, and there is major reconstruction going on so conditions are difficult.  She has been a help to Br. Charles with computer programs tracking homeless guests who receive mail at the site and will also be assisting the Director with technology.

Lauren Zanfardino attended orientation programs for her charter school, Langston Hughes, on Friday and Saturday and is becoming familiar with the lingo:  students are ‘scholars’ and instructors and staff ‘dream keepers.’  Lauren, a speech pathology major, will be assisting younger scholars in a reading program.

Travis Wain is waiting for an opening in an agency that will start up a bit later into the autumn.

Br. Bob continues at St. Joe’s on Tulane where Lantern Light Ministries is located; the parishes’ major fundraiser is renting parking slots for football games at the Mercedes Benz Dome where the Saints, our hometown team, play.  It is lucrative; Bob goes to help out on game days and finds the cast of characters and the events that transpire during parking before the games rather unique.

John experienced a four way Skype call on Friday—actually survived would be more appropriate—it worked will and was very helpful. Drat that technology—when it works one has no excuse to avoid it in the future.

A dozen Companions of Pauline, Associates of the Sisters of Christian Charity, held a meeting at the Blessed Pauline Center on Sunday, the 8^th from 1:30 to 4:30 PM.   

The volunteers are making good use of the grille—Travis treated us to steak kabobs on Sunday night—not too rare, not too done—just right.  We continue to negotiate cooking gluten free. 

The peak of our hurricane season is September 10^th, afterwards chances rapidly diminish.  We have had a hot dry spell recently; watering is necessary.  It has been a remarkably calm season.

REFLECTION ON WITNESS:

The Edmund Rice Christian Brothers are preparing for the future by having a series of Province meetings [chapters] and a Congregation wide chapter next year.  Our European Province has already had their chapter.  Following are two excerpts from a homily given by Most. Rev. Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin at the European Province Chapter in Dublin, Ireland on August 23, 2013.

“Perhaps for too long you and I have been focusing principally on the first question.  [What do we do?] We like to do things.  We can even come to measure our worth in terms of what we do.   We have tried to prove to ourselves and to others what our convictions mean, through doing things.  Certainly the scriptures tell us that we will be judged on the basis of what we have done, especially for those who are poor or hungry or who are without protection.  But we can also fool ourselves into thinking that because we provide services then we are on the right track, even though our services may indeed be of a quality well below that which we should be providing. 

What is the difference between the way in which we as a Christian community bring services and the way that is offered by the State or by other NGO’s?  Certainly, other organizations can provide better services in a technical sense than we have been providing.  They may well have greater resources to do so.  We have to focus, however, on what is the essentially different contribution that we as believers are called to bring.

As a Religious Chapter, inevitably, you have been looking at the challenge of what you can effectively achieve with your current resources and human capacity and perhaps you have to recognise, painfully, that you may no longer be able to continue particular services.  This is a realistic and valid form of evaluation.   However, a Religious Chapter can never be reduced to just a rational analysis of activities and a revision of what can be achieved in terms of allocation of personnel and funding.

The true analysis and discernment of your Religious Chapter comes from the answer to the second question: “[As a] Christian Brother where do I come from?”   Here it is vital to look at your founder, the contribution that he brought, and the vision that he espoused.  Edmund Rice curiously, like many of the other great inspirers of the religious renewal, which took place in the Ireland in the mid-nineteenth century, probably never envisaged the establishment of a religious order in quite the way that it evolved. In this, Edmund Rice was similar to those other great figures of the time like Mary Aikenhead, Catherine McCauley and others.

They had a creative vision of Christian individuals coming together in a loose federation of spirituality and community.  These founders could see, even within the framework of a rule, a strong dimension of evangelical freedom, which would enable the members to respond with creativity to the needs of people and especially the religious needs of young people.”

AND

“You can only be a Christian Brother of today if you follow where you came from, if you follow in the footsteps of Edmund Rice. You must, through the way you live and witness, attract young men and women to the person of Jesus Christ through witnessing what Jesus means to you in your own life.   There is a sense in which the history of the Christian Brothers and of the charism of Edmund Rice will never really be written by professional historians, but by how you live his charism day by day in the different worlds and cultures you may find yourself.

There is no catechetical programme that can replace the authentic witness of someone who really believes in Jesus and shows that faith in Jesus changes the way we live, and brings meaning and hope to our lives, mixed up and sinful though they may be.”

TARA IN NOLA

We are not talking Scarlet O’Hara’s home in ‘Gone With The Wind’ since there was no hurricane like Isaac, which greeted our volunteers last year.  This year, it is ‘Tara Knights’ which take center stage at Christian Brothers Volunteer Community in New Orleans.

This year all three of our volunteers, Erika Enlund, Travis Wain and Lauren Zanfardino are Tara Knights, members of the original Iona College fraternity, dating to the founding of the college.  This is the first time that all our volunteers are Iona College graduates!

Lauren, from Syosset, Long Island, New York flew to New Orleans with her Mother and Dad on the 24^th  of August; we hosted her parents through the 26^th on their first visit to the Crescent City.  Lauren’s parents had an opportunity to meet the Brothers, stay at the house, experience the neighborhood, drive by Langston Hughes Charter School where she’ll be ministering, and see a bit of the city. 

Erika Enlund arrived from her family home in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, on Tuesday night, and after doing a bit of unpacking, helped us host 30 guests from the United Kingdom on Wednesday evening during their mission trip to New Orleans with Ursuline UK Connections.  Lauren and Erika must have done this before; they helped set up and entertain, with ease, the Ursuline Sisters and the young women, and Lauren handled the audio visual demands; there was a movie shown as part of their evening with us.

The movie: “They Would Not Be Moved” is a moving chronicle of several women’s religious communities who suffered greatly during Hurricane Katrina, but recommitted themselves, in Faith, to the People of God in this part of God’s Kingdom.

As part of their orientation, on Thursday and Friday, Lauren, Erika, and Br. Bob visited a number of places where members of the Volunteer Community have worked over the years.  Lunch at Café Reconcile was part of the tour.  Lauren and Erika saw Br. Joe Fragala’s picture there.

Travis Wain arrived home on Saturday morning, and in the afternoon, orientation continued with a meditation on the Icon of Blessed Edmund Ignatius Rice, and pizza for dinner. [Luckily, Theo’s on Magazine Street makes a good gluten-free pizza—a necessity since one of our new members is on a gluten free regimen.]   And Br. Charles found a French bakery in our area that had gluten free offerings.  Who knew?

Sunday all went to Mass at St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish in Pontchartrain Park; which coincidentally featured in the movie shown to the Ursuline group on Wednesday night.  That afternoon Br. John spent several hours with the Volunteers on the Province’s Safe Environment Training: “Pathways to Hope.” 

On Labor Day, we continued orientation with a review of the Handbook by all of the community and a thorough discussion of expectations about prayer and community life.  In the afternoon, Erica, Travis, Lauren and Br. Charles went to see “The Butler” at our local theater, The Prytania, and then the volunteers grilled burgers and hot dogs which we ate in the “Map Room” downstairs.  With the recently repaired AC in that area, and as a result of Br. Bob’s work, helped by last year’s volunteers, it provided a great place for our Labor Day community gathering.

This week, Lauren is involved with the Notre Dame Americorps Volunteer Orientation that is using the Blessed Pauline Room on Tuesday and Wednesday; she’ll go to her school on Friday.  Br. Bob is handling the Americorps paperwork with Erica and Travis for their programs.

Our volunteers from last year are keeping in touch, for which we are grateful.  John Petrullo flew to Madrid to teach English this year; Matt Beben leaves shortly for Ethiopia where he will work with the Salesian community. 

BLOG 09.03.13