Pizza in Marsalforn + Brother Joe's cactus blooms

As my retreat officially ended on the evening of May 13th, and as there were no other retreatants in the house, Fr.Victor, Fr. Anthony and Brother Joe decided to take a rare break away and go for pizza in Marslaforn. They invited Michele and me to join them and Lili stayed home to hold the fort. Apparently, Brother Lili hasn't eaten at a restaurant in over 40 years...his last experience didn't go so well, so he's never tried it again. It was my first night out since arriving. We were in bed shortly after 23:00 which is about 2 hours later than our usual bed time. It was fun to go out and see a little bit of the night life and have a few laughs with our hosts over a delicious meal. The cactus flower attached bloomed on the 15th and was gone on the 16th...I happened to pass by while the bloom was fully opened and have attached the picture...life is full of coincidence.

Michele arrives in Malta

Michele (+ Mischa) arrived in Malta on schedule today. I met her at the airport and we made our way to Manresa House by the same route I had followed exzctly one month ago. At one point along the nbr 8 route in Valetta, a cement truck and half a dozen cars had to back up a narrow roadway to make way for the bus. It wasn't certain what was going to happen when these two vehicles stopped nose to nose...our bus driver got out and discussed the situation calmly with the cement truck driver, and after a coupe of minutes, the truck driver conceded the road. Because my retreat ended offically yesterday evening and becuase there are no other retreatants in the House today, Fr. Anthony, Fr. Victor, and Brother Joe are going out on a very rare excursion for pizza and invited Michele and me along. So, we'll be leaving in about half an hour to celebrate their little break, Michele's arrival, and the end of my retreat. Last night both brother Joe and the Jesuit's provincial both said independently of each other when they saw me at the end of my retreat, "Oh, there's a scent of sanctity in the air!"...a little Jesuit humour which I presume they say to all retreatants who complete the exercises! I'm a little sad to see this very quiet and peaceful lifestyle come to an end...one could easliy get used to it, I'll tell you, but now that Michele is here, it's time to move on and I'll try to bring fruit to our new lives in retirement from this experience. Would recommend such a retreat to anyone who is looking to leave all the distractions of the busy world behind and reflect on what's inside your own heart with nothing to distract you but your own thoughts...and with the exercises to calm the thoughts, comes pure peace and contentment.

Three Days

Michele's arrival in 3 days will coincide exactly with the end of my 30 days of retreat. It occurred to me yesterday that when I was preparing for my departure from the office, I was focused entirely on preparing files for hand-over so that I could leave my business affairs behind me in, hopefully, relatively good order. In contrast, during these final days at Manresa House, I find that rather than preparing affairs to leave behind, I am, instead, preparing myself for re-entering the active life. As such, rather than marking an end of a period in my life, my upcoming departure will, in fact, be marking a new beginning. The decision to come here was, indubitably, the right one for me. At first, I must admit that I had been hoping to avoid the Ignatian exercises for a variety of reasons, but now that I have been exposed to them, I realize that they have helped prepare me for the experience for which I originally came here, to wit, to know myself better and to discover proper expression. This will, I realize, be a life long exercise, and I definitely have a long way to go to actualize this objective, but life at Manresa House provides a good mileu for this launch. The routine of community life is comforting. Up at 06:15 for mass at 06:45, breakfast at 08:00, meeting with Fr. Victor for 60-90 minutes each morning after breakfast, lunch (a huge lunch which is the main meal of the day) at noon, a walk in the countryside for an hour or two, a short nap, a light supper at 20:00, and in bed by 21:00. All the times in between are filled with reading, exercises, and prayers. One day, while praying, I actually started laughing out loud at how great it felt to have the opportunity to engage in these little chats with God without any distractions at all but my own thoughts. During my afternoon walks, it is so quiet on the streets that I hardly see anyone because everyone is inside enjoying their daily siesta. As such, it is very easy to conduct these wals in peaceful silence and continue to reflect on my daily exercses. Fr. Victor told me that there is an expression in Gozo which says that the streets are so quiet in the early afternoon, that you could kill someone and bury them without anyone noticing. Being here and sharing in the quiet community life of Manresa House is a true priviledge and one that I shall both miss and cherish equally.