Category: On the Road…

St. William Mass

The community of St. William Church in Louisville really seek to implement the liturgy defined in the documents of Vatican II, and I try to participate there when I am in Kentucky. Today I attended the 9:00 AM mass.

Seven musicians and a song leader filled the minutes before the liturgy with music. The musicians are on a raised platform at one end of the worship space. Notice the large monitor high on the wall. Today more than 30 people participated online also.
The people participating online really participate. The second reading was done by an online lector, and here a woman at home adds a petition in the prayer of the faithful.
Every time I go to St. William Church I meet people I worked with or knew as friends before I moved to Asia. Today I had the opportunity to catch up with Jerry Hodapp.

USA Trip #5

Gethsemani Day 4

Bp. Stowe continued his talks, working from the documents of Vatican II and Pope Francis. In the morning he spoke about preaching and in the afternoon about Laudato Si.
An important part of a retreat like this is the opportunity to interact with other priests, discussing work and issues as colleagues but also building friendships and a sense of community.
The food at the monastery is quite simple but so good!

USA Trip #4

Gethsemani Day 3

Last night, the final activity of the day was an open forum, optional, for anyone to bring up any topics or ideas or questions that arose in the two talks we heard today.
Today Bp. Stowe continued his talks based on the documents of Vatican II, especially the liturgy document.
There are 24 Louisville priests participating in this retreat. Listening to Bp. Stowe is easy because he is so interesting.
We had a liturgy before lunch and Fr. George was the presider.
This evening before today’s open forum, I went to the abbey church for the compline service sung by the Gethsemani monks.

USA Trip #3

Gethsemani Day 2

Mass is at 11:30 AM and lunch is not until 12:30 PM so there was a short time after mass ended before we could go to the dining room and guys gathered in the lobby of the retreat building.

There is only a half hour allotted for each meal. That may not seem like much time but when the meals are simple and are silent, 30 minutes is quite adequate.

People can leave whenever they finish eating. We take the dishes to carts and racks to gather everything and then some of the monks wash the dishes. The food is simple but is quite good.

USA Trip #2

Gethsemani Day 1

The retreat for the Louisville priests is being held at the Gethsemane Abbey of the Trappist monks, near Bardstown, Kentucky. Gethsemane is famous as the home monastery for Fr. Thomas Merton, the author and spiritual writer who is buried there.

Many people come to Gethsemane for a time of prayer, and there are many lay people here making their retreat at the same time as we priests. Here a woman reads in an isolated area of the monastery grounds.

A view along the side of the monastery building with part of the cemetery where monks have been buried for more than 150 years.

USA Trip #1

Travel

This trip was not unusual in that it took 37 hours and four flights to get from Phnom Penh to Louisville, Kentucky, but because of the timing of the flights, it was difficult to get much sleep on the way.

The first stop was Singapore’s Changi Airport, always one of the top two or three airports of the world. It has indoor gardens, all sorts of environmental areas, an indoor waterfall, and even a bicycle trail for people on long layovers.
From Singapore, it was eastward to San Francisco and then on to Dulles in Washington, D.C. Dulles is notable for its shuttles (yellow circle) that go back and forth on the airport apron carrying passengers between terminals and concourses.
Dulles is also a major hub on the East Coast for United Airlines.

Well!

I’m embarrassed… I wasn’t able to access the Internet everyday on my trip to the US for the funeral of my sister Ann, but I was taking photos so I could give a summary when I returned. Well….I’ve returned but I’ve lost the photos! I downloaded them from the camera but I don’t know where I put them on my laptop! I’ll find them… Hang on!

On the road…

Greetings… I am on my way to the Phnom Penh airport to head to Louisville, Kentucky for the funeral of my sister Ann Dittmeier who died yesterday. I fly through Seoul, San Francisco, and Houston before getting to Kentucky–about a 35-hour trip. I won’t be able to update the website here until I arrive in Louisville.

Trip to Kampong Cham #5

Our third and last stop this trip was in Tbong Khmum Province, a good drive from Kampong Cham city. We had another delightful group of young deaf people to work with.
Deaf people seldom get to tell their story or talk about themselves in Cambodia. They cannot speak to their families because the families don’t know sign language–and the deaf people here are themselves just learning sign language. When we get together like this, we have some topic to talk about so that everyone can speak up.
Deaf people around the world are isolated, left out of the flow of ordinary life, and so even a simple gathering like these visits is interesting and engaging.
A group photo with the Tbong Khmum deaf people and the DDP staff from Kampong Cham.
Parents, grandparents, neighbors, and passersby were on the sidelines of our gathering and we included them in another photo. We want them to feel their deaf children are part of the family and are valuable and to be respected.
This young deaf woman has a hair and beauty salon where we had our meeting, and one of our Kampong Cham staff got her hair trimmed before we left.

Trip to Kampong Cham #4

Our day started with breakfast of pork and rice in this little streetside rice shop. Notice almost all cooking in Cambodia is done on charcoal braziers.

Here I am catching up with our host, a deaf man I have not seen for a long time.
Our DDP staff preparing some pictures of vegetables to be used for teaching new sign language.
Getting into the sign language lesson. These deaf people in the rural area have just been learning Cambodian Sign Language for a month or two.
Our classroom–a tarp we brought for sitting under a shelter attached to a stilt house.
After the sign language class, as we prepare to leave. The photocopies are to help the deaf people remember the signs they learned today.
A group shot of the deaf youth, our DDP staff, the deaf youth’s parents, and a few neighbors who wandered in to see what was going on.
Then it was time for a snack of a variety of fruits.