Monday Night 11/20

Today was St. Agnel's day, the man for whom is the patron saint of this home. In honor of his day, the children put on a play for the local religious society to whom their current benifactor belongs. Father Bento, when you first meet him, has a curt measure to his voice and is very much a man accustomed to being in charge. Once you get past the initial interview you find he is simple an overindulgent grandparent, accustomed to getting his way. So it is that I found myself singing in the choir last evening. The children thought is was the funnest thing to have me on stage with them. I rather enjoyed the literal translation of the lyrics and the off tempo beat to the music and hymns I know so well. There was a large feast following that would rival our grandest weddings and the kids eat until they could hold no more. From Delhi it is an hour ride home and most were either ill or asleep by the time we reached the compound.

The final song of the eveing was "Through it All" and sounds just as it does at home. The one change is in the chorus. They sing: Through it all, through it all, I've learned to trust in the Lord, I've learned to trust in God. I mentione to Brother that we sing Jesus in place of the Lord and he became uncomfortable. Brother will be attending seminary upon completing his required year of service before taking his oaths with the church. There are a couple of questions I've had but not wanting to bring up the non-pc topic of religion, have kept my big mouth shut. On occasion, I'm actually able to show some restraint. You know it couldn't last forever and last night on the ride home the dam broke. Evidently, there is a large divide among the Catholic church, if it is world wide or simple an issue here I am not sure, but the division revolves around accepting and incorporating other religions into the Catholic faith. At mass on Sunday they read the Koran as well as a passage from a Hindi text. It completely shocked me but explains the division amoung the church that I've meet here. Our conversation was not a meeting of learned minds discussing ideas in mutual respect; it was more of a polite debate with each party agreeing to not insult the other but standing firmly to their ground. (I think I won.)

It was an exhaustive day and this posting is late because I fell asleep during the half hour nap time and woke up 3 hours later. So for those of you who read this with your morning coffee my apologies but I've had a few late nights the past couple of days and they finally caught up to me. And now I'm off to sleep again.