Why would someone want to build a House of Prayer that focuses on Silence and Solitude in a place like Africa when the needs of health care, the economy, politics, education, the family, social cohesion, fighting corruption and understanding between religions is so very great? A philosopher(can’t remember name) once said that all the problems in the world come from our failure to sit still in a room by ourselves. If we cannot learn the ancient practice of silent contemplation all our busy efforts to save the world will ultimately fail.

The source of all authentic progress/creation is the Divine and the entry into the Divine is Stillness and Silence. It is from the sacred space of Divine Stillness/Silence that creation happens, a creation that brings real progress for humanity.

I think I’ve already quoted the Jesuit Karl Rahner who said, “The Christian of the future will have to be a mystic, if he/she wants to be a Christian”. In a world gone insane with mindless activity and noise there is a need to answer the question, “Why Contemplation?” by saying that first, we contemplate to keep ourselves sane and secondly to participate with the Divine in bringing New Life to our planet.

As we start the new year there are many possibilities for our Lake House of Prayer. We are in negotiations with our neighbor to purchase his house and plot. If the negotiations are successful I will be able to start living on the site (after making repairs on the house). Plan B would be to purchase a shipping container and make it into a ‘house’ in which I would live. Plan C would be to use the limited funds I do have at this time to at least start building the foundation from the future staff housing.

It is important to keep some natural momentum on projects like this. One tries to avoid getting stuck because sometimes getting stuck can mean a long delay. So the need for alternative plans.

Salome came up to me as I was getting to leave the House of Prayer site. She was holding a young child. She asked me if I could give her some work cutting grass. Salome lost her husband by a boat accident on the lake. She has 4 children and has no other support.

There are many many Salomes in Mwanza. So many women alone in their poorly built unstable homes without any men around. Many have died for different reasons. Others are far away because of job possibilities. What used to be a family friendly culture is changing into an oppressive money driven one.

So yes, I gave Salome a temporary job of cutting the grass by hand with a metal stick with a knife-like end. It’s not much help but for her, she may be able to feed her small children more than once a day.

This is a shot of the bougainvillea we planted to ‘green’ the fence. The lake is in the background

Today I returned to Tanzania from Nairobi by plane. It was interesting to me to see the contrasts between Nairobi airport and Mwanza airport where I live.

Nairobi airport has had its difficulties with a large fire not long ago. I remember having to go through check-in and the departure in large army-like tents. Today I passed through their new modern addition Terminal 1A. It was like passing through an airport in the West with all the latest equipment to get the passenger to his/her door of destination without little trouble.

Mwanza is different but like Nairobi we have to take a airport bus from the plane to the terminal. When we reach to terminal we have to pass through Immigration where things get ‘tight’. About 50 passengers are squeezed into a tiny room, so tiny many of us filled out the forms outside sitting on the steps. Next we hand our passports over to the officials who are in another tiny room. After the passports one needs to find up where the bags are which is difficult because there are no signs, so asking around I find another tiny room where my bag is. Lastly, one passes to yet another tiny room where Customs officials inspect your bags. Finally, one needs to ask where the exit is and passes a woman sitting tired at a desk who looks like she is supposed to check your baggage tags but she stares ahead as you finally departure into the sun and air.

Travelling in Africa still can be an adventure of sorts.

The Jesuit Karl Rahner said that to be a Christian in the future will mean one must be a mystic. We live in a very troubled world. We just recently witnessed the terror attacks in Paris. We are facing global warming, wars, financial meltdown and more. How does one live in such a world with hope? By being a mystic.

By mystic I don’t mean the false stereotypes one reads of people floating on air or not eating for days on end. But a person who can live in peace in the midst of chaos. One who can discern God’s Presence in the whirlwind of history and bring hope where hope cannot be found.

The modern mystic or should I say contemplative must appropriate the tools of contemplation of stillness/silence and discernment. One must be able to SEE God’s Presence beneath the terrible forms of a chaotic world. The modern mystic must be able to paradoxically take up the Cross of living in this troubled world and absorb its pain and allow God to Transform the suffering into the New Life of the Resurrection. I hope the Lake House of Prayer can be a place that invites this kind of Transformation.

I’m writing from Nairobi where I am for our annual retreat and meeting of the Maryknoll Frs/Brs. We come from South Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Egypt and Namibia. We share stories and support each other in prayer and conversations in our diverse life and works in Africa.

Many of us get here a few days early for medical appts, shopping, visiting, meetings and just exploring Nairobi. Today I went to Resurrection Gardens to explore possibilities for the Lake House of Prayer. Resurrection Gardens is a beautiful lush forested area in the Karen area of Nairobi. It combines much of the best of traditional Catholic art in a natural setting. There are beautiful mosaics depicting the life of Christ along with many places to sit and contemplate Scripture passages written on craved marble.

My favorite scene was a nice size wooded section without any art work, just nature. There were a few women there, one sitting under a tree in silence, another standing a gazing a God’s creation and another walking very slowly quietly saying the rosary. The entire place was impressive and yet I was touched by the interaction of nature and the African women in deep contemplation. I hope to recreate this scene on Lake Victoria.

I hope you are able to read this blog without any problems. Lately, we’ve been working on some difficulties with our website, hopefully they will be resolved soon as we have an IT professional working on it.

We continue to break rocks and plant trees as we take small steps in the development of the Lake House of Prayer. Two options lie before us, one to build the foundation of my new home with the funds I have (not enough to build the entire house) or two, to team up with the Bishop to purchase the adjoining house and plot. I would be able to move into the already built home to start a new life of prayer and service through the Lake House of Prayer.

I pray this New Year bring you many blessings in Christ.

Jesus loved everyone and yet he had a special place in his heart for the poor and abandoned. As his follower, I hope I have this special ‘prejudice’ for the forgotten. I usually give attention to how the poor I am in contact with view Christmas and New Year’s.

The liturgical celebrations of the Church are very important to them. The people come to sing their hearts out to praise the fact that God is amongst us to save us. The ‘forgotten’ of this society don’t get into Santa Claus or Christmas trees because they are outside this economic circle of privilege. But they can save up for a good meal with family and attend the midnight mass and again in the morning to celebrate God’s Coming.

As for New Year’s, they are so very grateful. Why? They survived. Many family and friends died during the year. For many it is like a war which you got through, barely. So there is a deep joy of thanksgiving that comes when facing the possibility of death and not dying. One lives another day in hopes of another day until the days pass to a year when one looks around and sees one is still around. This is an occasion for great joy.

We were fortunate to find a professional gardener whom we hired to plant bougainvillea plants along the total length of our wire fence. We want to bougainvillea to climb up the fence and cover it so it looks like wall of green inviting a sense of nature surrounding us. The bishop has 21 tree seedlings we want to plant next week as we begin the long process of transforming the land into a healing space of nature.

Mwanza is not a very attractive city, especially when away from the lake. It like many cities is full of concrete with no parks to speak of with trees going down at an astounding rate. Part of the vision for the House of Prayer is to recreate how people experience nature in the villages were many have come from in this mass migration to the urban jungle. So there is the attendant deep sense of alienation brought on by being separate from nature.

I hope we can make the area we have thick with trees, plants and vegetation on every kind so that nature itself will heal the tired and broken-hearted who come to visit us. Of course we cannot recreate Eden but we can do all we can to create an environment that elicits a healing distant memory in our collective consciousness that says, “Ah this is good, I’ve been here before”.