Last night, I was privileged to attend a dinner hosted by the pastor of my parish, Fr. Jack. The event was a meeting of FIAT (Faith in Action Team), the name given to our Haiti mission group.
Fr. Glenn Meaux, pastor of the SOLT Mission in Kobonal Haiti (see my mission blog at haiti.everythingesteban.com) is making his yearly visit to our parish.
The purpose of the meeting/dinner was twofold.
First, to get the members of the mission team preparing to visit the mission in November together. There is much work still to be done to pull off this particular trip, and it was important for them to meet Fr. Meaux.
Second, to sample the gumbo that Fr. Meaux prepared. Being from Louisiana, he is adept at preparing gumbo and other Cajun cuisine.
It was fine fare, along with grilled asparagus, potato salad, bread pudding and pecan pie. Coupled with a little red wine and ample talk about mixing cement, making bricks and building houses, it was a solid 3-Napkin dinner.
I’m not planning to make this November trip to Haiti, but the one scheduled for the end of February is definitely calling my name.
I had three wonderful meals this week. Two were home-cooked, one was at a small mom&pop Chinese restaurant, and all three were with wonderful friends.
All of these dining experiences were memorable because they each had their own unique mixtures of thoughtful food preparation, interesting conversation, and shared camaraderie.
During the last of these meals, we actually had a discussion of how we would rate the meal itself. This led to some pondering of how I might develop my own, totally arbitrary and objective dining experience scale.
Thus, I deliver to you Esteban’s Dining Experience Scale!
I reserve the right to award any dining experience I have with whatever level I wish, but here is a general idea of what I have in mind.
The Positive Scale
1 Napkin – A meal I might cook for myself. Frankly, it would be nothing special, hardly memorable, but not likely to make you sick.
2 Napkins – Something a bit better, probably at a restaurant. A quick meal caught with a friend. A hot dog at a football game.
3 Napkins – A meal I would remember and tell others about. Any meal that ends with gelato or decent pie. A special occasion, like a birthday or wedding reception or a meet-up with old friends.
4 Napkins – An outstanding meal! Photos were taken, drinks were shared. All were relaxed and no harsh words were exchanged. These are the meals when the “good china” is brought out and people might dress up a bit. People often come from afar for these meals.
4 Napkins + Wet Wipe – The pinnacle of the dining experience! These are those experiences that you wish would never end. They require bold culinary experimentation among friends you know won’t mind if it fails. Gatherings of folks with whom you have shared many journeys. These have that quality for which the phrase “je ne sais quoi” was coined.
The Negative Scale
Unfortunately, not all dining experiences come up to the basic 1 Napkin level of what I might prepare for myself. We’ve all had them, haven’t we?
Here is my scale of progressively worse meal experiences:
1 Burnt Toast – This is a dining experience that meant well but didn’t live up to expectation. The food might be edible but a bit cold, or over spiced. The service might have been just “meh”.
2 Burnt Toast – These unfortunate meals are memorable because of some notable mishap. The service is so bad that you dock the tip or complain to the management. An argument among friends breaks out or someone imbibes too much in that “bad way.”
3 Burnt Toast – These meals are so bad that you end up with a serious belly ache. A bad date that you walk away from in the middle of, or a restaurant that you flee from without paying. Service so bad that you tell all your friends and create a new Twitter hashtag as a warning beacon for others.
4 Burnt Toast – Remember that one meal in Cuzco, Peru and the 8 hours of absolute misery that followed? Or that other time in Peru when we had bad ceviche? I’ll leave the rest to your imagination. These experiences have their own special trauma so as to live on perpetuity.
I expect that I’ll be pretty liberal in my awarding of positive reports on meals that I share with friends. All three of the meals that I had this week were at least 4 Napkins because of the people I was with. Look for another posting on the most imaginative of these and the first awarding of the coveted 4 Napkins + Wet Wipe award!
You too can compete for this coveted award. Of course it means you have to invite me over!
Do you have any special meal memories that have been evoked by this? I’d love to hear them!
Or perhaps I should be more exact and say “How do you do today?”
(See what I did there? I translated my Okie greeting into more specific and more understandable English.)
So, about 96 days from when I’m writing this, the English-speaking parts of the Catholic Church will begin using a new English version of the Roman Missal. This will be the 3rd official version of the Missal approved by the Church. Only the third one since we began organizing all the various texts into one book more than 450 years ago.
What’s the Roman Missal, you ask? It’s the ritual text that contains all the prayers and instructions for the celebration of the Holy Mass. It’s a big deal.
The English version, and all the other language versions, are translations from the “official” Latin language Roman Missal that is issued by the Vatican with the approval of many, many people including the Pope.
There’s quite a bit of hub-bub about this new English Missal. It’s taken many years to complete and there is quite a bit of confusion about why it’s being issued. There’s also some resistance by some people who don’t want to change the prayers they’ve used their entire lives. Understandable to have these feelings, but in my opinion, they are based on misunderstandings of the reasons for the changes.
I ran across the following three videos produced by Life Teen that give a brief yet entertaining explanation of the changes, the process involved, etc. There’s one for adults/parent, one for teens, and one for middle school age kids.
They don’t tell the whole story, but I think they’re a good start and will hopefully open the minds of folks who are scared of change.
Have a look at these and let me know what you think in the comments.
Parent Version
Teen Version (my favorite!)
Middle School Version
Thanks to the Christe, Audi Nos! blog for pointing the way to these videos.
The three videos below have really captivated my imagination. If you haven’t seen them yet, you’re in for a treat.
It’s not so much the actual content of the videos that grabs my attention, so much as the idea behind them. The joie de vivre, in other words.
As some of you may know, I work from home. For me, it’s a real challenge. Apparently, I’m more extroverted that I thought and there are days when I want to run around the house yelling and banging my head into the walls for lack of real human interaction.
These videos, and in a similar essence, this recent post by Matthew Warner, have me considering new possibilities, new and daring challenges.
Perhaps I should have entitled this entry “Faith, Hope, Courage.”
July 28, 2011 marks the 30th anniversary of the murder of Oklahoma priest Fr. Stanley Francis Rother.
A missionary priest, Fr. Rother was the pastor of the Parroquia de Santiago, in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala when he was killed by men thought to be paramilitary hit-men of the government.
Below are links to where you can find the whole story, so I won’t recount it here.
I first learned about Fr. Rother in March 2000 when I accompanied a group of Newman Center students from the University of Tulsa on a spring break trip to Santiago Atitlan.
The Dioceses of Oklahoma operated the parish in Santiago Atitlan as “Micatokla,” the Mision Catolica de Oklahoma, so it was a natural place for us to visit. Through that visit and a dozen more, I came to admire Fr. Rother greatly and to feel a personal connection to him as a missionary.
The room where Fr. Rother was murdered, at one time a bedroom in the rectory, has been converted into a chapel and a memorial for him. Through the years, the students and I have prayed there, attended Mass, and used it for quiet meditation, mere inches from the blood-stained walls and bullet-ridden floor.
That probably sounds a bit macabre, but it really isn’t. Because of Fr. Rother’s example of serving the people and defending them from the dangers of the time, the Church has deemed it worthy to open a cause for sainthood for Fr. Rother. Someday I hope to hear that he has been declared Venerable or even Blessed.
Honestly, despite the tragedy that occurred in this room, it is one of the most peaceful and prayerful places in parish complex.
My good friend Mark Steichen and I, along with a contingent of other Oklahomans, attended the 25th anniversary observances in 2006. It was an incredible experience, and proved to us the love and respect the people there have for Fr. Rother.
We were staying at a small office building 2 blocks from the parish, sleeping on the floor and cooking our own meals in a small kitchen. At midnight on July 28th, we could hear singing coming from the church and from the rooftop of our building we saw that the church was open.
Late a night, dozens of people where in the church praying before the memorial to Fr. Rother built near the main entrance. Catechists had gathered young and old around them and were teaching them the story of Fr. Rother, about his work with the people and his work for justice.
There is no doubt in the minds of the people there that Fr. Rother is a saint.
I understand that a large contingent from Oklahoma, as well as several bishops, are in Guatemala this week for this anniversary. My heart is with them. I would have loved to be there.
Note: The people of Santiago Atitlan are members of the T’zutujil Maya and speak their own distinct dialect. There is no equivalent name for Stanley, so they called him Padre Francisco (in Spanish) or Padre A’plas (the T’zutujil equivalent).
Here are a few links. Spend a few moments learning about this faithful priest, loyal Oklahoman, and Servant of God.
First, to get the members of the mission team preparing to visit the mission in November together. There is much work still to be done to pull off this particular trip, and it was important for them to meet Fr. Meaux.
