25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 19, 2004

3) 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 19, 2004

Monday, September 13, 2004. This morning we had Mass at 7 a.m. presided by Father Pascal and for one week we (Father Pascal, Ignas and I) as a team in charge of the liturgy activity in our community. In the morning I send my ballot via post to the Indonesian Consulate in Chicago for the Indonesian General Election then I went to LSTC bookstore. I had a class at 10 a.m., the Sacraments I taught by Fragomeni. In the library I read a spiritual book entitled Etty Hillesum. At 1 p.m. I attended a class, the Sacraments II given by McCarron in which we watched a film entitled Babette. In the afternoon I finished my reading on Etty Hillesum 231 pages. At night I read my preparation class of Interreligious Dialogue.

Tuesday, September 14, 2004. After the Mass in the morning, I went to Norbertin House (Bill Kelly) to have a theological reflection in a group led by Father Mark Schramm, SVD. We shared our own story such as family origin, our vocation and ministry experience we have been doing and our concern. We finished it at 10.10 a.m. and next week we are going to meet again at the Claretian House. At noon I did my paper on Spirituality, Sacrament I and II. From 7 p.m. to 9.45 p.m. I attended Interreligious Dialogue and we presented our own experience of Interreligious Dialogue as we have done with our paper. The professor who teaches this course is Edmund Chia, a Chinese Malaysian.

Wednesday, September 15, 2004. Today is feast of Lady of Sorrow. At 7.30 a.m. we prayed our morning prayer and in the evening at 5 p.m. we had Mass in which I preached about the feast of today and my experience of Mary in my faith journey and devotion. In the morning I attended Sacraments I class and at 1 p.m. Sacraments II. At night I studied Etty Hillesum for my spirituality class tomorrow morning.

Thursday, September 16, 2004. After attending the Mass at 7 a.m. I went to CTU to attend Foundations and Methods study spirituality. We had discussion both at the class and group regards Etty Hillesum’s Uninterupted Life. In the afternoon, Ignas and I cooked for supper in our community. We cooked fried rice, fish and Tom Yum Thai soup. Before the holy hour/adoration at 5 p.m., we finished our cooking. The holy hour was guided by Father Pascal and Ignas played the guitar. We had a community meeting discussing about ministry and study life which lasted at 9.10 p.m. In my room I was typing this journal trying to be faithful to keep my story as Etty Hillesum had accustomed as I read a book of her in my spirituality class.

Friday, September 17, 2004. After the Mass in the morning at 7 a.m., I attended a workshop at CTU given by James and Evelyn Whiteheads about Theological Reflection in the ministry. It started at 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and attended by first and second year of theology students. At 5 p.m. with the paper made by Father Victor, I guided our lectio divina in my community. At night I read some articles about Interreligious Dialogue course.

Saturday, September 18, 2004. We had a Mass at 7.30 a.m. then I was doing my paper of Ministry Practicum and laundry. At 1.30 p.m. Dharmawan and I together with Syafa and Hasnan went to SVD’s house at Techny to attend a Mass of perpetual vows of 9 SVD students including 2 Indonesians, namely, Sony and Francis. Dharmawan drove us to get there with Syafa’s white car. The Mass started at 3 p.m. and lasted at 5 p.m. It was attended by a lot of people, also Indonesian fellows. After having dinner, we (Dharmawan, Petrus, Syafa, Hasnan, Edi and Liza, and I) returned home. In the night till 1 a.m. I was doing my paper for this coming week.

Sunday, September 19, 2004. This morning I woke up late, at 8.30 a.m. and after prayed personally at my room, I had a Mass at 10 a.m. at Saint Thomas the Apostle Church, close to our house here. At noon to afternoon I typed my paper and ready to be submitted next week. It seems that this semester I have to devote my time to do a lot of paper and reading assignment, more than ever. After prayed evening prayer and sharing in our community, we ate supper with menu Chinese food bought by Father Rocco.

It is my reflection on the experience of my Interreligious Dialogue as I wrote on my paper:
MY EXPERIENCE OF INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE
Denny Wahyudi

I was raised and born in a Catholic and Christian family. My parents married in a Catholic Church in which my mother was a Catholic and my father was not a Catholic. When I was a kid, my mother converted to become a Protestant but I went to Catholic school both kindergarten and primary school. Since my mother was Protestant, on Sunday I used to go to a Protestant church and its Sunday school. We never practiced Christian or Catholic prayer in our family. In the age of 13 I entered a public junior high school in which the majority of the students professed Islam. In this time I had to decide what religion I should take for my religious education. Since I saw my oldest sister and my grandmother professed Catholic, so I decided to choose Catholic as my religion. Despite in my primary school I considered my religion was Protestant, I chose Catholic religion in junior high school because I used to know Catholic teaching in my primary school, so it is rather difficult if I chose Protestant because I did not know very well the Protestant teaching; I did not go to both Protestant church and Protestant Sunday school since third grade of primary school.
My family had moved to several houses whose various neighbors in their religion, ethnic, and culture. I knew about Muslim when we lived in a rented house for two years. In that time I was in kindergarten and first grade of primary school. We had a close relationship to our neighbors whose Islam as their religion. I could experience Ramadhan/Fast Month for Islam because I had been intermingling with my Muslim friends to in their religiosity such as eating and drinking special foods in the evening, hearing their prayer in the morning, noon and evening. It seemed that I had a good impression about my Muslim friends even though my family did not have tendency to profess Islam. I think it is a common dialogue in daily life of my early age.
When I was in junior high school, I had more experience about other religions both Islam and Protestant. As many as 90% my friends in junior high school professed Islam. I used to hear and experience how they prayed in their Muslim way in common meeting such as ceremonial on Monday morning and when we prayed together. I did not feel as a minority in my school because we had a mutual understanding as friends without considering what is our religion. Even my classmates, who were mostly Muslim often time came to my house to study together. I experienced a good environment living together with my junior high school friends whose different religions. One of my Protestant friends once told me that Catholic religion has a mistreatment toward Protestant in the past regarding the confession and other teachings. At that time, I could not answer or understand what my friend meant because my knowledge about Catholicism was limited. So, I just kept quiet and without answer to defense my Catholic religion.
After three years in junior high school, I continued my study in public high school in which had a same custom, most of the students professed Islam. Different to my good experience knowing other religions in my junior high school, in high school I had a quite suspicious experience dealing with other religions. There was an Islam organization among the Muslim student who sometimes issued a bulletin provoked other religions as a ‘kafir’ (pagan) and anti-Islam. Moreover, after I graduated from high school, I heard that most of Catholic students did not want to enter this public school because of bad treatment of some Islam teachers toward other students who professed different religions. I still had a good experience dealing with my friends whose different religions. I had a mutual relationship to my friends in some school activities such as theater, scout and other things. We respected each other and regarded our own religion.
In my own neighborhood, I had a good experience to celebrate and respect our religion celebration. When there was Islam celebration, I used to go to celebrate it together with them and we were as Christians and Catholics also invited other religions to attend our celebration such as Christmas.
I can say that there was a suspicion and misunderstanding among students and teachers in my high school because there was no dialogue or communication among ourselves. There was no event to unite us in a good mutual understanding regards their religions, so that there was a bad talk about the others. One thing that made Catholic and Christian students felt minor and suspicion was some Islam girl students wore scarf (jilbab) at the school. We felt that they had an exclusive group and treatment toward others, such as they only intermingled with their same group. The other prejudices appeared because of the plurality of ethnic and culture. The Catholic and Protestant students were mostly Chinese descent whose stereotype negative thinking about Muslims who are mostly the indigenous people. It is not merely their mistake but it has a social and historical background. For many years, there has been hatred among the Chinese descent and the indigenous people, so it inherits to our generations. From our parents, we heard about a cynical opinion about Islam and the indigenous people. It seems that the problem is not merely about religions but much wider and deeper in many aspects of life such as economic, social, political and history.
In my training as a seminarian in the Xaverian Missionaries Society, I had a good experience in the Interreligious Dialogue in Indonesia, especially in Jakarta. I had a ministry for two years in this field. I had a good relationship with an Interreligious Dialogue organization whose various religions such as Islam, Protestant, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhs, Bahaii, and local beliefs. Even I had a good time stay for six days in a Theravada Buddhism monastery in Mendut, Central Java. With this stay in a monastery, I could learn more about the way of life of Buddhist monk (Theravada), even the leader of Theravada named Bhikku Pannavaro welcomed me warmly and he showed me many things in his cloister room. The good experience to dialogue with other religions is not only my own experience but also belongs to my religious community, the community of Xaverian student in philosophy house in Jakarta. We had some agenda to dialogue with other religions, sometimes we visited their place and sometimes we invited them to come to our house. It is a constant endeavor of our religious community to have interreligious dialogue. One of my reasons to come to Chicago to continue my theology study toward missionary-religious-priesthood in the Xaverian Missionaries is because in Chicago there are wide various religions, culture and ethnic, so that I can continue to learn about the others. I am interested to this field because in Asia, we have three-dimensional dialogues in our ministry, namely, dialogue with other religions, dialogue with the cultures and dialogue with the poverty.
All in all, my experience, which is good mostly in my early life dealing with the otherness, is a good modal to continue my vocation in my religious congregation to bring interreligious dialogue as a good way to do our mission as missionaries.


3) Hari Minggu Biasa ke-25, 19 September 2004

Senin, 13 September 2004. Pagi ini kami mengadakan misa pukul 7 dipimpin oleh Pastor Pascal dan selama seminggu ini kami (Pastor Pascal, Igans dan saya) sebagai satu tim bertugas dalam aktivitas liturgy di komunitas kami di rumah studi teologi Xaverian di Chicago. Pagi hari saya mengirimkan surat suara untuk Pemilu Presiden putaran kedua lewat pos ke alamat Konsulat Jenderal RI di Chicago kemudian saya pergi ke toko buku LSTC. Saya mengikuti kuliah pukul 10 pagi di CTU yaitu Sakramen I diajar oleh Fragomeni. Di perpustakaan saya membaca sebuah buku spiritualitas berjudul Etty Hillesum. Pukul 1 siang saya mengikuti kuliah lagi berjudul Sakramen II diberikan oleh McCarron dan kami menonton sebuah film berjudul Babette. Sore hari saya menyelesaikan bacaan buku saya tentang Etty Hillseum hingga halaman 231. Malam hari saya membaca beberapa artikel dan buku untuk kuliah Interreligious Dialogue.

Selasa, 14 September 2004. Setelah misa pagi, saya pergi ke Wisma Norbertin (Bill Kelly) untuk matakuliah refleksi teologi dalam kelompok yang dipandu oleh seorang formator SVD bernama Pastor Mark Schramm, SVD. Kami bersharing membagikan kisah pengalaman kami seputar latar belakang keluarga, panggilan dan kerasulan yang sudah kami jalankan dan harapan serta perhatian kami untuk masa depan. Kami menyelesaikan pertemuan ini pukul 10.10 pagi dan untuk minggu depan kami akan bertemu di Wisma Claretian. Tengah hari saya mengerjakan paper saya untuk matakuliah Spiritualitas dan Sacramen I dan II. Dari jam 7 hingga 9.45 malam saya mengikuti kuliah Interreligious Dialogue dan kami mempresentasikan pengalaman kami masing-masing dalam Interreligious Dialogue sebagaimana kami tulis dalam paper kami. Dosen yang mengajar kuliah ini adalah seorang Chinese asal Malaysia bernama Edmund Chia.

Rabu, 15 September 2004. Hari ini adalah Pesta Bunda Maria Berdukacita. Pukul 7.30 pagi kami berdoa pagi bersama di kapel dan sore harinya pukul 5 kami mengadakan misa dan kali ini saya kebagian tugas untuk menyampaikan khotbah atau renungan berkenaan dengan pesta hari ini serta pengalaman devosi dan iman saya akan Bunda Maria. Pagi hari saya ikut kuliah Sakramen I dan jam 1 siang kuliah Sakramen II. Malam hari saya belajar tentang Etty Hillesum untuk matakuliah spiritualitas besok pagi.

Kamis, 16 September 2004. Setelah menghadiri misa pukul 7 pagi saya pergi ke CTU untuk mengikuti kuliah Foundations and Methods study spirituality. Kami mengadakan diskusi dalam kelas dan kelompok mengenai spiritualitas Etty Hillesum dalam buku berjudul Uninterupted Life. Sore hari saya dan Ignas memasak untuk komunitas kami, kali ini kami memasak nasi goring, ikan dan sup Thailand bernama Tom Yum. Sebelum adorasi pukul 5 sore kami sudah menyelesaikan masakan kami. Adorasi dipimpin oleh Pastor Pascal dan Ignas mengiringi dengan gitar. Kami mengadakan pertemuan komunitas membahas proyek hidup bersama dalam dimensi kerasulan dan studi yang selesai pukl 9.10 malam. Di kamar saya sendiri saya mengetik jurnal ini di komputer mencoba untuk setia seperti Etty Hillesum yang setia menulis jurnal hariannya sebagaimana saya baca tentang riwayat hidupnya di sebuah buku untuk kelas spiritualitas saya.

Jumat, 17 September 2004. Setelah misa pukul 7 pagi, saya mengikuti workshop di CTU yang dibawakan oleh James dan Evelyn Whiteheads mengenai Refleksi Teologi dalam Ministry. Workshop berlangsung dari jam 9 pagi hingga jam 4 sore dan dihadiri oleh kebanyakan mahasiswa teologi tahun pertama dan kedua sebagai suatu kewajiban. Pukul 5 sore dengan paper lectio divina buatan Pastor Victor, saya memimpin lectio divina dalam komunitas saya. Malam hari saya membaca beberapa artikel dalam kuliah Dialog antar agama.

Sabtu, 18 September 2004. Kami mengadakan misa pukul 7.30 pagi lalu saya mengerjakan paper untuk kuliah Ministry Practicum dan sempat mencuci baju serta menyeterikanya. Dharmawan dan saya beserta Mbak Syafa dan Hasnan pergi ke rumah SVD di Techny untuk menghadiri misa kaul kekal kesembilan frater SVD termasuk dua frater SVD asal Indonesia yaitu Sony dan Francis. Dharmawan mengemudi mobil putih milik Syafa menuju ke tempat ini. Misa dimulai pukul 3 sore dan berakhir pukul 5 sore. Acara ini dihadiri oleh cukup banyak orang juga para umat Katolik Indonesia di Chicago dan sekitarnya. Setelah makan malam bersama, kami (Dharmawan, Petrus, Syafa, Hasnan, Edi and Liza, and I) pulang ke rumah. Malam hari hingga pukul 1 dini hari saya mengerjakan paper untuk dikumpulkan minggu depan ini.

Minggu, 19 September 2004. Pagi ini saya bangun terlambat, pukul 8.30 pagi lalu secara pribadi berdoa di kamar, kemudian pukul 10 pagi ikut misa di Gereja Santo Thomas Rasul dekat rumah kami di sini. Siang hingga sore hari saya mengetik beberapa paper saya dan siap untuk dikumpulkan hari-hari yang akan dating ini. Nampaknya semester kali ini cukup menyita waktu saya untuk mengerjakan tugas-tugas bacaan dan paper dari CTU, lebih banyak dari yang sudah pernah kualami. Setelah berdoa sore dan sharing bersama dalam komunitas, kami makan malam dengan menu Chinese food yang dibeli oleh Pastor Rocco.