My laptop word-processor and printer are up and running, and my e-mail is sending and receiving (except when Excite Mail closes down for repairs, as during the past few days), so I feel that I am in business again, after leaving the Roman office in December 1997.
Since then, I have spent a year on sabbatical leave in Israel, and returned to Australia on January 1 this year. I came directly to our Campbelltown community and took up my appointment as National Assistant to the Secular Franciscan Order in Oceania.
I have had very little contact with relatives and friends since leaving Rome. Much of the mail sent to me was lost or returned to the senders. I had rare access to e-mail facilities, but when I opened my Inbox a few weeks ago, I picked up some long overdue messages, together with nearly a hundred items of trash mail.
Now, after four months since returning, I am well settled into a bedroom and an office. Our "Maryfields" friary is beautifully situated in a country setting, but not for long. Already the plans are drawn up for subdividing the land around us for housing. When I came hem forty-three years ago to enter the novitiate, we really were out in the country. Now there is a full-blown university over the road
It is an awesome experience to return to the place where I entered the Order. Whatever possessed a not yet nineteen-year-old to take such a huge step that determined the rest of his life? Viewed through the eyes of a sixty-two-year-old, it is seen to be extraordinary. I thank God that he acted so strongly in me at the time, and that he has always stayed with me.
We are eight priests in the community, with one shared task: to provide daily Mass and homily and sundry conferences to the Poor Clare Monastery up the hill. But we are all transients, engaged in various apostolates inside and outside the friary, as far distant as Sarawak, where Fr Angelo has just gone for five months.
My main work as National Assistant to the Secular Franciscan Order in Oceania and as Regional Assistant to the SFO in South Australia (where we no longer have friars, but are still responsible for two local SFO Fraternities) is slowly taking shape. There are loads of other works that I have been doing or called on to do: celebrated Holy Week in a country parish, provide weekend supplies of Masses in parishes, make weekly visits to Sydney to accompany a Franciscan student through a course of Franciscan reading, have celebrated a cousin's marriage, and conducted the funeral of a close friend, have preached on various special occasions.
Yes, there is plenty to do, but I will have to concentrate more on doing the job of National Assistant to the SFO. I worked on the appointment of Regional Assistants and local Assistants. I attended the National Council meeting in Perth in February, and attend the monthly meetings of the National Executive in Paddington. I gave a conference at the NSW Regional Day at Narellan on May 1. The Conference of National Assistants is coming together.
Contact: Jack Smith: phone 61-2-62583824 fax 61-2-62583151 jacksmth@ozemail.com.au