Wednesday, September 15, 2004

My Summer at Rosedale By Elizabeth Cheffers

I am of an idealistic turn of mind; perhaps I might even rightly be classified as a helpless romantic. I won’t try and deny it. My friends and family don’t even mention the words “fairy tale” around me because they know I will go off on one of my speeches about how important good children’s literature is. My life’s ambition is to be an English teacher, and so when I heard about a program run by Opus Dei called Rosedale I signed up without a moment’s hesitation.

Rosedale is the name of an all girls educational program in the South Bronx which has as its main focus a summer academic achievement program for girls in fifth through eighth grade. For five weeks in the summer they accept eighty girls into the program and give them classes in reading, writing, math, drama, cultural geography and character. I was asked to teach the writing class, and was naturally thrilled. And although they explained exactly what our responsibilities were going to be before we arrived, I’ll admit I had no idea of what that actually meant.

I think it hit me when we were decorating our classrooms before the first day of classes. I was hanging up posters of the various parts of speech and humming to myself when I saw the teacher’s desk out of the corner of my eye all alone in front of the blackboard. “Wait a minute”, I thought. “That’s my desk!” I’m eighteen years old and have ten younger siblings, so I thought I understood what responsibility was before I signed up for Rosedale, but when I saw that desk I suddenly realized what a huge responsibility it was to teach these girls. Each of the teachers teaches six classes a day, takes the girls to daily mass, and is assigned seven girls to mentor weekly. That first day in the classroom and in the days that followed I realized that I was being asked for more than I could give.

Once I realized this, however, teaching became much simpler. I had been receiving formation through Opus Dei since I was in high school and I knew, at least in my mind, that God asks all of us to give more than we have so that we can realize that without Him we can do nothing. Saint Josemaria’s words in The Way “Don’t forget, silly child, that love has made you almighty” helped me to be able to look at Him and laugh when I stumbled in class and said the wrong thing or when I lost my temper with a particularly difficult girl. I lived those five weeks relying completely on the grace of God to keep me from giving up on myself. I came to understand in a very real way the meaning of Saint Josemaria’s well known phrase, “ the glorious freedom of the children of God”. To be a contemplative, I understood a little better, to be completely free in the midst of a hostile world, is as simple as being aware of yourself as a child in her father’s presence.

Of course I must admit that although I had moments when I came to understand better the grace of God I also had moments when I turned it down and fell apart. By the sixth class of the day all I wanted to do was collapse somewhere and throw the Easy Grammar book out the window. I felt discouraged and depressed when I came to know the girls better and some of the horrible circumstances they were living in. I felt that as an adult I had a responsibility to change something, to try to make it better, but I couldn’t. One of the girls I ate lunch with lived in the projects and one day mentioned that the night before she and her mother had stood outside their building for hours while the police tried to take away a sniper who was hiding inside, going from apartment to apartment. She took a bite of her sandwich and confided in me that it made her upset to see the needles and vomit in the elevator and lobby, but there wasn’t anywhere else to go. I almost thought I was going to be sick when I thought of all I take for granted.

Of course there were the good moments too. One day one of my younger girls shyly handed me a love poem she had written to me while I was correcting her paper. We took the girls on excursions every Friday, and I’ll never forget the smiles on some of their faces when they went swimming at a beach for the first time. The best advice that the veterans of the program gave to the teachers when we came was not to get too worried about educational philosophies and our curriculum, but to look at each girl individually and think and pray about what they needed from us. The best moments were when I would try to make a special effort to be gentle with a particularly shy or sad girl and she would give me a timid smile that would break your heart with the trust written there.

With such an intense workday all of the teachers needed to be able to go somewhere afterward and relax. We were all living in a center of Opus Dei in New Rochelle that was a true home to all of us. The women living there welcomed us into their home, fed us, cleaned up after us, made sure a snack was waiting for us when we got home and offered up their work for ours. This sense of family and belonging helped all of us to be happy even though we were all far away from home. They offered us the opportunity to receive the sacraments daily, to take classes to improve our teaching skills and most importantly they offered us the opportunity to live with Jesus, present in the chapel.

Perhaps the most memorable part of Rosedale was, at least for me, the friends I made there. The teachers all rely on each other for help, consolation and enthusiasm. We would give ourselves a pep talk in the van riding to school cheering, “Who’s in charge? We are! We are! Who knows more? We do! We do!” At night or on weekends we would go into New York City and see the sites ( the free ones). Playing tag in the pouring rain, drinking way too much iced coffee and sometimes just putting my head in my friends’ laps and wailing at the end of a long day are my most treasured memories.

In all, Rosedale was not just a traditional service project, “a good experience”. It taught me how much I have to learn and how much I have to give. It made me want to teach for the rest of my life. More than that though, the spirit of Opus Dei that sustains it inspired me to want to be a saint, no matter what I do. My favorite quote of Saint Josemaria’s sums it up exactly, “ Dream, and your dreams will fall short.”

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Trainee Tells of her Time at ShellbourneTraining Program by Helen Keefe

I came to the Training Program at Shellbourne expecting something similar to boot camp. Everyone I talked to seemed to emphasize the workload without mentioning anything fun related. So on the plane ride from Boston , I prepared myself for the worst, praying that I would make it through. Little did I know of the life changing experience I was about to encounter.

On arriving at the airport in Chicago , I met the five other girls who were doing the program with me: one from California , one from Spain , and three from Wisconsin . They all exceeded my age but I quickly got to know them. A regular day for us consisted of early Mass, set times for cleaning and working in the departments, a talk on a virtue or a special topic (i.e. time management, napkin folding, etc.), some free time in the afternoon, the rosary, and finally the get-together at night. There were four departments- the laundry, the pantry, and the two sides of the kitchen: the hot side and the cold side. On certain days we would go on excursions to different places – e.g., Chicago, the dunes of Lake Michigan - in which we got to see a little of the splendor of the Midwest. We girls in the program were considered part of the Administration of Shellbourne for our brief three week stay.

After spending three weeks in the center, I came to know a lot about the spirit of Opus Dei as lived by the women in the Administration. I realized that those women are the mothers of the Work. They make Shellbourne a home with such motherly care, allowing the people who come to focus better on their study for their course or pray more effectively without distractions while on retreat. The Administration treats everyone who comes to Shellbourne the same way because every human being has dignity as a child of God. A mother’s work in the home is dignified because she is called by God to do it well -- the Administration has the same underlying spirit. They do their work as professionals -- each meal is consistently excellent, the laundry always ironed and folded neatly, and the rooms are constantly well kept. It is by no means easy -- there is a lot of manual labor to do. However, because the work is physical, and not necessarily mind engaging, it is possible to do the work and carry on a conversation with God at the same time. I realized how much prayer the women on the Administration do, because they can and because all the members of the Work need it in order to carry out their apostolate. I also learned how big the field of hospitality service really is -- how much there is to learn. One basic thing I picked up is that a lot of little things make a big difference. As St. Josemarma said, “A little act, done for love, is worth so much!”(The Way 814)

What did I love best about Shellbourne? I liked so many things, it is hard to say. But one major thing that sticks out in my memory was the atmosphere at Shellbourne -- it is very much like a family. When we worked together, we were a team, but during free time and get-togethers, I felt very much at home with everyone. I wasn’t homesick for a minute, though it was the longest time I had ever spent away from home. Another thing I enjoyed was getting to know the other girls on the program. We laughed so much together that even now when something reminds me of something we found funny, I still laugh about it! I also loved the actual work itself. I found that I love doing household work and how much I can improve in it -- it is really an art in a lot of aspects.

I would love to spend another summer at Shellbourne or at another conference center. I encourage all high school girls to think about doing the program. You learn something about everything; I use the techniques I learned at Shellbourne probably everyday. Plus, the people that I worked with at Shellbourne are incredible. It was summer experience that I will never forget!