Cattle on Highden farm
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Cattle on Highden farm |
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 Highden. Sat. 19th April ’69. Dear Mum & Dad & France, As I mentioned last week – we had a change of jobs. All my jobs are the same -Music, Bk-Binding, Rose Garden, Car cleaning. However, I am no longer on laundry. (I was on it last term with Robert Devlin) – instead Kerry Maher & Tim McCann are on it. Tim Donoghue is Monitor (i.e. he gives out the letters, etc. etc. & is generally in charge). Murray Cox in Imml (pronounced Im-mall) which means Inside Master of Manual Labour. Tony O’Connor is Omml (Outside Master of M.L.) Maka Tatafu (who was Monitor last term) is Master of Ceremonies. John Owens is Sacristan. John Lomu is Bellman (this is the worst job). Kerry Maher is Lector (he organizes the readings at meals) – & there are a lot of other “smaller” jobs. We have also changed rooms, places in Chapel, and places in the dining room – because everyone gets annoyed looking at the same things all the time, so we change the view. I still sit in the same place in Chapel. Were you affected by the hurricane at Levin? We had a strong gale here, but it was nothing much. The weather has turned suddenly colder now, & we are beginning to get frosts. Fr. Mannix stayed here for the last couple of days. He & Fr. Bennett went down to Wellington to the Apostolic Delegate’s Welcome & Mass on Tuesday. They are still away now on Provincial Chapter business. (The Provincial Chapter is where all the “Top Brass” of the Society in N.Z. meet every few years to discuss things before the General Chapter in Rome in October). I “see” where the Blue & White came out. We haven’t been given it yet to read, but we were sent several copies. I see Leo has quite a lot of photos! The Brothers have started to get the cattle in now – from Masterton I think. They have got about 200 so far (about another 600 to get). They are very unsettled at the moment & make a lot of noise. Last Sunday I gave a sermon in class on the Rosary – it went quite well, except that I had my hands in my pockets! At the moment I am learning to play the ukulele, and also to speak Tongan. Ironically, the first four sentences I put together were – ‘Oku ou kata – I laugh. ‘Oku ou lolotonga kata – I am laughing. Na’a ku kata – I laughed. Te’u kata – I will laugh. All of which practically sums up everyones Novitiate! Well, I had better ‘alu ki falelotu (go to the house of prayer). ‘Ofa atu (Love from) Bruce |