| 1. The front of the house. Taken Sunday
after lunch. Would have been nicer with a blue sky -- maybe next year! |
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| 2. The main chapel. Again Sunday
morning. Taken from the third floor oratory. It was so dark, I had to rest
the camera on the front railing to keep the picture from blurring. I guess
the railing slants...! |
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| 3. Statue of St. Isaac Jogues (at least
that's what we were always told!). You'll have to expand the picture
to see it, but above the statue are the words "Aeterna non caduca." We
were Dom Maruca's first class of Novices (our Secundi had had Fr. Gavigan
for their first year). So, of course, the quote was immediately changed
(at least in our worldview) to "Maruca non caduca." |
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| 4. From the front road. |
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| 5. Novice side from the road to Lake Goupil.
Seems to me there used to be a few more handball courts that should've
been in this view. |
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| 6. Junior side from (what used to be) the
Novices' Frascati. Frascati ain't there no more -- someone said it
burned down. |
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| 7. Statue of René Goupil. Near the Lake
of the same name. |
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| 8. Lake of the same name. There was a
disgusting scum/slime in the lake that day. Someone's black lab (Len
Simons', I think) jumped exuberantly into the lake and starting swimming
right after I took this picture. Cleared out a good bit of the scum, he
did. Needless to say, there are no longer goldfish in Lake Goupil. |
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| 9. The road to Lake Goupil. (which I
believe is right around the bend.) |
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| 10. St. Joseph's Grotto. Tucked neatly
behind Mary's Grotto. I almost forgot it was there -- never really spent
any time there... |
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| 11. Mary's Grotto. On the other hand...
Sight of the dreaded (at least for Secundi) May sermons. I had to intone whatever
various hymn we sang after the sermon and could occasionally be heard
making barely audible cheep-like vocalizations during the sermon, trying
to find the right pitch. I have a vague memory of once locking someone in
the altar alcove under the statue, but I can't remember the details. Lousy
May sermon I think... |
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| 12. View of the house coming back from the
Grotto. Which, if you'd just delivered your May sermon after weeks of practice and worry, was a vision
of incredible beauty. I remember the walks back to the house on those
gorgeous May evenings with remarkable clarity. A deep serenity I've rarely
experienced since. |
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| 13. The gazebo near the (olim) Novices'
Frascati. I don't think I entered the gazebo my whole time at
Wernersville. But whenever I read the word "gazebo," I see this one in my
mind... |
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| 14. The "park" behind the house. Over
the fence was the German Church cemetery. We must have some name for this
place, but I'm damned if I can think of it. Ernie R. showed me a
place on the fence where you could sit with your back against an adjacent
tree and gaze onto the park or the cemetery. It was one of my favorite
spots (I had more than a few...!) Sadly, I could not find it again... |
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| 15. Still Life with Statue and The World.
The road to Goupil is off to the right. Frequently at night from the
upper cloister, I would study the headlights of the cars in the far
distance and wonder where the drivers were going and what they were
thinking of at that moment. And wonder what their lives were like. What
their hopes and fears were. I remember that they felt oddly present to me... |
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| 16. Looking to your left as you approached
the house from the Grotto. Again, taken that dreary Sunday afternoon. |
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| 17. The Novices' Library. The part of
the library to the right of the divider shelves as you entered. The door
is to the right, windows to the left. The day I took this, the shelves to
the left of the divider held a boatload of deGuibert's ("Priciples of
Ignatian Spirituality" or some such title. Our lives as Novices revolved
around this thick green book, known affectionately as "dickey bird.") They
were pretty battered. I don't know how many classes of Novices used them;
our class was the first... |
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| 18. What used to be the Novices' Conference
Room. On the second floor that is. We used the first floor conference
room exclusively during postulancy and then for academic stuff. The second
floor conference room was for P. Magis' more-than-daily conferences. Also
for general and particular chapter. Once, for several weeks (and for some
god-knows-why reason) the Socius, Fr. Buckius, was reading to us about
French history. One of the bros "spontaneously" asked the meaning of "kow-tow"
and the Socius asked me to give the class a demonstration - which I did
with rare thespian relish. I still think it was a set-up. |
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| 19. View of the Novices' cloister. From
my first room as a Novice - 110 I'm pretty sure (they were renovating the
Novices' wing when I took this picture and the door frames containing the
room numbers had been removed.) I can't tell you how many hours I spent
looking out this window -- then again, I guess I don't have to... |
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