On Housecleaning

Lake Nicaragua from an island fort

It’s 1 p.m. Friday afternoon, and I am a tad weary. Our two weeks of Spanish class ended an hour ago.

The first week was exciting. The second week, less so.

If I remember correctly, Thomas Merton says that when it comes to prayer, we will be beginners all our lives.

And, a decade ago, my spiritual director expanded Merton’s concept with a comparison. At first in our spiritual housecleaning, he said, we have dim bulbs. We brush away cobwebs and mop a little; then God turns on a few more lights and we see that our home is not clean after all. We clean some more. Then come more lights. And so it goes.

Last week I thought I made good Spanish progress. The pieces of the past year’s study with CDs and Rosetta Stone began to fit together. Then, this week we looked at tenses, reflexives, pronomials, indicatives, conditionals. . . .

And Raoul said he wouldn’t even touch subjunctive; that requires a month.

This week in Spanish class, Raul turned on a bank of a thousand lights. In Spanish, as in holiness, I will be a beginner all my life.

I hope our friends in Chinandega will be forgiving.

In Spanish and in life, I am grateful for grace.