 Thank you for joining us for the latest event in our personal journeys theory where we learn the stories of some of Fairfield's most beloved Jesuits. My name is Jessica Colligan and I'm happy to welcome you on behalf of Fairfield's Alumni Relations Office and I'm pleased to be joined this evening by Father Jerry Bloschek, who is our Vice President for Mission and Identity, and Father Jim Bowler, who I'm sure you all know from his decades of service on Fairfield's campus. We are so excited to have Father Bowler with us tonight and before I hand things over I want to just ask that you please keep your microphones muted throughout the conversation just to minimize distraction for our speakers and our guests and now I will turn things over to Father Jerry. I can't see everybody who's here but the faces that I do see. I'm so delighted to be able to see friends and aficionados of Jim Bowler and they are innumerable so I'm very grateful that you were able to join us. As many of you know four years ago we inaugurated here at Fairfield the Bowler Award and the Bowler Award recognized the contributions of a person who has contributed mightily to maintaining, fostering, strengthening the Ignatian spirit and especially accessibility to Ignatian spirituality here on the Fairfield campus but for the larger community here in Fairfield and Connecticut. It only made sense that the first person to be granted to be given the Bowler Award was the eponymous founder Father Jim Bowler who many of you know because of his work as the founder of Fairfield Center for Ignatian Spirituality. Not everybody on the campus knows that there is a statue on the campus to honor Jim Bowler. Not a facsimile of this handsome gentleman on the screen with me but it is a statue of St. Kevin erected in Jim's honor by alumnus Kevin Conlust and his family. This statue was erected because the day that we honored Jim I began my introduction to the honor by quoting a poem by you see what happens when you get nervous by by Seamus Heaney and the poem by Seamus Heaney is entitled St. Kevin and the Blackbird. Let me just quote part of it for you and you'll understand why it was so intuitively obvious that this poem was about Jim Bowler and when Kevin Conlust he has heard the poem he said yes we must honor Jim Bowler with this image and then there was St. Kevin and the Blackbird. The saint is kneeling hand stretched out you remember that gesture of Jim's inside his cell but the cell was too narrow one upturned palm is out the window stiff as a cross beam when the Blackbird lands and lays in it and settles down to nest. Kevin feels the warm eggs the small breast the tucked neat head and claws and finding himself linked into the network of eternal life is moved to pity. Now Kevin must hold his hand like a branch stretched out in the sun and rain for weeks until the younger hatch and the fledged are flown and the poem goes on to describe Kevin and Kevin's willingness to reach out his hands in all circumstances to foster the growth of the young. That was Jim Bowler and whether those were young students at Fairfield Prep or young students or young faculty or young spiritual directors Jim Bowler always had his hand stretched out willing to sustain and nourish and foster the full life of everyone who came in contact with him and so when we were considering whom we should invite to be if you want exemplars or points of entrance into the spirit of Saint Ignatius and the Jesuits how could we not invite back to his home Jim Bowler and so Jim we are truly truly grateful that you accepted our invitation to be with us. Jim your time at Fairfield extended over decades correct when did you first derive at Fairfield? As a Jesuits scholastic in 1967 first of all let me say hello to everybody and let me assure everybody that just take away 50% of what Jerry has to say to me and you might be approaching reality but I came as a Jesuits scholastic to the prep in 1967 1967 to 70 and Jim what did you teach at prep? I taught history and economics. Did you enjoy it? Yes I didn't know anything about Fairfield Prep I remember throwing a bag in the car and saying well I can take two or three years of anything but it turned out in so many ways prep turned out to be my life. Wow wow wow in what sense Jim? Well after I was at prep I had a very good experience of regency I mean it was just wonderful and the number of weddings the number of prep graduates weddings I've done it was just an incredible privilege but when I they they sent me off to study management science and educational administration. After your time at prep chairman before. After I left prep okay and the interesting thing is it was a wonderful opportunity with because they brought in the center of human relations at Boston University brought in these top-notch people from the Sloan School of Management at MIT but each week we had to apply what they said to a particular institution and so the only institution I knew was Fairfield Prep and so I had all these position papers that I had done on Fairfield Prep you know what it could be what versus was little realizing that in 1930 at 36 years old I'd be back there to implement it. Wow how did that happen Jim so after you went after regency you went to theology you were ordained. I went to Boston University then theology and then I was ordained I was on the provincial staff for three years okay in charge of secondary education and planning and you mentioned somebody asked about the peppermill well I came down to Fairfield to do my visitation and Ray Powers the head of prep at that time invited me out to dinner at the peppermill. Which later became your office correct? Well however not quite but he told me that night that he was leaving the Jesuits and that he had suggested my name to Father Townfish Gerald to take his place well I was shocked I had the highest respect for Ray Powers I thought he was going to ask me to take Ned Powers job and be chaplain and I was ready to say yes but at any rate that was how I ended up being head of Fairfield Prep for seven years and a chance to implement that vision and somebody once said that the management structure I put in there is still basically the one they're using. That's terrific that's terrific Jim what did what did you enjoy most about prep do you have any memories that of individuals or of the students obviously it has a huge place in your heart how did prep you know grab such a place in your in your story and in your heart. In many ways prep was like a religious experience for me let me say why but I went off to tertiary ship after prep was making my long retreat okay tertiary ship is the very last year of Jesuit training involves a lot of a lot of prayer and reflection and one of those is making the spiritual exercises and the first few days of making the spiritual exercises you know it's getting in touch with where God has been in your life and I just had incredible experiences of the many blessings of God that came my way when I was at prep. Wow. I mean people on the board extraordinary faculty students friends and in many ways there's a basis of friendship that I still have with people today that's based on prep and so also I think one of the things I appreciated about prep at that time there was a lot of research and development going on for Jesuit secondary education and I was on that committee for research and development while at the same time being able to implement it at prep and that was that was energizing in life giving what a great opportunity right so there was and also I think certain things that one kind of commitment I made with God was you know God made with me going there as long as I promoted the faith that does justice God would be with me and I think I was able to incorporate the justice dimension into the dynamic of prep like service program senior seminar on economics social justice you know which are all you know key things of being a Jesuit today when did you leave prep Jim I left prep in 83 and where did you end up going then well that was another very interesting it was church leadership okay but that didn't begin till I left prep because the main thing I wanted to get into was the whole notion of people's relationship with God and one of the places I ended up during the first semester of that year church leadership was the CG Young Institute in Zurich, Switzerland what so you left for you left us here in Fairfield and this passion that you had to do further research and and work in the relationship between the individual psyche soul God took you to young to the young institute how did that happen Jim how did you get interested in young well I have a close friend friend friend maples we're here again together and one night he was in Chicago studying to become a union analyst that was in his room and we were having a few scotches and I was going through some stuff at the time and I was telling him about it and he just take out books and quote you this you that you another thing and I said I got to know more about this guy and so I came to I came to really get involved even from the point of view of spiritual direction with the union and so I knew that there was a potential there I never done on me the reason till later on the respect you don't have for a gracious and some of the work he had done on the spiritual exercises but I knew that was the area I wanted to get into I had to make a decision who would be who would have the priority Ignatius or young and Ignatius took the priority but that whole grounding and that was not my first time at the young institute I was back there again that had such an impact on me personally and on my ability to be with people and also to explore the depths of what Ignatius has to offer that's fascinating Jim that's fascinating how how how what how did young give you a different or or a deeper entree into Ignatius I mean this is the kind of a conversation that could take us all evening but I I'm sorry I can't resist asking you to at least give us some hints about what you saw as a young's contribution to your appreciation and practice of Ignatius spirituality I would say Jesus is deep within and there's all sorts of blocks we have to him that we have to work through in our life and young gives us a language a language for that you like oftentimes I'm accompanying people and I don't use the language or anything like that but I do see elements of young very very much present and it kind of if very much influences how I listen to people um and nine out of ten people don't know I know a thing about young but um but I also had a profound effect on me personally I think I can honestly say I'm a Jesuit today because of my involvement with young that's who I am and that's just the relationship between psychology and spirituality you know but the bottom of the line is keeping Jesus alive in my life has been really enhanced by Carl Jung thank you Jim may I just remind you that if you have questions that you'd like me to pose to Jim uh Jessica uh or I write just you can send them to chat is that right Jess yep absolutely and I'll I'll you know I'll I'll be the uh the passer on of these questions to Jim Jim um so after studying at the Jung Institute for a semester and then finishing your internship uh that's a time when a young Jesuit is then usually given a new assignment uh were you sent were we lucky enough to have you sent back to Fairfield right away no okay I wanted to get involved in psychology and spirituality but Ray Sorge the president of chevres high school uh dropped dead suddenly and I was I was sent there for three years as president and I should never have gone there it was it was poor discernment I did under obedience but it kind of took me off track of what I really wanted to do and to make a long story short I ended up when I got out of chevres having a fellowship with Jim Fowler at the cantor school of theology in um Atlanta which was just a at every university and was a rich experience and then got invited to join the staff at Guelph which is kind of an R and D center at that time in Ignatian spirituality and worked with people like John English and John Belkley for six years which was just mind blowing and then I came back to Fairfield Jim that's an extraordinary trajectory for those of you who don't know Guelph was very much the Ignatian spirituality the fundamental texts the original ways of giving the exercises of St. Ignatius had I think Jim it's fair to say had largely been lost and for quite a number of centuries and the folks that Jim was mentioning in Guelph which is a Jesuit spirituality center not too far outside of Toronto were really the pioneers in rediscovering not only the texts but exploring the modalities of giving the spiritual exercises especially individually directed right Jim yes it was a wonderful opportunity I enjoyed Canada too it was nice to live in Canada you think Canadians are nicer than Americans it's always but I did my tertiary ship in Canada too and I thought I'm going to stay here forever well let's put it this way they're they're more gentle I mean it is the culture is much different than you might think of when I coming back to the United States I thought it would be a breeze but there was much more readjustment to our culture here you know from Canada you were there how many years Jim six six six and of course you having had your Jungian experience you were bringing all that into this mix of ideas and discovery and and research that was going on at Guelph was that was that welcomed by the staff at Guelph unbelievably so I was I would describe my years there as where I learned the most and gave the most there was just an openness in the dynamic I learned so much there the whole patrimony that you mentioned of you know Ignatian patrimony but then there was an openness to some of the things I could bring and it was just a wonderful experience so I got the call from the provincial which I was not expecting inviting me to think about coming back to Fairfield. Jim before you get to that one of your friends asks to you I think in a spirit of friendship whether you would want to say anything about how you integrated what happened to Cheveris in the trajectory of your own development oh wow it did a psychological and spiritual damage to me that took me a while to recover from okay you know I mean it was I should not have gone there although I did it under obedience and um those years were my worst experiences at Jesuit I mean um and so it just took me some time to recover. So was Guelph a good place for you to to recover from that experience? Guelph I also think Emery Emery I think oh Emery. Jim Fowler who was the who was a very close friend of mine in the charge of the faith development center at Emery so saw how I was and okay arranged that for me. So having had that experience of the questionable results of holy obedience how did you feel when the provincial asked you to think about coming back to Fairfield? Guelph I prayed about it and I came up with you know unlike Cheveris I knew I could go either way I could stay at Guelph or I could go back to Fairfield it was incredibly nebulous about what I was going back to. Here at Fairfield you weren't sure. No I mean the provincial told me to talk to Al Kelly, John Higgins and Tom Regan and come up with some things uh what basically it was was mission and identity but we all had to work trying to find out what that was and how that proved to be a wonderful experience for me. Al Kelly the president was incredibly open to what I wanted to do and you know rather than just establish you know this that and another thing to try and create a coach uh Jesuit and Catholic culture and to do that he had to well we really went away for two days to the holiday end with a select group of people on campus to say how is this place Jesuit and Catholic and how do we want it to be leaving it open and of course there was a desire for the university to be Jesuit and Catholic and because Al allowed that question to be uh asked it just allowed a lot of stuff to slow up you know and um it was incredibly to me exciting. Jim it strikes me that the process is so much jimbolar that you know it's never as I've experienced you you've never had the inclination to direct or manage from top down but you've always had an immense confidence um in people in a group and in the way uh the creative spirit of God would be working through people and in their interaction. But I also believe that from the textbooks that I that I studied you know that that's the way to go but um my boss had to be open to that you know and and he was you know I I took him out to dinner a number of years later just to thank him for giving me was this at mario's or at peppermill no it was an Italian restaurant in between I think they both were closed but I took Al out to dinner just to thank him for the privilege of giving me the privilege of doing what I could do. So Jim what was your approach that how did this evolve because a lot of the people who were on this call uh were your colleagues and your friends uh during that time when you were evolving this very particular and very if I can say very effective approach to fostering Jesuit and Catholic identity at fairfield how did how did that work? Well the basic Jesuit principle was God's precedent all things and so my view was not to bring religion to fairfield university but to let it surface from um the core and just the incredible things that happened that um that came out of so many aspects of it whether you talk about redlining insurance whether you talk about Nicaragua whether you talk about a chair of Catholic studies I mean a lot of this stuff just of the center for incorporated nation pedagogy into the center for academic excellence so you were there for that um for I mean but then seeing what faculty members were doing you know that really enhanced the mission and identity of the school like one of the things that I found out from students was the effect that uh Bob Epstein's course and the category tales had on students and on the values that we're trying to promote and so many of the people who were agents of the Jesuit and Catholic identity were uh either non-Catholics or oftentimes non-christians you know I was incredibly indebted to the Jewish community on the outcome campus for you know how they um assisted assisted in so many ways and so I guess my kind of approach was well let's see what's happening let's see where the ferment is and there was a lot of energy there just to Jim now I know that at the same time you were doing this you were active in parishes all over uh you know the uh the area the diocese and Connecticut and up into Hartford too um how in the middle of all this did you come on the idea uh of uh establishing a center for Ignatian spirituality let me give you a little bit of history okay Joe Ryan remember a lot of the players in the history are on this on this zoom Joe Ryan was an extraordinary Jesuit who came to Fairfield and brought a number of people through the ex spiritual exercises as did Joe McDonald but Joe Ryan had the kind of a nucleus of a center well he died before I got there but there was a patrimony there that I saw was important to protect and for the time I got there I was doing spiritual direction you know even you know while I was in the mission uh an identity club but one of the things I came to see was oh and also I couldn't do it all myself so I hired Patricia Brennan the kind of coordinate spiritual direction component of things and so I began to see that um this Ignatian presence was incredibly important to our students our faculty and um alumni in the broader the broader church and there's so many things going on that just made the center obvious and I'll never forget I finished the initial proposal of the Center for Jeff Von Arks and I had just finished and Pat too who's a deacon in the diocese at that time was working for IBM and became the chair of the Ignatian Spirituality Center had asked me for lunch well what he wanted to talk to me about was establishing you know some sort of a Ignatian Center on campus and I had just that moment finished the uh an issue proposal so I went back and emailed it to Pat but it was some something had to be there to keep the Ignatian Charism alive something in the R&D developed in direction not a totally R&D Center but for the theory and practice would both live or people could be trained to get the spiritual exercises to Ignatius um and then there was the course on Ignatian spirituality where the students were able to take the eight or nine ten week directive prayer experience rather than a research paper and everything was just coming together and it seemed in establishing the center that again just letting it happen the people were there the board was there the spiritual directors were there and then I realized at a certain point that what I do well is design implement plan and get something going and then who became available but Jerry Blacik to take my place and you know look what Jerry did to for the center and things that I could never have done so some would say things that you would never have done Jim the last time well let's go back to the time thank you for the for those kind words but um in your in your experience of of developing a cadre of spiritual director how did you how did you come up with that idea because this is uh uh you know a very distinctive a lot of Jesuit not a lot but most Jesuit universities offer some form of the spiritual exercises not all to faculty or staff or to the larger communities so you know your center the center was already breaking ground there but that that that a Ignatian center on a campus would also be training spiritual directors that that is and was kind of novel how did you come up with that idea Jim well I have been training I have been involved in training spiritual directors for so long you know that you know was something like I can do it with the thing was institutionalizing it and the thing was that it's quality control if you're going to offer Ignatian spirituality one on one you have to have quality control which means confident directors and supervision supervision and so we had we had confident directors because of another training program which became the Fairfield program that's now in South Carolina but we had to train supervisors and if you wanted to keep a number of directors around as the need expanded that was the what the board kept saying don't don't exceed what you can respond to and so if we were going to continue the to allow the center to grow you had to train spiritual directors for the for the people who wanted it you know and did you get did you get support from Jeff van Arks and I think there were you there was a real partnership the provincial the Bishop Kajiana was involved wasn't he in the in these first deliberations yes the provincial Jeff van Arks was totally supportive but as you know the board meets on Saturday mornings at least he used to and he used to come over and sit on the side and just listen to the board meetings you know and Jim is talking about the board of advisors of the center not the board of trustees that's a different kettle of fish yes and uh he was very very supportive I think he never said no it's uh you know I mentioned Bishop Kajiana because certainly in my in my in my tenure he's been tremendously supportive and you know very convinced that an approach to Ignatian spirituality would be a vital tool in the renovation the renewal of the diocese we've also had so many ministers representatives of the UCC and especially of the Episcopal church in Connecticut that I I finally realized I needed to call the Bishop of the Episcopal Bishop of Connecticut and introduce myself since I think we had more more of his priests in spiritual direction than we had Catholic priests um Aaron I think Aaron you well there are a couple of questions that are emerging Jim so before I know the time is ticking away one question Aaron you keep your question okay and because I only got half of it on the uh the script Jim um a dear friend of yours and a very special admirer Rabbi Jim Prasnet uh asked me to invite you to say more about how your work here interfaced with and uh was such a powerful collaboration with the Jewish community on campus I mean I can give that I'm thinking of the names right off my tongue but it'd be better for you to tell the story well first of all let me say hello hi Jill how are you if you remember that luncheon we had at Bellamon where um some some members of your community were a bit concerned about the Ignatian residential college and you were very much present there and help put it into perspective um you are one of the people who were very supportive of me but I think I look back at the number of people in the Jewish community who were key they're varying degrees of practicing Jews like there's varying degrees of practicing Catholics but they were incredibly open to the mission primarily because of the justice component and there are still some members of the Jewish community who are close personal friends of mine uh today um so do you talk about Joy Gordon when you talk about um Robin Crabtree now the Dean of Loyola Marymount University um but then I mentioned people like Bob Epstein um I couldn't go through it but anytime we had gathering pertaining to the mission like Jeff and Arch used to have sometimes a retreat away at a conference center before the financial crisis would always did just naturally there were a good number of members of the Jewish community who were there and uh they belong there and I could not have done what I did for the mission and identity of Fairfield without members of the Jewish community thank you Jim Aaron Aaron van Dyke uh I don't know Jim whether Aaron was here uh when you were here whether I know him very well all right so Aaron uh Aaron is asking whether uh as you look back to your time at Guelph and maybe even before that to the present uh have you seen a development or evolution both in our understanding of the spiritual exercises and in the manner in which it is uh it is given and made Aaron is that okay is that more or less a simple answer is yes but I think a lot of it I grow in my ability to give the exercises um I don't give them the way I did 20 years ago or 25 years ago I mean I have grown and I think a lot of it reflects my own journey with God and so if the director is not growing his or herself you're not going to be um you're going to lose it you know and you're going to just match people get people to jump through hoops and making the spiritual exercises so the answer to that question is yes I I think the text remains the same if anything the basis of what I do is pool puhl and O'Brien um so but how I listen I think is perhaps the difference Jim you know we're talking about a 16th century text um you know from a man who came from a particular social economic background uh and a particular anthropology and ecclesiology and spirit and and and uh whole understanding of Christ um what Jim from your experience have you found so durable so enduringly significant about uh Ignatian spirituality as you know as it is most expressed in the exercises but also as we adapt it and make it available to folks why in your mind is it still uh so valuable and um so um potentially effective and helpful for people well I think there's five contemporary characteristics I had written an article for you got your notes now five five what five five no I had written an article uh for the way about five years five or six years ago I don't know how long it talks about five characteristics of Ignatian spirituality what I saw those five characteristics came out in a recent issue of studies where they were talking about Ignatian spirituality and its emergence and contemporary ones for now but I would say one is God's desire for a unique relationship with each individual person secondly God present in all things hope I can get these now third the whole notion of being contemplatives in action fourth men and women for others or the promotion of justice and five discernment you know and there's just a patrimony of wealth there for people to live to guide their lives you know um to put meaning into their lives to live life to what's fullness Jim what about you know I don't know whether this is an affair but especially in our in our COVID times uh and in our times of increased sensitivity and a sense of responsibility for the terrible reality of racism and white privilege do you think the exercise is an Ignatian spirituality have something for us as we face but as you know our superior general called the double plague of of injustice and racism and the virus do you think the Ignatian spiritual tradition can serve us at this time you can't authentically make the exercises and be a racist but that's just you know if it just they're incompatible COVID though is another thing um and I think if you look at COVID one of the things that have set me about the bishops NT Wright the extraordinary uh New Testament scholar wrote a book COVID and the scriptures or COVID the Gospels I forget what it was and what his approach to the whole thing was joining Jesus in his prayer on the cross for the COVID victims you know that uh this is the third week of the spiritual exercises but this is human suffering the COVID is Jesus suffering in the world today and I don't think we've been called to prayer enough um by our religious leaders at least a meaningful prayer because as you know if you join Jesus on his cross you're going to join Jesus in his resurrection and um there will be light at the end of the tunnel so I don't know whether I can bring the I can see both of those issues involved with Ignatian spirituality um I don't know whether I can connect the two issues in themselves you know obvious racism you know who who suffered the most from the COVID disease but Jim what is Ignatian spirituality bringing to you now in this new moment this new chapter of your life hmm very good question when I left Charlotte uh July 13th I would often make my retreat and to spend some time at that um at the convent where I made the retreat beautiful place in South Carolina right on the bay when I began to get in touch with that summer was going through the grief process of giving up you know it was a rather full apostolic life and cutting back you know and so when I left Charlotte it was the end of one lifestyle um when I worked through in December was the grieving process and coming in contact with the fear aspect of the grieving process I knew coming here to Campion there there was just an awful lot of fear about what what that involved that has not materialized at all it's a matter of fact it's been a time of God's presence and I see right now um I do a lot of spiritual direction I'm doing a lot of programs and everything I work Zoom but I see as my primary ministry um deepening my contemplative life and that's proven to be a very rich experience um so the bottom line where I'm at right now God is more real and present to me than ever Jim one of the spiritual directors who worked closely with you during your time here is remembering what you said earlier in the interview that uh you say that your um your your your way of listening has changed has um your increased or focused life now as more contemplative at at uh at western the only way I can answer that Jerry is I see about 23 or 24 people on Zoom for spiritual direction and I'm certainly as energized as I ever have been by listening to people um it certainly didn't lessen my um well well I think given experiencing God's fidelity to me here it enhances my own faith that same God it's going to be equally faithful to the people I'm privileged to accompany so in that way it could have influenced my um my listening thank you Jim Jim how many couples do you think you married off between the prep and the university how many how many stag weddings have you officiated wild guess there's probably a lot of them right here probably off the top of my head I say 50 oh but I think that's I think that's a modest guess it could be I there's been there's still happening there's still happening um before we before we finish up are there any more questions that you would like to ask Jim I want to give you that chance because uh with COVID and with Jim's uh peregrinations you maybe haven't had a chance to catch up with him face to face so uh are there any questions that you'd like uh me to pose for you to Jim Jim final words there's somebody Dimitri oh that this I I couldn't read it but uh Dimitri had a question and Mark and Mark Travis has now well oh okay Dimitri Dimitri asks during this time of COVID how would you encourage us to be contemplatives in action good question Dimitri I know him too well I think he knows what my answer is going to be and pay attention to the chickens right you remembered that of course but Dimitri watch the chickens closely but Jim go ahead I'm sorry well it's that contemplative attitude that you had there that you developed there that um can get you through an awful lot um because COVID is a um it just radically disrupts our life puts a lot of fear into us a lot of anger we're not able to do what we want to do and if we don't have a contemplative dimension we're lost you know and you know that's why the chickens um that that type of contemplation is what gets us through I mentioned that Jim had been very active in uh quite a number of parishes in our area uh the Catino family from St. Gabriel's and Stanford want to give you their warm regards and they want to ask you uh what you miss about parish life or do you miss parish life the active ministry that you had in parishes I had four years in Charlotte involved with the parish which was an extraordinary experience half my work there was a nation's spirituality and half my work there was in the parish and so it was a rich experience of parish life which I'll always treasure in some ways from the point of view of pastoral ministry and ministry of Ignatian spirituality I think by four years in Charlotte were the best that's not taking away from anything else um I'm not right now probably because of COVID I'm not going out on Sundays but I'm not missing you and let me say why you know um in cutting back if you're spending four or five hours in a homily at least a week you know and it's kind of nice not to have to do to do that to be um and and so you know all my while I was at Fairfield I went out every Sunday you know um and but that was a commitment more of preparing the homily than um than the time going out to the parish so right here right now I give a homily a week here at at Campion and I'm satisfied Jim I understand that you have a birthday coming up on the 28th of this month just around the corner what how many years does that make 81 81 so any any messages any insights from the top of the hill as you look toward the promised land one thing I can honestly say to people each decade gets better and I remember turning 70 and say well god I don't know how you're going to which how this uh that kid's going to be better than the previous one but it was and um I don't know what the 80s are going to be or how long the 80s will be but at least I think the message that I would have for people is realize always the best years of your life are ahead I mean it seems like you're giving up something but when in reality you're going to something and each decade of my life has been an improvement over not an improvement deeper more rewarding whatever um than the previous one Jim bowler thank you very much for spending this time with us I thank all of your friends who have joined us this evening um god bless and have a very happy birthday and all of you stay healthy and I want to thank everybody for being here tonight uh I love you all thank you thank you father bowler thank you father Jerry I hope you all have a good night good night everybody thanks