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A great many Americans are fans of the nightly ABC television show Jeopardy! On December 4, to celebrate the Anniversary of the Recollection ("Foundation Day"), the community at Tagaste gave its own spin to this popular game show with what we call "Augustinian Jeopardy". Some 40 people including Secular Augustinian Recollects (SARs), Guild members, and friends of the community formed our audience. The challenge of our game was to see how well our contestants knew the life, times, and teachings of St. Augustine, as well as the history of the Augustinian Recollection, the basic teachings of the Catholic Church, and current events in the Church. We put our four contestants—two Tagaste students and two SARs—through three rounds of increasingly difficult questions while they, in turn, earned points for each correct answer. Fr. Fredric Abiera recorded contest results on a large projection screen while Fr. John Gruben asked the questions and spoke with contestants between rounds about their own background and how they had come to know the Augustinian Recollects. Contestants wrote down their answers on slips of paper ("low tech" compared to Jeopardy's electronic displays) while Fra. Eric Crelencia counted out time limits for each round. While there were no losers in our game—each contestant got a prize for playing—the overall winner of Augustinian Jeopardy was Fra. Jorge Mateos. The "show" turned out to be a learning experience in the Augustinian tradition for contestants, presenters, and audience alike.
The evening also included a presentation by Fr. Fredric about the meaning of Foundation Day and a presentation by Fr. Eliseo Gonzalez about the progress of the cause of beatification of Bishop Alphonse Gallegos, OAR, and plans to move his remains to a new tomb located in his former parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Sacramento, CA. A 50/50 was also held to allow our audience to wager and to win a prize along with our contestants. After the conclusion of the program everyone enjoyed a variety of refreshments, including some home-made goodies brought by the friends of Tagaste. An indication that everyone enjoyed the evening was the numerous requests that we have another round of Augustinian Jeopardy in the near future. OK, time to start studying again!
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