Since classes in Rome don’t start up until early October,
the name of the game for the new man class at the NAC is to learn Italian. This is important not only because we will be
spending most of our next five years in Italy, but, for many of us, our classroom
lectures will be in Italian as well! And
if there’s one thing that’s more daunting than trying to learn about the
Trinity, it’s trying to learn about the Trinity in a foreign language. So Italian studies, it is!
Of the three summer Italian programs offered by the NAC, the
Archdiocese has sent me to Siena, a beautiful Tuscan town of roughly 50,000
people, made famous by one of the influential and inspiring saints in the
history of the Church, St. Catherine of Siena.
The month-long Italian program is pretty rigorous, offering 4 hours of
classroom lecture and an hour and a half of private tutoring every day, and a
host family who keeps me on my Italian toes at pretty much every waking hour.
I have been living with Viviano and Angela Ogheri, an elderly
couple who own a small condo just west of the old town of Siena. They don’t have any kids, but they have
welcomed me very lovingly into their family, which means that for the first
time in my life (or at least since I was 3 and a half), I’m an only child! I have been blessed to spend many hours on
the porch with Viviano, chatting about everything from how bees pollinate
plants to his previous life as a designer of typewriters, to his dislike of
Benito Mussolini. At 8 pm every night,
we dish up Angela’s special Tuscan pasta, turn on the TV to the local news, and
let the Chianti flow. Since Angela
usually sticks to a salad, and Viviano doesn’t eat much, I usually have no
choice but to eat everything on the table, while my Italian mother repeatedly
exhorts me “Mangia! Mangia!” (“Eat! Eat!”) I haven’t looked at a scale in a
while, but I think the immersion is working wonders!
Cookies and coffee for breakfast every morning!
During the day, we seminarians find plenty of time between
classes to hang out, enjoy the city, and pray at Siena’s various beautiful
churches. It really is a blessing to
have so many options for daily Mass, and so many beautiful places to say a
prayer throughout the day! One small
grace occurred last Monday, my first day in Siena, when I went to a small
church called San Martino for an evening Mass after class. I was about half an hour early, and stumbled
upon a small group of ladies praying the Rosary before Mass. One of the women invited me to join them, and
even offered me an Italian booklet explaining the Rosary and containing all the
prayers in Italian! Before long, I was
able to follow along with them by memory, which was pretty awesome! It has also been cool to slowly re-learn the
Mass responses, many of which I still remembered from my semester in Rome. We seminarians have even been blessed by the
presence of an American Dominican priest named Fr. Alfred, who has been
teaching us a bit about the Church in Italy.
Fr. Alfred has explained to us how, despite the rich tradition of her
great saints, the witness of her martyrs, and the proximity of the Papacy, the
Church in most Italian cities is truly suffering, and Siena is no
exception. The city’s beautiful Duomo is
unfortunately full of tourists at all times of the day. Many of them pay a few Euro to get in, take
their pictures, and go on with their day.
While it certainly is great that there are so many people visiting a
beautiful church, it’s also sad that this church is seen as merely another
museum. We need to pray ardently for
renewal and fervor in the Church here in Italy.
Hopefully, the witness of a few American seminarians will be a grace for
Siena!
Since we are free on the weekends, I had the grace of
spending two nights in the beautiful city of Florence with 3 of my brother
seminarians who are also living here in Siena.
It was a wonderful weekend of prayer, fraternity, and art! On Saturday, we attended Mass in the Duomo’s
famous Baptistry, which features an incredible mosaic dome of the Last
Judgment. Let’s just say you knew what
you were getting yourself into when you were getting baptized in there! After Mass, we had a chance to visit with the
4-foot tall, 84-year old priest, who left us with some very inspiring words:
“The priesthood . . . It’s all about Christ.
It’s all about Christ!”
On Saturday, we saw the Academia Museum, and on Sunday, the
Uffizi. It was certainly the most art
I’ve ever seen in my life, and probably the first time I’ve walked through an
art museum of my own volition. But both
tours were absolutely incredible!
Michelangelo’s David was taller and more stunning than I had expected,
and I just don’t think I can possibly fathom how anyone could make it with
their own hands. The sheer beauty of the
rest of the art was quite overwhelming, and I may possibly be desensitized to
seeing images of Jesus crowning His Blessed Mother (it seemed like that was the
subject of half the pieces). However,
one thing that I will always find inspiring is the fact that history’s greatest
works of art were commissioned for the purpose of drawing hearts and minds to
God. Whether it was an image of the
Annunciation, or a depiction of the Massacre of the Innocents, every piece of
art told the story of salvation!
Well, week 2 of 4 in Siena is fully underway! The 17 of us here is Siena have been blessed
by the arrival of Fr. Gaffney, a NAC spiritual director from Rhode Island who
will be spending the week with us, as well as offering Mass and hearing
confessions. I don’t feel quite ready
yet to confess my sins in Italian, so I’m pretty glad he’s here! It will also be great to have Mass together
as a seminarian community, since we were mostly spread throughout the city
during our first week. Please prega per
noi (pray for us) and for all the NAC men studying Italian this month; Lord knows we need it! Please be assured of mine as well.
In Christ,
Colin
Ty Sanders, Greg Parent, John LoCoco, and myself in Florence!
No comments:
Post a Comment