Today is a great day- today is Trinity Sunday!
Yesterday (Saturday) I walked to the Duomo to go to confession, and since it was right before their Saturday Vigil mass in English, I was hoping I'd get an English-speaking priest. He started in Italian, so I also started in Italian, but as I struggled over my limited 'confession' vocabulary, he said, in perfect English, "would you prefer to speak English?" Gee, padre, that would have been great to know five minutes ago... no I'm kidding, I didn't mind in the least. (I promise I wasn't being sarcastic in the confessional.) And yes, I would prefer to speak English, thank you.
So confession was great (but aren't they all?) and then after exiting the confessional, the priest exited as well and asked if I was staying for the English mass, and when I said yes, he asked if I would be willing to do one of the readings. As in, step up to the Ambo in the DUOMO and proclaim the Word of God! yes yes YES I will read! Holy moly! Actually though, to be honest, the excitement wasn't my first thought. My first thought, or rather, my first sentiment, was just this wave of compassion and mercy from God through this priest's invitation...(almost immediately after hearing all the ways I've strayed in the last two months)... it was this beautiful call to live in God's forgiveness, because, immediately following confession, I probably would have went back to the pew to do my penance and would have eventually slipped into negative thoughts about what I had just confessed... but instead God said, no! You are a new creation! You are made clean by my Precious Blood, go and sin no more! I love you!
And so, he led me into the sanctuary so that I could look over the readings, and then I found a seat near the front so I would be close when it was time to read. The whole "oh wow I'm reading in the Duomo and my voice is echoing throughout this entire sacred space" didn't hit me until I got up there to actually read and looked out at everyone and what a magnificent place I was in. Seriously, what a gift. What an embrace.
Another gift from the hand of God in the last week is a friendship ( a REAL friend! ) that began with one of those guys from Baylor that I mentioned in an earlier post ... it was really on a whim that I'd given them my contact info, and probably on a whim that one of them emailed me to get together for dinner this week, but when we did, it really felt like encouragement from the Lord, something He had orchestrated. In a nutshell, we had a lot of the same sentiments about living here in Italy while really trying to be with the Lord each day, and the challenges of that, and the ways that that inevitably makes us a bit different from other people we might meet. That doesn't mean I can't make friends with other people who don't feel the same way, or that I need to distance yourself, but I've felt on a number of occasions that the way that I've chosen to live my life is just different... that's just the way it is.
The night before I had had a long conversation with some Italian, a very casual conversation at first but it eventually got around to religion, and although I wasn't in 'preaching' mode I was very frank about how much my Catholic faith means to me, and it was really incomprehensible for him. That's not unusual for here- well, it's not unusual for anywhere, really- but definitely when people encounter religion they see it as ritual, as rules, as buildings and hierarchy and such... and it IS those things, in part, and I find those things so beautiful. But that's not why it's the center of my life... it's not about all those things in the end, it's about an encounter with Christ... (I say this with humility because obviously I never live this fully, but you know what I mean...) ... it's like religion is the dance, and this relationship with Christ is the beautiful music that moves you to dance... that analogy is really not sufficient, but it's just what came to mind.
Anyway, so my friend Matthew and I have a lot in common in terms of trying to live the faith, so that's a big gift. It's nice to be able to talk and discuss (in English), not always about deep, personal stuff, but just to know that certain values and beliefs are understood. He's taking a class on Dante while he's here so I think tomorrow I'm going to go out and get an Italian/English book of the Divine Comedy... what better book to read while I'm in Florence?
More soon- probably right away- but I like having different posts for different topics.
Ciao for now!
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