First of all, here is a picture of three of the Brothers at my table this afternoon. Br. Michael Murphy is a fellow classmate from Justin-Siena serving as a translater; Br. John Guasconi is from the LINE District and also a translator, and Br. Michael French is the Director of CIL, from the Midwest District, and a Delegate to the Chapter. A fine bunch of folks.Add to the list of things that I misjudged (a long list) - the fact that the Discernment Days would be relatively calm days for me; maybe even enough to read something besides lists of liturgy to-do's and computer screens. It was not to be, and today was a good example.
Since I knew that I would be going to the Vatican with Leonardo this morning and had the Mass covered, I thought I'd sleep in. Nevertheless, I woke up at around 7:30 and started my day. A quick trip to the "office" to check email and the like was followed by an equally quick breakfast, still in silence. (Yesterday, as I passed Frank Carr during one of the silent meals I leaned down and whispered, "Why is it that even when we're under silence everyone still sits in language groups." Must be something about feeling comfortable.
Br. Lorenzo informed me before breakfast that he'd had another call from the Bishop's office, asking for the information about the program on Founder's Day. Fabio, one of the workers here, helped me get into Carla's office to try the fax machine again. This time, the machine on our end refused to cooperate. Time was getting short and I told Fabio that I'd go ahead and make a copy of the fax and then walk it to the office at the Vatican with Leonardo. Fabio went to the hotel part of the Motherhouse to try that fax machine, while I met up with Leonardo, as planned, and we made our way downtown. He knew the roads, and soon enough we were dodging down a tiny street next to the Vatican and then popped into a hole in the ground that happened to be a public parking lot. The attendant knew Leonardo well, and hardly a word was spoken as he picked up his ticket and left the car in a room about as big as a small strip-mall store, filled with cars packed tighter than nuns at a papal audience.
We walked to one of the large buildings along the huge road that leads right into the piazza and made our way upstairs to some large doors. Inside, an Italian attendant behind a desk was the gate-keeper. Leonardo spoke with him, introduced me (handshakes all around) and asked for a certain secretary. Smiles and words later, the attendant disappeared down a long hallway and soon the Padre Pietro, the secretary (I guess) of the bishop, appeared. We gave him the envelope with the information about the Mass, and he said that he's just received the fax (from the hotel, no doubt). But we chatted a bit and then made our way to another floor where Leonardo had some further business with another office. Along the way we met a very kind older nun, whom Leonardo told me later was probably the most respected canon lawyer around.
When we'd returned to the car, we decided that it was better to walk to the music store (remember that I'd wanted to get that music stand) than try to find another parking place. So a brisk 15-minute walk later we arrived at Musicarte where I found the stand. Leonardo went back for the car while I looked around a bit. When I finally bought the stand, providentially another salesman was packing up a stand that hadn't been on display but that was portable and better for my purposes - plus it cost half as much. So the change was made, the purchases finalized, and I met up with Leonardo on the street, which by now was filled with double-parked cars, leaving only a tiny lane in the middle, down which an Italian policeman ambled, blowing his whistle every once in a while to let people in the stores know that he was going to stand idly by while the rules were violated.
Leonardo next had to go to the Secretariat of State, which was within the Vatican. He drove to a side gate, showed his Vatican pass, and was let in. W
e drove through part of the gardens and then into some dark, medieval-looking lanes, emerging in a wide-open plaza surrounded by the Secretariat buildings. A smart-looking Swiss guard greeted us, saluted, and told us to go ahead to the main building. There, another smart-looking Swiss guard greeted us, saluted, and said that he'd take the package that Leonardo was delivering. Sometimes, they let you through and you can go up the office yourself, but this time that's as far as we got. So back to the car, a quick side-trip into another building to ask about the audience with the Holy Father that's planned for later in the month (a general audience, but we want a good spot), and then on our way out. While driving across the Vatican again, Leonardo pointed out the old train station and said that there was a store there. I asked if we could stop for a minute, and we had ten minutes or so before he had to get back to the Motherhouse for another appointment. As I went in, I was expecting a souvenier kind of shop, perhaps with a few fancy items included. Well, I was in for a surprise. It was like Macy's or Tiffany's in there. Lots of fashionable items (clothing, jewelry, luggage, electronics, liquor, etc.) that were for people way outside of my pay grade. Leonardo explained that everything was about 30% less expensive here because there were no taxes, and only people connected to the Vatican (and their friends) could shop there.Soon back to the Motherhouse, where at noon both Frank Carr and myself were scheduled to be filmed by Roch for Founder's Day videos back home. I'd promised the folks at Christian Brothers High School that I'd try to do a short video that could be used at the Founder's Day Liturgy, and Frank was doing something similar for Juan Diego School in his District. Roch set up the camera in front and we both did individual coming-out-of-the-front-door and going down the steps shots, talking as we went. It was a bit awkward at first, but we soon got the hang of it. Then Roch did shots with me in the Chapter Hall, the Chapel, and the garden. We'll see what he and Paul put together with it all. We had asked Br. Alvaro to include a message from the Superior General and later today Roch shot that too, so that will be part of the package. When it's ready, next Tuesday, I'll see if I can link into it with the blog.
Okay, this is getting too long.
During the morning and afternoon, the Brothers had placed cards listing the major topics (challenges) that they think we need to face in the future. These were placed on bulletin boards and then "clustered" into themes by the group leaders. Further cards were tacked on later in the day. The result was that by the end of the afternoon, we had a good indication of what major themes of topics would be the substance of the rest of our time together. These, of course, were the fruit of our discernment days.Just to finish the day... There followed singing practice at 4:00 PM, a meeting at 4:30 PM with one of the Brothers, and the Central Commission meeting at 5:00 PM until whenever. As it turned out, the Central Commission went on for over an hour and a half, dealing with the upcoming schedule changes. Tomorrow will be real busy. From the meeting, I rushed back to the office to get things ready for the evening Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament service, something that Freddy and I had been working on during the afternoon. He and Br. Alberto had constructed a "tent" on the altar for tonight's service. It not only looked real good, but Br. Vincenzo thought it had been a nifty idea. Just before the service, as we were finalizing things, he told Alberto and Freddy - in Italian, of course, with half French and lots of gestures - that the Founder had come into the chapel early that afternoon, pointing to me with a smile. He meant when I came in with Roch (and me in my robe) to film the chapel piece of the video. He's turning out to be way less rigid than others had warned me about. Patience and a positive attitude go a long way.
Only one other thing to mention - the fire during the evening service. We had turned most of the lights out in the chapel and had two containers of sand with long candles in front of the icon of the Face of Christ that we had put in front of the tent / altar. The table with the candles from the Brothers was again in front of the sanctuary. The background music, in intervals, was Byzantine chant (one of my favorite kinds of music), and things seemed to go swimmingly. Then, as I was in the back taking some pictures, there was a bit of a flare on the table with candles. One Brother in the front pew went up to re-arrange things, and soon another joined him. Then suddenly the flame got larger and he was flaying his arms at it all, with the other Brother joining in - calm all around with the rest of the group. For a bit, it looked like we might have trouble, but the burst of fire stopped and smoke rose in little billows above his head. By the time I had made my way up there, they had removed one of the candle holders, which had burned right through to the plastic plate beneath it, melting everything into an ugly mess. We rearranged the candles a bit, and then resumed our meditations. I'm thinking of getting that Brother a fire-chief hat at a toy store nearby. His quick action prevented something that could have been much more serious. Who said that liturgy wasn't exciting?======================
More pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/gvangrie/ItalyMay1202
