The day began a little later for me. With my rather later return from the trip up North, I sort of slept in. By the time I got up, the English language Mass was well on its way. So I took the chance to visit and take some pictures at the French language group Mass in the Main Chapel and at the Spanish language group Mass in the JPII Chapel. From those brief visits it was clear that each language group had its own style, ambience, and music. Each was quite nice in their own way.The session at 9 AM in the Aula Magna began with a short prayer / reading. I'd asked one of the Spanish-speaking Brothers to read a section from one of Archbishop Romero's sermons - the one about being prophets of a future not our own. It seemed to be appropriate for the time and appeared to hit the spot. Then the reports began.
Each group had been given 15 minutes for their presentation, but the Central Commission realized that consideration of each group's reports would take much longer, and so 1.5 hours had been allocated. By the break at 10:30 AM, we were halfway through the first group's report.
This may become a problem. There were questions of clarification first on each of the sections of the report followed by comments, suggestions, etc. on the substance of the report. The interventions were all very sincere, although I would say that only some of them were really helpful. Capitulants were asked to submit comments and suggestions in writing and drop them into the boxes provided in front of the Aula Magna. It's amazing how some folks can make a point in 10 seconds that others need 5 minutes to make.And so it went up until lunch, with only the occasional stretch break for the Brothers. Afterwards, I went to the office to process the pictures for the trip to Siena and Assisi and to make THAT blog entry. By 3 PM it was time to go back for the third session of the day. This one was on vocation ministry, so I paid close attention. At 3:40 PM, however, I snuck out to get my haircut.
Rodolfo is an elderly man who has been coming here to cut the hair for the Brothers forever, it seems. He was working on Adriano, one of the volunteers, when I showed up at the barber shop. It would still take a while and so I sat and enjoyed the quiet of the place. The window was open and sounds of the birds in the garden mixed with the distant shouts of the kids from the school. Neither Rodolfo nor Adriano said much for the 20 minutes that followed. It reminded me of a scene in "Into Great Silence" which showed the monks at the Grande Chartreuse cutting one another's hair - quiet and filled at the same time.
Then it was my turn. Rodolfo and I communicated enough to let him know what kind of haircut I wanted - although with my head there's really not much choice now is there? Then he went to work. First the electric clippers for a while, and then the scissors came out. He did most of the cutting with the scissors, opening and closing them with his fingers whether he was cutting the hair or not. The sounds became a sort of rhythm in the background. Neither of us said much throughout the haircut, but the experience reminded me how up-close-and-personal a haircut really is. Then he wet down a brush, wet down the neck area and took out a straightedge razor. Uh-oh, I thought. What's going to happen now? Despite his age and somewhat shaky motions, he wielded that razor like a pro, and I left with a cheerful Arriverderci echoing behind me.I returned to the Aula Magna for the rest of the session and picked up the conversation, deliberations, questions, suggestions, and commentary. Sometimes it seems as if folks are spending a lot of time on parts of documents that don't require it. But when you get a bunch of teachers and administrators together, they seize on a document like the pigeons on a crust of pizza in Siena (I meant that to be more flattering than it sounds). We managed to finish the reports for three of the six theme groups. That means, of course, that tomorrow we would handle the other three. We're a bit behind in our schedule, but we'll have to do the best we can.
After dinner, at 8:15 PM, the Central Commission met with the Theme Group leaders to address any concerns that came up and to talk about how to proceed most efficiently in the next few days. It's clear that we'll have to do something to insure that there's a consistency of language when it comes to these Challenges, Horizons, and Lines of Actions. And the number of "Lines of Actions" would be way more than the Brothers might reasonably tolerate, if all the groups went ahead as currently planned. But we're just in the first few stages of the process, and everyone is getting used to this "alternative process" so there's time to adapt and adjust. Generally, it appears that people are content and moving forward.=======================
Additional pictures from today at http://picasaweb.google.com/gvangrie/ItalyMay21
