10 August, 2019, Feast
of St. Lawrence.
Religious
orders and congregations were founded in certain circumstances of place and
time and usually for a very precise reason. But time passes and situations
change. And then the question is born: what sense is there in continuing in a
traditional way if today’s Church presents very different needs? (Tomás Spidlik)*
Warmest greetings from
Rome––literally and figuratively: it was 99 today. I have been here at San
Gregorio al Celio, our monastery across from the Circus Maximus, Roman Forum
and Coliseum, since last Friday. After letting my soul catch up with my body for
the weekend (and trying to get over jet lag), I’ve had a great week here.
This house is normally
our studentate; our own Fr. Ignatius lived here for three years while he was
studying at the Beda. Right now all the students are gone and only three monks remain: Fr. George, formerly of
Shantivanam who is the local prior here, Fr. Innocenzo, the former prior who is
a very well known scholar and author here in Rome, and Bro. Alessandro, who I
have only met for the first time. Our friend Fr. Mario Zanotti is also in
residence here now, and he was here for the first days, but he too left for a
summer holiday.
This of course is the
time of year to escape Rome, the
ferragosto, which is actually next week on the 15th of August,
but sometimes referred to as the esodo di
ferragosto––the exodus. Nowadays because of tourists more and more
businesses actually say open though, and post signs announcing, ‘Siamo aperti durante il ferragosto–We’re
open for the August holiday.’ San Gregorio has also been a very international
house during the academic year. The younger Fr. George Abraham from India also lives here now, as does
Br. Cristiano from Brazil, one of our Chinese monks and one of our Tanzanian
monks, plus another young lay Chinese man who is studying here. Mario, who
moved here from Fonte Avellana, says one of the things that is so special about
this community, unlike most other of ours, is that monks who come here feel at
home right away, they know where the plates are and how to pitch in to help
clean up, etc., as did I.
At any rate it has been
a blessing to have just the four of us here this week, leaving the place very
quiet. For some lovely reason they decided to give me one of only four rooms in
the place, in the foresteria, that
has air conditioning. I have not complained about it in the least, nor felt
guilty, nor did I offer not to take it. It has been a luxury. And the week has
been very refreshing. As planned I took Italian lessons every morning this past
week with a wonderful local woman named Laura Clemente. I also found an
inexpensive gym about two miles away and have gone four or five times. Other
than prayer and music and getting over jet lag, not much else, though I really
did give myself a lot of time over to studying Italian.
I sometimes get discouraged
with the language that I have to start over, not necessarily from zero but
somewhat far back, having never really lived here long enough to become fluent,
every time I come back, but it’s still fun and stimulating. And this woman,
Laura, has been wonderful. My main goal was two fold––both to get my
conversational skills up and to go over the presentation that I am going to
offer in Sicily in two weeks, and those two things kind of folded together,
commenting on and explaining the background of the presentation.
The theme of the
conference is Music and Multiculturalism (I’ll say more about the conference
itself later). My part on the first day (I think I am the main presenter) is a
kind of “conversation” with the students that includes a performance. They have
asked that it be autobiographical and that I should speak on “the Spirit in my history as a musical monk.” They continue
that is should also cover “music in Benedictine formation, the sound of the
Spirit in your spiritual and vocal chords, interreligious dialogue, music and
California (I am tempted to talk about the Red Hot Chili Peppers), and the various genres of music from Gregorian
to folk.” As you might imagine, that is both right up my alley––and way too
much! But I did set myself to write about a twelve-page outline, not trusting
myself at all to improvise in Italian and not wanting to rely on a translator.
Although they also imagine that the students are to take notes and have an hour
to ask questions after my talk. On that I am pretty sure I will rely on the
Jesuit who invited me, a musician who speaks very good English named Eraldo
Cacchione.
The morning lessons with
Laura, as I say, were quite fertile and enriching, I think for her as well. She
is very well read, and knows a little something about almost everything I am
interested in, and wanted to know more about the things she didn’t,
interreligious dialogue, liturgy, meditation, the state of the church, issues
facing monasticism––you name it! Most of the time I would eventually forget
that I was speaking Italian, which was part of the purpose of course, but when
I couldn’t find a word or form a phrase she very patiently jumped in and
helped. She said she had never been a teacher but she certainly had the
patience of one, or at least of a very competent mother, which she is, of two
sons.
In the end we went
through my presentation twice, and now I will try to commit some of it to
memory so that it is not too stiff. In the midst there will be not so much a
performance as a sing-along. I have tried to pick songs that had participation
as much as possible, and with the help of Eraldo produced a sheet with all the
lyrics translated into Italian, though of course we will sing in English (or
Latin or Arabic or Sanskrit or Hebrew, as the case may be).
One of the novelties this time has been the diet. Laura herself,
as I would find out later, is a great cook, who also makes her own kombucha, of
which I have become a fan. Actually she had a bottle with her one day and when
I said I liked kombucha she asked if I wanted her to bring me some. Yes, I
said, and the next day she did, however I was expecting a bottle of Health Brew
from Whole Foods or something on tap. But no, she brought me the matrice (“the Matrix”!?) in a little
jar, the culture of bacteria and yeast commonly called a “mother” or “mushroom,” so that I could
make my own. She thought I was far hipper than I am, obviously. She gave me the
recipe and it is fermenting right here next to me even as I write. We shall
see…
Still on the dietary side of things, Alessandro
and Mario have both been on a health program, Mario mainly through Ayerveda.
So, wonderful pasta made of alternative low or non-gluten grains have appeared
(my favorite being pasta Saracena) as
well as several rice dishes for the primo;
and Alessandro especially has produced all sorts of fresh spices and produce
and raw nuts––turmeric root, ginger, all kinds of greens, and he loves to
explain the provenance and health benefits of it all. Innocenzo is a simple
dyed in the wool southern Italian carnivore, and listens careful and patiently,
nodding his head and commenting before he lays into his coniglio and pollo. But I
have been happily fixing big salads and helping myself to the alternative grain
pasta.
My splurges––and it would be silly to come to Italy and not have a
splurge––have been going for a walk after Italian lessons in the morning for a cappuccino and a spremuta (fresh squeezed orange juice) and usually a small pastry
or biscotti of some sort. But as a way of thanking them I treated the three
brothers to a pizza in Trastevere the other night. It was first of all great
fun to walk there and back with them after Vespers, but in addition the place
they chose was wonderful, crowded, noisy, obviously very popular. It was mainly
a pizzeria but there were many other things on the menu. My two choices––and I
must admit I chose very well indeed––were a capricciosa
salad with hard boiled eggs, olives and beans, and a white pizza (no tomato
sauce) with––fasten your seat belt––gorgonzola and extremely thin slices of
apple. Oh. My. Goodness. Thought I’d died and gone to Pizza Heaven. Probably
there is no way to replicate it that at home, but I’m sure gonna try.
To be continued…
*Tomás Cardinal Spidlik was a Czechoslovakian Jesuit
who spent most of his religious life in Rome, an expert in Eastern Christian
Spirituality. He was also a good friend and spiritual director of our Fr.
Innocenzo Gargano, who collaborated with him on several projects. One of the
books I am reading, Every
Monastery Is A Mission, contains an
introduction by him entitled “Il monachesimo attuale–Monasticism of Today.”
