After the Rains Comes Life

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Ciao a tutti!

Sia lode a Gesù Cristo!

Prego che tutti si trovano nella pace di Dio e sotto il manto di Maria.

Four weeks have gone by.  It feels like a monsoon storm has hit us with strong winds of spiritual consolation and fun adventure all while we have been trying to swim in the flood of the Italian language.  But it’s not over yet.  We still have three more days of language classes in Assisi before we head back to Rome on Wednesday.  Though I am more than ready to go back to Rome and settle in to where I will be living for the next 4 – 5 years, I am in no rush to leave Assisi.

Last week, Kevin and I were able to participate in the biggest feast in Assisi: the feast days of St. Clare and St. Rufino.  St. Clare is the contemporary of St. Francis who founded the religious order for women that lives in accord with the life of St. Francis.  Though few people know this, St. Rufino (not St. Francis) is the patron saint of Assisi.  He was the first bishop of Assisi, is credited for the conversion of Assisi from paganism to Catholicism, and he was martyred.  Although they are on two separate days, August 11 & 12, the celebration feels more like one big feast.

The big celebration begins with bells ringing throughout the morning announcing the commencement of each Sacrifice of the Mass offered in thanksgiving for of St. Clare.  I went to Mass at the Basilica of St. Clare in the evening which was followed by Vespers (Evening Prayer) led by the cloistered order of nuns, the Poor Clares of Assisi. Since they are cloistered and are never to leave the cloister, they were in a chapel next to the main church and led the prayer through a microphone.  It is too hard for me to describe it effectively.  However, I will say that listening to nuns chant a sublime experience.

Later that night, there was a huge procession from the cathedral of St. Rufino (aka. Rufinus of Assisi)  to the basilica of St. Clare.  Among the hundreds of people who processed there were citizens of Assisi, pilgrims from all over the world, and a group of seminarians from the North American College including two seminarians for the Diocese of Phoenix, AZ. 

As you will see in the following video, the faith – planted hundreds of year ago by the life and martyrdom of St. Rufino and nurtured by St. Francis and St. Clare – is still very much alive.

Let us pray for the grace to remain in Christ and the communion of saints, that our faith may be like deep roots, planted in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, that sustain in us the virtue of hope as an unshakeable stem from which blossoms the flower of divine love, charity.