At Last in Context

And so after almost three months in Italy, we have finally started our Theology classes.  While so many back home are in midst of mid-terms, Fernando and I are just getting our first taste of European academics.  A number of us where commenting that this has been the longest break from school (May to October: 5 months!) that we have had ever.  So it has actually been refreshing to be back at it and no longer in a limbo of activity.  I likening it to standing up after a long car ride- the first stretch feels amazing!

Our daily schedule now starts at 6:15 with Morning Prayer followed by Mass.  After breakfast (with coffee!) we have a half hour walk to the Gregorian University (“the Greg”) for 8:30 class.  Now, of course, our class schedule change from day to day- and these Italians have found some of the most, lets say, “creative” ways to fits all these classes together.  It looks like some days I could be there until 4 or 5, then others I’ll be back to the NAC by 10a.m.  At least it keeps me on my toes.

The Italian lectures, which are all of our classes (except for Fernando’s Greek class), have actually been going better than I have expect.  Some professors are more challenging than other, but by and large they speak clearly and use a lot of gesture while they are explaining something (big surprise there). Plus, the community of American seminarians is committed to helping each other understand and helping if we have difficulty.  

The best advice I received on understanding the lectures, is not to get caught up in a word or phrase that you don't know- just keep going.  There is going to be something, probably for our whole time here, that we wont get, or never heard before, a word and ways of saying something; but if we focus on that one thing we miss the context of the word and everything that follows.  And a lot of time, it is in the context that we get the meaning of something unknown.  Its a reminder that we can't know everything and wisdom doesn't come the way we want it to.  Humility of listening- who know there was such a thing.  

O well, overall, this first week has been wonderful.  We have a couple classes that start next week instead, so there is still more to come!  Enjoy the pictures of Mother Greg.