Well, I must be catching up with the timezone. Today was the first morning that I did not wake up at 4.00. Trouble is, I woke up late for the Sunday liturgy, and I did not understand the details of the timetable, because I missed two other liturgies on campus. With that, I just walked down the street from the university to the parish church -- Madonna della Speranza (Our Lady of Hope). Even here I got the time wrong, and waked in 40 minutes late, but since the priest was barely at the start of his sermon, I stayed for the remaining 45 minutes of the liturgy.
Two families were baptizing their babies today -- a bit of hope for a mainly graying crowd. In fact, a lot of folks have been complaining that there are few young people in church, but there were babies crying throughout the congregation, so Our Lady of Hope must have used this to encourage the many gray heads in the packed congregation. Yes, packed. I was not the only one who stood through the mass. There were over 50 of us standing around the perimeter of the circular worship space. After mass I spoke with a few parishioners. There are five Sunday masses, and this is the most "unpacked" of them all. They too commented that it is sad that not many people go to church nowadays. As I walked back to the unviversity and to my community, I mused that it is a good thing that people aren't coming to church. With these big crowds, there would be a need to build five more churches in the neighborhood.
Dinner was good: excellent pasta all'uovo with a light marinara sauce. The fruit is perfectly sweet!
No comments:
Post a Comment