Of carols and festivals

This was the last day of class before the Christmas break at the UPS. As one might suspect, there were moments of caroling and parties in the key gathering points of the university. Caroling in the main classroom building has been going on every day during the past two weeks, but usually I was between classes on the other side of campus, or frantically preparing the next lesson in my office, which is located in the theology wing. Today, however, I managed to get to the classroom building to hear the Filipino students lead the singing.

The time between classes is five minutes, and usually not even that long since most professors go over time (but that is another story). This means that the caroling gathering only lasts ten minutes, but the preparation lasts two weeks. As you might suspect, the Filipino delegation brought a lively and joyous spirit to their Christmas medley.

Songs and celebrations continued through the rest of the morning, until the last hour before dinner when the entry all filled with students and professors and staff. There were more songs, this time from the Indian delegation.

But I said I would continue to give news of yesterday’s walk through the old quarter of the city of Rome with Mary Margaret Stein. Hmm, where were we?

We had dinner at Trattoria Pizzeria Polese, which I called my favourite little restaurant in all of Rome, if not on all the planet. I have qualms about calling it a restaurant because, in Italy, there are different names for different styles of eating places. A ristorante is usually upscale. You can tell because there are solid table cloths, fine china and beautiful stemware. A trattoria, on the other hand, is usually a smaller place, less elegant, more affordable and less formal, more familiar. You can recognize a trattoria through its multi-coloured table cloths, often checkered but not necessarily. The flatware is more modest too, and the price much, much more reasonable than that of the ristorante. The cooking, however, is just as good as the restaurant and often better. In the case of many trattorie in Italy, the meal can be truly superior.

Certainly this is the case for Trattoria Polese.

Mary Margaret surveys the menu of Trattoria Polese

Extraordinary as the menu is at Trattoria Polese, the meal was enjoyable for other reasons, starting with catching up on the goings on in our lives, in our families, and in our work. Mary Margaret is working now with the Bishops Conference of Alaska, which brings her into Washington DC several times a year to represent the concerns of the Catholic Bishops of the 49th state.

Image of Victory on Ponte Vittorio Emanuele

We had crossed the Tiber on the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II (Victor Emmanuel II Bridge), where we spent nearly 30 minutes watching the fast moving currents of the near-flooded Tiber. That was before dinner. After dinner, instead of returning to the Vatican, we crossed Via Vittoria Emanuele to the Chiesa Nuova — the new church. Of course, it was still the mid-day break, and the church was closed. I was a little disappointed. This is the church built by Saint Philip Neri (so it is new, as of 1577), and his relics are preserved here. I would have liked to have shown the interior of this baroque church to Mary Margaret. Patience!

Afternoon shadows fall on the Chiesa Nuova

We walked around the piazza della Chiesa Nuova for a few minutes, and spoke about what it means to call a 400-year-old church “new”. Then made our way through the neighbouring streets to Piazza Navona.

Piazza Navona is a favourite tourist site. In other seasons of the years this piazza is filled with mimes, acrobats, street artists. At Christmas time, the piazza fills with little booths and stalls for Christmas as well as Epiphany. Most sell the decorations and trinkets, the desserts and stocking stuffers, children’s gifts and things of that nature.

The piazza is really a meeting place first, and this is true even when there is a mercato. Morning is the time to buy; afternoon is the time to browse and visit. It was very festive yesterday afternoon. There were many young families with their children, as well as many groups of children, adolescents and young adults. As usual, people move from booth to booth looking but not buying.

As we did our little stroll around Piazza Navona, we noticed a group of young men putting on red costumes and dressing up as Babbo Natale (literally Father Christmas). They were listening to an elder couple who were organizing these young Santas to march on behalf of abducted children. Amid all the shopping and touring that is Piazza Navona, these Santas were raising awareness to the plight of abused and abducted minors, and the heartache experienced by their families. It was very moving to see this social justice theme brought to the heart of the plaza right at the start of the Christmas preparations.

Mary Margaret said, at this point, that seeing these young men were good for her retreat meditation. She told her friends at home that she was coming to Italy for a silent retreat.

“And where have you done this retreat,” I asked.

“It has all been one great retreat,” she laughed. “I do not speak the language, so I have just been silent all these days, until today of course. So I have watched and listened, and this leads to thinking and reflecting and praying. So, it has been a silent retreat really.”

Cute! but true! Today Mary Margaret left for Assisi. She will stay there until 27 December, and then leave on the next day for home again. We might be in touch then… but if not, I’m happy that she let me interrupt her retreat.