Off to Church...

This past Sunday morning, while playing our daily dose of cards, Kim suddenly announced that she thought we should go to church. She'd gotten the idea from a conversation we'd had with Rita the night before. We'd just come home from our evening passeggiata (walk/stroll) and saw Rita in the courtyard. We chatted for awhile, asking her how the Christmas ritual is celebrated here--when do they open presents (mostly Christmas Eve), do they have big meals (yes with the family and some extended family), is there a midnight mass on Christmas Eve? (We don't know because neither of us could figure out that answer. We're sure there must be but we think she doesn't go).

One thing that happens with regularity is that after Kim and I have had a discussion or conversation with someone we compare notes afterward. "I think Rita said.....well, what I got out of the conversation was....did they say?......." Often we burst out laughing because some of our interpretations are a little contrary. Each of us is a good listener and we will each pepper the conversation with "si, si" as we assume that the other is understanding more. Saturday night it turns out that Kim did understand more. Where I had heard that Rita's granddaughter, Chiara, would be singing in a concert for either midnight mass or on Christmas day, Kim heard "tomorrow at 10:45AM". Thus her announcement at 10AM that she thought we should go to mass on the off chance that she was right. She continued, "I have to keep reminding myself that we are in Italy after all and we should be taking advantage of these opportunities". With that, we got dressed and headed out to San Stefano Cathedral, a five minute walk away.

St. Stefano was constructed between 1742 - 1773. Inside is a famous portrait called "The Madonna del Parto". Painted in the 15th Century, there are different versions of the painting but their collective point is to offer women a place to ask for pregnancy intercession. Rita told us that she had done this when her daughter first married. (Kim thinks she said that her daughter came... see what we're up against?)

Chiara's little choir group sang a 20 minute program prior to mass. They did renditions of Jingle Bells, I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas, and a few others that we didn't recognize. They were deliciously off tune, the way only children can be. In the huge cathedral their voices celebrated and brought tears to my eyes. Their innocence was comforting.

Chiara is in the lead as they bring an offering of stuffed animals to the nativity scene.

Later, for mass the children joined a group of adults in the choir--all the voices mixing and rising. Chiara is in the front row with the pink scarf.

Later after mass we met the other proud grandparents and learned that our reputation had preceded us. They let us know that their son (Alessandro--Chiara's dad) and daughter (Rosanna our realtor/manager for our apartment) had shown them our blog site. When I went to pay our rent last week, Rosanna told me that she'd seen our blog and was enjoying seeing all the pictures. She gave us a great compliment in that she said we had included "things" in Alessandria that she herself had not seen.

I have to add that I haven't been to mass since my mother's funeral. I found that I did enjoy the comfort of the rituals despite it all being in Italian. As the priest read his long sermon I allowed my mind to wander and take in the beauty of the cathedral. I thought about my life and what brought me here to this moment in time and all the others who have sat in the same pew seat over the centuries. I continued my ongoing debate regarding God's existence and the impact of religions upon the world, past and present. I was pulled out of my contemplation when we arrived at the "peace be with you" greeting. Rita took my hand and said those soothing words and the greeting continued between us, rippling towards others throughout the church for several minutes. Why, I thought can't it be this simple? Why can't we as a world community really embrace and allow ourselves to be guided by the desire that those we encounter receive from our actions a sense of peace?