OK. Let’s be clear. If you want a concise review of our work here at the Istituto San Lodovico, don’t read this, read Ruby’s journal. She is much smarter than me and able to sythesize more quickly. I will be ruminating over this material for months. I’ve come away with a reading list that will take me into 2025 (at least). I’ve marked up my copy of Sheer Joy, highlighting the passages he commented on during our sessions so that when I read I will remember the sessions and be able to hear the prose in Matt’s voice. #Travel
Otherwise, we finished our time together by sharing the fruits of our afternoon meditation sessions, dance/movement, haiku, and art in the context of a cosmic mass.
Each celebrant read (or sang) a passage that was meaningful to them as part of the prayers. One of the celebrants read the prayer from Wesley’s Covenant Renewal Service that we read every year at annual conference, that still stirs my heart.
I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will;
put me to doing, put me to suffering;
let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you,
exalted for you, or brought low for you;
let me be full,
let me be empty,
let me have all things,
let me have nothing:
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things
to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
you are mine and I am yours. So be it.
And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.
I found later, after I told him how much I appreciated that prayer, that the celebrant who read that passage is a young United Methodist pastor from Tennessee, so we chatted a bit about the trauma and release the Church has just emerged from this year at General Conference and the healing that will be happening going forward.
All our bags are packed, one last lunch at the restaurant next door. I little sports conversation with the couple from Madison (how could he possible still sing the decades old Bear’s Superbowl song…. a duet with Ruby), hugs and kisses all around and we hop a cab that takes us across town to our hotel for tonight. Hotel Duomo.
We can see the Duomo out of our window. We have a king sized bed, a bathroom that can fit two people (in fact a shower that can fit two) and enough outlets so we can charge all of our junk at the same time!
While Ruby is writing I take a walk and end up at St Patrick’s Well. Apparently there is an old adage when taking on a very difficult architectural project, that a thing is said to be as difficult as St. Patrick’s Well. It was built with a path down and after the burro would cross at the bottom to pick up water a separate stair case spiraled up the other way so that burrows could go up and down at the same time.
Burros of course are smarter than me. I got to the bottom got turned around while taking pictures and found myself going up the down staircase. When I realized it though I did not turn around. I am pretty tired of climbing stairs at this point.
Tomorrow, back on the train to Florence and then after a night to repack in Firenze back on the plane to Chicago. We’ve got to get home and do laundry before we pack again to go to Connecticut.