We’re deep into academics!
For the last week we’ve been in class 4-5 hours per day with Fr. John Fuellenbach, SVD – a noted Catholic theologian. When Fr. Fuellenbach first introduced himself to us, he spent a few minutes talking about his educational background – which included classes taught by Karl Rahner and others taught by Cardinal Ratzinger. He seems to have learned his ‘stuff’; and, as he’s talking, he’s really raising a number of good points to ponder!
One of Fr. Fuellenbach’s repetitive themes is the Life, Love, and Joy that God the Father revealed to us through His Son – in the Holy Spirit. And, we’re all being challenged to consider how we’ve integrated these elements into our lives.
As interesting as his classes are, every one of us has commented on how exhausted we are by the end of each 2.5 hour session. Granted, there’s a mid-way break, but that still doesn’t give us the stamina to remain 100% attentive throughout the whole session. Part of the difficulty is the German accent with which he speaks (which means we have to listen diligently) and the other part is the depth of the material he is presenting. It seems that most every one of us takes a “siesta” between sessions so we can make it through the next one. But we’re all enjoying it.
A grateful reprieve to the classes are the weekends, though they sure feel awkward! For the first time in 25 years, I’ve not had to prepare weekend homilies. Instead of homilies, those of us on the institute try to do some serious sightseeing and some traveling.
Last weekend 24 of us made our way to the Abbey of Montecasino – a three hour trek from Rome. Montecasino is the place where St. Benedict established the Benedictine order … though, as we were making our way up to Montecasino, I seriously doubted St. Benedict’s sanity! You see, the road up to the Abbey was five miles long – and wound up a sheer mountainside. Each time the bus took a hairpin turn (and there were lots of them over the course of those five miles), many of us closed our eyes. On several of those turns, the bus used every inch of pavement to make the turn – and came within inches of the curb [no guardrail – simply a 12″ curb, which would hardly be enough to keep the bus from going down the embankment!]. It became a white-knuckle ride as the bus drive was talking feverishly on his cell phone as we were descending the mountain. Gratefully, we made it up and down safely – twice! (Surprisingly, for an Italian on the phone, he kept one hand on the wheel!)
I did come to a new realization of why the “Benedictine way” is to raise their own food. If it were a matter of walking up that mountain with arms full of food or growing my own food, I’d opt for the latter. I also understand that St. Benedict only descended the mountain once-a-year to visit with his sister, St. Scholastica. Again, given the “hike” up the mountain, I’m not sure I’d have made the trip as often as did Benedict!
I’ve taken LOADS of pictures! It hasn’t been easy, but I opted to forego a few “gelato walks” and managed to assemble them into a brief slide show (which, as I get more pics, I’ll definitely augment). Feel free to take a gander (if I can manage to include the link herein). ALSO, if you have a fast internet connection, click “HQ” for a high-quality rendering of the file; it looks a LOT better than the default low quality edition – and make sure to click the FULL SCREEN button so you can take advantage of all the clarity. Lastly, if you see a similar slide show in a later post – look at it again, because it’ll have additional pictures!