Hello from Norcia

I'm here in Norcia.

Internet access is available, but limited.

The weather is decent, but it is a bit damp, so there can sometimes be a chill in the air that I am not used to. But last night I managed to stay warm enough. I was also able to catch up on the lost sleep from flying the redeye to Rome, then getting from the airport to Rome and from Rome to Umbria by train ... all while jet-lagging. And it doesn't help when you only know survival Italian and even that is rusty. But I've just accepted the fact that it is obvious I am American and can't speak Italian, so at least Italians are friendly and happy that I am at least trying to speak their language even if I stink at it. In spite of that, I worked up the courage to ask an Italian lady to help me get the monastery phone number since I forgot to bring it in my flurry of last minute packing. She was helpful and I was able to get to the monastery. LOL.

Norcia is still an amazing place. It almost seems odd to me that in one sense it is so familiar to me, given that Italy is such a different culture from the United States. I guess even though I lived here for about 14 months, it has obviously captured my heart on some level.

It is certainly very different place from the United States. As I walked around town this morning, I realized there are (or more truthfully have been) about 13 different churches in this tiny little town! Even so, there are 6 that are still used (although two of them are the same parish, they just use one in the summer months and one in the winter months)in a town of only about 1000 people.

I should also mention that I attended my first Extraordinary Form Mass in quite awhile. Definitely my first since Summorum Pontificum was released. I was a little lost, but it's nothing that I couldn't get used to once I learn it. Today's conventual Mass which was in the Ordinary Form was also very beautiful since the Mass was in Latin with sung chant propers. Interestingly, I could follow everything but the readings since they were in Italian ... darn vernacular! LOL.

Still adjusting to the time difference. My body is a bit confused. The bigger test will be to see how well I sleep tonight. Usually jet lag lasts a few days which causes me to wake up at about 3:00am wide awake and unable to get back to sleep. Of course I guess that is not too bad since Vigils are at 4:15am. But even monks can be sleepy at that hour. LOL.

We'll see how often I can update. It will all depend on how much work I will be helping with and how many opportunities I'll have to get onto the computer. So until next time: ciao for now.

RS