A Series of Fortunate Events: Part I

Pax Christi vobiscum!


Ciao-dy! This is your Texan Seminarian reporting from Verbania, Italy. I hope and pray that all of y'all are doing well and growing in your faith.


Well, there is a lot to catch up on...so much has happened, which is why I have titled the next string of posts A Series of Fortunate Events. I should have updated a little each night, but things get busy. So here is my alternative: I will post a little bit over the coming days concerning the last weeks adventures in the hopes of catching everyone up. So that I do not get too far behind, however, I will begin with the present.


Today, I awoke after a night of fun, food, conversation in Italian, and vino. After morning prayer, I went downstairs for Italian lessons, which went pretty well. We worked on the Simple Past Tense and the Imperfect, but the way I was speaking, it was all imperfect (wah wah). But in all truth, I had a couple of breakthroughs in Italian today. You’ll see them as they come up.


After lunch and a quick nap, Adam, Nick, and I all went over to our tutor’s home. She and one of our other tutors had invited us over in the afternoon to see her home and practice our Italian. You can see the home below:



As you can tell, it is a modest home with absolutely no view. It is difficult to study in such an environment. To make things easier for us, Giuse (Italian for Josey), whose home we were at made us a torta or cake and served it up with coffee and conversation. You can see our two teachers below (Giuse alla sinistra and Monica all destra…the right):


Here was where I had my first breakthrough. I was listening to a lot of the Italian, and we were all having a good time, and I commented on a funny situation in Italian. I actually made a joke (a feat in itself) in Italian! Giussi said that I must be getting pretty good at the language if I’m joking in it. Praise God!


Another wonderful situation occurred near the end of our torta. Giuse was testing our knowledge of Italian by asking what a washing machine was called. We replied, “Lavatrice,” (pronounced la-va-TREE-chay). She then asked what a dish-washer is called, to which Nick promptly responded, “Mom.” We all got a kick out of that, and Nick got a couple of punches too. Giuse and Monica both called us maschilisti (I.e. chauvinists) and lamented our sick sense of humor. The laughter died down a couple seconds later…. They then proceeded to pick up our dishes and take them to the kitchen to clean them for us.


We then ventured out into the town, Stresa (STRAY-zuh). It is a quaint old town with some beautiful old Churches, which I would like to helicopter back to the States. We saw the tomb of soon to be Blessed Antonio Rosimini (his beatification will be held in August). He was apparently quite the philosopher, comparable to JP II for his focus on the dignity of the human person. What a blessing to be able to pray in that Church!

In front of the Church where Rosmini rests (Dalla Sinistra alla Destra: Monica, Giuse, Adam, and Nick)

We hopped a ferry back to Intra, the town we stay in within the region of Verbania. I relaxed a bit and prayed a Divine Mercy Chaplet. It was such a wonderful way to wind down.

After La Santa Messa at 7:00 p.m., we all went to dinner, where I had another Italian breakthrough. For dessert, we have the option of frutta or gelato. I chose frutta, and the waitress brought out an apple, which in Italian is a mela, the plural being mele. Upon receiving the apple, I, being polite, wanted to “thank her a thousand” by saying grazie mille. Instead, I said, “Grazie mele.” as I received the apple. I got quite a kick out of that…let me emphasize: I got a kick out of that…and no one else. But it does show that I am learning Italian if I can make puns with it!

Well, that’s about it for the day. I had Holy Hour after dinner, and it is really a blessing to have a Tabernacle right here in the Hotel. Praise God! Now I’m just ready to get some sleep. Praise the Lord for a wonderful day. God bless, and please keep me in your prayers. Know that you all are in mine! Dio ti benedica!