Traveling to Italy with two wonderful priests to search with them in the Italian archives for some missing British documents turned out not only to be successful but also an holy and interesting experience. The expectation I had was that the archives would be held in a dusty basement somewhere and that days would be spent in the gloom and dust shuffling through old if not historic papers.
Certainly there was dust and much paper shuffling but the locations were holy and tremendous:
The weather was wonderful especially as much of August had apparently been too wet to bring out the best ripeness to the local grapes
The holy places too were fascinating for example some huge stations of the cross each of which was set out in an old structure which gave the impression of being a church in its own right. Bearing in mind that there were some 15 of these set into the hillside up which one climbed the effect was stunning;
The hunt for the documents having proved successful at least that is to be hoped there was time for a drive to another monastery on the last day and for lunch there:
The cook upon learning that mrs maytrees enjoyed grapes picked me a huge bunch from the vines below
The prayers company and outcome of the visit were really unforgettable all of which is perhaps slightly surprising as regards how one normally feels about one's day job.
Sadly though I returned home on Sunday night and and learned that same day in the early hours a long term friend barely a year older than I died suddenly of cancer - may she R.I.P.
No comments:
Post a Comment