In wonder

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. - G.K. Chesterton

I've recently become addicted to the evening Vespers at San Agostino. There is a certain spiritual sense that gets instilled in you when you pray the Psalms. Their simplicity, their stark honesty, rips away the complications in life and in your prayers. You are brought to basic acknowledgements of God's goodness and wonder, you ask for help against your enemies, and you slowly learn how to take your emotions and needs - and most especially your joy - and intertwine it all into a growing relationship with your Creator.

You also experience a little miracle every day. Somehow the Italians sing in tune when they chant them.

So it might sound rather cliche, but after a week of battling Italian discouragements, intense Thanksgiving homesickness and that yucky sense that life in Rome is . . . well . . . finally *real* (with all that that implies), I am very grateful for:

Being able to say that I've babysat a cuddlebug of a two year old, in 70 degree weather, on Thanksgiving day, in St. Peter's square:


And for seeing St. Peter's through the eyes of a child.

For a breaktakingly beautiful Mass for Santa Cecilia's festa at Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. Monika (my dear friend from the Czech Republic) and I headed over there after champagne and potato chips (wasn't our idea) at a local restaurant. Ooo lah lah. Never done that for Thanksgiving before.

We didn't get seats, but we got this view instead, praise the Lord:


Which included a stellar shot of the phenomenal Sistine Chior (the chiormaster appears to be in despair over his 10 year old members, but their singing blew us all away):


Being at a celebration for someone who died 2000 years ago makes you think about what true greatness and purity consists of:



Everything about the evening combined to give a sense of delight and mystery, from the moment you first approached the doors . . .



. . .to the singing, the sermon by Cardinal Bertone (Vatican Secretary of State), and even the 85 year old Italian man with sharp elbows and a rainbow scarf who belted out his own anti-war pro-something petition to God during the General Intentions. Gotta love the random.

Here's an interesting little factoid about the meaning of the name "Cecilia," compliments of Wikipedia:

"Traditionally translated from Latin as, 'The way for the blind,' the meaning of the name "Cecilia" as given by Chaucer in The Seconde Nonne's Tale from The Canterbury Tales, has five interpretations, each poetically describing various virtues and qualities of the Saint: lily of heaven; the way for the blind; contemplation of heaven and the active life; as if lacking in blindness; a heaven for people to gaze upon."

You can do some fun mental wanderings with those meanings and her known love for music.

I took a Gig's worth of video to capture the gorgeous music, but that'll have to wait for Christmas break in the States and a better internet connection - which, my friends, is coming exactly one month and one day from today.

And for that, with all the blessings here, I am truly thankful.