Rome

April 21, 2014 Peace and Good, I hope you all had a Happy Easter. I just found out that this site might have been hacked. No, I am not offering vacations in North Carolina. I spent the week in a series of short meetings, one on one, with people who live here in Rome. I usually meet them every month or so, but I have been on the road so long that I haven't seen them for a few months. There was also the beautiful liturgy of the Triduum. Here in Rome every Church is built in Baroque style, and the liturgy is Baroque as well. Lots and lots of music. For me, it is a little like Baklava. It is delicious in the right dose, but too much can put you off it for a while. I like a simpler liturgy, but part of my job at times is simply to be present. This week I leave on Thursday for Chicago, and I will be travelling around the States for a month. I hope to get some articles written before I leave. Every time I thought I would get to it last week, something else came up. The weather got quite cool after a storm Wednesday, but now it feels like Spring again. Today is called Pasquetta here in Rome. It is a day for people to go out into the country and have a picnic with their families. It is almost as holy here as Easter itself. I finished some books: Tanaka and the Yakuza’s Daughter by CJ Martin This is a short story about an ex-undercover policeman whose daughter has been kidnapped by the daughter of a Yakuza (Japanese mafia) whose death the daughter blames on the cop. She intends to get her revenge upon him and his daughter, and the policeman must fight overwhelming odds to save her. Some Revelations of Spies and Spying by William Le Queux This was one of the many books on spying written during the First World War in an attempt to support the British forces against their enemies. The Germans are always pictured as evil and clever foes who must be defeated at all costs. The hero is a spy who can out-spy anyone. He often calls upon the assistance of a French woman who is more clever than anyone would ever suspect. This particular work is a series of short stories banded together. None of the characters are more than one dimensional, but the book was not a bad read in spite of its limitations. A Night to Remember by Walter Lord This is the classical account of the sinking of the Titanic. It is well documented and well told. It covers the actual night, and does not go into detail about the building of the ship or the after-effects, including the Senate hearings on the disaster. Nor does it deal with some of the machinations of those who owned the company which ran the Titanic, American millionaires who were able to use their influence to keep from having to pay a large settlement to the victims and their families. Nevertheless, given its limited scope, the book is quite good, a type of investigative reporting. Lord of Glory: A Lenten Devotional on the Names of Christ by Ray Pritchard The title says exactly what this book is. It was a book specially dates for Lent of 2014, with a meditation each day on one of the titles of Jesus used in Sacred Scripture. The meditations were short, only a page or two, but just enough to get into the spirit of the title. Some of the days’ presentations were better than others, but overall it was a good way to spend my Lent this year. Have a good week. Shalom fr. Jude