With two members of our leadership core, Mason and Joy, I had the grace to revisit Italy. Many of you know Joy, the generous and enthusiastic Nebraskan who has been with us since May. Meet Mason, a 27-year-old from Colorado. I know his family and extended family well. What a joy to get to know this gifted young man. He has such talents and passion for language, culture, service tasks, and fun. We both enjoyed diving into Italian conversations, encounters, and cooking.
Scouting out the places to hike, camp, and grocery-shop, we met so many faces with our witness! I had the chance to visit with several priests, community associates, and friends from the times I lived in Italy. Our week was short, and we had work to do, but even without trying, we had so many evangelical encounters.
After arriving in Rome, we visited the NAC, where I was in diocesan seminary in 2001-2002. Patrick hosted us for vespers with the American seminarians. He is a former pilgrim I’ve often zoomed with as he discerned priesthood and took steps through seminary. He’ll be ordained next October.
Walking to the NAC, I also chanced upon a professor who taught three of my grad school classes! He is now 93 years old!
After an Angelus with Pope Francis, a skate along the Tiber...
...and some scouting out churches and lodging, we drove to Umbria. Along the way we visited Roccantica, a huge convent in the hills of olives, vines, and oaks. It’s on the back roads, the way the crow flies from Rome to Assisi. There I found my Beatitudes call in 2001, and there I spent my first two years in Community. The Community no longer has a presence there, but the nostalgia ran deep.
It is olive season! We passed a press busy at work, with a line of farmers and their enormous crates of olives. We paid five euros for them to fill one of our water bottles with the finest virgin oil!
On our way was the Carmelite church with the tomb of St. Valentine. This was my second time at this unfamous shrine of a most famous saint. On my last trip to Italy in 2009, three of us brothers hiked, hitch-hiked, and begged our way to Assisi. We happened upon the church and begged for a night stay. A precious memory of Providence from that journey with Br. Rachad and Br. Jean-Elisee, a couple years before our final vows and ordinations.
Providence had more adventures in store that night. As we neared Gubbio, we had a flat tire! It turned out to be some good team-building as we changed the tire in the cold and dark, on the side of the highway.
Each day we went out on the trails to verify the routes, camping locations, and Airbnbs we had researched. We met with priests and local leaders, realizing that so many are mobilizing for the Jubilee, both to host and to come on pilgrimage.
The hills, the trees, the leaves, the villas, such beauty left us breathless. Most of our camping stays will be on farms, one night in the garden of a hotel, and one night with the Sisters of Bethlehem. At every door where we knocked, warm and personable hospitality awaited us.
At the same time, a sadness lurks there in the quiet of the countryside. Tourist business has replaced pilgrimage. Immigrants are filling the hole left by the fact that Italians long ago slowed their birthrates to a minimum. Most young people, most Italians in general, have abandoned religious practice and attached more and more to material comforts.
When people saw us, they were overjoyed to see young people with faith, joy, and simplicity, ready to hike and camp. "Campeggio?" they often exclaimed with wonder!
Along our trail, we planned moments of encounter with locals and intentional moments of proclaiming the Gospel. Discover more of what the trail will look like from our Instagram reels. We can’t wait for next summer!
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