Snow In Italy! :)

...from the week before Christmas

This weekend I traveled back to Norcia. It is a little medieval town in the valley surrounded by mountains. Fr. Carola took us there last week. I was really missing snow and needed some time to get out of the city before my family comes tomorrow. This was the perfect opportunity to rest up after a busy week of papers and tests, and before I start into tourist mode again!

I left Saturday afternoon, took a train and bus, and in just three hours I now look at an Italy much different from Rome! Norcia is perched just at the bottom of a valley surrounded by mountains with snow on the top! Being a Wisconsinite, I will admit I miss snow here (although the crazy snowstorms going on back at home I know I would not regret missing after being there for a few days).

My day was pretty relaxing. I stayed with the Benedictine nuns that are there. I got my very own “cell” to sleep in (convents call their rooms cells, which really aren’t creepy like you’d normally think of a cell. It just means it is your own little place to go to). They let me join them for their prayers, and otherwise I was on my own.

Saturday I started out on the big adventure of climbing a mountain. I set off about noon, bundled up because it was so cold in the valley. It took about an hour for me to get to the base, and I passed horses and beautiful little houses perched below the mountains. Then I started the great task of scaling up the mountains. Warning: I would not try this on your own. I am pretty sure Fr. Carola would not have approved. I started off on a path but eventually the path stopped…but I just kept scaling up. It was amazingly beautiful. I don’t even really like heights, but it was something about the freedom of being on the mountain and the beauty that surrounded me that kept me going up (and the fact that I wanted to beat the other people who had climbed it last week…which I’m pretty sure I did!).

Climbing that mountain reminded me of what Fr. Florian, a great priest here, said to me about following God’s will. You may not always see what is way ahead of you, but in order to climb you can only look at what is right in front of you. And this is very true, because every time I tried looking way ahead or even turning around, I really had to first focus on stopping and steadying myself in order to feel secure. Even so, at points I was in the thicket of trees I couldn’t see the top of the mountain, but I knew it was there. We just have to trust in God that He obviously knows what He is doing, and that we are just supposed to trust Him and move ahead in faith.

It was a beautiful climb, and honestly I’m quite amazed I got back. Going up is easier than going down for me. While going down is faster, it always kind of scares me, especially since it was so snowy up there.

I made it back for evening prayer with the monks, and a restful night of 11 hours of sleep. That day really wore me out! But it was a wonderful adventure to have and now I await my family to get here in a few hours!

Have a blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Happy Incarnation in…2 days!
God love you!
Sam