Sunday, June 18, 2006

6-4-06

This morning I did go to mass, and I went to Sant’ Ignazio di Loyola, but it was not in English. I took the tram across the Tiber, and then wandered about the city for 45 minutes so that I would arrive 15 minutes before the English service was supposed to start. I walked into the church, gave some money to the woman at the front door, and looked again at the paintings on the ceiling before taking a seat in the last row. I sat there for about 15 minutes. There were several other English speaking people with me. A couple of obviously American students sat in front of me so I knew that I was in the right place. After 15 minutes they moved closer to the front, so I moved up as well. 15 minutes later I began to wonder if perhaps the English service was at one of the smaller alters near the back of the church when the lights were turned on and someone started to play the organ over to my left. I waited a little bit longer and then someone started to sing. They were mic-ed and there was a subtle reverb as the woman’s voice echoed through the church. After a little bit two priests walked to the front and began the service, in Italian. I followed along, as best I could, the service was written out in a program, but that was in Italian as well, so I tried to do what the people around me were doing. I have been attending a small Anglican church for the past four years, but for some reason I kept reverting to what I had been taught by my Greek Orthodox friend. I didn’t cross my legs, even though some of the Italian gentlemen around me were, because my Greek Orthodox friend had told me that it was not acceptable, something about crossing oneself in any fashion being unacceptable. About 15 minutes into the service some older women sat down next to me, and I noticed that they looked askance at me every time I crossed myself, and it wasn’t until that point that I realized I had been crossing my self in the Greek way (forehead, chest, right, left) which is the opposite of the way Catholics cross themselves (left and then right). I noticed that after communion the priest wiped out the chalice with a cloth, I’m not sure but I think that this is also quite different from what the Greek Orthodox do, I remember one service with my friend in Chicago where some blessed wine had been dropped on the floor and the priest knelt down and lapped it off of the marble before wiping it up with a white linen cloth and burning it. They took the idea of transubstantiation very seriously there. I also noticed that only one of the American students in front of me seemed to be Catholic. The girl with shorter black hair crossed herself naturally and at the right times throughout the service, she genuflected before sliding into her seat, and prayed for a few moments before the service started, she also went down for communion while her friend with long wavy red hair did non of those things. She always crossed herself a few moments after everyone else, and did so very self-consciously. At one point in the service the priests held out their hands palms upwards, and the red haired girl did the same, only she put her hands out a bit farther and tilted her head back, her friend almost instantly rebuked her and whispered something into her ear. I imagine that the red haired girl came from a more charismatic protestant background. After the service I introduced myself to the two of them, though they did not exchange their names, I learned that they were studying History through UNC, I think they said Chapel Hill, but I’m not positive. They had come in from Florence, where their program is located, to visit Rome for the day. They had also come for the English Mass and were as confused as I was that we had missed it somehow. At this point they pulled out their cameras and were starting to take some pictures of the church, so I excused myself and slipped out of the church to see if I could make out how I had managed to miss the English service. When I looked more closely at the poster I saw near the bottom, in small print, a disclaimer that said “at St. Francesco Xavier, 50 meters ←” and felt a little bit less foolish about the whole thing.

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