Ciao da Roma!

4 Sept 2022

These lovely juniors (temporary professed sisters) from Korea are my companions every morning as we commute to our language school, just by the Vatican. (Indeed, I'm the ajumma here!!)

Hi from Rome! 

It's been a month and a half since I arrived in the "eternal city" on July 24 2022, to start a new chapter of my religious life as a Daughter of St Paul. The past 6 weeks have been quite eventful and here are some highlights of my stay thus far.

After a 3-day quarantine on arrival in my own bedroom (which has a balcony that overlooks our driveway and a pretty awesome view of the sunrise!), I was brought to a test centre which was part of a pharmacy to test for Covid. It was only after I obtained my negative result, that I was inserted officially into the community at our Mother House or Generalate. It's a relatively huge community of between 40 to 50 Sisters from around the world (there is a lot of movement with sisters passing through), but predominantly Italian. I'm not too sure what the exact median age is here, but most likely mid-70s. We live in a relatively huge building on a slope with an elevation of about 60m (which is over a third of Bukit Timah Hill if you need perspective!). 

Our Generalate / Mother House in Rome.

View from my balcony (top and bottom)

View from the terrace on the top floor of our convent (where we have the option to do our personal laundry).

August is probably the hottest month in Rome with temperatures in the mid to high 30s but thankfully both our convent and the language school have air-conditioners and my room also has a ceiling fan which I personally prefer to the AC, which is hardly environmentally friendly. (Fortunately, as I write this in the first week of September, the weather is cooling down and in fact we've been having some showers in the past days.)

Our chapel

Our grounds are filled with a variety of flowers, especially near the grotto. And there is ample space to walk.

To my surprise and delight, one of our Kenyan Sisters has a little farm, a plot of veggies including sukuma wiki, okra and even chillies (which she said she planted for me!). "You can take the girl out of the shamba but you can't take the shamba out of the girl," was what I told Sr Anna from Kenya on her little farm! Below are just some of the produce of the farm. We also have grapes and other fruit trees, as well as a small orchard of kiwis!

My new assignment is to work towards developing and expanding our digital apostolate but before anything else I have to brush up on my Italian. So from early August, I started Italian classes with Pro Lingua, a language school within walking distance to St Peter's basilica at the Vatican.

 

Here's my Italian class with priests and religious sisters as classmates, and our teacher Carla at the centre.

A wonderful surprise to meet Sr Susan Thomas fmm at the same language school!

Before classes started I had the chance to visit Sr Lorenzina who lives in the community of Giacommo Alberione in Albano, about 40-50 min drive away. She's also settling down to a new chapter in her religious life, and remains serene and contented in her new community.

Saint Catherine!

Like many other communities, we have a monthly free day and here in the Generalate, our free day is the last Sunday of the month. So on the last Sunday of July I took the first opportunity to say hi and pay my respects to my favourite saint, Catherine of Siena. Her body rests below the altar of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, which is just a stone's throw away from the Pantheon. A huge portion of the church was closed to the public (possibly for cleaning as restoration was done not too long ago) but fortunately the sanctuary and front portion of the church was open including the door below the altar which enclosed the tomb of St Catherine. What a grace to pray just by her side! "Be who God created you to be and you will set the world on fire!" remains one of my favourite quotes of St Catherine. Another great quote of Saint Catherine is

"All the way to heaven is heaven."

St Catherine, pray for us.

The church also houses notable sculptures including Michelangelo's Christ the Redeemer. Interestingly the bizarre loin cloth in brass was a later addition since Michelangelo sculpted Christ nude.

On the way to Sta Maria sopra Minerva and back, I crossed the Tiber and was fortunate to take these pics which, if you ignore the buses in the distance, seem to transport you back to medieval times, if not even earlier!

Crossing the Tiber on the way to Sta Maria sopra Mirnerva

St Peter's dome is in the background.

Castel Sant’Angelo and the bridge of of Angels dates back to the 2nd century

Friends in Rome

One of the consolations when I was told I would be assigned to Rome was to realise that there would be familiar faces in Rome! Sr Joan Lopez, recently appointed as the General Superior of the Religious of the Good Shepherd, and Sr Susan Thomas, fmm, also newly appointed as a General Councilor are now both based in Rome and though we all have busy schedules, we managed to finally align our dates and got together for a meal at the Generalate of the RGS which is about half an hour on foot from our Generalate.

Consistory of the Cardinals

On 26 August, I was invited to join a group of around 90 Singaporeans including some priests to attend the consistory convened by Pope Francis to install 20 new cardinals including our very own Archbishop William Goh, the first cardinal for Singapore and indeed a huge grace and honour. Two other Daughters of St Paul attended the consistory: Sr Rose who had a press pass and reported on Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego, and Sr Mariuccia whose bishop from Como was also made cardinal, Cardinal Oscar Cantoni. We continue to pray for all the new cardinals and the college of cardinals as they assist Pope Francis in the governance of the Church as his councillors.

Greeting the new Cardinal and getting a blessing from him (below). With me are two Sacred Heart priests.

There are more photos and stories to share - of the Sanctuary of the Queen of Apostles where I went to greet our founder and co-foundress as well as an unexpected discovery of a Church with a treasured Franciscan find! But I will save those for later posts, otherwise this post will never end! 😄

Amidst the settling in and adjusting to my new environment, community, school etc, last Aug 8 was a day of heartbreak for me personally but also thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, around the world who knew, loved and mourned the passing of Olivia Newton-John. My ONJ tribute will be in next post.

Meanwhile, please continue to keep me in your good prayers. And thank you so much for checking in on me and your messages of love. I hope this post and future posts will serve as  occasional updates of my life and journey here.

Lots of love and prayers,
Wendy xx