I heard from my brother this morning, which was pretty awesome considering I haven’t really heard from him in a few months. I most get the updates from my mom since he tends to mostly call her. For those of you who don’t know, my brother is a postulate monk of the St. Benedictine order in Norcia, Italy. He has been over there since September of last year, 2005, and is loving every minute of it. He gets homesick at times, which is only natural, but feels this is his true calling and wants to really see it through. He began his postulancy earlier this year and in late September of this year, 2006, he will begin his novitiate, so he will look like a full fledged monk. Right now he is only able to wear a portion of the monk garb. So by the time I see him in November for Thanksgiving, I’ll get to that in a second, he will look like full on Catholic St. Benedictine monk!
As for the Thanksgiving thing, well, all the monks at this monastery in Norcia, Italy are American. So they all are learning or have learned Italian so they can properly minister to the people around them in their native tongue. They also still celebrate all American holidays, as well as Italian ones. My Mom, Dad, and I will all get a chance to go visit him in November for Thanksgiving in Italy. Here is our itinerary for the trip, of which I will most likely repost when the time comes closer:
Nov 18th leave Dallas at 2:30 PM on Lufthansa Airlines
Nov 19th arrive Rome at 12:25 PM; Jesse will meet us at the airport Check in to Hotel Emmaus with Jesse; rest and recover, impromptu sightseeing
Nov 20-22nd sightseeing in Rome; possible audience with the Pope; morning of 22nd take train to Norcia the 22nd check in to Hotel Benito
Nov 23-24 Norcia; Thanksgiving at the monastery; sightseeing
Nov 24 back to Rome-more sightseeing in west Rome
Nov 25 7 AM flight to Dallas arrive 2:40 PM Dallas time.
Oh, a special thanks to the Sisk family for all the great help and suggestions they had for my parents and places to stay and things to see while in Italy, that was definitely helpful.
So for the one week we will be there we will be pretty busy, but I’m freakin’ excited. Until next time…
Joe and I saw the pic of your brother outside the Adoration Chapel at St. Ann’s yesterday when we went to adoration. Joe said “what happened to his hair?” and I said “he wants to be a monk, dork.”