Moving In

 

Dear Friends and Family,

This past week was a combination of studies and administrative tasks to get settled in Rome for the new school year. Among those tasks was a particularly challenging one: how to move my books and other personal items from last year's lodging to this year's? The distance was only 2 or 3 miles. However, due to the regulations in place in the heart of Rome, and the fact that the monastery at Santa Francesca Romana, right along the Roman Forum (the monastery where I lodged last year), is in the most restricted zone of Rome, it took some thinking to find a good solution. Because for a car or van to enter in there you had to pay about 100 euros....

Thankfully I found the good fellow pictured above and his business! With his bicycle he transports goods across Rome, for just 16 euros a trip. As you see above, he managed to load my boxes onto the front of his bike, along with my office chair and other items, to strap them down, and then to bike across the heart of Rome without crashing into anything and delivering the boxes safely. Quite a feat!

I'll be living within striking distance of a number of saints' tombs. One of my favorites is Saint Philip Neri, whose tomb is pictured here:

He is one of the patrons of Rome, lived through a terrible time that included the sack of Rome in 1550, and nonetheless maintained a great spirit of joy, all the while very effectively calling people to conversion. May he intercede for the Church today and grant us that same combination of joy and zeal for the salvation of souls!

Praying for your all here in the heart of Rome.

May Our Lady watch over you as your good mother, and may Our Lord be your strength and protection.

In Cordibus Iesu et Mariae,

Fr. Pillari