Moths

Ciao ragazzi, (Hey guys!)

Right now, it's about 7pm my time. That means that it's about 1pm Loyola time. Students, teachers, and friends are gathering from all corners of Loyola in the chapel to celebrate the Mass of the Holy Spirit together and to kick off the school year. It's seersucker Sunday. It's my favorite day of the entire school year. And I'm not there.

So since we can't be with the Loyola community in person on this special day, a few of us decided to have our own Mass of the Holy Spirit. La chiesa (the church) of choice: the Gesu, obviously! Gabe, Briget, Dan, Jamie and I met on the steps outside this beautiful Jesuit place (no one wore seersucker, actually. Epic fail!) at noon, which gave us half an hour to explore the church before Mass started.

The first time we visited the church, last Monday, there was scaffolding covering one of the side chapels. This is pretty normal in old churches, beacuse the art is constantly being repaired and restored. Today, however, the scaffolding was removed, revealing what was underneath. I wandered through the church, visiting the places I remembered liking and finding new beauty, too. I came over to Gabe and Jamie who were sitting in the pews near this particular side chapel. Gabe looks at me, points to the chapel decorated in ornate gold and green marble, and says, "Catherine. That's where St. Ignatius is buried."

Seriously?! This is what HAPPENS in Rome--you just run into people you have been dying to meet, like it's no big deal. Gabe was speechless. I was speechless. There he was, the patron of our school. Gabe's spiritual big brother. One of my favorite saints. The man who promoted caring for one's whole person, for discerning the will of God and conforming one's on will to that particular plan, to finding God in all things.

I distinctly remember the first time I was in the Cohn 33 closet--the big storage closest for Campus Ministry--and I saw boxed labeled "MOTHS." I thought to myself, "What the HELL is in there?! Are they really keeping boxes of moths back here?!" I began to panic (true confession: I have an absurd fear of butterflies and moths. There, I said it. I hope you are laughing, Pat and Mary Beth) until I realized that MOTHS stands for Mass of the Holy Spirit. Way to go, Honors.

Flashback two nights ago. I had been out with everyone, and I arrived safely back at my building despite the dark. I made my way to our beautiful old elevator (complete with two doors you have to close by hand). I opened the doors to let myself in and there, fluttering on the ground was a small moth, the color of old paper. My first instinct was to stomp on it right away and stop the fluttering that was happening in my own heart. But something in me decided otherwise. This was a helpless creature--created by the same creator as I was--and I should find a way to co-exist with it. I took a deep breath and pressed 5 for my floor. The moth continued to flutter around the floor of the elevator (which seemed rather small, this time) for the duration of our ride. Yet, it didn't hurt me, and I didn't hurt it. I even found myself asking God to reveal to me what it is that He loves about this creation.

Moths are attracted to light. In a sense, I am too. I am attracted to the light that is Christ. Besides the beautiful old buildings and the free water and the amazing food, I think the thing I love most about Rome is how I can wander into a church whenever I want to. Literally. There are 4 churches on my way to school every day. On Friday, I decided to go into the church of San Claudio--one that I had not been in yet. I opened the door and I was blinded by a bright light shining on the altar. My eyes adjusted and I realized that I had just walked in on Eucharistic Adoration. Jesus was standing there, in the piazza, just waiting for me to come find Him. And I did.

St. Ignatius was attracted to the light too, so much so that he gave up everything so that he could better seek out that Light. I hope and pray that this school year, we all seek that Light of Truth with more vigor and passion than ever before.