Italy Memories

“What was the most memorable highlight of your trip,” my husband Steve asked Marj and I while we were driving back from the airport.  We started talking about all the art and architecture we’d seen.  Everything seemed to be memorable.  Yet, there was one very special moment that will be in my heart forever.  Marj and I stopped in a vestment and church appointments shop across the piazza from the Cathedral in Florence.  A beautiful red chasuble and stole caught my eye.  The shop was tended by nuns from the order of St. Paul.  I motioned to one of the nuns that I wanted to try on the red chasuble.  “For me,” I said, pointing to myself.  Her eyes lit up.  “Epis-co-pal?” she asked. “Si,” I said.  “Anglicana?” “Si.” Before I could blink, she’d flung the vestments over my head.  I looked at myself in the mirror and knew they were coming home with me.

As I paid for them, the nun folded the fabric and wrapped everything in paper.  I thanked everyone and headed out the door.  The nun followed me out the door and tapped me on the arm.  “Preghiere,” she said, pointing to herself. “Preghiere.”  Then it hit me.  She was asking me to pray for her – asking me to bless her.  I did and then she hugged me.  As Marj and I left the store, the tears welled up in my eyes.  She may have asked me to bless her, but in doing so she blessed me ten times over.  Thanks, Holy Spirit, for my most memorable moment in Italy.